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NHRC to hear plea on bodies found in Bhakra canal

Victims’ kin look for bodies at Khanuri. tribune file photo

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 7

The National Human Rights Commission will soon start hearing a petition regarding bodies that are found in the Khanuri barrage of the Bhakra canal. The petition has been filed by Inderjit Singh Jaijee, convener of the Movement Against State Repression (MASR).

The 174-km-long canal that passes through Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala and Sangrur districts enters Haryana in Khanuri.

Quoting police figures, Jaijee said at least 35 bodies were found in the barrage every month. The bodies are mostly of those who commit suicide or who have been murdered.

Till now, the government has no arrangement whatsoever to take out the bodies. Residents of Khanuri have collected money to build a rest house for the victims’ kin while the local gurdwara provides food to them.

Affected families have to pay private divers up to Rs 15,000 to take out the bodies from the water after the bodies have been identified. “The poor can’t afford to pay such a huge sum,” Jaijee has said in his petition.

“Earlier the police were indifferent, but since 2014, they have been noting down the number of bodies sighted each day. However, the police make no effort to retrieve the bodies found in the canal. If relatives want to hire a diver, they do so at their own expense,” reads Jaijee petition to the chairman of the NCHR.

“Two years ago, the Punjab and Haryana High Court took notice of the situation at Khanauri and ordered the installation of underwater lights at the barrage. But lights have not been installed, even though the Sangrur district administration had promised to do so,” said Jaijee.

“We can’t disrespect the dead and it is the right of relatives of missing persons to receive assistance from the state through various agencies of the administration and the police.

“Also, the police are legally bound to pursue the cases of missing persons,” Jaijee argues in the petition. He has written to the state Chief Secretary, seeking his intervention in the matter.