MUMBAI, July 27: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP on Tuesday lambasted Swaraj Kaushal, the former central government interlocutor in the Naga peace talks. The party has accused him of exceeding his brief. PB Acharya, BJP national secretary in charge of the Northeast states, lashed out at Kaushal saying that Kaushal was an interlocutor of the government in the Naga peace talks and "not the government itself". Taking exception to the article written by Kaushal wherein he had said that the Prime Minister had not respected him for his words, Acharya said that the decision of Kaushal to extend the...

GUWAHATI, July 26: The state pollution control board has served notices to the Oil and Natural Gas Commission asking for temporary closure of drilling operations at three cluster drilling sites of ONGC at Rudrasagar in Sibsagar district for not conforming to the pollution control norms. The board has also stopped issuing no-objection certificates to all ONGC drilling sites at Geleki and Rudrasagar oil fields, board sources here said. The PCB steps were initiated after the visit of the board member secretary to the ONGC cluster drilling sites in the first week of July. He found that the...

GUWAHATI, July 26: The United Minorities Front (UMF) (Osmani) will merge with the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) before the Lok Sabha polls, according to the APCC president, Tarun Gogoi. He told newspersons here that the party had already held discussions with the leadership of the UMF and final shape would be given in this regard very soon. Gogoi further said the Congress would contest all 14 seats in the state. In all, 40 persons had applied for party tickets.

KOHIMA, July 26: The grand old man of the Naga political movement and vice-chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN( (Isak-Muivah), Khodao Yanthan, has returned to Nagaland after a prolonged self-imposed "exile" in London, a spokesman of the organisation said. The return of the 83-year-old Yanthan, a closed associate of the legendary A Z Phizo, is significant in view of the ongoing peace talks and the recent visit of NSCN(I-M) top leaders Isak Chishi Swu and T. Muivah.

NEW DELHI, July 27: India has decided to extend the ceasefire with the Nagaland militants for another year. This, in effect, is the upshot of the visit by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's special emissary K Padmanabhaiah and Intelligence Bureau (IB) director Shyamal Dutta to Amsterdam where they recently held prolonged discussions with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah). Represented by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, it is the only warring group fighting for '"free Naga" cause that India acknowledges. Padmanabhaiah, who recently replaced Swaraj Kaushal for the...