Riots Bill likely in Budget session

A Bill to combat widespread communal violence and riots "without any bias towards any community" was likely to be tabled in Parliament during the Budget session, with provisions like declaring the affected parts of a state as disturbed areas, home ministry sources said today.

The United Progressive Alliance government has accorded priority to this law and the draft Bill would be ready by the end of January, 2005, for circulation to elicit opinion of a cross-section of people on the issue, sources said. The government planned to place the draft Bill in Parliament in the Budget session, said a ministry official.

The focus would be to effectively and swiftly contain the situation arising from communal violence and provide speedy relief and rehabilitation to victims, he said.

Rioting and communal violence were "extraordinary" law and order situations needing appropriate law, he said. The government was thinking of creating special courts for summary trial of the accused, sources said.

For relief and rehabilitation, the possibility of setting up a statutory commission was also being examined, they said.

On tackling the law and order situation arising from the riots, the ministry sources said the federal structure provided under the Constitution would be kept in mind while drafting the model law. "The proposed law will have no bias against any community and tackle the situation as law and order problems," the official said.