Development / Assam

GUWAHATI, April 8 – The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed the Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 to pave the way for power sector reforms and restructuring of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) amidst strong protest and walk-out by the Opposition members. The members of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Bodoland Demand Legislature Party (BDLP) demanded that the Bill should be sent to the select committee of the House for a thorough discussion on all the clauses and they staged a walk-out when the Government refused to accept their demand.

As soon as the...

Guwahati, April 7: Patients from the Northeast will no longer have to rush to the metros in search of blood components — red blood cells, platelets, fresh frozen plasma, platelet-rich plasma and cryo-precipitate.

With Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today inaugurating the region’s first state-of-the-art model blood bank at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), one of the biggest problems faced by patients needing blood is expected to be solved. The blood bank will also function as a regional transfusion centre.

Guwahati, which has a population of 15 lakh, requires 300 units of blood...

DIBRUGARH, April 6— The Weights & Measures official at the Assam Legal Metrology department have found to their dismay that the Northeast Frontier Railway is flouting the Standards of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Act, 1985 and the Assam Standards of Weights and Measures (Enforcement) Rules, 1994. While the Railways have taken no steps to make good the flaws, the Assam Government too has lost some revenue in the process, as stamping and verification of measurement apparatus by the Legal Metrology Department (LMD) yields some fees.

Though the Railway maintains that the diesel filling unit...

GUWAHATI, March 4 — Assam Government will bring a Bill to empower the State Government to have control over natural gas resources available in the State in the line of the Gujarat Gas (Regulation of Transmission, Supply and Distribution) Bill, 2001. The State Minister for Mines and Minerals, Gobinda Chandra Langthasa today made a statement in the House in this regard after the AGP legislator Gunin Hazarika moved a private member Bill over the issue.

Sri Hazarika moved the Assam Regulatory Board (Control and Distribution) on Gas and Gas Works, Bill, 2003 in the House today in order to empower...

GUWAHATI, April 4 — The Centre has released Rs 233.93 crore in cash and 1,63,626 metric tonne of rice (valued at Rs 196.35 crore) to Assam as the second instalment of rural development funds for the year 2002-03 to implement various rural development programmes in the State. Making this announcement during a press conference here today, Assam Minister of State (Independent) for Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Ripun Bora said that the Central grant is unique in the sense that money has been given for the entire package of rural development projects. Assam is the second State in the...

NALBARI, April 3 – When the Central and State governments have been trying to make the ongoing Sarba Siksha Mission Abhijan a grand success in each district of the State, the primary education system of insurgency-infested Nalbari district continues to be in deplorable condition. In the district, at least 13 primary school are running without own building and the building of other 50 schools are in a very deplorable state having no atmosphere for imparting lessons to primary level students. Similarly, 188 primary schools are running with single teacher making the students a disadvantaged lot.

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GUWAHATI, April 3 — The Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 introduced in the State Assembly by the Power Minister on March 31 last, has stunned the power engineers here. The Bill seeks to restructure the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) with a view of creating independent corporate entities in the fields of generation, transmission and distribution.

The Power Minister, while introducing the Bill, said that the principal objective of the Bill was to provide universal access to electricity at competitive and affordable prices within a defined time frame. But, power engineers here maintain that...

NEW DELHI, April 2 – Floods may be knocking on the doors but the ministries concerned with the flood control works are locked in a bitter war of words over allocation of funds. The Central Government has released Rs 29 crore to Assam from the Non-Lapsable Pool of Central Resources during 2002-2003, Union Ministry of Water Resources today clarified.

The Ministry’s clarification was in response to State Water Resources Minister, Nurjamal Sarkar’s charge made yesterday about non-release of funds for flood control schemes. Before the NDA Government came to power, the only channel of releasing...

RANGIYA, April 2 – According to local lore, the name Rangiya originated from two Assamese words, ‘Ran’ and ‘Diya’, meaning ‘engage in a battle’. This was the place which was a battlefield for the Bhutias in the north, the Darraangi kingdom in the east, the Ahoms in the south and the Mughals in the west. Today, the people of this town savoured a victory in a different kind of battle. After 33 long years of protracted pleas and agitation the Rangiya Rail Division was formally dedicated to the people by Union Railways Minister Nitish Kumar at the Rangiya Railway Junction this afternoon. Present...

GUWAHATI, April 1 – The failure of the Union Ministry of Water Resources to release funds for both the ongoing and new schemes since 1999-2000, has brought implementation of 71 flood management schemes in the State to a grinding halt, said State Water Resources Minister Nurzamal Sarkar here today. He was addressing a press conference.

Moreover, the Minister said, the Union Water Resources Ministry in its budget for 2002-2003 had kept a meagre provision of only Rs 10 crore for the State, which had a liability of Rs 54 crore for the ongoing and completed flood management schemes. However, these...