Development

Imphal, July 9: The CPI is driving a hard bargain with Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh over portfolios, now that the battle over ministerial berths is over. Four days after Ibobi Singh pruned his ministry, the clamour for plum portfolios is on in full swing.

Portfolios are likely to be reallocated after Ibobi Singh, currently in New Delhi, returns to the state after meeting party chief Sonia Gandhi and attending the AICC conclave tomorrow.

The CPI, a partner of the Secular Progressive Front (SPF), has got two cabinet berths. It has made it very clear that the party is not going to...

New Delhi, July 9: The World Bank has evinced interest in financing development schemes in Meghalaya. High-ranking officials from the bank are scheduled to visit the hill state in August for obtaining first-hand experience. "There is a possibility of the World Bank providing funds for development schemes. World Bank country director Michael Carter is likely to visit the state in August,? Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang told mediapersons here today.

He indicated that tourism, health, power, mining and organic food sectors could be the ones where investments may flow in.

Carter, who...

Guwahati, July 9: ?Let us bring our heroes back,? she says, and you instinctively start believing in her mission. Jayeeta Sharma, an assistant professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, has been researching the inspirational lives of three great historical characters for a book with which she hopes to revive interest in ?our glorious past?.

Jayeeta?s three ?heroes? are saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardev, Ahom military general Lachit Barphukan and Joymati, the Ahom princess who is acknowledged as the supreme symbol of sacrifice. ?Being a historian, I believe we should use the...

The floral diversity of the region has rarely been captured in the audio-visual media. Though a few presentations have delved into the issue, fewer have reached aesthetic excellence. The 30-minute-long film, The Wild Beauty, produced by Mukul Talukdar for Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati, is one of the few presentations that deserves special mention.

Talukdar, also the director and scriptwriter of the film, has chosen the wonderful land of Arunachal Pradesh to shoot the beautiful orchids.

Arunachal Pradesh is a natural home of about 500 species of orchids found in various weather conditions ? from...

Guwahati, July 9: Supporters of Congress leaders representing the linguistic minorities of the Brahmaputra Valley today joined the chorus of protests over the allegedly skewed composition of the Tarun Gogoi government even as the PCC claimed there was no post-downsizing dissidence in the party.

A forum of various Bengali youth organisations picked veteran Ardhendu Dey?s omission from the new-look ministry as a reflection of the government?s alleged apathy towards linguistic minorities.

It said at least one of the three Congress legislators representing the 48 lakh-strong Bengali population of...

Kohima/Dimapur, July 9: Army units ringed the NSCN (Isak-Muivah)?s ?Camp Hebron? at Nagaland?s Intangki reserve forest, adjoining Karbi Anglong in Assam, after Delhi took cognisance of the Tarun Gogoi?s complaint about the militant group?s activities along the inter-state border.

An extra assistant commissioner of Assam, Dipankar Das, and a constable were killed by suspected NSCN (I-M) members during a campaign to evict illegal Naga settlers from Dhansiri forest of Karbi Anglong district. The incident occurred on July 1.

The NSCN (I-M) camp is across the river Dhansiri, and only a few hundred...

DIMAPUR, July 9 ? NSCN-K today said that a top brass of the NSCN-IM was involved in the July 1 border incident in which an executive magistrate of Diphu was shot dead. Both the factions of NSCN are at loggerheads with one another and a decade-old hit-and-run battle is continuing between the two aimed at crushing the other.

?It is very clear that the NSCN-IM is not involved in the recent Assam-Nagaland border incident but AZ Jami, secretary of the steering committee of the organization (NSCN-IM) has used his office and his boys in dismantling the security of Assam and killing of the Assam...

ITANAGAR, July 9 ?Tezu, the headquarter of Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh was cut off from the rest of the country even as all the major rivers and their tributaries in the district are in spate following torrential rains for the last 10 days, official sources said here on Friday, reports PTI. Noa Dihing river was flowing 20 cm above the danger level and posing a threat to Namchai township, the sources said. Many villages under Mahadevpur circle are inundated following the swelling waters of the river Digaru and Derrang, which are also flowing above the danger mark.

Khamti, Miri, Enthem...

GUWAHATI, July 9 ? Several Bengali organisations of Brahmaputra Valley in Assam today threatened to launch an agitation to protest the absence of any representative of their community in the recently downsized Congress government in the State, reports PTI. ?There are three 'Hindu Bengali' MLAs in the Congress from the Brahmaputra Valley and none has found a place in the ministry with even a senior leader, Dr Ardhendu Dey, the former Agriculture minister, having been dropped,? president of Sangyukta Yuba Chatra Parishad of Assam, Sanjay Kumar Chakraborty told reporters here. The organisations...

KHETRI, July 9 ? With the opening of the North-east?s first state-of-the-art Research and Development Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants set up by the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) at Khetri, 25 km from the city, today, the stage is set for an ?aromatic revolution? in the State. Hailing the venture that is expected to give a big boost to commercialization of medicinal and aromatic plants that have tremendous potential in the State, scientists and experts who gathered on the occasion, felt that the centre, by way of imparting the much-needed technical guidance...