By IANS,
New Delhi : Home Minister P. Chidambaram is yet to “take a view” on the demand of three states to ratify their anti-terror laws that are patterned on the one in force in Maharashtra.
“I have not taken a view yet,” he said at a press conference here after an almost eight-hour long conference of chief ministers on internal security.
He was responding to a question on a demand from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for ratifying their anti-terror laws that replicate the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
The home ministry is yet to forward the three state laws to President Pratibha Patil for her assent.
On July 26, the day serial blasts rocked Gujarat’s principal city of Ahmedabad, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani demanded that Patil give her assent to the state’s long-pending anti-terror law.
“I would demand the president’s assent to the state laws of Gujarat and Rajasthan akin to the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act pending with the (central) government. The Gujarat law has been pending for the last four years,” Advani said.
On Aug 23, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was asked by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to clear the state’s anti-terrorism bill 2007 that has been pending for approval with the central government.
The New Delhi conclave was held to take stock of various measures taken on the security and intelligence gathering and sharing fronts in the wake of the Nov 26-29 Mumbai terror attacks that claimed more than 170 lives, including those of 26 foreigners.