Development / Assam

DHUBRI, June 22 ? Forest department of Dhubri started eviction of encroachers from forest lands from June 9 last. On that day Forest department personnel evicted 10 families from their unauthorised occupation of land in the Rajapara proposed reserve forest. Ten huts erected by the families on the encroached land for dwelling purpose were also dismantled. According to Forest department sources, a total of five hectares of land were freed in the process. It is learnt from the Divisional Forest Office source that Dhubri district has a total of 27831.38 hactres of reserve forest areas, and 18587...

GUWAHATI, June 22? Yet another scam of misappropriation of public funds surfaces in a Government department of this fund-starved State. The department is the Social Welfare Department and the amount involved is around Rs 2.10 crore. The modus operandi of the scamsters in this case was that they used to make ?payments against fictitious bills for ?supply? of nutritious items in Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) areas between 1999 and 2001. The scheme was drawn under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) for the benefit of the children. Though there was a strict direction to transfer the amounts to...

KAMALABARI, June 21 ? A herd of wild elephants numbering 50 to 55 has caused extensive damage to ripe Ahu crops in east Majuli. The animals devoured the standing crops over about 600 bighas of land. The villagers of Napamua, Baghargaon, Gayangaon, Chinatoli, Nikinikhowa, Kalanibari, Meragarh, Salmara etc are now spending sleepless nights, protecting their hearth and homes from the onslaught of the animals.

The inhabitants of the area have demanded the subdivisional administration to take adequate measures to drive away the wild beasts from the river island. They further urged the authorities...

GUWAHATI, June 19 ? Gauhati High Court has served show-cause notice to Assam State Development Corporation for Scheduled Caste (ASDCSC) Ltd after hearing a writ petition wherein an aggrieved ?beneficiary? brought allegation of irregularities in distribution of 2 Maruti Van sponsored by National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) Ltd. When contacted by this newspaper the Chief Accountant of the ASDCSC Lt Sri BN Das, confirmed that a court notice was received by the Corporation on June 18 last asking it to show cause on alleged irregularities in...

GUWAHATI, June 18 ? Considering the burgeoning number of Guwahati population and the subsequent rise in the number of vehicular traffic in the city, the Brahmaputra Board, on a request from the Kamrup district administration, has prepared a project to reclaim a portion of the Brahmaputra bank between Sukreswar Ghat and Nilachal hillock. The project named River Training Measure for Strengthening the Embankment of Guwahati City is estimated to entail a cost of around Rs 35 crore. According to the Brahmaputra Board sources, if implemented, the project will help widening of the Mahatma Gandhi Road...

NEW DELHI, June 15 ? The derailed Rangiya Rail Division Project is back on tracks and the much-delayed project is likely to be formally inaugurated shortly. This was the indication given to a delegation of Purbanchaliya Rail Karmi Parishad (PRKP) by Union Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar here yesterday. The AGP affiliated workers union is the latest group to petition the Centre to revive the Rangiya Rail Division Project sanctioned by the then P V Narasimha Rao Government and the foundation of which was laid way back on November 8, 1995. earlier, Rangiya Rail Division Sangram Parishad (RRDSP)...

GUWAHATI, June 15? The dawn to dusk Assam bandh called by the Bhumi Adhikar Ganamancha: Assam (BAGA) today in protest against the eviction drives conducted by the Forest Department to clear State?s forest areas of eviction, passed off somehow peacefully without any report of major untoward incident from any place. However, the bandh had affected normal life partially. In the city, today being a Saturday, Central Government offices remained closed, while attendance in other offices including the State Government offices was thin. The long distance buses connecting the suburban area with the...

DIBRUGARH, June 15 ? Even as the Forest department is busy ?evicting encroachers from reserve forests?, timber smugglers appear to be having a field day in the expansive Upper Dehing reserve forest, under the Digboi forest division. Dozens of valuable ?hard wood? trees have been felled ? illegally of course ? in the past few days. The Supreme Court has banned tree felling in the Upper Assam districts, but this means nothing to the miscreants. Several illegally felled trees have been rolled into the swollen Buri Dehing river, a little upstream of Joypur (near Naharkatia). These are mostly...

GUWAHATI, June 14 ? The eviction drives launched by the Forest Department at the directive of the Supreme Court, to free the State?s forest areas from encroachment may stand suspended during this monsoon and the State Government on June 17 will take stock of the overall situation relating to the on going eviction operations. Disclosing this at a press conference here this afternoon Minister of State for Forests (Independent Charge) Pradyut Bardoloi said that the State Government wanted to adopt a humanitarian approach which made a review of the overall situation a necessity.

While reminded of...

GUWAHATI, June 14 ? Terming the ongoing eviction drive in the State as ?ethnic cleansing?, the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), Karbi Students? Association (KSA) and Karbi Nimso Chingthur Asong (KNCA) today said it was a conspiracy of the Congress regime to drive out the indigenous and tribal population from their forest habitats including tribal belts and blocks by systematically depriving them of long overdue ownership of land, and justifying this anti-people action under the pretext of the Supreme Court directive. In a statement, the organisations alleged that the Statewide...