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Uttar Pradesh registered 4397 cases of alleged atrocities against Dalits last year, the highest in the country. A total of 26,127 cases of Dalit atrocities were recorded in 2006 across the country, vice-chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes Fakirbhai Vaghela says. "From Uttar Pradesh, we have got maximum number of complaints at 4397. The pendency of trials of such cases in this State is also the highest at 25,996 as of 2006. Out of a total of 26,127 cases of atrocities (countrywide), 669 cases were of murder, 1172 of rape and 258 of kidnapping," he says. Vaghela says 288 cases of atrocities were registered in Haryana and 140 in Punjab. Among the bigger states, he says West Bengal had the lowest number of such cases, though he does not give any figure. He says no case was reported or was pending in courts in Chandigarh. There is a huge pendency of cases pertaining to atrocities in different courts in the country and the last year’s figure of cases in which trial was pending was 87,467. "What is even more a matter of concern is the conviction rate, which is 29.8 per cent countrywide. However, West Bengal, where the cases of atrocities are also less, has a good conviction rate at 50 per cent," he says. He says the commission has raised with the Centre the issue of giving more teeth to it. "Even though we have various powers like that of a civil court, in our last meeting we had proposed several measures to the Centre which would further give us more teeth," he adds.
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