AGARTALA, July 29 (TIWN): Just after the Supreme Court of India has directed the Northeastern states of Tripura and other 5 states along with Delhi and Himachal Pradesh to set up human rights commission the Tripura Left front government has come out thinking fresh for setting up the commission despite financial constraints. “We are thinking over it as how to act towards setting up the commission as directed by the SC recently,” said Minister Tapan Chakroborty to media.

On being asked by the newsmen here at the civil secretariat Chakroborty expressed his government's desire to form the state human rights commission in Tripura. 

"There is no real basis for the contention that financial constraints prevent these states from setting up their own commissions," the court observed.

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, but according to Chakroborty the state government is yet to get the appropriate retired judge to lead the commission.

“The court has several times taken up the issue to set up the human rights commission in Tripura and other NE states but government was not having any appropriate retired judge to lead the commission and neither there was better infrastructure to set up the commission,” adding Chakroborty said, “But now we are thinking it fresh again to take up the action plan.”
The direction was issued on the basis of a PIL by former judge of Calcutta high court D K Basu on prison reforms and unfilled vacancies at state human rights commissions in seven states, official stated.

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

The Tripura Human Rights Organisation (THRO) has been reiterating its demand for setting up a Human Rights Commission (HRC) in the state to safeguard civil society from both criminal and police atrocities.

THRO officials said here, ''We have been demanding for a THRC since long keeping in mind instances of human rights violation in the state but no positive results have been yielded so far.”

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), a rights organisation has recently meeting with Governor Tathagata Roy said that despite repeated prodding by the National Human Rights Commission to set up a State Human Rights Commission, the Tripura Government has not acted on the matter.

APDR expressed surprise over the fact that even though the Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI-M led Left Front Government in Bengal set up the first State Human Rights Commission in the country in 1995, the Left Front Government in Tripura had been inactive in this regard.