Two days NHRC National Seminar on Good Governance, Development and Human Rights concludes with several important suggestions (22.09.2017)

PRESS RELEASE


Two days' National Seminar organized by the National Human Rights Commission on Good Governance, Development and Human Rights concluded in New Delhi today with several important suggestions. Addressing the concluding session as the Chief Guest, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister, Ministry of Law & Justice and Electronics and Information Technology said that the seminar organized by the NHRC is very timely. He said that good governance is very important to sustain India and Governance can be good only if it is accountable, transparent and participative.

Mr. Prasad said that the government has incorporated digital governance for empowerment of India and to provide good governance. Integrity, accountability and transparency come from digital platforms. It is through digitization that the government has saved 58 thousand crore rupees from pilferage. He said that the government is proposing to link driving license with Aadhar number to stop their duplication. Several crore fake gas connections have been identified after being linked with Aadhar numbers. Fictitious bank accounts will not be possible once these are linked with Aadhar. He said that digital spread is to ensure participative India. Today, four crore digital transactions are happening in the country which is quite high compare to what use to be a few years back.

Lauding the role of judiciary, Mr. Prasad said that it must have the right to force accountability, but judiciary needs to introspect and appreciate that governance must be left to those who are elected to govern. Access to justice is also good governance and judiciary should also look into this.

Earlier, NHRC Chairperson, Mr. Justice H. L. Dattu said that good governance is rooted in the empowerment of people and this can help foster respect and protection for human rights. Principles of human rights help guide the development of legislations, policies, programme and budgetary allocation. He said that the proper implementation of good governance will also lead to the effective realization of the UN's 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

The suggestions which emerged during the two day discussions among various stakeholders, included, among others, improvement in health care system, quality education, infrastructure and research to create a database; putting in place a system to check corruption and change in mindsets for compliance by States.

The participants included NHRC Members, Mr. Justice P.C. Ghose, Mr. Justice D. Murugesan, Mr. S.C. Sinha, Ms. Jyotika Kalra, Secretary General, Mr. Ambuj Sharma, Joint Secretary (P&A), Dr. Ranjit Singh, Special Rapporteurs, Chairperson and Members of State Human Rights Commissions and other Commissions, senior officers of the Central and State Governments, members of core group and committees of NHRC, media persons, NGOs, academicians, research scholars.
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