-The Hindu IAF copter fired at as landing point was not sanitised; chopper and injured wireless operator abandoned There has hardly been a faux pas in anti-Naxal operations in recent months as discomfiting to the forces as Friday night’s tactless act in the Chintagufa area in south Chhattisgarh. Security officials unanimously agreed that there was a ‘serious lack of coordination’ among police, paramilitary and Indian Air Force personnel. On Friday afternoon, during a...

-The Indian Express Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Police has found that Maoists are at an advanced stage of developing indigenous propellers and rocket launchers, which not only means that their strategic strength is rising but also that they pose a serious threat to aircraft in the Bastar region. On Friday, for the first time, they managed to bring down an IAF helicoper, forcing it to crash-land in Sukma district of the state. There...

-The Indian Express Gadchiroli: A top Naxal leader who surrendered recently has said that the government’s twin strategy of security with development has begun to hurt the Maoists, leaving the morale of their cadre affected. “The senior leadership of the party (CPI Maoist) is worried over setbacks due to Operation Greenhunt and the various developmental works undertaken by the government in remote areas of districts like Gadchiroli,” Badarpu Mallaiyya alias Shekhar, the...

-The Telegraph The Prime Minister’s Office is playing referee in the tussle between the environment ministry and the National Highway Authority of India over clearance for road projects. In a meeting of stakeholders held in the PMO today, the environment ministry agreed to relax norms for project clearance and issue fresh guidelines that would simultaneously address green concerns and not stall road development. The NHAI has also given an understanding that if clearance...

-The Indian Express Twenty-two Naxal-affected districts will now be able to build critical public infrastructure even in forestland, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided. Following demands raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Planning Commission, the MoEF has decided to relax forest conservation rules to allow diversion of forestland for creation of essential infrastructure in 22 districts affected by Left Wing Extremism. Departments will be able to build...