Gogoi goes on inauguration spree at Titabor

Gogoi goes on inauguration spree at Titabor

: From our CorrespondentJORHAT, Jan 20: With the Parliamentary elections round the corner, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today laid foundation stones and inaugurated facilities galore in a whirlwind tour of his home constituency Titabor.Gogoi dedicated the Titabor public auditorium to the public and later inaugurated the improvement works of the historic Dhodar Ali under Asom Bikash Yojana. In addition to this, he laid the foundation stones of the buildings of SDO’s office and other allied offices. He also inaugurated the streetlight project of Titabor subdivision. Addressing a meeting at the public auditorium, the Chief Minister maintained that the overall welfare of the State was not possible without the development of the rural areas. He claimed that the PWD had macadamized a total length of 10,500 km of roads under the Congress-led State Government. As many as 998 bridges have been built, too, he said. On the other hand, the previous AGP Government could execute pucca road construction works on a total length of 525 km alone, Gogoi added. The Chief Minister distributed yarn among 15 weavers under the Karmajyoti Scheme in the same function. State PWD Minister Ms Ajanta Neog, who was also present on the occasion, sought public cooperation from the people in executing the various projects relating to the development of the transport and communication infrastructure.Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Ms LS Changsan, who stated the objectives of the meet, pointed out that the improvement of Dhodar Ali would incur an expenditure of Rs 7,044 lakh. The public auditorium has been constructed at a cost of Rs 259 lakh. The streetlight project was completed at a cost of Rs 77 lakh. The same amount will be spent on constructing the offices of SDO and others, she said. The MLAs of Jorhat, Mariani and Majuli, press adviser to the Chief Minister Debo Kumar Bora and several Congress functionaries were present at the meeting anchored by Jorhat DIPRO DM Sarma. The Chief Minister also visited Sankari Kala Kristi Bikash Kendra and took part in the ninth biennial conference of All Thengal Kachari Association held at the precincts of MRS Higher Secondary School in Titabor. He inaugurated a rest house at Titabor FRU later in the evening. The facility has been constructed with funds made available by Thengal Kachari Autonomous Council. source: sentinel assam

Assam, Assamese will survive: Gogoi

Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, Jan 10 – The Assamese nationality and the State of Assam will survive in the days to come and nothing can pose threat to their existence, said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in the State Assembly here today. He was taking part in the debate on the supplementary demand for grant of the Police Department.Gogoi said that there should not be any attempt at harping on corruption in the Police Department. For, this will send a wrong signal to the people. He however, admitted that corruption was there in the Department.Contrary to the allegations of the Opposition, he said that in the counrty, officers of the Assam Police were known as the most efficient ones.Asserting that there was no political interference in the functioning of the Police Department, he said that there was no formal complaint of such interferences. He also apprised the House that the State Government was going to introduce a bill limiting the tenure of the officers and personnel of the Department at a place to two years, going by an order of the Supreme Court of India.The Government is also setting up a police academy to train up the officers and personnel of the Department in a better manner and a committee has been set up to suggest measures to brighten up the image of the Department, he said.Commenting on the manpower shortage in the Department, he said that new police battalions were being set up, but, here, fund crunch was posing problems. The State Government wants that the Central Government should bear 50 per cent of the burden against the salaries of the officers and personnel employed in these battalions for the next ten years, he said.He reiterated that the State Government was keen on modernising the Police Department and much modernisation of the Department had taken place under the present regime. However, in containing terrorism, cooperation of the people is also needed and people should be made security conscious, he said and asserted that confidence of the people in police had been growing these days and more feed back on the movements of the terrorists were now received from the people.He also claimed that during the seven and half-a-year rule of the Congress 1,544 people were killed in terrorist attacks, whereas during the five-year rule of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) 1,535 people were killed. At present, the terrorists are taking recourse to bomb blasts.If things were allowed to go on as they were during the AGP rule, the number of persons killed during the past seven and half-a-year would have stood at around 2,300, he claimed.In all, he said, police recovered 2,550 bombs and grenades during the rule of the present Government, said Gogoi. The Chief Minister reiterated that his Government was determined to deport the aliens and claimed that his party had no vote bank politics as alleged by the Opposition. He announced his readiness to hold a discussion on secret killing in the Assembly and also agreed to the Opposition’s suggestion that such a discussion should cover the entire period since 1991.After the speech of the Chief Minister the demand of the Police Department for a supplementary grant of Rs 1,520. 65 lakh was passed by the House. source: assam tribune

Assam Govt to oppose move for greater Nagaland: Gogoi

Guwahati (PTI): The Assam government will oppose any move for a greater Nagaland, state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said Thursday.

Addressing a press conference here, Gogoi denied any knowledge of the reported claim of the Manipur (outer) MP that he had voted for the UPA government in the trust motion on the assurance that his demand for greater Nagaland, called "Nagalim", will be granted.

"I have no knowledge of this fact..the government is against any encroachment of the state's territory and the concept (of greater Nagaland)," he said.

Congratulating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the "marvellous victory" (in the trust motion), the Chief Minister said this showed the people's confidence on the UPA government.

Delhi scanner on 2 projects

Delhi scanner on 2 projects- PM to meet Gogoi on Jewel attacks
OUR BUREAU

Guwahati/Silchar, June 17: With just a week left for the expiry of the unilateral ceasefire by the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the DHD, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting to take stock of the situation in the insurgency-hit North Cachar Hills district vis-a-vis “national projects” like the East West Corridor and the gauge conversion work between Lumding and Silchar.

The two projects have been severely affected by militant strikes, the last one leading to suspension of railway services.

A locomotive driver and 10 truckers were killed in two separate incidents on May 15.
Fearing further attacks, the Northeast Frontier Railway withdrew its services on the 185-km stretch between Lumding and Badarpur.

Singh’s meeting with chief minister Tarun Gogoi slated for Thursday evening has been officially convened to review the implementation of the two national projects at Singh’s Race Course Road residence.

Sources here, however, said the ceasefire offered by the outfit would come up for discussion along with immediate solutions to various problems, including the impediments blocking major schemes in south Assam that are to benefit the neighbouring states of Tripura and Mizoram.

Singh’s intervention to put the derailed national projects back on track assumes importance because he will be holding such a meeting with Gogoi for the first time, and that too, after at least three review meetings on the projects convened by the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministry of home affairs in the past month.

Among those who are expected to attend this meeting are railway minister Lalu Prasad and Union minister for heavy industries and MP from South Assam Sontosh Mohan Dev.

“The discussions will take stock of the overall situation After all, there cannot be progress if the DHD (J) continues its sporadic attacks crippling train services. There is also pressure from the railways and the surface transport ministry to put the projects on track,” a source said.

The outfit announced the ceasefire on March 25 for three months but picked up the gun again last month after the army allegedly gunned down a dozen of its members.

The outfit returned to the ceasefire mode on May 15 but Dispur is yet to respond to its truce overtures.

Neither has it made it clear if it wants the militants to lay down arms.

Gogoi will be leaving for Delhi tomorrow amid allegations by the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on railways, Basudev Acharya, who has blamed the Centre and the Assam government for failing to provide adequate security to workers of the gauge conversion project.
Acharya met the NF Railway top brass this afternoon to know about the projects’ progress.
The CPM Lok Sabha MP also met Gogoi in the evening.