Jammu, Feb 22: Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah Wednesday said the Central government has no intention to curtail the powers of states by forming National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), but states needs to cooperate “to fight the scourge of terrorism”.
“At times errors do take place. Chief Ministers of the states should have been called to talk about the NCTC, but I don’t think there was deliberate intention by the Centre to erode the authority of states,” Farooq said.
Talking to reporters here, after chairing Legislative Party meeting of the party, Farooq said the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram have already taken steps to get the feedback of the respective CMs.
“Terrorism can’t be fought effectively without the centre and the states being on the same wavelength as cooperation of both is important to launch sustained fight against the scourge,” he said.
He said that Prime Minister has also written to respective Chief Ministers and a discussion will be held soon to sort-out the issue.
Earlier, on February 18, Abdullah had said that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will have to explain his position on the Centre’s plan of creation of a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) to the Chief Ministers.
“In that (matter related to the security of the country), nothing must be done which will infringe the federal structure of the country,” he had said. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had yesterday favored Centre-state consultations to put at rest any controversy over setting up of National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC).
“There has been no discussion between state government and the central government on the issue of NCTC. I do not think it would be appropriate as Chief Minister for me to publicly comment about it, before I privately share the feelings of the state government with the Union government on this crucial issue,” Omar told reporters on sidelines of a function at Magam, 20km from Srinagar.
He said consultation between the Centre and the states was essential to put at rest the controversy surrounding NCTC.

ON PEERZADA
On the probe initiated by the State Accountability Commission (SAC) against Minister for Public Enterprise, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed after surfacing of the examgate, Farooq said that law will take its course. “I am nobody to suggest anything, but decision on the fate of Peerzada has to be taken by Congress high command”.
He said that being a Union Minister himself, he feels it to be wrong to use the power of portfolio for personal benefit or benefit of the family member.
“I don’t know whether he should resign, it is for Congress high command to decide,” Farooq shot back when asked should Peerzada step down.

ON ELECTION COMMISSION
Regretting that moves are being made to curtail the powers of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Farooq said there should be no interference in the working of the Election Commission  and the way its works to ensure continuation of democracy in the country.
“ECI is a statutory body and nothing should be done to curtail its powers. To ensure free and fair elections, they are the ones who manage an every important institution of elections”, he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:00 IST