General

The Centre cleared an ambitious plan on Friday to give Rs 3,300 crore directly to 60 Naxal-affected districts to create basic facilities for the millions living on the fringes of existence and try to make up for decades of alienation and misgovernance. Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Rs 25 crore

was being sent to each of the 60 districts for the next four months, and another Rs 30 crore next year to build facilities such as schools, health care centres, roads, and improve food distribution.

India has unveiled a Rs 3300 Cr plan for development in 60 naxalite affected tribal and backward districts in nine states. Under the Integrated Action Plan (IAP), the move will address the healthcare, drinking water, education and roads. The IAP would be given as an additional central assistance scheme on 100 percent grant basis to be implemented in two years.

Raipur, Nov 26 (IANS) In a strongly-worded circular, Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has asked officers of all ranks to avoid public functions to gain personal publicity.

In a circular sent by the general administration department to divisional commissioners, district collectors and chief executive officers of the district panchayats, the government has said no official should attend public functions as chief or special guest or preside over such functions.

Security forces will be soon moved out of government schools in the Naxal-affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, official sources said today.

The step is being taken to prevent Naxal attacks on these schools, which house security personnel engaged in anti-Maoist operations, they said.

Besides schools, the personnel reside in state-run hostels and other government buildings, which are often targeted by the Naxals, the sources said.

The security forces will be shifted out of these government facilities and accommodated in safer dwellings which will be built soon, they said.

Raipur, Nov 25 (IANS) A tantrik, his wife and five disciples have been arrested in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, for sacrificing a two-year-old boy in the belief that it would bring them wealth, police said Thursday, adding this may not be the first such killing by him.

The arrests were made Wednesday night from the industrial town, some 30 km from here, at the Ruabandha locality workers colony.

Raipur, Nov 19 (IANS) A zoo in Chhattisgarh was closed Friday to mourn the death of one of the world's oldest tigresses.

The tigress died Thursday at the age of a little over 22 years and 10 months at the government-run Nandan Van zoo that is based on the outskirts of state capital Raipur.

'Shankari was ailing for a few days and had enjoyed a lot of affection of visitors and even residents of nearby villagers,' Rakesh Chaturvedi, conservator of forests (wildlife), told IANS.

With the petitioners in the ongoing PIL case on Salwa Judum asking for the formation of a high-level committee to oversee the rehabilitation of displaced persons in Chhattisgarh and deal with criminal matters arising from the activities of the state-sponsored anti-naxal movement, the Centre, through the Solicitor-General, on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it agreed to the setting up of a panel but needed time to work out the details.

Chhattisgarh is facing difficulty in finding farmers who are ready to take up bamboo cultivation in the state under National Bamboo Mission.

The insufficient grant given to the farmers to cultivate bamboo was cited as one of the reasons for the reluctance. The National Bamboo Mission (NBM) is mooting a proposal to increase the grant given to the farmers, a senior officials with the mission said.

Raipur, Nov 17 (IANS) Chhattisgarh, which increasingly faces man-elephant conflict, will now take tips from two southern states on how to handle the menace. Its forest minister is on a week-long tour of Karnataka and Kerala for the purpose.

Chhattisgarh has been facing the problem for over a decade with the recent months seeing a sudden rise in such cases.

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) The government Monday said that Chhattisgarh is the only Maoist-hit state where tribals have been displaced. Nearly 40,000 people were in relief camps in 2008 in the state.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Tushar A. Chaudhary quoted a National Human Rights Commission's report and said that nearly 40,000 people were in relief camps in August 2008 in Dantewada and Bijapur districts.