“The proposed amendment Bill which is intended to confer the powers of the State police to the RPF is unwarranted. It is severe violation of the Constitutional spirit and a blow to the federal structure of India,” Modi wrote in a terse letter to the Prime Minister.
The Gujarat Chief Minister observed that the provisions being inserted through the proposed amendment of the RPF Act, 1957, were not in consonance with the schemes provided under Article 246 of the Constitution of India. Modi maintained that ‘public order and police were State subjects’ and, thus, proposing amendments in these meant infringing powers of the State and attack on the federal structure of the nation.
“The proposed amendment is a violation of provisions of the existing Police Act and provisions of State Police Act like the Bombay Police Act, 1956, prevailing in the State,” wrote Modi. The Chief Minister said that the Railways’ claim that its property was an independent entity gave the impression that it was ‘a State within a State’.
Modi said that the argument put forward by the Railways for conferring police powers on RPF personnel was “ridiculous” and added that even the State police faced similar jurisdiction issues while probing crimes across several States. Such a move of the Railway Ministry would open up Pandora’s Box as a host of paramilitary forces would ask for ‘police powers’ in their respective operational areas, Modi warned the PM.
“Recently, the NCTC was notified unilaterally in violation of the Constitutional provisions and many States have strong objections to it. In continuation of this, a Bill to give police powers to the RPF was being mooted, which again was another attempt to curtail States’ powers,” Modi concluded in the letter.
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