Development / Assam

GUWAHATI, Jan 11 — State Health Department has expressed its discontent over World Bank’s ‘No’ to Assam Health System Project aimed at strengthing secondary hospitals in the State. The project was submitted to the Central Government which had moved the World Bank to for funding. However the World Bank expressed its inability to take up the project immediately due to ‘security reasons’ much to the chagrin of the Assam Health Department. The State Health Minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman in his submission before Union Health Minister, Dr C P Thakur yesterday stated that World Bank’s reason for not...

HOJAI, Jan 6 : A preliminary survey on a random basis has led to a major finding of fluoride in groundwater sources used for drinking purposes in a vast belt of 91 villages under Hojai subdivision. The Public Health Engineering Division, Hojai, recently conducted a survey in some villages under 24 gaon panchayats under Binnakandi Block and after preliminary test, found fluoride positive in deep groundwater in 19 gaon panchayats. The affected areas are Haldiati, Tapazjuri, Parakhowa, Nizparakhowa, Dimarumukh and Nilbagan under Jamunamukh constituency. Due to use of fluoride-mixed water a large...

Imphal, January 03: Don?t ever mistake a cyber caf? with an eating joint where you find Momo plates, samosas or a cup of hot steaming coffee. Because cafes are those centres where you can avail the facilities provided through Internet on paying a fee for it. You can e-mail, chat or browse the Internet. Though introduced only two years back, cyber cafes have craved a niche for themselves in the city. The capital currently has around 15 cyber cafes which are visited by those who could not afford computer system or Internet connection of their own. Density-wise, the number is the biggest among...

GUWAHATI, Jan 3 – The North East Frontier Railways have started the preliminary works of the much-awaited fourth bridge over the river Brahmaputra at Bogibeel to connect Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur districts. The Railway board has already sanctioned the estimate for the preliminary works for the construction of the bridge. The foundation stone of the Bogibeel bridge, which will be the longest of the bridges over the river Brahmaputra, was laid way back in 1996 and the work was sanctioned in 1997. The M/s Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) was entrusted with the job of carrying out...

NEW DELHI, Jan 2 – At a time when the Assam Government has identified tourism as a key sector for economic development of the State – describing it as the engine for growth – chronic problems continue to paralyse the functioning of Assam Tourism Information Centre (ATIC) here. If you are a tourist planning to visit Assam, then it would be far more convenient for you, as foreign tourist often discovers to make your own arrangements, rather then depending on the State Government’s Tourist Information Centre. You will have problems contacting it, its telephone has been lying out of order since...

JORHAT, April 17: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) will soon increase its regional allocation for funding socio-economic development projects in and around its areas of operation, the outgoing Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the oil giant Bikash Bora said while speaking as chief guest after formally inaugurating the Jorhat Lions Eye Hospital here recently. Presenting an account of the ONGC's contributions to various organisations on numerous fronts, Bora assured to support the Lion's benevolent movement to offer 'the best at the cheapest'. Though the Navratna company had...

GUWAHATI, April 8: The State Veterinary Department allegedly procured a dozen of immature jersey bulls from Australia of which 50 per cent are of genetically sub-standard quality, said knowledgeable circles here. However, the 58 heifers procured under the same project from the same country are comparatively better, though one of the heifers died at Chennai, the sources said. The cattle were imported from Australia under the ongoing Livestock Development Component (LDC) project sponsored by the World Bank. The cattle have been procured to set up one bull mother farm and two semen production...

GUWAHATI, April 6: Eminent scientist, Jagadish Bahadur has predicted more floods in Assam and its adjoining States due to depletion of Himalayan forest cover. Talking to The Assam Tribune here today, Bahadur said that the Northeast would be experiencing 10 to 30 per cent more rainfall in coming years and temperature would go up to one to three per cent in view of degrading forest coverage in the Himalayan region. Bahadur, project investigator of Himalayan environment further said that flora and fauna of the Northeast are facing severe threats due to increase in temperature and, hence a...

AMTERENG, April 5: The much-delayed Karbi Langpi Hydro Electric Project (KLHEP) of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) at Hatidubi here on the lower Borpani river, about 120 kilometre away from Guwahati, seems to be moving towards completion after more than two decades when work began on the project with a Rs 125 crore loan from the Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFCL). Conceived in 1979 as a 'prestigious project' for the ASEB at an initial estimated cost of Rs 36.36 crore for producing 100 MW of power from two units, the projects cost has now escalated to a whopping Rs 251 crore...

GUWAHATI, April 1: It is as if scandals have become an inevitable fate for the State's Veterinary Department. Because of the misdeeds of some unscrupulous elements, who are an insignificant minority of point four to point five in size in the about 8,000-strong army of the Departments' staff, the Veterinary Department is again in the news. This time it is a scandal involving Rs 40 crore borrowed from the World Bank to bring about a white revolution in the State. No doubt, like the previous Rs 400-crore Veterinary LoC scam, this time also the honest officers and employees of the Department, who...