MP won’t follow amended SC/ST law, hints Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Bhopal: In a significant development, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday dropped hints that MP would not follow the amended SC, ST (prevention of atrocities) Act, legislated by the Centre recently.

In a tweet, Mr Chouhan said, “The SC, ST Act will not be misused in Madhya Pradesh. Arrests will not take place without inquiry”. Mr Chouhan’s decision comes in the wake of the stir launched by upper caste and OBC people in MP opposing the amended SC, ST (prevention of atrocities) Act spreading across the state in the past two weeks.

Even, the ruling MLAs and ministers of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government were finding it hard to campaign in their respective assembly constituencies with the polls barely two months away following the stir.

The ruling party leaders have been facing black flag demonstrations by the protesters wherever they were moving in the state.

The antagonism caused by the Act among the upper caste and OBC people, who constitute nearly 60 percent of the total population of MP has threatened to derail the prospect of BJP retaining power in MP in the year-end assembly polls.

The upper caste and OBCs have been protesting against the Centre overturning the Supreme Court’s order diluting the provisions of the Act, allowing anticipatory bail to the accused and providing arrest of the accused only after preliminary inquiry.

The amended SC, ST (prevention of atrocities) Act has however restored the stringent provisions of the Act.