Understaffed AHRC stares at piling cases

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, May 15: With two-third of its posts vacant, the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is struggling to cope with the piling number of cases.

According to a recommendation by the Justice GP Mathur commission, the AHRC should have around 100 staff. However, the commission, headed by chairperson Dr Justice Aftab Hussain Saikia, currently has only 32 staff. There are two posts of members, but one is still lying vacant. The commission currently has 853 pending cases. Between January and March this year, 91 cases were registered with the commission but not a single case could be disposed off during the period.

In the year 2015-16, the commission registered 305 cases, in addition to the already pending 790. During that year, only 242 cases were disposed off.