People’s mindset should change to ensure there is no discrimination in sharing public resources, says Madras High Court

There should be a change in the mindset of the people in order to ensure that there was no discrimination among people belonging to different communities in sharing public resources, observed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.

The State informed Justice R.N. Manjula that pursuant to the court order a G.O. was issued to ensure that the resources dedicated to public use were accessible to all without any discrimination and a committee would be formed to supervise this.

Directions were issued to officials to ensure that resources meant for public use were accessible to all without any discrimination, there were sufficient number of water tap connections in all areas and objectives of Section 21 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act were followed, especially in the matter of sharing water, the State said.

The court took note of the fact that the Director General of Police had issued a memorandum to Commissioners, Superintendents of Police, Inspectors General of Police and Deputy Inspectors General of Police to implement the court’s directions.

Earlier, the court had observed that district administrations, as part of their essential duties, should constitute committees in each village panchayat to ensure that public resources were accessible to all without any caste-based discrimination.

The judge observed that the government had a bounden duty to ensure effective implementation of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The court took a serious view of caste discrimination reported in Thalaivankottai in Tenkasi district, where SC people had to wait to collect their share of water from a public tap after the water needs of the other communities were fulfilled. The judge had directed the Tenkasi Collector to take appropriate steps and ensure that such discrimination did not take place.

Pursuant to the court order, the Collector submitted that public water tap connections were provided. A committee comprising panchayat president, panchayat secretary and Zonal Assistant Block Development Officer was formed to ensure that there was no discrimination among the people, it was submitted

The court observed that this could be followed in all districts and panchayat unions by effectively coordinating with the younger generations so that the future citizens learnt how to achieve ‘unity in diversity’, which was a highly cherished Constitutional aspiration.