Non-Congress states adamantly oppose counter-terrorism centre

A meeting of chief ministers chaired by the prime minister along with union home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram's key proposal for a national counter-terrorism centre (NCTC) is unlikely to go through anytime soon, as at least 12 states continue to insist that such an agency would infringe on their autonomy.

At a meeting of chief ministers convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today to discuss the issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, head of the AIADMK party, said the union home ministry was trying to "belittle" the state governments and treating them as "pawns on a chess board".

Jayalalithaa said the home ministry's move to accumulate counter-terrorism powers in a central agency "is preposterous and reveals total lack of understanding of ground realities".

She said the proposed NCTC needs a ''total overhaul'', and suggested setting up a smaller sub-committee of chief ministers to further discuss the issue.

''The NCTC, as has now been notified, should be kept in abeyance, as already advocated by me in my letter to the prime minister earlier,'' she said.

Jayalalithaa alleged that Tamil Nadu had been shown ''utter contempt'' by the centre, which did not even send a copy of the notification for setting up the NCTC.