Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Efforts on to lift Afspa in all of North-East, says PM
GUWAHATI: Efforts are on to repeal the contentious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (Afspa) from all regions in the North-East by bringing in improvements to the law and order situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on his visit to Assam on Thursday.
“For long, many states in the North-East were under the ambit of Afspa. But in the past eight years, due to permanent peace and an improved law and order situation, we removed the provisions of the Act from several parts of the region,” Modi said at a public meeting in Loringthepi in Karbi Anglong district.
He said the law was lifted from Meghalaya and Tripura as there was a 75% drop in violent incidents in the North-East over the past eight years — the BJPled NDA government at the Centre came to power in 2014.
“In Assam, it (Afspa) has been in force for over three decades now. Due to a lack of improvement in the situation, earlier governments used to extend its enforcement repeatedly. But in recent years, due to improved ground situation, Afspa has been removed from 23 districts of Assam,” the PM added.
He was referring to the government’s move to repeal the controversial law from large swathes of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur earlier this month. The decision had drawn widespread praise from the region.
Afspa empowers security forces to conduct operations and arrest anyone without any prior warrant in a region that comes under the law.
“We are trying to bring the situation to normal in other parts of the state so that Afspa can be removed from there too. Similar efforts are also underway in Nagaland and Manipur (parts of both states are under Afspa) to remove the Act,” he added.
The PM also praised efforts undertaken by the states of the region to resolve long-standing boundary disputes among themselves. “Border disputes among states in the region are being resolved in a very cordial manner. The agreement between Assam and Meghalaya would inspire resolution of other disputes and it will help strengthen expectation of development across the region,” he said.
Last month, chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya inked a deal in New Delhi in presence of union home minister Amit Shah to resolve six of the 12 points of dispute along their border.
The agreement between Assam and Meghalaya, which favours a give and take formula,