Lucknow, February 17: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today demanded that National Commission for Scheduled Castes(NCSC) chairman P L Punia resign from the post, taking moral responsibility for chopping of a hand of a Dalit by an upper caste farmer in Haryana recently. Ms Mayawati took strong exception to the incident and said Mr Punia, also a Congress MP, has indulged in doing ‘nautanki’ (drama) in UP over minor issues and now he was doing the same in Congress-ruled Haryana. ”Mr Punia has no moral right to continue as the chairman of NCSC as he failed to prevent atrocities against Dalits in his own Congress-ruled state,” she alleged in a statement here. Demanding an explanation from senior Congress leaders over the issue, she said such incidents should be prevented in future. ”Congress makes much hue and cry over petty incidents but now they are quiet over the incident in Haryana,” she added. In Daulatpur village of Hisar in Haryana, a hand of a dalit worker was chopped off by an upper caste farmer after the labourer by fault took water from a water pot, to be used by the owner only.
—-Agencies