To investigate 'racial discrimination', MHA sets up panel
The Centre has set up a three-member committee for monitoring and redressal of grievances relating to the alleged racial discrimination faced by the people from the northeastern region residing in different parts of the country.
According to an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the committee comprises Satyendra Garg, joint secretary (Northeast) in the ministry, Alana Golmei, secretary, North-east Support Centre, New Delhi and Mizum Nyodu, assistant professor, Law Faculty, Delhi University.
The panel has been constituted for monitoring and redressal of issues/grievances relating to the racial discrimination faced by the northeastern people residing in different parts of the country, the order said.
Any person or group of persons or communities hailing from the Northeast who claim to be victims or have faced any act of racial abuse, racial atrocities, racial violence, racial discrimination in any part of the country, can send their complaints, suggestions or grievances at a designated e-mail: ne.complaints@mha.gov.in
The committee has been established following an order of the Supreme Court after a writ petition was filed in the wake of a series of attacks on people from the North-east, including the death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh, Nido Tania, in Delhi.
In its order, the apex court had said the panel would be given powers for ensuring strict action in incidents of racial discrimination, racial atrocities and racial violence, and suggesting measures to curb such hate and racial crimes.
The court had also told the government that the effective monitoring mechanism suggested by the M.P. Bezbaruah Committee in its report should be implemented and "should not like innumerable instances of its ilk, languish in dusty shelves of long forgotten archives".
It was also of the view that the involvement of the law enforcement machinery was alone not sufficient to resolve the problem and stressed that mindsets must be changed including in universities, colleges and educational institutions, places of work and in society.
The Bezbaruah panel was set up by the home ministry on February 5, 2014, to suggest "suitable remedial measures" which could be taken, in the wake of attacks on the people from the Northeast in Delhi and other parts of the country.
