News

Nagaon, June 25: The Jayanta Rongpi-led group of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) proposed to move its mother organisation with the proposal of reunion after a gap of four years. The last three elections, including the district council’s election, has taught them that reunion between the two is the only way to regain legitimacy in the politics of the two hill districts of Assam.

In a press release, the Rongpi-led Progressive faction, in conjunction with its students’ and women’s wings and the CPI(M-L), offered to work together with the mother unit of ASDC “to keep the anti...

AGARTALA, June 25 – The flood situation in Tripura took a turn for the worse with the death toll rising to three even as many villages were inundated, rendering thousands of people homeless, official sources said. The Assam-Agartala national highway, considered to be the lifeline of Tripura, was cut-off from rest of the country due to landslides and waterlogging at Ranirbazar in West Tripura district while Sai Radhanagar, Subhashnagar, Katakhal and Orient Chowmuhani areas remained waterlogged.

The Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) of Sadar, Sambhu Nama said 1,500 people of 300 families were...

Shillong, June 25: Wary of offending any of his coalition partners while reducing the size of his government, Meghalaya chief minister D.D. Lapang is toying with the idea of creating three new welfare boards to accommodate ministry bigwigs who may have to be relieved of their portfolios. The ministry, with 41 members, is a massive one for a state that has only 60 legislators. The size of the ministry has to be reduced to 12 by July 6.

Sources said Lapang had already discussed the possibility of forming these new boards with leaders of the ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA). The...

NEW DELHI, June 25 – The UPA Government’s stand on maintaining territorial integrity of North-Eastern States threatens to snowball into a major controversy with the Naga organisations hardening their stand on the issue. A delegation of three prominent Naga bodies including Naga Students’ Federation, Naga Mothers’ Association and Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights today conveyed to Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh that the issue of unification of Naga areas was non-negotiable.

“Whatever be the outcome of the peace negotiations, integration of all Naga areas will remain non-negotiable as...

NEW DELHI, June 25 – A high level of alcohol abuse has been reported from the North-east, in addition to high opiate use, even as the population of drug users including alcohol users countrywide has touched 75 million, a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (NDOC) survey said.

First the good news, the menace of abuse like injecting drugs is not restricted to North-Eastern States although this is common perception but fairly widespread, the national survey ‘the Extent, Pattern and Trends of Drug Abuse in India’ said. The bad news is that besides reports of high drug use, a new phenomenon...