The Home Minister P Chidambaram has described the killings of political workers in West Bengal as alarming .He said that the violence point to a virtual collapse of law and order in some parts of the state. In a letter written to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee yesterday, he agreed with the Chief Minister's view that the CPI (Maoist) has a significant presence in three districts of West Bengal and the challenge was how to contain them both administratively and politically and it was in that view that the Central government provided substantial support by deploying Central forces at your request. Referring to the response of his earlier letter MR. Chidambaram pointed out that the question that remains unanswered is if armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order, what is the role of the security forces, especially the CPMFs that have been deployed at the request of the state government. Chidambaram had yesterday sent two letters to Bhattacharjee, as a reply to the Chief Minister's December 28 communication. Both letters were faxed as well as sent by speed post.