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Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that the Centre would not mount pressure on the states to enforce the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
"To use it or not is the discretion of the state governments. The Centre would not pressurise them to enforce. But the Centre feels that it has handed the states with a potent weapon in the form of POTA to fight terrorism," Swaraj said.
Criticising states that are opposing POTA, Swaraj said that instead of vowing not to bring it into force they should show willingness to use it effectively to combat terrorism.
She said that calling a joint sitting of Parliament to pass the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance was a compulsion of the Centre.
The Centre, she said, was in favour of following the normal procedure in the passage of the ordinance, but it was left with no choice when POTO was defeated in the Upper House.
"We tried our best to build consensus over POTO, but when that did not materialise and the ordinance was defeated in the Rajya Sabha we went for a joint sitting of both houses to ensure its passage," she added.
Complete Coverage: Anti-terrorism Act
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