State has a responsibility to protect disaster-affected people: Baxi

Surat, Mar 1 (UNI) Noted human rights activist and Professor of Law at University of Warwick, UK Dr Upendra Baxi today said the state has a responsibility to protect people affected by natural calamities and riot victims.

Dr Baxi, who was here for a three-day lecture tour, was talking to UNI in an interview.

''Whether in natural disasters like floods or manmade disasters like communal riots, it is the duty of the state to protect the life and livelihood of the victims. But the sad fact is that we are engaged in a blame game and meanwhile the plight of the victims continues to be the same,'' Dr Baxi said.

Dr Baxi said he was not interested in the question who was responsible for the communal riots but stressed that the state should have taken care of the rehabilitation of the victims who lost their family members and livelihood during the riots.

He said the victims in riots not only face immediate losses like life or livelihood, but they have to face long term distresses like psychological traumas.

Talking about the recent judgement in the Jessica Lal case, Dr Baxi said the judgement would have been different if there was a jury system.

While appreciating the role of media in highlighting cases like Jessica Lal, he said thousands of similar cases were ignored.

''I feel that media is not showing similar interest in reporting cases of the Dalit rape victims of Bihar,'' Dr Baxi said.

The true meaning of a republic is that it is a place where every citizen takes care of the fellow citizen, Dr Baxi added.

UNI