AGARTALA, Feb 18 (IANS): Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Saturday joined his counterparts from other states including West Bengal in opposing the proposed counter-terror intelligence centre under the National Security Guard (NSG).
"Without discussing and taking opinion of the state governments, setting up of such anti-insurgency hub is against the federal structure of the Indian constitution," Sarkar told reporters here.
Demanding withdrawal of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) order, 2012, Sarkar said the central government had decided to set it up without taking the states into confidence.
"This is infringement on the rights of the states as law and order is a state subject," he said.
Sarkar, also a member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo, Saturday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding withdrawal of the NCTC scheme.
"We are all against terrorism and we want to jointly fight against the threat. But in all cases we should share each other's decision and opinion," said Sarkar, who also met union Home Minister P. Chidambaram Saturday, in his letter.
"The need of the hour is that the centre and the states should work together to effectively counter the terrorism and other divisive forces. The unilateral order issued by the union home ministry would only create misunderstanding between the centre and states and would defeat the very purpose for which it (NCTC) has been planned," he wrote in his letter.
