
Insurgent groups in Manipur give call to boycott Independence Day celebrations
The Hindu
The Corcom, the apex body of six major insurgent groups, and the United People’s Revolutionary Front of Manipur have announced a total shutdown on August 15.
Insurgent groups in Manipur have started giving calls to boycott the 75th Independence Day celebrations. The Corcom, the apex body of six major insurgent groups, and the United People’s Revolutionary Front of Manipur in their separate press releases said that there shall be total shutdown on August 15. The timings of the boycott are meant to disrupt the official functions by ensuring that people stay indoors. Some essential services, including social and religious functions and press, will be exempted. Police say that in the past almost all insurgent groups have given boycott calls. Besides, other major underground organisations in the Northeast, except those which are on peace talk mode with the government, boycotted the national functions. Police and paramilitary forces have been conducting cordon and search operations in all trouble-prone areas. However, police said that so far no insurgents had been apprehended and no gun or bomb recovered.
The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











