Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has won the second round in his fight against the Union Government on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had tried to ignore Patnaik’s letter of February 13 on the NCTC issue, finally responded on Tuesday, a day after the Chief Minister shot off a second letter to him.

Patnaik told reporters here on Wednesday that he would watch the next move from the “Delhi Durbar” before taking his further position.

The Prime Minister assured Patnaik that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram would consult him and other Chief Ministers on the issue.

Chidambaram, who on February 3 had issued a notification on the formation of the NCTC, would now speak to the Chief Ministers on implementation of the order.

Patnaik, who was the first Chief Minister to object to the NCTC, spoke and wrote letters to his counterparts like Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and J Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu) and Telugu Desam leader and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu. This set the ball rolling as, other leaders supported Patnaik’s move and wrote letters to the Prime Minister opposing the NCTC.

Later when about of a dozen Chief Ministers got united on the issue raised by Patnaik, the Prime Minister had no option but to take note of the matter.

In his reply, the Prime Minister has explained that the Centre had no intent to infringe upon the Federal rights of the States. Rather, the PM pointed out that the proposal for setting up a counter terrorism centre was taken in 2001. Besides the Group of Ministers, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission had also suggested formation of such a centre, the PM had pointed out.