Development / Assam

GUWAHATI, July 2 ? More than 143 square kilometre of land belonging to the National Parks and wild-life sanctuaries in Assam is under encroachment by doubtful citizens and so far the State Government has not taken any step to evict those people, alleged the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). In a petition to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sri Hitendra Nath Goswami and Sri Dilip Kumar Saikia, the chief whip and secretary of the AGP legislature party, said that encroachment of the forest land by illegal settlers reached menacing proportion. A number of doubtful citizens managed to enter Assam...

SIVASAGAR, July 2 ? Of 3420 hectares of illegally occupied land out of 4,834 hectares of Deroi-Rangoli Reserve Forest in Sivasagar district, 1,111 hectares have been thoroughly cleared of illegal encroachers by forest-officials during the 10-day eviction drive from June 3 to 13 last. The DFO, Forests, Sivasagar informed that most of the encroachers were established businessmen grabbing forest land rampantly in guise of small tea growers. The entire Deroi-Rangoli Reserved Forest was reduced to denuded wasteland area by unscrupulous timber traders who recklessly felled valuable trees...

DIBRUGARH, June 30 ? An abbreviation most in Assam love to hate these days is the ASEB : the Assam State Electricity Board. Nothing in the ASEB goes down well with the public, even as the Board?s employees are amongst the most pampered of government and semi-government staff in Assam today. Despite their personal financial well-being, these staff members have generally failed to carry out their responsibilities to the satisfaction of the electricity consuming public.

The latest ploy the Board has devised to swindle customers is the ongoing ?load survey? work. By this, the ASEB has reverted to...

DHING, June 27 ? Vaishnavate saints of medieval Assam were uniquely gifted with artistic sensibility and love of nature. This characteristic of the Vaishnava saints headed by Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva was largely reflected in their contemporary art and culture. Srimanta Sankardeva started kuhila udyog, a new handicraft industry at Bardowa which combined the classical Hindu and unique Vaishnavite style. Unfortunately, this traditional craft developed in medieval Assam is facing tough times these days due to lacking in patronisation from the government. Besides Assam These traditional...

GUWAHATI, June 25 ? The use of elephants by the Forest Department of the State to demolish illegal structures as part of the Government?s eviction drive against encroachers in forest areas have drawn widespread condemnation from renowned authorities on animal welfare across the globe. The Forest Department has no right to carry out demolition of concrete structures, having corrugated iron sheet roofs through domesticated elephants. It is a violation of Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act 1960, and is a punishable offence, wildlife experts point out.

Dr Daphne...

DIBRUGARH, June 26 ? It took no less a person than the Prime Minister himself to personally intervene and come to the rescue of Rohmaria, a place where the Brahmaputra has been gobbling away square kilometre upon square kilometre of fertile farmlands since the past several years. It is learnt from a top official of the Assam Government that the Centre this week has agreed to provide the required Rs 406 crore for the comprehensive Rohmaria and upstream protection work. The scheme was prepared in 1998 by the Dibrugarh embankment & drainage division of the State flood control department. Work on...

DIBRUGARH, June 25? A local association here, Youth Leadership Centre, has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the modus operandi of the ongoing eviction drives in the State, which began more than a month ago at Batahghooli in Guwahati. Taking cognisance of the petition, the NHRC has sent notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police of Assam, asking both the authorities to make the government stand clear on the issue. Dr Nabajyoti Hazarika, a cardio-thoracic surgeon at the Assam Medical College here and president of the voluntary Youth Leadership...

GOLAGHAT, June 23? The four reserve forests within Golaghat district are Diphu reserve forest, South Numbor, Rengma and Doyang which are situated on the Nagaland border. In 1963, Nagaland become the 16th State of India. In 1972, the KV Sundaram Commission had submitted its recommendations regarding the identification of the border between Assam and Nagaland. But the Nagaland government ? refused to accept the recommendations of the Sundoram Commission. As a result, the boundaries of Assam-Nagaland remained unsettled till now.

Taking this advantage, the Nagaland encroached large areas of the...

GUWAHATI, June 24 ? Over 2.8 lakh poorest of the poor (green card holder) families in the State were deprived of the rice distributed at Rs 3 a kg by the Government of India under its Antyodaya Anna Yojana during March to October last year due to delay in implementation of the scheme in the State by the Food and Civil Supplies Department. The audit team of Accountant General, Assam while examining the audit of the Director of Food and Civil Supplies, detected the delay in implementation of the scheme which failed the green card holder families in the State of rice worth about Rs 16.89 crore...

GUWAHATI, June 23 ? The ancient Umananda temple lying in the midst of the mighty Brahmaputra, which is one of the very few pilgrimage centres in a river island, presents a unique sight. But strangely, this temple has always been in a state of neglect although with a little planning, it could have been developed as a major tourist attraction.

However, things might change for the better as, of late, the Government seems to be waking up to this reality and the district administration is undertaking an elaborate project to turn it into a major tourist destination. The project aims to give a...