Marandi blames Cong, Communists for Maoist attacks

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 7: Former chief minister of Jharkhand and BJP vice- president, Mr Babulal Marandi, yesterday alleged that the Congress and the Communist leaders have been encouraging the Maoists in Jharkhand.Addressing a Press conference at the Malda BJP party office yesterday, Mr Marandi, who came here to campaign for BJP candidates contesting from the region, said: “Till date, police have destroyed 30 bunkers of the Maoists in the jungles and killed nearly 100 Maoist activists in more than 150 encounters.”Mr Marandi admitted that overall development of Jharkhand is the need of the hour, but at the same time, he said: “Encounter with the help of bullets” is the only way to curb the Maoist menace in Jharkhand and elsewhere in the country.Mr Marandi, who visited the Habibpur Assembly constituency in Malda yesterday, expressed his satisfaction over the functioning of the Election Commission in West Bengal.He said the BJP has urged the EC to ensure a free and fair election in the state. “People are scared of Communist cadres here. The EC should step in to allay fears from the minds of the people,” he said. Mr Marandi said the people of char lands of the Ganges, where demarcation between the two states is being discussed, are living without basic amenities. He said Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, did not approach the Jharkhand government about the problem.A large number of crop and homestead lands had been eroded on the left bank of the Ganges over the last three decades and the people of Jharkhand have started grabbing their lands.