Economy / Assam

NEW DELHI, March 13 — Unabated infiltration form across the border has hit the economy of Assam, with the Central Government holding the alarming growth of population at the rate of four percent as one the factors responsible of the economic slow down. In a written reply to a question tabled in Rajya Sabha by Vijay J Darda, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, S B Mookher-jee said that with the partition of the country the State lost on trade and commerce with the neighbouring areas as riverine transportation through Bangladesh stopped.

Further, over the period State...

Guwahati, March 12: Assam is becoming a costly place to live in, according to the economic survey for 2002-03. The survey, which was tabled in the Assembly today, showed an alarming rise in the prices of essential commodities, ranging up to 35 per cent. Probably keeping in mind the price rise and in an effort to raise their standard of living, the state government today announced a reservation of 30 per cent in official contracts and supply work for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes from this year.

The survey revealed that the monthly average of retail prices of a number of essential...

GUWAHATI, March 12 — The gap between per capita income of the State and the country continues to get widened and as on today the State is lagging far behind the par capita income at national level. As per the latest Economic Survey, Assam, the per capita income of the country as a whole during 2000-2001 was Rs 16487 at current prices and Rs 10254 at constant (1993-94) prices while the same for Assam stood at a much lower level of Rs 10467 and Rs 5867 respectively.

The report mentions that the total number of reporting scheduled commercial bank offices including regional rural banks in the...

GUWAHATI, March 11 — The Minister in charge of Assam Accord implementation, Sri Pankaj Bora, today informed the State Assembly that the Government has so far spent an amount of Rs 12,89,28,385 on the tribunals set up under the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act but only 1501 foreigners have been deported from the State under the provisions of the Act. Replying to a question by Sri Zoii Nath Sarma (AGP), the Minister said that as on January 1 this year, the IMDT tribunals disposed of 20,297 cases.

In reply to another question by Sri Sarma, the Minister said that so far 149.298...

GUWAHATI, March 10 — Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today presented a Rs 2365.91-crore deficit Budget for Assam for the year 2003-2004 without imposing any fresh tax on items taxable under the Assam General Sales Tax Act. However, he proposed to reduced tax on newsprint and exempt items like indigenous hand made musical instruments, slate and pencil, human blood, khadi and khadi products etc from levy of tax. He also proposed to impose entry tax on dry fish, gamocha, biscuit, processed fruit juice etc to promote local enterprise and industries.

In his Budget speech, the Chief Minister said that...

GUWAHATI, March 9— In the State, bandhs, called by various organisations to press for their demands, have been causing on an average losses worth around Rs 900 crore in a year. An individual family in the State is also made to lose Rs 2,000, on an average, every year by such bandhs while a day of bandh means a loss Rs 41.14 crore for the State as a whole, said Federation of Industries and commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) president Abhijit Barooah, while releasing his organisation’s report on the impact of bandhs on the economy of Assam for the period between April 2001 and March 2002...

DIBRUGARH, March 9 — As the last litres of petrol inside tank number 559 burned out this morning at the New Tank Farm of the Digboi Refinery complex, the alert has been relaxed, and evacuated families too have returned to their homes from the two makeshift camps in the township.

Locals in Digboi said they could still see some smoke coming out of the damaged 5000 kilolitre motor spirit tank this evening. However, refinery officials assured that the smoke is from the water and chemicals sprayed on hot metal. Suspected ULFA militants on Friday night fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the tank...

GUWAHATI, March 8— Banned ULFA separatists today carried out a series of attacks setting on fire a 5000 KL petrol tank at the famous Digboi Refinery, blasting a gas pipeline nearby, attacking a police post and a commando barrack and firing at a Bihari settlement killing two persons and injuring six others, reports PTI. The two deaths occurred in Goalpara district where a police outpost was attacked. There was no casualty in the explosions in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts.

Self-styled Commander-in-Chief of ULFA Paresh Baruah rang up media houses in Guwahati this morning to claim...

NEW DELHI, March 4 — Notwithstanding the clamour, the Union Finance Ministry has in the last two financial years not written off any loans, including that of Assam. The only two lucky States which had some amounts written off included only two north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. A sum of Rs 1.72 crore was written off in the case of Arunachal Pradesh while Rs 2.52 crore was written off in the case of Manipur. For the current financial year no loan has been written off in respect of any State, Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Assam...

GUWAHATI, March 4 — The State Government is groping for ways to revive the sick Assam Tea Corporation Limited (ATCL) in the wake of lukewarm response to the sale tender floated by it sometimes back. In response to a call attention motion brought in the Assembly today by the BJP legislator Rameswar Teli, State Industry Minister Bhubaneswar Kalita said although eight organisations had submitted tender to buy some of the ATCL tea estates nothing was finalised as yet. He said some of these bidders were in touch with the high-powered committee formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary...