GUWAHATI, April 23 — The procastination on part of Government of India to hold talks with Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) and United People’s Democratic Solidary (UPDS) which are in ceasefire with Government forces, has raised concern in the two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts of the State. Sources in the hill districts informed that public peace in those areas are in danger with armed cadres of DHD and UPDS moving around in the open instead of remaining within their peacetime designated camps as per rules governing the ceasefire. Involvement of DHD cadres in the...

NEW DELHI, April 23 — Even as the North Eastern States reel under severe power cuts, at least 18 hydropower projects with an installed capacity of 25,890 MW in the Brahmaputra and Barak River basins are still on papers, mired in bureaucratic wrangles at the Centre. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Power, Jayawanti Mehta said that present detailed project reports are being prepared for the 18 hydropower projects. Out of these, five projects with an aggregate capacity of 359 MW are ongoing schemes. Besides, Central Electricity Authority has cleared four hydropower...

SHILLONG, April 23 — Banned militant outfit of Meghalaya A’chik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), demanding a separate homeland for the Garo tribes, held preliminary peace talks with the Centre Bangkok and was keen to follow up the dialogue process, ANVC general secretary Wanding K Marak said, reports PTI. He told a select group of reporters somewhere in Assam-Meghalaya boundary area that preliminary talks, brokered by Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, were held in January this year, and the ANVC was ready to follow up the dialogue process with the Centre.

Marak said the ANVC is not keen...

Guwahati, April 22: The NSCN’s Khaplang faction has called upon the Naga National Council to play a more active role in the search for a solution to the Naga political impasse, questioning the rival Isak-Muivah faction’s “killing” of several NNC members for surrendering to the Union government.

The Khaplang faction has drawn a parallel between Isak and Muivah’s acceptance of Indian passports and the NNC’s acceptance of the Indian Constitution with the Shillong Accord of 1975.

The outfit’s “ministry of information and publicity”, in a statement, claimed that the NSCN (I-M) had no “credibility”...

NEW DELHI, April 22 — The clamour for additional funds by the north-eastern States notwithstanding, the Department of Development of the North-eastern Region (DoNER) has sanctioned less than 50 per cent of the cost of the sanctioned projects indicating that release out of the Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) were far less than accruals to the pool. What is perhaps more startling was the fact that as opposed to the mandatory release of the 10 per cent of the gross budgetary support (GBS) for the north-eastern region (NER), some Central ministries and departments have been able to...