"The air wing deployed for anti-naxal operations will ensure that at least one helicopter is essentially available for casualty evacuation duties and responding to SOS from injured troops will be their topmost priority," BSF Special Director General Arvind Ranjan said.
The decision to finance these districts for rapid improvement in schooling, health care and drinking water comes nine months after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee listed the drive in his Union Budget to ensure the poor and the tribals do not head to the Naxals for help.
Three policemen, including two personnel of Cobra battalion of Central Reserve Police Force were killed on Saturday in a naxal attack in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrkar ruled out the possibility of deploying the Indian Army in anti-Naxal operations.
With heavy security deployment in hyper-sensitive areas of Bastar region ahead of polls, Naxalites are apparently trying to change their course of action and mobilising cadres to town areas to attack "soft targets" outside their core hold, intelligence sources said.
As many as 281 persons, both civilians and security force personnel, have died in the naxal-related incidents while in Jammu and Kashmir, 141 persons died in terrorist acts.
With Naxals watching the highways, cash to Bastar banks comes via copter.
The PMG was announced by the Union home ministry on the occasion of the 74th Republic Day, being celebrated on January 26 (Thursday).
A sub-inspector of the Andhra Pradesh's counter-Maoist force was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award of the country, as India celebrated its 65th Republic Day on Sunday.
The face-off between a compact team of District Reserve Group and ultras took place in the forested hills of Metapal village, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
The Andhra Pradesh police have arrested a suspected Naxal leader identified as Savita alias Madhvi in Khammam district of the state.
With aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation suspending the operating permit of Global Vectra, the Ministry of Home Affairs ambitious plan to hire nearly a dozen helicopters from the private firm to be used for anti-Naxal operations has come a cropper.
The government on Tuesday said it has begun using unmanned aerial vehicles in Naxal-affected areas of the country.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday slammed Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde for his absence from the country in the aftermath of the Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh.
Anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency will begin its probe on Monday -- into the deadly Naxal attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh -- to find out possible lapses on the part of the central forces or the state government. Action will be taken if anyone is found guilty, Minister of State for Home RPN Singh said.
Officials said while two commandos, identified as constables Linju N and Fateh Singh had succumbed to their bullet injuries on Thursday, their collegaue Lakshman Singh died on Friday.
'The cities are not safe, Naxals will reach them very soon,' feels Mahendra Karma, the tribal leader who championed the controversial Salwa Judum against the Naxalites.
The Kirandul-Vishakhapatnam passenger train derailed at around 0600 hours, 45 minutes after it left Kirandul railway station and was approaching Bhansi railway station, police officials told PTI.
The Centre has directed security forces deployed in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to tighten vigil in the three states in view of intelligence reports which suggested that Naxals would try to carry out strikes in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
'Our Left is squeamish about democracy. They are so mechanical they have only dogma.'
In yet another Naxal attack in the state, a Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawan was killed when the ultras opened fire at his camp in Maoist-infested Sukma district on Sunday, the police said.
Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence is having close liaison with some pro-Naxal overground organisations through banned Students Islamic Movement of India in West Bengal and helping them to instigate people against the government, a top police officer of the state said on Thursday.
Naxals allegedly set on fire a conveyor belt of National Mineral Development Corporation in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district in the wee hours on Wednesday causing production disturbance to the tune of 40,000 tonnes.
'Rahul should have learnt so much in the last 20 years. But give him a mic and he begins to talk without thinking about its consequences.'
Warning that serious challenges posed by Naxal violence, cross-border terrorism and religious fundamentalism continue to persist, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said there is need for greater coordination and responses from the states to effectively deal with them.
"About four dozen armed guerrillas surrounded and blew up the middle school in Bhulsumia village under Charka-Pathar police station in Jamui," a district police official said.
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