Politics / Assam

BISWANATH CHARIALI, May 25— About 58,000 hectares of reserve forest areas in north Assam have been devastated following aggression by Arunachal Pradesh on the one hand and encroachment by local people and migrants on the other. Though north Assam has been enriched naturally by 28 forest reservers, existence of many of them has remained in hoardings only. In the Sonitpur district alone, which is home to 13 reserve forests with total area of 77,064.22 hectares, about 30,943 hectares of forest cover has been eliminated and encroached upon by various sects of people.

Of late, Arunachali...

May 24: Indian intelligence agencies and the army have begun exchanging information with their Myanmar counterparts in preparation for a full-fledged offensive against Northeast militants operating from that country. A senior official of the army’s 4 Corps, headquartered in the central Assam town of Tezpur, said information had been received about the number of militant camps in Myanmar, their locations and logistical details.

“We have pinpointed the locations of the camps of Northeast militants in that country with their help. They have given us a list of camps that the Chin National Army...

Nagaon, May 24: United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) will soon meet the new Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, with the charter of demands that the Karbi militant group placed before the NDA government two years back. The open platform of the political and non-political organisations of the twin hill districts of Assam, the Common Parliamentary Forum, will also send a team of delegates to New Delhi to press the new government to find a fruitful solution to the problem of insurgency.

UPDS publicity secretary Tong-eh-Nongloda today said in Diphu that a team of delegates, led by the senior...

Jorhat, May 24: Nagaland today cried foul over the eviction of 16 Naga families from their homes in the vicinity of the Desoi Valley reserve forest, re-igniting the border land dispute that has been a thorn in its otherwise cordial relationship with Assam. Mokokchung deputy commissioner Imkon Tamchu formally complained about this to his Jorhat counterpart, saying the dispute would intensify if Assam “continues to evict Naga villagers from their land”.

Jorhat is one of the four districts bordering Nagaland.

Tamchu said a police team from Assam raided Charang Basti, a Naga-inhabited village...

Nagaon, May 23: The Bodo Liberation Tigers has been disbanded and its leaders have long traded their guns for pens, but the erstwhile militant group’s violent yet successful campaign for an autonomous administrative council for the Bodo heartland has become the model for a tribal uprising elsewhere. Security forces deployed in central Assam are bracing for trouble with a fledgling militant organisation that claims to represent the Tiwa tribe announcing another movement for “self rule”. The Tiwa Liberation Tiger Force is only eight months old, though the pace at which the group has been...

GUWAHATI, May 22 — The State Government has directed all the district and sub divisional authorities to stop all kinds of transfer of land in the Tribal Belts/Blocks to ‘non-eligible’ persons forthwith as per the provisions of the amended Chapter-X of the Assam Land Revenue Regulation (ALRR), 1886. The latest move of the State Government is only but a repetition of the earlier instruction issued by it way back in 1993.

The latest action of the Government is a fall out of the representation made by the organisations of the tribal peoples of the State on May 10 to the Chief Minister. The...

Guwahati, May 21: With the Congress returning to power in Delhi, the anti-IMDT brigade has been forced to redraw its strategy for revoking the controversial law. The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which is at the forefront of the lobby demanding the scrapping of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, said it would soon meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The union would apprise her of the ground situation in the state and try to convince her of the need to immediately repeal the act.

On the other hand, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) would take an initiative to evolve a...

GUWAHATI, May 19 – With its military strength gone after the operations carried out by the Royal Bhutan Army in December last year, the leadership of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is now on the verge of a split over the question of talks with the Indian government. And NDFB chairman Ranjan Daimary is apparently readying himself for it. Daimary has bought himself a piece of land in Myanmar with the intention of settling down there in the event that his lieutenants corner him.

Knowledgeable sources said here that the NDFB might never really recover from the setback...

GUWAHATI, May 19 – Not many are aware that the permanent address of Congress leader Manmohan Singh, who is likely to be the next Prime Minister, is in a quiet locality of this north eastern state capital, reports PTI. The address is House No. 3989, Nandan Nagar, Ward Number 51, Sarumataria, Dispur, Guwahati - 781006, Assam.

The double storeyed building in an uptown residential area approachable through the lanes of Sarumataria belongs to former Chief Minister late Hiteswar Saikia, whose wife and state Sericulture Minister Hemoprova Saikia now reside in it. The house wears no particular busy...

MANGALDAI, May 16 — Though the Congress wrested nine LS seats in Assam, it stands to lose in terms of LAC votes as its vote banks have eroded in several LACs like Nazira where the CPI LS candidate got 35,245 votes against the Congress candidate languishing with just 17,134 votes in the 2004 Parliamentary elections.

The Congress had got less votes, LAC-wise, in the areas of Cabinet ministers of Assam, Devananda Konwar, Hemoprava Saikia, Sarat Borkotoky and prominent Congress MLA Pranab Gogoi.

Meanwhile, the Sonari LAC represented by Sarat Borkotoky has recorded a reverse swing in the Congress...