Staff shortage hits Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has not been able to set itself right to dispose of the increasing number of pending cases due to a shortage of stenographers!

The lack of an adequate number of staff and members have always been a major hurdle for the rights body and its ilk in Assam. The shortage of staff is so acute that the human rights body had to rollback an important and timely decision that could have lessened the number of pending cases with it. As there are a large number of pending cases in the AHRC, the Commission decided to increase the number of hearing days to five a week – from Monday to Friday – from the existing four days a week – from Monday to Thursday.

However, in a release the AHRC said that it had to revert to its old practice of holding its sessions from Monday to Thursday (four days a week) due to shortage of stenographers in the Commission. Former Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Justice T Vaiphei assumed the charge of chairperson of the AHRC on May 2, 2018.