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Tribals to continue agitation in Paschim Medinipur district

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The agitation by a section of the local tribal population against alleged police excesses that has cut off certain areas from the rest of West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district will continue till the demands placed before the local authorities are met, according to its leaders on Friday.

This was announced at a meeting of tribal leaders who addressed a congregation of local villagers, some armed with axes, at Dalilpur in the Lalgarh area where the first protests had been raised a fortnight ago.

Fresh roadblocks have been set up in the Lalgarh area and its surroundings by the protestors, who are demanding that police camps from the area be withdrawn and the tribals arrested in connexion with the IED blast that narrowly missed Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy on November 2 be released.

The State government will soon be apprising the Centre of the developments in Paschim Medinipur district.

State’s Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakravarty, submitted to Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, a report on the situation in the district.

“Leaflets and posters with statements of Maoists supporting the tribal agitation definitely proves their hand behind all this but we are yet to pinpoint any outfit,” Mr. Chakravarty said here.

It was also decided at the meeting of tribal leaders at Dalilpur that discussions with the local authorities on the demands of the protestors could be held only there and at no other venue.

An invitation to the administration for talks at Dalilpur was turned down on Wednesday.

Ruling out talks with the protestors there Mr. Chakravarty said that the convention was that discussions with the State officials were held only in government offices. The administration was open to the idea of talks but convention would have to be respected.

The State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoists) has come out in the open in support of the protests.

The situation, district officials say, has turned more complex because local tribal leaders seem to be losing control of the villagers.

Moreover, there were so many such local leaders that the administration was hard put to determine who it should sit with for talks that could pave the way for the restoration of normality in the region, a senior district official told The Hindu over phone from Jhargram, the sub-divisional headquarters.

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