NEW DELHI: The condition of human rights in India has been abysmally low in the past year. This will be evident if we analyse a few sensitive cases of human rights’ violations across the country on the New Year’s Day.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked its Director General (Investigation) to collect facts and the requisite reports within six weeks of a complaint alleging that Maoist leader Koteshwara Rao, alias Kishenji, was killed in a fake encounter in West Bengal.
In another case, the commission has taken cognisance of a report alleging that a man is serving a life term in a jail in Uttarakhand in place of another man for the past 14 years and issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand.
The NHRC has asked the Chief Secretary, Government of Delhi, for a detailed report on the clinics involved in quackery in the Delhi region and action taken against them.
The order has come after the Delhi Medical Council submitted to the NHRC a list of 28 clinics operating in the Burari area of Delhi which were found to be run by unqualified doctors.
In yet another case, the NHRC took cognisance of a media report alleging a fresh wave of farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
On this, it has issued notices to the Chief Secretaries of these states calling for their reports. As many as 680 farmers have committed suicide in six districts of Maharashtra in the past year.
As many as 90 farmers committed suicide in six districts of Andhra Pradesh from October to November. Eight cases of farmers’ suicides have come to light from Wayanad district in Kerala in November.
The commission has been investigating a case involving death of farmers in Assam in police firing. The NHRC has also issued a notice to the Chief Secretary of the Chhattisgarh Government after taking suo motu cognisance of a media report alleging that one person had died and 25 others had lost their vision at a government-organised eye camp in Balod, Durg district.
The operations were conducted as a part of the Central scheme, National Blindness Programme.
Human rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy has filed thousands of petitions in the NHRC itself. The most important among them are for the protection of whistleblowers, ensuring the rights of Irom Sharmila, dengue deaths in Odisha and Delhi, investigation of cold blooded murders in Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jammu & Kashmir, ensuring safe drinking water in the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha.