Chandigarh, May 20 (IANS) Taking notice of an incident in which a 12-year-old boy was thrashed in Punjab's Malout town, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), on the orders of its Chairman Vijay Sampla, on Friday issued a notice to the state and sought an action-taken report by May 26.
As per information received by the NCSC, a Dalit woman in Malout in Sri Muktsar Sahib district alleged a non-Dalit man thrashed her son and later uploaded the crime video on the social media.
"One day, he (the accused) visited my house, stripped my 12-year-old son and thrashed him brutally. He also shot a video of the incident that he made it viral," the woman said in a complaint.
She said the police did not help her even when the accused threatened her inside a police station.
The commission asked the Divisional Commissioner (Ferozepur division), the Deputy Commissioner of Sri Muktsar Sahib), the Inspector General of Police (Faridkot range) and the Senior Superintendent of Police to investigate the case and to submit the report within seven days.
Sampla cautioned the officers that if the action-taken report is not received within the timeframe, the commission might exercise the powers of the civil court conferred on it under Article 338 of the Constitution and issue summon for personal appearance before it in New Delhi.
Speaking at a meeting of the PLC candidates who contested the recent Assembly elections in Punjab, he said given the geopolitical situation previaling in the world in view of the Russia-Ukraine war, the country needs a stable, mature and strong leadership, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is providing.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court
Earlier, four persons, including two Afghanistan nationals, were arrested by the NCB. The fifth accused Shamim Ahmad was arrested from from Laxmi Nagar. A person called Shahid controlled the hawala racket of Dubai. Seeing that Shamim had good links with middlemen working in Dubai, Shahid included him in his gang.
Conceding the proposal of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to introduce home delivery of atta under National Food Security Act (NFSA), the entire state has been divided into eight zones and the service will commence in one zone in the first phase, in two zones in the second phase, and in the remaining five zones in the last and third phase.
A decision to this effect was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the posts belong to Group A, B and C. Major departments include Home Affairs, School Education, Health, Power and Technical Education.
Besides Mittal, the Chancellor of Lovely Professional University (LPU), others who were elected in the recently concluded biennial election from Punjab are businessman Sanjeev Arora and AAP Punjab co in-charge Raghav Chadha.
