Report and pics by Michael Rodrigues
Team Mangalorean Udupi

Udupi: Rajatadri, the new DC office complex in Manipal, is barely 5 kms away from Udupi. The chairman of the State Human Rights Commission had come all the way from Bangalore to received grievances from the public. All he got were six complaints.

Lodging a complaint against human right violation entails spending hundreds of rupees to come to Manipal.  There is no bus service to the DC's office. In reality, this alone is the main grievance. 'Nadoja' Dr S R Nayak heard the six grievances.

Just like the earlier occasion, this time too complaints regarding UPCL were submitted. Yellur panchayat's former president Shashidhar Shetty, in his complaint, explained the water in the wells surrounding UPCL were being contaminated over the past two years and how it had turned salty.

People using water from those wells have developed complaints like asthma, cough and skin ailments. Many animals too had died. Children cannot be bathed in this water. All complaints submitted to zilla panchayat and government departments have borne no fruit, he stated. In response, Nayak asked the reports to be submitted through the CEO of zilla panchayat within a week.

Owing to the functioning of UPCL, traditional fishing too had suffered.  Out of the 360 families dependent on  traditional fishing, even 302 people found it difficult to subsist on the trade. It was announced at DCs' meet in 2010 that the company had been ordered to provide relief for this. Since nothing had been done yet, the complaint submitted under the leadership of Bharat Kumar the complaint was accepted.

Reacting to this, DC and his team said it was difficult to find a solution to this.  But since it had been ordered, the DC said that suitable measures would be taken in this matter. Richard Lewis of Padu Tonse Kemmannu complained that he had once given up land to the panchayat for road-making. Now again the panchayat had been demanding land to build a bridge. He felt that unfair demands were being made and he was being harassed.
 
Rafiq belonging to Balkudru  Hangarkatte complained that although he had procured permission from  CRZ authorities to build a house and obtained a 'No Objection Certificate' for electricity connection, the Airody gram panchayat was giving him unnecessary trouble.

Advocate Sadashiva K Amin said that they had appealed to the court in 2007 complaining of unfair policy in the appointment of district Home Guards.  The court had referred the matter to the IGP, and later to the DGP also, but he had not given any justice, he said.

Some fishermen complained that many children of fishermen are getting denied of their education.  They complained that some officers insist on certain records to be produced of the children.

Reacting to this Dr Nayak declared that children between 6-14 in the state were eligible for compulsory education, and they should not be denied of their education.  He asked the CEO of ZP to take necessary action about it.

Later speaking to the media, Dr Nayak, giving details of the complaints issued by him hitherto, said that ever since he took office in October 2007, until March 2012, as many as 33,064 human rights violation cases from all over the state got registered with him. 

The Human Right Commission registering  6065 instances independently from whatever was published in the newspapers, depending on the merits of the case. He said that by March 2012,  579 cases were registered. Out of them 363 cases have been resolved, and 216 cases are pending, he said.  Of the 1588 cases getting registered from Dakshina Kannada, 952 cases have been resolved and 536 cases need to be resolved, he said.

In addition to this, he suggested measures be taken for rain harvesting, keeping in view the district facing drinking water shortage.  He gave suggestions to the Udupi municipality to put the project into priority action.  There have been complaints about the non-introduction of bus service to the DC office. Not providing it by itself is a violation of human rights. The mediapersons insisted that early steps be taken in this regard. Another complaint was about the trucks carrying fish spilling dirty water along the route, which caused road mishaps resulting in loss of lives. Dr Nayak directed the police to take action against such practice.

DC and additional DC were away on official work concerning MLC elections. Zilla panchayat Chief executive officer S A Prabhakar Sharma, Kundapur assistant commissioner Sadashiva Prabhu and additional SP Venkateshappa were present on the occasion.