Justice Hl Dattu, chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Friday said that the Gujarat Government assured full cooperation and commitment for protection of Human Rights of all particularly the marginalised section of the society.
Dattu was speaking after the completion of NHRC’s two-day Open Hearing camp on Friday at Gujarat Police Academy at Karai on the outskirts of the State capital Gandhinagar. According to him by and large the commission satisfied with the State Government’s efforts as whenever violation of human rights takes place immediately it steps in to curb such incidences.
On the inaugural day 136 cases were considered by the four Benches. Out of these, 63 cases were closed after consideration of the reports and satisfactory resolution of the issues raised. In 40 cases further reports were called for and in five cases the State Government informed about sanction of relief in accordance with the provisions of the SC & ST (POA) Act & Rules.
In a case of alleged deaths of 165 persons in manhole and non-payment of Rs 10 lakh as per Supreme Court order of March 2014, the state government was asked to submit a comprehensive report. On second day 19 cases were considered during the sitting of Full Commission including cases of Silicosis deaths, deaths in hospitals, killing of tribals in Sabarkantha district and construction of bridge for school going children in Kennedy village of Junagadh district.
The Full Commission meeting followed by an interaction with the NGOs and Human Rights Defenders who raised numerous issues including untouchability and caste based atrocities in almost 75 per cent of villages and the reluctance of the police to register cases pertaining to these issues.
Attention was also invited to the forest land issues pertaining to tribal, non implementation of Food Security Act and non provision of admissible relief to the poor in Panchmahal district besides non issue of job cards under MNREGA scheme