Former Arunachal CM Apang quits BJP
Guwahati, January 15 (IANS): Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Gegong Apang on Tuesday resigned from the party, saying it was no longer following the principles of the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "I am disappointed to see that the present day BJP is no longer following the principles of the late Vajpayeeji," Apang said in his resignation letter sent to BJP President Amit Shah. "The party is now a platform to seek power, it serves a leadership which hates decentralization or democratic decision making and no longer believes (in the values) the party was founded for," he added. Apang said the Bharatiya Janata Party did not get the people's mandate in 2014 in Arunachal Pradesh. "But the BJP leadership used every dirty trick in the trade and installed the late Kalikho Pul as Chief Minister. Despite an adverse Supreme Court ruling, a BJP government was reinstalled. "Neither a proper investigation was done in Pul's suicide nor the present BJP leadership thought of morality and ethics by installing many more BJP governments in the northeast," said Apang.
Assam Accord signatory and AGP co-founder dead
Guwahati, January 15 (PTI): Biraj Kumar Sarma - one of the signatories of the historic Assam Accord of 1985, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) co-founder and former minister died Tuesday at a private hospital here, his family and party sources said. Sarma died around 2.30 am in the hospital where he was admitted on January 6 for protracted illness, hospital sources said. He was a front ranking leader of the six-year long Assam Movement led by the All Assam Students Union from 1979 which had culminated in the signing of the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) Assam Accord in 1985 between AASU and representatives of central and Assam governments. Sarma had participated in the Assam Movement as an active member of Sadou Asom Gana Sangram Parishad and co-founded AGP, which was formed by the Assam agitation leaders in 1985. He was the general secretary of the party and later its vice-president. He remained with the AGP since its formation till his death and had represented Gauhati East assembly constituency twice.
Man arrested with heroin in Mizoram
Aizawl, January 15 (PTI): Official of the Mizoram Excise and Narcotics Department on Tuesday seized 34.5 gm of heroin at Khawkawn village in Champhai district and arrested a man in this connection. The 50-year-old man was held for allegedly being in possession of the contraband worth around Rs 1.5 lakh, which was reportedly smuggled from Myanmar, a department spokesman said. The accused was booked under different sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 and produced before a local judge, he said.
