Staff Reporter
TURA, Sept 24: The Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has once again hit out at Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma accusing him of crushing the Garoland dream. In a press statement by Deputy Commander in Chief, Toding Ch Marak, the outfit claimed that the CM had vengeance on his mind for the wrongs that some Garos may have done to his mother and grandmother.
“Garos are losing their liberty at the hands of Mukul. It is a black day for Garos and a tragedy. Mukul has used the state machinery to suppress the popular movement for Garoland,” he said in the statement at the backdrop of the historical signing of the peace pact between the government and the two factions of the ANVC that took place in the national capital on Wednesday.

Floods affecting all spheres of life, Meghalaya to seek Central aid
Staff Reporter
TURA, Sept 23: The death toll in Garo Hills keeps rising even as the region tries to come to terms with the total devastation it has suffered at the hands of nature over the past 48 hours. All five districts were affected by flood in some way or the other with the three districts of West Garo Hills (WGH), North Garo Hills (NGH) and South West Garo Hills (SWGH) reporting huge casualties.
Till the filing of this report, 14 bodies had been recovered in Kharkutta, 8 deaths confirmed in South West Garo Hills even as 10 people are still reported missing in West Garo Hills.
While the SWGH district had reported 7 cases of death on Monday, another person was reportedly killed while trying to save a woman and child.

Staff Reporter
TURA, Sept 23: A day after the most devastating floods in the history of Garo Hills, more stories of survival have come forth. One such story is that of former MLA and minister, Manirul Islam Sarkar who was one of the survivors of the recent floods in Chibinang. Sarkar who was in his house in Chibinang during the floods related the events as they unfolded and the scare that he and his family went through on the fateful night.
“It was at about 2:30 am when the first wave of flood waters hit our house. I was inside with my whole family and we were all sitting together, not able to sleep. The ground outside our house was already under flood waters. Very quickly it began to get inside the house,” said Sarkar.

Bangalore, Sept 24 (IANS): India Wednesday created space history by becoming the first country in the world to enter Mars' orbit in its debut attempt. A beaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wearing a red jacket symbolic of the Red Planet, described it as "achieving the near impossible", congratulated the feat of Indian scientists and called for challenging the next frontier.
India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) traversed over 650 million km through deep space for over nine months to successfully reach the planet's orbit. The US, Europe and Russia had failed in their first attempts.
"The spacecraft (Orbiter) successfully entered the Martian orbit at 7.55 a.m. and is located at about 515 km from its surface...," a senior space official informed at the mission control centre here.

Staff Reporter
SHILLONG, Sept 23: Disgruntled Executive Members of the United Democratic Party (UDP), a coalition partner of the All Regional Parties Alliance (ARPA) on Tuesday surrendered their office portfolios to the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) Chief Executive Member (CEM) Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit while reiterating their demand for the latter’s immediate ouster.
 The UDP MDCs have also claimed that the CEM had urged the parliamentary party leader of the party to consider having a meeting to resolve the present crisis in the KHADC.
“We have surrendered our portfolios to him (CEM) for him to take care of the departments all by himself,” UDP’s parliamentary party leader Teinwell Dkhar said.

Staff Reporter
SHILLONG, Sept 23:  The conglomeration of 13 NGO working towards the implementation of a comprehensive mechanism to tackle influx into Meghalaya have received a setback with two Jaintia Hills based organizations withdrawing their support on Tuesday.
The Jaintia Students’ Union (JSU) and Jaintia Youth Federation (JYF) had decided to withdraw their support in a joint meeting held here recently.
“We have decided to withdraw our support from the conglomeration of the 13 NGOs, who earlier are fighting for implementation of Inner Line Permit (ILP) but are now demanding implementation of a comprehensive mechanism to tackle the influx issue,” presidents of the JSU and JYF, Rikut N Parien and Poipynhun Majaw said in a statement issued on Tuesday.