Centre not sharing vital information

BHUBANESWAR: The anti-Centre tirade of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) continued on Saturday. Naveen hit out at the Centre for keeping states out of the loop on the NCTC’s constitution, functioning and powers. Reacting to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement earlier in the day at Badu in West Bengal, the Chief Minister said, “If security is the shared responsibility of the Centre and the states, then I am surprised that they (Home Ministry) are not sharing vital information with state governments.” “Security of the country is shared by the Centre and state governments. The Constitution assigns law and order to the state governments, and vests powers in the Centre to protect the country against external aggression or internal disturbances,” Chidambaram said. Naveen charged the Centre with not sharing information on the NCTC. The anti-terror body will be operational on March 1.  Stating that the Union Home Ministry sent huge bills for deployment of CRPF and BSF in states, including Odisha, affected by Maoist activities, terrorism and extremism, Naveen said, “It is a matter of surprise that they can send fat bills, but not the important notification on NCTC issued on February 3. It seems very peculiar.” The chief ministers of Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh have opposed the Centre’s February 3 order which empowered the NCTC to arrest and search without informing the state authorities concerned. They have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voicing their concern over the Home Ministry’s notification.