Opposing the setting up of the anti-terror body NCTC in its present form, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Wednesday said it violates the federal structure of the Constitution.
The Chief Minister of the BJP-ruled state said that the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) should be ratified by Parliament to make it responsible and answerable to people. Addressing a day-long conference of Chief Ministers on internal security, Raman Singh said NCTC should not be given powers similar to that envisaged in the NIA Act among others by allowing it to probe terror related cases without state's consent.
"We are opposed to the NCTC in its present state. We want that if NCTC comes into existence, it should respect the federal structure of our Constitution. The participation of states in the NCTC should not get reflected only on paper. To make it effective and useful the state's role should be ratified by Parliament. In the present proposed NCTC an executive order may lead to duplication at the state level," he said.
Singh stressed that his government is not thinking contrary to national consensus on the subject that there should be coordination in gathering intelligence so that the benefit of the state's experience and centre's expertise is merged. "We hope that NCTC will not be entrusted with powers that have not been given under the NIA Act 2008 and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967. "We had also opposed the NCTC because it was proposed to be a body under the Intelligence Bureau. This would have affected the working of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and led to public scrutiny of several intelligence matters," the Chief Minister said.
Singh said he was happy to note that new NCTC proposes to bring it directly under Home Ministry. "But there are still some issues with the proposed structure and the most important is that it should be ratified by Parliament so that NCTC becomes responsible and answerable to people," he said.
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