NEW DELHI: National Commission for Scheduled Tribes chairperson Kunwar Singh on Monday sought more teeth for the commission by making its recommendations mandatory and penalising the violators.

Speaking at the launch of the Commission's website, Mr. Singh said that as of now the recommendations were not mandatory.

As a result, there was enough scope for non-implementation. This needed to be corrected and the violators must be punished.

Unable to attend

The Commission was unable to attend to all complaints due to staff shortage and over 3,000 complaints were pending.

Mr. Singh said he had met the Secretaries of the Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Social Justice and Empowerment for filling up 40 sanctioned posts in a time-bound manner. "We have also asked opening of four more regional offices that would cover the Southern States."

"It is disheartening to note that the Commission has not been provided with the requisite infrastructure necessary to perform its duties and functions enshrined in the Constitution.

It has got only regional offices in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Raipur, Ranchi and Shillong which have very large jurisdiction in terms of States and Union Territories under their charge," he said. Consequently, it had not been possible to look into all applications relating to the grievances received.

Mr. Singh said the website would help people in accessing information on schemes for tribals and even putting in suggestions.

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