The Hindu : NHRC chief deplores tardy relief to Gujarat riot victims

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Friday, Jan 10, 2003

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NHRC chief deplores tardy relief to Gujarat riot victims

By J. Venkatesan

Justice J. S. Verma

NEW DELHI JAN. 9. The chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Justice J.S. Verma, has deplored the tardy progress in providing relief to the riot victims of Gujarat.

In an interview to The Hindu, Mr. Justice Verma, who is laying down office next week, said: "a lot more needs to be done and ought to have been done by the Gujarat Government".

He was responding to a question whether the State Government had fully implemented the recommendations of the NHRC on providing relief to the riot victims.

Mr. Justice Verma said he was happy that during his tenure from November 1999, he had strived to make the Commission an institution which could be looked up to by everyone. By and large, all its recommendations had been complied with by the various authorities, some immediately and some after a delay.

On Gujarat, he said in his view "mere abatement of violence is not return of normality. An obligation is cast on the Government to restore confidence among the people and that is yet to be generated in the required measure".

He said concerned over the tardy progress in providing relief, the Commission had recently written a letter to the "highest authorities" in the Government and impressed on them the need to completely rehabilitate the people affected by the riots.

"Mere acceptance of incidents is not enough. What is required is identification of the perpetrators of violence, proper investigation and their prosecution by ensuring a fair and speedy trial. That alone is going to generate confidence among the people, particularly the minorities".

Appeal to Press

He said the State Government must also assure the victims that violence would not be repeated and "inflammatory speeches" should be avoided. "There is no soothing balm than doing justice to the victims," he said and appealed to the press not to highlight inflammatory speeches.

Mr. Justice Verma regretted that the Union Government was still sitting over the recommendations made by the Commission in March 2000 for bringing amendments to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 to confer more teeth to the Commission for effectively enforcing its directions issued to the States and other authorities from time to time.

During his tenure the Commission had registered a total of 2,14,806 cases and of them 2,06,583 had been disposed of.

On the Commission's stand on the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), he said: "I stand by what I said earlier. The existing laws are sufficient to deal with any eventuality, including terrorism. And, any law for combating terrorism should be consistent with the Constitution, the relevant international instruments and treaties, and respect the principles of necessity and proportionality".

"Now that the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, it is up to it to decide on the validity of POTA".

He reiterated the view that "any affront to dignity was a violation of human rights and it should be dealt with firmly.

On the role of Justice A.J. Sadasiva Commission appointed by the NHRC to probe into the atrocities committed by the special task force on tribals in their efforts to nab forest brigand Veerappan, he said the Commission was expected to complete the task shortly and submit its report.

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