M’laya stir hits NE states hard

Agartala: The northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, parts of Manipur and southern Assam remained cut off from the rest of India for the fourth day Friday following a blockade of the National Highway (NH) No.6 in Meghalaya, official said here.
The NH-6 (formerly known as NH 44) serves as the lifeline for mountainous Tripura, Mizoram, southern Assam (known as Barak Valley) and western Manipur.
For carrying goods, food grain, essentials and other materials from other parts of the country, the NH-6 is very vital for southern Assam’s four districts, land-locked Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur. The highway starts from Guwahati and passes through Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district.
The Movement for Indigenous People’s Rights and Livelihood, a non-governmental organisation in Meghalaya, has called for an indefinite “economic blockade” from September 23 against a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on unscientific coal and sand mining in the state.
“Tripura chief secretary G. Kameswara Rao on Thursday talked to his Meghalaya counterpart P.B.O. Warjri over phone and requested him to urgently intervene in the matter to restore the normal plying of vehicles along the National Highway,” a senior Tripura transport department official said.
He said: “Thousands of southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and western Manipur bound goods-laden trucks, passenger buses, small cars and other vehicles have been stranded in different places of NH 6 in Meghalaya. The agitators also attacked and damaged some vehicles.” (IANS)