Thaindian News

Agartala, Nov 19 (IANS) A rights group Friday expressed concern about the security forces not vacating the school premises in northeastern states even after a Supreme Court order.

The New Delhi-based rights group Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has asked the union home ministry, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and the state governments to take steps to vacate the schools.

“It is not only the central security forces under the ministry of home affairs but also state security forces that have been occupying schools across northeast region,” ACHR director Suhas Chakma said in a statement.

The ACHR has recommended that the NCPCR establish mechanisms to independently verify the reports submitted by the relevant ministries about vacating of the schools, hostels and children’s home complexes by the security forces.

“Considering the state security forces in the northeastern states have been occupying schools across the region, the district magistrates and collectors of the states should submit the report about the vacation of the schools,” Chakma said.

The Supreme Court in its direction Sep 1 asked the union home ministry to take suitable action to vacate within two months all the schools in the northeastern India that have been occupied by paramilitary forces.

The division bench of the apex court comprising Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar also asked the human resource ministry to assess infrastructural bottlenecks in schools in the largely mountainous region.

The order came after a public interest litigation drew the apex court’s attention to the problem of exploitation of children who were trafficked from northeastern states to the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, reportedly for good education.

In the terrorist-affected northeastern states, a large number of schools have been occupied by the CPMF (Central Para-Military Forces) and state security forces as the troopers have no other accommodation in that particular areas.

“For emergency situation, we have to set up security camps in certain areas, where the security authorities have no house on their own. In such a situation, we have no other alternative but to use existing accommodation,” a senior Tripura police officer told IANS.