Trinamool MLAs walk out over Lalgarh atrocity

Kolkata: The legislators of West Bengal's main opposition Trinamool Congress on Tuesday walked out of the state assembly, protesting against "atrocities" by the joint security forces on innocent villagers of Lalgarh during the operation to flush out Maoists.

Trinamool members were upset after an adjournment motion called by a party member on the issue was rejected by Speaker H A Halim. Raising slogans against the state's Left Front government, members of the party and its alliance partner Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) walked out of the house.

"People of Lalgarh are not getting food, water, power and clothes. Police and members of the ruling CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) are torturing the innocent people in the name of flushing out the Maoists," Leader of Opposition Partha Chattopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress told reporters later.

The Congress did not join the walkout, but its legislative party leader Manas Bhuniya later slammed the state government for "committing atrocities" on tribals in the troubled zone of West Midnapore district.

The state government has launched a massive security operation to flush out Maoist guerrillas from Lalgarh, an enclave 200 km west of this metropolis, after the rebels made the area a virtual "free zone" by torching police camps and offices of the CPI-M and drove out the civil administration.

After 13 days of the operation, the security forces, comprising central paramilitary troopers and state armed policemen, have reclaimed almost the entire stretch that was held by the rebels.

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