CPI and CPI-ML to launch joint agitation against Nitish govt

Patna, May 13 (UNI) Enraged over alleged deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar, the CPI and the CPI(ML) here today announced a joint agitation programme against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for failing to ''restore'' Bihar into a ''crime-free'' state.

Expressing concern over the recent spurt in crimes, state secretaries of CPI and CPI-ML Badri Narayan Lal and Nand Kishore Prasad after a meeting last night regretted in a joint statement here, saying that though the NDA government had claimed to wipe out all criminal activities from the state within three months of assuming power in November 2005, it had so far ''failed'' to keep its promises.

As a result, the morale of criminals had become high and were having a field day in both rural and urban areas and committing numerous crimes of all sorts. They accused the Chief Minister of ''miserably failing to improve the overall law and order in the state''.

Moreover, they claimed that police atrocities against students and the downtrodden had increased manifold during the NDA regime, and alleged that whenever people tried to raise their voice in support of their demands, the NDA government ''mercilessly suppressed'' them through brutal police action.

Referring to the new Police Act in Bihar, they apprehended that it would infact empower the police to ''let loose a reign of terror'' against the poor and political workers, whenever they try to stage a protest against the failures of the present regime.

The joint meeting of both the Left parties also demanded the termination of Parliament membership of convicted RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, BJP MP Babulal Katara, involved in human trafficking, besides JD(U) MP Prabhunath Singh and MLA Sunil Pandey, who were involved in a number of criminal activities and facing charges in various courts.

UNI