Cong drops demand for a Central role

“Central intervention is out of the question. There is a Supreme Court ruling and a lot of legal hassles for this. We have not made any such demand to the Union home minister,” said Pradip Bhattacharjee,working president of Pradesh Congress,after a half-an-hour meeting with Chidambaram.

“We believe that if the Centre can stress and convince the the state government to fish out the illegal arms,then only lawlessness in the state can be tackled,” Bhattacharjee said.

The Congress leaders,however,did not elaborate as to how this can be done. Interestingly,Bhattacharjee said this demand was made by Bhuniya,who some time back had raised the demand for Central intervention in the state.

Meanwhile,Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee had earlier stressed that a central security agency should be entrusted with the duty of confiscating all illegal arms.

“Chidambaram said he will do whatever he can within the limits of the Constitution,” Bhattacharjee said. The Congress also brought up the Gorkhaland issue. “The minister assured us the problem would be tackled politically and talks would start again soon,” Bhattacharjee said.