New Delhi: A government committee has recommended that a controversial law which gives armed forces sweeping powers to arrest and confine people be repealed but also wanted the Centre to have greater authority in deploying its forces in the states.
M Veerappa Moily, chief of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, on Monday gave a 342-page report on ‘Public Order’ to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The report suggests that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) be replaces with another law for deploying armed forces in Northeastern states.
The AFSPA gives the armed forces in “disturbed” areas the power to arrest without a warrant and with the use of “necessary” force and to enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law.
The reforms commission recommends a law which would allow the Centre to deploy and command its forces in a state in case of major public order problems or “breakdown of constitutional machinery”.
Asked whether states would support his recommendation, Moily said: “this has always been a tricky situation" and gave the example of Ayodhya during the Babri Masjdi demolition in 1992 "where central forces were only deployed but never employed."
The commission, in its fifth report, has made many recommendations like separation of crime investigation from law and order duty and a fixed three-year tenure for police officials at all "operational levels."
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