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Guwahati, July 3: Grief-stricken villagers of Deepor Beel today held special prayers in memory of the three elephants who were run over by a speeding train on June 20. They hoped that such incidents would not recur in future. The villagers went to Chakardeo, where the mishap had occurred, early this morning and observed religious rituals with flowers and other offerings.

Later, women gathered at the Chakardeo community centre and held special prayers.

?This is our way of paying obeisance to the elephants with which we have had an intimate bonding since ages,? Laxman Terong, a villager, said...

New Delhi, July 3: The downsizing of the Tarun Gogoi ministry has entered its decisive stage with the AICC in-charge for Assam Digvijay Singh announcing tonight that the formation of the new team is almost complete. Emerging from an hourlong meeting with chief minister Gogoi, held at Assam Bhawan late this evening, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said the list was more or less complete. ?There will be no further meetings on the issue. It is now for the chief minister to announce his ministerial team,? he said.

Singh, who had met Gogoi on Thursday, yesterday interacted with MPs and...

SHILLONG, July 3 ? Chief Ministers of north eastern states have approached the Centre individually to give them concession to increase the cabinet size from the stipulated 12 in the downsizing exercise, while Meghalaya suggested that the right size of the ministry should be 20, reports PTI. The Chief Ministers of Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and some other states of the region conveyed this to the Centre individually during their recent trips to Delhi.

Disclosing this here on his return from Delhi, Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang said the Centre was approached to rectify a...

AIZAWL, July 3 ?Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has said he would downsize his council of ministers by dropping three ministers before the expiry of the July 7 deadline in accordance with the provisions of the 91st amendment of the Constitution, reports PTI. ?It would be done before the expiry of the deadline set by the Constitution,? Zoramthanga told reporters here on Friday. He said that his cabinet colleagues fully authorised him to make the changes as it was the prerogative of the Chief Minister to expand or downsize his council of ministers.

He said that there would be no problem in...

GUWAHATI, July 3 ? The Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) has proposed hike in the power tariff for all categories of power consumers. The tariff proposed by the Board is Rs 4.96 per KWH against the existing Rs 4.12 per KWH, for the 2003-04 fiscal. It has also proposed an average tariff of Rs 5.38 per KWH for the 2004-05 fiscal. Meanwhile, it has also sought to ?update? the load security in accordance with the 2001 decision.

According to sources in the ASEB, the latest revision of power tariff by the Board was effected in April last year. It was based on the calculations made as per the...