Economy / Assam

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: Hundreds of workers, both regular and casual, at the Northeast Tobacco Company Ltd (NETCO) cigarette making plant at Amingaon here, were in for a shock today when, reporting for duty in the morning, they found the factory gates shut and their entry into the premises barred. The management had locked out the factory without taking the workers into confidence. Hundreds of workers, fearing loss of employment, laid siege to the office of the company's consultant at Silpukhuri demanding an explanation. Speaking to The Assam Tribune there, the workers, most of them hailing from...

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 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...

DIBRUGARH, February 22: The long pending issue of bifurcating the Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation (HFC) by establishing a separate corporate identity for its Namrup units continues to remain in a limbo, causing much consternation among workers of the Namrup units. The Namrup Fertilizer Shramik Union (NFSU), which has been spearheading an agitation for the bifurcation, is now afraid that political infighting among the NDA constituents may delay the matter further. Speaking to The Assam Tribune here today, the NFSU president, Tileswar Borah said that though the Union Ministry for Fertilizer and...

NEW DELHI, February 22: An estimated Rs 13,280.86 crore would be transferred to Assam by the Central Government according to the recommendations of the Eleventh Finance Commission, the Minister of State for Finance, Bala Saheb Vikhe Patil disclosed here today. But the Minister, replying to a question tabled by Angou Singh of Manipur (Rajya Sabha), declined to comment whether financial position of the Northeastern States in the aftermath of implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendation, were taken in account by the Eleventh Finance Commission. The Eleventh Finance Commission has...

GUWAHATI, February 21: The Pollution Control Board, Assam (PCBA), has made the Cachar Paper Mill of the Hindustan Paper Corporation (HPC) at Panchgram to make an assurance through a court affidavit to abide by the pollution control norms by May 2 next and to deposit a security amount of Rs 5 lakh on the issue. Following this, the closure notice served on the Paper Mill has been withdrawn temporarily. Disclosing this, at a press conference here today, PCBA chairman Lakhsminandan Bora and its member secretary Mohini Sarma said that similar steps are also initiated against the Digboi Refinery and...