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GUWAHATI, April 1 –The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed a unanimous resolution to declare Majuli river island a culturally protected area. The resolution, moved by Rajiv Lochan Pegu of the Congress was supported by legistators of all the parties and groups. Moving the resolution, Sri Pegu stressed the need for protecting the rich Satriya cultural heritage of Majuli. He said that though Satriya dance has been recognised as a classical dance form of the country, it may lose its originality if steps are not taken to protect the Satriya cultural heritage. He pointed out that the UNESCO...

ITANAGAR, April 1 ( APNEI) – Tired of pollution ? We gave you methane petrol , now take “Bio diesel…was the kind of assurance the union minister of state for rural development” Annasaheb MK Patil, a technocrat turned politician having a coveted American university engineering degree, gave to the northeasterners.

Talking to the media persons here Patil made a sensational disclosure that the entire northeast, Arunachal Pradesh in particular, was the hub of jetropa plant, found also in south India, which has already proved its potential in virtually substituting diesel.

Experiments were...

Guwahati, April 1: In a move that could open a Pandora’s box in the insurgency-ravaged Northeast, the Assam Assembly today began a debate on including the thorny subject of “sovereignty” in a dialogue between the Centre and the Ulfa.

The debate was prompted by a private member’s resolution moved by AGP members Dilip Kumar Saikia and Sarbananda Sonowal. The duo urged Delhi and Dispur to accept the Ulfa’s main condition for talks — inclusion of the issue of Assam’s “sovereignty” in the agenda — because the deadlock would never be broken if both sides remained adamant.

Initiating the discussion...

JAKHAMA (Nagaland), March 31 — After the introduction of “Nagaland Environment Protection and Economic Development through People’s Action (NEPED)” in 1995, the forest coverage in Nagaland has increased remarkably. NEPED is an agroforestry project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through the Indo-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF). It can be mentioned here that the agroforestry system is an alternative to jhum cultivation.

The benefits of agroforestry are to increase the land productivity, including biomass and food, increasing the arable land, promoting farmers...

Guwahati, March 31: The abduction of Meghalaya-based customs inspector Deepak Mahanta and six others by the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) has led intelligence agencies to suspect that the outfit is “desperate” for funds to sustain a massive recruitment drive along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

The focus of the NDFB’s new recruitment drive is Haluaghat in Mymensing district, an area that is home to a sizeable population of Bodos, Rabhas and Garos. Intelligence sources said the outfit was extorting money from people on either side of the border in a bid to collect enough funds to...