News

Dibrugarh, June 16: It is not the nine-to-five office job that he had hoped to land after completing his post-graduation. Neither is it loaded with the perks that he once dreamt of. But Nipon Saikia is happy that life as a tourist guide at the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park offers “job satisfaction”, if not financial benefits.

Nipon and several more youths became tourist guides under a novel employment-cum-conservation scheme launched by the Dibru-Saikhowa authorities. They underwent a crash course in conservation recently.

The idea of forming a group of tourist guides came from S.S. Rao, an...

Guwahati, June 16: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today welcomed filmmaker Jahnu Barua’s offer to broker peace talks with the banned Ulfa. He told the media at his official residence that the Congress government would support “any effort by anyone” to solve the problem of militancy. “It is good that somebody has come forward to help. We welcome this. We have no problem with anyone trying to broker peace if the Ulfa agrees to it.”

Barua, whose award-winning film Halodhiya Choraye Baodhan Khai made him a household name, made the offer while releasing a signed appeal yesterday for peace talks...

GUWAHATI, June 16 – The proscribed ULFA has shown the “first signs” of coming to the negotiation table to solve the vexed insurgency problem in the State, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here today, reports PTI. “Somebody (ULFA leader) has come forward. It is a good sign and we are hopeful of a new beginning,” Gogoi told PTI in an interview.

“We have been always asking them (ULFA) to come for talks and it is a very positive sign that they have responded,” Gogoi said. Without identifying the ULFA leader who he said has “come forward for talks,” the Chief Minister said, “at least let there be...

SHILLONG, June 16 – In its bid to undo the ‘saffronisation’ of education initiated by the previous NDA regime, the present Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government has started a ‘detoxifying’ process, Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh said on Tuesday, reports PTI. “The process got underway with the setting up of a three-member panel of eminent educationists of the country three days ago,” Singh told reporters here.

“We are not desaffronising education but detoxifying it. The panel was asked to look into the issue and give reports by 15-20 days,” he said...

GUWAHATI, June 16 – The tea industry in the Barak Valley is facing a fresh crisis with the labourers threatening to go on strike demanding a hike in wages. This is the second major crisis faced by the industry within the last couple of months as floods and hailstorm in April created havoc in the gardens in the valley. The stalemate over the wage hike demand is yet to be settled and the meeting between the Consultative Committee of Tea Planters Associations and the leaders of the Assam Chah Sramik Sangha, held recently failed to arrive at a consensus on the issue. The gardens in the Barak...