Guwahati: The chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Justice HL Dattu, on Thursday lauded the way Assam government had been found to handle human rights violation cases registered by the Commission in Assam.
Talking to the media here at the end of a two-day camp of sitting and opening hearing for Assam and Meghalaya, he said, “By and large, there are no major human rights violation issues in these states,” and lauded the initiative of Assam government in expeditious handling of cases registered by NHRC. Citing one instance of prompt response by officers of Assam to queries of the NHRC, he said the Assam government had ‘readily accepted’ the directive of a Division Bench of the Commission on Wednesday to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to next of kin of each of more than 20 people killed in ethnic violence in the state in 2014 and Rs 1 lakh each to those injured in that same series of incidents in western part of the state.
The NHRC chairperson further informed that 43 cases were considered during the two days, which included issues such as forest rights of Chakma people, massacre incident of May, 2014, trafficking of girls, child labour, an incident of rape of a tribal minor girl and denial of basic amenities to people in the state.
The Commission considered cases of deaths during police action and deaths of persons in custody in the state during the hearing.
Out of the 43 cases considered, 10 were closed upon consideration of the reports received.
In 13 cases, the report received was taken on record for their analysis by the investigation division of the Commission and further consideration.
In other cases, further time was granted for submission of the requisite reports.
On the second day today, the Commission had discussions with various NGOs from the two states on aspects relating to human rights violation and the need for proactive participation of various sections of the society.
The NGOs drew attention of the NHRC to issues such as custodial torture and deaths, low wages in tea gardens, problem of witch hunting, regulatory measures for the sale of acid, lack of immediate response by police to FIRs pertaining to cases of missing children, human trafficking, lack of awareness of human rights and implementation and proper utilization of state disaster relief fund.
