Member of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes Jatothu Hussain Nayak file.
Across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, temple management executives are acting carelessly, many are not even enforcing reservation rosters, and in service matters, there is bias against SC and ST employees in promotions, said Jatothu, a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Hussain Nayak, who took charge in March this year and after 2024 began working extensively in the states south of the Vindhyas. Lok Sabha elections.
In a special phone conversation with Hindu This week, Mr. Nayak, a BJP politician from Telangana, focused on the importance of having a commission member from a southern state, his experience reviewing temple management boards during official visits, and creating awareness about the commission’s work. He said that due to this, complaints have increased in NCST now.
Nayak said that during his tenure with the Commission, he has so far reviewed two provinces, 26 public areas and 48 districts across the country. “I have visited states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala, the most common grievances of poor people from the ST community are related to forest lease and land issues, service issues,” Mr. said the hero.
But during his visits, Mr. Nayak has paid special attention to check whether the temple managements of these states are following the mandatory rules on reservations and address the grievances of ST employees working in various positions within the management structure. He has already led the review of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), Bhadrachalam’s Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam, Srishaila Devasthanam, and Puri Jagannath Temple.
“In most temples, they don’t use rosters. Bhadrachalam has a predominantly ST population and is situated in a forest. They don’t care about reservation. Same is the case in Srisailam. It is also in the forest area. The Scheduled Tribes of the region should have more rights for their development. The situation in Tirupati is very bad,” said Mr. Nayak.
Referring to the situation in TTD, Mr. Nayak said that NCST was apprised of several issues related to the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes there during a review in August this year. The list of grievances includes allowing SCs and STs to consider religious posts in temples, providing adequate information to SCs and STs about the TTD’s stipend scheme for Vedic students, lack of reservation in shops and allotment of hawker licences, and the near absence of a grievance redressal mechanism for SC/ST employees. .
“When we took stock of the cases and called the EOs to explain what was going on, they stayed away and went to the High Court to get a stay order. We will fight tooth and nail in court. As a civil court, how can the court stop the action of the commission exercising constitutional rights? Mr. Nayak said, all the temples he reviewed have similar problems.
“Even in the case of the Puri Jagannath temple, the authorities are not responding to our summons, many do not have the relevant records that we are asking for schemes for the welfare of reservation, SC and ST employees,” said Mr. Nayak.
The hero said Hindu He has been able to use his position at NCST to extend the services of the commission to more people in the southern states.
“Many commission members have been appointed from the north, so there has been some work done. But in the south, the awareness about NCST and what it can do for people is relatively low,” he said, adding that states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have been able to significantly increase the number of complaints received from people.
“In Telangana, when I took charge, there were only 30-37 complaints. Now, we have received more than 800 complaints. In Andhra Pradesh too, the number of complaints has gone from 70 to 600 since I started,” said Mr. Nayak.
published – December 21, 2024 at 11:29 am IST