Kolkata:
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram accusing him of turning a blind eye to CPM allegedly highjacking anti-Maoist joint operations in West Bengal's West Midnapore district.
She also called into question the joint forces' operations against Maoists saying "it is an operation against the people as there is no Maoist".
Questioning whether Chidambaram was aware of "CPM running about 200 camps in the district to train cadre to handle sophisticated weapons", Banerjee said "my question to Chidambaram babu is: have you allowed the CPM to set up such camps? Has it not come to your knowledge? If it is in your knowledge, what have you done? Chidambaram should reply."
She alleged CPM was running such arms training camps in places including in Enayatpur anchal panchayat, Kangsabati village gram panchayat, Kashijhora anchal panchayat, Salboni camp and at Goaltore.
"My question to Chidambaram is what is happeining in the name of joint operations? It is an operation against the people. It is not an operation against Maoists.
"There is no Maoist. The CPM are killing people and leaving Maoist flags beside bodies. The joint operations are to kill opposition party activists and to create a reign of terror by the CPM which wants to cling to power," she told a press conference here.
Banerjee's barbs at Chidambaram comes at a time when senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh publicly expressed his differences with the Home Minister on the issue of tackling Maoists.
Claiming that the joint operations were not being handled properly Banerjee demanded that they be halted.
"My question to Chidambarambabu is whether joint operations should be controlled by the Home Ministry or the CPM district secretary Dipak Sarkar whose permission is needed for even journalists to enter Lalgarh."
Alleging that CPM Minister Sushanta Ghosh and Sarker were masterminding the joint operations, Banerjee said 300 people were unable to enter their homes in Goaltore since Monday.
She alleged the arms, including Chinese ones, were being brought in vehicles of ministers, senior police officers and zilla parishad from international borders, including with Bangladesh and Nepal, as also Bihar-Jharkhand border as also from Munger in Bihar.
When a correspondent spoke of a circular issued by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that only the Union Home Minister would speak on Maoist activities, Banerjee said she was speaking as a political leader on the situation prevailing here. "PM is correct from his point.
"PM did not say that the government will kill people," she said.
Banerjee alleged CPM men killed 60 Trinamool supporters since January and pointed out that even Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee had admitted that 3200 people were killed, including 800 political activists.
"There is no democracy. State-sponsored terrorism is going on and the chief minister is responsible for it. We will drive out CPM from Bengal and restore the people's democratic rights," she said.