Centre treating states as adversaries on NCTC: Jaya

Tamil Nadu CM says UPA is taking unilateral steps and creating parallel authorities that encroach upon the constitutional domain of state govts

Slamming the Centre for the 'ham-handed manner' in which it sought to set up the NCTC, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today said it should seek the active cooperation of all state governments as its equal partners in the fight against terrorism.

The UPA Government was increasingly taking unilateral steps and creating top down structures and parallel authorities that encroach upon the constitutional domain of state governments, she said in her speech read out in her absence at the conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security in New Delhi.

"This is an ill-informed and counter-productive approach best illustrated by the ham-handed manner in which the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has been sought to be established," she added.

Jayalalithaa recalled that at a conference held by the Centre on the issue in May last year she had exhaustively conveyed her government's Opposition to NCTC on various grounds including doubts about its operative effectiveness and had written to the Prime Minister in December 2012 that no proactive step should be taken to set it up without consultation with the state.

In her speech read out by state Municipal Administration Minister K P Munuwamy, Jayalalithaa said the Centre should communicate to the states the draft of any proposal that may be prepared for setting up such a body.

However, the full contours of such a national institution to counter terrorism had still not been shared with the state governments, she said, adding "There are unconfirmed reports that the NCTC will now be constituted outside the Intelligence Bureau."

"I fail to understand why the Centre persists in dealing with such a sensitive matter in such an insidious fashion, treating the state governments as though they are adversaries to be suspected rather than partners, and continues trying to establish the Counter Terrorism Centre by stealth, rather than in a spirit of co-operation and transparency and in partnership with the state governments," she said.

"The government should shed the mantle of suspicion and distrust and seek the active co-operation of all the state governments as its equal partners in our fight against the common enemy --- terrorism," she added.