Flush out Maoists from Lalgarh : Day V

West Bengal has sought more Central forces to flush out Maoists from Lalgarh

Belpahari have complained of excesses committed by security personnel

I won't say anything. I have my reasons: CM

The Centre banned the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) as a terrorist outfit but the communist ruling West Bengal government is in dilemma over its execution for the state when battle with Maoists at Lalgarh is going on with the help of Central forces. The chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee, asked whether the state would implement the order, did not comment when his party leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechuri and Biman Bose were against banning. Bhattacharjee said: “I won't say anything. I have my reasons.”

The West Bengal government has said it will look into the legal implications of the Centre's ban to ascertain if it was binding on Bengal, newspaper reported. Chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said legal experts were being consulted. “The CM will discuss the Centre's decision with his Cabinet colleagues,” he said.

The Left Front has rejected chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s suggestion that the state government was “giving a serious thought” to the idea of banning the outfit. It may be pointed out that Bhattacharjee had told the media in Delhi on 20 June that Chidambaram had advised him to ban the CPI-Maoist and that he was seriously thinking about it.

Tribals of Chakadoba and Siarbenda in Belpahari have complained of excesses committed by security personnel, media reported. It was learnt that some people were playing cards outside a shop at Chakadoba on Sunday when BSF jawans while patrolling the area severely beat them up on the plea that they violated the Section 144 earlier imposed in the Belpahari police station area. When the group protested, the jawans reportedly ransacked four shops and 10 houses. They even beat up and kicked the womenfolk. The condition of one of the women "assaulted" ~ Rajani Tudu ~ was said to be critical.After one jawan was assaulted with a tangi, three people were arrested. Police chief Manoj Verma denied any knowledge of the incidents.

Life in Binpur, Belpahari, Jamboni, Gopiballavpur, Jhargram, Lalgarh and Nayagram block areas in West Midnapore was paralyzed yesterday. Despite patrolling undertaken by the security forces panic-stricken villagers did not even venture out of their homes.

West Bengal has sought more Central forces to flush out Maoists from Lalgarh. The fifth day of the government offensive was not marked by any forward movement of the security personnel from their base camps. Home secretary Ardhendu Sen has said that the state had sought more Central forces but did not give a figure. Praveen Kumar, DIG (Midnapore range), met CRPF officers at Lalgarh Ramkrishna Vidyapith. Senior officers remained tightlipped about the discussions held. Even the Cobra force, which had joined the offensive in the Jhitka forest near Lalgarh on Saturday, did not move out of its camp in the past two days. Kumar said security personnel were treading cautiously and sincerely. Apparently, six companies (about 600 personnel) of CRPF and four companies (about 400 jawans) of BSF are currently in reserve

Police are paying particular attention to the 33km-long Bhadutala-Lalgarh Road. Every vehicle taking the road is checked. They even arrested two persons near Bhadutala yesterday on the suspicion of their having links with the Maoists.

Normal life in Bankura, Purulia and Midnapore West was affected as six Maoist cadres were arrested from two separate locations in Bankura and Burdwan and a landmine was detected on railway tracks between Biramdih and Nimdih stations in Purulia. Train services in Purulia-Chandil section in Adra division of South Eastern Railways were suspended.

Police arrested Sukdeb Murmu and Ranjit Hembram, both allegedly assigned by Maoists to blow up a police vehicle in September 2008, from two separate villages in Memari area of Burdwan.

District police have started a combing operation in Birbhum’s three Maoist infested areas after receiving a tip-off that some Maoist cadres have gone to Lalgarh to assist their colleagues there. Vigil has been intensified after Maoist posters had been found from the Visva-Bharati campus in Santiniketan.

As relief camps are being set up by the Trinamul Congress and the CPI-M in violence-torn Lalgarh areas, political gain seems to top the leaders’ agenda, newspaper reported. A visit to some such relief camps across Lalgarh and Salboni areas revealed that local leaders manning the camps are busy blaming their rival party.

Chief Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti said 500 metric tons of rice and other relief material would be distributed among the distressed Lalgarh residents.

After 16 days, queue for rice

ZEESHAN JAWED

Lalgarh, June 22: A serpentine queue formed outside the Binpur I block office this morning as some 700-800 villagers arrived to collect their rations.

The block office, 1km east of Lalgarh police station, reopened today after the forces secured the area yesterday. The office had been closed for 16 days and all its officials had left the area as violence escalated and roads were dug up.

“All of us came back yesterday. We are going to start all the development activities from today,” said block development officer Sourav Banik.

The first task of the office, which caters to 1.5 lakh people, this morning was the distribution of rice.

The office, which has received 10 tonnes of rice to be disbursed as special gratuitous relief, handed 6kg free to each villager.

Hundreds arrived at the block office this morning carrying utensils, jholas, torn saris — anything they could carry away the rice in. Men, women and children formed long queues from 9am to 4pm.

“A panchayat member told us they would distribute rice from the block office. I immediately picked up a jhola and set out, taking my two-year-old daughter along,” said Bharati Murmu, who had walked the 3.5km from Rija village.

The villagers had to write out an application on plain paper with their name and the name of their village. They produced it at the godown to receive the rice that would ensure regular meals for the first time in days. “The markets, even the weekly bazaar, have been closed, and we have no money anyway. We have been eating just one meal a day. This 6kg of rice will mean meals at least for the next three to four days,” said Sangeeta Das, who lives in Rija with her husband and three daughters.

Most of those who came were from villages the police have been able to reach. Although the office caters to all of Lalgarh, none came from the areas beyond the Lalgarh police station that are still to be secured by the forces.

“We know that many people inside the villages are without any food. We will be working with the gram panchayat members and try to send rice inside the villages,” said a senior district official. “We will also try and purchase the sal plates and cups the villagers make so they have an income.”

The block office is trying to arrange for clothes to be dis- tributed among the children and to stock up the Lalgarh primary health centre.

But the block office has problems of its own, the most crucial being the shortage of cash. With banks closed, all the money being spent now — for instance, to hire people to distribute the rice and write the applications for the illiterate among the villagers — is coming out of the block officials’ own pockets.

“We have asked the government for some money but we don’t know when it will arrive,” a senior district official said. “It’s not safe to send money from outside,” he added, referring to the possibility of the cash being looted by the Maoists on the roads.