Congress MP questions conditions of detention centres in Assam

Speaking during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Gowda said, “While officials claim that the camps will be better than prisons, media reports and past history depict a different picture.




In the wake of the announcement of a nationwide National Register for Citizens, Congress MP Rajeev Gowda on Thursday drew attention to the conditions in detention centres in Assam.

Speaking during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, Gowda said, “While officials claim that the camps will be better than prisons, media reports and past history depict a different picture. As per the latest reports, the death toll in detention centres has reached 28. The reasons range from consumption of unfit food, insanitary conditions to suicide.” Gowda asked the government to be more transparent about the facilities in the proposed detention centres and the future of detainees, as it is a humanitarian issue. Earlier, the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, had said he would speak to his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal to find a solution to the problems faced by visually-challenged candidates selected for a job in the Railways.

Chand’s assurance came after BSP MP Satish Chandra Misra raised the issue and said these candidates have not been appointed to their roles despite being selected. He added that candidates have been protesting against the mattter in New Delhi from the last two weeks.

“They are not beggars. They were fighting for own rights, statutory rights, constitutional rights,” the BSP MP said.

To this Chand said he had already spoken to Goyal but the inter-ministry discussion remained inconclusive. “I will again request the Railways Minister to resolve the matter at the earliest,” he said.

During the proceedings, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh called for the execution of the verdict given in the December 2016 gang rape case.

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