The death toll in firing and arson along the Assam-Nagaland border by alleged miscreants from Nagaland has increased to 11 with the recovery of nine more bodies from the disturbed Uriamghat area of Assam on Friday even as night curfew continued.
Even as the deadline set by agitating All Bodo Students' Union and All-Koch-Rajbongshi Students' Union for announcement of dates for tripartite talks by the Centre over their demand for separate state almost comes to an end, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to apprise them of the situation back home.
Only 20 per cent of the nearly 50,000 licenced arms existing in Assam have been deposited so far with authorities in the run up to the three-phased Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Thursday said Union Home Minister Amit Shah has given firm assurances at a meeting held in Delhi of acting on his request for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 'firing by Assam Police' along the states' border.
The flood situation in Assam worsened on Friday following incessant rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, affecting more than three lakh people in 13 districts and hit road communication in several places.
At least 13 people, including the prime accused, have been arrested so far for allegedly lynching an All Assam Students' Union leader in Jorhat city, while the outfit on Tuesday vowed not to keep quiet until the culprits were given 'exemplary punishment.'
'The prime minister expressed concern and assured all possible help to the state,' CMO said.
Several places in Arunachal Pradesh, including capital Itanagar, were cut off by floods and landslides.
In a video of the incident circulated on social media, the two men can be heard begging for their lives and trying to explain to the livid crowd that they were innocent but to no avail.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
'Our government's claim that there are no undetected cases of infection that happened within our bustling cities because of exposure to infected international travellers are not credible,' notes Rahul Jacob.
Over 95 lakh voters will decide the fate of 539 candidates, including 43 females, in 65 constituencies spread across the state.
The fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections began on Friday, covering seven constituencies in four states where over half-a-crore voters decide the fate of 74 candidates.
Bodo tribals influence as many as 30 seats. No wonder, national parties are keen to forge alliances with Bodo groups.
The prime minister came down heavily on the Congress government in Assam and the previous UPA government at the Centre for "failing" to fulfil dreams and aspiration of the people.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
To expect that these past decades of grief, inter-group killings, anxiety and fear will be brushed aside because of the Naga peace accord is being unrealistic. Memories are built on old wounds and they heal slowly. So, it is important to be cautiously optimistic, says Sanjoy Hazarika.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
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