The Maharashtra government on Thursday introduced a bill in the Assembly to stop the “proliferation of Urban Naxalism” in the state, reported The New Indian Express.
The Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, tabled by the state’s industries minister Uday Samant, was drafted along the lines of the Public Security Act currently in force in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, according to The Times of India.
While introducing the bill, the government said that the existing laws were ineffective and inadequate in tackling Maoist activities, their frontal organisations and individual sympathisers.
The bill states that Maoist activities were limited to remote areas and were increasing in urban areas through frontal organisations.
“Safe houses and urban dens of the Maoist network” in Maharashtra seek to “propagate their ideology of armed rebellion against the constitutional mandate”, said the bill, reported The Indian Express.
It grants the state the power to declare an organisation as “unlawful”. This decision can be reviewed by an advisory board set up by the state government.
It has defined “unlawful activity” as one that poses a danger or menace to public order, peace and tranquility; interferes with maintenance of public order, “administration of law or its established institutions and personnel”.
Activities designed to show criminal force to any public servant; indulging in or propagating acts of violence, vandalism, use of firearms, explosives or disrupting communications by rail, road, air or water; “encouraging or preaching disobedience to established law and its institutions”, will also be considered “unlawful”.
A person who is part of an unlawful organisation or one that takes part in its activities or receives or solicits any contribution for the purpose of any such organisation can be punished with a jail term that may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine up to Rs 3 lakh, according to The Indian Express.
Even if a person is not a part of an unlawful organisation but “contributes or receives or solicits any contribution or aid for such organisation or harbours any member of such organisation”, they can be punished with imprisonment up to two years and a fine up to Rs 2 lakh.
The Opposition has criticised the bill and termed it a “draconian” move by the state government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
“This is nothing but to muzzle protests,” The Indian Express quoted former Chief Minister and Congress MLA Prithviraj Chavan as saying. “The government wanted to present and pass this bill today itself. We opposed it and requested the Speaker not to push it through. We will oppose the bill vehemently.”
The Maharashtra State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has even called for the withdrawal of the bill, stating that it will have a deep impact on the democratic processes of governance, reported Deccan Herald.
“In actual fact, the state government, raising the so-called ‘urban Naxal’ bogey, is preparing to suppress all Opposition in the run-up to the forthcoming Assembly elections,” said the party’s Maharashtra secretary Uday Sarkar.
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