Land of Jewels (Sana Leibak)

PM reaches Guwahati Guwahati, Jan 2: The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has arrived at Guwahati today. He is accompanied by three Union Ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar, Kapil Sibbal and Prithviraj Chouhan. They were received in the Borjhar Airport by the State Governor Shiv Charan Mathur and the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. On his arrival,the Prime Minister staightaway went to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital to take stock of the condition of those injured in last evening's serial blasts in the Guwahati city. Dr. Singh will go to Shillong in Meghalaya on Saturday morning. He will inaugurate the 96th Indian Science Congress at the North East Hill University in Shillong. This is for the first time that Indian Science Congress meet has been organized in the North Eastern part of the Country. More then four thousand scientists are taking part in the five day science congress . This year's topic is Science Education and attraction of talent for excellence in research.

PM announces ex-gratia for Assam blast victims New Delhi, Jan 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh each to the next of kin of those killed in the serial bomb blasts at Guwahati in Assam. An amount of Rs one lakh each would be given to those seriously injured in yesterday's blasts, Prime Minister's Media Adviser said in a statement. The assistance would be given from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund. Expressing grief over the loss of lives in the blasts, the prime minister said yesterday that the government would root out terrorism taking the recent anti-terror measures to their logical conclusion. "The government will stay steadfast in its determination to root out terrorism and that the measures initiated recently in this direction will be taken to their logical conclusion," he had said. Source : Press Trust of India (PTI)

PM to inaugurate ISC session on Saturday Shillong, Jan 1: The age old heritage and bio-diversity of the northeastern region will be shining once again when the country hosts its Science Congress session in Shillong on January 3. According to Vice-chancellor of North East Hill University (NEHU) of Pramod Tandon, delegates would be coming from outside and they have their desire to visit places like Kaziranga National Park and Cherrapunjee during their stay. Tandon, who is the chairman of the celebration committee said over 4,000 participants from countries like US, China, Japan and Bangladesh are expected to attend the five-day meet that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 3. According to him, the grand event would help the region explore its potential, promote its tourism and showcase it to the world. Source : Assam Times Another Story Spotlight on NE during ISC session Shillong: The spotlight would be on the rich cultural heritage and bio-diversity of the NE...

Pratibha Patil signs decree: New Delhi, Jan 3: Nagaland was on Thursday night brought under central rule with President Pratibha Patil putting her stamp of approval on the recommendation of the union cabinet in this regard. The President, who was handed over the recommendation yesterday, signed the proclamation on Thursday evening, Home Ministry sources said. Patil, who is at present in Hyderabad, had received the decision of the cabinet taken at its unscheduled meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January one. The cabinet meeting was convened at a short notice to discuss the political situation in Nagaland against the backdrop of the BJP-backed Democratic Alliance winning a controversial no-confidence motion last month. Nephiu Rio survived the trial of strength on the floor of the assembly on December 13when it was defeated 23-19 in the 60-member House after Speaker barred three independents from taking part in voting and held that the votes of nine dissident ruling NPF...

Work on in full swing: Jiribam, Dec 31: Works on the Jiri-Tupul rail line have been on full swing since November 24 with the survey conducted by the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) at its final leg. Already land for laying 10 km of the rail track has been acquired by the North East Frontier Railway in Jiribam sub-division. The rest of the land needed for laying the track will be acquired from Tamenglong district. Presently work for a distance of 15 km from Jiribam to Dholakhai is on with three private companies engaged in the said work. The three companies are CC Company, Bharatya Company and Triveni Company. The 15 km, for which work is presently underway, have been divided equally among the three companies, 5 km for each company. Speaking to this correspondent, the Officer-in-charge of CC Company, BM Sharma, said his company has undertaken the works from Jiribam station to Phaitoul covering a distance of 5 km. The construction works include cutting, leveling and b...

Rebel Cong MLAs strike confident pose: Imphal, Dec 30: Striking a confident pose, the dissident Congress MLAs who have been demanding a change in the leadership of the Congress Legislature Party have claimed that the AICC may soon take a decision in their favour within the next couple of days. The rebel MLAs, who have raised the banner of revolt against the leadership of Chief Minister O Ibobi for the last few months claim the support of 19 MLAs out of the 31 Congress MLAs in the House of 60. Apart from the deteriorating law and order situation, the rebel MLAs have launched the anti-Ibobi drive on the 'total failure to govern' plank. Significantly, the claim of the rebel MLAs that the AICC may soon take a decision within the next couple of days came after the AICC secretary in charge of North East Prithiviraj Chauhan submitted his report to the AICC leadership after his visit to the State about two weeks back. Apart from getting a first hand account of the law and order situati...

Cabinet to probe faulty contract process: Imphal, Dec 29: Along with revising the cost of Khuga Multipurpose Project which has been under construction since Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the Deputy Chairman of Union Planning Commission about 20 years back, the State Cabinet has decided to initiate an enquiry into awarding contract works worth Rs 29 crore which were out of the purview of the project and fix responsibility under Manipur Public Servant Personnel Liability Act. The Cabinet meeting held this evening with Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh in the chair decided to take up action against the engineers involved in awarding the contract works by invoking the provisions of the Act after an enquiry. Out of the contract works of Rs 29 crore which were awarded out of the purview of the project during 2005-06, Rs 11 crore had already been withdrawn while the work orders for over Rs 6 crore had been frozen by the Government after it got wind of the matter. The Cabinet meeting decided...

PM announces task force for hill states: New Delhi: Endorsing the concern expressed by northeastern chief ministers over lack of development in the region, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has announced setting up of a special task force to study the specific problems of hill states, including those in the North-East. Addressing the Chief Ministers Conference on Internal Security here on Thursday, Dr Singh said development and security were critically interdependent and announced setting up of a task force to study the specific problems of hill states, including those in the North-East. "Hopefully, this will lead to an improvement in economic and security situation in these states," he said. Chief Ministers from the North-East had earlier cited lack of development as the primary reason for internal insecurity in the region and demanded massive funds from the Centre to overcome the problem. The problems of northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir are unique as these states su...

PM pulls up NE leadership: New Delhi, Dec 20: Raising an alarm over unabated extortions in the North-East, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh exhorted the region’s political leadership to buck up and curb militancy to ensure that the people feel safe. In his hard-hitting speech on militancy in the North-East, Dr Singh minced no words when he said, “We need much better leadership at all levels so that militancy is curbed and people feel secure.” “Extortion seems to be a frequent occurrence (in North-East). We need to put an end to this. We need to enforce the rule of law and create a respect for the state apparatus. National considerations and requirements should take overriding priority,” the Prime Minister said, addressing a meeting of the Chief Ministers on Internal Security, convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The meeting attended by Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, top officials of the Ministry, intelligence agencies among others was held under unprecedented tight security a...

Manipur particularly vulnerable, says PM: Imphal, Dec 20: Touching on a whole gamut of issues concerning the internal security of the country, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Thursday said the problems of the North East States and Jammu and Kashmir are unique and stressed that the situation is vulnerable in Manipur and Nagaland. Addressing the Chief Ministers’ Conference on internal security at New Delhi on Thursday, the Prime Minister said the North East States and Jammu and Kashmir are unique and added that these regions suffer from poor infrastructure and communication facilities. “It has been our sincere attempt to improve these facilities so that these States too can benefit from our booming economy,” said the Prime Minister. However these states have vulnerabilities on the internal security front which needs to be discussed, said Dr Singh and added, “Each sate has its specific nuances and characteristics and we cannot generalise the problems. “There are many regional and trib...

Advani assures support to Manipur all party team: Imphal, Dec 10: Delegates of the state all political party forum currently in New Delhi to campaign for delinking Manipur from the delimitation process met with the Opposition leader of the Lok Sabha, LK Advani on Monday seeking his support for their demand seeking a halt to the delimitation process in the state. The all party delegation briefed the BJP leader on various aspects of the controversial issue of delimitation in the state, and made it clear that carrying forward delimitation in Manipur on the basis of the ‘bogus’ 2001 census report would result in undesirable consequences, according to a statement of the NCP general secretary K Sharatkumar on behalf of the all political parties delegation. The BJP leader has assured the delegation that he would suggest to the Central government to convene an all political parties meet to consider the delegation’s demands, particularly for delinking the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and ...

Dissident MLAs returning Saturday, Chauhan coming on Dec 11: Imphal, Dec 7: Following days of camping in New Delhi to present their case to AICC leaders in their oust Ibobi campaign, most of the rebel MLAs will touch down at Tulihal airport tomorrow (Saturday). After meeting Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday (Thursday), the rebel MLAs met AICC chief Sonia Gandhi today (Friday) at about 11 am and made their stand against the continued leadership of O Ibobi clear. Sonia Gandhi is also the Chairperson of the UPA. The rebel MLAs were led by senior Congressman, Th Debendra and during their meeting with Sonia Gandhi, they gave a detailed account of the deteriorating law and order situation in the State, the 'total flop' of the administration, tardy development works as well as the growing dissatisfaction among the Congress workers in the MPCC (I) against the Chief Minister's leadership. Though details of what were discussed at the meeting were not disclosed, the dissiden...