Kohima, June 16: Nagaland has decided to downsize its ministry. Chief minister Neiphiu Rio said the Centre was informed of the state’s problems in implementing the parliamentary legislation. “They told us that an amendment would be required if the demands of the states were to be met,” Rio told reporters last evening. “For now we will have to implement it.”

Several members of the current ministry fear being excluded from the new council. After July 7, there will be 12 instead of 36 ministers, including the chief minister.

Nagaland will reportedly save more than Rs 20 crore after the ministry...

Guwahati, June 16: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said his government was in favour of according Sixth Schedule status to all the tribes even as Dhemaji district witnessed some recent communal flare-ups between the Mising and non-Mising communities over the move to grant the former recognition under the Sixth Schedule.

The demand for Sixth Schedule status for different tribes gathered momentum after it was granted to the Bodos.

The chief minister, talking to the media at his official residence today, said the cabinet sub-committee, formed under the chairmanship of health and family welfare...

Guwahati, June 16: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today welcomed filmmaker Jahnu Barua’s offer to broker peace talks with the banned Ulfa. He told the media at his official residence that the Congress government would support “any effort by anyone” to solve the problem of militancy. “It is good that somebody has come forward to help. We welcome this. We have no problem with anyone trying to broker peace if the Ulfa agrees to it.”

Barua, whose award-winning film Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai made him a household name, made the offer while releasing a signed appeal yesterday for peace talks...

SHILLONG, June 16 – In its bid to undo the ‘saffronisation’ of education initiated by the previous NDA regime, the present Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has started a ‘detoxifying’ process, Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh said on Tuesday, reports PTI. “The process got underway with the setting up of a three-member panel of eminent educationists of the country three days ago,” Singh told reporters here.

“We are not desaffronising education but detoxifying it. The panel was asked to look into the issue and give reports by 15-20 days,” he said...

DIMAPUR, June 16 – In the countdown of downsizing of ministry, Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in his first -ever statement on the issue after his return from the national capital on Tuesday at Kohima said: “It will be inconvenient but we will make it”. “It is not that we will just take 12 ministers and function, but we will take a collective decision and work out a collective strategy for the welfare of the people”, Rio reiterated.

The Chief Minister said that a team of ministers and party leaders led by him had recently met the Central leaders at New Delhi and requested them not to...