Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to visit Maoist-hit Midnapore

Kolkata, Nov 2 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee will pay a two-day visit to the Maoist-hit areas
in West Midnapore district from next Saturday to review the
situation and development work, in what is being seen as a
morale-boosting exercise.
Home secretary Ardhendu Sen told reporters after a
high-level meeting with the chief minister that 'zila
sabhadhipatis' and other officials of Bankura and Purulia, two
other Maoist-affected districts, would also be present during
the review meeting in Midnapore.
On being asked whether Bhattacharjee's visit would be a
moral-boosting exercise since the people in the Maoist-hit
districts were concerned about security, he said, "We are
concerned about security. Naturally they (people) will also
have that concern."
Admitting that development work in the districts had
suffered, Sen said the Maoists were hindering development work
and "we have to increase security cover at the block level to
overcome this."
He said there was no plan to deploy military in the
Maoist-hit districts and the state government had not received
any formal communication from the Indian government about
anti-Maoist operations. PTI