[Pls. visit < http://aidindia.org/main/component/option,com_facileforms/Itemid,412/> and sign up petition issuing a call for peace in Lalgarh.]
I/III. http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090622/818/tnl-ban-on-cpi-maoist-extended-lalgarh-o.html Ban on CPI-Maoist extended, Lalgarh operations continue Indo Asian News Service*Mon, Jun 22 06:38 PM* New Delhi/Lalgarh, June 22 (IANS) The central government Monday extended the ban on the CPI-Maoist across the country, including West Bengal, which has so far resisted moves to declare the outfit a terrorist organisation, the home ministry said. However, West Bengal's ruling Left Front said it was against banning the CPI-Maoist and would counter such outfits politically, two days after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stated that his government will give serious thought to proscribing the rebels. On his part, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat said: 'Maoists must be combated politically and administratively.' Meanwhile, the security forces intensified their operation to flush out Maoists from the troubled Lalgarh area as a 48-hour shutdown called by the rebels Monday disrupted normal life in their strongholds in West Bengal. After reclaiming Lalgarh town, security forces continued their operation against the rebels for the fifth day - setting out for Ramgarh town, 22 km away, where the Maoists had virtually driven the civil and police administration away earlier this month. In New Delhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters: 'Today, what we have done, in order to avoid any ambiguity, we have added the words CPI-Maoist in the schedule of the (Unlawful Activities Prevention) Act. 'All ambiguity has been removed,' Chidambaram said of the extension of the ban on the CPI-Maoist. The outfit is already banned in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa, where the Maoist rebels have a presence. Home ministry officials said the CPI-Maoist has been banned under the the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that is applicable all over the country. However, individual states have to issue their own notifications banning the organisation. The CPI-Maoist, which is the main left extremist group in the country, has been bracketed with 34 other organizations including Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who are in the list of banned outfits. The central government had been pressing the West Bengal government to also ban the outfit. Chidambaram, at a meeting with Bhattacharjee over the weekend, had advised him to ban the organisation. In Lalgarh, the security forces also carried relief to villages in the West Midnapore district that were facing shortage of food and drinking water. The state authorities opened the block development office in Lalgarh, a step towards restoring civil rule in the area which Maoists had declared a 'liberated' zone. The shutdown the Leftwing radicals called against the joint operation by the central and state forces saw vehicular traffic go off the roads, streets deserted and shops and business establishments closed in 18 police station areas in Maoist-affected Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia districts in the western part of the state. Security was heightened across the state, particularly in the three districts, in view of the shutdown. Police patrolled the streets and guarded vital installations and carried out checks in trains and buses, said a senior police officer. West Midnapore distict magistrate N.S. Nigam told IANS: 'Movement of vehicles was affected in some parts of the districts. Shops also remained closed.' In Bankura district, normal life was paralysed in areas under seven police stations where the rebels have a strong base. A South Eastern Railway source said train services over the Purulia-Birmadih section were disrupted after the Maoists threatened the station master and some gangmen and a suspected bomb planted by the rebels was found close to the Birmadih station. Bomb squad personnel were rushed to the spot. 'The operations are on. There has been no major incident so far,' Inspector General of West Bengal Police Raj Kanojia told IANS in state capital Kolkata. Lalgarh is 200 km from Kolkata. A security force patrol found a wire and other materials that could be used in planting landmines barely 500 metres from the Lalgarh police station Monday morning. 'We have intensified search for land mines and bombs on the entire Lalgarh-Ramgarh route. Our move to reclaim Ramgarh is now on a limited scale. Full-scale movement will begin only after we sanitise the entire stretch,' said a senior police officer. The rebels had torched the Ramgarh outpost earlier this month, forcing the state police to retreat from the area. Lalgarh has been on the boil since last November when a landmine exploded on the route of the convoy of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada. Complaining of police atrocities after the blast, angry tribals backed by Maoists launched an agitation virtually cutting off the area from the rest of the district. In recent days, the agitators have torched CPI-M offices, driven away the ruling party's supporters and forced the police to leave, thereby establishing a virtual free zone. The rebels also backed the Trinamool Congress-sponsored movement against the state government's bid to establish a chemical hub at Nandigram in East Midnapore district. The CPI-Maoist was founded in September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India. In the merger, a provisional central committee was constituted, with People's War leader Ganapati named as the general secretary. II. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Left-opposes-ban-on-Maoists-in-West-Bengal/articleshow/4687194.cms Left Front against ban on Maoists in West Bengal 22 Jun 2009, 1459 hrs IST, PTI KOLKATA: West Bengal's ruling Left Front on Monday said it was against banning the CPI (Maoist) and will counter such outfits politically, days after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stated that his government will give a serious thought to proscribing the Naxals. "We have decided that such outfits, which follow misguided politics, cannot be countered by banning them. It is important to counter the activities of these outfits politically," Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here. He said that the fight of the Leftists against the "misguided politics" of the Maoists was on. "We are opposing the terrorist activities of the Maoists and that is why we are attacked," he said in a statement. Bose said it was a continuous political process to "alienate" people from the "dangerous politics" pursued by the Maoists. "This work has to be carried on," he said. He, however, said that it was necessary to take administrative steps to restore normal life of the people. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday, had stated that his government was considering banning the CPI (Maoist) after the Centre's suggestion in this regard following the Naxal violence in Lalgarh. "Home minister Chidamabarm advised me to ban this organisation. We have to give it a serious thought," Bhattacharjee had told reporters in New Delhi. "We have started thinking what to do," he had said. Chidambaram had earlier said that the state government should ban the Maoists. "We think they (Maoists) should be banned in West Bengal as in other states," he had said. The CPI and Forward Bloc, two major LF constituents, also said that the problem would not be solved by banning the Maoists. CPI state council secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar said, "We do not think a ban on them will solve the problem; it has to be solved politically. There may be a dialogue with the ultras, but before that they have to eschew the politics of murder and anarchy." Echoing his views, Forward Bloc secretary Ashok Ghose said, "We have fundamental differences with the Maoists, but they are not our class enemies. We are against imposing ban on them. We want them to follow the democratic path and we are totally against their politics of terrorism." III. http://www.timesnow.tv/CPI-Maoist-banned-to-avoid-ambiguity-Centre/articleshow/4320302.cms CPI-Maoist banned to avoid ambiguity: Centre 22 Jun 2009, 1910 hrs IST The Centre today said it banned CPI-Maoist as a terror organisation to avoid any ambiguity after the merger of CPI-ML and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in 2004. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that the CPI-Maoist was formed after the merger of two organisations -- CPI (ML) People's War and MCC, both of which were already banned outfits under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. "All that we have done today is to avoid any ambiguity. We have added the words of CPI Maoist in the schedule of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act," he said, adding "It was always a terror organisation and today an ambiguity has been removed." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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