New Delhi: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India needed stringent laws to counter cross-border terrorism and criticised the Central Government for not giving the nod to his state's proposed anti-terror act.
"We need latest technology to strengthen our forces but we also need stringent laws to fight the challenge of terrorism from across the border," Modi told reporters on the margins of the internal security meeting held in New Delhi.
"India is a democracy and such laws will also protect human rights," he said.
Earlier, in his address to the chief ministers' conference, Modi said internal security threatened by organised crime and terrorism needed to be confronted with a strong resolve and it should not be limited to physically strengthening the law enforcement mechanism.
"Our policy decisions and laws to deal with such issues should have enough teeth. The biggest issue concerning internal security, to my mind, is lack of adequate legal provisions to support our efforts," he said.
Modi's remarks came in the backdrop of the central government's refusal to give its nod to the president to sign the controversial Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act (GUJCOCA) passed by the state assembly.
Calling the decision of the Central Government to return the act as "injustice with Gujarat", Modi said it was only a xerox copy of a similar law in Maharashtra.
"The act has been passed by the state assembly with two-thirds majority. We sent it to the central government in 2004. But they have returned it. It is a similar copy of the Maharashtra act. Even commas and full stops are similar," he told reporters.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram last week urged President Pratibha Patil not to sign the GUJCOCA, which has created bitter debate between the Central Government and the state.
Chidambaram has raised objection over some points in the draft as he recommended deleting of two of its provisions. He said the home ministry has asked for the provisions to be removed from the bill, but the state has not responded.
In his speech, Modi referred to the dossiers sent to Pakistan on the involvement of "people and state agencies" in the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attack.
He said the country should build its inherent strength and institutional mechanisms so that "we do not have to rely upon external forces to bring perpetrators of crimes against our people within our country to book".
"It is important that not only are we strong but are also perceived to be strong by subversive elements within and outside India," he said.
He said that the National Investigation Agency Act had powers of taking over investigation in FICN (Fake Indian Currency Note) offences and there was no need for asking the state governments to give general consent for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into such crimes.
"Did the government try to look at the track record of CBI in investigating offences which it is seized with?" he said.
Modi said the agenda for the conference did not include action taken on deliberations of previous meetings. He said his government was committed to building a mechanism to ensure that all criminal cases in the state were disposed off within 12 months.
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