-The Telegraph The stage is set for tomorrow’s talks between Dispur and the anti-big dam brigade. The lead players are, however, keeping their cards close to their chests. Sources in the chief minister’s office said the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP), Takam Mising Porin Kebang (TMPK) and the Mising Mimag Kebang (MMK) had welcomed the group of ministers’ offer for talks...

-The Telegraph   Dispur this evening formally invited the anti-dam groups for talks on January 5 while issuing a separate public appeal asking them to withdraw their blockade of supplies to the Lower Subansiri hydel project, in a bid to end the standoff that began on December 16. CMO sources said home secretary G.D. Tripathi this evening issued the formal letters to Lakhimpur-based groups through the district administration and to the Guwahati-based organisations...

-The Telegraph   Dispur today said it was open to hold discussions with the anti-dam activists, a section of whom began a fresh agitation in Lakhimpur town this morning when a vehicle carrying machinery for the Subansiri hydel power project tried to proceed towards the project site in Dhemaji. Protests began when a truck carrying a “big machine” for the project left Thelamara in Sonitpur district yesterday morning and reached Lakhimpur town around...

Northern Assam's Lakhimpur district administration on Thursday halted the movement of an Over Dimensional Consignment (ODC) trailer carrying equipment for the 2000 mega watt lower Subonsiri hydro-electric power project under construction at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh after 4000 anti-big dam protesters blocked National Highway 52 to prevent the trailer from proceeding to the site. The protesters under the banner of the All-Assam Students Union (AASU), the All Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra...

-The Telegraph   It was a stormy homecoming for chief minister Tarun Gogoi with members of the All Assam Students’ Union waving black flags and Opposition parties raising the pitch against the Indo-Bangla land-swap deal. From the AASU to former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to the All India United Democratic Front, everyone went after the three-time chief minister for having allegedly sold out the interests of Assam vis-à-vis the land deal as...