Economy / Assam

JORHAT, July 29: The four Williamson Magor Group officials, who were arrested on July 18 for their alleged links with the banned ULFA, were yesterday granted bail against a surety bond of Rs 10,000 each in the court of the district and sessions judge here. The quartet, Mohbandha Tea Estate Manager Aswini Sarma, Gajen Gogoi, driver Gajen Bhuyan and mechanic Haren Saikia, were earlier denied bail in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court and remanded to judicial custody by the Sub-Divisional Judicial magistrate here. The garden officials are alleged to have helped Ratul Dutta alias Sangram Koch...

NEW DELHI, July 28: In what can be described as a major setback for Assam, the 11th Finance Commission has not given any special concessions to tide over its financial crisis resulting from fighting insurgency. While Assam, for that matter other insurgency affected north-eastern states were not shown any special favours, the same is not the case with Jammu&Kashmir and Punjab, as the two states were given enough support to sort out their financial mess. "Expenditure incurred on security by the state of Jammu and Kashmir prior to 1991, may be assessed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and...

GUWAHATI, July 26: The stage is now set for the reopening of the Ashok Paper Mill, once considered to be one of the best paper mills of the country, as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with a Calcutta based company for leasing out the mill. Official sources told The Assam Tribune that the state government and the Ashok Paper Mill Assam Limited today signed an MoU with the Soneko Paper and Industries Limited of Calcutta. The MoU was signed by the Commissioner of Industries of the Government of Assam, Managing Director of the Ashok Paper Mill Assam Limited and the Director of the...

NEW DELHI, July 25: Assam Government owes a whopping Rs 45.62 crore to the various Central para-military forces currently engaged in anti-insurgency operations in the state. This information was tabled in the Lok Sabha today by the Minister of State for Home Affairs C Vidhyasagar Rao. Assam is among the handful of 18 states which owes a staggering Rs 980.37 crore to the various Central forces. Assam is the lone state from the region as other Northeastern states of Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram have been exempted from paying any charges. Assam is, being charged 10 per cent of...

JORHAT, July 21: The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) here today rejected the bail applications of the four Mohbandha Tea Estate employees, working under the Williamson Magor Group, including a manager and a doctor, who are accused of helping a deceased ULFA militant, one Ratul Dutta, both financially and medically. The court order stated, "as the investigation was in its initial stage, hence the bail pleas have been rejected so as to facilitate smooth conduct of investigation". The court added that "though the nature of the crime was serious, but the police was yet to substantiate...

JORHAT, July 20: The four Williamson Magor Group officials, who were remanded to judicial custody yesterday for links with the banned ULFA, were today interrogated by the police from 6 am to 4 pm. The quartet, including Mohbandha Tea Estate Manager Aswini Sarma and Gajen Gogoi and the two employees namely mechanic Haren Saikia and driver Gajen Bhuyan had allegedly provided help to an ULFA man, one Ratul Dutta who died of malaria last week. Ratul had arrived at the tea estate on July 13 after having contacted the disease at a camp of the outfit inside Nagaland The sub-divisional magistrate here...

JORHAT, July 19: After Tata Tea, it is now the turn of tea giant Williamson Magor to be in the news with the arrest of four of its officials today by the Jorhat Police following a top executive of the group offering direct help to a member of the banned ULFA. The incident has its roots in the 'Chief Secretary' of the Kakadonga Sakha Parishad, one Ratul Dutta alias Sangram Koch recently falling sick after a bout of malaria at an ULFA camp along the Assam-Nagaland border and having availed treatment on July 13 under Gajen Gogoi, employed by the Williamson Magor group at Mohbandha Tea Estate off...

GUWAHATI, September 10: Serious thinking is needed as to whether the present size of the administration is needed in Assam where the productivity of the government employees is very low, according to economist and chairman of the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi), Jayanta Madhab. He said the state has at present 5,50,000 people on its payroll. About 70 per cent of the budget goes in paying salaries to them. Madhab, a former director of the Asian Development Bank, said moreover most NEDFi entrepreneurs have the complaint that they have to grease the palms of the...

AMTERENG, September 8: The much-talked-about Karbi Langpi Hydro Electric Project of the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) may become functional soon with the possible infusion of a Rs 150-crore loan for its revival by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC). The state power minister, Hitendranath Goswami, who was on a day-long visit to the project site, said the PFC has agreed in principle for disbursing the loan amount at 9 per cent interest rate. "But prior to its actual disbursement, ASEB must fulfil certain conditions which might prove somewhat difficult for the board under its present...

GUWAHATI, September 8: Coal India Limited (CIL) today signed an agreement with the representatives of the All Guwahati Students Union (AGSU) saying that it will not shift the head offices of its subsidiary Eastern India Coalfields from Guwahati to Calcutta as earlier decided by the authorities. Nirmal Baishya, president of AGSU said students gheraoed the authorities at their head office at Christianbasti following which the deal was signed.