Next round of Naga talks in Netherlands

NEW DELHI: After a gap of nearly a year, peace talks between militant group NSCN-IM and the Centre will resume in the Netherlands later this month as
part of efforts to resolve the decades-old Naga issue.

"We will hold the next round of negotiation with the Central Government in the last week of October in The Hague," NSCN-IM leader D G Robert said.

NSCN-IM chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah will represent the group while the government will be led by Union Minister Oscar Fernandes, he said.

The meeting is considered crucial as it will be held after a gap of almost one year during which NSCN-IM raised question mark over the government's sincerity in resolving the issue.

Muivah, who was in India for almost a year, left for the Netherlands earlier this month to join Swu.

The government has held over 60 rounds of talks with the NSCN-IM to find an amicable solution to the vexed issue.

"The next round of talks will be significant as it will be held after a gap of almost one year," said Mani Charenmai, MP from Nagaland.

The NSCN-IM has been pressing for formation of a 'greater Nagalim' comprising all Naga-inhabited areas in the northeast. However, this has been opposed by Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
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From tomorrow, 'Govt of Gorkhaland' takes over

KOLKATA: After enforcing that car number plates in the Darjeeling hills carry the 'GL' marking, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha has directed that all sig
nboards in the region should carry Gorkhaland in place of West Bengal from Friday.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said government offices such as the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council will have to bear the inscription 'Government of Gorkhaland' instead of 'Government of West Bengal' from Friday.

"In case of signboards at private establishments such as offices, shops and hotels, it should read Darjeeling and Kurseong, followed by 'Gorkhaland," Giri said.

"This is part of our non-coperation movement that is aimed at showing that we are not willing to stay under West Bengal's rule," he said.

This will also be applicable in areas such as Siliguri, Terai and the Dooars, he said.

District Magistrate of Darjeeling Surendra Gupta said the move was illegal and would be dealt with "appropriately".

"It is illegal and we will react when it is enforced. Home Secretary (Ashok Mohan Chakraborty) has stated the government's position clearly on October 13 and I have nothing to add to that," he said.

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Paramilitary forces rush to Assam

Guwahati: Caught in the storm: A woman and her children take shelter at a relief camp in Kharupetiya, near Guwahati, yesterday. The death toll rose to 49, including 15 people shot by police. Around a lakh people have fled their homes. Pic/apAn additional 2,000 paramilitary troopers were yesterday rushed to Assam to quell clashes between Muslim migrants and tribal groups that forced locals to flee their homes. The death toll in weekend ethnic clashes in Assam that displaced more than 1 lakh people has mounted to 49. The authorities claimed the situation is slowly getting back to normal. "Since violence broke out on Friday, 49 people have died; 15 in police firing and the rest in separate incidents of clashes," said Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. Eight of the injured victims died yesterday in different hospitals. Curfew is still in force with shoot-on-sight orders issued to the security forces. The clashes between members of the Bodo tribal group and Muslim settlers, originally from Bangladesh, have witnessed raids on numerous villages by groups armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows, spears and machetes.Set ablaze"They set on fire a large a number of homes in my village," said Dipali Basumatary, who had taken shelter in a government-run relief camp.Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the root cause was a programme of "ethnic cleansing" implemented by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a rebel group fighting for an independent tribal homeland. They want to drive out all non-Bodos from the area.

Source: www.mid-day.com

Retail chain Subhiksha to venture in the East

Mumbai: Food and grocery retail chain, Subhiksha, plans to expand its wings in the east soon, a top company official said.

"The company is already present in the north, south and western regions. To make its presence felt in the east, we will soon foray into the east," Subhiksha's Senior President, Sunil. Kataria, said

The company plans to set up a store in Kolkata by December, he said.

Currently, the company has around 1,580 supermarkets under its Subhiksha Retail brand in more than 100 cities. It plans to enhance this network to around 2,200 stores by the end of the current fiscal.
Source: www.mid-day.com

Shoot-at-sight orders in Assam after clashes

GUWAHATI: Shoot-at-sight orders were issued on Saturday in Assam's curfew-bound district of Udalguri, where seven people were killed and more than 50
injured in clashes between two communities even as a cluster of villages were set ablaze, officials said. "We have asked police, paramilitary and Army soldiers to shoot anybody found indulging in violent activities," Inspector General of Assam Police (Law and Order) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta said. Violence broke out Friday between two communities in Rowta in Udalguri district, about 100 km north of Guwahati. "The situation is tense with the violence spreading to new areas in the district even as five more bodies were recovered, all of them shot at with poison-tipped arrows and hit with crude sharp implements," a police official said, requesting anonymity. More than 50 people were wounded, some with bullets. "More than 200 houses were set ablaze in about six villages," the official said. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes and are now sheltering in makeshift relief camps set up the police. "There are an estimated 4,000 people of various ethnic communities sheltered in camps. These people had fled fearing attacks or belonged to villages where miscreants had torched their homes," the official said. The immediate provocation for the clashes was the attack on a group of Village Defence Party (VDP) volunteers early Friday by armed miscreants. "The VDP members belonged to the tribal Bodo community and were attacked by members of a religious minority group and that sparked off the clashes," the official said. In August, the area witnessed similar clashes between two communities in which about 10 people were killed and several injured.
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