By TCN News,
Mumbai: In the wake of National Advisory Council approving the “Prevention of Communal & Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill” 2011 and inviting suggestions from the people, the Mumbai chapter of All India Secular Forum is going to organize a consultation program on May 30 to discuss the reviewed draft of the Bill.
The program will be held at Kalina Campus in Mumbai at 3pm onwards on 30th May. The organizers have invited people to participate the discussion so that suggestions can be sent to NAC before June 4 deadline for sending suggestions.
It should be noted here that UPA government introduced the Communal Violence (Suppression) Bill 2005 in the Parliament which was rejected by civil society unanimously. After the rejection, in June 2010 the government formed a Working Group on the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill 2011 under the aegis of the National Advisory Council (NAC) – which is set up as an interface between the government and civil society. The Working Group was entrusted with the task of developing a draft Bill on the issue. The Working Group included civil society members who have been actively engaging with the issue.
The Working Group’s draft Bill — “Prevention of Communal & Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill” — has now been finalized and approved by the NAC last week. The NAC has uploaded the Bill on its website and invited suggestions and feedback from civil society to the same, which can be emailed to [email protected] before 4 June 2011.
Although the time period for sending the feedback to the NAC is short, this provides the society a window of opportunity to engage with the Bill once again, to study its provisions, and to make constructive suggestions to the NAC for strengthening the Bill.
Click the link to see the draft bill:
http://nac.nic.in/pdf/pctvb_amended.pdf