Encounter no solution to sexual assaults on women: Katti Padma Rao

Culture of respecting women should be nurtured: Dalit leader

Andhra Pradesh Dalita Mahasabha founder chief Katti Padma Rao has opined that killing of accused in rape cases in encounters is no solution to prevent increasing sexual assaults on women in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“Only by putting an end to pub culture and introducing total prohibition women will be safe and secure in the Telugu States,” he told a media conference here on Monday. A culture of respecting women should be nurtured at the grassroot level and a knowledge society ushered in through a library movement in villages to broaden the social outlook of individuals, he said.

English medium should be introduced right from play school stage, he said, adding this would in no way come in the way of promotion of Telugu language and culture.

It was through English Mahatma Gandhi made the freedom struggle a national movement overcoming linguistic barriers, he said.

Ambedkar statue

He urged the YSR Congress Party government to build a giant Ambedkar statue in the capital region at a cost of ₹1,000 crore and adopt Buddhist architectural style to woo in a big way his followers in South and South East Asian countries.

The Dalita Mahasabha would move the court if the pending backlog vacancies in the posts reserved for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes were not filled within three months.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy government should give at least 2 acres of land each to all Dalit women so that they could live with dignity, he said and wanted the government also to hike the allocation for mid-day meal to ₹50 per student so that more nutritious food could be given to them.