Politics / Assam

GUWAHATI, August 30: For centuries, people living on either side of the Indo-Bangladesh border have been governed by the same rulers. They have also shared a common culture, language and tradition. Fiftytwo years after partition, the artificial frontier barriers have kept the people on either side united by a common bond. The Indo-Bangla border in the Karimganj district of the Barak Valley is a border only in name because there is little that prevents people from both sides from interacting with each other. Barbed wire fences, border sentries, check gates et al have failed to curb the people's...

GUWAHATI, August 23: A majority of the electorate in the Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency are opposed to the poll boycott calls given by insurgent outfits. They have decided to cast their votes despite the boycott calls. According to an opinion poll conducted last week by the students of the Institute of Mass Communication and Media here, an overwhelming 87 per cent of the respondents said they will cast their votes this time with 77 per cent saying that poll boycott calls are not justified. Among the six per cent respondents who said they will not cast their votes, it was not fear but the "bad...

GUWAHATI, August 22: It is the return of the estranged son. Golam Osmani has decided to join the Congress once again. He returned as a Janata Party nominee to the Assam Assembly in 1978 from the then Cachar district riding the cradle of the anti-Congress wave which swept the entire country following the 1975 Emergency. Abul Fazal Golam Osmani, however, could not relish power for long as a Cabinet minister in the Golap Barbora ministry which fell following a massive desertion by the party MLAs to the Congress (J)-backed Assam Janata Dal led by late Jogen Hazarika. Osmani again became a Cabinet...

GUWAHATI, August 22: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today announced its first list of candidates, whose names were cleared by the party's core committee yesterday, for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the Northeast States. The party will contest 10 seats of its own out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The NCP general secretary and former Lok Sabha Speaker, Purno A Sangma told a press conference that the party had, so far, finalised the names of four candidates for Assam. The names of candidates for the remaining six seats will be declared on August 30 next. The party will...

GUWAHATI, August 21 - The URMCA-CPI(ML) alliance has decided to contest the Kokrajhar seat in the coming Lok Sabha elections while extending support to Left, regional and democratic forces to defeat both the BJP and the Congress in the remaining constituencies of the state. A statement by the URMCA general secretary, Mukut Singha Chutia, said apart from demanding an end to the terrorist violence and dissolution of the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC), the issues of floods and environment, "imperialist plunder of State's resources", scheduling of Jharkhandis and Koch-Rajbongshis, protection of...

GUWAHATI, August 20: The Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's, lauding of the successful joint operation by the Assam and West Bengal Police at Rajshahi, 207 km inside Bangladesh, during his Independence Day speech was not a gaffe. It was a calculated, deliberate statement. An unrepentant Mr Mahanta, in a interview with a local daily has said, "Bangladesh cannot deny the fact that.... the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan is using its territory to create disturbances in Assam and other parts of the region." Mahanta's expos? triggered a flurry of activity. Bangladesh Prime...

DUBRUGARH, August 19: Residents of several villages of the Rohmaria area have resorted to an indefinite oil blockade at an oil rig located in the place, demanding immediate erosion-control measures and thus save property worth hundreds of crores of rupees on the northeastern fringes of Dibrugarh. Lending "unstinted support" to the agitation, the Dibrugarh district unit of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner here, urging the Assam government to initiate urgent steps on erosion control at Rohmaria. The AJYCP has warned that...

KARIMGANJ, August 19: The Union government has fixed the year 2007 as the deadline to complete construction of fencing and border roads along the entire stretch of the Indo-Bangla border from Mizoram to West Bengal, GK Pillai, joint secretary (Northeast) in the Union home ministry said today. Pillai, who is here in connection with the visit of a joint delegation of the Union government, the state government and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) to the border areas of Karimganj district, said the people of the state have to take up the responsibility of checking illegal infiltration into the...

GUWAHATI, August 19: The nationwide drive launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to woo regional parties to have an electoral alliance with it has not had any success in the state much to the relief of the Congress. The saffron party's success has remained limited to striking a deal with the All Bodo Students' Union (ABSU)-backed Bodo political groups in the Kokrajhar constituency only. Sources in the state BJP said though the national leadership of the party was interested in having an electoral alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the regional party did not give any positive...

GUWAHATI, August 19: Restoration of peace and all-round development of the state will be the main poll planks of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. This was announced by chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who is also the president of the AGP. Mahanta said implementation of the Assam Accord would also be one of the main issues to be raised by the AGP. The Congress has been alleging that the AGP-led alliance government in the state has failed to provide security to the life and property of the people. It has also accused the state government of failing to take up...