The Gujarat Government is all set to bring in a law to protect the rights of tribals, dalits and other reserved category people.
Forest minister Ganpat Vasava said in Surat on Monday that the law would have provisions of about three years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 for those using fake certificates of reserved categories to get jobs and admissions in schools, colleges and universities.
Sources in the government said that the law has been planned following complaints received by the government of people making fake caste certificates to get the benefits of the job and getting admissions.
Vasava said that those helping to get fake certificates also would face action and penalty.
The minister said that the services of persons, who are found to have got the jobs based on fake caste certificates, would be terminated. The state government, he said, would also recover from them the benefits they would have received during their jobs.
Action would also be taken against them if they are found to have taken admission based on fake caste certificates. Their degrees would also be considered invalid and the state government would recover money of scholarships they would have received during the tenure.
Vasava said that from now on, the probably beneficiaries would have to get the caste certificates checked by a separate committee.
Anand Vasava, assistant professor at the school of languages at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, welcomed the move of protecting the rights of tribals and other reserved category people.
While not getting into whether a separate law was necessary to protect their rights, Anand said that anything that gave the real beneficiaries protection from people using fake caste certificates was welcomed.
