RTI Happenings: Lack of manpower haunts women commission

[akhilesh yadav]

Lack of manpower haunts women commission

Reported by I P Singh in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on August 14,2012
Lack of manpower haunts women commission - The Times of India

JALANDHAR: Working of the Punjab State Women Commission has come to a halt due to shortage of manpower for the past seven months. Despite the fact that posts of chairperson and four members of the commission have been vacant, there seems to be no move to fill the vacancies.


While chairperson Gurdeb Kaur Sangha's tenure ended in December 2011, fifth member Kiranjot Kaur's tenure ended on January 26. The commission receives more than 100 complaints every month.


Information procured by Human Empowerment League Punjab (HELP) under the RTI Act has revealed that the monthly salary and allowance bill of its employees was around Rs 4.15 lakh but it has been operational at its one-sixth capacity only.


The information has further revealed that the commission was disposing of complaints after getting information from the concerned department. In 2010, the commission received 1,341 complaints while in 2011 these were 1,325. In the current year till June, 611 complaints had already been received.


HELP general secretary P S Kitna and Istri Jagriti Manch leaders Gurbax Kaur Sangha and Rupinder Kaur said that it reflected that the state government was not taking issues of women seriously.

[karira]

Sponsorer

The situation is the same in many other states.
In fact, the women's commission is not the only one to suffer - even other statutory commissions suffer because the government does not fill vacancies.