Development

Agartala, June 30: The Young Mizo Association (YMA) and the Jampui Mizo Convention (JMC) have decided to launch an agitation in Jampui hills of North Tripura to protest the state government’s apathy towards the problems of the Mizos living in the state. As part of the programme, the two organisations will call a 24-hour bandh in the 10 Mizo- dominated villages in Jampui hills bordering Mizoram.

This was decided at a meeting of the YMA held in Saboal village on June 15.

Former member of the district council Lianjuala Sailo alleged that the area was totally cut off from the rest of the state...

Agartala, June 30: The ruling CPM in Tripura has already won 29.47 per cent of the panchayat seats without any contest amid allegations of political terror and irregularities. The Opposition Congress, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and BJP have alleged that the CPM has captured these seats by unleashing political terror and by having valid nomination papers of their candidates cancelled by biased officials of the election department.

An initial picture in this regard emerged from final computations made by officials of the state election commission after scrutiny of nomination papers...

Matabari (Tripura), June 30: The Left Front government has added another feather to its cap by achieving total literacy in the Matabari block in Udaipur subdivision in South Tripura district. A recent survey stated that all 1,22,481 inhabitants of the block, comprising 45 panchayats, are literate.

Addressing newspersons, chairman of the Matabari panchayat samiti Nitailal Biswas said, “We have achieved this through sheer hard work and dedication of our employees and people.” Matabari, nominated as the best block in the state in 2002-03, was the only block in the entire Northeast to have...

Agartala, June 30: A recently- published autobiography by a retired little-known Communist leader of the erstwhile undivided Assam has stirred a hornet’s nest in the Left-ruled Tripura. Octogenarian Pranesh Biswas has penned a 117-page memoir of his life, christened Smarane Manane (In Memory and in Mind).

Born into a middle class family of Churta village in Habiganj district of (present) Bangladesh, Biswas rose to become a leading light of the Communist Party in the undivided Assam and came into contact with all the Marxist stalwarts — from Jyoti Basu, B.T. Ranadive to Rajeshwar Rao.

Biswas...

AGARTALA, June 30 – Altogether 11,626 nominations have been filed by political parties, including the ruling CPI-M, Opposition Congress, BJP and Nationalist Trinamool Congress, for the three-tier panchayat elections in Tripura to be held on July 8, official sourcs said.

Yesterday was the last date for filing nominations, the sources said, adding a total of 223 nominations were filed for 82 Zilla Parisad seats. The ruling front filed papers in all the 82 seats and Opposition Congress in 70.

Altogether 781 nomination papers have been filed by different parties for 299 seats of 23 panchayat...

AIZAWL, June 30 – Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga was re-elected unopposed as president of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) on the opening day of the three-day party general assembly on Tuesday, reports PTI. Zoramthanga, the undisputed leader of the party since the death of former Chief Minister Laldenga in 1990, retained the presidentship while Home Minister Tawnluia and Health Minister R Tlanghmingthanga were also re-elected unopposed as vice-president and treasurer of the party respectively.

The MNF assembly expressed its happiness over the trust bestowed on Zoramthanga by the...

MARIANI, June 29 – Socio-economically the border town of Mariani had a close relationship with Nagaland ever since the latter was carved out in 1963. At the same time, the region has often hit the headlines, be it for Naga encroachment or for illegal drugs business. Lately, the region is developing into a new base for trafficking of arms and ammunition by outlawed organisations like the NSCN and ULFA. No doubt, that arms transactions were under progress through the region earlier also but recent incidents like CRPF’s seizure of cartridges from a local bus, reaffirms the bustling nature of the...

GUWAHATI, June 30 – In yet another instance of the growing man-elephant conflict in the State that has assumed alarming proportions, continuous depredations by wild elephants in the Army cantonment at 51 Sub Area at Narangi have landed the Army and the Forest authorities in a tight spot.

Elephants have made it a habit to visit and damage the cantonment’s ration godown, looking for food. Most of the time it is two or three elephants but occasionally they come in herds of 20-25 as well. “When they visit the godown, the elephants consume and also waste food worth as much as Rs 10,000 on a single...

NEW DELHI, June 30— In what could deliver an additional boost to air connectivity in the region, Civil Aviation Ministry has cleared international air operation by private operators out of North-east. Accordingly Jet Airways and Sahara Airline would operate Guwahati-Bangkok flights out of the region along with Indian Airlines. This was conveyed to a delegation of Congress MPs and MLAs by Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patil. According to the spokesman of the delegation Dwijen Sarma MP the Minister announced that international air operation out of Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International...

NEW DELHI, June 30— Prospect of revival of the mega gas cracker project has brightened with a new promoter, Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) seeking a series of additional concessions over and above those already available. According to highly placed sources, GAIL has written a letter to Chief Minister of Assam appraising him of their conditions. The Rs 3,700 crore gas cracker project is a joint venture project between State Government-owned AIDC and Reliance Assam Petrochemical Limited (RAPL). But inordinate delay in setting up the project by the private sector giant Reliance India...