Bhopal: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Chhattisgarh’s south Bastar district of Bijapur on the Ambedkar Jayanti Day on April 14 to launch the first of the 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres mulled under the recently flagged off Ayushman Bharat scheme amid Naxals’ call to local villagers to stay off of the event. Mr Modi is scheduled to dedicate the centre at Jangla in Bijapur district on the day.
Incidentally, Maoists had blown up a bus carrying jawans of district reserve group (DRG), a counterinsurgency force of Chhattisgarh police, near Jangla recently killing two security personnel and injuring five others. Maoists were visiting villages in the region warning the locals not to attend the PM’s meeting on the day, intelligence sources in Chhattisgarh police said.
“The Naxals were threatening the villagers not to accept the offer by the political parties to carry them to the meeting in vehicles,” a senior police officer posted in Bastar said quoting the intelligence reports. Maoist pamphlets were also found at many places in Bijapur-Bhopalpatnam road in Bijapur district warning the locals not to attend the meeting, the police officer said.
