Chennai: Stressing the importance of a national agency to curb internal and external terrorist threats to the country, Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy on Friday said a National Counter Terrorism Centre was essential to avoid incidents like the recent abduction of Odisha MLA Jhina Hikaka and Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon.

"We need to have an agency like NCTC in the country to avoid incidents like what happened recently in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, where an MLA and a Collector were abducted by the Maoists.NCTC will not take away the rights of the states," Narayanasamy told reporters here on arrival from Delhi.
He said the next meeting to discuss NCTC was scheduled for May 5 in Delhi.

About Chief Minister Jayalalithaa`s request to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting allocation of the entire power to be generated by two units (2000 mw) of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to Tamil Nadu, he said, "Even I have spoken to the Prime Minister and Power Minister Shinde in this regard."
Narayanasamy declined to comment on DMK chief Karunanidhi`s comments on forming a `Eelam` for Tamils in Sri Lanka.
PTI