A Dalit rights group on Friday accused the Amarinder Singh government of ignoring police officers belonging to scheduled caste (SC) community in promotions and postings.

The president of the socio-political organization, National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA), Paramjit Singh Kainth, said the Congress government has been bluntly and unapologetically maintaining a shameful stance against officers belonging to the SC community.

“Officers belonging to the community have been constantly ignored for the highest posts and even are not allotted an area during their transfer where they can constantly be in service for the people,” Kainth said.

“It seems today that the social sanction of their status as lesser beings allows their impoverishment to continue, this is the same for the Officers who through hard work and dedication have achieved this status and are yet still being ignored when it comes to transfers and promotions, only because they are SC,” he added.

The NSCA president said Punjab has 24 Police Districts, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar have Police Commissioners, there are six Police Zones; Patiala, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Jalandhar, Roopnagar and Amritsar.

He said SCs comprises 33 per cent of the population in Punjab and able officers from our community who know the problems that this community faces have been ignored from being posted in positions where they can deal and communicate with the public constantly.

“Transfers and Postings of the officials is done entirely under the threat and fear of the political and Money Mafia which are seemingly on the rise under this Amrinder-led Congress regime. Political integrity and regard for the development and empowerment of the poorer sections of the society is completely non-existent in this current government,” Kainth added.

He said most SCs continue to live in extreme poverty, without land or opportunities for better employment or education.

“We could hear the palpable fear of violence, discrimination, social boycott etc within the hearts of the SC community. Numerous counts of rapes, murder, violent assaults, social boycott etc have been a rising trend through which the community has to constantly go through. To deal with such injustices the community approaches the bureaucratic setup of their area but to the dismay of the community, there is no helping hand to care for their complaints instead they are treated as ‘second hand citizens,” Kainth said.