Human rights violations less in Tripura, but so is awareness, says THRC chief

Agartala: Chairperson of Tripura Human Rights Commission (THRC) and retired justice Swapan Chandra Das on Thursday said that incidents related to human rights violations are less in the state.

He also said so far, directions have been passed in connection with 90 complaints out of 110 total petitions filed till November 2022.  

Briefing the media persons at the Civil Secretariat this afternoon, Das said, the responsibility of the human rights commission is to investigate incidents of human rights violations and accordingly pass directions to the state government.  

“Till November 2022, we have received 110 complaints. We have already disposed of 90 out of them and necessary recommendations have been made to the state government for further action. The cases that are pending will also be resolved as soon as possible once the inquiry process concludes,” he added.

According to Justice (retired) Das, the people of Tripura are still confused about the commission’s functioning.

“There are certain NGOs working for human rights protection. These are completely independent bodies and have no links with the human rights commission. They cannot extend any legal help in case of any violation. The human rights commission is the only constitutional body that has been constituted to tackle the violations of human rights by any government organization, employee or other similar setups. Any personal dispute does not come under the purview of our work,” Das told reporters.

“We have been trying to conduct public awareness campaigns in different parts of the state so people can understand how to approach the THRC in their time of need. Schools, Colleges and Universities are primary places where we are conducting our awareness campaigns,” Das said.

He also informed that World Human Rights Day will be celebrated on a grand scale this year at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan with the theme of ‘Dignity, Freedom and Justice’.    

The Tripura State Human Rights Commission was constituted in the year 2016.

Justice (retired) Das was flanked by members of the commission, former district judge Subir Saha, former IPS officer BK Roy, and secretary of the commission Dr PK Chakraborty.

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