AIZAWL, July 27: The first chief executive member of the erstwhile Lushai hills district of Assam (now Mizoram) and former Rajya Sabha member, Lalsawia, died of blood sugar on Monday, family sources said. Lalsawia, who was 80, leaves behind his wife, one son and four daughters. A prominent leader of the Mizo Union, the first Mizo political party, Lalsawia later took over as the vice-president of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee after his party merged with Congress in 1972. He also served as the general secretary of the Central Young Mizo Association (YMA), a prominent non-governmental...

GUWAHATI, July 26: Assam can take pride in the fact that out of about 1,000 global population of greater adjutant storks, about 850 are found in the state, according to Prashanta Kumar Saikia of the department of zoology at Gauhati University. Saikia said the bird has been identified as "endangered" globally and is included in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act of India (1972). The remaining 150 birds have been spotted in Cambodia spread over about 40 nests. In Assam, the concentration of this species is found in and around the state capital. Dadara near Hajo in Kamrup district has...

GUWAHATI, July 27: The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) has proposed to generate additional power to the capacity of 475 MW during the remaining period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. These include 405 MW of Ranganadi hydro-electric project (ongoing) in the Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh, 25 MW from Doyang hydro-electric project (ongoing) in Nagaland and another 25 MW from Kopili hydro-electric project Stage-II in Assam. The corporation has also taken up the 60 MW capacity Tuirial hydro-electric project in Mizoram with the financial assistance from Overseas...

NEW DELHI, July 27: The Delhi High Court has asked the Union home ministry to explain its stand on the inclusion of Mizoram migrants staying in the capital in the electoral list for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in September. A division bench comprising Chief Justice SN Variava and justice SK Mahajan directed the central government's standing counsel Maninder Singh to state the ministry's stand on the inclusion of Mizo migrants as voters in the capital before adjourning the matter till August 27. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Sangh seeking...

ITANAGAR, July 27: The Arunachal Pradesh Governor, Lt Gen (Retd) SK Sinha on Tuesday dissolved the state Assembly on the recommendation of the Cabinet. The state Cabinet which met here on Monday, under the chairmanship of chief minister Mukut Mithi, had recommended the dissolution of the House to facilitate simultaneous elections to the Assembly along with the Lok Sabha polls. The Cabinet spokesperson and information and public relations minister TC Teli said "this decision was necessitated in order to save money and labour, as holding two elections within a six months will cost Rs 10 cr which...