New Delhi: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Pinaki Misra Friday sought the House’s attention to a large number of complaints against armed forces and advocated that these complaints should be investigated by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Speaking on behalf of the party in the Lok Sabha on the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the BJD Parliamentary party leader said there is no difference in an extra-judicial killing when either the police or an Armed Force personnel or a paramilitary force personnel undertakes it.
“The bar of the Armed Forces, including the paramilitary forces, from being investigated directly by the Human Rights Commission is not a happy situation. This is something which we must look at seriously because a vast number of complaints, which are coming, are coming on that count,” said Misra.
The BJD MP also raised concern over the staff crunch in the NHRC. He said the sanctioned strength of this Commission has been coming down over a period of time. The investigating division of the rights panel has only 49 people as against 59 earlier.
“Since its inception, the Commission has never had the full sanctioned strength. This is not a happy situation,” he said.
The Puri MP said that people have a great faith in the NHRC because the number of complaints which are filed on a daily basis sometimes exceeds 400 or 500 but for them to be dealt with efficaciously, the government must staff the Commission adequately.
He urged the government to pay adequate attention to this particularly saying “the commission does not have a binding force in terms of its diktat.”