Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday directly accused the opposition
Trinamool Congress in the state assembly of patronising
Maoists.
Maoists were operating in six to seven states under
patronage from some political parties. The Trinamool Congress
was assisting the Maoists in West Bengal, the Chief Minister
said while replying to a question by Congress Chief Whip Manas
Bhunia.
Stating that the overall situation in the state was
alarming, he said not a day passed without casualty or
killing.
The Chief Minister said, altogether 69 persons were
killed in clashes between January 1 to November 13 this year,
including in the three Maoist-hit districts.
Of them, 47 were from the CPI(M), 15 TC, 4 Congress, 2
Jharkhand Democratic Party and 1 from Jharkhand Party (Naren),
he said.
Twenty eight of them were killed in political clashes
in Maoist-hit West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts.
Twelve policemen were killed in the state during the
same period, he said.
Unhappy with the remarks, Trinamool Congress members
led by Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee demanded it
be expunged, but Speaker H A Halim said that it was part of
the debate and could not be done.
Chatterjee and other Trinamool Congress members then
shouted slogans 'killer CM go back' and walked out of the
House.
Earlier, the chief minister said clashes were not
confined to Maoist-hit three districts alone and violence had
claimed 160 lives in Murshidabad, 139 in Burdwan and 76 in
Hooghly districts too.
Bhattacharjee said the central forces were engaged in
anti-Maoist operations but without joint operations with the
Jharkhand government it was difficult to contain it.
He pointed out that all three Maoist-hit districts in
the state were on the Jharkhand border and said they had
access to infrastructure and explosives in the neighbouring
state.
Stating that the ruling party had major responsibility,
the chief minister said the opposition could not shirk its
responsibilities and without its cooperation it was impossible
to restore peace.
Referring to the incident at Mangalkot in Burdwan
district in which Congress MLAs were attacked by CPI(M)
supporters, the chief minister ruled out the Congress demand
for action against the Burdwan DM and SP and said several
arrests had been made and investigation was still on.
Dissatisfied with the reply, Congress members led by
the Chief Whip walked out briefly.
To a question, if the state government would ask the
ruling party members to surrender arms, chief minister said
all political parties have to surrender arms for restoration
of law and order in the state.
A consensus for this was necessary and not confrontation,
he said.
The Leader of Opposition later claimed that the
statistics on killings given by the chief minister were
contradictory.
Chatterjee said that according to state government
documents, 1,794 persons were killed in 2009 in political and
other clashes, besides cases of abduction, as against 1,599
deaths in 2008.
"From this we can well imagine the law and order in
the state and how the government is running," he said.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 18:43