The long-awaited meeting between Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to discuss law and order in the State would take place on January 19 in Delhi.
The Chief Minister would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the same day, sources in the Chief Minister’s secretariat said today.
“The Chief Minister is going to Delhi on January 18 to meet the Union Home Minister and Prime Minister the next day,” the sources said.
The Union Home Minister had sent a letter to the Chief Minister calling him to Delhi to discuss the law and order situation following the January seven killing of seven persons allegedly by CPI(M) cadres at Netai village in Maoist-affected West Midnapore district.
Mr. Chidamabaram had requested Mr. Bhattacharjee to ‘reschedule all appointments’ and visit Delhi ‘immediately’ and pointed to the virtual collapse of law and order in some parts of the State.
He questioned the role of central forces in anti-Maoist operations when CPI(M) armed cadres took it upon themselves the duties of law and order.
In his reply to the letter, the Chief Minister objected to the use of a word ‘harmad’ in the letter to describe CPI(M) workers.
The Chief Minister is scheduled to return to Kolkata from Delhi on January 19 evening because of a State cabinet meeting the next day, the sources said.
Earlier, the Chief Minister had said that he would be able to visit Delhi only in the third week of this month.
