Centre bows to pressure, calls CMs’ meet on NCTC

As demanded by coalition partner and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and two other chief ministers, the Centre will hold a stand-alone chief ministers’ meet to discuss the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on May 5. 

“I have written to all chief ministers and I hope that they will all confirm their participation,” said Union home minister P Chidambaram.

The ministry of home affairs is expected to send NCTC’s standing operating procedures (SOPs) in advance to the states.

Chidambaram believes that SOPs could solve most of the misgivings about NCTC as they will bring state policies on board during operations and arrests.

Chidambaram said that he is hopeful of achieving a “very good outcome”, once deliberations are over, as everyone realises the fact that India is among the most vulnerable countries in the world. He denied having any differences between the central and state governments on NCTC.

Trying to gather support in advance, Chidambaram raised the spectre of terrorism, saying that over 100 terror incidents had taken place in 2011 worldwide and bulk of them took place in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan and Thailand.

“This is the area which is most vulnerable to terrorist attacks. So, I think it is important that we recognise that we must institutionalise the fight against terrorism.

“There must be an institutional mechanism, institutional personnel, that is the genesis of the NCTC. I think once we sit down, discuss these matters, I am confident that there will be a very good outcome,” he said.

Stressing the need of a Standing Council, Chidambaram said in the Council, the central government will have four members — the director and three joint directors, while the states will have 28 members - each state will have one member - and hence the states will have a say in what the NCTC decides.