Kolkata: A ban on the Maoists-backed
People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) required
an amendment to the criminal law, West Bengal Home Secretary
Ardhendu Sen said on Friday.
"The PCPA can be banned if the government wants it,
but this needs legislation and amendment to the criminal law.
There has been no such need as yet in the state," Sen told
reporters when asked whether the outfit would be proscribed
after the October 27 hijack drama of the Delhi-bound Rajdhani
Express in West Midnapore district.
"Such a decision is partly a political decision and
partly an administrative decision," Sen said, replying to a
question on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram saying it was
upto the state government to decide on a ban on the outfit.
Sen said that the state government was waiting for a
detailed report from the district police on activities of the
PCPA and its recently launched armed wing 'Sidhu Kanu Gana
Militia'.
To a question, if the ban by the Centre on the CPI
(Maoist) in June last year had been of any help to the state,
Sen said "We are yet to assess it. It might have helped to
some extent."
On a media report that the state secretariat was being
fortified, Sen dismissed it saying that there was only a
remote possibility of the Writers' Buildings being attacked.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, October 30, 2009, 22:19