Dubbing the National Counter Terrorism Centre as a "poorly conceived" idea, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today warned that it could result in irreparable loss to the internal security apparatus and urged the Prime Minister to junk the proposal.
"It is not clear how big it is going to be, what forces are going to comprise it, how exactly it is going to function and which statute will it derive its powers from. I think such poorly conceived ideas which tinker with age old existing systems rather than strengthening them are going to do irreparable loss to our internal security apparatus," he said.
Speaking at the conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security, he said the fact that it is on the agenda and gets a passing mention should not be construed as a consultation with the states much less an arriving of consensus on this issue.
An official statement from the Gujarat government said Modi urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to disband the NCTC proposal once and for all.
Raising the issue of purported plans of the naxals to target 'Golden Corridor' of Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Modi said "while the LWE (Left wing extremism) affected states fully deserve all priority in the security response of the country, it will be an extremely myopic approach to ignore the security concerns of the LWE targeted regions."
He demanded that the Central Government must convene a separate meeting of Maoist-targeted States on the lines of the meeting here of Naxal-affected States slated.
Modi said the new NCTC draft circulated has taken into consideration some of the concerns raised by the states but even then serious concerns remain.
"Moving the multi-agency centre (MAC) from within IB to the proposed NCTC will end up weakening it even as it appeared that it was taking some concrete shape. The proposed NCTC will be just another superstructure in the maze of institutions already existing," he said.
