News

Imphal, Febuary 18: Minister of State for Home Affairs, ID Swami today informed the Lok Sabha that five Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) - Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), North East Coordination Committee on Human Rights (NECOHR), United Committee, Manipur (UCM), Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) and Naga Students Federation (NSF) - have clandestine links with terrorist organizations in the North East. He said these organizations reportedly maintain discreet links with terrorist outfits. 13 terrorist organizations of North Eastern States have been declared as unlawful...

BONORGAON (Kokrajhar), Feb 16— The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) today formally withdrew the movement for the creation of a separate State of Bodoland following the signing of the accord between the Central and the State governments and the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) for the creation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the provisions of the amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. The ABSU has also decided to try to convince the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) to come for the negotiation table to end the ‘gun culture’.

The 35th annual conference of the...

GUWAHATI, Feb 16 — The first phase of the National (Natural) Resource Information System Project, aiming to create a national-level database on the resources of the country, is expected to be completed in Assam by March this year. The initial phase of the project in the State will cover Kamrup district.

Other districts will be covered in the next phases, sources in the Assam Science and Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) said. The NRIS project was launched by the Government of India in 1999-2000 to have a total database on the resources like forests, soil, water, etc., to help policy...

AGARTALA, Feb 16 — The battle for urban constituency Agartala is certainly an elite one. Since the electors in the seat are by and large educated and politically conscious, both the Congress and CPM have fielded educated candidates in the constituency: Engineer-turned-lawyer-turned politician Sudip Roy Barman and advocate-turned-politician Sankar Das.

Last year CPM had fielded a firebrand woman candidate Krishna Rakshit against an equally firebrand Sudip Roy Barman. Apart from bringing a woman Marxist up the ladder, the CPM might have had in mind that the Agartala seat is dominated by...

ITANAGAR, Feb 16 — The Arunachal Pradesh Government and the Centre were thinking of relaxing the Inner Line Permit (ILP) and Restricted Area Permit (RAP) systems for promoting tourism in the State, Chief Minister Mukut Mithi said Wednesday, reports PTI.

“We have not taken any decision to withdraw the ILP and RAP but contemplating to relax it,” the Chief Minister Mukut Mithi told reporters at the ‘Festival of Arunachal’ here. Mithi said both the ILP and RAP were introduced under the Bengal Frontier Regulation Act 1873 which could not be easily scrapped. At the same time, development of tourism...