Economy / Assam

GUWAHATI, April 4 — The Centre has released Rs 233.93 crore in cash and 1,63,626 metric tonne of rice (valued at Rs 196.35 crore) to Assam as the second instalment of rural development funds for the year 2002-03 to implement various rural development programmes in the State. Making this announcement during a press conference here today, Assam Minister of State (Independent) for Panchayat and Rural Development (P&RD) Ripun Bora said that the Central grant is unique in the sense that money has been given for the entire package of rural development projects. Assam is the second State in the...

GUWAHATI, April 3 — The Assam Electricity Bill, 2003 introduced in the State Assembly by the Power Minister on March 31 last, has stunned the power engineers here. The Bill seeks to restructure the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) with a view of creating independent corporate entities in the fields of generation, transmission and distribution.

The Power Minister, while introducing the Bill, said that the principal objective of the Bill was to provide universal access to electricity at competitive and affordable prices within a defined time frame. But, power engineers here maintain that...

GUWAHATI, April 3— The Assam Legislative Assembly today passed the Assam Value Added Tax Bill, 2003 amidst walk out by the Opposition members, who demanded that the Bill should be sent to the Select Committee of the House for a thorough discussion on all the clauses.

As soon as the VAT Bill came for discussion in the House today, Leader of the Opposition Brindaban Goswami said that the Bill, in its present form, has some lacunae and those should be removed. He requested the Government to send the Bill to the Select Committee of the House for proper discussion on all the clauses. He said that...

NEW DELHI, April 2 – Floods may be knocking on the doors but the ministries concerned with the flood control works are locked in a bitter war of words over allocation of funds. The Central Government has released Rs 29 crore to Assam from the Non-Lapsable Pool of Central Resources during 2002-2003, Union Ministry of Water Resources today clarified.

The Ministry’s clarification was in response to State Water Resources Minister, Nurjamal Sarkar’s charge made yesterday about non-release of funds for flood control schemes. Before the NDA Government came to power, the only channel of releasing...

GUWAHATI, April 1 – The failure of the Union Ministry of Water Resources to release funds for both the ongoing and new schemes since 1999-2000, has brought implementation of 71 flood management schemes in the State to a grinding halt, said State Water Resources Minister Nurzamal Sarkar here today. He was addressing a press conference.

Moreover, the Minister said, the Union Water Resources Ministry in its budget for 2002-2003 had kept a meagre provision of only Rs 10 crore for the State, which had a liability of Rs 54 crore for the ongoing and completed flood management schemes. However, these...

GUWAHATI, March 27 — The Bangladesh Government has proposed to open up trade with Assam through Sylhet district in that country through a joint endeavour of the chambers of commerce of Sylhet and Assam. Bangladesh Secretary of Ministry of Commerce Suhel Ahmed who had a meeting with Assam Chief Minister and top State Government officials yesterday, called for more interaction between Bangladesh authority and Assam to increase the volume of trade and commerce in the interest of economic development on both sides of the border.

During the discussion, Ahmed pointed out that banks in the Northeast...

NAMRUP, March 26 — Forget the Assam Accord. Forget the fact that a Prime Minister laid the foundation stone of the project. Mandarins at New Delhi’s Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry have of late concluded that the subsidy bill of Rs 6,000 crore over a 15 year period is an amount that has made the Assam Gas Cracker project unviable. This was the impression spelt out this afternoon by the project’s nodal Minister, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who is also the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers.

“Personally, I am for the project and its early implementation,” he told reporters...

NEW DELHI, March 20 — A huge subsidy bill projected at over Rs 6,000 crore has put a question mark over implementation of the mega gas cracker project, even as a delegation of the Assam Assembly has arrived to plead with the Prime Minister to clear the last hurdle. But lobbying notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) may have a hard time trying to convince the Union Finance Ministry to clear the subsidy given the Centre’s huge budgetary deficit.

However, State Industry Minister, Bhubaneswar Kalita, who is part of the Assembly delegation contends that additional subsidy may not be...

GUWAHATI, March 17 — The Gauhati High Court in a significant judgement today quashed the 1997 Byelaws framed by Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) thereby declared illegal the checkgates and parking places run by GMC lessees along the national highways No. 37 and 31 around the city.

In response to a writ petition filed by one Md Zakir Hussain, Justice IA Ansari has held that GMC has acted beyond its competence in enacting the 1997 Byelaws and applying the same to the vehicles and animals entering into municipal area in the city while passing by the National Highways around it.

The Court in...

KOHIMA, March 13 – Nagaland has become the latest destination of officials of the Tea Board of India because most of the farmers have shifted towards exclusive tea cultivation instead of mixed crops, which is the convention. With the discovery that the taste here is akin to Darjeeling tea, farmers in districts like Phek and Mon may soon be competing in quality with neighbors Assam. Another crop that’s reportedly doing wonders is ginger which is fetching high prices for the farmers of the state. The Nagaland Empowerment of People through Economic Development (NEPED) has been attempting to...