Mamata directs officials, cops not to cooperate with Modi government

Sources said the Chief Minister's office in Kolkata has passed an instruction to this effect, directing officials that in case of "urgency", they will have to pass the information strictly through Ms Banerjee's office or the office of the Chief Secretary. "This is not the first time such an instruction has been passed by West Bengal Chief Minister. In 2013 also, during UPA regime, such an order was passed in the state and the exercise had prevented passing of basic data about district wise crime records to the Ministry of Home Affairs," a source told UNI. 

Ostensibly, the Centre had sought those statistics for compiling the National Crime Bureau Records and subsequently the Union Home Ministry had to face some hurdles to collect the necessary data. According to established norms, the Centre or more precisely the Home Ministry seeks detailed information from the state police department "directly" and till hitherto the figures used to be provided unhesitatingly by the state governments.

The federal structure bogey is, however, an issue held closer to heart by regional parties in recenttimes especially after alleged attempts made by the Modi government to "encroach upon the state'sautonomy". From time to time, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has denied the charge.

"Generally, the Centre seeks those information, data and statistics on law and order situationand crime-related incidents on receipt of questions from Members of Parliament and the central government is obliged to answer them," the source said.

By convention, no state governments have raised any major objection nor directed the police officials and civil servants not to provide such data to the Centre.

"In the past, once or twice in mid-eighties the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N T Rama Rao had reportedly raised objections to the Centre, directly seeking the information from state police," the source said.