In some constituencies like Jowai, Mylliem, Mawlai and Jaiaw, women voters were about 20-25 per cent more than men. Observers attribute this to the matrilineal system followed by the society, unlike in other parts of the country.
India Meteorological Department officials said the quake shook Assam, including its capital Guwahati, Meghalaya, West Bengal and neighbouring Bhutan at 6.35 am.
This is the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal this pre-monsoon season.
A deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm, named Remal, on Saturday evening and is likely to turn severe before making landfall between the coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh on Sunday midnight, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Two persons including a schoolteacher, riding a motorcycle, were shot dead by the army in Meghalaya's North Garo Hills district, an incident which the Army said took place because it mistook them as armed militants.
Senior Congress leader D D Lapang was on Monday sworn in as Meghalaya chief minister by Governor S S Sidhu, who rejected the demand of the newly-formed Nationalist Congress Party-led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance saying the decision was aimed at preventing horse-trading. Stung by the Governor's decision, the MPA led by former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma decided to move the Supreme Court on Tuesday against installation of the Congress government.
'While not everyone may be pleased with a NEET retest judgment, it would restore fairness and integrity to the process, giving all students an equal opportunity based on merit.' 'This decision would correct the injustices faced by deserving students who were disadvantaged by the initial compromised exam'
Over 100 personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force, along with police teams, are waiting for the water level to subside to begin rescue operations, the official said.
The Commission, under Justice (retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, would recommend an amendment to the Constitution to add the "new chapter or part" on simultaneous elections, the sources said.
Heavy firing was reported along the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya between border guards of the two countries following an intrusion attempt from the Bangladeshi side.
Aizawl has been cut off from the rest of the country due to a landslide on National Highway 6 at Hunthar.
Lakhs of voters will have to bear the searing heat when they step out to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
'Someone who cannot even take his cabinet into confidence, how will he take the NDA alliance into confidence?'
A woman was shot dead while she was resisting an alleged attempt of molestation and rape by suspected Garo National Liberation Army militants at Raja Rongat in South Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, police said on Wednesday.
Sarma, whose stock is high in Delhi had earlier captured eyeballs as the BJP's first star campaigner from the region in far away Gujarat and Delhi.
The officials said the body was spotted at a depth of more than 200 feet inside the "rat-hole" mine and naval divers brought it to its mouth.
Voting to elect 60 members of the state assembly in Meghalaya is scheduled for Monday, February 27. The results will be declared on Thursday, March 2.
The NTA denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.
Please promise, especially those millions who trust you with their hard-earned money, never to let your voting preferences determine your actions on the markets. The most appalling and scary phenomenon was fund houses and brokerages going out on election yatras and writing copious reports promising more than 300 for the BJP. That was your wish as voters. Your investors are paying for it now, points out Shekhar Gupta.
The Centre on Wednesday decided to impose President's Rule in Meghalaya, where the Nationalist Congress Party-led government survived a controversial confidence vote in the state assembly on Tuesday by a whisker. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Centre had received a report from Governor R S Moosahary about breakdown of the Constitutional machinery in the state and recommended President's rule.
The Meghalaya home department has asked its Director General of Police to conduct an internal probe to find out why policemen are deserting the department and joining militant groups.
At least 15 miners were trapped in the 370 foot-deep illegal coal mine in Lumthari village of East Jaintia Hills district since December 13 and all efforts to pump the water out of flooded mine have been in vain.
Between 2001 and 2022, it said, forests in India emitted 51 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year and removed 141 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year. This represents a net carbon sink of 89.9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year.
The threshold for a heat wave is met when the maximum temperature of a weather station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains, 37 degrees in coastal areas, and 30 degrees in hilly regions, and the departure from normal is at least 4.5 notches.
'Earlier, a lot of fear was in the minds of people that the BJP is anti-Christian and anti-minority, but over the years people have learnt to accept that the BJP is just another national party.'
'...despite not being ideologically aligned with a vast section of the people of the north east.' 'But the results in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya show that no party, including the BJP, can say that it has really done well.'
People lined up at polling booths well before voting began at 7 am on Monday. Sources said that there was a voter turnout of 75 per cent. The fate of 331 candidates from different political parties, including six former chief ministers of the state -- D D Lapang, Purno A Sangma, Salseng C Marak, E K Mawlong, F A Khonglam and J D Rymbai were sealed in ballot boxes.
A star-studded week of poll campaign awaits Meghalaya with heavyweights Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi set to address election rallies while film star Shatrughan Sinha and Jaya Prada are slated to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party respectively. The Prime Minister will address an election rally in Shillong on February 27, while All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi will campaign at Jowai.
Trinamool Congress sources on Wednesday claimed the Congress delayed the talks and made unreasonable demands on seat-sharing without acknowledging the ground reality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to the North East from Tuesday, during which he will attend the oath-taking ceremonies of new governments in three states of the region.
Julius Dorphang, who was wanted in connection with a sex-racket case involving a 14-year old girl, was on Saturday arrested from his hideout in neighbouring Assam.
The poll panel said the seizures made since the polls were announced on October 9 are over seven times (Rs 239.15 crore) the seizures made in the previous assembly elections in these states in 2018.
'If the BJP does not change its stand, we will hope that those who are in favour of protecting Ladakh come to power.'
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
The ruling Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive term in Tripura while Meghalaya appeared to be heading for a hung verdict with the ruling Congress emerging as the single largest party. The election to the 60-member Meghalaya assembly threw up a hung House with the ruling Congress emerging as the single largest party bagging 25 out of 59 seats for which polling was held on March three.
Authorities in Garo Hills area of Meghalaya have provided the 18-year-old victim of gangrape an interim cash compensation of Rs 25,000. The compensation was handed over to the victim by East Garo Hills District Deputy Commissioner Vijay Kumar Montri in the hospital. The state government is bearing the entire cost of medical treatment of the girl.
Rigorous pumping of water from the nearby abandoned mines is expected to begin on Friday.
While the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council has suffered a series of blows in the past few days, allegations of a nexus between the militants and NGOs have created a flutter among the society.
The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board on Tuesday held a public hearing on uranium mining despite opposition and a bandh call guven by Khasi Students Union and its allies.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) general secretary and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma has fielded both his sons in the March 3 Meghalaya Assembly elections from two constituencies in his strong bastion in Garo Hills areas of the hill state.
