Karwar: “Officers of various departments, who received notices from Human Rights Commission with regard to some case of human rights violation, must reply to the notice within one month of the date of receipt. In case of delay, a reminder would not be sent. Instead, summons to appear before the Commission would be issued”, cautioned State Human Rights Commission Member Rupak Kumar Dutta.
Addressing a review meeting of Human Rights Commission at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office, in Karwar, on Tuesday, he said earlier officers were given one-and-half month time and this meant that time was being wasted unnecessarily. Now, the Commission had set a goal of solving any case of human rights violation within three months of the case registration. Therefore, time given to reply to notices had been reduced.
He also asked the government officers to consider the notices sent by the Commission seriously. The Commission would not accept if the officers either send their junior or just post another copy (CC) to the Commission. “Those officers whose names are mentioned in the notice must reply on their own”, Dutta said.
“Victims approach district-level officers when the problems are not solved at the local level. They approach the Commission if they do not get solutions even there. Whom should they approach if they do not get answers even through the Commission? Therefore, government officers must not take notices lightly”, Dutta added.
“There are complaints that the contract workers serving in various government departments are not getting minimum pay as fixed by the government. Detailed information in this regard has been sought”, Dutta said.
Briefing reporters following the meeting, Dutta said information on health department contract workers not getting minimum pay had been obtained from the district health officer.
The officer has been directed to inform if the pay presently being given was being credited at the right time every month.
When media persons drew the attention of Dutta that some people were cheating innocent people by assuring them of mediating in solving cases of human rights violation, Dutta said that they had already sought a report regarding such cases from the offices of the DG and IGP of the police department. He said that the Commission would initiate action based on the report.
He said that if there were proper evidences, steps could be taken against private companies which were not registered as per guidelines and were cheating innocent people.
In the meeting, discussions were held on status of investigations in various cases of human rights violation in Uttara Kannada district and solutions. Later, grievances from the public were received.
Deputy Commissioner S S Nakul, Superintendent of Police Vinayak Patil, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Roshan and others were present at the meeting.