News

GUWAHATI, April 3: In one of the most gruesome incidents of terrorist violence in the State, the bodies of 22 persons kidnapped by Hmar People’s Convention (HPC) in Cachar district were recovered this evening from the dense jungles at Nastul Pahar, five kilometres from Sonai PS in Cachar district. It may be mentioned that 28 persons from the Dimasa community of three villages of Cachar district were kidnapped by the Hmar ultra outfit. Police said that the victims of the massacre were shot from a very close range and were killed the very next day after their abduction. Most of the bodies were...

GUWAHATI, April 3 — The Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 introduced in the State Assembly by the Power Minister on March 31 last, has stunned the power engineers here. The Bill seeks to restructure the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) with a view of creating independent corporate entities in the fields of generation, transmission and distribution.

The Power Minister, while introducing the Bill, said that the principal objective of the Bill was to provide universal access to electricity at competitive and affordable prices within a defined time frame. But, power engineers here maintain that...

GUWAHATI, April 3 – The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed the Bodoland Autonomous Council (Repeal) Bill, 2003 to pave the way for creation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) under the Provisions of amended Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Participating in the discussion on the Bill, Zoii Nath Sarma (AGP) asked the Government to clarify as to who would monitor the development of the area till the BTC is formed. Dilip Kumar Saikia (AGP) said that the Government should take steps to ensure proper utilisation of the funds released to the BAC till the BTC is formed.

Pramila...

GUWAHATI, April 3— The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed the Assam Value Added Tax Bill, 2003 amidst walk out by the Opposition members, who demanded that the Bill should be sent to the Select Committee of the House for a thorough discussion on all the clauses.

As soon as the VAT Bill came for discussion in the House today, Leader of the Opposition Brindaban Goswami said that the Bill, in its present form, has some lacunae and those should be removed. He requested the Government to send the Bill to the Select Committee of the House for proper discussion on all the clauses. He said that...

NEW DELHI, April 3 — With elections to Nagaland Assembly over and a new Government taking charge, Government of India has revived the negotiation process with the NSCN (I-M). Centre’s chief interlocutor, K Padmanabhaiah is tipped to leave for Europe for the next round of talks scheduled for later this month.

The forthcoming talks between the Government’s emissary and the NSCN (I-M) leaders by all indication is likely to be a low key affair as substantive issues are unlikely to figure in this round. This round would mainly be about removing the misunderstanding between the I-M leadership and...