Crucial NCTC meet begins in Delhi
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday will meet chief ministers on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) amid an unending deadlock over the anti-terror intelligence hub.
Manmohan Singh in the daylong meeting will try to bring all chief ministers on board and address their fears that the NCTC, which has been put on hold, will erode powers of states.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is among the front-runners to oppose the anti-terror agency despite being a ruling partner of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has stuck to her stand against NCTC's controversial powers of search, seizure and arrest.
"It (the meeting) will discuss issues related to strengthening of counter terrorism capabilities and the NCTC. Various concerns raised by the state governments on the NCTC will also be taken up and allayed at the day-long deliberations," a home ministry spokesperson said.
The chief ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-ruled states have also raised their voice to thwart the central government's move to create a one-stop anti-terror intelligence agency that has powers to conduct operations and make arrests anywhere in the country.
The Saturday meeting will have extensive discussions on the setting up of the NCTC during which the standard operating procedures (SOP) of the agency would also be revisited, according to home ministry sources.
Hoping for a degree of consensus, the central government has already agreed to dilute some of its discretionary powers.
The government had already circulated a note to chief ministers saying it had decided to have state police chiefs as ex-officio members of the standing council of the NCTC, laying down a six-point SOP agenda according to which the power to arrest, search and seize will be shared with heads of the anti-terrorism squads of states.
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