Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today assured his cabinet colleagues from Left Front constituents that he would use the Prevention of Unlawful Activities Act, 1967, the central law under which the CPI (Maoist) has been banned, only under extreme circumstances, saying only one of the 22 arrested during the Lalgarh operation has been booked under the Act.

Left Front partners have been vocal in airing their concerns regarding the ban on the Maoists and have urged the chief minister to tread cautiously in using the Act.

“The CM said he had no other option but to implement the central government’s ban on Maoists in the state as he was constitutionally bound to do that. But so far as using the Act was concerned, he would not do it unless he was totally convinced. He said the only person who was booked under the 1967 Act was Gour Chakrabarty, spokesman for the Maoists, and none other among the 22 persons arrested at Lalgarh have been charged under that Act,” PWD Minister Kshiti Goswamy, who is from RSP, said after a meeting of the Core Committee of the cabinet, which was presided over by the chief minister.

Other ministers present at the meeting included Minister for Health Surya Kanta Mishra (CPM), Minister for Agriculture Naren Dey, (Forward Bloc), Minister for Fisheries Kiranmoy Nanda, (DSP) and Minister for Water Investigation Nandogopal Bhattacharya (CPI). According to Dey, the chief minister assured them that only the state government would decide when the central Act would be used.

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