Gandhinagar
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday announced that the ordinance of The Gujarat Gunda and Anti Social Activities Act will be passed on Wednesday. In a span of a week, the cabinet will be passing a second ordinance to control the rising crimes.
Last Wednesday, the state cabinet passed the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act and on last Saturday, the government had announced to increase the purview of the Prevention of Anti Social Activities Act (PASA).
CM Rupani stated that the Gunda Act will cover offences like drugs, kidnapping, transport and sale of illegal weapons, destruction of public properties, bullying people individually or in groups, illegal trade of alcohol and gambaling. An accused can be awarded a punishment of 7 to 10 years in jail and a fine of Rs50,000. Witnesses will be provided protection. Under the act, district magistrates will be empowered to attach the properties of accused.
For the trial under the Gunda and the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Acts, the state will set up special courts.
There are enough laws to control any offences, when criminals or offenders get protection from the ruling party, laws prove handicap and people start losing faith in judiciary and in governments, is the experience of and observation of Arjun Modhvadia, senior congress leader.
“To reestablish the faith in people, all governments think bringing in a law will help and so such laws are framed, even if there is a duplication,” opined Modhvadia.
“If only laws can make society and state safe and control crimes, then no crime would have taken place in the country since 1860, when the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was implemented, but that is not the case. Criminals will continue to commit crimes even if stringent laws are implemented, because they is no fear of the law,” viewed advocate and human rights activist Shamshad Pathan.
“New laws do not solve the issue, the government needs to get to the root of the crimes. For the purpose, the state needs to address issues like unemployment, poverty and justice. Our justice system is slow, that needs revamp,” believed Pathan.
“While talking about justice delivery, the state is not focusing on shortcoming of judicial systems, like for every new law, the government talks about setting up special courts, but even for old laws like Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Prevention of Children from Sexual offences, still we neither have dedicated special courts nor as promised special prosecutors, that need to be addressed first before promising new special courts,” said advocate Sanjay Zala.