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DR. THOKCHOM MEINYA (INNER MANIPUR): Thank you, Madam.

          I would like to raise a matter of urgent public importance. This is about the infamous, draconian, and colonial Act, that is, Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. This Act is national in character and regional in application. At present, this Act is under promulgation in the special category States of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern States. Under this Act, the Army is given such uncontrolled and unaccounted power to do whatever they want including search, arrest, rape the women, and even killing and what not. This is too much. I have been always pleading for the repeal of this Act. Now, I am supported by the fact that in 2004 there was a statement by the then Prime Minister that steps would be taken to replace this Act by a more humane law. Following this, the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee was formed in 2005, which recommended for the repeal of the Act. Again, the report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by the former Union Minister Shri Veerappa Moily also recommended for the repeal of the Act. In the report of the Working Group on Confidence Building Measures in Jammu & Kashmir, in 2007, headed by His Excellency the Vice-President, Shri Hamid Ansari also recommended for the repeal of the Act.