New Delhi:
The Union Home Ministry has circulated a fresh note to state governments on the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre or NCTC.
In the note, which has been accessed by NDTV, the Centre has restricted the NCTC's power to search, seize and arrest. The contentious clause was a major irritant for the states. The draft Standard Operation Procedure states that "in the normal course, arrest/search/seizure shall be carried out by the ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) or other police units of the state concerned. However, in situations "where immediate action is required" on intelligence inputs, officers of the Operations Division of the NCTC may arrest or the search or the seizure without informing the local police. The note goes on to clarify that the Director of the proposed anti-terror body will have to clear such action.
Moreover, it says that in all other cases "the Director, NCTC" shall try to keep the Director General of Police or state's Anti-Terror Squad informed of the operation in advance. Further, the note states that "after effecting the arrest or search or seizure, the NCTC team shall, at the earliest, hand over the arrested person(s)/seized material to the nearest police station together with a written statement giving the details of the case. As a means of oversight, the operations wing of the NCTC shall "submit a report" to the Director of the NCTC, the Director of Intelligence Bureau and the Union Home Secretary and the DG of the state police.
The move to restrict the powers of arrest, search and seizure only to cases where "immediate action" is required is being viewed as a move of the Union Home Ministry to convince the reluctant chief ministers who have made common cause on this issue. However, there is no clarity on what would qualify as cases which require immediate action and hence is unlikely to get the assent of chief ministers.
The move comes ahead of the crucial meeting of Chief Ministers with the Central government in New Delhi on May 5. The chief ministers of most non-Congress states like Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalitha, Gujarat's Narendra Modi, Bihar's Nitish Kumar and UPA ally and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others have been opposing the NCTC alleging that it would hurt the federal structure of the country and curb states' powers.
Each of these chief ministers have written to the Prime Minister, some repeatedly, against the proposed anti-terror body. Mamata Banerjee has spearheaded that protest, even arm-twisting the government she partners to promise in Parliament that no further steps will be taken on the NCTC without a thorough discussion with chief ministers.
At a meeting of chief ministers on internal security last month, several of them had strongly opposed the Centre's proposal to set up the NCTC. Home Minister P Chidambaram had lamented the "mistrust" harboured by some states.
The NCTC is a pet project of Mr Chidambaram, who has passionately advocated the need for the anti-terror organisation and has sought to allay the fears of 10 Chief Ministers who have been vocal in their opposition by assuring them that the government intends to work with states on battling terrorism.