Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 17, 2006
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has written
a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to secure the President's
consent at the earliest for the tough Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill
which has been pending with the Centre for more than two years, a senior official
said today.
The chief minister wrote the letter to Singh
soon after the Mumbai train bombings last week, Gujarat Home Secretary K C
Kapoor told PTI.
Though the Gujarat assembly had passed the
bill in 2003 and had sent it to the Union Home Ministry for getting the President's
consent, the Centre had returned it asking the State government to make certain
amendments.
Accordingly, the Gujarat assembly carried out the amendments and sent it again
to the Centre in March 2004.
The assembly also adopted a resolution in March 2006 requesting the President
to give his consent on the bill.
In the letter, Modi has justified the need for having the tough Gujarat Control
of Organised Crime Act as the state has 1600 kms-long coastline and borders
Pakistan.
The criminals from neighbouring Maharashtra
sneak into the state and because of the rapid economic development taking
place in the state, Gujarat needed such a law, Modi said.
Modi reminded the prime minister about a similar
law in Maharashtra.
The chief minister also advocated the need
for bringing back the stringent POTA by the Centre.
"When other countries are enacting stringent
anti-terror laws why the UPA government shies away from adopting such stern
measures?," he asked.
