By IANS,
Kolkata: The union home ministry team, which was on a two-day visit to West Bengal on a fact-finding mission regarding political violence, Wednesday suggested the use of better technology to improve intelligence network in Maoist-affected areas and increased manpower in the police force.
The central officers did not tour any of the trouble spots in the state, much to the discomfiture of the state’s main opposition Trinamool Congress.
They, however, held a series of meetings with senior administrative and police officers besides hearing out political parties and some intellectuals to find out ways on putting an end to the political violence that has claimed over 150 lives since the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
Before returning to Delhi in the evening, the three-member team led by union Additional Secretary (Home) D.R.S. Chowdhary, stressed the need for enhancing the communication network among police stations in areas where Maoist rebels have set up bases.
“The central team suggested use of upgraded technology for better intelligence gathering in Maoist-affected pockets,” state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen told mediapersons.
“They felt there should be improved coordination and communication among the police stations in the ultra-affected areas. They also emphasised on increasing the manpower of the police,” Sen said.
Earlier in the day, a Trinamool delegation led by Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy met the central team at a guest house and handed over a memorandum with details of political violence in the state.
“We requested them to visit the trouble spots in various districts to see for themselves the terror unleashed by the CPI-M. They can also talk to family members of those killed and the rape victims,” Roy told reporters.
Claiming that around 150 of its supporters and workers have been killed in the violence, the Trinamool handed over to the visiting delegation a list of what it said were the victims.
“We also gave them newspaper clippings and audio-visual footage of these incidents,” Roy said.
The home ministry officials gave a patient hearing to the Trinamool leaders and promised to go through “every page of the memorandum”.
A little later, several people under the banner of the anti-Left Front forum ‘Swajan’ called on the bureaucrats and furnished details about the atrocities committed by the ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The central government bureaucrats then went to the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings and held a two-hour meeting with magistrates and police superintendents of nine districts.
The visiting team identified four types of “destabilising factors” in the state – the law and order problem with political connotation, violence related to the Gorkhaland movement in Darjeeling hills, dispute between the tribals and the Gorkhas in north Bengal, and the Maoist problem.
The visiting officers rounded up their trip with another meeting with the top bureaucrats, led by Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti.