Sunday, November 29, 2009

Man-elephant conflict claims one life

DONKAMOKAM, Nov 28: One teenager named Bimal Malang (15), of village Deramukh under Donka police (11 km away from Donka) was torn into several pieces by herds of elephants today at 6.30 am. He was a class VIII student studying in Phangtengphrang High School. At the same time, several bighas of paddy of the village were damaged. As mentioned earlier, these herds numbering more than 100, has been creating sleepless nights these days. The victim was out to chase them along with the rest but fell prey to jumbos.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Two persons arrested

JORHAT, Nov 27: Lahdoigarh police arrested two persons in connection with selling of an elephant tusk at the Lakhipriya Hotel here this evening. The two, Partha Baruah of Axoybari, Meleng and Pranjal Thakur of Kenduguri Bamungaon were picked up when they were awaiting a person to whom the ivory was to be sold. The tusk weighed 1kg 200 gms.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

We won’t bow before Government: Rajkhowa

GUWAHATI, Nov 25: Reacting to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement in Parliament yesterday that the Government of India is against holding talks with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) on the issue of “sovereignty” of Assam, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa today said the statement of the minister reflects his “imperialist” mentality.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Farmer beaten to death by militants in Manipur

IMPHAL, Nov 24: An elderly farmer was beaten to death and his panchayat member wife thrashed by militants for allegedly not meeting their extortion demand in Imphal East district of Manipur.

Official sources said 66-year old Ngangom Kuber was tilling land along with his wife Bhanu and some others at Nungpakthabi area yesterday when they were forcibly lifted by a group having identified itself as members of the Kangleipak Communist Party-Military Council (KCP-MC) Sangai Rajen group.

While Kuber was lynched at a nearby hillock, his wife was severely beaten up, the sources said. The militants, however, let off the others. According to reports while the militants had demanded Rs 3 lakh from the deceased, arguing it would have to be paid since Bhanu was a panchayat member, Kuber with the help of his wife could manage Rs 1 lakh.

Reports also claimed the money and some weapons were unearthed from a spot by police commandos and Assam Rifles personnel later following a tip-off and the ultras became suspicious of the couple. (PTI)

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poet remembered

DIBRUGARH, Nov 24: A memorial meeting of former Axom Xahitya Xabha president Gyanmalini Kabi Mofizuddin Ahmed Hazarika was held here at Laxminath Bezbaruah Bhavan recently under the aegis of Dibrugarh Xahitya Xabha. The meeting was presided over by noted littérateur Devi Prasad Bagrodia. While speaking at the meeting, Dibrugarh University Professor Dr Karabi Deka Hazarika recalled various aspects of the poet and his works.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Free medical camp by SSA

GOSSAIGAON, Nov 22: The free medical camp which took place in Sishu Kalyan Siksha Mandir School, Gossaigaon, lasted for around eight hours starting at 8:30 am and finishing at 16:00 pm with a short lunch break. The registration counter signed up 260 students and all of them were consulted and treated by the nursing team, organized by SSA (Sarba Siksha Abhiyan). The programme was inaugurated by Gautam Talukdar, SDO (C) and Bikash Rai, DI of Schools, Bandhan Dev, ABRCC of SSA, with many other teachers of schools under Gossaigaon Block were present in the programme.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Police personnel killed

DIBRUGARH, Nov 21: A police personnel killed in a major road mishap which occurred at Nutun Nagar under Moran Police Station last night. According to sources, the police personnel Sailen Gogoi was critically injured when an Alto car in which he was travelling had a head on collision with an Indigo car at Nutun Nagar last night. The injured Gogoi though was admitted into Assam Medical College immediately but he succumbed to his injuries this morning. THE SENTINEL

Friday, November 20, 2009

Unidentified body recovered

JAGIROAD, Nov 15: The Jagiroad police recovered an unidentified female body from near Taranga beel here yesterday. Police sources said that, the woman was aged about 45 years and was killed by some miscreants and then buried her near the beel. The body is sent for post mortem to Morigaon Civil Hospital. On the other hand, the GRP Jagiroad recovered an unidentified body of a man from between Barahu and Jagiroad Railway Station on November 13. GRP sources suspects the case as suicide. The body has been sent for post mortem.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Environment awareness programme organized

DIBRUGARH, Nov 18: An environment awareness programme was organized by the Eastern Assam Zone of Aaranyak at Rupnagar Jatiya Vidyalaya here recently.

The resource persons on the occasion were Deputy Ranger of Dibrugarh Forest Range, Soumendra Saikia and a member of the NGO, Alok Kar Dowerah. The forest official spoke on bio-diversity and climate. Sharing his experiences with the students, he explained how the plant and animal world obeyed the laws of nature. Alok Kar Dowerah, who is a BSc 2nd year student of Dibru College, discussed about the declining population of vultures and the need for their conservation. He went into the causes of the decline in the number of the scavenger, besides giving an account of the efforts currently on to save them.

Incidentally, Dowerah was the first child scientist of Assam to do a project on vulture and represented the district in the State-level National Children’s Science Congress held at Tihu in 2006.

The assistant co-ordinator of the Eastern Assam Zonal Unit of Aaranyak, Sailendra Mohan Das, chaired the meeting. He also presented a LCD show on Hollock Gibbon.

The co-ordinator of Eastern Assam Zone of Aaranyak, Rupam Kumar Gogoi, who is involved with Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Programme of Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) at Bhopal, the headmistress, Gitali Gogoi, member of Aaranyak, Himanshu Bailung and the teaching and non-teaching staff of the school were also present in the programme. Some books and posters were presented for the school library. THE SENTINEL

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

OGCF-2009 Award

BONGAIGAON, Nov 16: The Bongaigaon Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation Limited has been awarded the second prize of Oil and Gas Conservation Fortnight (OGCF) Award, 2009 in Group-2 category. A Saran, Executive Director, and SB Kakoti, GM (Technical), along with other executives received the award from PK Sinha, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India, in the presence of Sarthak Behuria

Monday, November 16, 2009

Children’s social conclave concludes

DIBRUGARH, Nov 16: The two-day children’s social conclave held at Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbarua Bhavan came to a close today. The event was organized by the Assam unit of Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust (KGNMT), Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samity and UNICEF to commemorate the completion of two decades of the Child Rights Convention. The Assam representative of KGNMT, Kusum Bora Mukashi, inaugurated the meeting on the first day. In her speech, she spoke about the need to help children into good citizens in the present age of consumerism. Dr Ratan Borkotoky of Assam Medical College was also present on the occasion. While stressing upon the relevance of Gandhiji’s teachings of ahimsa and truth in the present age, he said that these values need to be inculcated into young children. THE SENTINEL

Sunday, November 15, 2009

LP school being run without teacher

BARPETA, Nov 15: Though the Central Government has implemented various schemes like “Education for All” under Sarba Siksha Abhiyan to impart better education to children nationwide, it has proved to be a farce due to irresponsible attitude of some corrupt officials as a result of which the small children are being deprived of proper education. According to sources, No 885 Dakshin Godhani LP School under Chenga constituency is being run without teachers from the first week of February this year. President of school managing committee Laal Mamud Ali said as the school is being run without teachers, the half yearly examination was not conducted this year. Babar Ali, a teacher of the school, had taken transfer to No. 120 Roumari Village LP School on February 2 following which the academic year of 97 students came under darkness. The local people of that area opined in spite of existence of education officers in the district, the school is being run without teachers which points out at the hollowness of the State Government.

25 injured in road mishap

NALBARI, Nov 13: Nearly 25 people were injured when a bus collided with a truck on the NH-31 near Nalbari recently. The injured were immediately taken to the Mukunda Kakati Civil Hospital, Nalbari for treatment while a few of the injured have been shifted to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Nepal’s maoists stage rally, 50 injured

Kathmandu, Nov 12: Nepal’s Maoists today put up a huge show of strength as tens of thousands of their supporters laid a siege to government secretariat here demanding an end to CPN-UML’s rule, leading to clashes with police which left 50 people, including MPs and an ex-deputy premier, injured.

Clashes erupted when riot police tried to prevent former rebels from entering prohibited areas during their protest, one of the biggest against the multi-party government led by premier Madhav Kumar Nepal of CPN-UML since the Maoists lost power in May. Authorities had deployed thousands of police personnel to control Maoist protesters, who were led by their chief Pushpakamal Dahal Prachanda and another top leader Mohan Vaidya Kiran. The Maoist leaders said their campaign was for maintaining “civilian supremacy”. Police resorted to baton charge and fired teargas shells at agitating Maoist cadres, who were trying to break the security shield in the prohibited area near ‘Singhdurbar Secretariat’, the seat of the government. At least 50 people, most of them Maoist MPs, were injured in clashes with police. Among the injured Maoist Constituent Assembly members were Krishna Mah-ara, Sushma Ghimire, Bhagat Badawal, Rupa Chaudhari, Mahendra Shrestha and ex-Deputy premier Amik Sherchan. The situation in Singhdurbar, Anamnagar, Bhadrakali, Ratnapark, Thapathali and Dillibazaar areas of Kathmandu remained tense due to the protest.

The injured were undergoing treatment at the Everest Hospital and Bir Hospital in Kathmandu. Maoist protesters started moving towards ‘Singhdurbar Secretariat’ since dawn, chanting anti-government slogans. Some of them also recited poems, sang songs and danced while demonstrating in front of the government secretariat. “We are out to achieve true people’s rule,” Vaidya told his supporters in the beginning of the protest. He said the party was hoping to mobilise more than three lakh people for the protest which would continue till tomorrow.

Besides Prachanda and Vaidya, senior Maoist leaders including Baburam Bhattarai, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, C P Gajurl and Krishna Bahadur Mahara led the rallies from eight sides to surround the government secretariat in the heart of the city. Demonstrators prevented officials from entering the office complex but some of the officers managed to sneak in as the government had told them to report for duty early. Prachanda, who quit in May after his government collapsed, said the protest would continue until the party’s demands for formation of a national unity government led by Maoists and parliamentary discussion on President Ram Baran Yadav’s move to reinstate then army chief Rukmangad Katwal were met. “It is our duty as law abiding citizens to come to the rescue of the country and that’s why we have gathered here in such large numbers,” he said.

Waving red flags, the Maoist protesters chanted slogans ‘down with the puppet government’, ‘resign puppet government’ and ‘President take back unconstitutional action’ of reinstating Katwal. To avoid confrontation, the government had yesterday withdrawn orders to extend restricted area around the government secretariat. The Maoists were determined not to allow even a single civil servant into the Singhdurbar complex which houses all the ministries and most of government departments.

Meanwhile, a Maoist cadre was killed and 55 injured as a bus ferrying them from Tanahu district to Kathmandu for the protest met with an accident at Ambu Khaireni in western Nepal, media here said. The condition of 10 people who sustained injuries was stated to be serious. (PTI)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Manmohan well up in global green leader ranking

New Delhi, Nov 10: Manmohan Singh has done quite well among global leaders on initiatives to fight climate change, according to a ranking prepared by the NGO Greenpeace. US President Barack Obama has fared the worst, while the premier of Tuvalu has come out tops.

Leaders of all the major developing countries, India, China, Brazil and South Africa fared far better than their counterparts from industrialised countries in the Greenpeace rating, prepared after the last round of preparatory talks for the Copenhagen climate summit ended in Barcelona on last Friday. A spokesperson of the international NGO Greenpeace said here on Tuesday: “Developing country leaders were ranked on the basis of greenhouse gas emission reductions from the business-as-usual scenario, frequent measuring and reporting of emissions, transparency of mitigation actions, forest and biodiversity protection, ensuring real and additional climate benefits, guaranteeing the rights of indigenous peoples and national emission reduction plans.”

On this basis, Manmohan Singh scored 53 out of 100. The big four among developing countries was led by Jacob Zuma of South Africa with 63, followed by Hu Jintao of China with 59. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva brought up the rear with 50. The developing countries were led by Apisai Lelemia, the prime minister of Tuvalu, who scored 87 out of 100. The little archipelago in the Pacific Ocean is critically endangered as the sea level rises due to global warming and has taken a number of urgent steps to save the citizens of his country.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Electrocuted


STAFF Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 9 – Raju Chetry (20), a worker at the Assam Roofings Ltd, Panikhaity, was accidentally electrocuted at his office following an accident today.

Cabinet Ministers spent Rs 300-cr on travels

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) : Cabinet Ministers in the first term of the UPA government have spent more than Rs 300 crore on their foreign and domestic travels in the last three years.

The data provided by the Cabinet Secretariat shows more than Rs 137 crore were spent by ministers of cabinet rank on the foreign travels between fiscal 2006-07 and 2008-09 with highest in the year 2007-08 when more than Rs 115 crore were spent by them on such travels.

Surprisingly, the expenses incurred on the domestic travels of cabinet ministers during the period were more than the amount spent on their visits abroad.

There were about 30 ministers of the cabinet rank during the first term of the UPA government.

The records show that during the three-year period, the ministers spent more than Rs 163 crore on their travels within the country.

The expenditure incurred by them during 2008-09 was Rs 94.4 crore, which was 38 per cent more than the cumulative expenditure incurred on domestictravels in the previous two years.

The details were given in an RTI reply to activist S C Agrawal by the Cabinet Secretariat. The reply also states that Ministers of State in the Union Cabinet had spent about Rs 21 crore on their travels abroad during the period, while Rs 27 crore were spent on their domestic visits.

About Rs 127 crore were spent by the central ministers in 2008-09, Rs 138.7 crore in 2007-08 and about Rs 82.3 crore during 2006-07 on their visits abroad as well as within the country.

The reply from the Cabinet Secretariat did not give any further breakup of expenses in different heads as they are held by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDO) of different ministries.

“This office does not have any record of any individual Minister as all the expenditure is booked under one respective head of account of all theministers . As per existing rules of Receipts and Payments Rules the details of each and every payment to the individual concerned by the DDO of that Ministry,” J L Khurana, Senior Accounts Officer at Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension said.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Baby drowned


HATSINGIMARI, Nov 8 – A pall of grief has been prevailing over Telipara village under Mankachar PS of Dhubri district over a tragic death of a three-years-old baby falling into a neighbouring pond today at about 9.30 am. The incident took place while the lovely baby girl namely Salina Khatun daughter of Salim Ahmed of Telipara village reportedly playing near the water body, fell into it and drowned. Her body was recovered later. –Correspondent

Dalai arrival warms up Tawang

Dalai arrival warms up Tawang
Prabal Kr Das
TAWANG, Nov 8 – Under a sun-drenched November sky, the fourteenth Dalai Lama today arrived in western Arunachal Pradesh, where along with interacting with the faithful in the Tawang monastery, he inaugurated a museum in the institution. The Dalai Lama, who had first entered Tawang half a century back following his flight from Tibet, arrived by a helicopter from Guwahati, and proceeded to the Tawang monastery in a convoy, that had vehicles with armed security personnel. There, around 11.10 am, he was greeted by a number of senior monks, as well as young lamas who had seen him for the first time.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Why is Vande mataram issue being reopened: Salman Khurshid

HYDERABAD, Nov 5: Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid on Thursday criticized the endorsement of a fatwa against the singing of Vande mataram by Muslims, saying some people were trying to create problems by raising the issue again. “Does this country not have enough problems that some people want to create more problems? I don’t know why this issue is being reopened,” he told reporters here.

The clerics’ body Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind at its national convention at Deoband this week had endorsed an earlier fatwa issued by Islamic seminary Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband. Khurshid said the issue was resolved over 50 years ago by treating some stanzas of the song as the national song. He said there was no need to take a fresh look after every 50 years. “During the independence movement, all national leaders, including leaders of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind Hind sat together and resolved that some stanzas of Vande mataram would be treated as the national song and would be sung voluntarily. Nobody was forced to sing it and this is something which was there in the resolutions of both Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind and the Congress party,” he said.

Nandiram Kalita passes away

NAGAON, Nov 5: Nandiram Kalita, a well established businessman and owner of a hotel in Nagaon expired due to old age recently. He was 93.

He leaves behind his wife, five sons, two daughters and sons-in law along with several grand sons and grand daughters. Sources said Kalita belonged to a poor family and rose to higher position with hard work.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Body found


STAFF Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 5 – A body identified to be that of Dadul Saikia (25) of Dhekial in Golaghat district was recovered from room no. 203 of Hotel Prince at Paltan Bazar. A suicide note was found in which the deceased wrote that he chose to end his life as he had a debt of Rs 9,000, police said. A case of unnatural death has been registered.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Elephant carcass found

NUMALIGARH, Nov 3: Forest officials at Itakhola under Murphulani Forest Beat under Golaghat range recovered an elephant carcass today. According to forest sources, the death of the elephant is cited to be natural. THE SENTINEL