Tension as woman shot dead in border village in Tripura
Agartala, July 22 (IANS): Tension prevailed after a 24-year-old Muslim woman was found shot dead on Friday in a border village in Sepahijala district of Tripura as BSF troops fired at some cattle smugglers who failed to obey an order to halt, officials said.
"During routine patrolling along the India-Bangladesh border on early Friday morning, BSF jawans asked a group of cattle thieves to stop proceeding towards Bangladesh. The jawans opened fire when the smugglers didn't obey the order," a BSF official said.
The official said the woman's body was later recovered from Tarapukur village along the India-Bangladesh border. On the other hand, villagers complained to police that some BSF men tried to molest Maya Khatun and later shot her dead. "No written complaint has been received yet," an official of the Sonamura police station told IANS over phone.
Senior police and BSF officials rushed to the spot, 65 km south from here, to pacify a mob agitating after the woman's death. Tripura has a 856-km long India-Bangladesh border, with a little over 85 per cent of it fenced.
ZSI, BSI to map biodiversity in North East as 'priority'
Kolkata, July 22 (IANS): The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and Botanical Survey of India (BSI) will take up northeast India as a "priority" to map the region's biodiversity and address knowledge gaps, an Environment Ministry official said on Friday. "Certain instructions have been given to ZSI and BSI to take up northeastern region as a priority," Additional Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Amita Prasad told IANS. The ZSI and BSI are headquartered in Kolkata.
According to ZSI Director Kailash Chandra, experts from the organisation will launch surveys from September to record faunal diversity. "We plan to begin with Arunachal Pradesh," he said. Recently, the ministry had announced a new regional centre of the ZSI in Gangtok.
NE railway collects Rs 12 cr from ticketless travellers
Agartala, July 22 (IANS): The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) registered 171,578 cases of ticketless or improper travel in the April-June quarter, collecting Rs 12.06 crore in fines, said an official on Friday. On an average, 1,910 cases a day were registered in the first quarter of financial year 2016-17 in the northeast for travelling without ticket or with an irregular ticket against 1,440 such cases in the same period of the previous year, shows the data maintained by NFR.
NFR's Public Relations Officer S.K. Ojah said: "13,467 cases of passengers travelling with excess or un-booked luggage were also detected during April to June in the Northeast region, mostly in Assam, and more than Rs 16 lakh was realised as fine." "Drives against ticketless travelling and carrying of goods without charge would be stepped up in future," Ojah added.
The NFR's 'flying squads' have been making surprise raids in trains and at railway stations against ticketless and improper travelling. "To discourage ticketless travel, the NFR has put systems in place whereby abrupt swift checks are conducted by flying squads," Ojah said.
Committee on ILP round up 271 non-locals in Manipur
Newmai News Network
Imphal | July 22
Intensifying its campaign for introduction of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in Manipur, the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has rounded up 271 non-local labourers and handed them over to police after they failed to possess valid documents for entering the state.
JCILPS volunteers pulled down 124 non-local labourers from different passenger buses on Thursday in Sekmai area along Imphal-Dimapur road. On Friday, 147 more "illegal" labourers were stopped from entering the state in Sekmai area. They have been taken away by personnel of Sekmai Police Station for further verification.
The Joint Committee, a conglomerate of citizens maintained that the non-locals coming from Dimapur side through the NH-2 did not possess proper identity cards. Volunteers of JCILPS and Advanced Women's Society and Awang Sekmai Protection have been impeding entry of illegal migrants along NH-2 in the last two days.
The detained labourers from outside the state were heading for Thoubal district to work for Shyama Power Pvt Ltd, NIT, Langol in Imphal West and ST Xavier School, Moirang in Bishnupur district. A massive sit-in was held at various places from Keishampat to Tera Keithel in Imphal city to demand speedy implementation of ILP to tackle inrush of illegal migrants.
The demonstrators also demanded the state government withdraw the “wanted” tag declared against former JCILPS convenor Ratan Khomdram. Manipur Police has accused him of being a member of the banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF). JCILPS convenor BK Moirangcha yesterday announced to intensify the ILP stir. A new bill is likely to be tabled and passed in the ensuing monsoon session of the state assembly as the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, 2015 was withheld by the President.
