Date:29/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/29/stories/2007122951210300.htm

Other States - Orissa

CPI(M) team to visit strife-torn areas today

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR: Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati of the VHP should be barred from entering Kandhamal district if the government were to restore normalcy in the area, said State polit bureau member of the CPI(M) Ali Kishore Patnaik. A fact-finding team of the party would tour the strife-torn areas of the district on Saturday to have first-hand information and furnish a report to its central committee, said Mr. Patnaik.

“The fundamentalist elements are using the administrative machinery as well as the media to flare-up communal tension in the district,” he said, and alleged that the administration had failed to win the confidence of the minority community.