Home Ministry panel in Bangalore to study Northeast People's issues

Bangalore, Jun 16 : People belonging to North-East regions residing in Bangalore and other cities of Karnataka attended a meeting and interacted with committee members, former MP and member of the committee H T Sangliana.

Sangliana said during the interaction job-related and security related issues surfaced. "The participants raised concern over violation of minimum wage rules, negligence of the police to address their problems, among others," he said.

Addressing the security-related problem, Sangliana said the committee will ask Karnataka government to make arrangements at police station level to promptly tackle North-East related cases because the police are unhelpful.

"They are not registering cases promptly and protecting the accused despite their complaints against them in clear terms," he said.

The issues that surfaced in a meeting with the panel members was that of security related problems.

Sangliana said the committee will ask the government to establish a helpline and institute North-East-related cells at the police station level and at the police headquarters to curb cases going unnoticed and unheard.

"The panel will urge the government to designate senior-level police officers to handle all such cases and if necessary request for special prosecuting agency for giving free legal aid for northeast people," Sangliana said.

Sangliana said "there was a need for better relations between employers and employees in the context of approximately three lakh northeast people living in here."

M P Bezbarua, who is heading the panel, did not attend the meeting.