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Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Centre okays Rs 4,250cr peace accord-tied devpt package in Assam, Tripura
Guwahati: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday approved a Rs 4,250 crore central allocation for four special development packages tied to peace accords signed with 12 militant groups of Assam and Tripura. The newly approved packages aim to accelerate inclusive growth in the two states by targeting communities historically excluded from mainstream development. The initiative focuses on improving the socio-economic conditions of vulnerable and marginalised groups, enhancing access to health services, education, and skill development, and generating income through livelihood activities — especially for youth and women. By promoting equity and opportunity, the scheme is expected to create jobs, empower local entrepreneurship, and boost tourism, ultimately benefiting lakhs across Adivasi and Dimasa communities in Assam and tribal populations in Tripura. The funds will be provided under the existing Central Sector Scheme of Special Development Packages — Rs 4,000 crore for Assam, which will be implemented over five years (FY 2025–30) across three components, and Rs 250 crore for Tripura, which will be deployed over four years (FY 2025–29) for tribal development. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If you have a mouse, play this game for 1 minute Navy Quest Undo The largest share — Rs 3,000 crore — has been earmarked for infrastructure development in Assam under the peace agreement with the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa). Assam will pump in an additional Rs 3,000 crore from its own resources, taking the total financial outlay to Rs 7,250 crore. The packages are aligned with memoranda of settlement (MoS) signed between the Govt of India, the respective state governments, and ethnic groups in the two states, which aim to promote peace, inclusive development, and socio-economic rehabilitation in previously affected regions. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Raksha Bandhan wishes , messages and quotes !
Business Upturn
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
Cabinet approves Rs 4,250 crore special development packages for Assam and Tripura
By Aditya Bhagchandani Published on August 8, 2025, 16:44 IST The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has cleared four new components under the Central Sector Scheme of Special Development Packages (SDPs) for Assam and Tripura, with a total outlay of Rs 4,250 crore. The approval came after Friday's market hours. Under the plan, Rs 500 crore will be allocated for infrastructure development in Adivasi-inhabited areas of Assam, and another Rs 500 crore for North Cacher Hills Autonomous Council areas linked to the Dimasa groups. The largest allocation, Rs 3,000 crore, will go toward infrastructure in areas associated with ULFA groups in Assam. Additionally, Rs 250 crore will be directed toward tribal development in Tripura, in line with Memoranda of Settlement (MoS) signed with NLFT and ATTF groups. The packages aim to improve socio-economic conditions, create employment, enhance skill development, and promote tourism in the North Eastern states. The Assam components will be implemented over five years starting FY26, while the Tripura project will span four years. The scheme is expected to benefit lakhs of people from Adivasi, Dimasa, and tribal communities, building on the success of earlier MoS-based packages in fostering peace and development in the region. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aditya Bhagchandani serves as the Senior Editor and Writer at Business Upturn, where he leads coverage across the Business, Finance, Corporate, and Stock Market segments. With a keen eye for detail and a commitment to journalistic integrity, he not only contributes insightful articles but also oversees editorial direction for the reporting team.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Ethnic groups take out rally, renew demand for bifurcation of Dima Hasao district
1 2 3 4 5 6 Silchar: Tensions have resurfaced in Assam's hill district of Dima Hasao after hundreds of protesters from non-Dimasa tribal communities took out a massive rally in Haflong on Wednesday, renewing their longstanding demand for the bifurcation of the district. R epresentatives of ethnic groups including the Hmar, Zeme Naga, Karbi, Beite, Bhaipe, Rangkhal, Kuki, Khasi, and Jaintia marched through the streets of the district headquarters, holding placards and chanting slogans in support of a separate district for non-Dimasa communities. The rally concluded with a gathering outside the office of the deputy commissioner, where community leaders addressed the crowd. Organised by the Indigenous People's Forum (IPF) along with its sister bodies — the Indigenous Students' Forum (ISF) and the Indigenous Women's Forum (IWF) — the protesters submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner, with demands addressed to Assam governor Gulab Chand Kataria and chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. At the heart of their demand is the renaming of the district from North Cachar Hills to Dima Hasao in 2010, which they claim is exclusionary and fails to reflect the region's demographic diversity. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo "We have no objection to a separate district for the Dimasas. Let the Dimasa-majority Maibang sub-division be called Dima Hasao. But we want the Haflong sub-division, which comprises other indigenous tribes, to retain the original name — North Cachar Hills," said an IPF spokesperson. He added that non-Dimasa communities constitute nearly 57% of the district's population and should not be identified under a nomenclature that translates to "land of the Dimasa". The demand, which has simmered since the 2010 renaming decision, has seen recurring agitations over the past decade, including bandhs, rail blockades, and rallies. "We will continue our agitation until the district is bifurcated," the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the Dimasa community — the single largest ethnic group in the region — remains firmly opposed to any move toward division. Dimasa leaders argue that bifurcation would fragment the region and hinder its development. Observers warn that unless the demand for administrative bifurcation is addressed, the district — once scarred by insurgency and ethnic unrest — may again face renewed tensions.
Scroll.in
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
What two deaths say about ‘peninsular' India's insular view of the North East
In June, North East India witnessed two related deaths: Raja Raghuvanshi from Indore was murdered in Meghalaya and Roshmita Hojai, a woman from Assam's Dimasa tribe, drowned in Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. The North East link was common to both incidents but most media outlets in peninsular India had widely contrasting reactions. Racist stereotypes emerged first. A national daily declared Meghalaya as a region of ' crime-prone ' hills with no mention of how many murders or other crimes had been committed in an area where tourism is central to the local economy. One crime was all it took for mainstream and social media to condemn Meghalaya's residents as 'criminals', without bothering to mention that the villagers around Sohra, where Raghuvanshi was murdered by the wife he had recently married and her accomplices, held a candlelight vigil to mourn the killing of a complete stranger. This piece of yellow journalism is what the ToI is reduced to? Armchair reportage at its worst.. Disgusting and slanderous.. — patricia mukhim (@meipat) May 29, 2025 On the other hand, newspapers devoted a two-inch column to Hojai, who was aspiring to be a civil servant, and added that two men accompanying her were detained for questioning. There was a complete absence of journalism on how the life of a young woman was nipped in the bud. These contrasting reactions are not exceptions. Stereotypes abound in peninsular India about the people of the North East as 'terrorists', 'secessionists' and immoral women. Every few months, there are reports of women from the northeastern states were molested in Delhi. After one attack, a message was circulated in one of the universities that the women were assaulted because they do not dress like Indians. In December 2021, when security forces gunned down six young men returning home from daily wage work in Mon in Nagaland, social media groups were filled with messages that the men were secessionists who deserved to die. For over six decades, much of the North East has been under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which gives extraordinary powers to the security forces. It grants the forces the impunity to gun down innocent people, as they did in Nagaland, if they claim to have done it in good faith on the line of duty. I have heard a few who call themselves human rights activists and oppose the murder of civilians in the rest of India saying that the stringent law is needed in the North East because of secessionism. This assertion is rarely backed by an effort to find out how many 'secessionists' there are or why there are conflicts in the region. The 'conflict zone' itself is an exaggerated stereotype. The more than 45 million people of the North East live with the disadvantage of distance with peninsular India, which they call the 'mainland' because of its insular view of their region. This distance and relative isolation are physical as well as psychological and political. For the British colonial regime, the North East was used as an isolated buffer zone between the rest of India and China and Burma. That isolation has continued after Independence. Decades after three wars were fought in the region in the 1960s – against China in 1962, Pakistan in 1965 and following the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 – the North East continues to be a buffer zone for national security. Most North Easterners feel that peninsular India, which views itself as the 'mainstream' centered on the Gangetic Valley Hindu dominant-caste male culture, does not understand them and that 'mainstream' India stops at Kolkata. To most 'mainstream' Indians, the North East is a vague territory between Kolkata and Myanmar about which they know little. One murder case involving both victim and perpetrators from a different state. Case worked out swiftly. And still Meghalaya is continuously trying to bolster confidence about state being a safe tourist destination. — Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) June 18, 2025 During the last decade, this 'distant land of conflicts' has become 'the land of injustice' for the lakhs of immigrants excluded from the National Register of Citizens – like in Assam. But for that the North East rarely enters mainstream Indian thinking. Even the national anthem exalts 'Vindhya, Himachala, Yamuna, Ganga' and ignores the Brahmaputra, which is longer than the Ganga, is the fifth largest river in the world and confers an identity on the North East. But it is not an all-India sacred river. Efforts are being made of late to confer some sacredness on it but by connecting it to the Ganga, not in its own right. Another verse of the national anthem includes 'Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida, Utkala, Vanga', in other words, an Aryan-Dravidian India in which the people of the North East do not exist. Lakhs of people from the region are forced to go to 'mainland' India because of the high unemployment and poor education infrastructure of the North East. Because of their Mongoloid features, they are often referred to as 'chinki', a pejorative and racist term for the 'enemy' Chinese. Women among them often face sexual harassment because of their looks and their being perceived as open to sexual advances. These stereotypes have had disastrous consequences in times of crisis. In 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in China and later spread globally, there were reports of North East people in peninsular India being harassed, evicted from housing or denied entry because of their 'Chinese' features. A group of Naga students was refused entry to a mall in Mysuru, as were two Manipuri students in Hyderabad. A nurse in Bengaluru reported that a child ran away from her screaming 'coronavirus'. Alana Golmei, who hails from Manipur and lives in Delhi, said that on three different occasions when she and a companion from Meghalaya entered the National Council of Educational Research and Training campus, staff taunted them with 'coronavirus'. The pandemic of racism endures even after the real one subsided. For 'mainstream' India, with its insular outlook and geographical distance from the North East, most conflicts in the region appear to 'secessionist'. Instead, it must recognise that the people of the region are searching for an identity of their own, within the Indian nation and not by joining the 'mainstream' that equates national unity with uniformity. They demand unity in diversity that respects their specificity. They want national security to mean the security of their people while belonging to a pluralist India that respects the ethnic specificity, culture, religion, language and worldview in which they find their identity. That is the pluralistic India mandated by the Constitution and it is time that the North East experiences it as well. The two deaths are an opportunity for peninsular India to look at North East India afresh.
