Maoists extort Rs.300 crore annually in Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh

August 18th, 2009 RAIPUR - The time has come for a "direct fight on three fronts" to counter the Maoist menace in the country, according to Raman Singh, chief minister of India's worst Maoist-hit state of Chhattisgarh. Singh, who was speaking at a meet in New Delhi Monday, also said that leftwing extremism should be considered a national calamity.

August 15th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Saturday asked the people to take a pledge to free the state from the Maoists and announced a Rs.2,060-crore plan to create jobs through rural employment generation scheme. In a 20-minute speech after hoisting the national flag here on India's Independence Day, Singh said: "I salute the brave tribal brothers and sisters who created a movement against Maoist terrorism through Salwa Judum.

July 19th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Sunday rejected reports that spurt in Maoist violence in the state was basically due to failure of intelligence network. Singh, who travelled Sunday to the site in Rajnandgaon district where Maoists killed 29 state policemen in an ambush July 12, said police had prior information of Maoists' possible attack in the district but police suffered casualties as it was a "well coordinated flash attack" of the rebels.

July 14th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday called for a statewide shutdown in the wake of killing of 30 police personnel including a Superintendent of Police by Naxalites here. The opposition Congress in the State has been critical of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in the state from time to time for its failure to contain Naxal violence.

July 13th, 2009 RAIPUR - Calling the Maoist attack on the police 'unfortunate', Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday said that it is time to make the right strategies and take decisive action against the Maoists. "It is an unfortunate incident for all of us.

June 1st, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh government Monday announced that it will provide free electricity to farmers using irrigation pumps under five horse power capacity. The scheme, which will cost the state exchequer an estimated Rs.150 crore annually, will come into effect from Aug 15 this year, an official statement said.

May 21st, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Thursday sought 'value-based' royalty on coal and iron ore, and an assistance of Rs.1,055 crore to develop police infrastructure to fight Maoist insurgents in the state. 'The state is getting just Rs.18 per tonne as royalty on iron-ore.

April 8th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Wednesday rejected allegations by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi that the state government had misused funds provided by the central government under various welfare schemes. 'The allegations by the Congress MP Gandhi against Chhattisgarh for misuse of central funds lack facts,' Singh told a press conference at the state's northern city Ambikapur.

March 30th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will stage road shows in all 11 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state from April 1. Party sources said Singh will travel in a special mini-bus in all constituencies and address at least five public meetings in each constituency besides holding road shows till campaigning ends April 14 for the state, which goes to polls April 16.

February 27th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh will invest about Rs.1 billion (Rs.100 crore) to set up infrastructure projects in the insurgency-hit Bastar region, Chief Minister Raman Singh said Thursday. 'The government is conscious of the backwardness of Bastar and we are making serious efforts to build infrastructure - roads, bridges, schools - to improve people's quality of life,' Singh said at a farmers' rally in the district.

February 12th, 2009 RAIPUR - The interim railway budget presented Friday by Railways Minister Lalu Prasad has let down expectations of Chhattisgarh despite the fact that the state generates high revenue for the railways, Chief minister Raman Singh said here. 'The interim rail budget is disappointing, it has let down expectations of millions of people of Chhattisgarh,' said Singh in his reaction to the interim budget.

February 8th, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh government Monday allocated Rs.9.41 billion (Rs.941 crore), a hike of 22 percent from last year's allocations, for the police force to counter Leftist insurgency in the state. Chief Minister Raman Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented a Rs.222.11 billion budget that levies no new taxes for the fiscal 2009-10.

February 5th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh skipped the three-day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meeting that began in Nagpur Friday as his mother passed away at a private hospital here. Sudha Singh, 84, died early Friday at the Ramkrishna Care Hospital where she had been since mid-December after she slipped into a coma at her native town Kawardha, some 125 km from here.

January 30th, 2009 RAIPUR - Faced with relentless attacks on their forested hideouts, Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh say they are open to peace talks with the government. In a press statement in Hindi, Pandu alias Pandanna, a spokesperson of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), said the group 'wants to hold talks with the government in public interest, provided the government takes positive initiatives.' 'Before starting peace parleys, the government should create a conducive atmosphere and stop suppressing tribals,' the message, sent to media outlets in its stronghold of Bastar in the state's southern forested region late Friday, said.

January 28th, 2009 RAIPUR - The bullet has never produced a solution to any problem in the world and in Chhattisgarh too, only the ballot can bring an end to decade-old leftist insurgency, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Thursday. 'Has the bullet ever produced a result to any rift in any part of the world? Only ballot and dialogue with a positive frame of mind can bring a permanent solution to Maoist insurgency,' Singh told IANS here.