GUWAHATI, June 4 – Rampant illegal earth-cutting on the hills in and around the city has posed a serious threat to the environment besides proving to be a nuisance to the people living in those areas. Dhupolia hills, Jyotikuchi, on the outskirts of the city, is one such area subjected to persistent earth-cutting for years. So much so that little now remains of what used to be a green cover on this once-beautiful hill.

Narrating their tale of woe, residents of the locality today told newsmen that throughout the year, except during the rainy season, earth-cutting goes on unabated on the...

AKAJAN (Dhemaji), June 4 – The north-eastern regional assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Organisation with Allies after three-day deliberations at Rural Volunteers’ Centre, Akajan in Dhemaji district, today came out with a ‘position statement’ on the Government of India’s Draft National Policy on Tribals (DNPT).

It said that in the interim period till the finalisation of the policy document, in all new development activities, industrial or commercial, interventions must be suspended in the indigenous and tribal people-inhabited areas. All policies and laws affecting indigenous and...

NEW DELHI, June 4 — The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport is likely to become hub of air operation of Alliance Air’s regional air service and the North-East is again going to be back on the international air map with Indian Airlines shortly resuming the Guwahati-Bangkok flight. Announcing this at a press conference here today Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that the assurance to the effect was given by Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel. The shifting of operational base of the regional air service from Kolkata to Guwahati was a long-pending demand as was the demand for resumption of the...

Imphal, June 3: Manipur’s royal boat was opened to the public at the state museum for the first time this afternoon. Art and culture minister Moirangthem Nara Singh inaugurated the boat, Hiyang Hiren, at a simple function, attended by Maharajkumari Binodini Devi, a member of the royal family. The 78-feet-long and four-feet-thick boat had been first inaugurated by Maharaja Churachand with a royal boat race on October 3, 1933. The last royal boat race organised in honour of the then Prime Ministers of India and Burma (now Myanmar) — Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and U Nu — who met here on April 14...

Shillong, June 3: The news of a ropeway project, connecting far-flung corners of the Meghalaya, has created a lot of excitement among the denizens. Though the plan is nothing new, the announcement by the public works department minister Mukul Sangma last evening, about the decision to start the project, has given rise to fresh hopes among the people.

Sangma said the detailed project report would be submitted this month.

The PWD minister said this morning that the ropeway project would connect villages and areas in and around Mawmih (under Ri Bhoi district) situated atop the beautiful Barapani...