Tribal leader Manish Kunjam, who carried medicines for the abducted Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon, said on Thursday the young IAS officer was in “good health”.
“The medicines reached Mr Menon on Wednesday. I could not meet Mr Menon. I delivered the medicines to the Naxal leaders, who said the district magistrate is fine. I have accomplished the task assigned to me by the Chhattisgarh government,” he said. Mr Kunjam, president of All India Adivasi Mahasabha and former CPI MLA, later in the afternoon met the kidnapped bureaucrat’s wife Asha Menon at the collector’s official bungalow at Sukma and “apprised” her of Mr Menon’s health condition.
Mr Kunjam, however, said he would meet the Naxal-named interlocutor B.D. Sharma to give him “some suggestions”.
Meanwhile, chief minister Raman Singh, quoting Mr Kunjam, said the IAS officer, an asthma patient, who is being held hostage by Maoists since April 21, was administered emergency medicines and his health was stable.
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First round talks positive
age correspondent
Raipur, April 26
The first round of negotiations involving four interlocutors nominated by the state government and the Maoists, for ending the hostage crisis, ended on a “positive” note here in the evening.
The two government-sponsored negotiators, retired bureaucrats Nirmala Buch and S.K. Mishra, and their Maoist counterparts, B.D. Sharma and G. Hargopal, were closeted themselves in a room for nearly three-and-a-half hour before announcing closure of the first round of talks.
“The talks are proceeding in a positive direction and we hope for an early resolution also in a positive note. Our first round of talks is over and the second round will begin soon,” Ms Buch said.
Both the government-nominated mediators are meeting the Cabinet sub-committee constituted to deal with the issue.