Lack of fund mars Tripura's rights panel plan

The Left Front government in Tripura, despite its will, was not able to form human rights commission due to lack of fund and non-availability of a suitable judge, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said here Monday.

"The Tripura government has no required funds to constitute a full-fledged state human rights commission," Sarkar said in the state assembly.

"According to the act, the state human rights commission has to be headed by a retired chief justice of a high court or an ex-judge of the Supreme Court," said Sarkar, who also holds the home portfolio.

"The state government has yet to get the appropriate retired judge to lead the commission."

Replying to Congress legislator Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl's question, Sarkar said once it was considered whether the Assam state human rights commission can look after the cases of human rights violations of other northeastern states.

"After a member of the Assam state human rights commission favoured to look after the human rights violations of other northeastern states, where the panel was not constituted, Tripura had approached Assam, but it did not response," he said.

Expressing his government's desire to form the state human rights commission, Sarkar said the three district session court in Tripura has been notified to look after the cases of violation of human rights.

"Some times the state government referred complaints of human rights violations to the national commission," he added.

Among the eight northeastern states, only Assam, Manipur and Sikkim have human rights commissions.