KOLKATA: Asserting that her government won’t adopt a sit back and watch approach to Maoist excesses, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday evening said the peace process in Maoist hit ‘junglemahal’ area will continue but violence will no longer be tolerated.
“We will continue the peace process in junglemahal, but the government will not tolerate killings and violence anymore with the police and the administration to take stern action,” she said at a cabinet meeting, secretariat sources said.
PHE Minister Subrata Mukherjee raised the Maoist issue at the meeting and defended the state action to deal with Maoist violence, they said.
Noting that talks and killings could not continue together, the chief minister earlier in the day dubbed Maoists to be “more dangerous than terrorists” and warned that her government would not remain a mute spectator.
“You cannot talk peace and kill people. We cannot sit back and watch. We have to maintain law and order. We cannot suck our fingers when killings go on,” she said.
Banerjee, however, hoped that good sense would prevail on the Maoists to return to the mainstream.
“If they come to the mainstream, the state government will take responsibility. It is a duty of the government to give protection to people.”
DGP Naparajit Mukherjee at a separate briefing said said that the government was ready to hold peace talks if the Maoists stopped killings and laid down arms.
With the joint forces renewing operations in the Maoist- affected ‘junglemahal’ comprising the forested areas of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura in the state, Mukherjee said that additional forces would be deployed if necessary.
The state government has brought back former West Midnapore SP Manoj Verma from compulsory wait to head the counter insurgency force.
Meanwhile, government-appointed interlocutors for talks with Maoists wrote to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of their responsibilities.
“In view of the latest development in junglemahal, we feel we have no role to play in a positive and effective manner,” one of the six interlocutors told PTI on condition of anonymity.
The joint security in stepped up anti-Maoist operations, carried out searches and raids in Purulia and West Midnapore districts. (PTI)