Development

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 ? Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) vice-president Jawahar Ghadiok has favoured setting up of tourism villages in the important tourist destinations in the North-east to attract both foreign and domestic tourists into the region.

Addressing a seminar on ?Emerging opportunities in the North-east? jointly organized by the State Bank of India (SBI) and the Federation of Industries & Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) here today, Ghadiok said that despite vast resources, tourism industry is yet to pick up in the region.

Giving the rationale behind the poor...

GUWAHATI, Dec 6 ? The Assam Government today decided to suspend the pilot project of issuing multipurpose identity cards to Indian citizens in the Patharkandi revenue circle of Karimganj district following a discussion with the All Assam Students? Union (AASU).

The Minister in charge of Assam Accord implementation, Dr Bhumidhar Barman, today held a discussion with a delegation of the AASU on the issue as the Government of India decided to launch a pilot project for providing multipurpose photo-identity cards to Indian citizens in Patharkandi revenue circle.

Talking to The Assam Tribune after...

NEW DELHI, Dec 6 ?The much-hyped plan for revamp of the Brahmaputra Board may take years, as the proposal was still at the conceptual stage in the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), even as the Pagladiya Dam Project is awaiting Public Investment Board (PIB) and Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) clearance.

The possibility of a permanent solution to the flood and erosion problems is likely to remain a pipedream, as for implementation of the Master Plan drafted by Brahmaputra Board, Assam Government would need a whopping Rs 1,22,944 crore and for Master Plan Part - II another trench...

NEW DELHI, Dec 6 ?The NSCN (I-M) is awaiting a response from the Government of India to the draft proposal for talks it has submitted, even as the senior leaders of the outfit are likely to meet the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister here tomorrow.

Chairman and general secretary of NSCN (I-M), Isak Chisi Swu and Th Muivah respectively, who arrived here late last evening, are likely to formally begin their meeting with the UPA Government from tomorrow when they call on the Prime Minister and other senior ministers.

But their first day in Delhi was not without controversy, as a...

TURA, Dec 5 ? The two main political parties in the Garo Hills, Purno Sangma?s NCP and the Congress have begun moving into the villages reactivating their grassroot workers in preparation for the coming by-elections to two assembly constituencies and one district council seat.

The by-elections to Selsella and Songsak MLA constituencies and Tura MDC seat have been precipitated following the death of its representatives in a tragic helicopter crash at Kyrdemkulai in Ri-Bhoi district on September 22.

Selsella MLA and Minister Cyprian R Sangma, Songsak MLA Heltone N Marak, and Tura MDC and...

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 ? Despite India furnishing a list of 195 terrorist camps of various proscribed outfits operating in Bangladesh, there has been no response from Dhaka in dismantling them, a top BSF official said today, reports PTI.

"We have already furnished a list of 195 training camps to Bangladesh authorities which are located in their territory. But as of now it appears that they have done little to dismantle them and the terror infrastructure exists as before," BSF Director General Ajai Raj Sharma told PTI here. Sharma said infiltration continues through the porous borders and the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 ? Asserting that a solution to the Naga issue has to be based on the ?uniqueness? of Nagas, top leaders of insurgent group NSCN (IM) arrived here tonight to hold talks with the Centre keeping on track the peace process in the northeastern State, reports PTI.

The outfit?s chairman Isak Swu and general secretary T Muivah were greeted by hundreds of Naga people, dressed in typical attire, singing ?we shall overcome one day?, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on their arrival from Amsterdam. Addressing a meeting of Naga students soon after their arrival, Muivah said...

SHILLONG, Dec 4 ? ?Growing government pressure? was threatening the indigenous community-based system of forest conservation in the North East, where 54 per cent of forest area is under the control of traditional village institutions, communities and individuals, experts said here yesterday.

While forest-dependent communitities of the north-eastern region may have considerable legal authority over the natural resources, based on the constitutional safeguards provided by the Sixth Schedule and Article 371 A-H, at present, the indigeneous community-based systems of forest conservation were being...

ITANAGAR, Dec 4 ? The United States only wanted to offer technical assistance for forensic analysis of the residues of bomb explosions in Assam and Nagaland in October and nothing more, US Consul General George N Sibley said here.

The US Ambassador?s letter to Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in October was an expression of condolence following loss of several lives in the bomb explosions just as the Government of India did after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, Sibley told reporters here.

?The matter was projected in a negative way. We only wanted to offer technical...

AGARTALA, Dec 4 ? More and more skeletons in the cupboard are tumbling in the Tripura Autonomous Distrct Council (TTAADC). The faction-ridden Nationalist Socialist Party of Tripura (NSPT), ruling party of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), suffered yet another jolt with the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate on Tuesday issuing an arrest warrant against Chief Executive Member (CEM) Budhu Debbarma in a cheating case.

Judge Udit Choudhury also directed police authorities to arrest Debbarma and to produce before the court at earliest. The move plunged the NSPT into an...