By IANS,
Raipur : About 100 people from 22 families migrated from two remote villages in Chhattisgarh’s restive Rajnandgaon district to the neighbouring Kawardha district following a diktat of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), officials said Saturday.
“The poor residents of villages – Kasibadra and Lamera – deserted their ancestral villages Friday and settled in a hamlet called Tendutola in Kawardha after Maoists asked them to leave village as a punishment for seeking authorities’ help for road, schools, hospital and other basic facilities at a camp organised by the state government recently in their area,” Rajnandgaon District Collector Siddhartha Komal Singh Pardeshi told reporters.
He said that officials were trying to persuade the villagers to return back to their houses.
Meanwhile, Kawardha Superintendent of Police, Prakhar Pandey, said he had made security arrangements for the “frightened villagers” and would be keeping close watch on the issue.
Rajnandgaon, located in western Chhattisgarh, is known as a Maoist heartland for a long time and in its interiors, the leftist guerillas have carried out several deadly attacks since 2005 including killing district police chief, V.K. Choubey, in July 2009.