NCTC: Needless Control towards Centre?
The Congress’ decision to introduce the National Council Terrorism Centre, effective from March 1, has met with severe protests from as many as 13 non-congress ministers and several other experts. ‘Framed’ on the lines of USA’s NCTC, India’s National Centre for Counter Terrorism will directly come under the control of the Information Bureau. Under the new setup, officers of the Operations Division of the NCTC shall have the power to arrest and search under Section 43A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, which clearly means more power to the Centre. It is feared that this will result in rendering State Anti-Terrorism Units completely defunct. In an already complicated Intelligence setup, the NCTC will be the fourth major anti-terrorism body after the NATGRID, NIA and NSG. Even as NATGRID and NIA will function independent of NCTC, one must not forget that every state has its own dedicated counter terrorism units which can become very useful considering terrorism an...