ANTI- MANDAL AGITATION-Significant Silence

Never-Ending Expansion THERE is going to be apparently yet another permanent security structure, this time entrusted with the responsibility of co-ordinating the strategies to combat the insurgencies in the north-east. According to a report in The Times of India (October 6), "A kind of a north-east security council for co-ordinated action against insurgency in the entire region is expected to be set up soon!' Making an announcement to this effect during a press conference, Assam's chief minister Hiteswar Saikia is reported to have said that the setting up of the proposed council, which is to be headed by the chief of one of the paramilitary organisations operating in the region and will have among its members the police chiefs of all the north-eastern states, would among other things "facilitate the exchange of information among the various states in the north-east, monitor developments and plan joint strategies".