'Once demographic fear becomes campaign language, it legitimises social targeting.'
Assam has become the first state in India to directly venture into oil production, following the discovery of hydrocarbons at the Namrup-Borhat block.
The Centre on Monday claimed that the Maoist extremists were focusing to set up bases in upper Assam, close to international border and this could create a "serious strategic security complication" to northeastern states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Assam and participated in a grand Jhumoir dance performance, celebrating 200 years of the state's tea industry and the rich cultural heritage of the tea tribe community. He played a traditional drum of the tea tribe community, highlighting the government's efforts to support the tea industry and uplift the tea tribe community. The event, attended by dignitaries and ambassadors from around 60 countries, showcased Assam's vibrant traditions to a global audience.
Replying to the motion, he said the crime rate has not increased if the population growth is taken into account.
Assam's flood situation remained critical on Tuesday with over 6.71 lakh people affected in 20 districts in the second wave of flooding this year, as the Indian Air Force (IAF) rescued 13 stranded fishermen from the severely-hit Dibrugarh district, an official said.
The accident took place at Balijan near Dergaon this morning when the bus with 45 people on board collided with the goods vehicle, Golaghat Superintendent of Police Rajen Singh told PTI.
ULFA-Independent on Friday claimed responsibility for the blast near the gate of the army station in Assam's Jorhat district.
'It feels like Assam is good just as a tourist spot and not a place to earn and live.'
A multi-tier security arrangement has been made at the Central Jail in Dibrugarh where Singh will be lodged.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
The tea industry's cup of woes brimmeth - scanty rainfall and pest attacks have dragged down production in May, prices are lower than last year, and demand from some export markets is muted. Production in North Bengal - comprising the Dooars, Terai, and Darjeeling - is majorly affected; parts of Assam are also hit. Arijit Raha, secretary general, Indian Tea Association (ITA), said that the Tea Board numbers for April show a crop loss of about 9 per cent for North Bengal, compared to last year.
'The Indian Army and paramilitary have to land more in Assam as the situation is very bad, especially in upper Assam,' says BJP MLA Binod Hazarika whose home was burnt down by mobs.
The drive met with opposition in Tinsukia in upper Assam leading to lathicharge by the security forces, while in Sonitpur the alleged illegal settlers claimed that it was launched about a week before the stipulated date.
The Indian Army is effecting a major "reorientation" and "rebalancing" of its troops in the strategically sensitive areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, with a top general saying its overall combat readiness in the region is of a "very high order."
Young Assam archer suffered injury during training, airlifted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment.
Jailed activist Akhil Gogoi will contest the upcoming elections in Assam from Sibsagar as a candidate of his newly-floated Raijor Dal.
India has not only been decked in tricolour hues in the lead up to the 76th Independence Day celebrations, but also put under a heavy security blanket, right from Delhi, the epicentre of the mega celebrations, to Jammu and Kashmir.
The BJP will not announce the chief ministerial candidate before the Assam polls and a decision in this regard will be taken by its Parliamentary Board at the time of forming the next government, the saffron party state unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said on Monday.
Neeraj Das alias 'Kola Lora', the prime accused in the AASU leader lynching case, died on Wednesday after being hit by a police vehicle "as he was trying to escape police custody", a senior officer said.
The momentum the BJP has in its favour is partly due to the anti-incumbency wave the Congress is battling.
Nandita Saikia, a BA student at Moridhal College in Dhemaji district, was attacked by Rintu Sharma while she was returning home from her college on Saturday, police said.
'One reason given for the failure of the Congress in Assam was due to the alliance with the AIUDF.'
The founder of the newly floated Raijor Dal -- arrested in December 2019 over sedition charges - bagged 57,219 votes as an Independent, garnering support from 46.06 per cent of the electorate.
The PSU, in a statement, said that the three employees have been abducted by unknown armed miscreants in the early hours of Wednesday from a rig site of ONGC in Lakwa field of Sivasagar.
Sonowal, a law graduate, is considered to be a rarity -- an honest politician who also worked to unite different communities with his oft-repeated lines 'Barak-Brahmaputra-plains-hills'.
All four blasts occurred in a span of 10 minutes -- between 8.15 and 8.25 am, a police officer said. There has been no report of any casualty, as Republic Day being a holiday, people were mostly indoors, he said.
The district administration of Dibrugarh district holds the official celebrations of Independence Day in the parade ground in the town. Police informed that PTD fitted IED could be set for explosion about six months in advance.
Rediff.com takes a look at the watery devastation that has beset the state of Assam.
Six persons were killed and 49 injured and a gas pipeline of Assam Gas Company Limited was extensively damaged in separate incidents of violence as ultras of the United Liberation Front of Asom went on a killing spree in Upper Assam on Sunday.
A heavy downpour in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh and catchment areas of the Brahmaputra has led to flooding in large areas in Upper Assam.
According to sources the army was all set to conduct operation in the disturbed 'ULFA infested' districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar and Jorhat.
The explosive, probably a crude bomb, went off at around 5 PM behind the old Railway station in the busy Amolapatty area below an electric pole, district Superintendent of Police Rana Bhuyan said
A teenaged girl was killed and nine persons, including a woman, were seriously injured in a crude bomb blast by suspected militants in upper Assam's tea town Dibrugarh on Tuesday, police said.
The flood situation in Assam has deteriorated with 15 districts reeling under its impact, as large parts of Dibru-Saikhowa and Kaziranga National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary submerged and five deaths reported so far, official sources said on Sunday.
Flash floods in upper Assam's Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts have affected over 2.5 lakh people with the swollen rivers inundating more than 100 villages following incessant rains during the last two days.
The 'World Heritage' site Kaziranga National Park and the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park in Assam will re-open on Thursday, while Manas National Park will welcome visitors from November 4.
An oil pipeline at Makum in upper Assam's Tinsukia district was on Tuesday damaged in an explosion, for which the United Liberation Front of Asom claimed responsibility. The explosion in the pipeline of the IOC-Assam Oil Division created a 4-ft crater in Pachim Mamarani area, AOD sources said, adding that there was no report of any casualty.
Poachers shot at a female rhino and sawed off its horn in upper Assam's Golaghat district on Wednesday morning, leaving the heavily bleeding pachyderm that had strayed out of flood-hit forest struggling for life.
Three children were killed and several others injured in an explosion near a primary school in upper Assam's Tinsukia district on Wednesday.
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