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| Declare Maoist-infested districts 'disturbed area' Mamata |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Jun 21, 2009, 00:32 IST |
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Trinamool Congress chief and Minister of Railways Mamata Banerjee demanded that the West Bengal declare three Maoist-infested districts — West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura — as ‘Disturbed Area’ and hand it over to the central government for combating the Maoists there. Lalgarh falls within West Midnapore.
Rejecting the charge levelled against her party of having ties with the Maoists, Mamata Banerjee angrily demanded that West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) leaders withdraw the charge within the next 48 hours, failing which, Trinamool supporters would start movement against the Left Front government and demand its sacking.
Mamata Banerjee today broke her silence of a few days over the operation against Maoists in Lalgarh. She claimed that in the name of combating the Maoists, the ordinary people were being subjected to police atrocities.
“I condemn the police atrocities there,” said Banerjee. Though she is a member of the Union Cabinet and CCPA, Mamata denied that she was informed before the operation started. She said: “We have not been informed either by the state or by the Centre.” At the same time, she asserted that it was a law-and-order subject, and the state government was in overall charge of the joint operation, the Centre was only assisting the state.
Denying any ties between her party and the Maoists, Mamata gave a new twist to the issue in the state. She claimed that the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh and the Maoists in Bengal were not from the same outfit. The Maoists in Bengal are a creation of the ruling CPI(M) and its chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. To substantiate her charge, she referred to the election results and voting pattern in the Maoist-infested region.
She pointed out that the Maoists’ call for boycott of polls helped only the CPI(M) there. Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, Midnapore and Ghatal, all the Lok Sabha seats in the region have been traditionally retained by the Left candidates. The majority of the panchayat and municipalities are held by the Left. She alleged that Sushanta Ghosh, a minister in the Left Front government and a CPI(M) leader of the district, and two of his associates — Tapan and Sukur — were playing an active role in terrorising the villagers in the Lalgarh area.
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