Politics / Northeast

GUWAHATI, March 12? Historians have neglected Assam, but history has not. Everybody knows about the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Gangetic civilisation, but the Brahmaputra Valley civilisation has hardly any mention in history books. Exhorting the historians of the country to project Assam and the North-east in the national perspective in terms of history, Governor Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha today said historians should be free from prejudice, passion and partiality. Inaugurating the national seminar on ?Sources of history of North-East India? organised by the Indian Council of Historical...

GUWAHATI, Feb 28 — The Union Budget presented by the Union Finance Minister Sri Yashwant Sinha carries a few measures which are relevant to the North East. Some of these are directly relevant and the others are indirectly so. Take the directly relevant ones first. The budget provides for the continuation of subsidies to the refineries in the North East on a national basis. Now that the administered price mechanism (APM) for oil is going to be dismantled from April 1, 2002, making the oil prices market centric, this proposal should come as a relief measure to the refineries. Moreover, excise...

AGARTALA, Feb 13 — Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma has said that the MPs and chief ministers of the seven north-eastern States, Sikkim, West Bengal an Orissa will form a ‘forum’ to lobby for the development programmes in the Eastern India in New Delhi. Sangma who came here for one day tour to take stock of the party position in the State said, he along with CPI(M) MP Somnath Chatterjee will call a meeting of the MPs of the 10 States as soon as the next Parliament session begins on February 25 next.

“I have already talked to West Chief Minister...

GUWAHATI, Feb 9— Over the years, the North Eastern region of India, particularly, Assam has been suffering because of the Government of India’s soft stand towards its “friendly neighbour countries” of Bhutan and Bangladesh, where the insurgents operating in the region are still taking shelter. Till date, the Government of India seems more concerned about its western border and Kashmir, while, the same problem facing the NE region is overlooked for the reasons best known to the persons at the helm of affairs at Delhi. Even in the present day context, when there is a world-wide campaign against...

GUWAHATI, Jan 30 — The police and the security forces are fighting insurgency with their hands tied because of the militants’ bases in the neighbouring country, Bhutan, said Minister of State for Home, Pradyut Bordoloi. Talking to The Assam Tribune, Sri Bordoloi said that the militants frequently sneak into their bases in the neighbouring country after each strike, making the task difficult for the security forces. He revealed that Assam has around 265 kms of virtually unprotected border with Bhutan and the need of the hour is to seal the border with effective dominance of security forces. He...

GUWAHATI, Jan 20 — RSS chief K S Sudarshan today charged certain churches in the country including some in the North East, with indulging in conversion with a political motive and taking the help of militants, reports PTI. “Some churches in the country and the North East were busy in conversion after being politically motivated which was a kind of violence and terror’, Sudarshan told mammoth rally of RSS workers at the Netaji School in Maligaon here. Referring to NE states and Tripura in particular, the RSS leader said it was indeed a matter of great concern that militant outfits, including...

GUWAHATI, Jan 16 — Several underground organisations of the North-east have appealed to the people to boycott the Republic Day programmes on January 26. In a statement, the organisations said that the ‘Indian occupation forces’ had started exploitation on the people of the region causing a serious problem. ‘We have been fighting to achieve freedom by overthrowing Indian colonial rule,” they said. The organisations also appealed to the people to observe a day-long strike on Republic Day. The organisations are — Arunachal Dragon Federation (ADF), Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), Dima...

NEW DELHI, Jan 13 — The Bangkok Consultative meeting of the Nagas has called for repealing of all special Acts under implementation in Nagaland and withdrawal of the ban on Naga movement outfits and arrest warrants against the leaders, besides upgradation of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism to an autonomous body. The crucial four-day Naga Consultative meeting attended by 44 delegation from several north-eastern States including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland concluded with the delegates adopting several vital resolutions that may have deep impact on the ongoing negotiations between...

GUWAHATI, Jan 12 — India and Bhutan have decided to strengthen bilateral ties and check activities of militants through regular border district level coordination meetings. According to a report in Bhutan’s state run newspaper Kuensel, the last round of the border district coordination meeting was held at Jalpaiguri between January 7 to 9. The Joint Secretary of the Bhutanese Home Ministry, Dasho Tshering Wangda led the Bhutanese delegation, while, the Indian delegation was led by the Commissioner of Jalpaiguri division, AK Jain.

Apart from other bilateral issues, the border district level...

SILIGURI, Jan 12— ISI spymaster Mohammed Dilshad, arrested for running an espionage ring in North Bengal, was nabbed just as he was preparing to leave for Guwahati to open a clandesting network in Assam, and thereafter in other North-eastern states sources said on Friday, report agencies. Dilshad, described as a ‘Resident Agent’ had handlers identified only as Col Khatak, Commanding Officer (Operations) of the ISI and his deputy Maj Ahmed based in Hyderabad in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the sources said. They had recently instructed Dilshad to expand his espionage activities to the entire...