The Centre has made some changes in the Communal Violence Bill after the Opposition raised objections.
The new bill is proposed to be neutral between communities, While the earlier one put the onus on majority community, there is no onus on any community now. Officers will be held responsible in the event of failure to prevent riots, a considerable change from its earlier stand which exonerated the state officials.
The Centre has made some changes in the Communal Violence Bill after the Opposition raised objections.
The BJP was opposed to any move to the bring the Communal Violence Bill. However, this Bill is something that the ruling coalition wants to bring especially after the Muzaffarnagar violence.
The Left had also expressed reservations over the Bill. "This Bill has some issues, it is said that this Bill overrules the state powers. Then in case of victims also, there is some issue. I do not think this Bill can be brought in the House," CPI leader D Raja had said.
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The Times of India
Cabinet clears communal violence bill
Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the bill was approved by the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Monday cleared a reworked version of
the prevention of Communal Violence Bill, which seeks to make the
definition of a group hit by communal violence as community-neutral and
leaves the prevention and control of communal violence essentially to
the states, with the Centre playing a coordinating role.
The new bill makes bureaucrats and public servants accountable for any acts of commission and omission while handling communal violence. However, bureaucrats who refuse to obey unlawful orders of their superiors during communal situations cannot be held responsible for dereliction of duty.
The Cabinet on Monday cleared the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013, despite the serious reservations of the opposition parties and many chief ministers to its "anti-federal" provisions. BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had, in a recent letter to the prime minister, dismissed the Bill as "ill-conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe of disaster" and sought wider consultations on its provisions. His Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, Odisha chief minister Navin Patnaik and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee echoed the sentiments.
The BJP criticized the bill as being loaded against the majority community, while parties like SP and BSP slammed it for encroaching upon the domain of the states.
On Sunday, Jamaat Ulama-i-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani warned political leaders of a befitting reply from the people in case they delayed passing the anti-riots bill.
Shinde had said earlier that he hoped to bring the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill in the current session. Even though the government may try to introduce the bill in this session, with the Lokpal Bill now a top priority, it remains doubtful if the anti-riots bill can be taken up before the session ends on December 20. The bill, if introduced, may be referred to a parliamentary standing committee. However, the government would have made a statement of redeeming a promise that it made nine years ago.
The reworked version of the prevention of Communal Violence Bill is a much diluted version of the draft Bill earlier approved by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC draft bill had defined a riot-hit group as a religious or linguistic minority and proposed a national authority for communal harmony with wide-ranging powers to oversee and monitor action taken by states to prevent and control communal violence. The latter stands replaced by NHRC in the new bill.
According to the draft bill, communal violence includes "any act or series of acts, whether spontaneous or planned, resulting in injury or harm to the person and or property, knowingly directed against any person by virtue of his or her religious or linguistic identity".
The Bill proposes to punish organized communal violence with life imprisonment; hate propaganda with up to three years' imprisonment or fine or both; funding of communal violence with three years or fine or both; dereliction of duty with imprisonment ranging from two years to five years; and breach of command with imprisonment of up to 10 years.
The Bill seeks to provide compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in communal violence, Rs 5 lakh for rape, Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh for disability, and Rs 2 lakh for grievous injury.
The new bill makes bureaucrats and public servants accountable for any acts of commission and omission while handling communal violence. However, bureaucrats who refuse to obey unlawful orders of their superiors during communal situations cannot be held responsible for dereliction of duty.
The Cabinet on Monday cleared the Prevention of Communal Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2013, despite the serious reservations of the opposition parties and many chief ministers to its "anti-federal" provisions. BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had, in a recent letter to the prime minister, dismissed the Bill as "ill-conceived, poorly drafted and a recipe of disaster" and sought wider consultations on its provisions. His Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalithaa, Odisha chief minister Navin Patnaik and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee echoed the sentiments.
The BJP criticized the bill as being loaded against the majority community, while parties like SP and BSP slammed it for encroaching upon the domain of the states.
On Sunday, Jamaat Ulama-i-Hind chief Maulana Mahmood Madani warned political leaders of a befitting reply from the people in case they delayed passing the anti-riots bill.
Shinde had said earlier that he hoped to bring the Prevention of Communal Violence Bill in the current session. Even though the government may try to introduce the bill in this session, with the Lokpal Bill now a top priority, it remains doubtful if the anti-riots bill can be taken up before the session ends on December 20. The bill, if introduced, may be referred to a parliamentary standing committee. However, the government would have made a statement of redeeming a promise that it made nine years ago.
The reworked version of the prevention of Communal Violence Bill is a much diluted version of the draft Bill earlier approved by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). The NAC draft bill had defined a riot-hit group as a religious or linguistic minority and proposed a national authority for communal harmony with wide-ranging powers to oversee and monitor action taken by states to prevent and control communal violence. The latter stands replaced by NHRC in the new bill.
According to the draft bill, communal violence includes "any act or series of acts, whether spontaneous or planned, resulting in injury or harm to the person and or property, knowingly directed against any person by virtue of his or her religious or linguistic identity".
The Bill proposes to punish organized communal violence with life imprisonment; hate propaganda with up to three years' imprisonment or fine or both; funding of communal violence with three years or fine or both; dereliction of duty with imprisonment ranging from two years to five years; and breach of command with imprisonment of up to 10 years.
The Bill seeks to provide compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the next of kin of those killed in communal violence, Rs 5 lakh for rape, Rs 3 lakh to 5 lakh for disability, and Rs 2 lakh for grievous injury.
