Almost all the states agreed in principle on the need to have an effective anti terrorism mechanism like National Counter Terrorism Centre, NCTC. A high level meeting of the Chief Secretaries and Police Chiefs of the States and Union Territories, was held in New Delhi on Monday chaired by Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh to discuss the issues related to National Counter Terrorism Centre and also Police Modernization.

The States expressed their concern on the modalities and details of the operational coordination between the states and the proposed NCTC. The need to make the States an effective stakeholder in all aspects of Counter-terrorism domain and in the proposed NCTC format, was also raised by most States and UTs.

The need to rework the NCTC to amplify the powers, functions and duties of the Standing Council, the specificity of circumstances in which Secion 43A of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) powers can be invoked, were also discussed in the meeting. The need to ensure that NCTC is also equally obliged to respond to requests from the state governments and the need to provide resources to upgrade state capabilities, also came up during the meeting.

The Union Home Secretary thanked the States for their constructive cooperation and emphasized that the nature of terror threats faced by the country, needs an effective and coordinated response of the Centre and States for which NCTC would be a crucial instrument.