Raipur:
A five-member ministerial group set up by the Chhattisgarh government to look into the abduction of Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon, met government mediators Nirmala Buch and SK Mishra at Chief Minister Raman Singh's residence this morning. From here, the government mediators are expected to head out to meet Naxal mediators BD Sharma and Professor Hargopal for a fourth round of talks.
The Collector was kidnapped ten days ago, on April 21. Little headway has been made in three rounds of talks so far between the mediators of the Chhattisgarh government and those of the Maoists on the release of Mr Menon.
BD Sharma, a former IAS officer, and Hyderabad-based academic Professor Hargopal returned to Chintanlar yesterday after visiting the Tadmetla forests, where they had gone a day before to update the Maoists about the deliberations with the government. The two interlocutors said that the collector is safe.
The Maoists have demanded the release of 17 of their jailed leaders, a halt to the anti-Maoist offensive and sending security forces in Bastar to back to barracks, in exchange for the release of the 32-year-old, 2006-batch IAS officer.
On Friday, they sent two e-mails to the media explaining their stand. In the first statement they talked about why they kidnapped the IAS officer. The e-mail said the Sukma Collector was engaged in anti-Maoist activities in the region, which is why he became a target.
The second one, sent a few hours later, said that the Maoists had received no response from the state government and that they would not talk about extending the deadline for the release of Mr Menon if they did not get a proper reply from the state authorities. The letter also said that the state government did not appear serious about securing the release of the Collector.
The ministerial group meeting right now was set up hours after Mr Menon was abducted. It is headed by the Chief Minister and has on it Home Minister Nankiram Kunvar, PWD Minister Brij Mohan Agarwal, Rural Development Minister Ram Vichar and another minister, Kedar Kashyap.