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NHRC split in open
- ‘Body being run unilaterally’
KATHMANDU, MAR 28 -
Internal disputes at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took a new turn on Sunday with two of its disgruntled members formally appealing to the Parliament to “rescue” them.
NHRC members K.B. Rokaya and Lila Pathak jointly dispatched a letter to the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Relations and Human Rights citing 15 “serious reasons” why it should immediately intervene and bring the NHRC on the right track.
Lack of financial and management transparency in donor-funded projects under the Commission, including in a $2 million UN-funded project; weak management and leadership; illegal, unilateral and unconstitutional decisions taken by the board in the absence of two commissioners (Rokaya and Pathak); and irregularities in vehicle purchases and their abuses are among the reasons cited. The two have asked the Committee to summon the entire five-member NHRC board for a discussion on the same.
NHRC has already rejected the Committee’s earlier invitation for discussion. In his March 17 response to the first invitation, NHRC Chairman Kedar Nath Upadhyaya had stated that a parliamentary committee has no jurisdiction to intervene on the “autonomous and independent” Commission’s day-to-day affairs.
However, Rokaya said the Committee has full authority and jurisdiction to intervene whenever the need arises. “NHRC is in crisis due to several serious anomalies inside. We’ve asked the Committee to help us sort it out.”
For the past one year, the Commission’s five-member board has been deeply divided on several management and financial issues. Rokaya and Pathak have not attended any of the Commission’s meetings for the last three and a half months.
“We have not been informed of any of the decisions made by NHRC in the last three and half months,” said Rokaya. “We have serious reservations on the decisions made in our absence. NHRC is being run unilaterally as per the will of the three (Upadhyaya and two other members), which is totally unconstitutional.”
Posted on: 2010-03-29 08:03
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