Karnataka Dalit entrepreneurs decry ‘poor’ fund allocation: Report
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Dalit Entrepreneurs’ Association has urged the government to increase the fund allocation in the Department of Industries and Commerce towards the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP).
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, C.G. Srinivasan, the association’s working president, highlighted that only Rs 400 crore — less than one percent of the Rs 42,018 crore earmarked under SCSP/TSP — has been allocated towards schemes such as site allocation, soft seed capital, investment promotion subsidy, and loan processing fees, reported Deccan Herald on Saturday.
Srinivasan noted that between 2017 and 2019, Dalit entrepreneurs received 50 percent capital assistance for setting up shops and businesses. In 2019, this was increased to 75 percent to encourage more participation, as interest remained low. He shared that this move helped 2,873 Scheduled Caste entrepreneurs gain access to nearly 2,613 acres of land for entrepreneurial purposes. He pointed out that, however, the overall budget allocation from the Department of Industries and Commerce remains insufficient at just one percent.
He further alleged that Rs 850 crore in grants are still pending under various schemes and flagged a backlog of 271.8 acres of land yet to be allotted to Dalits by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) since 2009.
“There has been severe discrimination in the allotment of old industrial area land where about 25 percent is reserved for entrepreneurs from SC/ST communities,” DH quoted him as saying. He added that many Dalits were given litigated, undulated and unusable lands.
Consequently, several entrepreneurs were penalised for failing to meet the stipulated timelines, as they were unable to start their businesses due to the condition of the allotted land.
The association also called on the government to address corruption within the KIADB, alleging that officials have been denying reservations to Dalit entrepreneurs.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
