The Centre is increasingly becoming worried at the worsening situation in Jharkhand where it feels the outlawed CPI (Maoist) is getting back in the reckoning, with the local politicians, police and administration not paying heed to various advisories and even to the letter sent by the Union home minister, P Chidambaram, to chief minister Arjun Munda.
Chidambaram in his letter, written after the attack on the convoy of former Jharkhand Assembly speaker and MP Inder Singh Namdhari in December that killed eight policemen, had cautioned Munda of state precarious situation asking him to pull up the administration and the police.
“The recent killing of 13 state policemen in a landmine blast was the result of these lapses. We have been regularly telling them in detail to follow the Standard Operating Procedures which clearly were not followed as they were going in a vehicle instead of being on foot,” said sources.
Three of the politburo, the highest body of CPI (Maoist) members – Prashanta Bose, Misir Besra and Arvindji – are trying to regain the party’s strength and successfully so because of utter administrative chaos.
The state has slowly let go the advantage it had gained during the governor’s rule in 2010, sources added.
This has led to Jharkhand becoming worst among the nine naxal-affected states, ahead of even Chhattisgarh. The CPI (Maoist) managed to hold 78 janadalats last year, which is more than the cumulative number in all the other states.
Initially, confident that the CPI (Maoist) would have a difficult time arranging for the Party Congress, the ministry of home affairs is now wary that regained strength in Jharkhand can help them hold it successfully again.
Comments