PONDICHERRY, May 31: The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) today urged President K R Narayanan not to give his assent to the Prevention of Terrorism Activities (POTA) Bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly on Saturday.The PUCL has pointed out that the provisions of the Bill were a rehash of TADA which the Centre did not renew in May 1995.
They said there was no debate worth the name over the Bill's relevance, legality and other aspects and it was pushed through in the assembly only because of the majority enjoyed by the ruling party.
The PUCL pointed out that the Bill contained a provision for detention without filing chargesheet for a period of one year which was nothing but preventive detention.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
