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Akash Sama­roo

The law to give sweep­ing au­thor­i­ty to the Prime Min­is­ter and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (NSC) to des­ig­nate com­mu­ni­ties as se­cu­ri­ty zones and de­ploy ex­pand­ed po­lice and mil­i­tary pow­ers has been de­feat­ed in the Sen­ate.

The Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment 2026 Bill, which re­quired a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage, did not re­ceive sup­port from a sin­gle In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor last night. The Gov­ern­ment need­ed at least four In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors to sup­port the leg­is­la­tion for its pas­sage.