The government on Tuesday moved a Bill to amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, to streamline the process of confiscating terrorists’ property and to designate individuals as terrorists along with groups, among other changes, in the Lok Sabha.
Moving The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill,2019, for passage, Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy said thegovernment wants to take strict steps against terrorism for which it hasadopted a ‘zero tolerance’ policy.
The Minister also said that terrorism has also beenrestricted since security forces have been given free hand to tackle it. Hesaid insurgent activities in the northeast have come down by 66 per cent inlast five years, while the situation in Maoist-affected districts, whose numberhas come down to 60, has also been improved.
“Of those 60 districts, the incidents have reduced to10 districts. Maoist activities are going down in Bihar, Jharkhand,Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, West Bengal… It allhappened because of our government’s strategy.
“For the government’s continuous effort againstterrorism, we want amendment in the UAPA Act,” he said.
Reddy specifically stressed on three major amendments to theAct.
While the existing Act allows the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) to confiscate the property of terrorists, the anti-terroristagency has to take permission from states, he noted.
“As one terrorist has properties in different states,it takes too much time for the agency to get permission. For which I requestthe Parliament to amend the act to give this power to the NIA,” theMinister said.
On the second amendment, Reddy said that if a terroristorganisation is banned, it opens another group with different name. “To dealwith this issue, the government needs right to designate individuals asterrorists.”
The amendment provides that an individual will be declaredas a terrorist if he commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares,promotes or is otherwise involved in terrorism.
On the third amendment, the Minister said DeputySuperintendent-level officers are made investigating officers and this shouldchanged to make Inspector rank officers the in-charge.
“As drug and human trafficking related cases have beenadded in NIA’s purview, the agency’s work load has increased. AsInspector-level officers also have expertise due to their continuous work inthis sector, we want to make them in-charge and keep the DSP and SP levelofficers as supervisory officers,” he said. Stressing the government’s purpose is only tostrengthen the NIA and make it effective, Reddy said: “I want theParliament to give NIA special powers.”