New Delhi, Apr 30: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday expressed his inability to announce the date when the Cabinet Committee for Security (CCS) would meet to discuss the report submitted by interlocutors on Kashmir and to take final decision about revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from the few areas of Jammu and Kashmir.   
 Replying to a question by Great Kashmir at his monthly press briefing here as to when the CCS would meet to discuss these issues, Home Minister P Chidambaram expressed his inability to give a clear time-frame. “I wish I knew as to when will the CCS meet on these issues,” was his candid response.
 In his last monthly briefing, Chidamabram had stated that efforts were being made to convene the CCS meeting soon to discuss the two issues.
 Ahead of the Chief Ministers conference, slated for later this week, to discuss the setting up of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Chidambaram pinned hope that such a mechanism would help to deal with the hostage situations in a better way. His comments came in the light of series of incidents of kidnapping by the Maoists.
 He said he was not sure whether NCTC would come up or not and if it comes up, then the proposed anti-terror body should be allowed to build capacity and lay out its own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and gain experience. "Yes, I think in the medium to long term, an NCTC would help us deal with such a situation in a better way," he said.
 Chief Ministers like Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, Tamil Nadu's J Jayalalitha, Gujarat's Narendra Modi, Bihar's Nitish Kumar and UPA ally and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others have been opposing the NCTC alleging that it would hurt the federal structure of the country and curb states' powers.
 The Centre has convened a meeting of Chief Ministers on May 5 to discuss the NCTC issue.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 1 May 2012 00:00:00 IST