Committee to look into displacement in WB post-poll violence announced

Names of the members of a committee ordered by Calcutta High Court to look into allegations of displacement of people in violence after the 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal were announced on Friday.

The members are Rajiv Jain, member of the National Human Rights Commission, Saket Kumar Jha, the registrar of West Bengal Human Rights Commission and Raju Mukherjee, member secretary of West Bengal State Legal Services Authority, a press communique said.

The committee will inquire into the rights of the displaced persons for rehabilitation and to return to their place of abode and place of work, it said.

The complaints and/or affidavits of the displaced persons will be filed through e-mail, it said.

A division bench of the HC presided by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava had on April 20 constituted a three-member committee comprising a member/nominee of the NHRC, a member/nominee of WBHRC and the secretary WBSLSA.

Petitioner Priyanka Tibrewal had claimed before the court that as many as 303 people, who were displaced during the state election and post-poll violence and prevented from returning to their residences or rejoining work or those whose houses were destroyed have given affidavits disclosing the circumstances.

Tibrewal, a lawyer, had further claimed that she had subsequently received requests from approximately 100 more persons who were in the same situation, the court had noted in its order.