KOLKATA: The Union government has agreed to accept West Bengal government’s proposal to redeploy five companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Junglemahal, which were withdrawn ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and sent to Jammu and Kashmir.
The state government requested the Centre in the wake of the state intelligence wings’ information that movement and concentration of Maoists are being seen in part of the Junglemahal after a gap of nine years.
After the Centre informed the state government that it would withdraw one company of CRPF from Junglemahal, the West Bengal home department wrote a letter raising its objection. The state is yet to receive the centre’s reply.
Presently, 23 companies of CRPF are deployed in four districts -- Jhargram, West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura. The state Intelligence Branch came to know a group of Maoists visited some villages along Bengal-Jharkhand border area on August 14 night and with the support of the villagers they hoisted black flags on Independence Day.
Meanwhile, the CPI (Maoist) broke the silence and expressed its views and stance on the issue of Bengal’s present political scenario after a gap of eight years. In an interview published in Laal Chingari, the outlawed outfit’s mouthpiece, Kishan, the secretary of the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB), criticised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accused her of suppressing voices against her using the state machinery.
"She is following the same footprints that the CPM, Bengal’s erstwhile ruling party, left behind. Trinamool Congress’ has adopted a strategy which doesn’t protect poor people’s interests," Kishan said in the interview.
The Maoist leader also urged the outfit’s Bengal functionaries to participate in the anti-establishment movements under the banner of frontal organisations.