Plan to check infiltration in NE soon: PM
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that the Union Home Ministry would soon formulate a plan to effectively check infiltration of foreign nationals in the North-East.
"Proposals for more check-posts along Mizoram borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and fencing on the international border are under active consideration of the Home Ministry, the Prime Minister said. Earlier, Mr. Vajpayee said his party was yet to decide on contesting the lone Mizoram Lok Sabha seat.

Lack of development is the root cause of militancy, says Balayogi
Lok Sabha Speaker C. M. C. Balayogi has opined that the root cause of insurgency in the North-East is the lack of economic development. The Speaker made this comment while inaugurating the 3rd conference of NEPA in Imphal recently. He expressed the view that though literacy rate of the region was very high comparing to the rest of the country, employment opportunities were very limited.

AAPSU to fight infiltration
All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) asked the people to create an awareness to the danger posed by influx from neighbouring countries and presence of foreigners in the State.
A notification by Nabam Jollaw, Norbu Sonam and Pongsa Saham, president, convenor and general secretary of the union respectively said the presence of under-age foreigners and non-Arunachalee government casual labourers in the voters list would pose a threat to the State. AAPSU said its workers would work to check illegal enrolment of voters during special revision of electoral roll.

NPC to set up candidate
The Nagaland Peoples Council (NPC) has decided to field candidate in the ensuing Lok Sabha election scheduled to be held on September-October and decided to solicit the cooperation and support from non-Congress political parties in the State in this regard. The party boycotted the last general elections.

Tadar Tempo joins BJP
Tadar Tempo, former chief of the Arunachal Pradesh unit of Seva Dal, has joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).Welcoming him into the party, BJP's state general secretary Vishal Nabam said that the long political experience of Mr. Tempo would help the party organisation in the State.

Tripura writer presented award
Noted story writer of Tripura Debabrata Deb has been awarded the prestigious 'Vishmadeb Smrity Sahitya Puraskar' for his outstanding contribution to literature.State education minister Anil Sarkar, also a noted poet, presented the award to Mr. Deb at a function. The award carried a cash prize of Rs. 5000 and a memento.

NSCN factions backing militants: Assam CM
The two factions of the NSCN are providing logistic support to militant outfits operating in Assam's hill districts of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar taking advantage of the Cease-fire with the Centre, Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, told the Assembly recently.

“The Assam Government is aware that NSCN factions support the militant outfits such as the Dimasa Halam Dowga (DHD) in the hill districts,” Mahanta said in reply to a question by Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) MLAs, Samarjit Haflongbar, and Hemsing Tisso.
Mahanta said due to the Ceasefire, the State Government could not intervene.

Central fund for IIMC, Dimapur branch awaited
Nagaland Information and Public Relation Minister I. Sentichuba said the department is awaiting funds from the Centre for the construction of a permanent building of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dimapur.The Dimapur centre of IIMC is now being run at a rented house house in Ducan Basti.Mr. Senticuba said the Dimapur centre of IIMC would help the students of the entire North-East region.

Sikkim weekly on the Net
A prominent weekly from Sikkim, Gangtok Times, became the first newspaper in the State to be available Internet.Editor of the Gangtok-based weekly C. D. Rai said the paper would be available at www.sikkiminfo.com/gtimes site on the Net.Mr. Rai said the facility would give an opportunity to all Sikkimese people around the globe to keep a track on the happening in their home State.

Mithi allots portfolios
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister had distributed portfolios to all the newly inducted ministers.
Mr. Mithi expanded his three and a half month old ministry recently inducting three ministers. With this, the strength of the Mithi cabinet had risen to 33.Among the new ministers, T. C. Teli became the new minister for information and public relation. Hanchum Ngangdam became the minister of state for mines.All these portfolios had so far been held by the Chief Minister himself.

Jawan killed
An army jawan was killed in an encounter with militants at Lamsang Bazar area of Manipur, defence sources said.The encounter took place when an Army petrol challenged riders on some horses to establish their identity.However, the militants responded with gunshots and killed a jawan. They ultimately managed to flee away.

NE tour operators association formed
Tour operators of the North-Eastern region formed an umbrella organisation —Association of Tour Operators of North East India — for looking after their interests in future. The office bearers of the body include L. Umbrey of Liza World Travels, Ranu Baruwa of Destination North East and Jitu Goswami of Himalayan Holidays as president, working president and general secretary respectively.
This is an ad hoc body and a full-fledged body will be formed in the near future. The body decided to hold a NE Tourism Festival in October '99.

Hoho plebiscite decision hailed
The Nagaland People's party (NPP) has welcomed the decision by the Naga Hoho to observe the plebiscite day.NPP ad-hoc president Ng Hungyo said that his party considered the decision as reawakening of Naga wishes and aspirations to remain united.

BJP for alliance with MSC
The Manipur unit of the BJP is in favour of an alliance with the ruling party in the State, Manipur State Congress (MSC) in the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, scheduled to be held in September-October next.

Seminar on people's rights and State repression
A seminar on people's rights and State repression was held recently in Shillong. The seminar was organised jointly by the Meghalaya People's Human Rights Council (MPHRC) and the North Eastern Coordination Committee for Human Rights (NECOHR).

BJP to field candidates in Nagaland
The BJP will field its candidates for coming Lok Sabha polls in Nagaland. State BJP spokesman Johny G. Rengma said that the party's State unit had decided to field candidates in Lok Sabha polls. The State unit also called upon the non-Congress political parties of the State to extend support to the BJP candidates in the next hustings. The State BJP alongwith Nagaland People's Council and National Democratic Movement (NDM) did not participate in the last general elections in the State.

Mithi demands permanent bridge
Arunachal Pradesh Chief minister Mukut Mithi has demanded construction of a permanent bridge over the Brahmaputra river between Sadiya and Dhola for smooth communication.In a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr. Mithi said Arunachal Pradesh came under heavy rainfall zone and road communications remained badly disrupted for at least seven months of the year causing grinding halt to the development of the area.

Satellite uplinking facility at Shillong
Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister D. D. Lapang inaugurated the satellite uplinking facility at Shillong Doordarshan Kendra recently.The Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPRAT) regional committee, North East Zone has sanctioned 59 projects to voluntary organisations in 1998-99 involving an amount of Rs. 1.62 crore.Nearly 50 per cent of this amount Rs. 80.6 lakh was sanctioned to 27 projects in Assam followed by Manipur with 20 projects and Rs. 51.4 lakh. All other states shared the balance Rs. 30 lakh between them.
CAPRAT, an agency of the department of Rural development, government of India, was decentralised in 1995 with a zonal office at Guwahati. Since then, it has been trying to expand its network of NGOs working with various schemes of rural development like sanitation, drinking water, low cost housing and production oriented activities.