Chennai: In a strongly worded opposition from the state to the Centre’s proposal of introducing the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Repartations) Bill 2013, chief minister Jayalalithaa said that some of the provisions of the new ‘revised’ draft of the Bill seem to encourage government officials and police officers, in particular, to be insubordinate and mutinous by not obeying the orders of their superiors.
“Such an incitement will only lead to chaos and anarchy and a total breakdown of the law and order machinery. I strongly oppose such provisions,” Jayalalitha said.
Commenting on the idea of setting up separate national and state authorities for communal harmony in the new draft Bill, 2013, Jaya said that justice and reparation had been given up and instead National Human Rights commission and State Human Rights Commissions have been conferred the powers and functions originally envisaged for the national and state level authorities.
“Hence the commissions have been given unfettered powers to interfere with the working of the state governments and its officials. Responsibilities and powers of the National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commissions and similar bodies should be confined to policy issues and not day-to-day monitoring of ‘build up of offences’ or hate propaganda,” she said.
The CM also pointed out that maintenance of law and order was the fundamental responsibility of state governments and that it required functional cooperation and understanding between Centre and state and presupposed a relationship based on equality.
“However, the government of India has been taking a unilateral approach in attempting to create top down structures and parallel authorities that encroach upon the constitution domain of state governments. This is further underscored by the shoddy manner in which the Bill has been drafted” she said.
