Maharashtra to table terror probe panel report

The Maharashtra government will finally table the Ram Pradhan-V.Balachandran Committee Report, which probed the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in both houses of the state legislature next Monday.

The announcement was made Monday afternoon by Home Minister R.R. Patil following an uproar over the issue in the legislature which is meeting in its winter session.

However, in view of the sensitive nature of the report, there would be no discussion on it in the legislature.

Patil said if the report's contents and recommendations became public, it would only benefit the terror organisations.

An all-party committee to be set up would examine the issue of whether discussion can be held on the contents of the report, Patil added.

The two-member commission - comprising two top bureaucrats - was set up Dec 30 last year to probe various aspects of the Nov 26-29 terror attacks in Mumbai which left 166 people killed.

Its report was submitted to the government May 27. In the brief monsoon session in July, the state government tabled only a part of the report and the Action To Be Taken (ATTR).

However, a belligerent opposition has been demanding - inside the house and outside - that the full report must be tabled.

On Monday, following loud scenes, Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil had to adjourn the house on three occasions as opposition leader Eknath Khadse of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena's group leader Subhash Desai and other leaders demanded tabling of the report and a statement from the home minister.

The speaker adjourned the house once for 15 minutes and twice for 10 minutes even as Valse-Patil observed that the opposition had been disrupting the proceedings from the day the session started last week.

The opposition also wanted the government to admit that the report had "leaked" and that the reported contents carried in a section of the media were the same as the original report.

Last updated on Dec 14^th, 2009 at 21:34 pm IST--IANS