From: b sabha <bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com>
SHOULD BIG BROTHER ALWAYS BE WATCHING EVERYWHERE? - Act to make Maha a `police state' draws ire Makarand Gadgil TWEETS @makarandmirror1 Rights activists and opposition parties denounce the draft Protection of Interna Security Act, claim the `draconian' law will restrict the people's right to protest The draft of a new internal security law which the ruling dispensation claims will brace the state against insur gency and violence of any kind has rattled activists and opposition parties in the state, who claim that it will tighten the noose on the people's right to protest, while restricting their movement. The BJP-ruled government released the draft Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act (MPISA) on its website on Saturday, giving three weeks to the people to give suggestions and raise objections to it. The proposed Act purportedly aims to neutralise threat from terror ism, insurgency, and communal and caste violence by ceding unprecedented power to the police, activists say, even as opposition parties cry foul over the “draconian“ and “undemocratic“ law. The draft proposes to carve special security zones, or SSZs, where movement of arms, explosives and inflow of unaccounted funds will be prohibited. The ambit of these SSZs will cover dams, defence establishments, government facilities and buildings, nuclear reactors and transportation systems, all of which have been identified as `critical infrastructure sectors'. If cleared, it will be the first such law at state-level, which that intends to reinforce internal security by giving more power to the police department. Under the Act, any device or substance that can lead to explosions or threaten public safety and order can be proscribed altogether from the special security zone, or regulated.Rights bodies fear that this clause gives a licence to the cops to basically ban anything they want more or less anywhere. The law also makes it mandatory for all private institutes to carry out CCTV surveillance and fortify their premises with police presence. The footage from the security cameras should be stored for up to 30 days, the draft lays down. It is feared that this will allow for replicating the ruthless checks and dilatory frisking people are subject to at air ports and malls everywhere: from government offices to pri vate institutions, malls, industries, railway stations, bus depots, dams and water pipelines. What has irked the opposition and activists the most is the requirement of prior police permission for any assembly of more than 100 persons in SSZs. Worse, violators will face up to three years in jail. Ulka Mahajan, convener of the National Movement for People's Alliance (NAPAM), questioned the need to enact a new law when the state has a whole arsenal of internal security laws at its disposal. “We suspect this is nothing but an attempt to put curbs on public protests and movements against unjust projects thrust upon them in the name of infrastructure and security,“ she said. She pointed out the irony that the law is being brought in by a party, the ruling BJP, which claimed to be at the vanguard of protests against the Emergency in the 1970s. The Opposition panned the Act as undemocratic and oppressive.“The powers proposed for the police to arrest anyone on mere suspicion, and the provisions of curbing people's agitation go patently against the democratic ethos of this country,“ Congress legislator and party spokesman Sanjay Dutt said. “They plan to crush dissent, which is growing every day due to the inept and corrupt functioning of this government.“ To help enforce the Act, a new internal security committee chaired by the home minister by virtue of his office will be set up. Its other members will include the minister of state (home), the chief secretary, the director general of police, and the state intelligence department's chief. [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/NasData//PUBLICATIONS/MIRROR/MUMBAI/2016/08/24/Photographs/008/24_08_2016_008_013_010.jpg]<http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31821&articlexml=SHOULD-BIG-BROTHER-ALWAYS-BE-WATCHING-EVERYWHERE-Act-24082016008013#> ======= TOI Aug 29th PUBLIC EYE PRAFULLA MARPAKWAR - CM in a fix after fiasco over Maha security bill A week after a huge embarrassment over Bhagwan Sahai episode, for BJP's first Chief Mini ster Devendra Fadnavis, it was yet another major embarrassment over the proposed Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act. In less than a fortnight, Fadnavis had to withdraw the draft notification of the controversial legislation from the official website of the state government.The home department led by Fadnavis put up the draft notification on the website and quietly withdrew it after there was loud protest all over. It appears that high ran king bureaucrats in the general administration and home department failed to assess the situation and understand public perception. A quick look over the contents of the proposed Maharashtra Protection of Internal Security Act, leads one to the conclusion that while an attempt was made to define critical equipment and installations, at the same ti me, the provisions pertaining to assembly of people and public events were anti-de mocratic and gave immense powers to the law enforcing agencies.Leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had described the provisions of the anti-democratic legislation as draconian which directly encroached on the personal liberty of the people. In view of stringent criticism from all quarters, Fadnavis said that he has asked the department to forthwith withdraw the draft legislation drafted by the anti-terrorism squad from the website of the state government. A huge victory for the crisis-ridden opposition.
