NCTC: TMC notice junked, BJP-JDU seek amendment

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav have given a joint notice for moving an amendment to the motion of thanks for the Presidential address which is scheduled to be adopted by the Lok Sabha on Thursday evening, sources said.

They said the notice pertains to the Centre's move to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) without the concurrence of states. The move is intended to take all regional parties, including some Congress allies, on board to isolate the ruling party on the plank of federal rights of states.

Obviously this, more than any other issue, has the potential to unite the BJP and regional parties.

The notice given by Trinamool Congress chief whip Kalyan Mukherjee on the NCTC, however, had been negatived on the ground that it was not correctly worded.

The sources said finally, only 143 notices for amendments to the motion had been listed, against the 2,667 notices received. Asked why, the sources said: "For the notices to hold, somebody has got to move them too."

Giving details, the sources said seven people, apart from Swaraj and Yadav, had given notices. They were Basudeb Acharia and Saidul Haque of the CPM, Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI, Bhartruhari Mahtab and Arjun Charan Sethi of the BJD, Ganesh Singh of BJP and Raju Shetti of the Swabhimani Paksha.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will reply to the discussion at 5 pm. The motion and the amendments will be put to vote thereafter.

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