Why PC Left out Bengal leaders of Naxal-hit areas, asks Acharia

NEW DELHI: Home minister P Chidambaram’s meeting with a group of MPs belonging to the Naxal-infested districts on Friday has irked the Left because three of its representatives from West Bengal were kept out of the exercise.

Incensed with the Centre’s decision to leave them out, Mr Basudeb Acharia, who was one of the three whose name was deleted in the process, has shot off a letter to the home minister asking him the reasons for the omission. Mr Acharia heads CPM in the Lok Sabha.

Home minister had invited MPs representing 35 Naxal-affected districts to apprise them of the situation, strategy and development schemes there. The government told the MPs that the Naxalites were trying to block development by destroying places like school buildings, roads and telephone towers.

Mr Acharia, CPM’s leader in the Lok Sabha, represents Bankura, which figures on the map of Maoist-affected areas. The other two Left MPs, who were not invited for the meeting, are from Purulia and Jhargram, which are also Maoist-dominated areas. Jhargram is also represented by a CPM MP Pulin Behari Bhaskey while the Lok Sabha member from Purulia is All India Forward Bloc’s Nepal Chandra Mahato. However, CPI’s Prabodh Panda, who represents West Midnapore, was invited for the meeting.