-The Hindu For the first time in decades, the Maoists have encouraged calibrated polling in some areas, instead of fanatically implementing a policy to boycott the election The districts of Chhattisgarh partially controlled by Maoists - with 12 Assembly constituencies - voted overwhelmingly in 2013. Compared to 2008, voter turnout in 2013 increased by 9.67 percentage points in 12 constituencies, while the overall polling was 6.81 percentage points higher than in the...

-Outlook India today briefed the European Union about the violence perpetrated by Naxals and urged it to ensure that the rebels do not get support from the organisations based in its member countries. In a meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs sensitised EU representatives about the violence being carried out by CPI (Maoist), which killed more than 8,100 people since 2001. The move came after CPI(Maoist) had recently thanked more than two dozen...

-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...

-Outlook Bhubaneshwar: With the outlawed CPI (Maoist) targeting tribal youths living in dense forests and hills, Odisha government has asked departments to work out an integrated development plan for bridging critical gaps in infrastructure development and livelihood promotion of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG). The PVTGs which have been the target of Maoists included Boihor, Mankidia, hill Khadia, Juanga, Lodha and Paudibhuyan, Soura, Kutia Kondha, Dongaria Kondha, Lanjia Soura, Bonda, Diyadi and...