Let NCTC be the only agenda for CM's meet: Modi to PM

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to limit the agenda of chief ministers conference, scheduled on April 16, to discuss the formation of National Counter Terror Centre only and not deal with the issue in a "perfunctory" manner.

In the letter, Modi said he had received a communication from Union Home Minister P Chidambaram about the agenda of chief ministers conference on internal security on April 16 next.

"To my utter surprise, instead of convening an exclusive meeting of chief ministers' to discuss the issue of formation of NCTC, such an important issue has been clubbed with a host of other agenda items to be discussed in the annual conference," he said.

Modi said it was "very disheartening and sad" to note that his request as well as that of other chief ministers in this regard has been shown "scant regard" and another attempt made to deal with such a serious issue in a "routine and perfunctory" manner.

Urging the prime minister to take necessary action, the Gujarat chief minister reiterated his view that NCTC "infringes" on the country's federal structure and the formation of the same in a "unilateral" way by the Centre was in "total violation of the Constitutional schemes".

Referring to the meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary R K Singh on March 12, Modi said he had been made to understand the important issue of formation of NCTC was discussed along with many "unconnected routine issues" like implementation of Private Security Act thereby "diluting" the main agenda and "ignoring" the valid concerns of the state governments.