Most atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh: Buta Singh

National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman Buta Singh Tuesday said most cases of atrocities on the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the country are being reported from Uttar Pradesh.

"The largest number of atrocities against the SCs are being reported from Uttar Pradesh and Chief Minister Mayawati should address their problems," he told reporters in the Himachal Pradesh capital.

Singh said that the NCSC had challenged an amendment carried on the SC Atrocities Act, made by the Mayawati government, before the Supreme Court.

"We have challenged the amendments carried out by the Mayawati government. Besides rape and murder, other crimes against the SCs have been removed by the government in a central legislation," he said.

On the mob attack on the house of Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, he said: "Such incidents are condemned."

On the Mayawati government erecting statues in Uttar Pradesh, he said erecting statutes was honourable, but the government seemed to go into overdrive.

"You can't see so much elephants (in nature) as you can see in one city (Lucknow) and all of them are made of marble," he said.

Singh also slammed Himachal Pradesh for denying the SCs their rightful due in special allocation of funds, reservations in jobs and in addressing atrocities being inflicted upon them.

"The hill state has 24 percent SC population but the allocation of funds has never been in proportion to that," the NCSC chairman noted.

Last updated on Jul 21^st, 2009 at 21:41 pm IST--IANS