AGARTALA, Dec 21 ? Dhaka has okayed issuance of double entry visa for Indians, facilitating movement of the people of landlocked Tripura to other parts of the country through Bangladesh. Sajjad Taimur, first secretary of Bangladesh visa office here, told reporters today that he received the nod of his country for issuing double entry visa for Indians.

The people of Tripura had long been demanding a transit through Bangladesh for reaching Kolkata, the nearest metropolis, by road within a day as it takes about three days through Assam. The only other way to reach Kolkata from here is to take a...

GUWAHATI, Dec 21 ? The international borders in South Asia are no longer the neat mosaic of colourful societies, cultures and states. They are the zones of concentrated violence and landscapes of fear for the people living within these areas. This was how Dutch social scientist Willem van Schendel, a professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam, described the international borders of South Asia.

He was delivering a lecture in a seminar on maps, borders and identities and the need to re-imagine South Asia in the city yesterday. The seminar was organised by the Centre for...

SHILLONG, Dec 21? That all is not well in the DD Lapang-led MDA coalition government in Meghalaya was thoroughly exposed today when it failed to get the Contingency Fund of Meghalaya (Amendment) Bill, 2004, passed in the House despite its majority position.

Yesterday, it had suffered a major humiliation when a private member?s resolution, moved by HS Lyngdoh of HSPDP, an ally of the ruling coalition, opposing the governments plan to shift the State Assembly building to Mawdiangdiang in the city outskirts was adopted in the House by a voice vote.

Former Home Minister and Congress MLA, RG...

NEW DELHI, Dec 21? Both the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) are in the race for the mega gas cracker project and the two oil giants have been given three months to submit feasibility report to the Centre, a Parliamentary Panel has been told. The Central Government has come under increasing pressure to implement the mega gas cracker project, with a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers expressing its disappointment at the inordinate delay. It has asked the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals to give a...

NEW DELHI, Dec 21 ? In a move aimed at bailing out the small tea growers, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Nath announced the decision to set up Small Growers Development Agency shortly. Addressing a meeting of Members of Parliament representing the tea growing regions of the country at the Parliament house here today, he said that modalities of the agency proposed to be formed under the Tea Board of India, would be finalised soon.

There are around 1,23,279 small tea gardens spread over the states of Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Tripura, Karnataka, Uttaranchal and...