With no recruitment, Bengal human rights panel a patient on life support system: chairperson

A handful of people have kept "this office alive as it's a patient on life support system", he said in a recent letter to the principal secretary of the state home department. Justice Gupta said that around four years have passed since he joined the WBHRC in December 2016, and he is yet to get a personal assistant.

West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) chairperson former Justice Girish Chandra Gupta has sought a report from the state government about certain problems plaguing the office, such as non-recruitment of staff in vacant posts. A handful of people have kept "this office alive as it's a patient on life support system", he said in a recent letter to the principal secretary of the state home department.

Justice Gupta said that around four years have passed since he joined the WBHRC in December 2016, and he is yet to get a personal assistant. There was no recruitment in posts which were vacant due to retirement and transfer of officials from the Commission, he said.

Justice Gupta also said that following the retirement of the Commissions additional director general in August, a superintendent of police was appointed for the post but he left the office after getting a transfer "without seeking permission" or even informing the chairperson. He has also sought the views of the state director general of police in connection with the SP's conduct.

"Majority of the members of the staff here are averse to work. Attending the office has become a matter of choice rather than obligation. "The office has been functioning with the help of a few group D staff, a few stenographers, data entry operators and a handful of active members who have kept this office alive as it's a patient on life support system," the letter read.

The WBHRC chairperson also referred to an incident in which the hearing of a case was stalled because of "irritant sounds" coming from an adjoining room where employees were playing carrom. "Even complaints received in last December were not taken into record till July," he wrote, asking the principal secretary to furnish a report in this connection by October 31.

Home department officials refused to comment on the issue..

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