New Delhi, July 30 - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday said many places in West Bengal had become 'killing fields' and he would speak to the state's Left Front government as the Trinamool Congress had complained of atrocities by Communist cadres.
Chidambaram told reporters at Parliament House: 'Many districts of West Bengal have become killing fields and we are very much concerned about this.'
Chidambaram was speaking after a meeting with Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is an MP from West Bengal, and Trinamool ministers Mukul Roy and Sisir Adhikari.
They met in Chidambaram's chamber in parliament after Banerjee complained to him about the 'deteriorating' law and order situation in West Bengal.
He said the Trinamool Congress 'complained against atrocities on its workers by CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) cadres.'
Chidambaram said: 'This situation is not acceptable. I will speak to the West Bengal government. We are very much concerned about these killings.'
He said even on Thursday he got a report that the body of a political worker had been found. However, he did not clarify the name of the party to which the victim belonged.
The home minister said Mamata Banerjee handed over to him 'a list of four districts where political killings of Trinamool and Congress workers by CPI-M cadres are taking place.'
Talking separately to reporters, Banerjee, the arch rival of the Communists in the state, said: 'The Trinamool Congress wants the West Bengal government to go and we have urged the home minister to stop the joint operation (by local police and the Central Reserve Police Force) in Lalgarh.