Development / Assam

Jorhat, Dec. 14: To the outsider, Changmaigaon is no different from the numerous villages that dot the countryside in the oil-rich belt of Sivasagar district in Upper Assam. But a silent revolution is taking place beneath the rows of neatly trimmed cash crops there. A unique formula devised by the Jorhat-based Regional Research Laboratory (RRL) is changing the face of the once-barren land ? caused by oil spillage from drilling sites of the ONGC ? and bringing hope to thousands of people in Upper Assam.

Acres of land in Upper Assam, close to drilling sites of the ONGC, lose their plant-bearing...

ITANAGAR, Dec 14: Union Minister for Forest and Environment TR Balu assured Arunachal Power Minister Lijum Ronya that stringent laws might be relaxed to facilitate the Lower Subansiri hydro electric project. Ronya, said in a press release here on Saturday that during his meeting with Balu in New Delhi on Wednesday, the Union Minister assured him that he would see that the condition put forth by the National Wildlife Board that the catchment area of Lower Subansiri should be declared as a National Park to net forest clearance for the 2000mw first phase of the hydro-electric project was relaxed...

Dibrugarh, Dec. 11: Elephant menace is sending people in the rural areas of Upper Assam districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh scurrying for shelter. Altogether 22 families are taking shelter in Kathallbam L.P. School in Larua Mouza under Moran Assembly constituency to protect themselves from the wild elephants.

According to the villagers, the elephants have destroyed standing crops worth lakhs in 50 villages. The tuskers have come from the nearby Medela reserve forest. They said nearly 100 wild elephants, which have been destroying crops this year, have razed about 40 huts.

?We start preparing...

GUWAHATI, Dec 11 ? At long last some respite seems to be in hand for the Deepar beel, a wetland of utmost importance for the city and a Ramsar site that has so far been only a victim of the wanton destruction perpetrated by humans on nature. The Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) and the Kamrup district administration have embarked on an ambitious project aimed at injecting a fresh lease of life to the beel, where encroachment and heavy siltation have taken a heavy toll. Once spreading over a sprawling area of 41 sq km, the beel now covers just 4.14 sq km and its depth...

NEW DELHI, Dec 10 ? End of power woes in Assam seems to be in sight with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) clearing a USD 250 million loan package to Assam Government to restructure its power sector. The ADB from Manila said that the Assam Power Sector Development Plan (SDP) comprises a policy loan, an investment loan, and three technical assistance (TA) grants to support a comprehensive programme of reform. The State Power Department and Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) are the executing agencies for the investment loan, which has a 20-year term, including a five-year grace period. The...

New Delhi, Dec. 9: The Assam government?s lackadaisical and ad hoc efforts towards promoting tourism came as a shock to visitors at the tourism stall in the Assam Pavilion at the recently-concluded India International Trade Fair here. So incensed was Assam governor Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh with the shabby appearance of the stall and its shoddy arrangements that he immediately shot off a letter to the department.

A few improvements were, naturally, ushered in after that. But sample this: There was no visitor?s book at the stall.

A sum of Rs 1.75 lakh was earmarked for tourism at the fair but...

MARIANI, Dec 6 ? More than two scores of elephants dwelling at Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary have been causing a severe menace in the contiguous areas. It is reported that since 1982 the tuskers have killed 45 persons, and inflicted considerable destruction in the region. The sanctuary, which has an area of 19.49 sq km, is primarily a woodland and as such there is a scarcity of grasslands. Moreover it is considered that an elephant requires an area of 10 sq km for its food supply annually. Thus the elephants at the sanctuary has an area of about half square km for themselves. Thus the deficiency...

GUWAHATI, Dec 7 ? The one-man enquiry commission, headed by Sri TL Baruah, IAS (Retd), which probed the cases of allotments in the city?s green belts, has observed that under the prevailing circumstances, it would be futile to keep certain areas reserved as Green Belt Zone. The prevailing situation is such that even the Standing Appeal Committee of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) had failed to protect the green belt areas and both the GMC and the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had failed to maintain an effective mechanism for regular physical verification of the...

GUWAHATI, June 15 ? The decision of the State government to cut down on the ?salary and wages? component of the Annual Plan for the year 2003-04 has left it with additional Rs 480 crore for utilisation in development work. This amount of Rs 480 crore combined with Rs 61 crore ?one-time annual central assistance (ACA)? granted by the Planning Commission for the State in the current fiscal will put the State government at a slight liberty to go for sectoral as well as scheme-wise allotment of fund for various departments.

Minister of State for Planning and Development, Himanta Bishwa Sharma...

DIBRUGARH, June 14?Three tea executives gone to the netherworld in a mater of a fortnight in the State is reason enough to explore some conflict resolution measures. As most cases of violence in the tea gardens in the state relate to labour unrest and their problems, labour leaders feel that a meaningful implementation of the Plantation Labour Act of 1951 would go a long way in ensuring peace in the estates.

Speaking to The Assam Tribune at length today, the general secretary of the influential Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha, Madhusudan Khandait said? ?We want an amendment to the antiquated...