Oppn Congress skips debate on caste-based cremation grounds

Friday, 25/09/2015

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CHANDIGARH: The opposition Congress on Thursday skipped its own “call attention motion” to take on the Akali-BJP government on the disparity in quality education between private and government schools, even as it skipped a resolution on another crucial issue of separate cremation grounds for scheduled castes (SC) in Punjab villages on the last day of the Vidhan Sabha session here.

Congress member Charanjit Singh Channi was enlisted for moving the motion to draw the attention of the education minister “towards the increasing gap in quality of education being imparted in the private and government schools in the state”, but it was never taken up as the Congress MLAs did not return to the House after their walkout during the zero hour.

Another key issue on which the ruling benches had a cake walk in absence of the opposition was a resolution against the tendency of constructing separate cremation grounds by various communities in villages of Punjab, as a result of which mutual association in such villages was declining.

The proposal in the resolution was to do away with the special grants for separate cremation grounds for the scheduled castes for the sake of common crematoriums for all communities and for diverting these grants, up to `10 lakh, for “development works so as to encourage the panchayats of such villages to strengthen mutual love and affection”.

Akali legislator Bibi Jagir Kaur moved this resolution, stating that the crematoriums were ideally defined as the land for the landless, irrespective of a caste, as well.

“Just as fire or water or land can’t be separated for any individual use between different caste-based communities, the cremation grounds should be a common place of dignity for all,” she said.

‘NO POLITICAL WILL’
Meanwhile, chief parliamentary secretary Som Parkash of the BJP was critical of the “political and social system” prevailing in the state, as he questioned the political will of the state in resolving this issue of doing away with the castebased cremation grounds and even gurdwaras.

The political parties, he said, distributed tickets to its candidates during elections on the basis of their castes that suited them in different constituencies.

Som Parkash even asked for the views of SC/BC minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, whether he was right on these assertions or not. “Am I not right, you are a minster, Ranike sahib,” Som asked Ranike.

The chief parliamentary secretary stated that he had been writing time and again to the state government, with his first such letter in March 2012, for introducing a scheme to encourage common cremation grounds.

Som said his voice for this cause went in vain as finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa’s assurance inside the House in December 2014 for giving the fiscal nod for a scheme for common crematoriums had remained on paper only.

The House finally passed this resolution in unanimity in absence of the opposition.

Another resolution that was talked upon by the ruling benches and passed in absence of the opposition was the recommendation to the state and the central government to take effective steps to impart skill training to the youth in the state, so as to meet the challenge of worldwide unemployment and enable them to be self-sufficient.