A child with a bow at a tribal gathering at Dalilpur Chowk. (Sanat Kumar Sinha)

Lalgarh, Nov. 21: The organisation spearheading the tribal agitation in Maoist hotbed Lalgrah tonight agreed to a meeting with the administration in any local government building and promised to lift the blockades that have cut off the area from the authorities.

“The talks may be held at Kantapahari or Ramgarh, where there are schools and panchayat offices. But there is one condition: the superintendent of police has to be present,” said Sidhu Soren, secretary of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities.

“We will wait for two days for the government’s response. If it does not agree, we will lift the blockade but socially boycott the police and the civil administration.”

The outfit had earlier insisted on talks in Dalilpur.

Additional district magistrate R.A. Israel, who camped in Lalgrah today, had said in the afternoon that a “jungle raj” prevailed in Dalilpur and the talks could not be held there. “A meeting with your leaders can be held across the table, but not in a jungle or in front of thousands of people,” he told Chhatradhar Mahato, a leader of the committee and brother of Maoist action squad leader Sashadhar.

The blockades would be removed for “the benefit of local people”, but Soren said: “We will not let any official of the district administration or the police enter the area if the talks fail.”

During the “social boycott”, the tribal leader clarified, local people would not sell foodgrain or other essentials to the police, making it difficult for those camping in remote pockets to procure food.

Only panchayats would be allowed to carry out development work and not the district administration, Soren added.

West Midnapore district magistrate N.S. Nigam said the government would consider the fresh proposals.

Some police officers, however, said that the “apparent climbdown” by the tribals protesting “police atrocities” since the landmine blast on a Union minister’s convoy on November 2 could be to “lure” the force into the tribal heartland.

He expressed the fear that thousands could surround the officials who go for the talks and lay siege to the venue. “They might surround us and force us to announce concessions and make unconditional apologies. We’d not like anything that could provoke us to act,” the officer added.

Maoists have already made the island of protest a free zone. The course of the agitation has been hijacked from local people with the rebels bringing in their sympathisers in hordes.

A team of young men and women, including members of the Matangini Mahila Samiti, which had camped in Nandigram for 11 months, reached Dalilpur today. They plan to train the villagers in making the area inaccessible to the administration for a long period, on the lines of Nandigram.

One of the speakers told a gathering of 3,000 people at Dalilpur: “Local people will run their own government.”

In a statement, CPI (Maoist) state secretary Kanchan asked the people of Lalgarh to keep their arms ready.

Tribals in Bankura blocked the road to Jhargram at two more places, expressing solidarity with the Lalgarh people.