NCTC: 7 CMs oppose anti-terror agency

NEW DELHI: The newly constituted National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has run into strong political resistance with a group of chief ministers coming out in the open to oppose its powers. The face-off could trigger serious doubts about the effectiveness of the agency, billed to be the country's principal counter-terror body after its launch on March 1.

A diverse group of chief ministers, including personalities as politically disparate as Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, said NCTC's charter was violative of the federal structure. They questioned the manner in which the agency was set up, without taking states on board, and demanded that the decision be reversed.

The opponents include other chief ministers too - Bihar's Nitish Kumar, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalithaa, Prem Kumar Dhumal of Himachal Pradesh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh. Their number is likely to increase.

Telugu Desam Party leader N Chandrababu Naidu also joined the protest, calling for revocation of the notification setting up the NCTC with the objective of improving the country's response to the threat of terrorism. This, when the Centre has set itself a deadline of 90 days to complete the recruitment process and make the agency fully operational.

Patnaik was the first to raise the red flag and was instrumental in rallying his peers around. "My concern is the authoritarian notification with draconian overtones about law and order among others in which the state governments have not been consulted," he said. Along with Banerjee, Patnaik has already lodged a strong protest with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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