A day after a rift over creation of the new National Counter Terrorism Center, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday skipped the inauguration of a National Security Guards hub near here by Home Minister P. Chidambaram. While her name was initially included in the brochure, it was subsequently deleted. 

Trinamool Congress leader and Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy attended the inauguration.  

Under attack from non-Congress-ruled states over setting up of the anti-terror institution, Chidambaram sought to reach out to them, saying the security of the country is a shared responsibility of the central and state governments. 

"Security of the country is shared by the center and state governments. The Constitution of India assigns law and order to the state government and also assigns the Centre to protect the country against external aggression or internal disturbance," he said, speaking the inauguration of an NSG hub here, about 50 kilometers from Kolkata. 

Chidambaram said the founding fathers of the Constitution were also wise when they made Article 355. "That is why they made national security, internal security a shared responsibility. I have a responsibility to work with the states to quell terror, any militancy or rebellion," he said at the function.

Banerjee has joined over half-a-dozen chief ministers of non-Congress-ruled states in opposing the center’s plan to create a NCTC, claiming it violates the federal provisions of the Constitution and was an attempt to usurp states’ rights. 

In his brief speech, Chidambaram did not refer to the controversy over the NCTC, nor did he make any comment on the chief ministers' opposition to it. Making a point that the center did not discriminate between states on the basis of political parties that ruled governments there, Chidambaram said the center worked with the previous government in West Bengal and "we are happy to work with the new government." 

Reaching out to Banerjee, he said the situation in Junglemahal created by the Naxalites has been substantially controlled by the new government and the overall situation of the state has considerably improved. 

Chidambaram said the center wants the Kolkata hub to become a mini regional center that also serves the states in the country's northeast.