Centre will provide all help to Orissa govt to end violence: Sibal

New Delhi, Aug 29 (UNI) Assuring all possible help to the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa to combat violence, the Centre today said the secular fabric of the country will not be allowed to be vitiated at any cost.

"Whatever help is required by the Orissa government, we will give," Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal told newspersons here.

The minister was replying to queries by journalists after he briefed on the outcome of the Cabinet meeting this morning.

Orissa has been on the boil since Saturday evening when Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and four others were killed at his Jalespata ashram in Kandhamal.

Saraswati was campaigning against religious conversions and cow slaughter. His killing triggered violence against the Christian community by some elements in the state.

Mr Sibal said the Centre would prefer a CBI inquiry into the acts of violence, but such a demand has to come from the state government.

Asked to comment on the events in Singur, Mr Sibal said the Centre has little role to play and it was for the state government to act.

However, the Central government would not like the investor setiment to be hit.

Followers of Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee have laid seige around the Nano Plant in Singur announcing that they will not allow any employee to enter the plant. Ratan Tata, who owns the plant, has said he would pull out its Rs 1,500 crore investment in West Bengal if the agitators do not review their decision to continue with the agitation.

Describing the violence in Orissa as "'sensless", Mr Sibal said it strikes at the very root of the concept of tolerence embeded deep in the Indian ethos.

Asked whether the government was planning to set up a commission to inquire into the incidents of violence, Mr Sibal said Committees do not help solve matters. In this regard he cited the instance of setting up of the Nanavati Commission relating to the Gujarat violence, saying little action has taken place on the ground.

He said the state goverment must ensure that such acts of violence are not repeated and the relief measures announced by the government are implemented quickly.

"I have expresed very strong feelings of the Centre on the violent incidents", Mr Sibal quipped.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting with a delegation of the Catholic Bishops Society of India(CBCI) had decribed the Orissa violence as a "shame" and offered all help from the Centre to end the communal clashes and restore normalcy.

UNI GS JT GC1454