Centre dragging feet on Bezbaruah Report

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Binalakshmi Nepram of Control Arms Foundation of India and noted human rights lawyer Anju Talukdar said that two years have passed since the government-appointed Bezbaruah Committee had submitted its report, but 98 per cent of the recommendations remain unfulfilled.

The government has paid lip service in the name of implementation of the Bezbaruah panel’s recommendation. Only a helpline number (1093) has been set up and 44 persons from the NE have been recruited in Delhi Police, they said.

The NGOs called for formulation of a national diversity policy and enactment of anti-racial law.

“We plan to request our MPs to raise the matter through questions and private member’s Bill. We are scheduled to meet the MPs during the ensuing Winter Session of the Parliament,” Nepram said.

Nepram said that 54 per cent of people from Northeast living and working in the capital felt that Delhi is the most “unsafe place” in terms of ethnic intolerance, while 67 per cent feel that they were victims of racial discrimination.

Also the violence against the people of the NE region has gone up by 270 per cent during the last three years, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nepram said.

Last year, at least eight cases of murder and two of attempted murder, 14 cases of rape and 16 cases of molestation and as many as 21 cases related to obscenity and stalking involving the people of Northeast have been recorded in Delhi.

source: www.assamtribune.com