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National Hu­m­an Rights Com­mis­sion to act on farmer suicide

Will also probe AP encounter
Hyderabad: NHRC chairman Justice K.G. Balakrishnan (retd), said on Friday that if no complaint was lodged with the commission regarding Gajendra Singh, who had committed suicide during the farmers’ rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi recently, the NHRC would take up the case suo motu.
He was addressing a press conference here along with other members, Justice Cyriac Joseph, Justice D. Murugesan and Mr S.C. Sinha, after concluding the three-day open hearing and camp sitting.
Reacting to a query, Justice Balakrishnan said, “The incident has come to our notice, but we are in Hyderabad. We don’t know if anyone has filed a complaint with regard to the incident with the NHRC. After reaching Delhi we will look into the issue.”
Speaking on the Seshachalam and Alair encounters of April 7, he said that the NHRC had not formed any opinion on the basis of initial information, as it needed the necessary documents. Only after going through the material on record could it come to a conclusion.
Stating that the NHRC team would shortly visit the encounter spot in Seshachalam where 20 woodcutters from Tamil Nadu were killed, Justice Balakrishnan made it clear that the team would be more of an investigating team than a fact-finding one.
“It would be difficult for the Commission to assess the performance of any state or its agencies based on the number of complaints received by the NHRC against them. Generally complaints against the police are high when compared to other agencies in any state in India,” he said.
He also said that the NHRC had noticed that there had been a decrease in encounters in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and an increase in the number of cases from AP and Telangana.
He said that the Commission felt that police investigation of cases reported by SCs was not as quick and fair as it should be. The district magistrates and labour offices needed to be sensitized about their functions and duties under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulations) Act, 1986, he added.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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