People’s jury appeals to CM to convene State-Level High-Power Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meeting

A seven-member Public Hearing panel comprising a retired judge, legal experts, academicians and activists has written to the Chief Minister of Telangana A. Revanth Reddy, urging him to immediately convene a meeting of the State-Level High-Power Vigilance and Monitoring Committee and address serious lapses in the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The signatories include Justice (Retd.) Nimma Narayana, academics and activists, including Rama Melkote, K. Lakshmi Narayana, Sujatha Surepally, Kalpana Kannabiran, and legal experts V. Raghunath and Darshanam Narasimha.

The public hearing was held in Hyderabad on January 25, 2026, organised by the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) along with the Dalit Bahujan Front and several grassroots organisations.

At the hearing, over 30 cases — selected from nearly 100 documented incidents across 22 districts — were presented by Dalit and Adivasi victims and their families. The panel expressed deep concern over systemic failures, noting widespread negligence by officials, including delays or refusal in filing FIRs, pressure on victims to compromise, weak investigations, low conviction rates and delays in compensation, a press release informed from NAPM.

The panel pointed out that the State-Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, reconstituted in February 2025, has not met even once, despite the mandate to meet twice a year. This, they said, has contributed to under reporting and normalisation of atrocities.

RTI data from January 2026 further revealed that in 2024 no victim received interim relief within the mandated seven days, no public servant was booked for dereliction of duty, and legal aid was not provided in 27 districts.

With the Assembly session under way, the panel urged the Chief Minister to convene the committee in March, enforce strict timelines for investigation and compensation, ensure accountability of officials, activate district-level committees, and strengthen implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.