Some good news for NE. The Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by
Veerappa Moily, has recommended that the dreaded Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Act, 1958 should be repealed. The gist of its recommendations made public a few
hours ago, goes like this :
"AFSPA, 1958 should be repealed. To provide for an enabling legislation for
deployment of Armed Forces of the Union in the NE States of the country, the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 should be amended by inserting a new
chapter VI A as recommended by the Committee fo Review the AFSPA, 1958. The new
chapter VI A would apply only to the NE States."
I think Sanjoy-da (Hazarika) would be able to tell us more about the Chapter
VI A. As we all know, he was a member of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee
(The review committee), which also is understood to have recommended its
repeal. That report is not yet public, though.
Utpal Borpujari
