News

DERGAON, Dec 28? The State Government has decided to allot Rs 3 crore to the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) to facilitate development of its gardens. This decision was taken at a meeting of high-level representatives of the government with the ATC and AATSA members at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati recently.

The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Sarat Barkatoky, PWD Minister, formed a six-member committee to review the condition of ATC gardens and the committee will take a final decision on whether to sell off or give the ATC gardens on lease.

This was disclosed by Bhagirath Karan, the...

TEZPUR, Dec 28? ULFA?s political adviser and the founder of the outfit Bhimkanta Buragohain, who is presently in police custody in Sonitpur district after he alongwith four other ULFA cadres, was handed over by the Indian Army to the State Police, said that he had not surrendered before anybody including the Royal Bhutanese Army (RBA).

In an exclusive interview to The Assam Tribune, here Buragohain, popularly known as ?mama? in the rank and file of the outfit, said the attack on the North-east-based militant outfits (ULFA, NDFB and KLO) by the RBA was beyond imagination. The RBA has betrayed...

NEW DELHI, Dec 28 ? Acting along expected lines, the Government of India has turned down ULFA?s conditional offer for negotiations, even as the suspension of flights between Bhutan and Bangladesh came into effect today. The outlawed ULFA?s offer for talks with a slight variation was not what New Delhi was expecting and it was promptly rejected. The Government of India is interested to hold dialogues with ULFA but without any pre-conditions, Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi had told newsmen on Friday here after deliberating on the issue with officials of Union Government.

Union Minister of State...

New Delhi, Dec. 27: The militant Dima Halam Daoga (DHD), which entered into a ceasefire with the Centre in January, has expressed dissatisfaction over slow progress in its peace process with the government. The ceasefire with the outfit, which has been demanding a separate ?homeland? for the Dimasas in Assam and Nagaland, was extended twice this year.

However, the Centre is yet to begin talks with the outfit though its leadership was summoned to Delhi thrice during this month.

?We were intimated about the talks in December thrice, only to be cancelled later. The operation in Bhutan was cited...

Dhubri, Dec. 27: West Assam and North Bengal will soon be connected by railway network. Railway minister Nitish Kumar has assured the joint convenor of New Moinaguri-Jogighopa Railway Extension Demand Committee, Tazmul Hoque, that a new broad gauge railway line from New Moinaguri to Jogighopa will be completed soon.

Hoque said tenders for the three-phase work ? from Moinaguri to Changrabandha, Golokganj to Gauripur and Mathabhanga to Jogighopa (Abhayapuri) ? have been completed following a final location survey by the Rail India Technical Economic Services (Rites).

The railway network in the...