NE Festival to kick off from Nov 3 in Delhi New Delhi, October 25 (PTI): The fifth edition of North East Festival will kick off here from Nov 3 to celebrate and embrace the diverse culture and heritage of north-eastern states of India. Promising to be much bigger than last year with a football match and a rock music contest between colleges and bands of Delhi, the annual festival will be held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA). The festival will bring to the fore the cultural richness of North East with 30 folk dance performances like the Naga warrior dance, Thang ta of Manipur, Hojagiri of Tripura, Bamboo dance of Mizoram, Wangala dance of Meghalaya, Lion dance of Arunachal Pradesh among others. This year the festival will promote the eight states as a hub of organic food farming with around 30 stalls offering delectable North Eastern cuisines. BJP, MDF merge ahead of 2018 Mizoram polls Aizawl, October 25 (PTI): The BJP and the Maraland Democratic Front(MDF) today formally merged at a function held in southern Mizoram's Siaha town before the state assembly poll scheduled to be held next near. The MDF dissolved the party and declared that the party has merged with the BJP along with two of its members of Mara Autonomous District Council (MADC). The MDF President M Laikaw said that the party has merged with the BJP, a national party, to counter the Congress which ruled the state and the MADC. The MDF had earlier formed alliance with the Mizo National Front (MNF) and contested the 2008 and 2013 state assembly polls together. Strike derails govt offices in Manipur Imphal, October 25 (IANS): Most government offices in Manipur were crippled on Wednesday as employees took mass Casual Leave protesting against the inordinate delay in implementing the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. Police arrested five employees for protesting at the Old Secretariat. The mass leave was organised by the Manipur Government Services Federation. L. Purujit, General Secretary of the Federation, said: "Though other states had implemented the recommendations one-and-a-half years ago, the Manipur government is still fumbling. The BJP had promised before the elections that if voted to power, the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission will be implemented." Deputy Chief Minister Y. Joykumar said: "The government can't pay the salaries as recommended by the 7th Pay Commission since it would involve over Rs 1,200 crore." The Manipur government has some 84,000 employees. NFR to observe vigilance awareness week Guwahati, October 25 (MExN): Under the ‘My Vision- Corruption Free India,’ the Vigilance Awareness Week will be observed throughout Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) from October 30 - November 4. The events will include administering “Integrity Pledge” to all the employees at HQ and Divisions, distribution of pamphlets/handouts on preventive vigilance activities, organising interactive session and seminar with officers of all departments, informed in a press release from NFR CPRO. It will also feature, among others, inter-college debate competition, essay, drawing & poster competition for school students and street plays. A vigilance bulletin will also be released on the occasion, the release said. GRP seizes 10 gold biscuits Guwahati, October 25 (PTI): The Government Railway Police (GRP) on Wednesday seized 10 gold biscuits weighing 1.6 kg from two persons travelling in the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express at the Guwahati Railway station here.During routine checking in the train at Guwahati Railway station this morning, GRP personnel seized the gold biscuits valued at Rs 50 lakh from the two persons travelling from Dimapur in Nagaland to Delhi, GRP Officer-in-Charge Pankaj Kalita told PTI.The two persons carrying the gold biscuits were apprehended and identified as Ravi from Ghaziabad and Sanjay Sharma from Delhi, Kalita said.The seized gold was handed over to the Customs Department, the OC added.