Gargi Verma

Today, the Covid graph of Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi, or GPM, with a population of about 3,36,000, reflects the trajectory of the infection’s rural spread in the state -- a swell last November following a bypoll, a lull early this year, and now a devastating second wave.

The health department has issued a circular to district collectors informing them about the same, as vaccinating under the current policy could be construed as "contempt of court".

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, while speaking to the press, said that 43% population of the state, which is 1.20 crore, will be vaccinated. However, the state has around 14 lakh Antyodaya card holders and around 42 lakh beneficiaries.

Documents accessed by The Indian Express also show that the actual number of ventilators in the state is 497, about half the number, 937, mentioned by the state on a government portal.

Nine patients were inside Rajdhani Hospital’s Covid ward where the fire broke out on Saturday afternoon, allegedly due to a short circuit.

With around 100 Covid deaths being recorded every day since April 10, with Raipur and Durg districts seeing the highest toll, Chhattisgarh has been reeling under the second wave of the pandemic.

Bemetara's numbers capture in a nutshell the impact of the second wave of the pandemic in the state. And its lone Covid ICU facility — 8 beds at the district hospital — the damage and despair that it has caused.

The villagers chased away the officials and government representatives, which was recorded on camera by local journalists. One officer who was left behind was chastised by the protestors and he fled later, local residents said.

Another Naxal attack, 22 more security personnel killed, more calls for action. Amid this familiar pattern that plays out with alarming frequency in Bastar, The Indian Express on the lessons not learnt, and why Naxals continue to hold out in Chhattisgarh.

Rakeshwar Singh Manhas had gone missing after a gun battle between the security forces and Maoists on April 3. Three days later, the Maoists had said the jawan was in their custody.

In the picture released by the Maoists, CoBRA jawan Rakeshwar Singh Manhas is seen sitting on a plastic mat under a temporary shelter, possibly at a Maoist camp.

In Teklagudam village, the epicenter of the gunbattle between Maoists and security forces on Saturday, Barse was one of the few who stayed back till late, and was allegedly beaten up by police personnel, an allegation the police chief said he would look into.

In a statement on Tuesday, Inspector General of Police of Bastar range, P Sundarraj, said the police have so far not been able to locate Manhas.

On Saturday, a fierce battle broke out between the security forces and Maoists in which 31 people were injured. On Sunday, the police released information that 22 men had died in the incident, after their bodies were retrieved.

In the aftermath of the ambush in Teklagudam on Saturday, bodies of 22 security personnel had been recovered.

Of 22 personnel killed in the Maoist attack, CRPF lost eight men, including seven commandos of its elite CoBRA unit, and one of its Bastariya battalion personnel. The state forces lost eight District Reserve Guard (DRG) personnel and six Special Task Force (STF) personnel.

It was a massive operation that included the STF, DRG and District Force of the Chhattisgarh Police, the CRPF and its elite COBRA unit, with close to a 1,000 personnel from Bijapur alone.

On April 2, more than 2000 personnel from at least five camps in Sukma and Bijapur had gone into the forest around Tarrem in Bijapur district, 60 km from the district headquarters.

Officials said the body of only one of those killed could be recovered by late tonight. Seven personnel were in a “critical condition,” police said, and were airlifted to Raipur – the others were brought to the Bijapur district hospital.

Under an initiative launched last June called ‘Lon Varattu’ (which in Gondi dialect means ‘return to your village’), the state police appeals to those who have turned naxals to come back home.

A day earlier, more than 100 DRG personnel from five camps on the Dantewada-Naraynpur axis had embarked on an anti-Maoist operation that yielded little success.

The incident occurred when the security personnel -- mostly policemen -- were returning after an anti-Naxal operation, state Director General of Police D M Awasthi said.

A mitanin– which means “female friend” in the local dialect– is a community health volunteer assigned to each village under the Chhattisgarh government’s health programme.

Awarded to Tata in July 2018, the project was originally scheduled to be completed in a year. It involves laying an optical fibre network covering 32,466 km, linking 85 blocks and 5,987 gram panchayats across 27 districts in the state.