Mamata leads CMs charge against NCTC

The NCTC is contrary to the federal structure of governance. It must be withdrawn immediately, she said.

The founding fathers of the Constitution assigned a clear role to the states in the matter of public order and police. The setting up of an institution like the NCTC with the proposed powers of arrest,search and seizure greatly upsets the Constitutionally-mandated federal structure of the country by infringing on the powers of the states, she said.

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Bihars Nitish Kumar,who too had been at the forefront of the opposition to NCTC,also wanted the order withdrawn.

The structure adopted for the creation of NCTC suffers from a serious and basic flaw as it has been created within the Intelligence Bureau which is a secret intelligence organisation without any accountability to Parliament or courts regarding its work. It has been established practice as well as sacrosanct principle all over the world that secret intelligence agencies are not given powers to arrest. Such powers,if given to a secret intelligence agency of the central government,will remain prone to misuse against political rivals, Patnaik said.

Nitish said there was no instance of any state government not extending support to the central agencies in case of any anti-terror operations. He strongly objected to the use of phrases like Darbhanga module or Madhubani module to describe a group of terror suspects. He said such descriptions lead to unnecessary and avoidable administrative complications at the local level causing unrest and alienation.

Jamp;K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah likened provisions of NCTC to those in the Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA which the state wants repealed. This is likely to have far reaching consequences in our state which is politically sensitive. We have been advocating for revocation of AFSPA and giving NCTC such powers may run counter to our efforts towards removal of AFSPA, he said.

Even a Congress Chief Minister,Assams Tarun Gogoi,expressed concern over the functioning of NCTC. He said the NCTC must only be allowed to conduct joint operations with the state police agencies and must not be given the powers to carry out independent operations.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh,whose government is fighting a bloody battle with Naxalites,said there was a need for a separate agency at the national level for gathering information,maintaining and analysing data and exchanging and reviewing this data with the states.

However,its work should be limited to ensure coordination,cooperation and synergy,instead of diluting powers of state governments agencies,he said. The formation of such an important body will be effective and sustainable if it is formed through an Act of Parliament instead of a notification, he said.