New Delhi: Home Minister P Chidambaram has
written a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya and is believed to have asked him to take urgent
steps to stop political violence which has claimed several
lives in the state.
The letter was apparently shot off after the Home
Minister received a report from a three-member Central team
which visited West Bengal early this month to assess the law-
and-order situation there.
Sources said Chidambaram is understood to have asked
Bhattacharya to tighten security and stop clashes between Left
and Trinamool Congress supporters in different parts of the
state.
The Central team, headed by Additional Secretary (Naxal
Management) D R S Choudhary, was sent following demands by TC
chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as her party has
been claiming that there has been "complete breakdown of law
and order".
The team held meetings with senior officers of the state
administration and visited a few violence-hit places during
their three-day tour.
Both Houses of Parliament had also witnessed noisy scenes
over the issue of police violence in West Bengal.
WB takes steps to strengthen security
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has decided to set up a
Directorate of Security (DoS) and strengthen 21 police
stations in three Maoist-hit districts, in the face of mounting security
threats.
"The decision has been okayed by a Cabinet meeting
today," Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told reporters.
The DoS would handle security for VVIPs, protection of
vital installations and take preventive measures against the
threats from terrorists and militants, he said.
Dasgupta, however, said that details of the areas of
its responsibility would be chalked out soon by the Home
department.
The DoS would be headed by an officer in the rank of
DIG under whom two AIGs would work. Altogether 487 posts would
be created for the DoS, he said.
To counter the Maoists in West Midnapore, Bankura and
Purulia districts, 21 police stations would be strengthened
with the recruitment of more policemen from inspectors to
constables, besides developing infrastructure.
Of the 21 police stations, seven are in West
Midnapore, five in Bankura and nine in Purulia, Dasgupta said.
West Midnapore violence
Separately, two persons, including a
CPI(M) activist, were shot dead today by unknown men in
West Midnapore district during the Maoists-backed PCPA`s
48-hour bandh.
Police suspect that Maoists have killed CPI(M) activist
Habun Patro in Lalgarh`s Bamal village.
Sadan Mahto, a CPI(M) activist, who had recently changed
his loyalties to the PCPA, was also shot dead by unknown men
in Salboni area, police said.
The PCPA has called for a 48-hour bandh beginning this
morning in three blocks of the district, Lalgarh, Salboni and
Goaltor, demanding release of 11 of their arrested supporters.
PTI
