NORTH-EASTERN STATES

Prime MinisterNarendra Modi inaugurated and laid foundation stones of 22 development projects worth Rs 4,815 crore in poll-boundManipur.

The northeast, which had been long neglected by the previous government, joined the development race after 2014, and Manipur will become the main source of Indias Growth, the PM said. Amid total shutdown and boycott call by the proscribed Coordination Committee (CorCom), a conglomerate of rebel outfits of the state,Modiarrived at Imphal airport around 11 am on his whirlwind visit to the state and addressed a mammoth public meeting at Hatta Kangjeibung in Imphal East.

C ministerN BirenSingh said Manipurs future lies in the tourism sector, and so his government has been putting in every effort to bring in positive changes in the state.

Pointing out that the state is a treasure trove of unique scenic beauty, climatic conditions, culture and tradition,Birensaid the has started developing many tourist spots across the state.

Union Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said the northeastern states will turn into an oil palm hub of the country with the central government’s major intervention with an outlay of Rs 11,040 crore for the next five years. Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy urged investors and industrialists to invest in the northeastern region which has immense potential for the agricultural sector, especially palm oil.

In August, the approved the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore to promote the domestic cultivation of oil palm in the next five years and reduce the country’s dependence on edible oil imports.

Assam and Mizoram inked an agreement to keep their Police and forest guards away from the troubled inter-state border as the first tangible step towards easing tension in the area and maintaining continuity of talks to end their decades-old territory dispute.
As decided by the Union Home ministry, neutral forces will remain in charge of the disputed zone straddling the three Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi, and Mamit and Kolasib in Mizoram.

The dialogue followed several telephonic discussions between Mizoram CM Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, both of whom subsequently declared their commitment to finding a solution that has eluded successive governments since the first round of talks in 1993.

Mizoramchief minister Zoramthanga reiterated that unification of all the Mizo inhabited areas into a single administration has been the political objective of the ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) for more than 60 years.
Speaking to media persons on the demand for a separate administration by the Kuki-Zo people in strife-torn Manipur, which included the possible formation of Greater Mizoram, Zoramthanga said when the Late Laldenga formed the MNF on October 22, 1962, unification of all Mizo inhabited contiguous areas into a single administration was one of its ambitions. The Kuki-Zo leaders, including 10 tribal legislators of Manipur, during their meeting in Aizawl on May 17 resolved that a separate administration is the only solution for bringing peace while the possibility of joining a Greater Mizoram also featured in their discussions.

Though contiguous areas in Myanmar and Bangladesh, inhabited by the Mizo ethnic community, remain iredenta after the MNF came overground after signing a peace accord with the Indian government in 1986, unification of Mizo inhabited areas within India under one administrative unit is possible under the Indian Constitution

Meghalayahas turned into a major transit point for drug trafficking because of its close proximity to the Golden Triangle, a fact that has put authorities on very high alert, the director general of state Police,LR Bishnoi, has said. He added that the state has approximately 2.5 lakh users of drugs and psychotropic substances, including injectable drugs.

In the course of his address at a function to observe International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at theU Soso Tham Auditorium(State Central Library) here on Saturday, the DGP made a detailed presentation on the prominent drug trafficking routes in the state and the modus operandi of traffickers.

Indian Medical Association (IMA)Mizoramstate branch attributed the lowrecovery rateofCovid-19infected people in Mizoram to thestate government’s refusal to change the Covid-19 discharge protocol. Mizoram’s recovery rate was 78.21% as against 96.80% in India.

IMA’s Mizoram state branch president Dr Rosangluaia said that the IMA, Mizoram state branch had repeatedly asked the to change the discharge protocol, but the government has stuck to its guns.

Another doctor said that the state government dared not change the discharge protocol due to pressure from the local-level task force who are helping the government machinery in combating the pandemic in their own respective areas.

The irony in Mizoram is that the state government, without consulting medical experts, used to make decisions on the pressure from outside agency.

Concerned with the high dropout rate in Meghalaya, the on Tuesday signed an MoU with the National Institute of Open Schooling to facilitate the return of dropouts to educational institutions.

While Assam recorded the highest dropout rate in the country with 31 per cent of out-of-school students at the secondary level, Tripura with 29.8 per cent is ranked number 2, an official of the Education department said.

Meghalaya with 27.9 per cent dropout rate in secondary level is ranked third followed closely by Madhya Pradesh (26.1 per cent) and Nagaland (24.4 per cent), he said.

An MoU for identification of Out of School Children (OoSC) and enrolling them into the NIOS Study Centres was signed between the Samagra Shiksha authorities and the National Institute of Open Schooling, a statement said.

Samagra Shiksha state project director Swapnil Tembe and NIOS chairperson Saroj Sharma were present on the occasion.

The Union ministry of Home affairs (MHA) has allowed single-rowfencingalong the 6.5-km stretch of India-Bangladesh border at Sonamura in western border ofTripura. The fencing work has been halted for a long time due to strong resistance from villagers of Kalsimura, Shobapur, Rahimpur, N C Nagar and Durgapur.

Along with the , security agencies, including the BSF, have also been trying to complete the single-row fencing work in Sonamura as soon as possible to stop cross-border crime and enhance vigil along the border.