Politics / Assam

SHILLONG, Dec 1: Over 4000 people of Khasi-Pnars tribe, sheltering in relief camps for over three weeks in the Jaintia Hills district after fleeing their homes in Assam?s Karbi Anglong district following threats by militants, have started returning today, reports PTI. ?We have arranged transportation to help the Khasi-Pnars? return to their homes. They should leave today,? Jaintia Hills district Deputy Commissioner L Kharkongor told PTI over phone. The Khasi-Pnars, who had been put up in camps at Sahsniang village of Jaintia Hills district, agreed to return to their homes in Block I and Block...

GUWAHATI, Dec 1: The overall percentage of poll in the elections to 55 civic bodies of the State, including the Guwahati Municipal Corporation, held today, was between 65 and 70. The elections were by and large peaceful. No report of any major election-related violence, barring some stray cases at some places, has been received till the filing of this report from any corner of the State. Repolling in five centres of Karimganj Municipal Board and two centres of Dhubri Municipal Board is likely to be ordered by the State Election Commission (SEC) as reports of assault of poll officials and...

SILIGURI, June 15: Ethnic affinity of people living on both sides of the border, lack of border fencing in about 80 per cent of the total length of the international boundary, shortage of forces etc are encouraging infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into India through the North Bengal Frontier. But on the positive side, efforts are on to bring in more troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) to check influx, while, the border fencing work in the area is also scheduled to be completed by the year 2005, which will definitely check illegal migration to a great extent.

Talking to The Assam...

Silchar, June 13: After weeks of acrimony and bloodbath, the warring Dimasa and Hmar tribes tonight signed an accord to revive their friendship and help the administration restore peace in North Cachar Hills district of Assam.

Health minister Bhumidhar Barman, who is leading a Cabinet fact-finding team to the strife-torn district, brokered the accord between the Hmar Inpi and the Dimasa Zadike. Sources said president of the Hmar Inpi, Nubak Thanga Hmar, and his counterpart in the Dimasa organisation, Gunin Langthasa, signed the agreement at the Haflong Circuit House.

Before the accord, the...

Dibrugarh/Guwahati, June 13: Showing no sign of repentance, the seven labourers who yesterday lynched a tea executive in Dibrugarh district have accused the managerial staff of ?oppression and injustice? reminiscent of colonial times.

With the mood of the labour community being defiant and payment of bonus ? always a thorny issue ? due three months from now, tea executives across Assam are bracing for more tense moments.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has constituted co-ordination committees at the district level to take up tea garden-related issues. The divisional commissioner of each region will...

GUWAHATI, June 13 ? Panic has gripped tea executives in the State, particularly those working in tea estates are passing through a lean phase financially, in view of the killing of three executives within a fortnight including the one lynched by tea workers at Moderkhat Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district yesterday. These brutal killings of tea executives by mobs of tea workers indicated that trouble is brewing in the tea gardens in the State. The tension between disgruntled tea workers who are feeling cheated by the failure of many cash-strapped managements to provide them with all the perks...

Dibrugarh, June 12: Assam?s crisis-ridden tea industry today woke up to the shocking news of another tea executive being lynched by a group of irate labourers.

The victim, Mukul Dowerah, was assistant manager at Nandanmal tea estate in Dibrugarh district. He became the third garden executive to be murdered in Assam in less than two weeks. Labourers of Sapoi tea estate in Sonitpur district had lynched two managers and set fire to their bodies on May 30.

Dibrugarh police said seven labourers waylaid and killed 35-year-old Dowerah when he was returning to his office after a field visit on his...

DIBRUGARH, June 12 ? An assistant manager of the Modarkhat tea estate near Tengakhat in the Dibrugarh district was today lynched by a group of irate tea workers. He later succumbed to his injuries. A group of about 8 to 10 persons went to the assistant manager of the estate, Mukul Dowerah, this morning, asking for work. Of these, three were sacked from service about a fortnight ago for unauthorized absence from work over a prolonged period. Moreover, as there was no vacancy, he told the group accordingly and went out to the Sadavisa out garden for his routine duties. As he returned to his...

GUWAHATI, June 11 ? The outlawed National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) has ?warned? the leaders of the All Bodo Students? Union (ABSU) and members of the Boro Legislature Party and Parliamentarians who have been ?carrying about their selfish political gameplan through the use of their muscle power called the BTC.? The outfit?s information and publicity secretary B Erakdao has accused the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) and the army of perpetrating atrocities on ?innocent Boro people.? In an e-mailed statement here, Erakdao accused the Government of India of engaging itself in a...

NEW DELHI, June 10 ? The Central Government today tried to assuage the peeved Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) leadership by assuring expeditious clearance of all formalities before the forthcoming Monsoon Session of the Parliament to pave the way for constitution of the interim Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). A meeting of the Accord Implementation Committee convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) here today reviewed the implementation of the Bodo Accord.

The two-round meeting, chaired by Rajeev Agarwal, joint secretary (North-east) jand attended by State Home Commissioner BK Gohain and...