With Assembly elections fast approaching, the initiative is priority.
As a build up of the coming state assembly election the state administration has decided to take up a massive drive to recover arms from the various political parties in rural Bengal.
In a meeting of senior police officials of the state, which was held on day before yesterday, the government has reviewed the law and order situation of the state and concluded that unless a major drive is initiated to recover arms immediately, the situation might go out chaired by the chief secretary of the state and attended by the home secretary, the DG of state police, senior IGs and SPs of the districts.
Only the SP of West Midnapur did not attend the meeting as he was busy conducting the anti-Naxalite operations in his area. It was learnt from the senior police officials who attended the meeting that after deliberation on the intelligence inputs provided by the CID officers, a decision has been taken to flush out the arms stockpiled in various districts by the anti-social elements and political parties.
The district police officers have also been instructed to take immediate measures to cut off the supply of the arms to these elements.
Already a large part of South Bengal has been affected by the violent turf war started between the ruling Left and the opposing TMC.
Frequent clashes are reported from the districts of North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, Wast and East Midnapur districts. Both sides have been sustaining casualties.
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In the last assembly session the chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee had assured that the administration would take measures to recover illegal arms and clamp down heavily on the warring groups irrespective of their political identities.
After that police had recovered arms from some villages in Birbhum, East Midnapur and some other areas. But, according to one senior police official, now the administration realised that unless the supply lines of these illegal arms are cut down, the situation won't change.
Hence, the CID has been entrusted with the task to monitor the trafficking of illegal weapons and provide crucial inputs to the district police. It is important to note that the high level meeting did not exclude any of the 18 districts from this drive.
Also, the police have been asked to put the known rowdies and musclemen under preventive detention for the ensuing period.
“The situation is really bad. If measures are not taken now, the things might turn out to be a bloody affair during the time of the elections,” opines a senior police official of the state.