On NHRC's directions Gujarat completes bridge to ensure students don't have to swim to school

On the directions of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Gujarat government on Tuesday completed construction of a bridge in Junagarh, ensuring that children of Kaneri village do not have to swim across the Ripen river to reach their school.

The state government informed the commission today about the completion of the bridge. The commission has now decided to close the case.

The commission had registered a case on the basis of a complaint in 2014 that about 50-60 families of Kaneri Tal in Gir Gadhada of Gir Somnath district lived on the opposite side of the Ripen river passing through village Kaneri, locally known as Sim Vistar of Bokharapura.

Students belonging to these families had to swim across the river to reach their primary school in village Kanuri. In the monsoon season, it was very difficult for the students to cross the river. To reach the school, the students had to take a detour and reach via Dhrabavad village, covering a distance of 8 kilometers.

Besides this matter, the NHRC in its full commission sitting on Tuesday considered 19 other cases of human rights violations. Most of these matters pertained to suo motu cognizance of incidents of human rights violations reported by media. These are at various stages of further directions by the commission to the concerned public authorities.