Describing honour killings as a great social menace, National Human Rights Commission chairman justice KG Balakrishnan today said effective police investigation is needed to probe such criminal cases, only a few of which get reported.
"Honour killings are shocking incidents and a great social menace. Though existing laws are enough to tackle them, effective police investigation is needed for probing such cases, which are criminal cases. The commission can only create awareness against it. Only a few incidents get reported," he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in Kochi.
On a complaint filed to the NHRC, alleging human rights violation in police raids against activists of radical group Popular Front of India, whose activists are suspected to have chopped off the right hand of a college lecturer, he said they were awaiting the DGP's report.
"Two weeks time has been given and that is the usual procedure," he said.
The lecturer's hand was chopped off for preparing an alleged defamatory question paper.
Justice Balakrishnan said complaints were being filed from Kerala every week but most of these do not fall under the category of human rights violations.
He also called for excellent coordination with panchayats to ensure the implementation of all its programmes.
"We would like to have excellent coordination with the panchayats and would like to have all our programmes implemented in panchayats. We want that kind of coordination," he said.
Human rights activities should start at the panchayat level, he said, adding the activists can do a good job, especially in executing development projects, uplift of society and improving living conditions of people, particularly the marginalised section of society.
He said the panchayati raj system was working exceedingly well in Kerala, compared to other states.
