The Supreme Court on Monday gave six weeks time to the Centre and the governments of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to file affidavits on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking repatriation of over one crore Bangladeshi migrants illegally staying in India. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice AS Anand, justice M Jagannadha Rao and justice Santosh N Hedge, while giving the time, observed that matter was of serious nature and the States and the Centre should not delay it further. The PIL filed by All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties through its President OP Saxena had alleged that over one crore Bangladeshi migrants have illegally crossed over to India and were causing severe strain on the resources of poor northeastern States as well as West Bengal. It has sought a direction from the court to the Centre to identify these Bangladeshi nationals and repatriate them with the help of National Human Right Commission (NHRC) and other agencies. The Centre, in its earlier affidavit, had admitted that there was large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh and had put the number unofficial between 1.2 to 1.8 crore. (Press Trust of India; New Delhi; July 12, 1999)

The forest resources in the state have dwindled during 1994-1999 with valuable forest products, mainly the trees of rare varieties such as, titasopa, lali, bonsom, gamari, gandkoroi etc, felled down illegally by the miscreants who have not only encroached upon the forest lands but also destroyed the forest products. The government enforced laws and several regulations against the felling of trees in the reserve forest areas, but the forest department concerned has been doing nothing against the encroachers and as such as the miscreants have been indulging in illegal timber trade unabated. It has been observed that some of the employees of the Forest Department are involving themselves in felling and selling of valuable trees, along with the miscreants. Now the land area under forests are only 22 per cent instead of 33 per cent. (Assam Tribune; Golaghat; July 12, 1999)

The director-general of Tripura police K T D Singh has ordered an enquiry into arson and alleged assault on villagers at Takumbari and adjoining areas immediately after the killing of five Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans by insurgents there on July 10. Five TSR jawans and the driver of the vehicle were killed at Takumbari in South Tripura district on July 10 in an insurgent attack. After the incident, about 40 armed youths attacked three villages adjoining Takumbari and burnt at least 100 houses and physically assaulted the villagers, including women and children. (Press Trust of India; Agartala; July 13, 1999)

A senior Cabinet minister of Nagaland resigned from the council of ministers on Tuesday bowing to pressure from various quarters following the killing of a youth by his securitymen near Dimapur on May 29. Making a suo motu statement on the opening day of the Assembly session, roads and bridges minister I Imkong offered his resignation from the council of ministers, saying he had taken the decision "in the interest of public peace and harmony" in the state. Various organisations have been demanding resignation of Imkong owning responsibility of the incident in which one youth was killed and two were injured when his security guards opened fire on a vehicle at Chumukedima. The government had instituted a magisterial inquiry into the incident and the security personnel were suspended. (Press Trust of India; Kohima July 13, 1999)

Noted environmentalist and social worker Apurba Kumar Dutta has been selected for the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikhsamitra Award for his role in creating awareness in protecting ecology and flora and fauna of Tripura. Dutta has been motivating the rural youth to plant saplings. For this he even gave away saplings from his own nursery free of cost and provided technical guidance. Dutta resigned from the state forest department office to devote full time in plantation work by forming Tripura Samajik Bana Unnyan Samity. (Press Trust of India; Agartala; July 13, 1999)

A senior professor of Tripura University has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of the son of the University dean, official sources said here on Tuesday. Prof Kamal Kumar Singh, head of the Department of Bengali in the university, was arrested last night under section 120 and 364 (A) of IPC by personnel of CID from Calcutta. The dean's son was a student of engineering. Debarshi, son of Tripura University dean A Saha, was missing from Howrah station since June 11 last while he was going to Warangle in Andhra Pradesh after spending summer vacation at home. The boy's father had earlier alleged Singh had indulged in corrupt practices while evaluating Bengali papers in the last MA examination. (Assam Tribune; Agartala; July 14, 1999)

As the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to spread throughout India, the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Manipur together account for about three-fourth of the total AIDS cases in the country. Among the 7,475 AIDS cases reported in India in the last 13 years, Maharashtra has recorded 3,371 while 2,278 cases were reported from Tamil Nadu. During the same period, Manipur recorded 301 cases, according to the latest statistics available with the National Aids Control Organisation. (Press Trust of India; New Delhi; July 15, 1999)

Erosion of the banks of the river Brahmaputra all over the state has created havoc and according to the Flood Control Department officials, massive deforestation, particularly in the neighbouring country Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh is one of the main reasons for the problem. Though two waves of moderate floods hit Assam so far this year, fortunately the floods did not cause much damage till now and erosion of the banks of the river Brahmaputra has turned out to be the main problem. Sources said that different parts of the State have been affected by the problem of erosion this year. In Kamrup district, a part of the embankment of the river Brahmaputra was eroded away at Alikash near Chaygaon recently and efforts are now on to protect the embankment from further damage. (Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 16, 1999)

The Mizoram government will give compensation to eight families in Saiha and Lawngtlai districts whose crops have been destroyed by elephants, the state's environment and forests minister Rualchhina informed the Assembly on Friday. In reply to a question by Independent H Rammawi, the minister said that some elephants destroyed paddy and standing crops in the southern parts of the state. Rammawi said "rogue elephants" from the Ngengpui wildlife sanctuary poised a danger to the lives of the local populace besides destroying their crops. (Press Trust of India; Aizawl; July 16, 1999)

The last Rath Yatra festival of this millennium began all over the state on Wednesday last. The ten-day festival of Lord Jagannath will conclude on July 23 next. The Manipuri people particularly the Meiteis are celebrating the festival in the three valley districts of the state. The Rath Yatra festival is also known as Kang in Manipur. Every householder in the three valley districts is also celebrating Kang. The main programmes of the festival are observed at the Shree Shree Govindajee temple from early morning till late night every day. Thousands of devotees coming from different parts of the state thronged the Govindajee temple to attend the prayer ceremony. Not only the Meiteis, even Hindu people who are settling in this trouble-torn state, in their traditional attires are participating in the festival. (Assam Tribune; Imphal; July 17, 1999)