The Hindu : Front Page : Mayawati withdraws Act

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Friday, Sep 05, 2008
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Mayawati withdraws Act

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: Accusing the Congress of adopting double standards on the issue of law and order, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday withdrew the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Act (UPCOCA), 2007. The UPCOCA had been sent for Presidential assent after it was passed by both houses of the Legislature. It did not get assent.

The Chief Minister’s decision follows the comment of Union Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal here on September 1 that the UPCOCA was unlikely to be approved by the Centre.

Ms. Mayawati told reporters that the Congress had politicised the issue considering that the UP law had been framed on the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), and the move was in consonance with the June 6, 2001 letter written by the Union government that a law on the pattern of MCOCA should be framed by the States.

She said the Congress government in Maharashtra should follow the example of UP and withdraw MCOCA.

Like Uttar Pradesh, the existing laws should be strictly implemented by the Maharashtra government for enforcing the rule of law in that State, Ms. Mayawati said. She added that UP had shown that law and order could be maintained with the effective implementation of existing laws.

Ms. Mayawati wondered why the Congress, which had no objection to MCOCA, opposed UPCOCA.

She said since Independence, Maharashtra has largely been under Congress rule, barring a short period when the other parties were in power, yet crime ‘flourished’ in that State. The MCOCA was introduced to control crime but notwithstanding the law, the Congress government had failed on this front, she added.

She charged that ‘goonda and mafia raj’ prevailed during the Samajwadi Party rule in U.P. As criminals were ‘patronised’ by the police, the law and order situation in the State touched its nadir.

It was against this background that the Bahujan Samaj Party assumed power. Among the measures taken to improve the situation was UPCOCA, the Chief Minister said.

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