Business Standard

Centre seeks states' views on intervening in riot situations

Image

Press Trust of India New Delhi

The other issues on which it has sought comments include separation of crime investigation from other policing functions, constitution of a Municipal Police Service, abolition of "orderly system" and increasing women's representation to 33 per cent in police forces.

The Home Ministry has posted a report titled "Public Order: Justice for each, Peace for all" of the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission on its website saying out of 165 recommendations, 13 recommendations relate to the Centre and the remaining 152 recommendations relate to states which require consultations.

"A law should be enacted to empower the Union Government to deploy its forces and to even direct such forces in case of major public order problems which may lead to the breakdown of the constitutional machinery in state.

 

"However, such deployment should take place only after the state concerned fails to act on a 'direction' issued by the Union under Article 256 of the Constitution. All such deployments should be only for a temporary period not exceeding three months, which could be extended by another three months after authorisation by Parliament," the report said.

Law and order is a state subject and in the recent past the Centre's move to operationalise anti-terror hub NCTC which would have given overarching powers to central agencies faced strong opposition of several Chief Ministers including Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), J Jayalalitha (Tamil Nadu) and Narendra Modi (Gujarat), who claimed it will hurt the federal structure. MORE

  

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Oct 24 2012 | 5:45 PM IST

Explore News