Bihar police bill-2007 passed

Patna, Mar 28: Amid noisy walkout and tearing of the copies of the bill by the Opposition, Bihar assembly today passed Police Bill- 2007 by a voice vote.

Replying to the special debate over Bihar police-2007, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said civil control over the police had been maintained in the bill. He said that the bill was primarily based on model police act circulated by the central government but a few clauses had been added by the state government to check police atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes besides protecting the human rights.

He said that for the first time district police superintendents had been given financial power and Rs one crore would be provided to each police superintedent to build a model police station in the districts.He said that bill was necessitated following the directive of the apex court and Bihar had taken lead in formulating the bill while other states were yet to pursue in this direction.

Mr Kumar brushed aside the allegations that power of the police had been reduced in the bill saying it was drafted by a committee of two IAS officers, two IPS officers and a law officer.

Dissatified with the reply of the Chief Minister, entire Opposition staged a walkout from the house after tearing copies of the bill.Later they also burnt copies of the bill outside the house.

Earlier energy minister Bijendra Yadav tabled the Bihar police bill 2007 in the house.

UNI