Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday said that his government would have to accept the Centre's law in fighting the Maoists. He also said he would take steps as per the Centre's law.
The CM's statement comes a day after the Centre banned the CPI (Maoists).
Meanwhile, the situation is getting worse in Lalgarh. As the security operation against the Maoists is on, there's a humanitarian crisis in the making.
Thousands of villagers are forced to go without two square meals and essential supplies. There is no public transport coming into the area except the movement of security forces. The Bengal government has allotted 6 kilos of rice per family, which is clearly inadequate.
Braving the relentless heat, old men, women and children waited for hours to receive 6 kg of rice per family.
Latecomers had to contend with only half the amount leaving many questions unanswered of how the continuing security operations in the area will handle this emerging humanitarian need.
And even as West Bengal continued to battle the Maoist uprising in Lalgarh, there have been more attacks in other places as well. Naxals opened fire inside a court in Lakhi Sarai in Bihar, in an attempt to help four of their men to escape from police custody.
One did manage to escape. In the exchange of fire that followed, District Development Commissioner Rajiv Ranjan was shot at and was injured. Many other policemen are also injured.
Earlier in the day, Maoists blew up a mobile phone tower in Gaya. They also attacked a community centre in Bihar during their 48-hour bandh in five states to protest the police action at Lalgarh.
Scores of CPI (Maoist) ultras swooped on Jhikatia village in Aurangabad district just past midnight and set off dynamites to blow up the community centre building, police said on Tuesday.
However, no one was injured as nobody was present at the building when the Maoists triggered the blast.
(With PTI inputs)