Dimapur, May 23: Former Nagaland chief minister S.C. Jamir last night appealed to the Naga underground factions to join hands in making the peace process successful under the new government at the Centre. The senior AICC member and PCC chief reassured the collective leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) that it could expect the Congress’s trust and all help from the party in the state as well as at the Centre.

His statement, issued last night, came on the day the new Congress-led government assumed office at the Centre. Pranab Mukherjee, tipped to be the new...

Kakoijana (Bongaigaon), May 23: A small village of largely illiterate and impoverished tribals is scripting one of the success stories of the joint forestry management scheme, relying more on people power than the might of money to achieve its aim. The Golden Langur Protection Force, comprising residents of Bogoriguri village near the Kakoijana forest reserve in Assam’s Bongaigaon district, was constituted at the initiative of J.U. Ahmed, range officer of the Bongaigaon social forestry range. The organisation has since done more to save one of the world’s rarest primates from extinction than...

Imphal, May 23: BJP’s Manipur unit president Th. Chaoba Singh today said he had offered to step down, owning moral responsibility for the party’s poll debacle in the state. The former Union minister of state for youth affairs and sport, who returned here from New Delhi yesterday, said the national leadership of the party had rejected his offer to step down as state unit chief.

He had made the offer to BJP national president M. Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi after the results of the two Lok Sabha seats of the state were announced. Chaoba Singh said Naidu told him that it was not the right time...

Silchar, May 23: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), the two frontline militant organisations of Manipur, have decided stop the two-year-long turf war in Jiribam subdivision of the state. Intelligence sources said this was a major development because both outfits have suffered heavy casualties over the past two years in Jiribam along Cachar district in south Assam.

The organisations have also decided to co-ordinate their operations in the district. However, there were no indications that the joint offensive will cover other parts of Manipur.

The...

Kohima, May 23: A Naga tribal union has clarified the applicability of the inner-line permit. The Konyak Union has reaffirmed that children born to Konyak woman with non-tribal husbands would need to apply for an inner-line permit. Konyak Nagas are the dominant community in Mon district. A resolution had been adopted in the past but “a fresh need has arisen to keep tabs on immigrants”, mostly Bangladeshis, the union said.

“Often, we find that the name of a man may be Konyak but his father’s name indicates he is not a Konyak,” said a member of the union from Mon. “If a Konyak woman marries a...