By NNN-PTI,
Midnapore/Kolkata : Tribals in Bengal’s restive Jhargram belt on Sunday postponed their proposed boycott of police at Lalgarh, saying they would wait for a few more days for the state government to start talks with them.
However, they further dug up roads and felled trees at seven places along a vital road, linking the area to the district headquarters.
Fresh barricades were put up on the arterial Jhargram-Dherua road near Lalgrah, where the backlash started on November seven to protest against alleged police excesses.
The aggrieved tribals also dug up ‘kutcha’ roads in many areas at Jamboni, Katapahari, Belpahari and other police station areas in the tribal belt in West Midnapore district.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand Party (Aditya) has called a 48-hour bandh starting from November 28 in Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia districts. The party’s leader, Aditya Kisku, told reporters at Khatra in Bankura that the state government had been playing “game with innocent adivasis”.
Leaders of the ‘Janaganer Police Nirjatan Pratirodh Committee’, spearheading the agitation, today held a “secret” meeting at Gidhni in the Jamboni police station area to chalk out future course of action in case the talks failed to take place, sources said.
Although both the the administration and the tribal leaders expressed willingness to sit across the table, the talks actually did not take place as the government representatives were unwilling to go to the tribals-suggested venues at Dalilpur and now Katapahari, both being the hotbeds of Maoist activity.