Mamata slams Centre over Lalgarh

Kolkata: Firing a salvo at the UPA government of which her party is a major ally, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday criticised the Centre for what she described as its mishandling of the Maoist issue in West Bengal's Lalgarh area. She alleged that the Centre had "surrendered" to the CPM and failed to do enough to check Marxist violence in West Bengal.

However, the railway minister said she would not walk out of the alliance. "We are committed to the people who want the alliance to continue," Banerjee told a press conference in Kolkata.

"The Centre has surrendered to the CPM and has failed to check Marxist violence on our partymen in the state," she said.

Banerjee alleged that the Centre was 'providing oxygen' to the CPM by launching the anti-Maoist operations with the help of the state police in West Midnapore.

Reiterating her opposition to the operations in the troubled district, she said, "Union Home Minister P Chidambaram owes an explanation to the people for the failure of the joint operations."

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"The joint operations did not yield any result. Has the violence abated or killings or terrorism ended there?"

"Our party was not consulted despite the Trinamool Congress being the second largest ally of the UPA," she said.

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Renewing her demand for deploying the army in West Midnapore to deal with the situation, she said "Had the Centre been serious about fighting Maoists, it would have reacted."

(With PTI inputs)