Development / Assam

GUWAHATI, March 7: A number of Western nations have officially warned their citizens not to venture into Northeast, including Assam, citing "civil unrest, insurgent attacks and political killings" occuring in the region. The warning, also posted on government websites of these countries, has evoked a sharp response within the Northeast tourism industry. Apart from recommending remedial measures, the industry here has also blamed the ministry of external affairs and some of the big Indian tour operators for their failure to present the correct picture of the prevailing security situation in...

GUWAHATI, March 5: The efforts made so far is the State to lay the foundation for an all-out preparedness for mitigating the hazards associated with a high-magnitude earthquake is not satisfactory as apart from holding public meetings to make the people aware of earthquake hazards and organising demonstrations by the Civil Defence on rescue operations, full assessment of vulnerable areas and the vulnerability of public buildings and training the people in precautionary/safety measures are still awaited, said noted seismologist Surya Kanta Sarma here today. Meanwhile, when contacted...

JORHAT, March 3: Director-general of Tocklai experimental station A.N. Mukhopadhyay submitted his resignation yesterday. Mukhopadhyay joined as the director-general of the oldest and the largest tea research centre in the world eight months ago. He served as the vice-chancellor of Assam Agricultural University here before joining the Tocklai station. "It is not a resignation letter. I have put forward some conditions to the board of management to continue in my present post," Mukhopadhyay said. However, Tea Research Association chairman Aboni Borgohain said the director-general expressed his...

GUWAHATI, March 3: In the wake of liberalisation of economic and industrial policies, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is now allowed to be used for commercial purpose. This has made LPG an extremely popular fuel in any industry for the purpose of heating and burning. The tea industry in the State has initiated process to use LPG in the process of tea making in place of conventional fuels like furnace oil, coal, high speed diesel (HSD) and LDO. The industry is going to bank on the Assam Oil Division (AOD) of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for the supply of bulk quantity of LPG to the tea garden...

GUWAHATI, March 2: Every body in the Government, right from a bureaucrat to the Union Finance Minister, cannot but mention the T&D (transmission and distribution) loss incurred by our State Electricity Boards (SEBs) while making observations on the deplorable state of affairs in the power sector of the country. But, they remain blissfully silent over the issue of the losses caused by power theft. The reason for that is best known to them. Perhaps, the following incidents will help in throwing some light on this aspect of feigning ignorance by these people in the helm of affairs. Two years back...

GUWAHATI, March 1: Implementation of the state government's ambitious scheme to provide self-employment opportunities to the unemployed youths, got under-way with the formation of the special district-level cells headed by the Deputy Commissioners to monitor the implementation. An official release said here today that altogether 6,38,977 educated unemployed youths of the State, between 18 to 40 years of age, would be provided self employment opportunities under the Chief Minister's Self Employment scheme. The scheme will cover areas like agriculture, rural development, village industries...

SIVASAGAR, February 26: The construction work for the installation of the proposed gas-based power project at Amguri under the economic development clause of the historic Assam Accord, 1985 will begin soon, disclosed Minister of Transport and Food and Civil Supplies Pradip Hazarika at a press conference held at Amguri Inspection Bunglow recently. He said that to facilitate installation of the project, all necessary documents have been completed. Strongly refuting the allegation, the reopening of the question of installation of the project on the eve of the ensuing Assembly election is a...

GUWAHATI, February 26: The State Government today sought a detailed report from the West Bengal government on the mysterious disease that took the lives of a number of people including two doctors in the Siliguri area. The State Health Minister, Kamala Kalita told this correspondent here this evening that the West Bengal Government has been requested to provide the details of the disease including the steps taken to control the disease. Kalita today reviewed the situation in the state in a meeting with the senior officials including the health secretary and director of Health Services. Talking...

GUWAHATI, February 25: The tea estates in the State are illegally occupying altogether 20,267 bigha, 2 katha and 8 lechas of Government land and the State Government has been initiating a legal process to free plots of land from the encroachment of the tea estates, said Revenue Minister Zoii Nath Sarma on the floor of the State Assembly recently. Sarma was replying to a unstarred question put by MLA Kalyan Kumar Gogoi. Gogoi in his question wanted to know as to what size of Government land was under the encroachment of State's tea estates, he also requested for the break-up showing the amount...

GUWAHATI, February 23: The government's hoopla over making Assam an "investors' paradise" got a rude shock with a Japanese trade expert today saying no person from a foreign country would like to come to a conflict zone. The statement, which jolted top government officials and industry bigwigs on the concluding day of the international conference on "Business Opportunities in Northeast India: Guwahati Initiative", came from Yashinobu Sei, an official of the FICCI-Japan cell. On the possibility of Japanese investment in the state, Sei said Assam should be safe enough for foreigners to work and...