New Delhi A Parliamentary committee has strongly criticised the Home Ministry for hurriedly implementing many new features of the existing arms policy without seeking its formal approval and violating a decades old practice.
” The committe
e fails to understand as to why the Government had not felt it necessary to seek formal Parliamentary approval before enforcing various new features of the Policy, which included inter- alia amendments to the Arms Acts and the Arms Rules even before introducing the amendment Bill and amendments to the Rules.
“… This is against the basic democratic principle of executivealt39s accountability to the legislature as per the scheme of the Constitution,” the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has said in its report.
The panelalt39s observation came in the backof governmentalt39s proposal for incorporating new features in the alt39 Arms and Ammunition Policy for Individualsalt39 and the alt39 Arms and Ammunition Manufacturing Policyalt39, brushing aside its views on the matter.
” The committee decided to examine the subject alt39 Arms, Fire Arms and Ammunitionalt39 and felt that till such time the committee had formulated its recommendations and observations on the subject, the Ministry should not finalise the new policy,” the panel said.
According to the report, the Home Ministry had, on December 21, 2009, put the drafts of new policies on its website and invited comments from the general public by January 6, 2010, apparently ignoring the committeealt39s view for putting it on hold.
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