Politics / Assam

NEW DELHI, May 10 – Tumultuous days are ahead in Assam, with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi planning to start the process of trimming his ministry next month by asking his ministers to submit resignations en masse. The Chief Minister who paid a quiet week-end visit to Delhi apparently to gauge to the mood of the Party High Command in the aftermath of the oil-scam, however, could not meet Party president, Sonia Gandhi. Instead he briefed her close confident, organisation secretary, Oscar Fernandes about the recent developments. He is leaving for Assam tomorrow.

“We have began the process of...

Guwahati, May 7: The Assam government today ordered a probe to determine why textbooks meant for free distribution among students had failed to reach the respective schools. The move comes at a time when the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has launched a monthlong agitation, demanding streamlining of the education system.

Education minister Pankaj Bora told newspersons here that he had deputed 17 officers in the rank of deputy director from the headquarters to the districts “to fix responsibilities and detect discrepancies and ascertain why the books have not reached the schools”.

“I have...

Silchar, May 7: Militant Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) has denied reaching an agreement with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) to create fresh trouble in south Assam. The North Cachar Hills- based militant outfit, in a one-page statement faxed to The Telegraph here, said no such understanding was reached with the Bodo outfit, as alleged by Karbi Anglong deputy commissioner Anurag Goel.

In the statement, one Dao Raja, who identified himself as the publicity secretary of the outfit, said, “Since the DHD is observing a ceasefire with the authorities in North Cachar, there is no scope for...

GUWAHATI, May 7– The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) is planning to amend its constitution to extend the term of the executive bodies to two years from one year as the organisation has not been able to hold the annual elections on time for a long time. Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU president Prabin Boro admitted that it is not feasible to hold the general conferences on time as an executive committee needs at least six months to one year to understand the issues properly. As per the constitution of the AASU, the term of an executive committee is one year and the term can be extended by...

Nagaon, May 6: Assam’s troubled Karbi Anglong district is on the boil again with the pro-talks faction of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) threatening an armed operation against the rival Karbi Anglong and N.C. Hills People’s Resistance, which allegedly abducted the siblings of two of its new members.

The publicity secretary of the pro-talks faction, Tong-Eh-Nongloda, today said his organisation had no option but to go after those who abducted the family members of Jeet Ranghang and Jeet Hanse, two militants who defected to his organisation before the election.

He said...

GUWAHATI, May 6 – Different tea tribe organisations and the Congress today lambasted the AGP and the AASU over the AGP’s poll slogan at Dibrugarh urging the voters to “elect Sarbananda Sonowal if they were Assamese,” and gave the two an ultimatum to clarify as to who were the Assamese by May 10.

“The AGP and the AASU, by their shameless act to further their narrow political interests, have struck at the very core of the composite Assamese society. The tea tribe people have been living here for over 150 years, assimilating totally with the Assamese culture. And now all of a sudden, they are...

GUWAHATI, May 6 – Unbridled illegal transfer of land ownership to non-tribals over a vast area under the South Kamrup (Guwahati) tribal belt in the past few years has posed a grave threat to the very existence of the belt itself. Over 200 bighas of land falling under tribal belt at the Dimoria block alone are now owned by non-tribals, thanks to these unlawful dealings.

Revealing this, the Brihattar Dimoria Bhumi Hastantar Nirikshan Samiti, a body of several powerful tribal organisations, today said a sinister nexus among the land officials, mandals and middlemen was working overtime in...

Silchar, May 5: When Manju Rikiason votes, she exercises her forefinger, not her mind. The more important job of choosing the candidate is left to the males of her family. The story is the same in household after household in the south Assam tea belt. Illiterate women voters turn up at polling booths to cast their votes in favour of candidates chosen by their equally untutored husbands, fathers or brothers.

Manju, a mother of three, is employed as a leaf-plucker at Doloo tea estate and one of the women voters who were interviewed as part of a University Grants Commission-sponsored study of...

Nagaon, May 4: The pro-talks faction of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) today asked the apex organisation of the Kuki community to be realistic about its demand for a separate regional council for the Singhasan Hills of Karbi Anglong. It said the Kukis were neither an indigenous tribe of the district nor the dominant community in terms of population to deserve a separate regional council within the boundary of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council.

UPDS publicity secretary Tong-Eh-Nongloda accused both the Kuki National Assembly and the Kuki Inpi, Assam, of attempting to gain...

Nagaon, May 3: The Kuki National Assembly (KNA) today made it clear that a separate regional council for Kukis was the only way to end the ethnic feud in Karbi Anglong district. In a memorandum faxed to the Scheduled Area and Schedule Tribes Commissioner Dilip Sing Bhuira, the apex body of the Kuki tribe urged the commission to form a separate regional council under the Sixth Schedule for the 40,000 Kukis living in Singhasan Hills. The council should be modelled on the Pawi-Lakher Autonomous Council in the Lushai hills of Mizoram, it added.

“It is imperative for the commission to come to our...