Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the proposed move of giving sweeping powers to Border Security Force to arrest and search anyone anywhere in India, saying this is an attempt to "create a state within a state".
In a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister ahead of meeting of chief minister to be held in Delhi on Monday, Modi warned against amending the Border Security Force Act, 1968, to give such powers to BSF.
Modi dubbed it as yet another systematic move to "create a State within State' or a "Second State". "This is another attempt by the Centre to weaken the federal structure of the country. The present central government is hell bent to snatch powers of the state and is conspiring to weaken the federal structure," he said.
The bill to give power of arrests, searches and seizures to the BSF anywhere in the country is in the agenda of discussion in the meeting of chief minister of the country to be held in New Delhi on Monday, Modi said in the letter.
As mentioned in the agenda of the NCTC, Modi noted that similar provisions are already available to Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) like Sashastra Seema Bal, ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police) and CRPF (Central Reserve Police
Force).
Some state governments have expressed their views and favoured the move to give such powers to BSF, the agenda further said as per Modi's letter.
He recalled that he had sent letters to the Prime Minister earlier too, opposing the Centre s unilateral and arbitrary move to create National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and give wider powers to Railway Protection Force (RPF) to interfere into states affairs and jurisdiction and curtail their powers.
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