Doctor-turned IPS Abhishek Pallava breaks down while narrating Aranpur Naxal attack; video goes viral

Abhishek Pallava, superintendent of police of Dantewada district, on Tuesday, broke down during a television interview as he was narrating the incident of two of his fellow policemen getting killed while trying to save media persons near Aranpur, located in south of Chhattisgarh. One Doordarshan cameraperson, Achyutanand Sahu, and two cops — sub inspector Rudra Pratap Singh and assistant constable Mangalu— were killed in that Naxal attack. Pallava broke down as he was telling…

Chhattisgarh Police celebrates Diwali with members of policemen martyred in anti-Naxal fights

AS THIS report is being written on Friday noon, there has been a gun-battle between police and Naxals in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. According to TV reports, four Naxals were killed, and casualty on the police side is not known as yet. In a state where over 1,000 cops died fighting the Maoists in the last 15 years, the state police’s initiative of celebrating Diwali with the families of policemen killed fighting Maoists, is a unique and praiseworthy initiative. Chhattisgarh’s additional DG in-charge of…

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, his IAS father, Naxalism and “dead revolutionaries of Srikakulam”

Nadella while listening to PM Modi at San Jose, California

EVERYONE knows who Satya Nadella is. No prize for guessing it. He is the CEO of Microsoft. But some of you may be unaware of a factoid -- Nadella is the son of an IAS officer named BN Yugandhar. Yugandhar, a 1962 batch IAS had trained and influenced many officers including former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao in Mussoorie academy. Later he became a member of Planning Commission of India, now called NITI Aayog. On Saturday night, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Digital India dinner at San Jose of Silicon Valley, Nadella referred to an incident of Naxalism that he…

Alex Paul was kidnapped on a day PM spent time with thousands of bureaucrats

PM with an award winning bureaucrat on April 21

THE day Alex Paul Menon, a 2006 batch IAS, was kidnapped by Naxals from Majhipara village in Maoist-infested Chhattisgarh district, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was incidentally addressing hundreds of bureaucrats in New Delhi. The occasion was the annual Civil Services Day. While showering praise on bureaucrats, Prime Minister said Indian civil servants would rank “among the best in the world”. “They have done excellent work. They have delivered results in the face of adversity,” he said.

But as Alex Paul Menon incident has demonstrated, the adversities for young officers serving in Naxal-hit areas...

Hostage Drama: Know Orissa cadre IAS RV Krishna abducted by Maoist extremists

AS ALL back channel efforts are continuing to release 30-year-old IAS officer R Vineel Krishna, abducted on Wednesday by a group of 50 Maoists in Orissa, Union home minister called up Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik to ensure the safety of the abducted IAS officer. RV Krishna, a 2005 batch IAS officer and district collector of Malkangiri was abducted by Naxals who now sent out a set of demands for the release of the officer. This is the first instance of abduction of an IAS officer by Naxalites in Orissa.

Originally haling from Andhra Pradesh, Krishna was a civil engineer from Chennai before entering into IAS. He had earlier served as a director of District Rural Development Agency in Orissa before taking up the job of a district collector of Malkangiri district in January 2010. He was also the sub-collector of Champua and Baliguda respectively.

Union home secretary GK Pillai said that it might take some time to get the abducted officer out of Maoists, but he was confident that the officer would be released. Meanwhile, the state government contacted Naxal sympathiser Varavara Rao and social activist Swami Agnivesh to get the collector freed.

BoI Extraa…

IAS officer acts as a Show host

A young IAS officer and Rajnandgaon collector KS Pardesi turned a programme host of a function organized by Lanco Infratech Limited a few days ago. Though the company hired a well-known anchor for the job, chief minister Raman Singh called Pardesi and whispered a few words in his ear, according to media reports. Understandably at the instruction of the CM, the IAS officer took control of the show, but the question remains: Why did the CM want the officer to anchor the show?