Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged here on Friday that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was trying to shield the Maoists involved in the detention of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express by not naming them in the first information report filed by the railway authorities.
Addressing a rally organised by the Howrah district Left Front Committee, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “Though a Union Minister, she [Ms. Banerjee] did not mention the name of the Maoist-backed Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC) as being responsible for the incident even when the Central Reserve Police Force named the outfit in the first information report filed by it.”
Alleging that the nexus between the Maoists and the Trinamool had been proved in the wake of the agitation at Nandigram, he said there was now no doubt that the Trinamool was “supporting” the Maoists in the State.
The Left Front’s State Committee chairman Biman Bose demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the statement of Union Minister of Rural Development Shishir Adhikary that he had prior information of such an attack on trains in the Maoist-affected region.
On the Maoist menace, Mr. Bhattacharjee exuded confidence that the State government would “defeat” the rebels. “We will certainly defeat the Maoists and simultaneously unmask the State’s main Opposition party.”
Mr. Bhattacharjee added that the State government would defeat the Maoists “politically similar to what it had done during the Naxalbari movement in the late 60s.”
Pointing out that large tracts of land acquired by the railways during the last 25 years were lying vacant, he urged the railway authorities to initiate projects on those lands soon and generate employment.
BPL cards
Mr. Bhattacharjee said the State government was trying to distribute Below Poverty Line cards to all people under the BPL category in the State by December this year.
