Guwahati: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that the Centre will not touch Article 371 which grants special provisions to the North East.

Article 370 was clearly temporary in nature but Article 371 is about special provisions in the North East and there is a vast difference between the two, Shah said while addressing the 68th plenary session of the North East Council here.

"After abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, there were attempts to misinform and misguide the people of North East that Article 371 would also be scrapped by the Centre", he said.

"I have clarified in Parliament that this is not going to happen and I am saying it again today in the presence of eight chief ministers of North East that the Centre will not touch Article 371", Shah added.

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Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.

Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.

The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.

According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.

Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.

Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.

The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.

There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.

The rescue operations are ongoing.