GUWAHATI, March 26: The small staff of the Audience Research Unit (ARU) at the All India Radio (AIR) station here is engaged in an uphill task everyday. Having to go through at least 4,000 letters from its audience per month on an average and categorizing them into various headings is not an enviable task at any moment of time. Yet the staff members are not complaining even though they have to cope with several other responsibilities like researches from time to time on their own in addition to skimming through the letters. "It is a strenuous task to read each and every letter from readers and...

GUWAHATI, March 27: The Assam Government is yet to take the final decision on disinvestment of the fund-starved Assam Tea Corporation (ATC). ATC sources said that the state government formed a committee headed by the Industries Commissioner to study the feasibility of disinvestment of the ATC. The committee comprising senior Government officials and persons connected with the tea industry has already submitted its report and the decision of the Government is awaited. Sources said that different organisations including the SBI Capital Finance, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and the...

ITANAGAR, March 26: Country's first Bharat Gramodaya Darshan Park would be set up at Doimukh in Arunachal Pradesh to propel and showcase rural development, reports PTI. The multi-disciplinary training centre for rural people at Doimukh would be transformed into the BGDP which would be among six such units to be set up all over the country. The chairman of Central Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Mahesh Sharma, laid the foundation of the BGDP project at Doimukh on March 25, a project sanctioned by the Department of Culture, Union government. The initial cost of the project would...

NAHARLAGUN, March 25: The State Agriculture Department is making all-out efforts to do away with the traditional method of shifting and jhum cultivation in Arunachal Pradesh for the last couple of years. "The department has initiated several measures in tackling the problems related to the shifting cultivation practice by the local tribes in the state," Tako Dabi, Minister Agriculture told the State Assembly here on Thursday. The Minister was responding to a question raised by Congress member Anok Wangsa about what steps the government has taken to prevent jhum cultivation in the State. As...

GUWAHATI, March 27: The decadal growth of population in the State between 1991 and 2001 was 18.85 per cent. In absolute numbers the growth was recorded to be 4,224,085 persons, according to the provisional population figures of the State and its 23 districts released by the Office of the Director of Census Operations, Assam for the press here today. The growth in the number of males during the decade was 2,129,810, with a percentage of 18.27 and in the number of female population, it was 2,094,275, with a growth percentage of 19.47. The State's 23 districts recorded a total population of 26...