West Bengal govt dithers over banning Maoists

KOLKATA: The Left Front government in West Bengal is yet to decide on whether it will follow the Centre and impose a ban on the activities of the CPI- Maoist against whom the paramilitary forces and the state police personnel are running joint combing operations at Lalgarh in West Midnapore for the past five days.

The Union home ministry on Monday identified the CPI-Maoist as a terror outfit and clamped a ban on their activities
throughout the country. The ban will certainly embolden the central force, CRPF, to take stringent action against the ultra-Left activists in Lalgarh and other pockets in West Midnapore district.

West Bengal chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters at Writers��� Buildings a few hours after the Union home ministry���s announcement, that the state government was consulting legal experts to find out whether it would be mandatory for the state government to follow the Centre and ban the outfit.

He also said the decision to ban the Maoists will not be taken at the administrative level, but it will be a political decision. "The chief minister will consult his cabinet colleagues on this issue," Mr Chakraborty said.

Sources in Writers��� Buildings also hinted that West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had already consulted senior ministers in his Cabinet on the issue.

Meanwhile, Left Front chairman Biman Bose, in a statement on Monday, made it clear that the Front will not allow the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to follow the Centre and ban the Maoists in the state. "We are opposing terrorist activities being carried out by Maoists and therefore, we are being attacked by them. We consider it a continuous political process to isolate the people from the dangerous politics by the Maoists. We have done the job in the past and we are determined to continue the same and we have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to combat the Maoists by imposing any ban on their activities. We feel it urgent to face such forces politically," Mr Bose said in his statement.

Only a few days ago, the chief minister told reporters in Delhi that his government would have a second thought on the issue of imposing a ban on the Maoists. Mr Bhattacharjee���s observation came following his meeting with Union home minister P Chidambaram who had urged him to ban the Maoists in Bengal.

CPM central committee member Shyamal Chakraborty, however, did not oppose the Centre���s decision. "Every government has its attitude towards certain issues and the Centre has banned the Maoists as it thinks it is an appropriate action to combat the ultra-Left forces. But we have a different approach towards the issue and we don���t think clamping any ban will solve the problem. But we want our government to provide safety and security to the people of Lalgarh and the government will have to do this at any cost," Mr Chakraborty said.