NCTC 2.0: Big changes to anti-terror agency

July 13, 2012

New Delhi, July 13: Home Minister P Chidambaram's pet project, the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), is set to take-off again after being grounded and scuttled by as many as seven non-Congress chief ministers. Senior member of the Congress party and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had also objected to the NCTC. The main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too had put up a stiff resistance and criticised the Home Minister over the proposed body.

The reworked NCTC proposal is now with the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) - the apex decision making body of the country on security issues, headed by the Prime Minister. The CCS is likely to consider the proposal in the last week of July after the Presidential election, scheduled for July 19, concludes.

The proposed anti-terror body had faced opposition on two counts. The primary objection was about it being placed under the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The IB is primarily designed and tasked to carry out covert executive action. It does not have powers to arrest and works through state police organisations, therefore, does not come directly under legal scrutiny. Placing the NCTC under the IB, it was argued, would jeopardise the IB as it would then be subject to legal scrutiny. Even senior intelligence officers found the prospect of the IB having to explain its actions before a court of law daunting and unwarranted.

Sources have told NDTV that in the fresh Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) proposal, the NCTC is no longer under the IB. The NCTC will now be a separate organisation which will directly report to the Home Ministry. The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) - a platform to share varied intelligence inputs coming from various agencies like the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Economic Intelligence Agency, Enforcement Directorate etc. - will be placed under the NCTC. As of now the MAC is within the IB.

In addition to this, the NCTC's ability to carry out counter-terror operations on its own, independent of State Police organisation, was also a major stumbling block. Although, the Union Home Ministry had argued that independent anti-terror operations would be limited and the apprehended suspected would be immediately handed over to the local police, the States, however, weren't convinced with this argument. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and several others had refused to buy this argument. Instead they claimed that law and order was a state issue and independent anti-terror operations without involving the state police organization would violate the federal structure of the constitution. It is believed that the NCTC will now be able to carry out anti-terror operations only in the rarest of rare cases.

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'300 nurses leave Kolkata for Manipur after resigning'

News Network

May 21,2020

Kolkata, May 21: Around 300 nurses have left Kolkata for Manipur after resigning from their jobs, said JS Joyrita, Deputy Residence Commissioner, Manipur Bhavan, Kolkata on Wednesday.

"Around 60 more nurses will be leaving tomorrow. We are getting many calls from people who want to go back to Manipur," she said.

Earlier, it was reported that 185 nurses have quit their job from hospitals in Kolkata and returned to Imphal. Cristella, a nurse said: "We are not happy that we left our duties. But we faced discrimination, racism and people sometimes spit on us. Lack of PPE kits, and people used to question us everywhere we went."

According to the latest information available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2961 cases of the virus have been reported from West Bengal 1074 cured/migrated/discharged and 250 deaths.

India's COVID-19 tally reached 1,06,750 on Wednesday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As many as 140 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 3,303. Out of the total cases, 61,149 are actives cases and 42,298 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

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Defectors should be banned from holding public office for 5 years, fighting next poll: Kapil Sibal

Agencies

July 19,2020

New Delhi, Jul 19: Amid the political firestorm in Rajasthan following Sachin Pilot's rebellion, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday called for amending the anti-defection law to ban all defectors from holding public office for five years and fighting the next election.

Sibal also said that the "antibodies" against the "virus of corrupt means" to topple elected governments lie in amending the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law).

His attack comes in the wake of Pilot's open rebellion against the Ashok Gehlot government, which has been on shaky ground since, with at least 18 legislators backing the rebel leader.

Pilot was sacked as deputy chief minister and the state Congress chief earlier this week.

The Congress has accused the BJP of making efforts to topple the Gehlot government by indulging in horse-trading.

"Need for Vaccine: Virus of 'corrupt means' to topple elected governments has spread through a 'Wuhan like facility' in Delhi," Sibal tweeted, in an apparent swipe at the BJP.

"Its 'antibodies' lie in amending the Tenth Schedule. Ban all defectors from: Holding public office for five years, fighting the next election," he said.

Taking a swipe at Pilot over his claim that he is not joining the BJP, Sibal on Thursday had asked what happens to his "ghar wapsi" and whether Rajasthan's dissident legislators are vacationing in Haryana under the "watchful eye" of the saffron party.

In the house of 200, the Congress has 107 MLAs, including the 19 dissidents who have been issued notices of disqualification by the speaker and they have challenged them in the high court.

The Congress has maintained the claim that the Gehlot government has the support of 109 MLAs, including the two BTP MLAs.

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I FULLY AGREE WITH MR. KAPIL SIBAL. IN FACT, IT IS NEED OF THE HOUR TO SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY.

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ED freezes 60 bank accounts in India on Brazil's request

News Network

July 21,2020

New Delhi, Jul 21: The Enforcement Directorate is understood to have initiated a process to freeze over 60 bank accounts in the country on the request of the Brazilian government in connection with a money laundering case in that country, offiicials said on Monday.

They said the agency has undertaken the action under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in pursuance of a mutual agreement between the two nations to combat financial crimes.

The over 60 bank accounts are held by some individuals and businessmen based in the country, they said.

The probe, they said, is linked to some high profile people of Brazil.

The suspected accounts sought to be frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), on behalf of the Brazilian government, are stated to be of banks in Delhi and Mumbai, they added.

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