News

AGARTALA, Feb 18 — Under the shadow of insurgents violence, battlelines have been drawn between Tripura ruling Left Front and its arch rival Congress and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) for the February 26 elections to the member assembly, reports PTI. The dominant Left Front partner CPI-M alone is contesting 55 seats and allies CPI-2. All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)-1 and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)-2.

Congress has fielded 42 candidates and it ally INPT in 18 constituencies reserved for tribals. Besides Left Front and Cong-INPT combine, BJP and Trinamool Congress and NCP...

NEW DELHI, Feb 18 — The role of several human right groups including the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) in the North-East is under scrutiny, with the Ministry of Home Affairs identifying them as having close links with the underground outfits. The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sri I D Swami in a statement in the Lok Sabha said that several NGOs in the North-East have clandestine links with terrorist organisations. The organisations named included the MASS, North-East Coordination Committee on Human Rights (NECCHR). United Committee, Manipur (UCM), Naga Peoples Movement for Human...

Dimapur, Feb. 18: In a positive response to S.S. Khaplang’s call for unity, the NSCN (I-M) today said the rival insurgent leader’s statement could be the stimulus for a new campaign to reconcile warring Naga groups. “If we are all concerned about Naga unity, things should move in the right direction. In fact, our collective leadership had similarly appealed to all to give suggestions for the progress of the peace process,” the convener of the NSCN (I-M)’s ceasefire monitoring cell, Phungthing Shimrang, said here.

During a recent interview to The Telegraph at the NSCN (K)’s council...

GUWAHATI, Feb 18 – Being aware of the tremendous potential for development of inter-regional trade between Bangladesh and North East India, the South Asian Enterprise Development Pacility (SEDF), funded by IFC, has taken up the task to facilitate formal Indo-Bangla trade in the region in a greater scale.

To achieve the goal of formalisation of the huge volume of informal/illegal trade going on across the Indo-Bangla border in the region, the SEDF is trying to facilitate frequent meaningful interaction amongst the businessmen and industry on both side of the border. The SEDF believes...

Imphal, Feb. 18: Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh has adopted a carrot-and-stick policy to collect power dues from consumers, including government departments. This has been necessitated by the power corporations’ threat to snap electricity connections following the government’s inability to clear its outstanding bill.

The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) recently announced that it would snap power supply to states which have failed to pay their dues. Manipur, which has few sources of power of its own, depends on electricity supplied by corporations such as Neepco and...