Opposition parties on Tuesday kicked up further row on the center’s decision to set up an anti- terror body asking a parliamentary committee to recommend that it be put on hold as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to several chief ministers on the issue.

The opposition to setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Center, a brain child of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, came at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, on a day when a Congress ally, National Conference, appeared to express its reservations over the move.

Under attack from non-Congress chief ministers and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who have written to him, the prime minister wrote letters to them explaining the center’s proposal.

The Home Ministry is believed to have given its inputs to the PM, who is due to meet Banerjee here on Wednesday. 

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also appeared to have reservations though he did not spell them out.

“There has been no discussion between state government and the central government on the issue of NCTC. I do not think it would be appropriate as chief minister for me to publicly comment about it, before I privately share the feelings of the state government with the union government on this crucial issue,” Abdullah told reporters near Srinagar.

The government is likely to convene a meeting of chief secretaries and directors general of police of all states to explain about NCTC before March 1, when the body is scheduled to come into existence.

At the meeting of the Parliamentary committee, members of non-Congress parties grilled Home Secretary R.K. Singh on setting up of the NCTC. They asked him how the center could decide unilaterally on setting up the counter-terrorism body without consulting states.

Sources said the opposition members told committee chairman and BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu that he should recommend to the Home Ministry that the proposal be put on hold.

Members of the BJP, Biju Janata Dal, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the communist parties were of the opinion that the NCTC “impinges” on the powers of states and would affect the federal structure.

The chief ministers of a dozen states have already voiced their opposition to the NCTC, arguing that the rights of the states would be compromised if it comes into force.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the members told Singh that the chief ministers of states should have been consulted before the decision to set up the body was taken. The sources said a few members said the setting up of the body would be an attack on principles of federalism and it would have an adverse impact on center-state relations.