Halt violence: Chidambaram to Maoists

New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) India Friday promised the Maoists
that it would persuade the state governments to talk to them
if they halt violence and said they were not being asked to
lay down arms.

"The violence must end. The State -– the Central
Government and the State Governments -– have a duty to end the
violence. It is with that objective that we have made a simple
and straight forward appeal to the CPI (Maoist): Halt the
violence," India Home Minister P Chidambaram told a press
conference here.
He said the appeal was simple and why it should be
subjected to tortuous interpretation and analysis.
"On behalf of the Central Government I wish to say once
again that the CPI (Maoist) should halt the violence and the
Central Government would persuade the State Governments to
talk to them on all matters including their concerns on land
acquisition, forest rights, industrialization and development.
"I regret to say that the response so far has been
disappointing," Chidambaram said in his monthly press
conference.
Replying to a question, he said the government had never
asked Maoists to surrender arms before coming to the
negotiating table.
"We have never said as far as naxalites are concerned --
lay down arms because I am too realistic to know that they
would not do so," he said. MORE PTI SKU
DDC



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