Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 22 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured her that the proposed anti-terror hub will not become operational till consultations with the states were completed.

“Assured me,” Banerjeee said when asked if the prime minister had assured her that the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre will become functional after consultations with the states were completed.

Banerjee, who met Manmohan Singh here, had demanded that the move to set up the NCTC should not be implemented till there is consensus on the issue between the central government and states.

She said she told the prime minister that the NCTC, in its present form, will disturb the federal structure.

“In the name of NCTC, they can arrest anybody, interrogate any business… requisition police from any station. It is contradictory to the federal structure,” Banerjee said.

She said the prime minister told her that he has instructed Home Minister P. Chidambaram to consult the states.

Apart from Banerjee, the NCTC proposal has been opposed by the chief ministers of Odisha, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Banerjee also raised with the prime minister the issues of leakage in the Farakka Barrage and the grant of presidential assent to the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill.

She said the bill is delayed by over a month as the central government is yet to send the Gorkhaland tripartite agreement for presidential approval.

Later, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said Manmohan Singh informed her that the union home ministry is expeditiously processing the bill in the light of the issues raised by various ministries and the comments of the state governments.

Banerjee said she also raised the issue of leak in the Farakka Barrage, due to which most water in Teesta river has gone to Bangladesh and rivers like Hoogly and Bhagirathi have gone dry. She said due to this, West Bengal is facing a disaster as there is shortage of drinking water and electricity.

“We accept the India-Bangladesh treaty but demand a high level probe into the incident…what will I do now?…there is shortage of drinking water and electricity,” she said.

The PMO statement said Banerjee was assured that the water resources ministry is working on plugging the leakages in Gate No.16 and Gate No.13 of the Farakka Barrage and the leakages will be plugged during March.