Call a meeting of CMs over NCTC, demands BJP

Asking the government to keep the implementation of National Counter-Terrorism Centre in abeyance, the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately convene a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the contentious issue threadbare.

"The proposed NCTC must be put on hold for wider consultation notwithstanding the March 1 deadline for the launch of the anti-terror intelligence hub. The prime minister should call a meeting of chief ministers to discuss and allay their fears about it," BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said.

"It was an unilateral decision of the central government (to set up the NCTC)," he told reporters.

Terrorism poses a threat to the entire country and both the Centre and the states should jointly fight the menace, the former BJP president maintained.

Naidu, who is also chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, said 11 chief ministers have demanded the repeal of NCTC, which he said, was notified without taking the state governments into confidence.

The home minister writing a letter to CMs and calling a DGPs' meeting for consultation on the subject was not a solution, Naidu said, adding there was a need for an unanimous decision on such a serious and sensitive matter.

"Hasty action" over the anti-terror body by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government would only weaken the unity of the country and set the states and the Centre on a collision course, the former Union minister warned.

Non-Congress chief ministers have opposed the NCTC, saying it impinges on the powers of the states.