With various political parties attacking the Congress-led UPA Government for pushing the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and terming the move as one violating the federal structure, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said the move was in the right direction and was being unnecessarily politicised.
“Just because the Congress has put forth the idea, the Opposition parties are opposing it. We are agreeable to the move as it does not intend to snatch anyone's powers but only seeks to strengthen the internal security mechanism,'' she said on the sidelines of a conference where the Annual Working Report 2011 on her government's performance was released.
The Chief Minister, however, hastened to add that she was also of the view that all the States should be properly consulted to meet the objectives of the move.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had earlier stated that fighting terrorism was a shared responsibility and he had to regularly work with the States “to quell terror, militancy or rebellion.”
In view of the criticism from the Opposition parties, he had gone ahead to say that “internal security is a complex issue and responsibility has to be shared.”
On the issue of federal structure, Mr. Chidambaram had stated that “the Constitution does say that law and order and the police are State subjects. At the same time, the Constitution holds that Centre must provide necessary protection to everybody.”
