GUWAHATI, June 9 – The Buddhist community of the North-east region has expressed deep concern over the growing incidents of harassment and persecution of the Buddhist tribals by the militants and the security forces as well in the remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh. The Purvanchal Bhikkhu Sangha, in a statement received here recently, said that the militant outfits NSCN (IM) and the NSCN (K) had demanded annexure of the land belonging to the Buddhists and other indigenous people of Rima Putak, Thikhak Putak, Motongsa and Longchong villages in Tirap Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh.

The...

SHILLONG, June 9 – Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) has claimed that land owners in Meghalaya’s Domiasiat area have given their consent for mining of the radioactive mineral, reports PTI.

“We have interacted with the land owners and they have given their consent in principle,” UCIL chairman and managing director R Gupta told reporters here on Sunday. The UCIL claim came in the backdrop of a visit by a high-level team comprising Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, Gupta and others to Domiasiat, about 150 km from here on Friday. Several social organisations in Shillong...

GUWAHATI, June 9 – Assam has made remarkable progress in the drive to increase its green cover. In fact, it is now among the few states in the country that have a forest cover well beyond generally targeted 33 per cent. This year alone, the State has added 40,000 hectares of new forests. Announcing this today, Assam Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Pradyut Bordoloi, said that the latest state of the Forest Report of the Forest Survey of India has found that Assam has a forest cover of 35.3 per cent. The national forest cover is 20 per cent. The data, based on satellite imagery...

GUWAHATI, June 9 – The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to take the opinion of lawyers before deciding on the next course of action against two suspended legislators Ali Akbar Mian and Abdul Jabbar after the Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly Prithibi Majhi rejected the party’s petition on their disqualification.

The Speaker rejected the petition of the AGP for disqualification of the two legislators on the ground that the party failed to file the petition within the stipulated time. The Chief Whip of the AGP Legislature Party Hitendra Nath Goswami pointed out that the petition was...

Imphal, June 8: The Manipur Opposition’s participation in the forthcoming Assembly budget session remains uncertain with the leaders of the Democratic People’s Alliance (DPA) refusing to attend the business advisory committee meeting. The Opposition parties also rejected an invitation by the Speaker to discuss the session.

The Opposition DPA, comprising the BJP, Federal Party of Manipur (FPM) and Manipur People’s Party (MPP), had boycotted the last two Assembly sessions, demanding resignation of Speaker T.N. Haokip.

At the business advisory committee meeting held yesterday, the participants...