Development / Nagaland

KOHIMA Feb 3 (NEPS): Nagaland Home Minister Dr TM Lotha said the approach of the ONGC for the exploration of oil in Nagaland was ?unrealistic because they had not given due recognition to the landowners.

Speaking to NEPS here today, the Home Minister made it clear that the plight of the landowners should be addressed and further added that the ONGC was quite ?insensitive? towards this.?They (ONGC) have not taken care of the interest and wellbeing of the landowners,? the Minister stated. Therefore, the landowners were unhappy with them.

Dr Lotha also flaged the unsystematic style of...

Kohima, Feb. 2: The Nagaland government has proposed an 80-km diversion in the Dimapur-Imphal highway before making it a four-lane one.

Prime Minster Atal Bihari Vajpayee had announced a more than Rs 400-crore project to upgrade the National Highway 39, commonly known as Dimapur-Imphal highway here, during his visit to the state in October last year. The state government is understood to have proposed the diversion via Niuland to capital Kohima in fear of paying huge compensation to landowners if the present stretch was to be kept intact.

Nagaland resident commissioner Ponraj attended a...

Kohima, Jan. 19: In case the first call in her newly constructed cubicle tomorrow afternoon is from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, agriculture specialist Amenla of Nagaland?s agriculture department is ready with the answers. She is one of 30 specialist ?respondents? in the eight states of the Northeast, including Sikkim, of the Kisan Call Centres (KCC) to be inaugurated throughout the country by Vajpayee tomorrow.

Set up by the department of agriculture and co-operation, Union ministry of agriculture, the call centres are to fuse information technology and the latest know-how on...

Kohima, Jan. 16: The much-hyped mobile phone services in Nagaland is facing hiccups. To add to the woes, the state?s entire telecommunication sector has gone awry. While many of the cellular phone subscribers complain that their handsets do not work in the evening, the state of landline telephones is worse.

Capital Kohima has become used to landline telephone failures at least twice a week through the last month. The readymade answer for such failures is a ?snag in the microwave tower?.

On Wednesday, telephone lines suddenly went off and calls were not possible between Dimapur and Kohima...

Dimapur, Jan. 16: The Zeliangrong Baudi, the apex association of the Zeliangrong community, yesterday threw its weight behind the Peren District Co-ordination and Facilitating Committee?s proposal to establish the district headquarters of Peren at a new site, called New Peren.

The Zeliangrong Baudi?s decision is likely to trigger a severe controversy because the residents of Peren town this week staged a demonstration demanding setting up of the district headquarters within the township. They said any move to establish the headquarters elsewhere would be tantamount to betraying the residents...

Kohima, Dec. 26: The proposed Kohima airport project has run into a hurdle with the feasibility report submitted to the ministry of civil aviation stating it is financially not viable. Kohima is one of the few state capitals that do not have air links with the rest of the country.

Annoyed by the verdict in the feasibility report, chief minister Neiphiu Rio said: ?If we look at it from this point of view, then any airport in the Northeast is not financially viable. But we have to come up with it.?

Rio met civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy during his visit to New Delhi early this week...

New Delhi, May 30: After nearly a decade, crude oil production may be revived in Nagaland. Plans are being chalked out for a joint agreement between the Neiphiu Rio government and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

But this would bear fruit only if Naga village councils get a share of the royalties shelled out by theONGC. A question mark would still hang over the fate of oil exploration in the state since insurgent outfits had earlier stymied it.

At a high-level meeting today between representatives of ONGC and the Nagaland government, the corporation agreed to look into some of the...

Kohima, May 26: Caught on the wrong foot after international bidders as well as the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) refused to begin exploration work in the state, the Nagaland government today convened an emergency meeting on the issue.

However, the meeting ? chaired by chief minister Neiphiu Rio ? failed to arrive at a decision.

An oil exploration block in Mokokchung district is one of 24 being offered under the latest round of international competitive bidding.

Apart from international players, the ONGC and Oil India Ltd, too, are reportedly unwilling to deploy personnel in the...

Guwahati, May 26: Three states of the Northeast ? identified as one of the most potent breeding grounds of the deadly HIV virus ? today signed the ?Guwahati declaration? for accelerating development of AIDS vaccines and to provide high-quality healthcare to people affected with the disease.

Political leaders of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam pledged their support to research and development of AIDS vaccines, including clinical trials and other prevention technologies as per the needs of the northeastern region.

Manipur, the worst-affected state, accounts for nearly eight per cent of the country?s...

Kohima, March 23: Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio is considering creating two new departments, one for women and the second for the development of backward areas, in addition to the existing 76 in the state.

“The department for development of backward areas will concentrate on Tuensang and Mon districts,” Rio said in his maiden public address in Kohima during the “celebration of victory” ceremony today.

Planning minister Shurhozelie, Speaker Kiyanielie also attended the function. Kohima falls under Northern Angami-1 constituency.

Rio said the two new departments would be created after...