BHUBANESWAR: The state home department has asked all district collectors and SPs to identify and take action against those, who allegedly misuse ‘online human rights pledge ( OHRP )—an initiative of the national human rights commission ( NHRC ) launched in January this year.While OHRP is just an online pledge that can be taken by anyone, including individuals, government agencies and NGOs to promote human rights of all, the NHRC recently drew the attention of the Odisha government about its misuse in the state. The NHRC alleged that some conmen and organisations took pledge, got auto-generated certificates and misused the certificates for corrupt activities.“We had received a letter from the NHRC towards the end of last month. In the letter, the NHRC had expressed concern over misuse of its online human rights pledge. The NHRC received complaints over phone that some NGOs in Odisha misused the OHRP certificates. We have alerted all collectors and SPs about the NHRC’s observation,” senior IPS officer and home department’s special secretary Santosh Bala told TOI.Sources said the home department has sought details from NHRC about the NGOs that have misused the OHRP certificates. “We do not know exactly how many complaints reached the NHRC. They should share with us the details about the fraud organisations,” another home department officer said.Explaining the nature of misuse of the OHRP certificate, the NHRC said that some people allegedly branded themselves as representatives or agents of the commission by showing the auto-generated certificate to gullible people, mostly private employers and companies. Anyone, who takes a pledge on (https://pledge.mygov.in/nhrc/), will get an instant certificate in his or her or organisation’s name. The certificate carries logo of the NHRC and signature of NHRC’s secretary general Ambuj Sharma . “We received complaints that some unscrupulous people used the certificate for ulterior motive. They tried to extort money from some companies or employers by threatening them to implicate them in human rights violation cases. We want to clarify that the certificate is just a token of acknowledgement for taking the online pledge,” an NHRC officer said.Noted human rights campaigner Akhand said a number of organisations have been cheating people and public servants by identifying themselves as representatives of NHRC. “Police should verify credentials of such organisations and register cheating cases against them,” Akhand said.

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