Jammu(IANS) : The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to strengthen State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to make it more effective as part of a drive to “check all the human rights violations in the state”.
A special task force constituted for the purpose had recommended that the SHRC be provided with required infrastructure and personnel to perform its functions effectively.
It was set up in view of complaints that the SHRC’s functioning was hampered by lack of adequate infrastructure and staff.
The commission would now be provided with officers to conduct speedy probe into the complaints of the human rights abuses, and also all the requisite facilities would be made available to make it an effective institution.
“That (strengthening of the commission) was the need of the hour,” said Transport Minister Hakim Mohammad Yasin, one of the members of the cabinet sub-committee that examined the recommendations of the task force headed by a senior police officer of the rank of director general.
“Human rights is a very important issue for the state and it is our duty to check the violations and strengthen the institutions that work to safeguard the rights of the people,” Yasin told IANS.
The rights body was formed in 1998 after legislation was passed in the state assembly for setting up the commission to stop rights violations, and punish those found guilty of the excesses. However, the army and paramilitary forces were kept out of its purview.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has claimed that during his rule the human rights violations have registered a sharp decline.
“There has not been even a single case of custodial disappearance in the state in 2007 so far,” he said while releasing a book, “Era of Infrastructure Development” listing achievements of his two-year rule.