Twenty-four hours after the state government claimed that it had liberated the Lalgarh police station and established the rule of law, not much seems to have changed.

Not a single complaint was lodged and even the locals were not allowed to enter the police station, which remained heavily guarded with its main door locked.

The only perceptible change was that the Lalgarh police station personnel, after a long time, could sleep last night.

They probably felt safe for the first time since November 2008, when a mine blast on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy and the resultant police high-handedness snowballed into a mass agitation, which later took the Maoist colour.

The scene at the Lalgarh police station, which served as the base camp and epicentre for the Centre-state joint operation against Maoists, looked no different from it was four days ago, before the operation started.

It was, however, teeming with Central forces. The main gate of the police station was locked throughout the day, opening only when vehicles ferrying the state or Central police personnel passed.

“We are trying our best to gain peoples’ confidence. But that will take time. Our primary task now is to take action against the Maoists,” said Praveen Kumar, DIG Midnapur Range.

“Not a single complaint has been lodged so far. It has been months since someone came and lodged a complaint. We still cannot allow everyone in. Please, we cannot allow you to come in. Nobody is allowed in,” said a sub-inspector from inside when this correspondent knocked on the locked gate.

... contd.