Raipur, Sep 28 : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Wednesday ordered a probe into the lynching of a tigress by a mob in Rajnandgaon district, a statement said.

"Singh held a meeting with Forest Minister Vikram Usendi and forest officials at his residence and termed the killing as 'extremely unfortunate and sad'. He announced a probe into the matter by the National Tiger Conservation Authority," an official statement said.

The chief minister said his government would take action based on the findings of the authority's probe report.

Raipur, Sep 20 : Senior officials here of the Essar Group have been questioned and others based outside Chhattisgarh will also be interrogated for allegedly paying 'protection money' to Maoists, a senior police official said Tuesday.

"Some Essar Group officers, including a general manager posted in Dantewada, have been interrogated and notices have been sent to several others for their role in payment of massive money to Maoists," Ankit Garg, superintendent of police (Dantewada district), told IANS over phone.

Raipur, Sep 6 : US President Barack Obama, President Pratibha Patil, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul... amongst the several leaders whose photographs were found in a deserted Maoist camp in Chhattisgarh, police officials said Tuesday.

The photographs, also including those of Chief Minister Raman Singh and some ministers, were found pasted at a camp in a jungle area in Raipur district that was deserted by Maoists after a fierce 15-minute gun battle, officials at the police headquarters told IANS.

According to official reports, Maoist rebels have killed 20 policemen and at least 20 civilians in the Dantewada district in the southern part of Chhattisgarh state in eastern India.

Reports are that the bus in which the people were traveling hit a land mine planted in the road in the late afternoon.

It was also reported that the Special Police Officers were civilians assisting the local and state police in their fight against the Maoists, also called Naxalites.

In a declaration, the company officials said that NTPC will produce another 660 MW by October 2010, commissioning a new facility of its coal-fired power plant at Sipat in Chhattisgarh.

The report said that two divisions of the Sipat facility in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district fabricate 1,000 MW.

As part of company's growth plan, NTPC plans to produce 1,980 MW extra power with another three plants having capacity of 660 MW each.

Maoists have attacked four CRPF camps in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh yesterday. Although gun battles have been triggered out but there is no report of any fatal accidents. Nearly 300 to 400 Naxalities have attacked on the CRPF camps of paramilitary personnel at Chintangufa.

Two weeks ago 75 CRPF servicemen and a policeman was killed in the Maoist strike. Despite setting off intermittent gun battles on the Maoists in all the four places by the Government since few days, there has not been any significant success for the State and the Central Govt.

India's largest private sector steel-maker, Tata Steel has informed that is the company is still interested in its Chhattisgarh project and has not dropped the plan. The company has planned to invest Rs. 20,000-crore to set up a steel plant over here. It has also signed the memorandum of understanding with the State government in the year 2005.

However, this huge delay in execution has created a question mark about the project. At the same time, the state is dealing with some serious Maoist violence in the state.

The construction work for a 1,600 MW thermal power facility in Chhattisgarh to be established by the Karnataka Power Corp Ltd (KPCL) will start by the end of current year (2010).

The Karnataka administration had entered into the agreement with Chhattisgarh in September 2008 to set up two units, each of 800 MW, at Godhna in Janjgir-Champa region.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regulates both states.

The KPCL project is said to aid Karnataka overcome a widening power shortage.

Raipur, Feb 9 - Fire-hit Bhilai Steel Plant, the largest unit of public sector Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), will soon return to its normal production of about 17,000 tonnes hot metal a day.

Production of hot metal in the unit based in Chhattisgarh's Durg district, about 30 km west of capital Raipur, was severely hit after a fire broke out in the cable tunnel of its power and blowing station (P and BS) early Feb 1. The P and BS supplies compressed air to the steel plant's blast furnaces which produce hot metal.

A raid by the income tax department at the residence of IAS Officer BL Agrawal of Chhattisgarh has found that the officer has 220 bank accounts and assets worth millions of rupees.

He had opened these accounts in many fake names as well as in the names of his domestic helps. Apart from his residence, raids were also conducted on the business establishments of his relatives on Thursday.

Raipur, Jan 11 : Chhattisgarh police Monday arrested three Chinese engineers in the case of the under-construction chimney crash at Vedanta Resources Plc-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) that killed 41 workers Sep 23 last year.

The engineers were employed with the Chinese construction major, Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO) that was building Balco's 1200-MW thermal power plant in Korba town, about 240 km from state capital Raipur.

Raipur, Jan 11 : Chhattisgarh police chief Vishwa Ranjan Monday reacted strongly to leading Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan's comment that he would either end up in jail or himself become a victim of violence.

A section of media here carried a report Monday that the lawyer, during his just ended trip to the state to probe alleged police atrocities on civilians of Maoist-hit areas and human rights violations, said that the Chhattisgarh director general of police would either be shot dead or put behind bars.

Raipur, Jan 11 : Chhattisgarh will focus on strengthening security and building infrastructure in Maoist-hit areas to maintain law and order, Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan said Monday.

"The state government is making continuous efforts to increase security forces and develop necessary infrastructure, particularly in the Maoist-affected areas, to effectively maintain law and order," he told the state assembly on the opening day of the budget session.

Raipur, Jan 9 : Four Maoists were gunned down and several guns and explosives recovered when the police raided a forest hideout Saturday in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

"A joint contingent of COBRA (specialized force in anti-Maoist operations) and others busted the hideout in Surpangunda hamlet and shot dead four armed guerrillas," Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra told IANS.

Dantewada is located some 500 km south of capital Raipur.

He said police recovered a 12 bore gun, three muzzle loading guns, two containers filled with explosives, a grenade and a huge stock of daily use items.

Bijapur, Jan 9 : Police and excise officials recently destroyed cannabis plants, spread across an area of ten acres, in Maoist infested Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.

Two people, both belonging to Tamil Nadu, were detained by the police who they say were hired by the Maoists for cannabis cultivation.

During our routine patrolling, we came to know that cannabis cultivation is going on here on a large scale. The cannabis was being grown in an area of around eight to ten acres," said Avinash Mohanty, Superintendent of Police, Bijapur district.

Raipur, Jan 9 - A total of 23,051 kg of marijuana was seized in Chhattisgarh in 2009, police said.

"Police seized 23,051 kg marijuana, 67,700 marijuana plants and 2,598 lethal drug injections in 2009, estimated to cost Rs. 40.06 million," said a booklet brought out by police headquarters here highlighting its achievements during 2009.

The booklet said 217 gun battles were fought in 2009 till Dec 15 and 107 Maoists were killed.

A total of 177 Maoists and 445 sangham members, followers of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), were arrested in the state last year. (IANS)

Raipur, Jan 9 - Two people have been arrested with leopard skin from a Chhattisgarh town, police said Saturday.

Sahdev Ram, 44, and Surendra, 25, were arrested late Friday from a hotel in Raigarh town, some 250 km from here, Raigarh Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma said.

Police are looking for a few associates of the arrested men who are believed to be members of an inter-state gang.  (IANS)

Raipur, Jan 8 : Two days after dozens of tribal people threw eggs and tomatoes at social activist Medha Patkar and several of her associates in Maoist violence-hit Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, she Friday alleged it was a "state government-sponsored protest".

"It was all a government-sponsored protest in Dantewada in police presence. Those who threw eggs and tomatoes were brought from a relief camp by the government," Patkar told a press conference here.

Raipur, Jan 7 : The Chhattisgarh government Thursday agreed, in principle, to the Indian Air Force's (IAF) request for 2,500-3,000 acres for setting up an air base in the state, officials said.

The state government gave its go-ahead to the proposal when senior IAF officers called on Chief Minister Raman Singh.

"Singh has agreed in principle to the IAF proposal for setting up its first base in the state for which they said they need 2,500-3,000 acres," an official said.

Raipur, Jan 6 : Dozens of tribals Wednesday threw eggs and tomatoes at social activist Medha Patkar and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district for allegedly supporting Maoist sympathisers, police said.

Trouble began when Patkar, Pandey and a few activists reached Dantewada, some 380 km south of Raipur, to join the ongoing campaign of rights activists against alleged atrocities being committed by security forces on local tribes.