Move to regulate hartal an infringement of rights

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM State Secretariat in a statement has said that the government’s move to bring law to regulate hartal will be an encroachment on the democratic rights of citizens.

“Usually when such laws are brought, it will be discussed in the Assembly, then it is left to the subject/select committees and public opinion will be gathered after that. But now, against the normal practice, the government called a district-level meeting of SPs and collected opinions from them,” it said.

The CPM also criticised the new system of collecting the opinions of the public through complaint box installed at police stations.
“It is natural that the people will rise against government policies that shower hardships on people. But the government wants to thwart this using law. It also eyes the votes of those who hate hartals. The law will lead to a situation when one will have to seek the permission of the very government against which the protest is to be held. Thus, the government’s initiative to do away with the democratic rights of citizens to protest can’t be tolerated,” it said.

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