States Human Rights Commissions lack in transparency: NGO

Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur are among six states which do not have dedicated websites for their Human Rights Commissions (HRCs) and most of the other states have inadequate compliance of suo-motu disclosures mandated under RTI Act, a report released by an NGO has claimed.
According to a compilation released by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on the occasion of Human Rights Day being observed globally today, besides J&K and Manipur, the HRCs in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Sikkim also do not have their websites, making it difficult for people to register their grievances or to reach them.
Interestingly, the link to Himachal Pradesh Human Rights Commission website--https://bsmedia.business-standard.comwww.Himachal.Nic.In/hphrc-- does not open-up, the CHRI said.

The websites of Human Rights Commissions in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Kerala and West Bengal lack on suo-motu disclosure as mandated under Section 4 of the RTI Act, it said adding that most of the contents on them are available in English only.
Whereas, Bihar Human Rights Commission has bilingual website--English and Hindi--and Maharashtra's portal is in English and Marathi, the report said.
"Most States Human Rights Commissions do not have their websites. The content mentioned on them are not updated regularly. It is difficult for the common man to raise their grievances with them," said Venkatesh Nayak, who works with the CHRI.

The data also shows rise in number of RTI applications pending with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in past five years.
There were as many as 865 RTI applications pending with the NHRC in 2008-09 which rose to 2,409 in 2012-13, it said. There were 1,454, 2,034 and 2,455 RTI applications pending with the NHRC in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, respectively, the compilation said.