Development, education taking lead in Maoism-hit areas: PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the collective fight against Maoism was yielding results with development and education taking the lead in areas that were under its influence.

In his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme, Modi said basic facilities such as bus services and education were now made possible in far-flung villages such as Katejhari in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district and Dantewada in Chhattisgarh which were earlier in the grip of Maoist violence.

“It is such a common thing to travel by bus. But I want to tell you about a village where a bus arrived for the first time. The people there had been waiting for this day for years. And when the bus arrived in the village for the first time, people welcomed it to the tune of drumbeats,” the prime minister said, narrating the incident in Katejhari village in Maharashtra.