Chennai, April 16: The DMK, along with other opposition parties, staged a protest here on Monday against the dilution of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Addressing the gathering, DMK leader M.K. Stalin said the Supreme Court order to dilute the Act was unacceptable.

Stalin demanded the Central government to file an appeal in the Supreme Court and also include the Act under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

The political parties that participated in the protest were DMK, Congress, IUML, MDMK, VCK and MMK.

The apex court in its March 20 order said that an accused cannot be mandatorily arrested under the Act without an initial probe.

The Dalit organisations and various civil society groups see it as "dilution" and accuse the Narendra Modi government of conniving in the case.

 

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ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.