Patnaik has reservations on NCTC in its present form, as it disregards state's interests

Chennai, May 11 (ANI): Expressing his reservations over the setting up of the National Counter Terrorist Centre (NCTC), Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has said the anti-militancy unit in its present form is an attempt to disregard the state's interests and would be detrimental to the federal structure of the country.

"I think that the NCTC rule in the present form are simply unacceptable. Also the Home Ministry should have had the grace to at least inform the states about this decision before passing it as a fiat," Patnaik told media in Chennai where he was invited by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for a function.

"You know that we are a federal structure in our constitution and this kind of thing or dictate ought not really to be practiced in India," he added.

Earlier on May 5, chief ministers of several states voiced their opposition to the proposed NCTC on the contention it would act against the federal structure of the country.

The prolonged public criticism of proposed NCTC by Chief Ministers such as Narendra Modi of Gujarat, Nitish Kumar of Bihar, J Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu and even Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal - incidentally, a close partner of ruling United Progressive Alliance - had prompted the Prime Minister and Home Ministry to convene the meeting of all the state Chief Ministers.

The main task of the NCTC would be to ensure that a wide variety of security organizations in the country work in tandem, at least on issues related to terrorism.

As conceived, it will also have the power to seek information, including documents, reports, transcripts, and cyber information from any agency, including from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency, National Technical Research Organization, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and all seven central armed police forces including the National Security Guard (NSG).

The body, which will function was expected to function under the Intelligence Bureau, was to be given its own operational wing with powers to arrest and conduct searches under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Further, talking about the upcoming presidential elections, Patnaik said that his party was yet to take a final decision on a candidate's name.

"We in the Biju Janata Dal, we have to have discussions amongst our MPs, MLAs, other distinguished and important persons in the party even with some of our workers to come to that very-very important national decision of the person who will occupy the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President of India's chair and at the moment we are still in discussion..... there is still some time for those decisions," said Patnaik.

The dilemma over the nomination of next President continued with the political parties remaining divided.

There have been certain rumors that the Congress party has been trying to reach out to ally partners to have a consensus on Vice President Hamid Ansari or Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the prestigious post. (ANI)