Succumbing to pressure from several chief ministers, including key ally Mamata Banerjee, on the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre, the Centre on Tuesday decided to convene a special meeting on it on May 5. The April 16 meeting of chief ministers, with a large number of items on the agenda, will also be held.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram told reporters on Tuesday: “Following the requests of three chief ministers, the Prime Minister asked me to convey to the CMs that a separate meeting on NCTC can be held on May 5. I have written to all chief ministers, and I hope they will confirm their participation.”
Mr Chidambaram said he hoped his ministry would have the NCTC’s standard operating procedures draft ready before the meeting, which he hoped would have a “very good outcome”.
Besides Ms Banerjee from West Bengal, chief ministers J. Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu and Naveen Patnaik of Orissa had sought such a separate meeting, while several other Opposition CMs had strongly opposed the NCTC.
The April 16 meeting will cover a wide range of internal security issues. The chief ministers sought a separate meeting as there would not be enough time that day to discuss NCTC issues.