NEW DELHI, Aug 19 ? Amidst growing nervousness over Manipur, Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil dangled the bait of economic package for the State, reiterating the Centre?s offer for dialogue to end the impasse. Manipur is fast turning out to be a painful thorn in the flesh for the Union Home Minister as he continues to be under fire of his colleagues and UPA allies. If Congressmen are unhappy with him and refuses to share his views on the State, CPI one of the UPA allies blasted him for failing to deliver.

Sources in the Left said that at the meeting of the UPA here yesterday, the CPI leaders...

GUWAHATI, Aug 19 ? The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has turned into a group of mercenaries carrying out heinous crimes at the behest of foreign agencies inimical to India, said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. However, Gogoi refrained from naming the foreign agency at whose behest the ULFA was allegedly working. Addressing a Press Conference at the Janata Bhawan here today, the Chief Minister strongly criticised the ULFA for the dastardly killing of women and children in Dhemaji on the Independence Day and said that such actions thoroughly exposed the insurgent outfit. Astonishingly, the...

NEW DELHI, Aug 18 ? Stating that it had agreed to vacate the contentious Kangla Fort in the heart of Imphal 12 years ago, the Centre today said the new location for Assam Rifles was almost ready but the Manipur Government was yet to provide basic facilities there. Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal informed Rajya Sabha that a major portion of the Kangla Fort is likely to be vacated by December this year if the State Government provided basic facilities like roads, electricity and water supply to enable the Assam Rifles to shift there.

Vacation of the Kangla Fort, where the Assam...

KOHORA, Aug 18 ? With centenary celebrations of Kaziranga National Park just round the corner, the park authority requires atleast Rs 6 crore to restore flood-ravaged infrastructure in the swampy abode of the world-famed one-horned rhinoceros. Talking to this newspaper, park director NK Vasu said, ?even on a cursory glance, the devastation caused to the infrastructural facilities by this year?s deluge is considerable?. Adding, he mentioned, ?though we are yet to ascertain the extent of damage deep inside the core area due to inaccessibility, it has been estimated that Rs 6 crore would be...

NEW DELHI, Aug 18 ? The Centre has confirmed that illegal infiltrators from the neighbouring countries have managed to obtain ration cards and voters identity cards. This was Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Sriprakash Jaiswal?s first remarks in the Rajya Sabha on the issue of illegal infiltration after the fiasco over the estimate of 1.20 crore illegal Bangladeshis staying in India.

Obviously suffering from the syndrome of once bitten twice shy, the Minister, who was forced to retract his earlier statement, however, did not name any country this time. The Foreigners Act 1946 under...