the goan I network
PANAJI
The administration in North Goa on Wednesday clamped section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which prohibits assembly of five or more persons in the entire district for sixty days.
North Goa District Magistrate R Menaka, IAS, issued the order which cited intelligence inputs that said “terror threats” possible along the Western coast of the country.
Menaka further said in the order that the prohibitory section was imposed to prevent anti-social elements from committing crimes. But leaders of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act agitation suspect the real reason for imposing the prohibitory orders by the government is to block their democratic right to demonstrate and protest against the recent Central legislation which has dominated the political discourse recently.
Ever since the powerful Catholic church took an active role in the anti-CAA protests and a public plea by its religious head Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao to revoke the “discriminatory legislation”, the State government has turned wary over the possible political ramifications of the issue.
Meanwhile, Victor Braganca, a Mapusa-based lawyer and part of the Goa Alliance Against CAA-NRC-NPR said in a tweet that they had been forced to postpone a ‘People’s March’ and public meeting they had planned to hold in Panaji on February 15 to February 21 by the administration but with Sec 144 of CrPC now imposed, they were “effectively” being restrained from protesting.
