AGARTALA, Dec 24 ? Wild goose chase is on in the police circles about the surrender of the breakway Nayanbashi faction in the NLFT outfit. Many eyebrows are being raised over the fact that the real identity of the outfit members who are slated to laid down their arms on December 25.

According to sources Nayanbashi fled to Bangladesh with a sum of Rs. 25 lakh from the outfits fund. Police are at their wits end to ascertain the actual members of the Nayanbashi members. Self-styled vice-president of the faction Buchuk Barak and Prime Minister Aron Barak are all at sea to prepare the catalogue of...

NAMRUP, Dec 24?Namrup, once a sleepy area with deep jungles, now ranks as one of the important industrial towns of Assam with three major gas-based industries, tea-gardens and forest resources.

The process of industrialisation began in Namrup in 1965 with the setting up of the Namrup Thermal Power Station (NTPS), the first of its kind in the entire Northeastern region. After that two other major Gas-based industries viz BVFC (then HFCL) Namrup unit of Assam Petrochemicals Ltd (APL) began commercial production from 1969 and 1975 respectively, providing direct and indirect employment to...

KALIABOR, Dec 24? Depredation by a herd of wild elephants at Chatial Mouza under Kaliabor sub-division has been causing panic among the inhabitants of the areas of Sorubhagiya, Sakmothi, Alchirnagagaon, Dalgaon, Bharali-gaon, Majgaon, Sonarigaon and other neighbouring villages. The wild elephants have been damaging standing crops. The inhabitants have been spending sleepless nights.

Despite repeated demands, the department concerned as well as local administration have not taken any appropriate measures to drive out the wild elephants causing havoc and operating from the forests of Kaziranga...

GUWAHATI, Dec 24 ? In what could be a boon to the fund-starved State Forest Department, moves are afoot to provide degraded areas of Assam for afforestation as part of the carbon trade programme under the Kyoto Protocol. At least, that is what senior forest department officials believe.

A typical Common Development Mechanism (CDM) plan might involve a US carbon-producing industry paying to conserve forests in India, which would absorb some of the excess carbon dioxide emitted in the United States. At present, such carbon trades are being promoted by the World Bank.

The perspective behind the...

GUWAHATI, Dec 24 ? The orders to the cadres of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to carry out acts of violence to protest the Royal Bhutan Army?s operation against the outfit came from the leaders staying in Bangladesh.

Highly-placed security sources said that some such messages were intercepted by the security forces involved in the counter-insurgency operations and all those messages came from Bangladesh. It is yet to be ascertained whether the orders came directly from the ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, ? but it is sure that the orders came from Bangladesh.?

Sources said...