Government yet to appoint chairman for KSHRC

Government yet to appoint chairman for KSHRC

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, July 2, 2012: Justice S. R. Nayak, chairman of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), who will retire on July 25, has expressed concerns that the state government has not yet appointed a new chairman for the commission. He was interacting with reporters after a meeting with DC Dr. N. S. Channappa Gowda and IGP (western range) Prathap Reddy at the DC’s office on July 20, Friday. 

He further revealed that two more members of the commission will retire before July 28, after which the commission will have neither chairman nor members.

He said that the state government ought to have made the required appointments well in advance because the appointment takes a long time. The CM can appoint a chairman and members for the commission only after getting the approval of the home minister, the speaker, the leader of the opposition, and many others. If the appointment does not get the required approval, there will be further delay, he said. Since the members of the commission will soon retire, there will be nobody in the commission to accept complaints of human rights violation, he added. 

Looking back on his five-year term as the chairman of the commission, he said that he has mixed feelings. He said that he is happy that the commission registered suo moto human rights violation complaints without waiting for the victims to approach them. He said that 36,000 cases of human rights violation were registered by the commission during his tenue, and more than 6,500 of these cases were registered suo moto based on media reports. The commission has also successfully solved 24,000 of these registered complaints, he added and the rest are in various stages of investigation. 

In DK alone, the commission registered a total of 1,643 cases, of which 947 cases have been successfully solved, he said, adding that the commission has registered more suo moto cases than commissions in other states. 

Stating that the state government has not implemented many of the commission’s recommendations, he said that the commission will function better if it gets better infrastructure, more funds, and more employees. 

Expressing concerns about rising communalism in DK, he said that DK, which was once widely acclaimed for its secular nature, is slowly losing its secular qualities. He said that strong attempts must be made to make DK secular once again. 

Stating that he had always prioritized the supply of basic facilities such as water, health, land, equality, education, security, and others, he pointed out the fact that a large number of people are homeless in Belthangady, a place where the Dharmasthala Rural Scheme is actively implemented. Sharing his views on Naxal issues, he said this problem can be solved if the government provides basic facilities to rural people.