NEW DELHI: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has sent a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, opposing the proposal of the Railway Ministry to amend the Railway Protection Act, wherein there is a proposal to entrust the RPF with police powers.
“The proposed Amendment Bill, which is intended to confer the powers of the state police officers to the RPF, is an unwarranted violation of the Constitutional spirit and blow to the Federal structure of India. It also usurps power of the state legislature,” Modi said.
“The provisions being inserted by the proposed amendment is not in consonance with the schemes provided under Article 246 of the Constitution,” he said.
Modi said the Railway Ministry is attempting to advocate a theory that railway property is an independent entity and thus giving an impression that “it is a state within a state thus justifying conferring of police powers to arrest to the RPF”.