After the NCTC, it was the turn of a proposal to empower Railway Protection Force (RPF) with police powers that has come under attack from Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. Opposing the proposal of the Railway ministry to amend the RPF Act, he said the move is “infringement of rights of states”.
“The union government is trying to impose its decisions on states in clandestine and systematic manner to curb their rights,” Dhumal said yesterday. After NCTC, RPF (Amendment) Bill is another move to weaken the federal structure of the Constitution, he said.
Dhumal said he has received a letter from home minister P Chidambaram regarding setting up of the NCTC. He said the home minister has clearly stated that the Centre will discuss scope and functions of the NCTC with the states and UTs before taking further steps on issue. Dhumal said Chidambaram has stated that the NCTC has been conferred with minimum powers that are required for any counter-terrorism body and IB shall be the nodal agency for the counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism agency.
According to Chidambaram, any person arrested by the NCTC will be produced before nearest police station and the SHO of the police station will take further action in accordance with the provisions of the CrPC, he said.
Dhumal said the home minister has stated that powers to arrest and search are bare minimum that would be necessary for officers engaged in counter-terrorism operation. He said the Home Minister has stated that NCTC was set up on the recommendations of second administrative reform commission which had recommended that multi-agency centres should be converted in National Centre for Counter Terrorism with personal drawn from different intelligence and security agencies.
