The government has said it would set up on March 1, 2012 a powerful anti-terror agency that will integrate and

analyse inputs on terror threats in India and will have legal authority to make arrests and conduct search operations. The order comes after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on January 11, 2012 approved the creation of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), an agency to maintain data of terror modules, terrorists, their associates, friends, families and supporters. It said the NCTC will derive powers from the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which allows central government agencies to make arrests or searches in terror-related cases while keeping state police concerned into the loop. The officers of the NCTC shall have the power to arrest and the power to search under the UAPA, said the order. The NCTC will also have the power to seek information, including documents, reports, transcripts, and cyber information from any agency, including from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Investigation Agency, NATGRID, National Technical Research Organization, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and all seven central armed police forces including the National Security Guard (NSG). The agency has worked out on the model of the US similar body aimed at combating terrorism by collecting and analysing threats, sharing the inputs and information with other agencies and converting these into actionable data. The counter-terrorism agency will be a separate body located in the Intelligence Bureau under the control of the home ministry. It will draw up plans and coordinate actions for counter terrorism and will integrate intelligence pertaining to terrorism, analyse the same, according to the government order to come into effect from March 1, 2012. The head of the NCTC will be called director and will be an officer in the rank of additional director IB. Other officials of the agency will be deputed from other organisations like the Research and Analysis Wing, IB and other intelligence and investigation agencies. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on 06.02.2012 approved the Home Ministrys ambitious plan to set up the National Counter-Terrorism Centre. After the CCS nod, the NCTC will be the nodal agency for all counter-terrorism activities and intelligence agencies such as Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and state intelligence agencies.

These agencies will report to it on matters related to terrorism. The NCTC will then streamline terror-related intelligence, analyse and provide them for action to concerned agencies, official sources said. It will coordinate with all intelligence agencies and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will act as the investigation wing. The NCTC will connect Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which would be subsumed into NCTC, and all agencies reporting to it, in Delhi and state capitals. Between the Centre, where almost two dozen agencies coordinate with MAC, and states almost 500 stakeholders are involved in counter-terror activities. The NCTC will not have any foot-soldier to collect information, but will depend on other agencies. The head of the body, an additional Director General level police officer, will report to the Union Home Secretary. 7 CMs oppose anti-terror agency The newly constituted National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) has run into strong political resistance with a group of chief ministers coming out in the open to oppose its powers. The faceoff could trigger serious doubts about the effectiveness of the agency, billed to be the countrys principal counter-terror body after its launch on March 1, 2012. A diverse group of chief ministers, including personalities as politically disparate as Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, said NCTCs charter was violative of the federal structure. They questioned the manner in which the agency was set up, without taking states on board, and demanded that the decision be reversed. The opponents include other chief ministers too Bihars Nitish Kumar, West Bengals Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadus J Jayalalithaa, Prem Kumar Dhumal of Himachal Pradesh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh. Their number is likely to increase. Telugu Desam Party leader N Chandrababu Naidu also joined the protest, calling for revocation of the notification setting up the NCTC with the objective of improving the countrys response to the threat of terrorism. This, when the Centre has set itself a deadline of 90 days to complete the recruitment process and make the agency fully operational. Patnaik was the first to raise the red flag and was instrumental in rallying his peers around. My concern is the authoritarian notification with draconian overtones about law and order among others in which the state governments have not been consulted, he said. Along with Banerjee, Patnaik has already lodged a strong protest with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. An avoidable controversy over the NCTC

By creating a multiplicity of organisations having powers to arrest and by giving these powers to the NCTC which will work under the director, IB, we will be taking an unwise step which could further politicise our handling of counter-terrorism, says B Raman. There has been an avoidable and unfortunate controversy over the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, which, according to media reports, is to become operational from March 1, 2012. Going by the reports, the NCTC, which is meant to co-ordinate intelligence collection, analysis and assessment and follow-up action in matters relating to terrorism, will differ from the NCTC set up in the US after 9/11 in two important respects. In the US, the NCTC is an independent institution functioning under the supervision of the Director, National Intelligence. It co-ordinates the functioning of the counter-terrorism divisions of the various agencies of the intelligence community. The chiefs of the various intelligence agencies having any role in counter-terrorism do not have any powers of supervision over it. The idea of making it independent was to ensure that it would take an objective view of the functioning of the counter-terrorism divisions of different agencies and ensure proper-coordination. The expectation was that being an independent agency, its functioning will not be affected by inter-agency clashes and egos. As per the media reports, the NCTC being set up in India will not be an independent institution. It will be part of the IB and director, IB, will supervise its functioning. This could come in the way of an independent audit and supervision of the functioning of the counter-terrorism division of the IB. Whatever deficiencies are there presently in the exercise of the counter-terrorism functions of the IB will get duplicated and magnified instead of being identified and rectified. The post-9/11 creation of the NCTC in the US was meant to strengthen the preventive capability by improving the collection, analysis and assessment of terrorism-related intelligence and effective follow-up action. The 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US were attributed to inadequate intelligence and unsatisfactory follow-up action even on the intelligence that was available. The same was the case in India in respect of 26/11. The NCTC in the US has no powers of arrest, interrogation, investigation and prosecution. The responsibility in these matters continues to be that of the FBI. In India, if media reports are to be believed, the NCTC has been given the powers to arrest and carry out searches under Section 43 (A) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Till now, in India, these powers belong to only the National Investigation Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Centre and the police in the states. By giving these powers to the NCTC too, we are going to create confusion in the investigation and prosecution of terrorismrelated cases. Moreover, the IB does not have such powers. It is a clandestine organisation for the secret collection of intelligence. In all genuinely democratic countries, intelligence agencies are not given powers of arrest, searches and interrogation due to fears that such powers may be misused under pressure from the political leadership against political opponents. Only in authoritarian countries do intelligence agencies have powers of arrest and searches.

In India, the IB informally associates itself with all terrorism-related interrogation, but the arrests and searches are made either by the police or by the NIA or the CBI. By creating a multiplicity of organisations having such powers and by giving these powers to the NCTC which will work under the director, IB, we will be taking an unwise step which could further politicise our handling of counter-terrorism. States have been represented in NCTC, says Sibal As the chorus against the proposal to set up a National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) grew louder with 13 States opposing the move, the Centre has said it is ready for a dialogue to remove misgivings. If States have any concerns, the Central government is willing to have a dialogue, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said on 21.02.2012. Pointing out that the States had been represented in the NCTC, Mr. Sibal said the central council consisted of a director, three joint directors and the heads of anti-terrorist organisations of States. The powers given to the NCTC for counter-terrorism were earlier vested with the Centre. Explaining the rationale behind setting up the NCTC, Mr. Sibal said that after the Kargil war, the Group of Ministers recommended the strengthening of the intelligence system and thereafter, the Inter-State Intelligence Support System (ISISS) was set up. Following the recommendation of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), it was converted into the NCTC. The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act [UAPA], 1967 was amended in 2004, whereby power for counterterrorism was given to an officer of the Central government not below the rank of Joint Secretary, who was the designated authority, and in the States, not below the rank of Secretary, the Minister told. The UAPA was further amended in 2008 and under Section 43 (A), powers for counter-terrorism operations were transferred to the NCTC. The power with NCTC was already there, Mr. Sibal added. NCTC wont take away States powers Manmohan Within days of non-Congress Chief Ministers flaying the Centres move to set up a counter-terror hub, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to seven of them, explaining that the primary purpose of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), located within the Intelligence Bureau (IB), was to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts throughout the country. Seeking to allay the apprehensions of the Chief Ministers on encroachment of the States rights and turf, Dr. Singh on 21.02.2012 assured them that in forming the NCTC, it was not the Centres intent in any way to affect the basic features of the constitutional provisions and allocation of powers between the States and the Union. Apart from the UPA ally, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who wrote to Dr. Singh on February 14, 2012 asking him to review and withdraw the February 3 NCTC order, Naveen Patnaik from Odisha, Nitish Kumar from Bihar and Jayalalithaa from Tamil Nadu joined the anti-NCTC chorus. The Chief Ministers apprehended that the NCTC, to be made operational from March 1, 2012 will infringe upon the powers and rights of the States. The decision should have been taken only after adequate consultation and with the consent of the State governments.

Pointing out that the primary purpose of the NCTC was to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts throughout the country, as the IB had been doing so far, the Prime Minister stressed that it was for this reason that the NCTC has been located within the IB and not as a separate organisation. However, noting concerns of the Chief Ministers about the manner in which the NCTC would function, Dr. Singh said he had asked Home Minister P. Chidambaram to address them suitably in consultation with them. The Prime Minister said the idea of such a centre had been under consideration since the Group of Ministers report of 2001 suggested a joint task force on intelligence and the report was accepted by the government of the day. It was also suggested by the Second Administrative Reforms Commission that a National Centre for Counter-Terrorism be established, he said in the letter.