Gujarat: Tribal youth commits suicide, family makes serious allegations against local administration
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The family of the deceased claims that the suicide was due to delay in getting the English copy of caste certificate required for their daughter’s recent appointment in a Central Government department.
Published on: 29 Jan 2025, 12:54 pm
Gujarat: A tragic incident has come to light in Ranakpur village of Kadana taluka in Mahisagar district where 45-year-old tribal man and former Gram Rakshak Dal employee Uda Damor allegedly committed suicide. His family claims that the suicide was due to delay in getting an English copy of caste certificate required for his daughter’s recent appointment in a central government department.
Uda Damor’s relatives have accused the local administration of “moving them from one place to another”. Uda’s body was found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of the village, with a note in his pocket that allegedly blamed the local administration for the move.
“They were struggling hard to get the required English caste certificate for their daughter. Though they had a valid certificate in Gujarati, the administration demanded documents from before 1960 which they did not have,” said Uda’s uncle Kanti Damor.
The Kadana police have termed the death as accidental and sent the body for post-mortem. However, the family has protested and refused to accept the body until action is taken against the concerned officials. Police said that if no solution is found by midnight, they are preparing to take the body to Vadodara’s SSG Hospital.
Commenting on the investigation, Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Bheda said, “We are checking the authenticity of the note and probing the claims surrounding the caste certificate issue.”
On the other hand, the Mahisagar district administration has denied these allegations, interim investigation has revealed that the application for English caste certificate was made on January 17, and the first applicant did not mention the need for the English document.
A senior administrative official explained, “The application was incomplete as the required documents for one of the family members were missing. Though the applicant submitted the required documents on January 27, unfortunately Uda Damor passed away the very next day.”
The administration says that under government rules, there is a 45-day time limit for processing such applications, so this tragic incident cannot be directly linked to the pending certificate.
Babu Gala Damor, a local community leader, echoed Uda’s concerns, saying, “They feared their daughter would lose her job if they did not receive the certificate on time. The administration’s repeated delays left them frustrated.”