Bangalore: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman A S Anand on October 9 said he has asked a "special repertoire" to conduct an "on-the-spot" inquiry into suicides of farmers in Karnataka.

"We have asked our special repertoire to conduct an on-the-spot inquiry (into suicides)," Anand told reporters on the sidelines of a two-day "Sensitisation Workshop on Bonded Labour and Child Issues" in Bangalore.

He said Karnataka government had not submitted its report on farmers' suicides, which the NHRC had sought from it.

"We are awaiting the report from Karnataka government," he said, adding that it had not set a deadline, but wanted to "get into the root cause of the deaths".

Earlier in his address, Anand decried that Karnataka was not implementing the rehabilitation process of the 1,862 bonded labourers who had been identified in a survey by the state government.

"I am sorry to say all of them have still not been rehabilitated," Anand told Karnataka Home Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge, who was present on the occasion.

He appreciated the government's effort to rehabilitate 23 bonded labourers of Hangarahalli, who were released a few years ago.

Anand lamented that bonded labour was prevalent in 17 states in the country, even after six years of proclaiming the Bonded Labour Abolition Act.

PTI