Development

NEW DELHI, Nov 27 ? The Centre has proposed to rush an emissary to meet the NSCN (IM) leaders to persuade them to come for talks with the Government of India, Nagaland, Chief Minister, N. Rio told newsmen here today. A visibly tense-looking Chief Minister has air dashed to Delhi to press the Centre to break the unexpected deadlock in the Naga peace process.

After a half-an-hour-long meeting with Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil at his North Block office, the Chief Minister managed to extract an assurance that an emissary would be sent to meet the Naga leaders. The responsibility is again...

GUWAHATI, Nov 27 ? Militant outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) today alleged that the Government of India was maintaining double standard on the issue of talks and demanded a plebiscite on the issue of sovereignty of Assam. In a statement released to the media on the occasion of protest day observed by the outfit, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa assured that they would follow the verdict of the plebiscite and the Government of India should also follow the same.

Rajkhowa said that the ULFA has been trying to solve the issue through peaceful means through dialogues, as ?we know that...

NEW DELHI, Nov 26 ? Leaders of insurgent outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), who met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil here, today said they had asked the Centre to ensure that the Left Front government in the state does not ?violate? the ceasefire agreement with them, reports PTI.

?The Tripura government is creating obstacles in the process of peace and political dialogue,? NLFT chief Nokbar Borak, alias Nayanbashi Jamatiya told PTI here after he and other leaders of the outfit held two days of tripartite talks with Union Home Ministry and state government officials.

The NLFT...

IMPHAL, Nov 26 ? Monitoring the education system under its Operation New Kangleipak, armed cadres of the banned underground Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, (KYKL) abducted eight teachers including two lady teachers of the National Institute of Open Schools, Manipur. They shot at the legs of the six male teachers and caned black and blue the two women.

The punishments were meted out after the teachers were paraded before select mediamen on Wednesday night for their being the bane in ushering in quality education, a spokesman of the outfit told the newsmen in a press meet somewhere in Ukhrul district...

GUWAHATI, Nov 26 ? It is high time to demystify the Brahmaputra and other rivers of the State and to go for a paradigm change for their management, said Dr Dulal Chandra Goswami, an expert of international repute on the Brahmaputra.

A vocal opponent of the rage for building mega-dams to tap the hydel power potential of the region?s rivers, Dr Goswami, while talking to The Assam Tribune also pleaded for zonal planning of the NE region?s water resources on watershed basis to ensure its optimal utilisation, hazard management and welfare maximisation.

He also held the anthropogenic factors more...

GUWAHATI, Nov 26 ? A recent report on land relations in North East India has revealed interesting facts about some socio-economic, legal as well as cultural factors, which have made a considerable impact on the existence of several indigenous communities of the region.

The report ?Changing Land Relations in North Eastern India: A comparative Study of Six Tribes and a Non Tribal Group,? prepared by Walter Fernandes and Melville Pereira of the North Eastern Social Research Centre, recognises that one of the causes behind the continuing turmoil in the North East is the ?new land relations that...

SHILLONG, Nov 26 ? India and Bangladesh have agreed to carry out a joint survey along the international border in Assam and Meghalaya, BSF Inspector General S C Srivastava said today, reports PTI. Addressing a press conference here on the occasion of its 39th Raising day, Srivastava said the survey would be carried out by the Survey of India and Bangladesh Survey from December to March next year.

The survey, he said, would be done in those areas where the boundary pillars are found missing, broken or washed away by rivers. The authorities had maps and equipment to determine the exact position...

KOHIMA, Nov 25 (NEPS) ? Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio expressed his happiness on bringing people closer and having interaction with them on the latest developments happening anywhere in the country through the advancement of technology.

Inaugurating state-wide video-conferencing network here at his official residence on November 24, the Chief Minister described such technological achievement linking the length and breath of the State as well as nation?s capital as a ?great leap forward? for the State of Nagaland. It had placed their ?remote isolated State? in the company of the ?larger...

SHILLONG, Nov 25 ? Number of illegal entrants, apprehended along the Indo-Bangladesh border by the BSF, was on the rise till October this year as compared to the past two years. Altogether 237 illegal entrants were apprehended till October 31, 2004 as against 228 in 2003 and 137 in 2002, according to a report released today by the BSF?s Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland (AMMN) frontier, headquartered here.

Stating the seizure data of narcotics and forest produces during the corresponding time in the ongoing year also indicated an upward turn, the report said the overall seizure figures...

IMPHAL, Nov 25 ? For the first time, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh was publicly warned by the frontline insurgent outfit ? United National Liberation Front for his ?intentionally taking active part? in the large-scale counter-insurgency operations with the deployment of over 40,000 Central and State forces in the State.

The UNLF, in a statement issued on its 40th foundation day on Wednesday, blamed the Chief Minister for deployment of additional central forces in the state alleging that such arrangement was earlier resisted by his predecessors.

Ibobi who has been accorded ?Z? category...