Pranab wants Bengal to reply to Chidambaram letter

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said the West Bengal government should reply to Home Minister P Chidambaram’s letter asking it to disarm CPI(M) cadres in Jangalmahal, thus rejecting the state’s claim that the letter was not with it.

“The Home Minister has written to the state government. He has fulfilled his responsibility. Now the state government should fulfil its responsibility and reply by acknowledging receipt of the letter. It is hoped that the government would fulfil its responsibility,” he told reporters here after attending a function.

Mukherjee’s comments on the letter, which questions the role of central forces in Jangalmahal, came a day after chief secretary Samar Ghosh said the Secretariat had not received the letter.

“I have not seen any such letter as yet,” Ghosh told reporters yesterday. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also expressed ignorance of the letter even after its contents were disclosed by the home ministry on December 24.

Chidambaram’s strongly-worded letter to Bhattacharjee comes in the wake of ally Mamata Banerjee alleging misuse of central security forces in the state and offering to quit if her charge were proved wrong.

“If these armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order, I wonder what the role of security forces is, specially central para military forces which have been deployed at the request of the state government?” Chidambaram had said in the letter.