Source: The Imphal Free Press
Imphal, August 22:
The Manipur Human Rights Commission, MHRC, set up in June 1998 after persistent pressure from the public, is in danger of being closed down owing to the state government�s neglect, senior commission sources have warned.
Commission sources told to this newspaper today that the MHRC will not be able the end of this month.
It may be mentioned that since its inception, the commission has taken up more than 500 cases.
Apart from taking up cases, the commission was also supposed to take up human rights awareness and human rights literacy campaigns and to organize seminars and workshops in connection with human rights, but due to lack of funds, little has been achieved in this respect.
The sources pointed out that after the initial allocation of Rs 30 lakhs for the commission at the time its was first set up, the budgetary allocation for the commission has been progressively reduced in subsequent years- to Rs 14 lakhs, and then to Rs 13 lakhs.
After the appointment of the commission members, no regular staff has been appointed or the MHRC.
For the normal day-to-day functioning of the commission, altogether 14 staff, including three drivers was engaged on adhoc basis, but they have not received their salaries since September 2000.The failure to pay salaries for a whole year itself amounted to a human rights violation, commission staffer told.
In addition, the status and service conditions of the commission members have still not been fixed by the state government.
The seat vacated upon the death of Justice Y Ibotombi Singh, one of the initially appointed members of the commission, has still not been filled up, they said.