Hunt on for third rights panel member

SHILLONG, OCT 27: The select committee headed by the chief minister has directed the political department to come up with some more names for appointment as the third member of the state human rights panel.

Addressing newsmen after a meeting on Thursday, chief minister Mukul Sangma said, “We still need one more as this is a three-member panel and we have advice the department to look at some more names and place before the committee.”

It was on June 7, the state government had notified the Meghalaya State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) with retired Chief Justice Aftab H Saikia as Chairman and former state DGP PJP Hanaman as a member.

Aftab H. Saikia, who retired as Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, earlier headed the Assam State Human Rights Commission as its Chairperson.

Sangma said that the committee had earlier completed the exercise of getting the chairman and also one of the members of the commission.

“And today we have looked at the whole profile of the available names which were placed before the select committee, whose mandate is to zero down on the eligible persons for being appointed as members of the commission,” he added.

He informed that at present there were only two names and in view of the fact that since the eligible criteria qualifies for only one of them, the department has been given more time to come up with some more names.-By Our Reporter