Jayalalithaa against amendment of BSF Act

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has categorically opposed a proposed amendment to the Border Security Force (BSF) Act, 1968, on the grounds that it encroaches upon the states' powers.

She has demanded that the issue should be discussed at the Chief Ministers meet called in by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on May 5.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, the part of which was released to the media on Friday, Jayalalithaa said that the provisions of the proposed amendments to the BSF Act has the same motive of smuggling in a mechanism inspired by the same goals that was behind the setting up of an operations division in the NCTC (National Counter Terrorism Centre), through the backdoor.

The amendment proposes to empower the paramilitary BSF to search and arrest anybody in any part of the country.

"The members of the Rajya Sabha had, as early as on March 29, 2012, requested that the subject be discussed in the conference of chief ministers." said Jayalalithaa, at the recent conference of Chief Ministers on internal security in New Delhi while showing her displeasure upon inclusion of the BSF Act amendment as supplementary agenda.

"This item (BSF Act amendment proposal) was contained in the Supplementary Agenda notes that reached us only on the day of the conference. Hence my views expressed at the conference did not carry my state's response to this matter,"said the AIADMK Chief.

Since the amendments proposed to the BSF Act seem to have a similar motive as that of NCTC, it would be appropriate if these are also discussed at the chief ministers conference May 5, commented Jayalalithaa .

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Jayalalithaa against amendment of BSF Act

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