Politics

Raipur: Maoists have been stepping up their war against the state with the aim of usurping power in Delhi at gunpoint, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Tuesday.

Replying to a day-long debate over an adjournment motion in the state assembly, Singh said: 'Their (Maoists) aim is not Chhattisgarh, their aim is Delhi where they want transfer of power at gunpoint.'

During the debate, the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state was attacked by the opposition for its failure to stop repeated deadly attacks by Maoists.

Raipur: His state is the worst to be hit by Maoist insurgency in India. But despite a series of deadly attacks in 2010, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh is confident that his government is 'capable of finishing' the rebels although the war will be 'long-drawn'.

'The Chhattisgarh government is not losing the war against Maoists. The government is well capable of finishing them,' says Raman Singh, who has been heading the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the mineral-rich but largely impoverished state since December 2003.

Raipur, Jul 5 (PTI) The nation-wide bandh called to protest fuel price hike today disrupted normal life in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh.

Roads wore a deserted look as buses, auto-rickshaws, trucks and cars kept off the roads.

Educational institutions, cinema halls and petrol pumps also remained closed in the state.

BJP national Vice President Karuna Shukla and party General Secretary Thavar Chand Gehlot led the protesters in Raipur, appealing the traders to join the nation-wide bandh.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on Friday said the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Arjun Singh alone can not be held responsible for letting Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, out of the country.

"Arjun Singh alone can not held be responsible for letting Anderson out of the country. The then Central Government and some senior leaders of Congress party too are responsible for it," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha told reporters in Raipur.

She also said the UPA government is not "serious" about Anderson's extradition.

NEW DELHI: Expelled BJP leader Uma Bharati travelling with party senior L K Advani, former party chief Rajnath Singh and party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad to Raipur in a special plane on Wednesday sparked speculation about her return to the fold soon. The BJP leaders travelled to Raipur to attend the last rites of Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh’s father, who passed away recently.

Home minister P. Chidambaram conceded on Wednesday that a short-staffed, poorly trained and ill-equipped security force was hobbling India’s fight against Maoist insurgents, and asked state governments to double the recruitment of police personnel.

“Policing a country with insufficient police stations and inadequate and ill-equipped police forces makes the task almost formidable,” he said in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, at the inauguration of the 40th All India Police Science Congress.

Amravati, Jun 2 (PTI) The BJP sees politics as a tool for socio-economic reforms and will work towards ending fear, hunger and terrorism in the country, party President Nitin Gadkari said today.

"I promise that the party will work for ending fear, hunger and terrorism as well as to make India a developed nation," he said at a public meeting here in Maharashtra.

The meet was organised by local BJP unit to felicitate Gadkari and new State party President Sudhir Mungantiwar on their maiden visit to the city after assuming their posts.

But the Uttar Pradesh chief minister has no money for the families of the 42 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men from her state who died fighting the Maoists in Dantewada on April 6.

The CRPF officers are seething after Mayawati also failed to be present at the Lucknow airport when the bodies of the slain jawans were brought from Chhattisgarh on Thursday.

Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, was present on the occasion. One of the deceased was the son of his personal security officer.

Chhattisgarh's biggest housing project has led to a tussle between senior leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The state government has come up with Kamal Vihar project to develop housing infrastructure on the outskirts of Raipur. The project will be developed in 2200-2300 acres with an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore in the first phase.

In all, the executing agency, Raipur Development Authority (RDA), had planned to develop eight sectors in about 16,500 acres. The project will be in the line of model townships in Noida and Chandigarh.

Farmers will stage demonstration before the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly on March 18 in support of their pending demands.

The demonstration would be organised under the banner of Sanyukat Kisan Morcha (Joint Farmers' Front), a powerful umbrella organisation of farmers' bodies in the state.

Senior front leader Virendra Pandey said that thousands of farmers from all the 18 districts of the state would gather in the state capital and stage demonstration before the Assembly as the government failed to honour its commitments to the farmers.