Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS) Four days after union Home Minister P. Chidambaram summoned him to Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Monday wrote back to him that he will be able to visit the capital in the third week of January.
‘Honourable chief minister, West Bengal, has received a letter dated Jan 7, 2011, inviting him to visit Delhi. The chief minister has informed that he will be able to visit Delhi in the third week of this month,’ said a media release from the Chief Minister’s Office Monday.
Chidambaram sent the missive Friday, hours after the Netai village killings close to the Maoist hub of Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, asking Bhattacharjee to ‘reschedule all appointments and visit Delhi immediately’.
The home minister described the carnage as a ‘grave incident’.
Seven people were killed and at least 20 injured in firing allegedly triggered by assailants sheltered in an armed cadre’s camp of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.
In an earlier letter to Bhattacharjee, Chidambaram invited him to Delhi to discuss the escalating political violence in the state. However, Bhattacharjee replied that he could not come immediately.
