From walking up to 10 kms to crossing rivers and spending nights in Naxal-hit areas, the poll officers will have to go past numerous hurdles and face life-threatening challenges to do their duty, but none of them is complaining.
Around 30 per cent polling was recorded till noon on Tuesday in 72 constituencies spread over 19 districts of Chhattisgarh where voting for the second and last phase of Assembly polls is underway.
Bhupesh Baghel revived the Congress in Chhattisgarh after the party's frontline leadership was wiped out in a Maoist attack in 2013.
Six security personnel were killed and eight injured in back-to-back attacks by Naxals in insurgency-hit districts of Chhattisgarh, which has seen a string of strikes by the red ultras in the past three days.
Concerned over high incidents of violence, the Home ministry has asked the Election Commission to conduct the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 33 Naxal-hit districts in the first phase to ensure maximum security and minimum casualties.
The forest department has issued a show cause notice to the DFO Rajesh Kumar Chandel seeking his reply within a week.
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Encouraged by their initiatives which resulted in high voter turnout in Naxal-hit areas, officers in Chhattisgarh's Chief Electoral Office are hopeful of a similar trend in 72 constituencies going to polls on Tuesday.
The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him.
The poll process in Chhattisgarh, which goes to assembly elections in two phases on November 11 and 19, was initiated on Friday with the issue of notification by Governor Shekhar Dutt.
Bhatnagar is expected to take charge of the CRPF later this week as he is on an official assignment in Indonesia in the capacity of NCB DG.
Avenging the Sukma attack, security forces claim to have gunned down 12-15 Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Basaguda-Chintalnar area on Sunday.
The Congress has demanded immediate removal of the nodal officer appointed by Chhattisgarh government to assist National Investigation Agency probing the Darbha valley Maoist attack in which senior Congress leaders were killed on May 25.
Ahead of the all-party meet called by the government to discuss the naxal situation, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said it will serve no purpose unless a comprehensive strategy is devised to deal with the problem.
'This is for the first time that a strong, solid evidence-based investigation has happened.' 'It can meet international standards and put the onus on the Pakistanis.'
More than two lakh paramilitary personnel, thousands of vehicles and nearly a dozen helicopters will be deployed across the country to ensure smooth and violence-free elections beginning April 7.
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday alleged that lack of coordination between the security forces and the state police was leading to rise in Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh, and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of having a nexus with ultras for political gains.
The jawans are helping farmers in ploughing their fields
Seven CRPF men were killed on Wednesday and their weapons looted after Naxals carried out a deadly landmine blast on their vehicle in the jungles of the worst Naxal-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
According to the notice, "The conduct (wearing sunglasses) is in violation of the India Services (Conduct) Rules, Section (3), 1968."
Maoists took 250 villagers hostage in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to neighbouring Dantewada but freed all the captives late on Saturday night barring one who was beaten to death after being tried in a 'people's court'.
The Union home ministry on Tuesday ruled out involvement of the army in anti-Naxal operations but said more paramilitary forces will be deployed for intensified operations in Maoists-hit areas to flush out the extremists.
The Central Reserve Police Force on Thursday said it has ordered an inquiry into the shocking recovery of uniforms, suspected to be that of troopers martyred in a recent Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh, in a garbage dump near a hospital in state capital Raipur.
An injured jawan said around 10-12 Naxalites must have got killed in the 'befitting' retaliation by the CRPF contingent.
'People accused of mass murder and worse are let out on medical grounds.' 'Saibaba is now 100% handicapped, and has committed no murder, yet he is not allowed to come out.'
The survey will benefit a population of at least 35,000, mainly tribals, to get patta (title deed) for the land they were possessing.
She had got 849th rank in the 2014 civil services exam and was allotted the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).
The Maoist who has emerged as the major threat to the security forces in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.
In a brazen daytime attack, Naxals on Tuesday ambushed a security team killing 15 personnel including 11 of the Central Reserve Police Force and also a civilian in a chilling reminder of the 2010 massacre of 76 securitymen in the same area in the worst-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.
"It is certain that the information about their movement was leaked. Somewhere or at some stage this has happened. The boys were doing a surprise non-operational movement and hence were in mufti. We are looking into it," CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad said.
Gandhi said the BJP, in power in Madhya Pradesh since 2003, is only working for a few rich people.
'Maoists are enraged that the media is reporting the truth.' 'They want to physically isolate the media and psychologically isolate the villagers who have found the confidence to speak to the press about the real situation.' 'Like terrorism ended in Punjab, Naxalism will end in Chhattisgarh,' the AIIMS doctor-turned IPS officer and SP of Dantewada tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
The Maoists squad 'very discreetly with the aid of locals' kept tracking the movement of the troops when one party of 36, out of the total three, sat down for launch, the strong squad of Naxals, possessing sophisticated weapons, took them by surprise.
'He is in a wheelchair, his joints are swollen and he is in great pain.' A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com speaks to colleagues and students of the polio-afflicted Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba, who was arrested on May 9 for alleged Naxalite links.
Thirteen Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including two officers were killed in a Maoist attack in the Chintagufa area in Chhattisgarh's Sukhma while they were on an area domination exercise. According to reports, the attackers used locals as human shields to prevent CRPF retaliation.
Sandeep Pandey salutes women who have contributed to social transformation in India after 1980.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.
The Supreme Court on Friday dubbed as a "serious issue" the long queues outside banks and post offices and expressed its reservation on the Centre's plea seeking a direction that no other court in the country should entertain petitions challenging the November 8 notification demonetising Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.
He said in most of the Naxal attacks, it has been noticed that villagers were used as human shields by the insurgents during the gun battle.
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh man, Manohar Lal Khattar toiled on the ground to build the organisation for last four decades till he was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lead the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana.
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