A day after using the NDC meeting to vent her pent up ire against the central government , Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday cautioned the Prime Minister against setting up a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) under the Union home ministry.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Jayalalithaa reminded him of the stiff opposition to a proposed move at the previous chief minister's conference in May this year and said that the emergence of NCTC as a single point of control for counter terrorist measures was opposed by many states.
"I learn from reliable sources that there is a renewed move to set up the NCTC under the Home Ministry. I'm sure that you will recall the views expressed by several chief ministers, including myself, against the NCTC emerging as a single point of control for counter terrorist measures, at the special conference convened for this purpose, under your chairmanship in May 2012," the chief minister said in her latest missive.
It is yet another instance of Centre failing in its own commitment to consult all states before taking a decision on the NCTC. It is akin to the treatment meted out to me at the NDC on Thursday, Jayalalithaa said to reiterate her point that the central government was ill treating the duly elected state governments.
{{/usCountry}}It is yet another instance of Centre failing in its own commitment to consult all states before taking a decision on the NCTC. It is akin to the treatment meted out to me at the NDC on Thursday, Jayalalithaa said to reiterate her point that the central government was ill treating the duly elected state governments.
{{/usCountry}}"The proposal for the setting up of a single point of control under the home ministry for all anti- terrorist measures was objected to, by almost all the state chief ministers. Co-ordination and not control was considered to be the right way forward," she said.
Taking serious objection to the proposal, Jayalalithaa said that the establishment of an operations division under the NCTC with the powers of arrest and seizure and armed with the freedom to operate independent of the state police was a proposal completely unacceptable to even the chief ministers of Congress ruled states. The present move seems to be an extension of the ill advised steps taken by the Home Ministry earlier, she said.
"Any institution that is set up should only be a nodal central agency which will interact with a nodal agency at the state level for sharing of intelligence. Action in the form of counter terrorist operations is better left to the state police to perform. For this, a Rapid Action Counter Terrorist Force should be created in every state, to function under the nodal state agency. The flow of funds from the Centre for this effort should be liberal so as to enable state agencies to be equipped with modern means of communication and fire power," the TN chief minister said.