CPM calls for better Centre-state co-ordination

NEW DELHI: A day after the Maoist attack on the Shilda police camp in West Bengal, CPM on Tuesday asked the Centre to ensure better coordination between the state police and central paramilitary forces. The party, which leads the ruling Left Front in the state, also demanded that the UPA government take immediate steps to begin joint operations across the Jharkhand border.

“There is necessity for better coordination between the state police and central paramilitary forces. The central government should ensure that joint operations begin across the border in Jharkhand, without delay ,” the CPM polit bureau said in a statement here.

It said a student had also died in the incident. “This exposes the vicious violence indulged in by the Maoists. The Maoists have been on a rampage in the West Midnapore district for over a year. The joint operations by the state police and central paramilitary forces were launched to curb the Maoist violence ,” CPM said. The party expressed surprise that such an attack could be launched in daytime on a police camp and cause casualties to such an extent. Arms and ammunition were also taken away, it said.

However, the party, which has been accusing Ms Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress of backing Maoists and instigating violence, refrained from making any political insinuations in the polit bureau statement.

Reacting after Monday’s attack at the police camp, CPM leaders in the state had alleged that “Maoist sympathisers” were indirectly fuelling violence across the state by demanding withdrawal of joint forces from Lalgarh. They said CPM cadres were also being targeted in many districts.

Countering the diatribe, Ms Banerjee lashed out that the Centre should probe if the attack was the handiwork of the Maoists or the Marxists. She also blamed state intelligence failure and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s “provocative speeches” in the recent past.