Development

AIZAWL, July 1 ? Mizoram Chief Minister and Mizo National Front chief Zoramthanga on Wednesday said that he was willing to continue his peace mission in the North East after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked him to continue broader peace deals with the region?s insurgent groups including the NSCN-IM.

Speaking at a Peace Day function here, Zoramthanga said he had gone to Bangkok four times to meet Naga rebel leaders like Th Muivah and Issac Chishi Swu in his efforts to bring the NSCN to the negotiating table with the Centre in Delhi. ?We were engaged in peace talks with the Centre for 15...

AGARTALA, July 1 ? An executive member of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council has been kidnapped by militants of the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (Biswamohan faction) from his house in South Tripura district, police said today. A group of about 10 armed tribal insurgents stormed into Ravijoy Reang?s house at Haticherra at 11 p.m. last night and abducted him at gunpoint.

The militants also took away one 9 mm revolver and ten rounds of live cartridges from Reang?s personal security officer Mahim Debberma, police said. Reang is a prominent leader of National Socialist...

GUWAHATI, July 1 ? The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, an apex bank of India working for the development of rural areas, is implemented a ?special plan? from April 1, 2004 to protect Assam from a rat-induced famine, which is likely to hit the State economy hard within two years. Conceptually, a ?famine? is a crisis period caused by low agricultural production leading to shortage of food and other necessities. Going by previous experience, it is expected that the next round of large-scale flowering of bamboo in the region will occur anytime between 2005 and 2007.

It has...

DIBRUGARH, July 1 ? Oil India Limited (OIL) has been upgraded to Schedule ?A? and has thus become the first North East based company to be given Schedule ?A? status. This will provide the company with higher investment power and greater autonomy to the management. The message to this effect from the company?s corporate office at New Delhi today has been received at Duliajan this afternoon amidst much rejoicing.

Main focus of the company remains the North East where the company has further intensified its exploration & development efforts particularly in frontier areas in order to enhance...

GUWAHATI, July 1 ? Environmental activist group Nature?s Beckon today demanded of the State Forest Department to substantiate with physical evidence its claim that the State had now got its forest cover extended by 5.3 per cent. This rate of increase in the forest cover means that there is more than 4,000 square km of forest added to the State?s existing forest cover, said Nature?s Beckon director Soumyadeep Datta while addressing a press conference here this morning. Such a size of forest will need the State to create 20 forests of the size of the Nameri National Park, he said.

State?s...

GUWAHATI, July 1 ? Heavy exchange of fire took place between the Assam Police personnel and militants belonging to the NSCN (IM) under Mangamukh Border outpost area in Karbi Anglong district since 2.30 pm today. Though one magistrate was reportedly killed in the incident, the Minister of State for Home and the State Home Commissioner could not confirm the report till late in the evening.

According to police sources in Karbi Anglong, Naga people backed by the NSCN (IM) encroached into the territory of Assam under Manglamukh BOP under Diphu police station and today a team of Assam Police and...

Imphal, June 30: Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh will return to Imphal tomorrow from the national capital equipped with the list of MLAs to be included in the new council of Ministers after the Ministry down-sizing exercise. The list is reported to have been prepared by a three member All India Congress Committee panel constituted to oversee down-sizing formalities of the Congress party. With the down-sizing exercise coming into effect from July seven six Ministers who were at New Delhi to lobby to the Chief Minister for berths in the new Council of ministers have arrived to the State capital...

Shillong, June 30: The Meghalaya list of 12 probables holds no surprise: senior Congress leaders retain their berths, as do heads of all the coalition parties. Sources in the AICC said the list, which Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang had planned a week ago in consultation with “close aides” and submitted to the AICC today, has “not changed”.

The only change could be the inclusion of either Nehlang Lyngdoh or Sitlang Pale, both Congress legislators, in place of party MLA Charles Pyngrope.

According to the new law, which was passed by Parliament during the tenure of the National Democratic...

Guwahati, June 30: The Brahmaputra’s attraction goes beyond the country’s borders. If all goes well, a Myanmarese luxury vessel may soon set sail on the Red River with tourists for a cruise between Guwahati and Dibrugarh. The first cruise vessel on the Brahmaputa, MV Charaidew, has already turned out to be a big hit among foreign tourists and running to full houses since its inaugural journey last year.

Sources said talks between the Myanmarese river cruise company, Pandaw Cruising, and Indian shipping authorities are in an “advanced stage”.

Significantly, the company has moved the shipping...

Kokrajhar, June 30: An Adivasi woman was allegedly gangraped by three army jawans at Padmapukri under Gossaigaon police station in the district last night. The jawans of the 11th Jammu and Kashmir light infantry regiment, stationed at Habrubil in Gossaigaon, allegedly raped the pregnant woman at gunpoint inside her house in the presence of her husband.

Gossaigaon sub-divisional police officer S.R. Mili said the jawans, who were here to receive several colleagues returning from leave, allegedly crossed over to the village adjoining the railway station and committed the crime.

The victim was...