Author: Pradip Kumar Datta
Publication: MailArchive.Com
Date: April 15, 2006
URL: http://www.mail-archive.com/assam@assamnet.org/msg05063.html
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya Wednesday admitted that
the entry of illegal aliens and terrorists through the Bangladesh border was
a serious problem faced by the state.
"Infiltration is a serious problem and
I think enough is enough. I had told the prime minister that the situation
is deteriorating and that Bangladesh should be told in no uncertain terms
about the problem (during the recent visit of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia),"
Bhattacharya said.
Addressing a meet-the-press function organised
by Kolkata Press Club, he said: "Terrorist outfits are using the same
corridor."
"Bangladeshis who have come to India
till 1971 are refugees. Whoever - Hindu or Muslim - comes after 1971 is an
infiltrator as per the Indira-Mujib pact," he asserted.
The responsibility for curbing this problem
lay mainly with the central government and the Border Security Force (BSF).
To a question on the proliferation of madrassas
in West Bengal and their role in fomenting communal unrest, Bhattacharya said:
"I have appealed to the madrassas to join the mainstream of our education
and teach subjects like mathematics and computers.
"They can teach Arabic and Koran. But
they should also teach mainstream subjects as well," he said.
Bhattacharya admitted outfits like the Greater
Cooch Behar Peoples Association (GCPA) in north Bengal's Cooch Behar district
were getting support from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
of Assam.
But he said GCPA, which earlier backed the
Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) in the region, would not be able to
create much trouble.
The GCPA has said its members will begin an
indefinite hunger strike from May 5, three days before elections in the region,
if its demand for Cooch Behar district be made a separate state is not met.
The chief minister said Maoist rebels would
be tackled politically and through the development of roads, education and
irrigation. But since Maoist cadres were involved in an armed struggle, policing
was needed to combat them.
"They are an armed force. I cannot talk
of non-violence with them. So policing is needed," he said, adding that
he would visit areas affected by Maoist violence in Purulia and Bankura districts
over the next two days.
Bhattacharya reiterated that compared to the
rest of India, the law and order situation in West Bengal was better.
The chief minister, who faced a barrage of
questions from members of the national and international media before he seeks
later this month a mandate for a seventh Left Front government led by his
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), admitted his government's shortcomings
in education and healthcare.
"It is a collective responsibility and
I just cannot blame individual ministers for the shortcomings. We have been
able to spread primary education but I admit the quality of teachers is still
poor. Our hospitals provide almost free treatment to 70 percent of the population,"
he said.
To a question on whether the five-phase polls
would pose problem for the CPI-M, which is accused of rigging the polls, Bhattacharya
said: "I am ready to play both one day match and five-day Tests."
He said he was wooing capitalists and maintaining
good relations with industrialists because he wanted industrialisation of
West Bengal.
"We are practical. We are not fools.
We are not implementing socialism here. We cannot implement socialism in the
given circumstances. Under the capitalist system we are trying to make capitalism
as labour-friendly as possible," he said.
Bhattacharya pledged to improve the quality
of life of the people living below the poverty line and to consolidate the
success on the agricultural and industrial fronts if re-elected to power.
