“This act is applicable in the whole country. Thus, it is applicable in West Bengal,” Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters at the state secretariat after a Cabinet meeting.
State’s discretion
He, however, made it clear that it would entirely be the state’s discretion to implement the ban.
“It’s absolutely up to us to decide on how we would use it, whom to arrest, it would be our business,” he said.
The Union government on Monday decided to extend the ban on the Communist Party of India-Maoists under the same Act.
According to him, the Centre has only included the Communist Party of India-Maoists in the list of 34 organisations that face a ban under the said Act.
“This has become necessary as the People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which figured in the list, had merged to form the CPI (Maoist),” he said.
Published 23 June 2009, 19:08 IST