NE's largest arms recovery acting on Tripura cop intel

Agartala, Mar 08, 2013 : In the biggest ever arms haul in the North East region, Assam Rifles and Mizoram Police recovered as many as 31 AK series rifles, one LMG and one Insas along with about 1000 ammunitions from Aizwal on Friday.

The information about the weapons cache was given by Tripura police to the AR and Mizoram Police.

"Three persons were arrested and they confessed that the arms were being smuggled to Bangladesh", said a senior Tripura police official here. Among the arrested two belong to Chakma community and one Tripuri.

It is not yet clear from where the arms came but, it is suspected that the consignments did come from Myanmar.

The AR and Mizoram Police acting on Tripura police supplied information raided a place called 4 miles in between Aizwal city and Airport on New Airport road. The arms were packed in boxes and were kept hidden behind a house.

"The arrested persons are prima facie couriers and they were waiting for right moment to smuggle the weapons out to Bangladesh", the official said.

Recovery of so many weapons meant for Bangladesh when the country is facing a volatile and violent time assumes sugnificance. Intelligence services are now interrogating the three arrested and some arrests are likely.

Tripura topper in MG NREGS implementation, Jiten expects new record

Agartala, Mar 08, 2013 : Rural Development minister Chaudhury held a long series of meetings with officials of all the departments he was put in charge in the 7th Left Front government. Speaking to reporters at the civil secretariat later this evening, the minster said that Tripura is soaring at the top of the entire country as far as performance in implementing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG NREGS) comes in question. The state has already generated 73 mandays on an average across all eight districts till March 06, the minster said adding that he is expecting the figures to reach 90 by the end of current Financial Year. “There was a bit of slow performance before, during and shortly after the election or else we would have reached out desired target by now”, he added.

The Ministry for Rural Development approved a labour budget of Rs. 1204 crore 88 lakh for Tripura during 2012-2013 financial year. While central share released till March 06 stands at Rs. 767 crore 98 lakh, the state government released its own share of Rs. Rs. 153 crore 33 lakh, which coupled with the opening balance of Rs. 56 crore 23 lakh from previous financial year, sums up to a total available balance of Rs. 982 crore 69 lakh under the scheme. The third installment under MG NREGS is expected to reach the state government by the next 48 hours, RD minister Chaudhury said. He also stated that labour budget for the next financial year has set 95 mandays as target in average for Tripura. The state generated an average of 86 mandays in the previous financial year, ranking topper across the country.

According to latest information, Mizoram is closely following Tripura in success rate of implementing MG NREGS with 61.33 mandays generated in average, Tamil Nadu coming up next with 48.32 mandays. Goa generated the lowest man-days in the country – 12.44.

Chaudhury also held meetings with officials of the Industries and Commerce Department, Directorate of Information Technology, Directorate of Handlooms and Handicrafts etc on the day.

Left MLAs take oath-of-office

Agartala, Mar 08, 2013 : Left Front MLAs swore oath-of-office at the legislative assembly on Friday. Pro-tem speaker Niranjan Debbarma administered oath to the MLAs. While Manik Sarkar, who has already been sworn in as Chief Minister of the 7th Left Front government, Jitendra Chaudhury – re-named as Rural Development minister, MLA and CPI (M) veteran Naresh Jamatia including few others took oath in English, MLA Pranab Debbarma alongwith few others who emerged victorious from the ST reserved seats, took oath in Kokborok. Most of the MLAs, however, took their oath in Bengali. At the end of oath taking today, pro-tem speaker Niranjan Debbarma said that all others who would be a part of the assembly in the current term, would have to appear before the assembly secretary with their application for swearing-in by 5 PM on Friday or 10 AM on Saturday. Opposition MLAs are supposed to take oath-of-office tomorrow.

All five women legislators who were elected in the Tripura’s legislative assembly were sworn in today – the International Womens’ Day. 15 women candidates had contested in the assembly polls on February 14. Three women members were elected to the House in 2008 assembly election.

Tripura gets new project for dev of dairy industry

Agartala, Mar 07, 2013 : The Ministry for Agriculture and Animal Resource Development has granted a project worth Rs. 9 crore 8 lakh to Tripura to develop dairy industry in the state, ARDD Secretary Swapan Saha said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters at the civil secretariat here this evening, the official informed that the first phase of fund release under the project would reach the state by the end of the ongoing month. The project is supposed to focus on development of average daily production of milk in the state beside infrastructure development of the industry like purchase of bulk pulling machines, delivery vans etc. The official also said that milk cooperative societies operational in Gomati, South and West Tripura districts would come under the purview of the project. The project was sanctioned at a recent meeting of the Ministry’s secretary at New Delhi.