Gujarat Assembly passes motion on anti-terror law

Gandhinagar: Amidst opposition from the Congress, the Gujarat Assembly on Friday passed a motion urging President Pratibha Patil to clear the controversial Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GUJCOC) Bill which has been hanging fire for more than four years.

The motion, moved by Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, said terrorists “are planning well-organised attacks and spreading terror in the society. They have become a threat for the society, state and the nation and in dealing with these terror outfits a law like the GUJCOC gains significance.”

“Gujarat being a border state having international land and sea boundaries, GUJCOC becomes all the more important,” it added.

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The GUJCOC Bill was sent to the Centre for approval in July 2004, Shah said and added, due to political differences the Bill had been withheld by the Centre since then.

The Gujarat government had made number of representations to the Centre for approval of the bill, Shah said.

Similar laws in Maharashtra and Karnataka had been approved by the Central Government, he said.

But the GUJCOC, modelled on the MCOCA of Maharashtra, was not approved by the Central Government and this "is harmful for the nation", he added.

"The motive behind Congress-led UPA government not approving the GUJCOC Bill was vote-bank politics and POTA was also repealed for the same reasons," Shah said.