Senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik on Monday slammed the BJD Government for trying to get a new Police Bill 2013 passed surreptitiously without adequate public debate.
The provisions of the Bill are contrary to the recommendation of the National Police Commission (NPC) and subsequent reports by expert groups as well as the Supreme Court direction in 2008 in the Prakash Singh Case and cannot insulate the police from political interference, he told reporters here.
The Bill has changed the composition and function of the State Security Commission as proposed by the NPC, making it lose credibility and teeth. The commission has been made another arm of the Government and a ‘talk shop’, said Patnaik, a former Minister.
The Bill quite deliberately excludes inclusion of the leader of the Opposition and a retired High Court Judge in the State Security Commission.
The commission’s members are to be selected by the Government rather than by an independent selection panel as proposed by the NPC, the Ribeiro Committee and the Sorabjee Committee, Patnaik said.
Not merely the composition of the State Security Commission has been diluted to make it indistinguishable from the Government, but also its functions as conceived by the NPC and the subsequent committees as well as the Supreme Court has been diluted, he observed.
How can a Government-appointed committee be a bulwark to insulate the police from political interferenceIJ The State Government never wanted a new Act, but now that they face the prospect of contempt of the Supreme Court they are trying to hoodwink the public, he said.
Patnaik said he has written to leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh and Opposition Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan to view the Bill seriously.
The State Government should have placed the Bill in the public domain and there should have been an adequate and informed public debate. The Bill has not been kept in any website deliberately because the Government wants to get the Bill passed without much deliberation.
Patnaik demanded that the Bill be sent to a Select Committee of the Assembly so that infirmities can be removed through scrutiny by members as well as considering views of the public and experts.