Union Minister of State for Social Justice A. Narayanaswamy on Friday instructed all urban local bodies to purchase jetting machines to end manual scavenging in the State.
The Minister chaired a review meeting with officials on matters concerning social welfare, especially SC, STs and said granting compensation of ₹10 lakh for manual scavenging deaths was not sufficient. All urban local bodies should purchase jetting machines to end manual scavenging . The Centre too has been promoting a scheme in which loans are given to people to buy jetting machines, he said
An assessment was being done on how many jetting machines were required to end manual scavenging, he said. Mr. Narayanaswamy, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Chitradurga reserved constituency, asked officials to give him a full report on manual scavenging, a practice which still continued in several parts of the State.There have been 90 manual scavenging deaths in Karnataka over the last 26 years. Of these, 39 deaths were in Bengaluru Urban, he said. He regretted that the conviction rate in cases under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was just 3%. In about 6,000 cases charge sheets have been filed, but special courts have not been set up, he said.
