Nitish Kumar again opposes NCTC

Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Monday again came out against the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) which he said had been proposed without consulting the states.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said: “Where is the need to create new centres like NCTC with provisions which arbitrarily trample upon existing constitutional safeguards to protect the highly delicate balance of power between the centre and states?”

Nitish Kumar said the creation of NCTC was highly flawed as it had been created within the Intelligence Bureau, which has no accountability to parliament.

“We are aware that chief ministers of several states have also written to you against the unilateral and hasty decision of (the home ministry) to create NCTC without consulting the state governments

“Won’t you agree with the suggestion that the Indian government must re-examine the whole issue and ensure that the order (is) suitably modified to take care of states’ genuine concerns?”

He said it was an established principle that intelligence agencies were never given the powers of arrest.

“Why then such powers are sought to be given to intelliegence agencies which will remain prone to misuse?

“You are aware that eminent political leaders were branded as threats to national security and put behind bars during the Emergency of 1975-77.”

The NCTC has also been flayed by chief ministers of Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.