Politics / Northeast

GUWAHATI, Dec 14: Existing tribal land holding practices in the Northeast may be depriving the people from availing bank loans to bring about agricultural development in the primarily agrarian economies of the States here. Suitable modifications need to be made in the rules to enable the tribals to bring about a transformation in their lives.

A team from the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission (SA&STC), led by its chairman Dileep Singh Bhuria, which is currently visiting Assam and Nagaland, has observed that the individual cultivators should easily get the soft loan assistance...

GUWAHATI, Dec 10 ? Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today asserted the Nagas living in the North East have consensus among themselves on the question of their integration and it was upto the neighbouring states to reach at a settlement reports PTI. ?As far as Nagas are concerned they are at a consensus for unification of Naga inhabited territories but if the neighbouring states have problems that had to be settled?, Rio told reporters after inaugurating the North East People?s Forum (NEPF) headquarter office here.

Asked to comment on the reported obstacle in yesterday?s peace talks between...

GUWAHATI, Dec 5 ? Defence Minister George today accused Bangladesh government of not taking any step to drive out the ULFA and NDFB militants taking shelter in camps set up in that country. Talking to newmen at the Army base in Narengi here this afternoon, George alleged that Pakistani ISI?s hand had become obvious behind Bangladesh government?s inaction vis-a-vis evicting militants from Northeast from that country.

?We know there are ULFA and NDFB camps both in Bhutan and Bangladesh. However, despite repeated appeal from Indian government Bangladesh is not taking any action against these...

GUWAHATI, Dec 2: Even as the ULFA has found for itself a new foothold to inch its way back to the popularity charts by targeting the Bihari community in the State, there is increasing evidence that it is forging close links with the Nepalese Maoist rebels and setting up bases in the Himalayan kingdom. Security sources said here that the ULFA and the Maoists have recently agreed to have the Assam rebel outfit operate three new bases in Nepal. In fact, there are also reports that the ULFA have been already operating a few camps there since much earlier. The two rebel groups have also agreed to...

SHILLONG, June 15 ? The ?Maran Nagas? of Manipur and ?Reangs? of Tripura are among the 75 Scheduled Tribes in India who have been listed as ?primitive tribal groups? which were recording negative growth rates, according to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

The yardsticks adopted to identify those primitives are that their agricultural practices are obsolete; their health conditions and educational levels very poor resulting in a negative population growth rate, Ministry sources divulged here recently.

The highest number of 13 primitive tribes have been listed in Orissa, followed by Andhra...

GUWAHATI, June 11 ? Members of North Eastern Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (NERCPA) today expressed their astonishment at the report submitted by the North East Study Group to the Centre stating that Chief Ministers of the region have to pay Rs 11 lakh per legislator to buy their support to be in power. The matter was brought to the notice of the NERCPA members who were here to attend the two-day 7th annual conference of the forum. Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) legislator of Assam, Dilip Kumar Saikia raised the matter in the conference today while deliberating on the topic :...

IMPHAL, June 11 ? The Centre was considering to set up fences along Indo-Myanmar border to prevent cross-border terrorism and armed smuggling, said Union Minister of State for Home I D Swami here today before leaving for New Delhi after a two-day visit to Manipur, reports PTI. Swami, who was addressing mediapersons, also said that fencing work and lighting along Indo-Pak and Indo-Bangladesh borders were in progress to prevent cross-border terrorism and other crimes.

Swami said the Centre was prepared to hold peace talks with any insurgent outfit in the region if they did not put any pre...

GUWAHATI, June 11 ? As many as six North East militant outfits based in Manipur and Tripura has recently approached the Mizoram Chief Minister, Sri Zoramthanga to act as the catalyst in facilitating talks with the Central Government. The Minister for Information and Publicity of Mizoram, F Malsawma informed The Assam Tribune that these militant outfits, all hardcore groups including the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) had shown interest in sitting for talks with the Government of India and approached Sri Zoramthanga, a former Mizo National Front rebel, to facilitate the same.

Sri...

GUWAHATI, June 9 ? At the recently-held conference of Power Ministers of the north-eastern States, the chairman-cum-managing director of the North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) received kudos for serving the interests of the region and being the only Central PSU where 90 per cent of the employees belonged to the backward region. But the actions, decisions and policies adopted by the present CMD, SC Sharma, since he took over in November last year, have raised serious doubts on whether the NEEPCO is actually serving the interests of the region.

Undoubtedly, the NEEPCO is the...

Silchar, June 6: Bru refugees displaced from Mizoram after ethnic riots and settled in relief camps in North Tripura since November 1997, have demanded the Centre?s intervention to resolve their repatriation problem.

Bruno Msha, president of the Mizoram Bru Refugee Committee, said here recently that it was high time the Centre intervened to resolve the impasse. He said more than 3,600 refugees have died of various diseases in the camps in the past six years.

He regretted that since the last round of talks between the Bru refugee leaders and the Mizoram government in 2001, no major initiative...