STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Despite the government spending crores of rupees, the case disposal rate of Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) is very poor in the state. The FTs in the state disposed of 1,520 cases on an average last year. The FTs will take around eight years to dispose of the pending cases if they continue to proceed at this pace.
According to the status report of the FTs submitted to the Gauhati High Court, from April 2021 to March 2022, the 100 FTs disposed of 15,201 cases. As many as 1.19 lakh cases against people of doubtful nationalities are pending in the state.
After the NRC exercise, the government increased the number of FTs to 100 from 68. The government did appoint an adequate number of FT members (judges) to speed up the disposal of cases. As many as 273 members and associate members are working in the 100 FTs in the state. From 2019-20 to 2021-22, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs allocated Rs 69 crore for the smooth running of the 100 FTs in the state. A few years back, the MHA did frown at the functioning of the FTs. The Ministry did ask the State government to review the performance of the FTs quarterly. Accordingly, the State Government issued guidelines to the FT members and set monthly targets for case disposal.
What leads to poor performance of FT members? Talking to The Sentinel, a few FT members said that they had adequate FT members without the matching supporting staff. They said that the government had selected 1,700 supporting staff for the 100 FTs. Three years have elapsed without appointing any of them, they said. The FTs also lack infrastructure, they alleged.
One of the FT members even said, "Three or four members have to share one room in some FTs. There is no supply of official formats and papers from the government for a long time."
According to official sources, a section of members is not enthusiastic about case disposal. "As if they are working in the FTs to earn money. To hide their inactiveness, they pass the buck on the government, blaming it for not providing proper infrastructure," an official alleged.
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