Ahead of the PM’s visit to Manipur on Saturday, the Centre has decided to set-up a five-member committee to review the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). An announcement will be made tomorrow.Highly placed sources said the committee— to be headed by a Supreme Court judge, will consist of an administrator, a jurist and two others with ample knowledge of law — would be given six months to review the AFSPA and submit its report.The committee will talk to a cross-section of the people and hear their views on the now controversial law. It will then suggest to the Government what it should do with the Act. The announcement of the panel is intended to pacify the Apunba Lup, the umbrella organisation spearheading the Manipur agitation against continuance of the AFSPA. A review panel will give the Centre enough time to plan its strategy and decide whether it should continue with the Act or scrap it.At his November 1 meeting with Apunba the Lup in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured them that he would consider a possible review of the Act and replace it instead with a more ‘‘humane law’’ keeping in mind national security and human rights.When he visits Manipur on Saturday, the Prime Minister will hand over the historic Kangla Fort to the state government and lay the foundation stone for the construction of a railway line from Jiribam to Toupul. He will then fly to Assam where some major announcements are likely to be made, including the opening of an university and new railway projects.
