Politics / Assam

GUWAHATI, June 26 – State Hill Areas Minister G C Langthasa, while clarifying the position of the State Government regarding the whereabouts of the ULFA leaders allegedly missing since the operation launched by the Royal Bhutanese Army, called upon the ULFA leadership not to draw any connection between the kidnapping of his son by the ULFA with the disappearance of the outfit’s leaders.

In an official statement Langthasa said that he had a detailed discussion with the Chief Minister who categorically asserted that the State Government did not have any information regarding the whereabouts of...

Imphal, June 25: Even as neighboring States like Nagaland and Meghalaya have worked out the model for the impending Ministry downsizing which will come into force from July 7, the Congress led SPF Government is still groping in the dark waiting for a nod at New Delhi from the AICC high command to the model worked out by the Steering Committee of the ruling Front. Chief Minister O Ibobi who left for New Delhi to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get their approval to the model worked out here is yet to be granted an audience by the two most important persons...

Nagaon, June 25: The Jayanta Rongpi-led group of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) proposed to move its mother organisation with the proposal of reunion after a gap of four years. The last three elections, including the district council’s election, has taught them that reunion between the two is the only way to regain legitimacy in the politics of the two hill districts of Assam.

In a press release, the Rongpi-led Progressive faction, in conjunction with its students’ and women’s wings and the CPI(M-L), offered to work together with the mother unit of ASDC “to keep the anti...

GUWAHATI, June 24 – Though the decision to computerise and update the National Register of Citizens (NRC), 1951 was taken in a tripartite meeting on the implementation of the Assam Accord way back in 1999, even the process of computerising existing portions of the vital document has not yet been completed.

The issue of preserving and updating the NRC figured in almost all the tripartite and bipartite talks on the implementation of the Assam Accord since 1999 but the process of computerisation started only in Dhubri district and so far the State Government has not been able to start the work...

KOLKATA, June 22 – India is likely to take up with Bangladesh the issues of infiltration and reported ultra training camps on its soil at a ministerial-level meeting, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Prakash Jaiswal, said here today, reports PTI.

“If required, we will consider holding bilateral talks with Dhaka at the ministerial level to resolve the sensitive issues like the infiltration of the Bangladeshis into India and the reported training camps of anti-Indian ultras in that country,” Jaiswal told reporters here after his review meeting with senior CRPF officials at its...

GUWAHATI, June 21– The Government of Assam is yet to start the process of holding the polls to the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BTC). As per the accord signed between the Central and State Governments and the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), the election should have been held within six months from the day the interim council assumes office and already the stipulated time frame is over and it is not known when the polls to the Council will be held.

The spokesman of the BTC, Khampa Borgoyari, who is an executive member of the interim council, told The Assam Tribune that the interim council has...

AZARA, June 21 – In a tragic incident, three wild elephants were run over by a train near Rani last night on the Kamakhya-Jogighopa route. Talking to The Assam Tribune, Jahur Ali, Range Officer of the Rani Forest Range said that a herd of about twenty wild elephants had come down from Chakradow hill last night. The elephants were searching for food by the side of the railway track near Chakradow-Mikirpara under Rani Forest Range.

According to sources in the forest department, at around 11.30 pm the DN BG BBMN Coal goods train with 41 wagons collided with some members of the herd. The impact...

GUWAHATI, June 20 – Exasperated at what it said was the dilly-dallying tactics of the State Government, the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) today served an ultimatum to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to grant Schedule Tribes (ST) status to all the Adivasi communities living in the State, failing which the Adivasis would boycott the Congress party. “Assam is the only State in the country where the Adivasis do not enjoy scheduled status. This has been a gross discrimination that needs to be rectified at the earliest,” AASAA president Justin Lakra told mediapersons today.

Lakra...

Kokrajhar, June 18: Trouble is brewing again in the Bodo heartland, this time over Dispur’s alleged apathy towards the tribal community’s language. The Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) today warned of a mass agitation if the Tarun Gogoi government did not lift the ban on appointment of teachers and provincialisation of venture schools in which the tribal language is the medium of instruction.

“The Bodo language is still at the nascent stage, and the ban on appointment of teachers and provincialisation of schools has affected its very foundation. In the district of Golaghat, there is no provincialised...

GUWAHATI, June 18 – Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today ruled out removal of any ‘tainted’ minister as demanded by the Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). Terming the AGP demand as vague and politically motivated one, he dared the AGP to name the ‘tainted’ ministers in his ministry. The AGP had at a recent press meet, made the demand for removal of some tainted Ministers from Gogoi’s Ministry referring to a letter of Transport Minister Anjan Dutta. However, the opposition party had refrained from naming any of the Ministers in this connection.

Taking a dig at the AGP president Brindaban Goswami...