Meet on NCTC now on March 12

The much talked about meeting of director general of police forces and state chief secretaries on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has been postponed for three more days. It would now be held on March 12 instead of March 9, as it was earlier scheduled.

The three day postponement of the crucial meeting was made after various director general of police forces and chief secretaries complained that they were busy with preparation of security during Holi on March 8 and they were not given time to prepare for the meeting.

The chief ministers of non-Congress Party states have conveyed their displeasures on the proposed meeting of DGPs and chief secretaries. They have described it as a futile exercise which will not end the political problem created by the Union government on the issue of implementation of NCTC.

 

The NCTC was earlier scheduled to be implemented on March 1 but was put on hold by the home ministry after chief ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states described the anti-terror organisation as unconstitutional and wrote letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Demanding for a meeting of all chief ministers to discuss the decision of implementation of NCTC.

“What will a senior bureaucrat do in the meeting? DGPs and chief secretaries would only discuss the law and order problems but this is a political problem and it could only be solved after meeting of chief ministers and not senior bureaucrats from the states,” said Prem Kumar Dhumal, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh.

The Home Minister P Chidambaram has already conveyed to chief ministers that future course of action on NCTC would be decided only after discussions with top officials of state governments.

The reaction from Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadanand Gowda was on similar lines. Gowda has already written another letter to Prime Minister, protesting against the decision to hold a meeting of DGPs and chief secretaries to solve the dispute on NCTC. The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had also asked the Prime Minister to immediately convene a meeting of all chief ministers, while protesting against the implementation of NCTC.

“The proposed meeting of DGPs and chief secretaries will not end the problem. Our demand is very clear, we want the meeting of chief ministers and not of senior bureaucrats. The decision of home ministry to organise for a meeting of DGPs and chief secretaries was not part of our demand,” said B C Khanduri, the chief minister of Uttarakhand whose fate at the top post is dependent on the assembly election results on March 6.