Centre calls state police chiefs for talks on NCTC

The union home ministry today wrote to the deputy-generals of police and chief secretaries of all states inviting them to a meeting on 9 March to resolve differences on the proposal for a central national counter-terrorism centre (NCTC).

The NCTC, a project mainly conceived by home minister P Chidambaram to take coordinated action against terror threats, was supposed to be operational from 1 March; but the proposal faced almost immediate opposition from at least seven state chief ministers, including West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is an ally of the Congress-led union government.

Others who reacted adversely to the proposal were Tamil Nadu's Jayalalithaa, Naveen Patnaik of Orissa, Narendra Modi of Gujarat, B C Khanduri of Uttarakhand, Bihar's Nitish Kumar, and Parkash Singh Badal of Punjab.

They feel the move to create the NCTC infringes on state rights; and is being sought to be rammed through by the centre without proper consultation with them.

In a letter to chief ministers soon after they made their opposition vocal, home minister P Chidambaram had promised that the "next steps" on the NCTC would be taken only after a meeting of police chiefs and heads of state anti-terror units.

The government has also put off the appointment of an NCTC director and three joint directors as the entire proposal is in abeyance.