By IANS
New Delhi : Saying that law and order is the responsibility of the administration, the Supreme Court Monday ticked off the Chhattisgarh government for arming tribals to form a civil militia movement, Salwa Judum, to counter Maoist guerrillas.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Aftab Alam told the state government: “You cannot supply arms to the people and encourage them to take law into their own hands.”
The bench asked the state government to deploy more police, paramilitary forces and even the army to tackle the Maoists.
The terse observation by the bench came during the hearing of a petition filed by academicians Ramachandra Guha and Nandini Sundar.
The two alleged that in the name of fighting the Maoists, the government was arming Salwa Judum activists and encouraging them in the wanton killing of innocent tribals and villagers.
The petitioners contended that the Salwa Judum was basically “another name of state-sponsored terrorism in Chhattisgarh”.
They sought directions to the state government to refrain from supplying arms to the civil militia cadre and disband the movement.
The bench asked the petitioners to file another application seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the killings by the Salwa Judum. The matter was adjourned for further hearing on April 13.