NEW DELHI, April 5 — Even though the country’s biggest arms haul continues to shake the Government of Bangladesh, the North East connection is yet to be confirmed. Although the needle of suspicion is pointed towards the North-east rebel groups, particularly the ULFA, sources said that they are yet to receive any word from Bangladesh Government in this regard. Intelligence reports, however, indicated that the North East was the likely destination.

Reports speculated that ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah himself was supervising the operation that went sour forcing him to flee to Bangkok...

ITANAGAR, April 5 – Opposition Congress and a regional party Arunachal Congress (AC) have forged an alliance and decided to share the two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh, reports PTI. Addressing a press conference the state Congress chief and former Chief Minister, Mukut Mithi said Congress has decided to re-nominate Wangcha Rajkumar from Arunachal East constituency, while AC president Kamen Ringu will contest Arunachal West seat in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.

Asked why Congress which won both the seats in last elections is sacrificing the West parliamentary seat for Arunachal...

SHILLONG, April 5 : The Centre has restored the budget allocation for the North Eastern Council (NEC) to Rs 500 crore for the year 2003-2004, NEC Secretary PL Thanga announced today. Earlier, the Union Finance Ministry had made a cut on the NEC budget allocation by Rs 104.71 crore in January 2004 and the amount was restored to its original position due to personal intervention of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Thanga told reporters. The Prime Minister had communicated with the Planning Commission, Finance Ministry and DONER in this regard, he said.

DIBRUGARH, April 5 — AGP leader Sarbananda Sonowal today startled reporters with an ‘inside information’ that the Bogibeel bridge will have just one BG railway track and not two, as publicly announced by Railway Minister Nitish Kumar in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. However, when contacted, the Northeast Frontier Railway general manager (construction), N Rama Subramanian said: “The earlier proposal of twin BG railway tracks on the Bogibeel bridge remains.” He said work is under way to have the bridge with double BG railway tracks and double road carriageway, and strongly...

GUWAHATI, April 4 – Environ, a revolutionary group advocating conservation, management and utilisation of nature and natural resources of the North East, will carry out a survey of the region’s natural resources and develop the concept of resource utilisation through tree plantation, development of eco-tourism, fisheries and other agricultural activities.

The aim of the survey is to ensure proper utilisation of every bit of land and human resource to make the region self-dependent as far as possible.

Environ president Amarjyoti Kashyap said that the group would also take active part to make...