News

AGARTALA, Dec 5 ? Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) which fought the last Assembly elections in February as a Congress ally, is now trying hard to forge alliance with the BJP. An INPT delegation led by party general secretary Rabindra Debbarma has already left for Delhi to meet Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and other senior BJP leaders. Though Debbarma and his party colleagues maintained that they were going to the capital to press for more powers to the Tripura ADC ? autonomous state under Article 244A, sources in the INPT, however, confirmed that the main agenda to be discussed in...

GUWAHATI, Dec 5: Defence Minister George Fernanades today stated that Pakistani ISI in collusion with the banned ULFA was trying to fish in the opportunity provided by anti-Bihari violence in Assam. Talking to newsmen at the Army base in Narengi here, Fernandes said, ?Although it was not the ISI which stoked the fire of anti-Bihari attacks in Assam, it is definitely trying to fan the fire in collusion with the banned ULFA.?

Earlier, the Defence Minister visited victims of anti-Bihari violence in Tinsukia civil hospitals and in relief camps in Doom Dooma. He was also briefed by Brigadier A K...

GUWAHATI, Dec 5 ? Defence Minister George today accused Bangladesh government of not taking any step to drive out the ULFA and NDFB militants taking shelter in camps set up in that country. Talking to newmen at the Army base in Narengi here this afternoon, George alleged that Pakistani ISI?s hand had become obvious behind Bangladesh government?s inaction vis-a-vis evicting militants from Northeast from that country.

?We know there are ULFA and NDFB camps both in Bhutan and Bangladesh. However, despite repeated appeal from Indian government Bangladesh is not taking any action against these...

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 ? The need for change in the recruitment policy of the Railway in order to avoid future clashes between States, was overwhelmingly endorsed by Members in the Lok Sabha, with Members from Bihar urging Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to bifurcate Katihar Division from North East Frontier Railway and include it in Hazipur Zone. The growth of regionalism, particularly in Assam, was perceived as a serious threat to the unity and integrity of the nation. ?We have to check the menace of provincial chauvinism and protect federalism, which has engulfed Assam,? remarked Basudev...

Aizawl/Silchar, Dec. 4: Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga today stepped into his second term in office amid high drama, beginning with a mob attack on his convoy while it was proceeding to Raj Bhavan for the swearing-in ceremony. The chief minister?s car was waylaid and pelted with stones at Treasury Square, forcing him to beat a hasty retreat. The windshield and a portion of the vehicle?s roof were damaged, but Zoramthanga escaped unhurt.

The chief minister did not come out of his residence at Macdonald Hill again until an agreement was reached with the protesters, who were demanding the...