-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The outlawed CPI-maoist are using the 'none-of-the-above' (NOTA) option for voters, allowed by the Supreme Court, to buttress their assembly election boycott call in Chhattisgarh. According to reports, the rebels have been conducting training camps with dummy EVMs for villagers in Bastar to familiarize them with the NOTA option if they decide to vote. Such camps have been spotted in villages in Sukma, Dantewada, bordering Andhra...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Left-wing extremism, which afflicts several states, has killed a whopping 14,689 people, including 11,742 civilians and 2,947 security personnel, since 1980. However, the 4,638 fatal casualties on the Naxalites' side were just one-third of the killings carried out by them over the last three decades. The silver lining, however, is that the trends of Naxal violence are showing a steady decline in killings since 2010. As many...

-Rediff.com Fairs are commonplace in the festive season but in tribal West Midnapore, which falls in the erstwhile maoist-hit Jangalmahal area, it is child marriage fairs which are drawing large crowds. Such tribal child marriage fairs are held each year during this festive season. With the decline in maoist violence, more tribals are fearlessly participating in the fairs being held this year, according to a report by women rights Non-Governmental Organisation 'Suchetna',...

-The Hindu ‘They are free and we are trapped,' says a resident, as many villagers share her fear that they may be targeted again LAXMANPUR BATHE (BIHAR): On Wednesday night, Baudh Paswan kept tossing and turning in bed, his appetite and sleep gone. "I feel they will come back again," he murmured. As they did on the night of December 1, 1997 and began a killing spree. Armed with firearms and swords, members...

-The Business Standard The Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows are being pampered with funds to serve for just two years   The Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows scheme, announced two years ago, sounded like a novel way to connect educated youth to the problems of backward rural areas hit by maoist violence. But it is now surrounded by questions as its financial size is now larger than the problem it seeks to solve...