Chhattisgarh, long known as the epicentre of Left-wing extremism, clocked the highest growth rate among all states in 2009-10. The emergence of the state as a ‘miracle economy’ is yet to loosen the grip of politics of misery-mongering. Chief minister Raman Singh discusses the state’s growth journey and its challenges with Bharti Jain. Chhattisgarh is the latest growth story, having ranked first among states with 11.49% growth rate. What are...
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'Schools are high value, soft targets for the Naxals' by Vicky Nanjappa
Over the past three years, the number of attacks on schools has seen a steep rise. The argument advanced by the Naxals is that schools have become police stations and security forces take cover here. To substantiate their claim they have never attacked a school when children were in it and attacks have always taken place when the school premises were closed. Security personnel who battle the Naxals however claim that...
More »Chhattisgarh's food revolution by Ejaz Kaiser
Since she could remember, labourer Rama Nag (34) didn't know what her ration card meant, that as one of India's nearly 400 million officially poor people, she was entitled to subsidised foodgrain. Until 2006, here in the heart of impoverished tribal India, on the edge of the sprawling forests of Bastar and the Maoist zone of Dantewada, Nag and her family of four survived on rice and whatever they could...
More »Why you must read this censored chapter by Raman Kirpal
A RESEARCHER WORKING on the State of Panchayats Report (SOPR) 2008-09 met Mahangu Madiya in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, a dangerous place for gathering data. Madiya’s story was startling. In January, he was given Rs 55 lakh compensation for his land, but the amount is sitting in his bank account. He does not even own a mobile phone. “I am concerned with farming. My land is important to me. What will I...
More »Lost law, lost people by Samar Halarnkar
“When I told a government official that Pesa allows us to determine our policy on liquor trade in the village, he shot back, ‘Are you trying to teach me the law? If you are so knowledgeable about the law, why are you living here in your village in the forest? Why don’t you go and speak in the Orissa assembly?’” Fulsingh Naik, resident of Mandibisi (Rayagada, West Orissa), December 2009, recounting...
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