Home Ministry turns down Nitish Kumar's demand for law on NCTC

NEW DELHI: The home ministry seems to be in no mood to accept the suggestion from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to bring a legislation in Parliament on the National Counter Terrorism Centre ( NCTC) and ensure a wider debate rather than pushing the controversial body through an executive order.

A day after the NCTC proposal was strongly objected to by the non-Congress states, a senior home ministry official said the objections were not valid and just and were driven 'more by political considerations'. "We do not think a legislation on NCTC is required," a home ministry official told ET on Thursday.

Kumar had contended that any institution created to further the objectives of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act should be made through a motion of law.

"Instrumentality of executive order cannot be over stretched. If the Centre considers it expedient to form NCTC, then it should be done through legislation in Parliament to ensure wider debate," Kumar said.

The home ministry had brought a legislation for the National Investigation Agency post the 26/11 attacks but has chosen the executive order route for NCTC.

Home ministry officials stress the need for NCTC, saying intelligence mechanism in the states is far from satisfactory to tackle terror.

"The states are reluctant to contribute intelligence to the Centre's Multi Agency Centre and counter-terror intelligence remains largely a flow from Central to state agencies. 97% inputs at MAC come from central agencies and only 3% from the states. This implies that even though states are gathering intelligence and sharing it with their own agencies, they do not bring to to MAC forum. NCTC will reform this system and provide for much better intelligence-sharing," a home ministry official explained.

The MAC system has expanded to 370 nodes across the country, adding more than 100 locations since January 2012. The expansion is expected to add teeth to the proposed NCTC.