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Business News/ Politics / Maoists extort Rs300 crore annually in Chhattisgarh
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Maoists extort Rs300 crore annually in Chhattisgarh

Maoists extort Rs300 crore annually in Chhattisgarh

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Raipur: India’s Maoist rebels are extorting up to Rs300 crore annually from business and industry across Chhattisgarh, home of one of India’s largest mineral reserves, chief minister Raman Singh said on Thursday. The Maoists have recently stepped up attacks against police, officials and civilians away from remote rural areas and closer to towns and cities across India—a worry to potential investors as the country grapples with the global slowdown.

“Maoists extort a whopping sum of at least Rs250-300 crore annually in Chhattisgarh," Singh told reporters.

State business leaders and politicians are jittery over Chhattisgarh, whose violence-wracked Bastar region is home to 20% of India’s iron ore stocks and has attracted big companies such as Tata Steel and the Essar Group.

The extortion operation stretches from the state’s southern tip near Bastar to the northern area of Surguja, which is rich with coal, he said.

The rebels demand cash from traders of Tendu leaves, used to make hand-rolled cigarettes, mining firms, contractors and transporters, he said, adding many are scared to go to police.

The Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and the landless, feed off local resentment against industry and government in one of India’s least developed states.

Businesses and politicians fear the mineral reserves in Bastar, where Tata Steel plans to build a steel plant, could fall into Maoist hands within a few years. Steel is a key sector to India’s economic growth, which has slowed to around 7% compared with 9% or more per year before the global financial crisis bit.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist army of 22,000 fighters is one of the greatest threats to India’s internal security. The rebels killed 721 people, including members of the security forces, in 2008, mainly in India’s eastern and central states known as the “red corridor", up from 696 in 2007.

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Published: 09 Jul 2009, 10:55 PM IST
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