Posts Tagged ‘Agartala’
Written by admin on 15 June 2011
Agartala, June 15 (IANS) Gas continued to leak Wednesday from an ONGC well in western Tripura, even as experts and engineers continued their battle to cap the well, an official said.
However, there is no immediate danger due to the outflow of natural gas though it contains 95 percent methane, said an official of state-owned exploration giant ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation).
The leakage started Tuesday night while personnel and engineers were engaged in maintenance work at the well at Konaban village in western Tripura, ONGC spokesman Anil Raja Vijan told IANS.
Senior experts and other technical personnel immediately rushed to the spot, 40 km south of here, he added.
‘Experts from Mumbai, New Delhi and other places are arriving here to help the local engineers and experts to seal the well. We are expecting to shut the well by this (Wednesday) evening.’
ONGC Group General Manager (GGM) and head of the Tripura Asset K. Satyanarayana, who is the chief of ONGC crisis management wing in the northeastern state, has been personally supervising the well-shutting works.
Meanwhile, Tripura State Rifles (TSR) troopers guarded the area to prevent entry of people in and around the ONGC gas drilling areas under Bishalgarh sub-division.
‘We are closely supervising the situation. At the moment, there is no need of evacuating the villagers residing near the ONGC drilling areas,’ Bishalgarh sub-divisional magistrate Parshant Kumar Goel told IANS.
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Written by admin on 15 June 2011
Agartala, June 15 (IANS) Economic development helped defeat the four-decade-old insurgency in Tripura as did a crackdown by neighbouring Bangladesh on anti-India guerrillas, says the state’s police chief.
‘Development, largely coupled with the Bangladesh government’s crackdown against northeast India’s rebels, helped Tripura to persuade tribal guerrillas to give up the path of violence,’ Director General of Police K. Saleem Ali told IANS in an interview.
‘Of the 66 police stations in Tripura, only three police station areas in the northern part – Kanchanpur, Chawmanu and Gandachara – have some militant presence. We will soon flush them out permanently,’ he said.
Ali said even during the peak of insurgency from 1996 to 2008, the developmental work did not stop.
‘Laying of the railway track up to Agartala remained uninterrupted with the help of Tripura State Rifles (TSR),’ he said.
Tripura capital Agartala is the newest station of Indian Railways and came up on the country’s rail map in October 2008.
‘There was a situation when the movement of officials, people and workers in the interior and hilly areas was not possible without security,’ he said.
‘Besides development and sops to the needy, fencing along the India-Bangladesh border, modernisation and training of security forces and their incredible dedication made Tripura a model state in India in curbing the four-decade-old terrorism,’ the police chief said.
‘During the peak of insurgency, 9,000 of the total 26,000 police troopers were alert day and night to protect the lives and property of people,’ he said.
He also said modernisation of the police force boosted the confidence of the personnel.
Ali, who served in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for more than 14 years and in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for four years, said the support of the ruling and tribal parties and locals was a key factor in combating militancy.
He said Tripura Police’s most elite unit, the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), had earned kudos from the prime minister and many state governments for successfully flushing out terrorism.
The TSR was constituted in 1984 to counter terrorism in Tripura — 75 percent of its troopers are from the state, while the remaining are drawn from across the country.
‘The Tripura government has withdrawn many cases that were pending against militants or surrendered militants. These cases include the killing of (former Tripura health minister) Bimal Sinha. This shows how much the government is sincere to solve the terrorism issue,’ Ali told IANS.
According to him, currently, there are only 14 camps of Tripura militants in Bangladesh, compared to over 50 seven-eight years back.
According to a document prepared by the Tripura government, the first organised armed tribal rebellion in the state was ‘Senkrak’ (which means hero in tribal language) in parts of northern and western Tripura in 1967.
The movement was a reaction to the settling down of non-tribal refugees (from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) in the tribal and semi-urban areas. The rebellion was, however, controlled in 1968.
Terrorism in an organised form began with the emergence of Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) led by Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl in December 1978. The TNV cadres surrendered in 1988 following a tripartite accord among Tripura, the central government and the outfit.
According to official records, over 8,075 tribal guerrillas of the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and other separatist outfits, including many carrying rewards of Rs.250,000 and with Interpol warrants against them, have fled from Bangladeshi camps and surrendered before the Tripura government since 1993.
(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
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Written by admin on 14 June 2011
Agartala, June 14 (IANS) Tripura’s opposition Congress Tuesday demanded removal of Higher Education Minister Anil Sarkar for his reportedly derogatory comments about India’s national song and MPs. The minister, however, denied the allegations
‘Sarkar, a veteran leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), equated India’s national song Vande Mataram with a dog while giving a speech at a function here Monday,’ Congress leader Ratan Lal Nath told reporters here.
Presenting video clippings of the minister’s speech, Nath alleged that Sarkar had said at least 100 MPs are criminals.
Nath said that he would send a formal letter with documents to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar demanding removal of the minister from the cabinet for his offensive comments.
Congress’s student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) has also announced it will organise demonstrations across Tripura Wednesday against the minister’s reported remarks, which appeared in a section of newspapers here Tuesday.
Sarkar denied the accusation.
‘In my speech, I said the elocution of ‘Vande Mataram’ sung by some people was so wrong, that not only a human being, even a dog also becomes anxious,’ said Sarkar in a statement.
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Written by admin on 12 June 2011
Agartala, June 12 (IANS) The Trinamool Congress will not form any alliance with the main opposition Congress in Tripura to fight against the Left Front government, party leaders said here Sunday.
The Trinamool Congress-Congress coalition successfully fought the Left Front in West Bengal assembly elections and wrested power last month.
‘Congress has no reliability in Tripura. People also have no confidence with the party. Their internal feud is never-ending,’ Tripura Trinamool leader Manik Deb told reporters here.
‘During the previous elections, Congress told the people that they are comning to power, but they failed miserably. Trinamool Congress on its own strength will come to power in the 2013 assembly polls,’ Deb said.
According to Deb, many Congress leaders, former ministers and legistors are willing to join the Trinamool after the West Bengal poll verdict.
‘We would accept those Congress leaders into Trinamool Congress who has clean image and are dedicated to work for the people,’ party leader Arun Chandra Bhowmik said.
Over 1,000 Congress and other party members have joined Trinamool Congress in Tripura after the West Bengal assembly election results in May, he added.
The Congress has, however, rejected the Trinamool accusation.
‘It would help the ruling Left Front if the opposition parties do not form any alliance or do not fight unitedly against the Left parties,’ Congress spokesman Tapas Dey told reporters.
‘Congress is the main political force in Tripura. How can the smaller parties ignore the Congress,’ Dey asked.
The Congress Sunday organised a day-long sit-in across Tripura to protest the alleged ‘misrule of the Left Front government.’
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Written by admin on 11 June 2011
Agartala, June 11 (IANS) The opposition BJP would undertake a mass awareness march across the northeastern region from June 23 to sensitise people about the UPA government’s alleged corruption and misrule, a top party leader said here Saturday.
‘The Ganachetana Yatra would start on June 23 on the occasion of martyrdom day of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The fortnight-long march would end on July 6, the birth anniversary of Mukherjee,’ Bharatiya Janata Party Vice-President Bijoya Chakraborty told reporters. Mukherjee founded the Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the BJP.
During the Ganachetana Yatra, the awareness march, the party will highlight ‘corruption of the UPA government,’ soaring price rise, police action on Ramdev-led protest against corruption and black money at the Ramlila Ground in New Delhi, she said.
The BJP leader demanded an apology to the nation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi for their alleged ‘failure to run the government properly’ and for attack on Ramdev and his supporters.
‘Not only the UPA government at the centre, the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh was involved in a Rs.28,000 crore scandal in commissioning of power projects in that state,’ alleged Chakraborty, a former central minister and an incumbent Lok Sabha member from Assam.
She said that the BJP would highlight the basic issues of northeastern region, including numerous scandals in parliament and various government and non-government forums.
‘Scams in public distribution systems (PDS) in northeastern states are a big issue that would be raised in the monsoon session of parliament,’ the BJP leader said.
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Written by admin on 10 June 2011
Agartala, June 10 (IANS) Restoration of all pre-1965 railway connectivity between India and Bangladesh remains undecided despite talks of revival, but efforts are continuing, Indian officials said here Friday.
‘There were seven old rail links between the two neighbours. Currently only three are operational between India’s West Bengal and Bangladesh,’ Railway Board executive director (traffic) S.K. Das told reporters here.
He said: ‘Due to poor traffic, non-viability and various other reasons several railway connections between India and Bangladesh had been suspended.’
There were seven railway connections in between India’s West Bengal and Assam and Bangladesh. The services were suspended after the 1965 India-Pakistan war when Bangladesh was Pakistan’s eastern wing.
However, subsequently, three railway connections were restored.
During his recent visit to Dhaka, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had stressed the need to restore all railway links in a bid to enhance people-to-people contact and boost bilateral trade.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Tariq Ahmed Karim, who recently visited several northeastern states, said that all the lost rail, road and waterways connections must be reopened.
‘All linkages that had existed prior to 1965 will be reopened, and we will restore the lost infrastructure in three-four years,’ he said while addressing a number of seminars and discussions.
A high level inter-ministerial team of the Indian government, led by Railway Board additional member B.N. Rajsekhar, Thursday visited the proposed construction site of a 15-km railway track linking Tripura capital Agartala with Bangladesh’s southeastern city of Akhaurah.
Das, a member of the inter-ministerial team, said: ‘India would lay the 15-km link railway track at a cost of Rs.267 crore. The project is expected to be completed by 2014.’
Of the 15-km link with the Bangladesh railway network through Gangasagar and Akhaurah railway stations, five-km track falls in the Indian territory.
The official said: ‘With the establishment of the new railway link, northeast India would be connected to the Chittagong international sea Port in Bangladesh through railway.’
The rail link between Agartala and Akhaurah is being set up as per the agreement between Indian Prime Minister manmohan Singh and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during Hasina’s visit to India in January last year.
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