The Northeast Notebook

Giving jobs a spin
MANIPUR’S register of unemployed people has touched a record high of 4.5 lakh. The majority of these job seekers have completed school.

Despite mounting criticism over its handling of this issue, Manipur still doesn’t have any plan to counter unemployment. It, in fact, aims to downsize its state government staff by over 14,000 by 2005. Since it has no big industry, it is now looking toward the handloom and handicraft sector to generate jobs.

Sikkim gets hotter
SIKKIM’S reputation as the Northeast’s hottest destination is well-deserved. While the state received about 2.8 lakh domestic and nearly 25,000 foreign tourists last season, tourism officials in Gangtok say the figure is likely to go up by at least 15 per cent this year.

With restrictions on visiting Nathula on the Chinese border being further relaxed, Sikkim is hoping to get a lot many adventure tourists this winter.

Tripura’s send off record
EVEN as the Congress-led UPA continues to deny largescale influx from Bangladesh, the Tripura government says 65,112 Bangladeshi nationals have been sent back from the state since 1995. According to chief minister Manik Sarkar, this was only the tip of the iceberg. He urged the union home ministry to issue citizenship certificates to the state’s residents in order to check illegal migration.

Plastic down the drain
A FORTNIGHT after incessant rains kept most of Guwahati submerged for days, environment protection groups have held polythene bags responsible for much of the clogging of drains that led to flooding in most parts of the city.

Environ, a group that carried out a study on this, said Guwahati generated about 5,000 kg of polythene and plastic waste every day. Authorities have been trying to ban polythene in Guwahati but every time such a move was initiated, it was scuttled by the courts.

Assam-Nagaland border row
AS the decades old boundary dispute between Assam and Nagaland continues to create tension between the two states, the Supreme Court last week directed both of them to prepare for a hearing on the dispute.

The apex court, which has been hearing the dispute for over a decade now, has also indicated setting up of a boundary commission to find a lasting solution. Interestingly, Assam has border disputes with all the states that were carved out from it.