CM's to meet on NCTC proposal, politics stand in way

New Delhi: Politics is likely to come in the way of setting up of the much-touted NCTC as the states ruled by opposition parties may red flag the anti-terror hub proposal despite government diluting most of its controversial provisions. The home ministry does not have high hopes of getting support of all states to the modified version of the National Counter Terrorism Centre to be discussed at Wednesday’s conference of chief ministers on internal security in New Delhi.[caption id=“attachment_841737” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] “The opposition to NCTC is completely political. Following objections, we have proposed to completely detach the NCTC from the ambit of Intelligence Bureau and no operation will be carried out without taking state into confidence. But still, we are not having high hopes,” a senior official said. According to the draft executive order—the National Counter Terrorism Centre (Organisations, Functions, powers and Duties) Order, 2013—the NCTC will work directly under the home ministry and not the IB as proposed earlier. The head of the NCTC will be called Director NCTC and will be an officer in the rank of Director General of Police who is report to the Home Secretary. “Where a terrorist or a terror group is identified or located, operations against them would be carried out through or in conjunction with state police. “Where services of special forces are required to assist the state police for any operation, the NCTC shall have the authority to requisition the special forces,” the draft executive order said. According to the 3 February 2012 executive order, the NCTC will work as an “integral” part of Intelligence Bureau and its director will report to the IB chief. Besides, the anti-terror body was given ‘power’ through the executive order to carry out operations, including arrest, search and seizure, while keeping the concerned state police into the loop. Those who opposed the Centre’s move last year include Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), J Jayalalitha, Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and Nitish Kumar (Bihar). Banerjee and Jayalalitha are skipping the Chief Ministers’ meeting this time. The latest draft says the NCTC will prepare daily threat assessment, review and disseminate them to all agencies, to ensure that all agencies have access to and receive source intelligence support that is necessary to execute counter terrorism plans and accomplish their assigned task. It also says the anti-terror body will coordinate existing investigation and intelligence agencies to ensure that all terrorist cases are solved, provide counter terrorism priorities for each stake holders and draw up plans and coordinate actions for counter terrorism. The NCTC will have a core staff directly recruited and posted in the NCTC. The NCTC will have officers on deputation/secondment from other agencies such as R&AW, IB, NTRO etc. It will have three divisions each headed by an officer in the rank of Joint Secretary and the three divisions will be responsible for (i) collection and dissemination of intelligence, (ii) analysis and (iii) operations. PTI