Opposition members of a Parliamentary Committee on Tuesday grilled the government on the setting up of the NCTC and urged the panel to recommend that the proposal should be put on hold.
Members of the Department-related Committee on Home put forth tough questions before Home Secretary R K Singh at a meeting in New Delhi, asking him how the Centre could decide unilaterally on setting up the counter-terrorism body without consulting states.
Sources said the Opposition members told Committee chairman and BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu that he should recommend to the Home Ministry that the proposal be put on hold.
Members of BJP, BJD and Left parties were of the opinion that the new centre "infringes" on the powers of states and would affect the federal structure.
Chief ministers of a dozen states have voiced their opposition to the creation of the NCTC arguing that the rights of the states would be compromised if it comes into force.
At Tuesday's meeting, the members told Singh that the chief ministers of states should have been consulted before the decision to set up the body was taken.
The sources said a few members said the setting up of the body would be an attack on principles of federalism and it would have an adverse impact on Centre-state relations.