Federal structure of country being weakened in garb of NCTC: Dhumal

New Delhi, May 5 (ANI): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today strongly opposed the setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) in the country.

Speaking at the chief ministers conference on NCTC in Vigyan Bhawan, Dhumal said that federal structure of the country is being weakened in the garb of setting up the NCTC, and added that the Centre did not consult the state governments in this regard.

Questioning the concept of the NCTC being put under the Intelligence Bureau, he said that basiccharacter of the IB will be compromised if the NCTC is manned and headed by Intelligence Bureau officers.

Dhumal said that the Central government's approach to entire issue has been very ad hoc and added that the Centre should devise a long-term well thought out strategy through due consultations and wide spread discussions with the state governments.

The Himachal Chief Minister asked the Union Government to amend section 45 of the unlawful activities (prevention) act by making it mandatory to seek prior concurrence of the state government if a person to be arrested happens to be situated within a state other than a Union Territory.

Dhumal said that setting up N C T C by encroaching on the powers and jurisdiction of the state governments will only strain the relations between the centre and the states.

He urged the Centre to play a proactive role in augmenting the capabilities of the state forces with special emphasis on counter terrorism to avoid the repeat of incident like the 26/11 attack in the country. (ANI)