The Congress today condemned the killing of a Dalit youth in police firing in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening. The party demanded an inquiry into the killing and action against the culprits.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, Dr Udit Raj, National Chairman, Unorganized Workers and Employees Congress (KKC) disclosed that on February 27, Sumesh Kumar, a 10th class Dalit student and a resident of village Silai Baragaon, Milak, Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead on the orders of the Deputy Collector.

Dr Udit Raj said the Dalit youth had filled a stinking pit and put up a board of Baba Saheb Dr Ambedkar, which was being opposed by the dominant caste. He alleged that the police in presence of the Deputy District Magistrate along with some bullies attacked and shot dead the Dalit student Sumesh Kumar and injured two other people.

Dr Raj alleged that the BJP government was hostile towards the Dalits and the Backward castes. “Ever since BJP came to power in the central government, it has been busy in eliminating government jobs”, he claimed while adding that the government was systematically cutting the government jobs to deny the Dalits and the BCs the benefit, as this was their only avenue of employment.

Alleging great injustice with the reserved category candidates in teacher recruitment in Uttar Pradesh, he said, of 69 thousand teachers, OBC category got only 3.86% reservation instead of 27%, that is, OBC category got only 2637 seats out of 18598 seats.

He said, when the OBC students approached the court, they were directed to give 6800 posts to them. The BJP government is not making appointments on these posts on the pretext of a pending court case, he said.

He pointed out, the UP Police Constable Recruitment Examination-2023 has been cancelled after the paper leak. He quoted UP CM Yogi Adityanath saying that this examination will be conducted again within 6 months. “Actually the government does not want to recruit, it was just an election stunt”, he claimed while alleging that the paper was deliberately leaked and the exam was cancelled.