State govt team visits Bastar, Bijapur after Naxal attacks

Raipur: A team of senior state officials on Sunday visited Bastar and Bijapur districts of the Maoist-hit south Chhattisgarh, where Naxals had carried two deadly attacks on polling personnel and security forces on Sunday, which left 14 people dead.  Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand, Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur, Additional Chief Secretary, Home NK Aswal and Director General of Police AN Upadhyay held a meeting with the local officials at Jagdalpur and Bijapur district headquarters and enquired about the incidents, a senior official here told PTI. Seven members of a polling party and five CRPF personnel were among 14 killed as Naxals struck twice on Saturday in a gap of less than an hour, blowing up a bus and an ambulance in Bijapur and Bastar districts on Saturday. Ten persons, including five paramilitary personnel, were also injured in the two incidents. Talking to the media after returning to the state capital from Bastar, Dhand said an ex-gratia of Rs 32 lakh will be provided to the kin of each martyred polling party members. Of this, Rs 20 lakh will be given by the Election Commission, and Rs 12 lakh by the state government. Besides, the family members of the ambulance driver and paramedic technician killed in the attack would be provided compensation of Rs 20 lakh each by the Election Commission and Rs 5 lakh each by Chhattisgarh government. Compensatory appointment will be given to a family member of all the nine victims, including seven polling officials, the driver and the technician of the ambulance, he added. Dhand said, “We held a meeting with the officials of both Bijapur and Jagdlapur and took stock of the incidents. We also visited Bijapur hospital to meet the injured polling staff.” On being asked about the condition of EVM kept in the bus that was blown up in the landmine blast, he said, “EVM machine suffered a minor damage. The voting data is completely safe, so there is no need of re-polling.” Meanwhile, all polling parties have been evacuated and have reached district headquarters while the additional security forces are gradually moving out from the region. “All the polling parties have returned to the district headquarters and the process of evacuation of the security forces are underway,” Joint Chief Electoral Officer DD Singh told PTI. The Naxals attacked the polling party near Ketulnar village under Kutru police station limits of Bijapur when it was returning after voting in the region leaving seven polling personnel dead and five others injured. Polling was held in the Naxal-affected Bastar constituency on 10 April. PTI