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LEKHAPANI, Feb 15 ? They were known to be a ferocious community, which never subjugated themselves before anybody else. Save the British, who enticed them with opium trading licences. But over the decades, the Singpho community has distanced itself from violence, took to Buddhism, and today is one of the most docile people to be found anywhere in the world. Their warmth is especially experienced at the annual Shapawng Yawng Manau Poi festivities where they pay obeisance to their forefathers and dance around the Shadung in graceful, semi-military formations.

This year?s festivities were held...

GUWAHATI, Feb 15 ? A staggering amount of Rs 850 crore due to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) from the State Government is seriously affecting functioning of the Corporation which has been engaged in development of the power sector in the North-east since 1976.

Revealing this, the Confederation of NEEPCO Trade Unions, a united platform of all the registered trade unions within the Corporation, today said it was not at all happy with the State Government and the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB), and appealed to the Government to ensure that NEEPCO got its dues. ?This...

KOKRAJHAR, Feb 15 ? The Central Government should pay proper attention to the problems of all the ethnic groups of the north-eastern region so that they are not compelled to take up arms, said the chairman of the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), Sri Hagrama Basumatary. Talking to this correspondent here today, the BLT chief, who is meeting Bodo leaders from all over the State gathered here for the 35th annual conference of the All Bodo Students? Union (ABSU), said that they have no regrets for taking up arms for solution of the problems faced by the Bodo community as ?we took up arms for a just...

Feb. 15: The Tarun Gogoi government has set in motion its publicity machinery to negate fears among the non-tribal communities that their rights could be compromised in the Bodoland Territorial Council.

The government today directed the deputy commissioners of Lower Assam to give maximum publicity to the latest Bodo accord. Copies of the pact signed on Monday was faxed to the seven deputy commissioners for circulation of its contents among the masses, said home commissioner B.K. Gohain.

The deputy commissioners were instructed to set up peace committees in areas under their jurisdiction for...

GUWAHATI, Feb 14 ? The 36-hour Assam bandh called by the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samity, Assam, in protest against the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) agreement passed off peacefully throughout lower Assam today. The bandh was total and spontaneous, claimed the Samity in a statement. The bandh had begun at 5 pm yesterday and will end at 5 am tomorrow. Thanking the people for their support to the bandh, the Samity said it has reaffirmed their assertion that the majority of the people were against the BTC which was nothing but a ploy to divide the people and destroy the state.