Arabinda Rajkhowa urges Modi to restart dialogue with ULFA
Jagiroad (Assam): ULFA pro-talk faction chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take forward the peace talk process between the Centre and the insurgent outfit. Rajkhowa, at a meeting with leaders and cadres of his overground faction in Morigaon district, urged Modi to restart the dialogue that was “kept in abeyance” for the last two months by the UPA government. Rajkhowa congratulated Modi and hoped the BJP government would settle the ULFA issue permanently. Asked about the extradition of Anup Chetia who is at the Kashimpur Jail in Bangladesh since 1997, he told reporters that the ULFA general secretary could join the talks if the central government took the initiative with the neighbouring country. (PTI)
Irom Sharmila hopes to meet Modi over AFSPA
Kolkata: To appear for a pending court case against her, Manipur’s Irom Sharmila on Tuesday left for Delhi where she is also hoping to meet country’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), her family sources said. The metropolitan magistrate of Patiala House court in New Delhi has summoned Sharmila in connection with a pending case regarding a 2006 hunger strike at the Jantar Mantar, Sharmila’s family member told PTI from Imphal. The ‘Iron Lady’ will be heard in the court on Wednesday and during her stay in the national capital, Sharmila is hoping to meet Modi, Kshetrimayum Onil of Just Peace Foundation said. On a hunger strike for the last 13 years demanding revocation of the AFSPA, Sharmila has been under arrest for attempting to commit suicide. Having refused to take food and water all these years, she is forcibly nose-fed at a special ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru hospital in Imphal. (PTI)
213 kg Manipuri ganja seized in Bihar
Patna: A truck from Manipur was on Tuesday intercepted by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) personnel in Bihar and ganja worth Rs 21 lakh seized from it. The narcotics consignment, concealed in 21 packets and hidden in specially designed cavity in the truck’s body, was loaded near Imphal in Manipur. It was being taken to Bhojpur district in Bihar, NCB sources said. “Manipuri ganja is considered the best in India and is much in demand. We had secret information about the movement of the consignment and were keeping a tab on it through our resources,” the sources said. “Accordingly, we laid a trap on Mahatma Gandhi Bridge over the Ganga between Hajipur and Patna. This is a big catch for us,” the sources said. The arrested persons were being interrogated to find out the destination of the consignment and their links in Bihar and other states. (PTI)
Imphal premiere hospital to function normally from Wednesday
IMPHAL: The premiere hospital in the North East region Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) will resume its normal service from Wednesday as the agitating nurses’ body and the hospital authority have reached an agreement on Tuesday evening. RIMS functioning has halted all its services following the cease work agitation by the nurses of the institute since Monday evening. Under the aegis of RIMS Nurses Association, the nurses started agitation from 5 pm of Monday against the bias dealing of RIMS director Dr Shekharjit on promotion. The nurses’ body said Dr Shekharjit has promoted many people superseding seniority list. Meanwhile, following the agitation the functioning of OPD and even Casualty Cell were affected. Patients have been to rush to other medical centres following the agitation. (NNN)
NE Forum in Delhi calls for strict laws against racism
Kohima: The North East India Forum Against Racism (NEIFAR) has called for the introduction of ‘strict law against racial discrimination and ensure that there is rule of law so that faith in judiciary is reestablished.’ In a press statement on Tuesday, NEIFAR convener David Boyes said in the backdrop of the molestation of a woman from Nagaland in Delhi by a lawyer on May 22 and the criminal intimidation and assault on the people of North East States is an attack having racial contours and calls for strict and immediate action by the judiciary and law enforcing agency to protect vulnerable groups. This was followed by an assault launched by a mob of lawyers on other people of the North East who went to defend the victim on May 23 at Tis Hazari court in Delhi. The NEIFAR maintained that the judiciary and law administration should not tolerate the assault on a fellow advocate who was defending the victim which will ‘deter and intimidate’ victims from taking a legal recourse to crimes. “If lawyers are not safe in the Courts, then it is a very poor reflection on the state of judicial administration. A few delinquent lawyers cannot be permitted to take law into their own hands and bypass the well-established judicial process,” he said. (UNI)