West Bengal govt accepts central ban on Maoists

The Left Front government in West Bengal on Tuesday accepted the Centre's ban on the Communist Party of India-Maoist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

"This is applicable for the entire country, all states and we have accepted it. But how to implement it is the government's business," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told media persons after a cabinet meeting in Kolkata.

The chief minister said the Centre had only included the CPI-Maoist in the list of 34 organisations, which had been banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

"This had become necessary as the People's War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which figured in the list, had merged to form the CPI (Maoist)," he said.

Bhattacharjee said that during his discussion with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Delhi recently, he had come to know the Centre was initiating the measure.

He said the Maoists could be tackled through a slew of initiatives along with administrative measures.

"We have to ensure socio-economic development of areas where they (Maoists) are active, isolate them politically and initiate administrative measures against them."

Pointing out that the Centre had been insisting on states raising their own forces to combat terrorism and also Maoists, he said that his government would raise a new combat force to counter terrorist activities.