The non-Congress ruled states, including the UPA ally and Trinamul-ruled West Bengal, on Monday vociferously opposed the “powers of arrest and search’’ given to the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC). A possible tweaking of the executive order on the NCTC issued by the home ministry may be on the cards with the ministry looking at a middle path to ensure there is “operational coordiantion’’ between state police and NCTC officials in terror related cases.
Senior government officials said the order may be reworked to include a clause spelling out “joint’’ operational powers of the state police and NCTC officials in terror cases. Most states have objected to the alleged “unbridled’’ powers given to NCTC officials under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act allowing them to make arrests and conduct searches. States like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka said the NCTC order in its present form is “unacceptable’’. A final call on re-working the NCTC order, however, will only be taken after a meeting with the state chief ministers’ on the issue to be held in April.
Political battle lines were clearly drawn on the NCTC issue during Monday’s meet, with state government officials of non-Congress ruled states toeing their chief minister’s line while the states ruled by the Congress backed the NCTC or sought little fine-tuning of the order.
The representatives from Uttar Pradesh said they will take a view on the NCTC after the formation of the new government is complete and will send in their comments to the MHA. Officials of the Akali Dal-BJP government said the NCTC will disturb the federal structure of the country.