Bangladesh Foreign Minister to Visit Tripura on Sept 14

Agartala, Aug 17 : Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will visit Tripura on September 14 to lay the foundation stone of a War Museum to be dedicated to Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

According to official sources here today, Ms Moni will be on a two-day visit to Tripura along with a delegation.

She would enter the state through Akhaura Check post and then leave for Belonia to lay the foundation stone at Chittakhola in Belonia on September 15 next, said state Industries and Commerce Minister Jitendra Choudhury.

He said during Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Chittakhola had functioned as one of the 11 warfront camps in Tripura and a large number of liberation warriors at Chittakhola used to sneak into Bangladesh to launch guerrilla offensives against Pakistani army camps or mobile units.

Tripura Police to Investigate Women Trafficking Case in Haryana

Agartala, Aug 17 : The Tripura government has decided to send a police team to Haryana for investigation into alleged selling of two girls from Kanchanpur area of North Tripura by the villagers.

Police sources here today said two girls from poverty stricken families were sold to a ''marriage bureau'' in Haryana in April. One Prant Nath and his wife Bela Rani Nath, who had been doing business with Dharmanagar based Santosh Das, were accused in the case.

According to report, the Nath family had assured the victims' parents that they would be given jobs in Haryana but the girls were sold to a marriage bureau.

The victims' families brought the matter to the notice of the Tripura Women's Commission last month and the commission launched investigation.

Women's Commission officials said that initial investigation established the allegations and a police team would go to Haryana next week for follow up action. They said with the declining sex ratio in Haryana, these kinds of activities were increasing and innocent poor families in the Northeastern region were falling prey.

14 Inmates Get Remission in Tripura

Agartala, Aug 17 : Tripura Governor DY Patil has given the approval for the remission of jail term of 14 inmates on the occasion of 64th Independence Day celebrations.

The inmates were released last evening, officials said here today.

According to report, eight inmates from Agartala Central Jail and three each from Belonia and Sonamura Sub-jails were released with the approval of the Governor for their good conduct and behaviour.

Though the inmates had been awarded rigorous imprisonment for various crimes, jail authority send a recommendation to the advisory board last month with the approval of the Home Department for relaxation on their conviction period.

All of them earned minimum remission period of six months except one who got a remission of two years seven months and 12 days as he was a convict of life imprisonment, jail officials added.

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In 2008, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED hailed Blair as “One of the Hottest 50 Athletes of All-Time”. Blair also made it to the final 4, when the voting for “World’s Hottest Athlete” was going on.

Assam Govt to Provide Scholarships to 2 lakh Minority Students

Guwahati, Aug 17 : The Assam government has announced that this financial year, they will soon be providing scholarships worth Rs. 2000 to around two lakh meritorious students from the state belonging to the tea-tribe communities, the scheduled tribes, the scheduled castes, other backward classes, other communities that reside in border areas, sand isles of the river Brahmaputra and other areas spanning 27 districts that are economically and educationally backward.

This information was announced by Bhumidhar Barman, Assam Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, while speaking at the Latasil grounds in Guwahati during the Independence Day celebrations on Sunday.

A Minority Education Commission will soon be constituted by the Assam state government to advise the government regarding education of students who belong to minority communities.
The minister hoisted the tricolor at the ceremony and also took the salute of march on behalf of the Assam state government.

Most Domestic Violence Cases in Mizoram go Unreported

Aizawl, Aug 16 : Sixty-year-old Thangbawihi, resident of Tuirial Airfield village, near here, was stabbed by her 63-year-old husband on the night of July eight during a heated argument and succumbed to her injuries a few days later at a hospital.

The incident was termed by the police as an extreme case of domestic violence, but incidents of this nature, though on a lesser scale, have been frequently reported from the strictly conservative patriarchial society of Mizoram.

Though the state CID (Crime Branch) said only 16 cases of domestic violence had been registered in the period between 2007 and 2009, social workers believed the number could be much higher since majority of the incidents had not been reported.

Data collected by the National Family Health Survey in 2005-6 said an average 22 per cent of wives in Mizoram suffered at the hands of their husbands, while the national average was 37 per cent.

Angela Ch Ralte, secretary of the Aizawl-based NGO 'Centre for Peace and Development', says that many women just do not report cases of physical abuse by their husbands for not being aware of the existence of a law against domestic violence.

This was endorsed by Lalthansangi, counselor of the 'Centre for Peace and Development', who has been helping victims of domestic violence and sexual harassment.

“The victims are from different sections of society, including the poor, middle class and government employees, and most of them have husbands who are given to drinking excesses,'' she said.

Lalthansangi says while a high percentage of domestic violence perpetrated by husbands against wives are physical, all categories of domestic violence - economic, emotional, sexual and others - are inter-related.

Total Bru Refugee Population Stands at 31,703

Aizawl, Aug 16 : The total number of Bru refugees, lodged at six relief camps in Tripura, stands at 31,703, according to a resurvey of their population conducted this month by the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF).

"The population of the ones who had left Mizoram in the wake of the murder of Lalzawmliana, a forest guard inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve in October 1997 by Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants stands at 29,520 individuals from 5,448 families," MBDPF president Elvis Chorkhy told PTI from Tripura.

The gender break-up was 14,608 males and 14,912 females.

Those who left Mizoram in 2009 after the Bru militants gunned down Zarzokima, a 17 year-old youth near Bungthuam hamlet on November 13, three days before the date of the proposed repatriation was scheduled to commence, were 2,183 people belonging to 449 families, he said, adding that the gender break-up was 1118 males and 1065 females.

In the population survey conducted by the MBDPF during June 15 to July 28, the total figure stood at 27,261, belonging to 5,421 families.

The survey was conducted again after many complained that they were not included in the head count.

The difference was that in the final compilation after the resurvey the number of Bru refugees increased by 6,442 and the number of families also increased by 476.

The population survey is seen as the initial step for the repatriation of the refugees from Tripura as the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, during his visit to Aizawl on May 25, urged Bru leaders to ensure that all the refugees should return not later than October this year.

Mumbai Business to Back Northeast Opportunities

Mumbai, Aug 16 : Encouraged by recent steps to promote investment in India's northeast, representatives of industry and business in the country's financial capital here have agreed to boost the region's economy.

Following a two-day workshop here on business opportunities in the northeast, the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC), one of the country's oldest and most influential chambers of commerce, said it would send a high-level group to the region to explore specific areas of investment to help promote its unique business opportunities.

Business representatives described presentations by political leaders, top officials, entrepreneurs, journalists and Assam Governor Lt. Gen. (retired) Ajai Singh as "an eye-opener" because they had been unaware of attractive transport subsidies, tax benefits and plans to introduce VAT in all eight states of the region in a few months.

The IMC said it could consider partnerships with business organisations in the northeast and focus on public and corporate governance.

IMC president Nanik Rupani announced at the workshop that ended Sunday that he was prepared to take a group of senior industrialists from Mumbai to the region to take a look at ground realities and opportunities.

In addition, said IMC's financial advisor Kiran Nanda, the organisation could connect raw material producers in the region, such as limestone producers and those with medicinal and aromatic plantations, with manufacturers and exporters here.

"Businessmen don't need invitations, they need information," said Viral Shah, a chartered accountant, supporting the view that the northeastern states needed to lobby seriously in Mumbai.

"It is not just the big industrialists who should come, you need to disseminate information about the region on a sustained basis here with small and medium traders and producers."

The head of an exporters association said he planned to take a large number of potential investors to the northeast after hearing of central and state government initiatives and the opportunities to trade with Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The workshop, organised by the Centre for Northeast Studies and Policy Research in collaboration with IMC, drew over 100 participants who interacted with senior area representatives including the economic advisor to the Assam chief minister and cabinet ministers from Assam and Tripura.

Other participants were Kamal Taori, secretary of the North Eastern Council, and Surajit Mitra, joint secretary in the ministry for the development for the northeastern region in New Delhi.

Those who attended included bankers, financial specialists and executives from the corporate world such as Reliance Industries and ITC, business specialists from the US and Taiwan and senior editors, local traders and environmental activists.

Assam's Planning and Development Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma was at pains to point out that insurgency was on its way out and the state was determined to pull out all stops for investors.

Tripura's Industry and Agriculture Minister Tapan Chakrabarty spoke of his state's strengths in governance and its focus on rubber, bamboo and medicinal plant products.

Encouraged by the response, conference organisers said more interactions between business and government were planned to sustain the proposed initiatives.