No armed camps in West Bengal: Karat

PATNA: CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday denied that his party was running "armed camps" in West Bengal but said they had opened camps in the three naxal hit districts of the state to shelter people who had fled their homes in the wake of Maoist terror.

Denying reports that the CPI-M was opening the camps to take on the Maoists, Karat accused the Trinamool Congress of trying "to isolate" the CPI-M and other Left parties in the Left ruled state.

"We have opened up camps in the three districts for sheltering the people migrating under the fear of naxalites and these are taking their better care", Karat said.

He claimed that around 272 Left activists lost their lives as on May 2009 in the attacks allegedly perpetrated by the Maoists in league with the Trinamool Congress.

"Now Maoists have started facing resistance from our cadre in West Bengal", he added.

"Sinister attempts are being made by the Trinamool in connivance with the Maoists to isolate the government in West Bengal. Around 272 Left activists have lost their lives in violence perpetrated by them", Karat told a press conference.

Asked whether the Centre too was involved in instigating attacks on CPI-M workers, he said, "You know the fact that the Trinamool is a part of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. Its stand on Mamata Banerjee's Lalgarh rally with the support of the Maoists is fully known."

"Central Para-Military Force (CPMF) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) were used during the rally, a fact which is in the know of the Centre and Union Home Ministry", he said.

 "But by saying that it (the rally) was a political event, it makes things clear", Karat said without elaborating on the issue.

To another question, Karat said his party had already admitted that Nandigram was "an administrative and political error" on the part of the party.

Karat said his party had decided to launch a week-long campaign between September 12 and 19 across the country to apprise the people of "the sinister game plan to isolate the West Bengal government."

Reiterating that naxalism should be treated separate from general law and order problem, he said "I am sure the Maoists are not going to launch a political platform and will not last long."

On the suggestions of caste-based census, Karat said his party had already made its stand on the issue clear to the Centre.

"We want the census be undertaken without classifications of castes for General Category and enumeration of the OBCs be done on the pattern of SC and ST", he said.