Centre to push for NCTC at CM's meet on April 15

New Delhi, Mar 24: The Centre will strongly push for setting up the proposed anti-terror body NCTC at the Chief Ministers' conference to be held on April 15.

The issue of setting up the National Counter Terrorism Centre, which is being opposed by chief ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Narendra Modi (Gujarat), J Jayalalitha (Tamil Nadu) and Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), will be specifically discussed at the day-long conference to be addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here.

"We will try to allay all apprehensions of the Chief Ministers and get their nod for setting up the NCTC, which has become an urgent need for the country's internal security," a senior Home Ministry official said.

The Centre has already suggested that the NCTC would be out of the ambit of Intelligence Bureau and it would conduct any search operation or arrest anyone in any state only after informing the state police chief.

Those opposed to NCTC have been maintaining that allowing NCTC to conduct operations unilaterally would infringe on the states' powers and would hurt the federal structure of the country.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said he would discuss the issue of NCTC with the Chief Ministers and try to break the logjam. He said the NCTC would come for sure, but only after every Chief Minister in the country gives approval.

In the next few days, the Home Ministry will circulate a note on the diluted version of the NCTC to all Chief Ministers so that they can study it and express their views at the meeting.

The last meeting of the Chief Ministers, held on March 5 last year had failed to evolve a consensus on NCTC, a pet project of former Home Minister P Chidambaram.

The conference, convened by the Home Ministry, will also discuss issues concerning the country's internal security, activities of various terrorist organisations, militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir and insurgency problems in northeastern states.

The meeting will also discuss the menace of Left Wing Extremism and how to tackle it in close coordination between the state governments and the Centre.

Recent incidents of communal violence, which took place in many parts of the country, including Uttar Pradesh, are likely to be flagged by the Centre in the conference and Chief Ministers will be asked to tackle such incidents firmly and without delay.

PTI