New Delhi:
Sticking to her stand that the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) would upset the federal structure of the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the Centre's proposal is "unacceptable" to the states. She said setting up of institutions like NCTC with the proposed powers of arrest and seizure upsets the federal structure of the country and strongly urged the central government to withdraw order on its formation.
In her speech at the meeting of the chief ministers on the constitution of NCTC, Mamata Banerjee said, "it is unfortunate that in utter disregard to these federal principles, the NCTC was set up by an executive order dated February 3, 2012 of the Union Home Ministry without adequate consultations with the states."
"These kind of unilateral steps of the Union Government in matters which fall within the jurisdictions of the states only increases the trust-deficit between the Centre and states," Ms Banerjee said.
The Centre's decision of creating NCTC has caused clamour among many state governments including West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha among others strongly opposing the move taken without consulting them. The Trinamool Congress chief has always maintained that setting up of an institutions like the NCTC with the proposed powers of arrest, search and seizure "greatly upsets the constitutionally-mandated federal structure of the country by infringing on the power of the states".
She fears, ""The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is, for valid reasons, a secret intelligence organisation, without legislative accountability. There is, therefore, a danger of grave misuse of the powers of arrest, search and seizures given to the IB through the NCTC. A central intelligence agency with unbridled powers of search, seizure and arrest, without the consent or knowledge of the state governments is not acceptable to us."
Mamata Banerjee said that the exercise of police functions should remain the prerogative of the state as enshrined in the Constitution and the well-conceived equilibrium of powers and responsibilities between the Centre and the States should not be disturbed under any circumstances.
"I would, therefore, strongly urge the Union Government to withdraw the order dated February 3, 2012 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs for setting up of NCTC," she said.
Mamata Banerjee also demanded special dispensation of funds and other logistic support for the state to equip it with modernised police force and strong intelligence agencies. She also suggested a meeting of Chief Ministers periodically to review the internal security situation in the country so that "the Centre and the states can jointly work-out broad strategies to tackle terrorism".