Development / Assam

Shillong, Jan. 28: Environment activists and several wildlife organisations have demanded a proper investigation into the death of four elephants near Belguri along the Assam-Meghalaya border on January 18.

Four elephants died after colliding with an electric pole near Belguri village under West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya. All four were electrocuted on the spot. Forest department officials later declared the death of the four elephants as an accident.

However, Shillong based-environment activists refuse to buy the forest department argument. ?It is not convincing and we are sure...

Silchar, Jan. 20: The Centre has rejected Assam?s plea for Rs 5.35 crore to upgrade the water treatment plant here. In a letter to Doner minister C.P. Thakur recently, Assam urban development minister Hem Prakash Narayan appealed for allotment of the fund from the Centre?s non-lapsable pool of resources.

Narayan said the town with a population of over three lakh has suffered over the past few years because of shortage of potable water. Hence, it was necessary to upgrade the 36-year-old water plant, which has the capacity to treat five million gallons of water every day.

Rejecting the state?s...

DERGAON, Dec 28? The State Government has decided to allot Rs 3 crore to the Assam Tea Corporation (ATC) to facilitate development of its gardens. This decision was taken at a meeting of high-level representatives of the government with the ATC and AATSA members at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati recently.

The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Sarat Barkatoky, PWD Minister, formed a six-member committee to review the condition of ATC gardens and the committee will take a final decision on whether to sell off or give the ATC gardens on lease.

This was disclosed by Bhagirath Karan, the...

Dhubri, Dec. 27: West Assam and North Bengal will soon be connected by railway network. Railway minister Nitish Kumar has assured the joint convenor of New Moinaguri-Jogighopa Railway Extension Demand Committee, Tazmul Hoque, that a new broad gauge railway line from New Moinaguri to Jogighopa will be completed soon.

Hoque said tenders for the three-phase work ? from Moinaguri to Changrabandha, Golokganj to Gauripur and Mathabhanga to Jogighopa (Abhayapuri) ? have been completed following a final location survey by the Rail India Technical Economic Services (Rites).

The railway network in the...

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: It is again bad news for Assam with the Central Government drastically slashing down its demand for assistance of Rs 1,134.45 crore to Rs 70 crore for relief and restoration work in the wake of floods this year. In a written reply to a question tabled in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Swami Chinmayanand said that Government of Assam had submitted a memorandum seeking assistance for relief and restoration measures for various sectors, including infrastructure, in the wake of floods this year. The high level committee that met in October to consider the demands...

GOALPARA, Dec 20?After three month?s respite from the havoc caused by rampaging elephants, people of some parts of the district are once again compelled to spend sleepless nights anticipating depredation by wild elephants. Wild elephants pose threat to the population of a large part of the constituencies of Goalpara East, Goalpara West and Dudhnoi every year, killing people, damaging crops and vegetables, destroying houses and other belongings. Knowledgeable circles feel that denudation of forest cover in Goalpara district and more particularly in adjoining Meghalaya compels the pachyderms to...

DIBRUGARH, Nov 19 ? 25 families of the Lezai-Sessa area, south-west of the city have been rendered homeless by a herd of wild elephants in the past few days. The affected families have been provided shelter at a relief camp, which was opened on Tuesday under the auspicious of a local NGO, Asom Bikash Mancha. The district administration Wednesday chipped in by giving away some blankets and foodstuff.

Angry villagers of the Lezai area Wednesday afternoon sat in a demonstration on the national highway at Sessa Tiniali, 16 kms from here. They dispersed after senior officials of the district...

NEW DELHI, Dec 19 ? Alarmed by the plight of the tea industry, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has endorsed an Opposition-sponsored proposal to convene a high-level meeting involving all players including the State Governments and representatives of the industry to evolve a strategy to resolve the present crisis. A revival package for the industry, more loans for restructuring plantations, Central Government?s assistance and welfare packages for the tea workers are some of the schemes on the anvil to bail out the industry.

The Central Government?s response came after Opposition Members in...

GOALPARA, Dec 17 ? Goalpara district, within a short span of 17 years has emerged as a major rubber producing district not only in Assam but the entire country. If, tempted by the success of the growers of the district, unemployed youths, particularly those having cultivable land (even fallow land) take up rubber cultivation scientifically, not only could we expect tremendous socio-economic change at micro and macro level, but also foreign exchange.

This note of expectation transpired from the deliberations at the two-day workshop of rubber growers organised by Ajagar Social Circle at Agia...

NEW DELHI, Dec 15 ? While ruling out the possibility of convening a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the issue of inter-linking of rivers, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has clarified that it has no proposal under consideration to impose cess, taxes and duties to mobilise funds for the Project. In a significant admission, the MoWR has confirmed that the Task force on river linking Project has moved the Ministry of Defence for security clearance to place digitalised maps of the topography maps of the rivers on its web site besides using them for other purposes such as preparation...