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Reds Vs Reds:FIGHT TO LIBERATE LALGARH, by Insaf,18 June 2009 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 18 June 2009    

Reds Vs Reds

FIGHT TO LIBERATE LALGARH

By Insaf

Three States-- West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland are gaining notoriety for being the badlands of the country. In the first, it is Reds vs Reds with the Maoists taking on the CPM’s (red brigade) for control of villages in rural Bengal. Emerging from the Bengal- Jharkhand border, the Maoists audaciously struck Jhargram town followed by laying siege of two police stations in West Midnapore district aided by the local tribals. As it stands the Maoists have turned 100 sq km and 1100 villages into the country’s second ‘liberated zone’, after Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. The Maoists are seeking to increase their sway from next week by laying siege on Goaltore and Salboni 50 km away from Lalgarh. Already in Lalgarh district the Maoists brigade has taken position of the villages and are hounding out the CPM cadres and leaders, targeting their party offices and digging roads and setting up barricades to block access to security force.

Clearly, the Naxal game plan is to create liberated zones in the State. Against the backdrop that a demoralized police force and a wary State government which refuses to take action. It does not want a repeat of Singur and Nandigram. In West Midnapore district, Maoists have laid siege on two police stations into the tribal police station areas. Underscoring as never before how administrative institutions, systematically subverted over the years by the CPM, collapse when there is a threat of a power-shift reducing party cadres to sitting ducks. Clearly, the CPM’s cup of woes continues to overflow post its electoral debacle. It is a moot point whether the red brigade will be able to curtail the Maoists fire or will the State erupt into a full-fledged civil war. A worried New Delhi has dispatched the CRPF’s new anti-Naxal commando force to the State. Notwithstanding the Central forces continuing operations to rid Lalgarh of the Maoists, the siege once again exposes the unpreparedness of both the State and Centre to tackle growing Naxal menace.    

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Dacoit Throws UP Police In Turmoil

If it is the Maoists on a rampage in West Bengal, it is the dacoits who have wrought havoc in Uttar Pradesh. Imagine, a lone dacoit in Jamauli village in Chitrakoot district of the Hindu heartland took head-on around 400 police personnel, led by top UP officers in a deadly encounter on Tuesday last, killing three cops and injuring an Inspector General and Dy. IGP. Shockingly, it took the police 50 hours to battle and ‘smoke out’ the dacoit, who hid in a cluster of 40-odd houses and eventually kill him. Notorious Ghanshyam Kewat aka Naam has indeed made a name for himself in the annals of notorious dacoits. Many in the heartland dub him as an incarnate of the dreaded Phoolan Devi. The drama however, highlights the miserable performance of the State police force. 

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 Nagaland’s  Ethnic Inferno 

In Nagaland, the North Cachar hills continue to be engulfed in an inferno of ethnic violence which erupted in March last. Leaving over 50 dead as unidentified miscreants alternatively targeted Zeme Naga and Dimasa tribal villages. The Dimasas comprise about 35 per cent of the hill district’s population, followed by the Zeme Nagas who are about 11.5 per cent. The Tarun Gogoi State Government already grappling with the twin menace of insurgency-induced violence and a nexus between the politician and insurgents is now working overtime to bring things under control. Towards that end, it has placed the North Cachar Hill Autonomous Council under suspended animation and deployed additional forces. 

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 Uttarakhand Adds To BJP Woes

There seems to be no respite from the bitter infighting in the BJP, engulfed as it is in a tough war between rival internal factions. If the stark differences within the Central leadership were not bad enough, Uttarakhand is in the throes of a fresh crisis. This follows former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari’s resignation from the Rajya Sabha, ostensibly to go back and work among the masses. Notwithstanding his taking back the resignation a day later, the entire drama is an ill-conceived attempt to mount pressure on the party for beleaguered Chief Minister B C Khanduri to quit. Adding to the all-round confusion, the State Legislative party is reportedly split down the middle between the rival factions. Undoubtedly, Khanduri gained a breather by winning the Kapkot bypoll following the 0-5 defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. But with the Koshiyari faction asserting that the issue of leadership change was alive, despite show cause notices to 21 members, everything seems to be up in the air.

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Mumbai Division Over ATR

The Mumbai 26/11 carnage refuses to die down on the political stage. What with the Maharashtra Government continuing to play havoc and politicizing the terror attack. The latest is its refusal to table the Ram Pradhan Committee report to inquire into the bloodbath. Instead of tabling the entire findings of the two-member Committee, the Government chose to table an abridged Action Taken Report (ATR).  Thanks to serious difference within the Cabinet over its findings. Primarily, why Mumbai Police Commissioner was shunted out when the report had given the Mumbai Police a clean chit? Worse, replacing him with an officer who was Commissioner of State Intelligence Department indicted for intelligence failure. Resulting in not a few Ministers wanting another committee to study the report! Politicians will be politicians.

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 Orissa’s Five-Year Perspective Plan 

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has decided to take a cue from none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in improving his governance report card. On the lines of Singh asking his ministers to plan a 100-day action plan, Patnaik has instructed his secretaries to prepare a five-year perspective plan. They have to act fast and do the needful in consultation with their ministers in just 15 days! In the first meeting of secretaries last week, the CM asked the officers to implement bijli, sadak and paani programmes.  “We cannot yield the fruits of welfare schemes if officers make reviews in AC rooms,” was his clear message. The officers are to now head to the villages and  ensure the schemes serve the people’s purpose.   

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 ‘Sleepless Nights’ For MP CM

Worried over poor performance in the Lok Sabha poll, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has turned into a workaholic, stretching his days at both ends. After bagging 25 out of 29 seats in 2004 and winning a State election comfortably last year, the party was sadly down to 16 seats this general poll. In a damage control exercise, the BJP CM has particularly set his eyes on the rural folk, which let him down. On Saturday last, he surprised everyone by spending the night in tribal-dominated Saheli village of Hoshangabad district, listening to grievances, sanctioning a higher secondary school and promising to provide wheat at Rs 2 a kg to BPL families. Back in Bhopal on Sunday, Chouhan preferred to restructure the Rural Development Department, dealing with schemes for the girl child and women, rather than rest. Hope the hard work pays off.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

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