Oil, gas pipeline attacks will entail death

NEW DELHI:In a tough stand against terror attacks targeting oil and gas pipelines in the country, Parliament on Wednesday passed an amendment to the Petroleum Pipelines Act that makes such activities punishable by even death sentence.

The Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Amendment Bill, 2010, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, provides for a jail term of a minimum of 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for acts of terrorism.
The punishment “may extend to imprisonment for life or death’’ in case the act of sabotage is dangerous and is likely to cause death of any other person, the amendment bill already passed by Lok Sabha says.

Prior to the amendment, the Act provided for a jail term of one to three years for acts of sabotage and pilferage . Replying to the debate, minister of state for petroleum R P N Singh said existing sections in the 1962 Act did not contain adequate provisions to prevent such incidents .

Acts of sabotage to any crude oil, petroleum product and natural gas pipeline would be punishable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine. On reservations expressed by some MPs over the onus lying on the accused to prove innocence - which included Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar objecting to “POTAlike language” in a particular section – Singh said death sentence would be applicable only in the “rarest of the rare’’ cases against “terrorists or saboteurs”.