'Provide land for self-employment'

Ahmedabad: At the dalit mahasammelan in the city on Sunday, the convener of Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti, Jignesh Mevani, raised several demands on behalf of members of the dalit community, including the key demand of allocation of government land to landless dalits.
"Persons who don't want to do menial work like disposing carcasses and cleaning roads should be given alternatives to earn their livelihood.The government has thousands of acres of waste land that should be allocated to poor and landless dalits for their self-employment," Mevani said.
The dalit leader demanded justice for the Una flogging victims, and the arrest of all perpetrators seen in the video recording of the crime. The video, which had gone viral on the social media shows accused persons brutalizing four dalit men, accusing them of killing cows, while they were actually skinning cows already dead.
Mevani said that there was no doubt that the accused will soon be out on bail. "We demand that the state administration prevents them from entering five villages neighbouring where the victims live, and initiate actions under PASA (Prevention of Anti Social Activities ACT)," he said, adding that cops who are seen in the video must also be booked in the case.
"It is in the nature of agitating dalits that we never violate constitutional laws. Even then, fake cases are brought against us. We demand immediate withdrawal of those fake cases or we will appear on the roads of Ahmedabad in even larger numbers," Mevani said.