Raipur, Oct 20 (IANS) Maoist militants Tuesday set two vehicles on fire in Chhattisgarh’s restive Rajnandgaon district bordering Maharashtra, police said.
Armed rebels burnt the vehicles in a forested hamlet, Korchatola, some 200 km west of capital Raipur. The vehicles belonged to a private contractor who was building a road under the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Scheme.

Officials here at police headquarters said Maoist guerrillas set ablaze at least 65 vehicles, engaged in road construction projects, this year alone in their stronghold Bastar region.

Panchayat and rural development department officials claim that roads projects worth Rs.1000 crore (Rs.10 billion) at 350 locations in the Bastar region were held up by Maoists. The rebels do not want the infrastructure to be built up, as they fear it would give police and paramilitary forces easy access to the forested areas.