The Neso delegation led by Samujjal Bhattacharjya (centre) in New Delhi on Saturday. Picture by Prem Singh

New Delhi, Oct. 18: The Centre and states continue to remain silent on the M.P. Bezbaruah panel report on containing discrimination, while people from the Northeast suffer renewed attacks in Delhi and other parts of the country.

Not a single state has returned comments on the 78-page report though tomorrow is the last date for comments to be received on the basis of which the Union home ministry is to submit an action-taken report to Delhi High Court next month.

“A couple of ministries have sent comments but not a single state has done so. Not even states from the Northeast have returned comments on the report,” a source said today.

After the committee submitted its report to the Centre, the Union home ministry sent it for comments to at least eight central ministries, including DoNER, culture and law, and all the states and Union territories.

A copy of the report is with The Telegraph.

Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju today said implementation of the “voluminous” report would begin shortly.

In fact, the home ministry was also lax in its processing of the panel’s report that recommended amendment of IPC Section 153A that deals with discrimination. After a visit to Gurgaon today, Rijiju played down the recommendation. He said while the government could consider amending the law, implementation of existing laws was more important.

In the light of Delhi High Court’s observations this year after the killing of Arunachal student Nido Tania, the panel had stressed the need for a law covering the type of experiences the Northeast people have. “The committee recommends that either a new law should be promulgated as directed by the High Court of Delhi or IPC should be amended,” it said.

Although the report was submitted on June 11, it was sent for comments only in September. Officials said work went slow in the intervening period as a new government took over.

In the meantime, there has been a spate of attacks against people from the region. There were attacks in Bangalore, Gurgaon and a murder of a Mizo woman in Delhi within a week. It forced Union home minister Rajnath Singh to speak to the Haryana and Karnataka chief ministers.

The Bezbaruah panel was set up in February after civil society groups forced the government to act in the wake of lynching of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in Lajpat Nagar market in New Delhi in January. Tania’s death led to widespread protests against racial discrimination, a term the government finds too strong.

“We find that while there are many laws there is no one clear law that covers the type of incidents that the Northeast people are exposed to. In the absence of a clear, precise law, the agencies entrusted with enforcing the law are also at a disadvantage in taking action,” the panel said.

Among the existing laws is the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Bezbaruah and his team said many citizens from the Northeast are not members of the SC/ST communities and hence cannot seek protection under the act. Many ethnic groups in Assam and the Meiteis are not Scheduled Tribes.

Further, the committee felt that within the broad framework of the Constitution, the legal, strategic and philosophical aspects of the demand for an anti-racial law should be debated and a suitable decision should be taken in the long run.

In Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s office in Guwahati, a senior official told The Telegraph this evening that Dispur had formulated its views on the panel’s recommendations and would send it next week. “We have overall supported the recommendations of the M.P. Bezbaruah panel,” he added.

A senior Meghalaya government official said the government was still preparing the comments to be sent to the Union home ministry on the Bezbaruah report. “There are a lot of points to be covered, and we also need to get inputs from other government departments. But the process (of collecting inputs from the government departments) is already on,” the official said.

He said the state would like to give “factual information” and not information based on “assumed facts”. He added that the state government had received the communiqué from the ministry seeking comments on the report not too long ago.

In Imphal, a source in the Manipur home department said the state government was given time till early next month to submit its comments on the recommendations of the panel. He said the home department had received another communication from the Union home ministry yesterday, seeking comments on the report by early next month. “The process to send comments is under way. We need time to thoroughly discuss the recommendations and give a proper response,” the official said.

Former Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio said he supported the Bezbaruah report and urged the Centre to make all efforts to stop discrimination against northeastern people. He expressed surprise that the suggestions and comments had not been sent.

Arunachal Pradesh chief secretary Ramesh Negi said the state government agreed to the recommendations in principle but it was currently pending cabinet consideration.

In another development, Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh today expressed concern over the attacks on people from the Northeast, saying that if such harassment continued it would affect national integrity.

Ibobi said he had talked to his counterparts in the region on the recent attacks on Northeast people on three consecutive days and that they would appeal to the Centre to take up safety measures for those staying outside the region.

State home minister Gaikhangam condemned the attacks and described the discriminatory attitude as unfortunate.

Komrem Union, Manipur, comprising members of the Komrem community, condemned the attacks and urged the Centre to take steps to prevent such incidents. It also appealed to the people of the region to control their temper and not venture out late at night.