Government will keep its word: Naveen

BHUBANESWAR: As the hostage crisis drags on, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced in the Assembly that the commitments made by the State Government will be followed in letter and spirit. In his statement on the hostage crisis, the Chief Minister clarified that his statements in the House on April 4 and 5, in which he announced the names of persons to be set free from different jails for the release of Italian Paolo Bosusco, were based on the outcome of the negotiations with the two mediators __ BD Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty. The mediators were nominated by Odisha State Organising Committee of the CPI (Maoists) headed by Sabyasachi Panda, he said. The statement of the Chief Minister assumes significance in view of the allegations made by the CPI (Maoist) that the State Government did not honour the agreement signed with the mediators for the release of kidnapped IAS officer and the then Malkangiri collector R Vineel Krishna. The Maoists have alleged that the 13-point agreement, reached between the State Government and the Maoist interlocutors for the release of the then Malkangiri collector, was never implemented. The  Government also did not follow up on the implementation of the demands and discontinued talks.