Imphal, May 29: The Revolutionary Peoples Front (RPF), political arm of the banned Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur, today brushed aside any idea of talks with Delhi, saying peace would return to the state only after withdrawal of “the colonial rule of India”. Immediately after assuming charge, the new Union minister for department of development of northeastern region, P.R. Kyndiah, had appealed to the militant outfits of the region to shun violence and come to the negotiating table.

Assistant publicity secretary of the RPF, Lily Leima, alleged in a statement issued here today that...

IMPHAL, May 29 – A youth front on Saturday threatened to launch a series of agitations if Manipur Government failed to revoke its decision to extend disturbed area status of the state under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 from June 1. Talking to mediapersons here, president of Manipur Forward Youth Front (MFYF), Sapamcha Kangleipal said the organisation would call an 18-hour ‘general strike’ from midnight of Sunday to lodge protest against the state government’s decision.

Condemning state Cabinet’s decision last week to prolong the disturbed area status, Kangleipal said it was “very...

GUWAHATI, May 29 – More than six months have passed since the day the interim body of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) assumed office, but till date, the State Government has not been able to complete the process of transfer of departments to the Council. BTC spokesman Khampa Borgoyari, who is also an executive member of the Interim Council, told The Assam Tribune that as per the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between the Central and State Governments and the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), the State Government would have to transfer 40 Departments and subjects to the Council and the...

SHILLONG, May 29–The North Eastern Council (NEC) will not be ‘downgraded’, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs P R Kyndiah has assured.

“There was a move for down-grading the NEC in the recent past but I can now assure that the importance of the Council will never be undermined,” Kyndiah promised at a meeting with NEC officials in Shillong on Saturday. It may be mentioned here that the creation of a separate Central Department for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) by the then NDA regime at the Centre had given rise to misgivings in official quarters to the effect that the...

Silchar, May 28: The beleaguered tea industry in the Barak Valley region has appealed to the Tarun Gogoi government to review its minimum wage notification for tea workers issued on February 1 last year. In particular, the tea estates in the Barak Valley, comprising Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts, have spurned a recent Assam government move to usher in parity in the payment of daily-rated wages between tea workers in the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys.

Both the Indian Tea Association (ITA) and the Tea Association of India (TAI) made this clear at a high-level discussion with the...