Shillong, July 01: Meghalaya assembly today passed an amendment bill of Meghalaya Preventive Detention Act extending the period of detention from one year to three years. The Meghalaya Preventive Detention (amendment) Bill 2003, which was introduced by Chief Minister D D Lapang on June 20, the first day of the re-assembled budget session, was passed without any amendment to it brought by the opposition. Although opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) yesterday announced that they would abstain from passing the bill, they did not do so during the day. Introducing the bill earlier, Lapang had said the government had examined the period of detention and found it necessary and decided to increase the period of detention under the act from one to three years.

He said a large number of militants booked under the MPDA Act were released after a period of one year. The state government enacted the MPDA in 1995 with a view to providing for preventive detention of any person in order to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state and to the maintenance of law and order.


Bureau Report