West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged the Maoists in the Jangalmahal region that spans parts of three districts in the southwest of the State to lay down their arms and sit for talks with the State government. She assured them of compensation and rehabilitation package if they did so.
Ms. Banerjee was addressing public meetings on Tuesday in Paschim Medinipur district on the first day of her first visit to Jangalmahal after becoming Chief Minister. She urged those engaged in left-wing extremism to shun their violent ways and return to the mainstream, even as she announced a slew of development projects for the region and financial incentives for its people.
“Come back to us …. We will take care of your families and ensure you a life of respect,” she said in Jhargram. “Friends, let us clear our misunderstandings and work together [with the government] for development,” was her exhortation at a rally in Nayagram.
“If you have to hold on to guns, do so for the country, the government, to safeguard peace; not to kill individuals,” she urged while announcing a plan of providing jobs to 10,000 youths as police constables, home-guards and in the national volunteer force within three months.
“The struggle should be through the democratic process, not with guns,” Ms. Banerjee said at Jhargram. “It is the weak [in mind] that carry arms… How many can guns kill? How many can they intimidate?” she said and appealed to the people to set aside their fears and help take the development process in the region forward.
“What Jangalmahal needs is peace and development, not guns and bloodshed….Guns do not ensure food… And if peace is maintained, there is no fear of being targeted by the joint security forces,” the Chief Minister assured in an indication that Central forces would remain deployed in the region for now.
Neither would the police of her government “carry out atrocities on the people as had happened in the past.”
The process of resuming train services at night in the region that was suspended since the Jnaneswari Express accident in May 2010 would begin “with the Howrah-Chakradharpur Express running tonight,” she said.
