Modi makes strong pitch for Centre's seal on anti-terror law

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the breakthrough in the Ahmedabad serial blasts case, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and made a strong pitch for giving assent to a bill to combat terror and organised crime in the state.
"A political will is needed to further strengthen the police force including giving them more legal powers and resources.

"I requested the Prime Minister to immediately pass Gujarat's law against organised crime, which has been passed twice by the Assembly, and has been lying with the Centre for the past four years," Modi told reporters after the meeting during which National Security Advisor M K Narayanan was also present.

Modi said he explained to the Prime Minister that the a law similar to the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Act was already operational in Maharashtra.

"It is important to understand that this law exists in Maharashtra and if a bomb blast takes place they can use it, but if it happens in Gujarat just 50 km away I don't have the law," he said.

The fire-brand chief minister also took a dig at the UPA government's stand that there was no need for a POTA-like law.

"I want to tell those politicians who have their minds filled with vote bank politics that there were terrorist activities even when POTA was in force and that despite having Section 302 (of IPC which gives death penalty for murder) murders do take place. Does this mean we remove this clause?" he asked.

Modi harped on the need for "strong laws" to prevent youngsters from falling prey to terrorists who were looking to recruit them for their anti-national activities.