PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM GUWAHATI & DIBRUGARH RN-1127/57 TECH/GH – 103/2018-2020, VOL. 82, NO. 237 GUWAHATI, MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 82 years of service to the nation www.assamtribune.com Pages 12 Price: 6.00 p2 p7 KVIC focuses on promotion of honey industry in NE p5 Hamas insists on ending Israeli blockade on Gaza Drugs worth Rs 3.50 cr seized in Mizoram The campus buzz... Ask your IT Guru Maniraj Baruah Q&A Career And many more... August 31, 2020 Personality matters–I Dr Sailen Das Nine types of intelligence Nurul Islam Laskar Please view online. JOCOSERIOUS I have no intention to become MLA, minister again... can’t help if the voters wish so...! 4-day Assembly session from today Four more MLAs test COVID-19 positive COVID deaths GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Seven more COVID-19 patients – Bidyadeep Bhuyan and Kiran Bora of Golaghat, Nipjyoti Baruah and Md Sohrabuddin Ahmed of Kamrup Metro, Ramila Sutradhar and Sachin Chandra Brahma of Chirang and Bhaskar Bijoy Gupta of Cachar – died today. The toll has reached 296. Meanwhile, 1,980 new cases were detected in the State today, taking the COVID- 19 tally to 1,05,774. – Staff Reporter Toy hub NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gave a clarion call to be “vocal for local toys”, stressing the need for making the country a toy hub. – IANS ■ Also see page 6 Care centre GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today inaugurated the 55-bed Bagri Children Covid Care Centre at MMCH in the city. – Staff Reporter J&K gunfight SRINAGAR, Aug 30: Three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants and an ASI of Jammu and Kashmir Police were killed in a gunfight in the city outskirts on Sunday, police said. – PTI STAFF REPORTER GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Amid the COV- ID-19 pandemic, a four-day autumn ses- sion of the Assam Legislative Assem- bly will begin from Monday. For the third consecutive day on Sunday, COVID-19 tests were carried out for legis- lators and Assembly staff and other person- nel who would be attending the session. During the day, 118 tests were conducted, of which 10 were found positive for the novel coronavirus. “Thirty two legislators underwent tests today and four of them – Rituparna Barua, Naren Sonowal, Anuwar Hussain Lashkar and Nazrul Haque – were found positive. Lashkar has been admitted to GNRC, while the others have opted for home isolation,” an Assembly Secretariat official said. On Saturday, 208 rapid antigen tests were A sanitization drive being carried out on the Assam Legislative Assembly premises on the eve of the four-day autumn session, in Guwahati on Sunday. – UB Photos carried out at the Assembly premises and nine persons, including Haflong MLA Bir Bhadra Hagjer and a couple of journalists and staff of the Assembly were found posi- tive. On Friday, five persons who were test- ed along with 100 others were found posi- tive. Over 25 legislators have tested posi- tive for the virus so far. Meanwhile, according to the notices re- ceived by the Assembly Secretariat from various departments, 21 bills are likely to come up during the session. Among the new Bills are The Birangana Sati Sadhini Rajyik Vishwaidyalaya Bill, 2020, The Assam Ag- ricultural Produce & Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, As- sam MSME (Facilitation of Establishment and Operation) Bill, 2020 and The Assam Skill University Bill, 2020. Petition seeks high court intervention Implementation of Bodo peace pact STAFF REPORTER GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Ra- jkumar Prithviraj Narayan Dev Mech and Thulunga Basumatary, the two youths who were instrumental be- hind the recent peace talks between all the factions of NDFB and the Union govern- ment, have filed a writ peti- tion at the Gauhati High Court seeking intervention to ex- pedite the implementation of the third Bodo Peace Accord or Memorandum of Settle- ment, 2020. SEE PAGE 3 Delimitation Commission members to visit NE soon SPL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI, Aug 30: The Delimitation Commis- sion is all set to redraw the Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Aru- nachal Pradesh besides Jam- mu and Kashmir. The Commission mem- bers will soon visit the North- eastern States and the Union Territory after preparing a “broad framework” of the de- limitation exercise, sources said. The panel will seek views of its ‘associate mem- bers’ – a group of Lok Sab- ha members and MLAs – after drawing up the frame- work, the sources added. “The framework is pro- posed to be developed on carving out constituencies based on the 2011 Census. Only then would the Com- mission visit the States to meet locals. Once the frame- work is drawn, it would also interact with the associate members to seek their views and inputs,” said an official. The Commission was set up in March. It is headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Desai (retd). Election Commission- er Sushil Chandra is the rep- resentative of the Election Commission in the panel. SEE PAGE 3 SEE PAGE 3 NRC publication completes one year Centre, State yet to clarify stand on citizenship document R DUTTA CHOUDHURY GUWAHATI, Aug 30: As publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) completes one year tomor- row, the Central and State governments are yet to clar- ify their stand on the citizen- ship document, while the proc- ess of issuing rejection slips to those whose applications for inclusion of their names in the NRC were rejected has also not started. The 200 pro- posed foreigners tribunals (FTs) for hearing petitions of those whose applications were rejected have also not started functioning as yet. Applications of more than 19 lakh persons for inclusion of names in the NRC were re- jected as they failed to provide adequate proof of citizenship and their fate hangs in balance. Though the process of issuing rejection slips to those people by the NRC authorities was scheduled to start early this year, the process was delayed due to the COVID-19 pan- demic. Such people can ap- proach the FTs only after get- ting the rejection slips. The list of those whose names were not included in the NRC in- cludes around four lakh peo- ple, who did not file claims af- ter the publication of draft NRC, and the government has also not clarified its position on the fate of those people. The much awaited NRC was prepared after years of demands and agitations. Im- mediately after the Assam Agitation started, the AASU submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister on Feb- ruary 2, 1980 demanding that the NRC of 1951 should be updated. SEE PAGE 3 Lockdown hits functioning of State info panel MANASH PRATIM DUTTA GUWAHATI, Aug 30: The COVID-19 induced lockdown has not only affected the socio-economic sector of the State but is also posing a challenge for the citizens to enjoy their democratic rights, especially the right to information. The functioning of the Assam State Information Com- mission was severely affected when there was a total re- striction in inter-district movement. This led to a rise in pending cases in the Commission. During this period, the Commission had arranged virtu- al hearings for RTI appeals filed by the public from across the State. Unfortunately, as stated by a source, only 40 per cent of such cases could be disposed of. “The main reason behind the low rate of success in virtual hearings is poor internet connectivity in most parts of the State. Moreover, most people, including both peti- tioners and officials, were found not to be techno-savvy. So in most cases, the attempt to dispose of cases through virtual hearings went futile,” the source said. During virtual hearings, the Commission mainly failed in disposing of complicated cases related to various State gov- ernment departments. Till July 31, around 2,000 cases were pending with the Commission. Interestingly, among those cases, around 1,200 were filed by RTI activist Dulal Bora. At present, by following all COVID-19 related norms, the Commission is conducting three virtual hearings and eight physical hearings every working day. SEE PAGE 3 Medical oxygen suppliers not paid for months RITURAJ BORTHAKUR GUWAHATI, Aug 30: De- spite reminders from the Central government, the As- sam government has failed to clear the dues of medical gas suppliers. A day after Health Minis- ter Himanta Biswa Sarma indicated that the State could face a shortage of medical oxygen given the growing demand for COVID-19 pa- tients suppliers told this newspaper that some of them have been not paid since last year. While one supplier said his outstanding amount could be over Rs 1.5 crore, another said he has not being paid Rs 3 crore. In most of the cases, the last payment to the suppliers was made in March last year. There are around five main vendors who supply medical gases to the health institutions. “We have information that other states like West Ben- gal have cleared the bills of the suppliers till July this year. In view of the pandem- ic, the Union Health Minis- try has reminded the State government to make regu- lar payments, but nothing is happening here,” another vendor said. SEE PAGE 3 LATE CITY
Transcript
PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM GUWAHATI & DIBRUGARH
p2 p7KVIC focuses on promotionof honey industry in NE
p5Hamas insists on endingIsraeli blockade on Gaza
Drugs worth Rs 3.50 crseized in Mizoram
The campus buzz...
Ask your IT GuruManiraj BaruahQ&A CareerAnd many more...
August 31, 2020
Personality matters–IDr Sailen Das
Nine types of intelligenceNurul Islam Laskar
Please view online.
JOCOSERIOUS
I have no intention to
become MLA, minister
again... can’t help if the
voters wish so...!
4-day Assemblysession from todayFour more MLAs test COVID-19 positive
COVID deathsGUWAHATI, Aug 30:
Seven more COVID-19patients – BidyadeepBhuyan and Kiran Bora ofGolaghat, Nipjyoti Baruahand Md SohrabuddinAhmed of Kamrup Metro,Ramila Sutradhar andSachin Chandra Brahma ofChirang and Bhaskar BijoyGupta of Cachar – diedtoday. The toll hasreached 296. Meanwhile,1,980 new cases weredetected in the Statetoday, taking the COVID-19 tally to 1,05,774. –Staff Reporter
Toy hubNEW DELHI, Aug 30:
Prime Minister NarendraModi today gave a clarioncall to be “vocal for localtoys”, stressing the needfor making the country atoy hub. – IANS
nnnnn Also see page 6
Care centreGUWAHATI, Aug 30:
Health Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma todayinaugurated the 55-bedBagri Children Covid CareCentre at MMCH in thecity. – Staff Reporter
J&K gunfightSRINAGAR, Aug 30:
Three Lashkar-e-Taibamilitants and an ASI ofJammu and KashmirPolice were killed in agunfight in the cityoutskirts on Sunday,police said. – PTI
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Amid the COV-ID-19 pandemic, a four-day autumn ses-sion of the Assam Legislative Assem-bly will begin from Monday.
For the third consecutive day on Sunday,
COVID-19 tests were carried out for legis-
lators and Assembly staff and other person-
nel who would be attending the session.
During the day, 118 tests were conducted,
of which 10 were found positive for the novel
coronavirus.
“Thirty two legislators underwent tests
today and four of them – Rituparna Barua,
Naren Sonowal, Anuwar Hussain Lashkar
and Nazrul Haque – were found positive.
Lashkar has been admitted to GNRC, while
the others have opted for home isolation,”
an Assembly Secretariat official said.
On Saturday, 208 rapid antigen tests were
A sanitization drive being carried out on the Assam Legislative Assembly premises on the eveof the four-day autumn session, in Guwahati on Sunday. – UB Photos
carried out at the Assembly premises and
nine persons, including Haflong MLA Bir
Bhadra Hagjer and a couple of journalists
and staff of the Assembly were found posi-
tive. On Friday, five persons who were test-
ed along with 100 others were found posi-
tive. Over 25 legislators have tested posi-
tive for the virus so far.
Meanwhile, according to the notices re-
ceived by the Assembly Secretariat from
various departments, 21 bills are likely to
come up during the session. Among the new
Bills are The Birangana Sati Sadhini Rajyik
Vishwaidyalaya Bill, 2020, The Assam Ag-
ricultural Produce & Livestock Marketing
(Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, As-
sam MSME (Facilitation of Establishment
and Operation) Bill, 2020 and The Assam
Skill University Bill, 2020.
Petition seekshigh court
interventionImplementation ofBodo peace pact
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Ra-
jkumar Prithviraj Narayan
Dev Mech and Thulunga
Basumatary, the two youths
who were instrumental be-
hind the recent peace talks
between all the factions of
NDFB and the Union govern-
ment, have filed a writ peti-
tion at the Gauhati High Court
seeking intervention to ex-
pedite the implementation of
the third Bodo Peace Accord
or Memorandum of Settle-
ment, 2020.
SEE PAGE 3
DelimitationCommissionmembers tovisit NE soonSPL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, Aug 30:
The Delimitation Commis-
sion is all set to redraw the
Lok Sabha and Assembly
constituencies of Assam,
Manipur, Nagaland and Aru-
nachal Pradesh besides Jam-
mu and Kashmir.
The Commission mem-
bers will soon visit the North-
eastern States and the Union
Territory after preparing a
“broad framework” of the de-
limitation exercise, sources
said. The panel will seek
views of its ‘associate mem-
bers’ – a group of Lok Sab-
ha members and MLAs –
after drawing up the frame-
work, the sources added.
“The framework is pro-
posed to be developed on
carving out constituencies
based on the 2011 Census.
Only then would the Com-
mission visit the States to
meet locals. Once the frame-
work is drawn, it would also
interact with the associate
members to seek their views
and inputs,” said an official.
The Commission was set
up in March. It is headed by
former Supreme Court
judge Justice Ranjana Desai
(retd). Election Commission-
er Sushil Chandra is the rep-
resentative of the Election
Commission in the panel.
SEE PAGE 3
SEE PAGE 3
NRC publicationcompletes one year
Centre, Stateyet to clarify
stand oncitizenshipdocument
R DUTTA CHOUDHURY
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: As
publication of the National
Register of Citizens (NRC)
completes one year tomor-
row, the Central and State
governments are yet to clar-
ify their stand on the citizen-
ship document, while the proc-
ess of issuing rejection slips
to those whose applications
for inclusion of their names in
the NRC were rejected has
also not started. The 200 pro-
posed foreigners tribunals
(FTs) for hearing petitions of
those whose applications
were rejected have also not
started functioning as yet.
Applications of more than 19
lakh persons for inclusion of
names in the NRC were re-
jected as they failed to provide
adequate proof of citizenship
and their fate hangs in balance.
Though the process of issuing
rejection slips to those people
by the NRC authorities was
scheduled to start early this
year, the process was delayed
due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Such people can ap-
proach the FTs only after get-
ting the rejection slips. The list
of those whose names were
not included in the NRC in-
cludes around four lakh peo-
ple, who did not file claims af-
ter the publication of draft
NRC, and the government has
also not clarified its position on
the fate of those people.
The much awaited NRC
was prepared after years of
demands and agitations. Im-
mediately after the Assam
Agitation started, the AASU
submitted a memorandum to
the Prime Minister on Feb-
ruary 2, 1980 demanding that
the NRC of 1951 should be
updated.
SEE PAGE 3
Lockdown hitsfunctioning of
State info panelMANASH PRATIM DUTTA
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: The COVID-19 induced lockdown
has not only affected the socio-economic sector of the State
but is also posing a challenge for the citizens to enjoy their
democratic rights, especially the right to information.
The functioning of the Assam State Information Com-
mission was severely affected when there was a total re-
striction in inter-district movement. This led to a rise in
pending cases in the Commission.
During this period, the Commission had arranged virtu-
al hearings for RTI appeals filed by the public from across
the State. Unfortunately, as stated by a source, only 40 per
cent of such cases could be disposed of.
“The main reason behind the low rate of success in
virtual hearings is poor internet connectivity in most parts
of the State. Moreover, most people, including both peti-
tioners and officials, were found not to be techno-savvy. So
in most cases, the attempt to dispose of cases through
virtual hearings went futile,” the source said.
During virtual hearings, the Commission mainly failed in
disposing of complicated cases related to various State gov-
ernment departments. Till July 31, around 2,000 cases were
pending with the Commission. Interestingly, among those
cases, around 1,200 were filed by RTI activist Dulal Bora.
At present, by following all COVID-19 related norms,
the Commission is conducting three virtual hearings and
eight physical hearings every working day.
SEE PAGE 3
Medical oxygen suppliersnot paid for months
RITURAJ BORTHAKUR
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: De-
spite reminders from the
Central government, the As-
sam government has failed to
clear the dues of medical gas
suppliers.
A day after Health Minis-
ter Himanta Biswa Sarma
indicated that the State could
face a shortage of medical
oxygen given the growing
demand for COVID-19 pa-
tients suppliers told this
newspaper that some of
them have been not paid
since last year.
While one supplier said his
outstanding amount could be
over Rs 1.5 crore, another said
he has not being paid Rs 3
crore. In most of the cases, the
last payment to the suppliers
was made in March last year.
There are around five
main vendors who supply
medical gases to the health
institutions.
“We have information that
other states like West Ben-
gal have cleared the bills of
the suppliers till July this
year. In view of the pandem-
ic, the Union Health Minis-
try has reminded the State
government to make regu-
lar payments, but nothing is
happening here,” another
vendor said.
SEE PAGE 3
LATE CITY
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 20202 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and White House adviser Jared Kushner make joint statements to the pressabout the Israeli-United Arab Emirates peace accords in Jerusalem on Sunday. Kushner is trumpeting the recent agreementby Israel and the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations as an historic breakthrough and said‚ “the stage isset‚” for other Arab states to follow suit. – AP/PTI
1 killed in Portland as Trumpsupporters clash with protesters
saying in a statement.
It said police officers have
secured the entire block at the
crime scene and are
investigating the shooting as a
homicide, adding “no suspect
information is being released
at this time”.
“There have been some
instances of violence between
demonstrators and counter-
demonstrators. Officers have
intervened and in some cases
made arrests,” it tweeted.
The US has witnessed
massive protests against
racism and police brutality after
George Floyd, a 46-year-old
unarmed African-American
man, died in Minneapolis on
May 25 after a white police
officer kneeled on his neck for
nearly nine minutes.
In his acceptance speech of
the Republican Party’s
nomination on Thursday night,
Trump did not address the
issue of racism, but instead
touted job numbers for African-
Americans and doubled down
his support of law-enforcement
agencies. – IANS
MOSCOW, Aug 30: Russian President
Vladimir Putin said that his country
recognises Alexander
Lukashenko the legitimate
President of Belarus.
“We recognise the
legitimacy of the presidential
elections in Belarus. And as
you know, I have
congratulated Alexander
Lukashenko on his victory,”
Putin said in a televised
interview on Saturday.
He recalled that Belarus
had invited the Office for
Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe to
monitor the elections, though they did not
come, reports Xinhua news agency.
“This immediately makes us think that, in
Russia recognises Lukashenkoas legitimate Belarusian Prez
fact, a position on the results of the elections
had already been formulated,” he said.
Putin said that he “has
every reason” to doubt the
honesty of those who object
to the results of the
Belarusian elections.
Belarus has been
witnessing mass protests
after incumbent President
Lukashenko, who has been
in office since 1994, won a
sixth term in the August 9
elections, with the
Opposition refusing to
recognise the results.
The European Union does not recognise
the results either and has threatened to
impose sanctions on individuals
responsible for violence, repression and
election fraud. – IANS
HONG KONG, Aug 30: Of-
ficials of the Hong Kong Spe-
cial Administrative Region
(HKSAR) government called
on residents to actively par-
ticipate in the upcoming uni-
versal community testing of
Covid-19 and expected that it
will help Hong Kong return
normal at an early date.
“With more people partici-
pating in the testing, the faster
will Hong Kong contain the
epidemic, Chief Secretary for
Administration Matthew
Cheung said on Sunday in an
online article.
Cheung said the testing
programme is aimed at
screening asymptomatic pa-
tients and cutting the trans-
mission chains of the virus as
soon as possible.
The massive testing due to
start on Tuesday will be
launched for free and on a vol-
untary basis, and the govern-
‘Universal COVID testing’ tohelp HK return to normal
ment has reiterated the per-
sonal data of participants will
be well protected. So far, more
than 400,000 residents have
registered for the testing,
Xinhua news agency reported.
Financial Secretary of the
HKSAR government Paul
Chan also appealed to busi-
nesses and commerce cham-
bers to encourage their em-
ployees to take the
coronavirus tests in his online
blog on Sunday.
Only after the invisible trans-
mission chains are stopped, the
HKSAR government will be
able to focus on reviving the
economy and helping improve
people’s incomes, as well as
resuming normal travels of
Hong Kong residents to the
mainland and Macao, Chan said.
In the face of the Covid-19
challenges, economic stimulus
and relief measures of the
HKSAR government has
boosted the deficit by nearly
290 billion Hong Kong dollars
(37.41 billion US dollars) and
the fiscal reserves have
dropped to about 800 billion
Hong Kong dollars.
Chan said the deficit in-
crease is unsustainable and the
HKSAR government has to
save energy for economic and
financial uncertainties ahead,
as well as possible another
round of epidemic outbreak in
the future.
Hong Kong’s Centre for
Health Protection reported 15
new cases on Sunday, bringing
the total confirmed cases to
4,801. So far, COVID-19 has
caused 88 deaths in Hong
Kong, and 351 patients are still
hospitalised. – IANS
New oil, gasfields discoveryin Saudi Arabia
RIYADH, Aug 30: Saudi
Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin
Salman Al Saud announced on
Sunday the discovery of two
oil and gas fields in the
kingdom, the Saudi Press
Agency reported.
The two fields, Hadat Al-
Hajrah gas field in the Al-Jawf
region and Abraq Al-Talul oil
field in the northern border
region, were discovered by
the Saudi Arabian Oil
Company (Saudi Aramco),
Xinhua news agency reported.
Saudi Aramco will work on
assessing the quantities of oil,
gas and condensate in the
two fields, as well as digging
more wells to determine
their area and size, the
minister said. – IANS
Activists topplestatue of 1stCanadian PMOTTAWA, Aug 30: Activists
in Montreal have toppled a
statue of Canada’s first Prime
Minister, John A MacDonald,
who was linked to policies that
killed many indigenous people
in the late 19th century, the
media reported on Sunday.
Video captured the moment
the statue’s head flew off and
bounced on the pavement
nearby, the BBC reported.
Quebec Premier Francois
Legault condemned the
incident as “unacceptable”.
“Destroying parts of our
history is not the solution,”
he said in a tweet on Saturday.
– IANS
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 3
NATIONAL
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Pakistan has pur-chased from China real-time satellite data, com-prising high definition video, optical and hyperspectral imagery, that also can provide it theprecise position of Indian Army camps acrossthe Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
Intelligence sources said that Pakistan has en-tered into a contract with China to procure Jilin-1satellite data for 2020. The Jilin constellation com-prises a network of ten satellites in orbit withcapability of global coverage and it can revisit anylocation twice a day. “Resolution of panchromaticimage provisioned by Jilin-1 is 0.72 m and multi-spectral image is 2.88 m,” a source said.
Jilin is China’s commercial remote sensingsatellite run by the Chang Guang SatelliteTechnology Co Ltd. In 2019, Pakistan had pur-chased data of the advanced land observationsatellite phased array type L Band syntheticaperture radar and Jilin-1, sources said.
It has stated that it is procuring data for landand resources surveying, monitoring of naturaldisasters, agriculture research, urban construc-tion and other activities. In 2018, China hadlaunched two remote sensing satellites for Paki-stan, claiming that it would monitor progress of
17 killed in Odisha floodsBHUBANESWAR, Aug 30: As many as 17 people have died,
while over 14 lakh people in 20 districts were affected due tofloods in Odisha, the State Government said here today.
A total of 896 gram panchayats, 3,256 villages, 21 urban localbodies and 75 wards have been hit by the flood. The 20 districtsaffected due to floods are Angul, Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak,Boudh, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguda,Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khordha, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Nuapa-da, Puri, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundergarh. – IANS
‘Eye on J&K’: Pakistan buysChina’s Jilin-1 satellite data
the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).The satellites – PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A –
were launched using a Long March-2C rocket.A network of infrastructure projects that
are currently under construction throughoutPakistan that will connect China’s Xinjiang prov-ince with the Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balo-chistan province, giving China an opening tothe Arabian Sea, the 3,218-kilometre CPEC, adream project of Chinese President Xi Jingpingin which China has sunk about $19 billion, runsalong the disputed area of Gilgit-Baltistan re-gion of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Both China and Pakistan are currently areengaged in a confrontation with India at theirborders. For the first time, India finds itselfstretched between the border with Chinawhere it is locked in an intense standoff withthe People Liberation Army and the borderwith Pakistan where it faces incessant cross-border firing from the hostile Pakistan Army.
Pakistan increased bombardment of Indianterritory, violating the Line of Control (LoC)ceasefire agreement as China started trans-gressions in eastern Ladakh, creating a twofront war-like situation for India. – IANS
Medical oxygen ...(Contd from page 1)
The issue was raised at a video conference held under thedirections of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industryamong the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation(PESO) nodal officer, All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers’Association president, AIIGMA coordinator and medical oxy-gen manufacturers ten days ago.
The suppliers raised the issue of delay of payments fromhospitals for oxygen cylinders supply, sources said, addingthat “the PESO nodal officer taking note of the issue, as-sured the concerned members that the payment issue willbe taken up with the authorities and requested the mem-bers not to stop supply of oxygen cylinders even in case ofdelayed payments”.
It is learnt that manufacturing units of some suppliers havebeen even slapped power disconnection notice by the APDCLfor failure to clear outstanding electricity bills amounting toseveral lakhs of rupees.
While the State government says it is exploring options toimport oxygen in case the demand rises, the issue of non-payment is a regular affair here since the last few years.
After the payments were held back for over a year, thesuppliers had threatened to cut off supply on at least two occa-sions earlier.
“If the payments are made regularly, we can equip ourselvesand ramp up production to meet the growing demand,” one ofthe vendors said.
Currently, there are 433 COVID-19 patients on oxygen sup-port, according to data provided by the Health Minister onSaturday.
The total oxygen requirement now, including for non-COV-ID patients, is 25 metric tonnes daily, while the companies inthe State produce around 37.86 metric tonnes.
NRC publication ...(Contd from page 1)
The AASU reiterated the demand again in 1990 in a mem-orandum to the Central government. In 1999, in an official-level talk on the implementation of the Assam Accord, it wasdecided that the NRC would be updated and the Centre agreedto pay Rs 20 lakh for the same immediately. But the govern-ment failed to start the process. A tripartite talk on the im-plementation of the Assam Accord was held on May 5, 2005,under the chairmanship of the then Prime Minister, Dr Man-mohan Singh, where it was decided that the NRC would beprepared within a time frame of two years and the Stategovernment created a ‘Directorate of NRC’. But the processdid not get off the ground.
In 2010, the Centre decided to start a pilot project in tworevenue circles – Chhaygaon and Barpeta – but it was sus-pended following violent protests by a section of people inBarpeta. Following the incident, a group of ministers wasformed to formulate modalities, while the AASU and 29organisations representing different ethnic groups of theState joined hands to hold talks with the government on themodalities.
The process again resumed with the appointment of a StateCoordinator for the NRC in 2013 and the process gained mo-mentum after the Supreme Court started monitoring the proc-ess. The partial draft of the NRC was published on December31, 2017 and the final draft was published on July 30, 2018,leaving out the names of 40 lakh people. The final NRC waspublished on August 31 last year after hearing of the claims andobjections.
However, different organisations expressed their reserva-tion on the number of persons whose names were not includedas they feel that the actual number of foreigners living in As-sam should have been much more than 19 lakh. Commentingon the issue, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said,“We are not rejecting the NRC as the process was monitoredby the Supreme Court. But we have reservation on the numberof rejections. The government should take remedial measuresfor corrections.”
The AASU has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court,seeking remedial measures to make corrections in the NRC.At the same time, the student body alleged that the BJP-ledgovernment was trying to sabotage the NRC to bring in theCitizenship (Amendment) Act.
Lockdown hits ...(Contd from page 1)
The source said that during the lockdown period, filing ofappeals also came down drastically. Before the medical emer-gency situation, the Commission used to receive around140 appeals every month. But during the period from Aprilto July, it received only around 250 appeals. As the numberof pending cases is very high, the Commission is expectingto start hearing of cases filed during the lockdown periodfrom November.
When contacted for his comments on the challenges facedby the Commission amid the pandemic situation, State ChiefInformation Commissioner AP Rout said, “Some challeng-es will always be there, but we have to work hard. Now ourprime concern is to dispose of a case within the shortestperiod of time.”
Petition seeks ...(Contd from page 1)
The petition mainly seeks immediate implementation of para3.1, para 9.3 and para 9.4 of the accord.
As per para 3.1, a commission will be appointed under para-graph 14 of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution soon aftersigning of the accord. The commission will make recommen-dation regarding inclusion of villages contiguous to the Bod-oland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) and having majority oftribal population.
Para 9.3 says that a committee headed by the IGP (SpecialBranch), Assam, with representatives from other departments asmembers, will make an assessment of rehabilitation needs of theNDFB members based on age profile, educational qualification, gen-eral area of residence, etc., while the committee may also involvesuccessful entrepreneurs or NGOs too. The committee has al-ready been formed, but the assessment is yet to be carried out.
Para 9.4 mentions that criminal cases registered againstmembers of the NDFB factions for non-heinous crimes shallbe withdrawn by the Government of Assam as per proceduresestablished by law and the criminal cases registered in connec-tion with heinous crimes shall be reviewed case by case, ac-cording to the existing policy on the subject.
Significantly, before filing the writ petition, both the petition-ers had apprised Union Home minister Amit Shah and ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowal of non-implementation of thethird Bodo Peace Accord.
Delimitation ...(Contd from page 1)
In May, the Lok Sabha Speaker had nominated 15 MPs fromJammu and Kashmir, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and ArunachalPradesh as ‘associate members’ to assist the panel in redraw-ing Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies.
The Assam government has already asked Deputy Commis-sioners of all districts to prepare statistical data and map show-ing all latest administrative units and developmental units forsubmission to the Commission.
The directions sent in the first week of this month by theState election department ordered local administrations tocollect statistical data of 19 districts, except Karbi Anglong,West Karbi Anglong, Dhubri, South Salmara, Biswanath, Goal-para, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Hojai, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Charaid-eo and Kokrajhar, which have already submitted the data.
All districts have to submit good quality maps showing all thelatest administrative units, developmental units, for onward sub-mission to the Delimitation Commission, the order stated. “Forthe sake of accuracy, unambiguity in identifying unit and locali-ties, the data and maps to be supplied to the Commission shall bein English language only. Names should be clearly legible andspellings are to be correct,” the order said.
4-day Assembly ...(Contd from page 1)
The government is also likely to move Bills for two amend-ments in the existing labour laws.
The Cultural Affairs department will bring The Assam Her-itage (Tangible) Protection, Preservation and Conservation andMaintenance Bill, 2020. Also, The Moran Autonomous CouncilBill, 2020, The Matak Autonomous Council Bill, 2020, TheKamatapur Autonomous Council Bill, 2020 and The Bodo Ka-chari Welfare Autonomous Council Bill, 2020, which were in-troduced during the Budget Session on March 24, have alsobeen listed.
The government will place the Supplementary Demands for2020-21 during the session. During the session, the Opposi-tion is likely to raise issues related to the COVID-19 pandemicand impact of the lockdown. Various restrictions have beenimposed inside the Assembly in view of the pandemic.
MANGALURU, Aug 30: Karnataka’s ruling BJP presidentand the party’s Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha member NalinKumar Kateel has been admitted to a private hospital hereafter testing positive for the coronavirus, an official said onSunday.
“Kateel is in a private hospital in the city on a doctor’s advicefor treatment after testing positive for COVID-19. He is asymp-tomatic,” the party official told IANS.
Mangaluru is a port city on the west coast, about 360 kmfrom Bengaluru in the southern State.
“Though I have no symptoms, my COVID test has comepositive. I have got admitted to a hospital on a doctor’s advice.I will recover fast with all your blessings and good wishes,”tweeted Kateel in Kannada.
The three-time lawmaker also advised all who came in con-tact with him recently, to undergo a COVID test and isolate attheir homes. State Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar,said he was saddened to know that Kateel had tested positivefor COVID-19. “I pray to god that he recovers fast and get backto work,” Sudhakar tweeted. – IANS
MYSURU, Aug 30: Clinicaltrial of the Covishield vaccine,developed by the Universityof Oxford, began at the JSSHospital in Mysuru, an officialsaid on Sunday.
“The clinical trial of Covishieldbegan on Saturday at our hospi-tal, which is the only institute inKarnataka to have been select-ed by the Indian Council of Med-ical Research (ICMR) for veri-fying its effect and efficacy on acoronavirus patient,” the officialtold this new agency here.
Similar trials are under wayat 16 other institutes acrossthe country. The 1,800-bedJagadguru Sri Shivarathri(JSS) Hospital is run by theSuttur Mutt at Suttur villageon the banks of the Kabini riv-er in Nanjungud.
Once the trials in three phas-es are completed and submit-ted for validation, the Pune-
Karnataka BJP chief testspositive for COVID-19
COVID vaccine trialbegins in Mysuru
based Serum Institute of Indiawill produce the vaccine candi-date in partnership with theBritish drug major, AstraZene-ca, which has its Indian opera-tions in Bengaluru.
“The vaccine dose was ad-ministered to five persons whovolunteered for the phase-2trial after investigation andmonitoring,” the official point-ed out.
The trials began on the105th ‘jayanti mahotsava’ of SriShivarathri Rajendra Swami.
According to PharmacyCouncil of India president BSuresh, who is the pro-chan-cellor of the JSS Academyof Higher Education and Re-search, vital parameters ofvolunteers like body tem-perature, blood pressureand heart beats werechecked before commencingthe trial. – IANS
4 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
MESSAGE FOR TODAY
Well-behaved women rarely make history.
– ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
One year of NRCOne year has passed since the day the much-awaited
National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in As-
sam, but till date, the Central and State governments have
not clearly spelt out the measures to be taken on the same
and even the process of issuing the rejection slips to those
whose applications for inclusion of names in the NRC were
rejected has not started. After the publication of the draft
of the NRC on July 30, 2018, the BJP-led Central Govern-
ment had claimed credit for updating the NRC, but the
Centre is also quiet after the publication of the final NRC
on August 31 last year. The applications of more than 19
lakh persons for inclusion of names in the NRC were re-
jected as they failed to provide adequate proof of their
citizenship and as per law, such people have the right to
file petitions in the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) with the
rejection slips to be issued by the NRC authorities. The
Government also decided to set up 200 additional FTs to
hear such petitions and appointed members for them. How-
ever, the FTs are yet to start functioning and the members
appointed on contract basis for a period of one year are
now attached with the existing Tribunals. But the 1600
individuals selected for appointment in various posts of
the Tribunals are yet to be appointed and their fate is not
known. Of course, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic
have delayed the process of issuing rejection slips, but the
Central and State governments should at least make their
stand clear on the NRC immediately.
It is always suspected that the electoral rolls of Assam
contained names of a large number of foreign nationals
and during the process of updating the NRC also, a good
number of fake of forged voters’ identity cards were de-
tected. It is a fact that it is not possible to strike down the
names of all those whose applications for inclusion of names
in the NRC were rejected from the electoral rolls. As such
people have the right to file petition before the FTs. But
the list of those whose applications were rejected include
around four lakh people, who did not file claims after the
publication of the draft NRC and it can be assumed that
they are not Indian citizens. The Government should have
approached the Election Commission for striking down
the names of such persons from the electoral rolls as no
foreign national should be allowed to cast vote. Moreover,
it is often alleged that a substantial number of foreigners
living in Assam did not apply for inclusion of names in the
NRC for the fear of getting detected and there is every
possibility that names of some such persons may be in-
cluded in the electoral rolls. The Election Commission
should compare the NRC and the electoral rolls immedi-
ately to check whether names of any persons who did not
submit application for inclusion of name in the NRC was
included in the electoral rolls.
Clarity neededA great deal of confusion seems to prevail at the national
as well as the regional level as to what activities actually
are permitted now that we are on the threshold of Septem-
ber when more relaxations are envisaged. This is because
announcements are emerging from too many centres leav-
ing the general public flabbergasted as to what needs to be
done. For instance, Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay
Krishna, reacting to the negligent manner in which some
citizens of Guwahati had been flouting social distancing
norms, recently warned that if people in this city continue
to do this, the Assam Government may impose another
lockdown. This is an utterly irresponsible statement com-
ing from the top bureaucrat of the State, since it has creat-
ed uncertainty in the minds of the public, coercing many to
either cancel or defer their immediate plans. In this con-
text, it is salutary to note that the Union Ministry of Home
Affairs in its latest guidelines for further relaxations has
decreed that States can no longer impose lockdowns out-
side containment zones without the Centre’s permission
and must not seal borders. Thus the Assam Chief Secre-
tary owes the people immediate clarification as to what
exactly the administration envisages. Among other things,
the Centre’s guidelines allow metro services to start from
September 7 and larger gatherings in a limited manner
from September 21, while senior students can voluntarily
come to schools.
Perhaps taking his cue from last of the above relaxa-
tions, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma
has said that classes for Standard 12 and final year of
undergraduate programmes will commence on Septem-
ber 15 in ‘informal and experimental’ way, with heads of
institutions making four-five small groups, which will
come and interact with teachers in classes. He further
clarified that these informal classes will continue till Sep-
tember 30, but will be discontinued if any student or teach-
er tests positive in-between. One does not really see
much utility in such an arrangement except perhaps to
view the volunteer students and teachers as guinea
pigs whose health conditions will enable the administra-
tion to decide whether to go in for full-scale opening of
educational institutions. The Centre has allowed hold-
ing of social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural,
religious and political functions with a maximum 100
people from September 21, but has not clarified as to
how such numbers would be monitored to ensure ob-
servance. Such broad classifications and parameters will
result in social events of all kinds many of which might
turn out to be super-spreaders. Also, at the State level,
there remains ambiguity about continuation of steps
such as weekend lockdowns, night curfew and its tim-
ing, duration of shops being allowed to remain open et
al. It is expected that State governments will work in
sync with the Centre in imposing relaxation measures
while clarifying the moves before the public.
oliticians make pledges
to please people. People
who believe that the
pledges made by the
politicians before the election will
be fulfilled in their lifetime are
naive at best, or rather, ever hope-
ful. What awaits them inadvert-
ently is disappointment and even
disillusionment.
At a time when Sarbananda
Sonowal’s five-year term is head-
ing for its completion some months
later, the pledges he along with his
comrades made before the election
are now obviously started ringing
on our ears louder. Besides the
BJP’s much-talked ‘Electricity, Road
and Water’ slogan, the State BJP had
decided to woo the people of As-
sam with another pledge, knowing
it well how large influx of Bangla-
deshi immigrants make the lives of
people insecure and apprehensive
about their future. So nothing was
more apt than an assurance to en-
sure the security of their Jati, Mati,
Bheti, or ‘Nationality, Land and Foun-
dation’. And it worked like a magic
wand and presented the BJP with a
sweeping victory in the last Assem-
bly election. And how could not be
in a State, in which majority of its
citizens have been living in constant
fear and apprehensions about being
outnumbered by Bangladeshis, who
by virtue of the Assam Accord, and
before that by all illicit means or by
political patronage, consolidated in
Assam and became citizens of In-
dia? However, that slogan is now a
forgotten chapter and any mention
of it only embarrasses the pledge-
takers. The first thing the newly-
crowned Chief Minister Sonowal
did was to pay a visit to the NRC
head office to oversee the ongoing
P
Lettersto the
EDITOR
Privatization of LGB airport
Sir, – The decision of privatiza-
tion of the LGB airport, Guwahati
by the Central Government is
indeed a matter of serious concern.
The letter under the caption
‘Another case of impropriety’ by
Hiren Gohain (AT, August 27) has
very rightly focused on some basic
points in regards to the matter. We
believe privatization of the said
airport might defame the legendary
personality, the Prime Minister of
Assam late Gopinath Bardoloi. We
should not forget his contributions
towards Assam. At the time of
grouping, Assam was about to be
included in the then East Pakistan
(now Bangladesh) during the later
part of the British rule, but for his
bold stand Assam was saved from
the conspiracy. The airport was
named after him as a token of love
and respect of the people of Assam.
But if it is privatized, there is every
possibility of the airport getting a
new name. This would definitely
defame the very prestige of
Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi as
well as the people of Assam.
NRC updating process. The proc-
ess, which the erstwhile Tarun Go-
goi-led Congress Government had
put on the backburner, was finally
set in motion by the Supreme Court
besides constantly monitoring its
progress. Yet that visit by Sonowal
exuded great hope in the minds of
people about its speedy completion
and subsequent implementation.
And, ironically, one can now clearly
see where it came to a
grinding halt as the final
NRC list could weed out
only a small number of im-
migrants. While its Prime
Minister declared with
raised baritone and tight-
ened fist in 2015 poll cam-
paign that all the illegal
Bangladeshis would be
thrown out of Assam, the
BJP is now not only shy-
ing away from this chest-
thumping pledge but says
that even those identified
by the NRC updating
process as non-citizens
will not be deported back
to Bangladesh. The pri-
mary reason is that the
NRC updating process
has actually identified
more Hindu Bangladesh-
is than the Muslims. No-
body really had a clue that the irony
of the present time would unfold in
this manner.
It is therefore apparent that the
interest of ‘Nationality, Land and
Foundation’ of the indigenous peo-
ple of Assam have never been in
the BJP’s scheme of things, but rath-
er absurdly, the interest of the Bang-
ladeshi Hindu immigrants. Even
more paradoxically, while the pledg-
es made for the citizens of Assam
were put in cold storage, the BJP
remained hell-bent on fulfilling an-
other one, the main task of which
was to extend citizenship to the Hin-
du Bangladeshis coming to Assam
after 1971 as beneficiaries of reli-
gious persecution in their countries
of origin. It was, therefore, for this
interest alone, which almost made
the purpose of the NRC updating
process redundant, the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act (CAA) had been
passed in the Parliament on Decem-
ber 12, 2019. However, the CAA’s
journey had not been smooth as
large-scale protests and consequent
violence rocked the entire Brah-
maputra Valley to bring to a stand-
still the normal life almost for three
months, which resulted in the loss
of 27 lives besides the destruction
of huge public properties. The anti-
CAA movement continued unabat-
ed until mid-March this year start-
ing from late December 2019 with-
out showing any sign of a halt.
The BJP’s firefighters had de-
vised another strategy to hypno-
tize the agitating masses with an
incredible idea. What they recalled
was Clause 6 of the Assam Accord
to relieve the government from the
trouble, a hitherto unresolved is-
sue remained to be implemented
for long 37 years ever since the
signing of the Assam Accord in
1985. So the Government an-
nounced that Clause 6 of the Ac-
cord would be imple-
mented sooner than lat-
er and a committee
would be set up. The
committee would make
recommendations as to
how to ‘enact constitu-
tional, legislative and ad-
ministrative safeguards
to protect, preserve and
promote the cultural, so-
cial and linguistic identi-
ty and heritage of the
Assamese people’ as
mentioned in Clause 6.
The Centre hurriedly
notified on January 7,
2019, about the forma-
tion of a nine-member
high-level committee
headed by retired IAS
officer MP Bezbaruah,
but experienced a hic-
cough when Bezbaruah
and most of the members rebuffed
the enticement move. Much later
on July 16, 2019, the Centre again
formed an 12-member committee
headed by Justice (retired) Biplab
Kumar Sarma, which after months
of deliberation finally submitted its
report to the Chief Minister Sar-
bananda Sonowal on February 25,
2020 because Home Minister Amit
Shah was circumventing on receiv-
ing it. Shah’s stance, besides the
Home Ministry-appointed member
secretary Satyendra Garg’s refus-
al to sign the final report, speaks
volumes about the fact that the re-
port did not suit the BJP’s purpose
whatsoever. Apparently, for this
reason, the Government sat quiet-
ly until the day when the AASU
stirred the hornet’s nest by releas-
ing the Committee report on Au-
gust 11 last, much to the embar-
rassment of the BJP-led Govern-
ment. To defend his beleaguered
party, the BJP’s agent provocateur
Himanta Biswa Sarma, almost rid-
iculed and questioned the 12-mem-
ber high-level committee, by stat-
ing sarcastically that a mere 12-
member committee cannot decide
about the definition of ‘Assamese
people’ and that the State Legisla-
ture has to ratify it. Interestingly,
he also indicated that as this Gov-
ernment has little time in their
hand, it can be ratified only by the
next Government, if they so de-
sire. So the last hope of allaying the
apprehensions from the minds of
indigenous people of Assam has
gone into thin air. Now the moot
question is, who told the BJP to
form a 12-member panel to decide
on issues pertaining to Clause 6 of
the Assam accord if they knew a
120- or 1200-member panel would
have been more adequate?
To quote Dylan, ‘The answer is
my friend blowin’ in the wind’. The
fire dousing measures are no long-
er essential now, as the anti-CAA
movement had to stop because of
the Covid-19 pandemic. The indig-
enous people of Assam were cheat-
ed once again, with a pledge to
please them for a very short time.
Who knows, probably we have to
wait for another election, another
government, or maybe for infinity
to see the rainbow on the horizon.
Asompran Harendra Nath Barua: Ideals he fought forhe repercussions of the
national issues like the cre-
ation of India and Pakistan
in 1947, Assam Agitation
of the early 1980s, the Assam Ac-
cord of 1985 and more recently,
the updating of the National Regis-
ter of Citizens in Assam reminds us
of Asompran Harendra Nath Barua,
who virtually dedicated his life for
these issues of national importance.
Harendra Nath Barua (1909-1987)
was concerned with these national
issues from the pre-Independence
era till the later period of his life. He
worked decisively to protect Assam
and the interests of the Assamese
against the forces working to merge
Assam with Pakistan during India’s
independence movement. His great-
ness lies in the fact that during this
unstable period of Indian history, he
stood against the disintegration of his-
torical Assam in favour of the fulfil-
ment of the national urge of
the Assamese and to save Assam
from being swallowed by Pakistan.
These facts and realities are so
crucial that even after 73 years of
independence, the issue of influx from
East Pakistan is still mounting in As-
sam. Governments have come and
gone, but the spirit of nationalism,
which Harendra Nath Barua eulo-
n Dr HN Dutta
gized, has always been compro-
mised and the issues of India’s so-
called national unity and integrity still
figure a threat, as the indigenous
people have become minority in their
own State of Assam. Barua exactly
waged this war of nationalism, in fa-
vour of Assam and the Assamese,
against the sinister designs of divide
and rule of the British.
For breaking social integrity in
Assam, the British introduced land
revenue and other commercial poli-
cies. The sole objectives were to
drain out the Indian resources to
London to meet the demands of
World War I and II, to encourage
enmity among the local people,
which victimized Assam too. Merg-
ing of the undivided Goalpara district
of Assam under the administrative
unit of the northeastern parts of Rang-
pur, now in Bangladesh, by the Brit-
ish facilitated the influx of the East
Bengal immigrants to Assam.
By doing this, the British encour-
aged the migration of the East Ben-
gal Muslim peasants to Assam for
extracting more revenue from the
agricultural land in Assam. The Brit-
ish, after the annexation of Assam in
1826, alienated the Assamese from
all forms of economic activities. They
introduced opium to destroy their
industriousness, all forms of eco-
nomic production and military zeal,
which they mastered during the
Ahom rule. This was done to devel-
op a British market for their
industrial products. Large groups of
labourers from Madhya Pradesh and
Odisha were brought for expanding
tea plantations in Assam, but the na-
tive tea growers were suppressed
and punished over trivial issues.
Politically, the British imperialistic
designs worked in Assam since 1913
and continued through the Provincial
Government of Assam in 1937,
wherein Syed Muhammad Saadullah
(1885-1955) played a major role till
1947. In 1938, Gopinath Bardoloi be-
came the Premier in Assam, but had
to resign in 1939 at the request of
Mahatma Gandhi for the outbreak of
World War II. Thus as a leader of the
Muslim League from 1939 to 1946,
Syed Saadullah was the Premier of
Assam. He supported the British,
reformed the land revenue system,
introduced the Line System, encour-
aged East Bengal Muslim immigrants
for the ‘Grow more food campaign’ in
Assam to generate more revenue for
the British. As a member of the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the All India
Muslim League, Saadullah took part
in its Lahore session where the Paki-
stan resolution took shape in 1940.
Later in 1946, Saadullah stood for the
inclusion of Assam in Pakistan.
A great visionary, Harendra Nath
Barua confronted these crucial issues
of apprehension of Assam being
merged with Pakistan. His challenge
was to restore the fallen Ahomraj
and to save it from the clutches of
imperialistic designs. Barua, being a
descendent of the Bharali Barua fam-
ily of the Ahom kings, was a patriot
in heart, a lawyer in education and a
journalist by practice. With this com-
bination, he waged a war against the
British designs, through his writings
to generate public opinion, and guide
the Congress Committee to protect
Assam from being merged with Pa-
kistan. Establishing firmly the facts
of Assam he projected the past his-
tory of Assam through his writings,
such as ‘Assam’s Position: A Short
History of Assam’, ‘People of Assam:
Race, Religion and Language’, ‘Re-
flections on Assam-cum-Pakistan’
(1944), ‘Assam Claim for Jalpaiguri
and Darjeeling: Problem and Corri-
dor’ (1946) and others during this
crucial period. In the process, he
helped Nabin Chandra Bardoloi and
others in the Assam Congress Com-
mittee to explain the apprehension
of the Assamese before Mahatma
Gandhi and Chakravarty Rajagopala-
chari. Understanding the issue, Gan-
dhi explained thus: “If you do not act
correctly now, Assam will be fin-
ished. Assam must not lose its soul.
It is an impertinent suggestion that
Bengal should dominate Assam in any
way. Else I will say that, Assam has
only many manikins, no men.”
In 1947, India and Pakistan
emerged as two independent coun-
tries. Assam lost Jalpaiguri and Cooch
Behar but retained her historical per-
sonality, as Assam was not included
in Pakistan. This achievement was
brought to the platform by Asom-
pran Harendra Nath Barua. But this
doesn’t mean that the relevance and
efforts of Barua and other Congress
leaders have ended with the passage
of time. These still persist as the
guidelines for the present and future
generations of Assam.
(Published on the occasion of late
Barua’s death anniversary today.)
T
Pledges to please
The State Government and the
people of Assam should raise voice
against this decision of the Central
Government to hand over the PSU
to a private group. Yours etc.,
DIPTIMAN BORTHAKUR,
Biswanath Chariali.
Drug menaceSir, – Assam is famous for its
natural beauty, landscape and
especially for its one-horned rhinos
all over the world. Recently, the
longest bridge of India, the Dhola-
Sadiya bridge at Chapakhowa, the
birthplace of Dr Bhupen Hazarika,
has added to its glorification. But,
unfortunately, Sadiya is becoming
the drug land of Assam. The town
is surrounded by Arunachal
Pradesh on its three sides. The
India-Myanmar border is only 60-
70 kms from Sadiya. So it has
become a shopping centre for the
drug peddlers. In our subdivision,
we are not in a position to count
the drug users nowadays among
the youths; such is the condition of
our young populace. The situation
can be understood by the fact that
no one is secured; most of the time
the drug users tend towards
heinous crimes, which often go
unreported due to the fear of
insecurity of the citizens. The
number of female addicts are
surprisingly high. Moreover, the
role of the police is deeply in
doubts, because of the fact that
drugs like brown sugar, heroin,
opium and marijuana are available
everywhere like pan masala and
cigarettes. There are no major
arrest being made so far and
criminals are freed without filing
any FIR. Yours etc., NIRMOL
KHANGIA, Sadiya.
OIL financial helpSir, – It is no denying a fact that
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 5
CITY
LOCAL FORECAST:
Generally cloudy skywith one or two spellsof rain ort h u n d e r s h o w e r s .Maximum andminimum temperaturesare most likely to be34°C & 26°Crespectively onMonday.
TEMPERATURE:
Max 34.2° C
Min 25.3° C
WEATHER
GUWAHATI
Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma inspecting a children COVID care centre after itsinauguration at the Bagri Children Block of the MMCH in Guwahati on Sunday. – UB Photos
Teachers still clueless about covering academic losses of students‘Online education did not work in most places of the State’
MANASH PRATIM DUTTA
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Al-
though the state government
is planning to resume the nor-
mal academic activities in As-
sam by instructing the teach-
ers to attend their duties at
their respective schools, it still
remains unclear how the
teachers will compensate for
the academic losses to stu-
dents, caused by the lockdown.
Notably, the online method
of learning has so far not yield-
ed any encouraging results in
the State. Especially, the ma-
jority of students who belong
to poor families in rural areas
have failed to derive benefits
of this method of education
mainly due to non-availability
of Android mobile phones with
them and poor Internet con-
nectivity.
Meanwhile, a section of peo-
ple opines that the reduction
of the syllabus is a very harm-
ful step for the education sec-
tor, which will cause obstacles
in preparing good human re-
sources.
Commenting on the issue,
Assam Madhyamik Sishak Aru
Karmachari Santha general
secretary Gobinda Kalita said,
“If the situation does not im-
prove very soon, then a good
number of students will lose
an academic year. Amid the
medical emergency, the aca-
demic activity practically has
come to a halt as the online
class method did not work in
most places.”
Kalita stated that around 80
per cent of students studying
in government high schools
have failed to continue with
their academic activities
through online classes. He
pointed out that as the situa-
tion still remains critical, most
of the parents will think twice
before sending their children
to schools.
“Government is proposing
to conduct classes in open spac-
es by maintaining social distanc-
ing. But I don’t think such a
step will work. So, a big chal-
lenge is waiting for us in the
near future,” Kalita added.
Ratul Chandra Goswami,
general secretary of the As-
sam State Primary Teachers’
Association, stated that in case
of lower primary students, it
will be a great challenge to im-
prove their attentiveness in
classes after such a huge gap.
“If the regular classes start,
then we have to resume the
syllabus from the beginning
because most of the students
have lost the link with the syl-
labus. So, we have to work
hard. Moreover, the school
dropout rate is also likely to
increase this time,” Goswami
asserted.
Kanak Kalita, general sec-
retary of the All Assam Ven-
ture High School Teachers’
Association, said the online
class only keeps a student en-
gage amid the lockdown but it
doesn’t fulfil the academic pur-
pose in real sense. “We are
really clueless about how to fill
the gap caused by the lock-
down. In such a situation, re-
ducing the syllabus will be very
harmful. It will cause a great
loss to students,” Kalita add-
ed.
Dibya Dutta, a high school
teacher, opines that most of the
students will not come to
schools without getting them-
selves vaccinated. “We will try
our best to compensate for the
loss to every student. But it
will be a very challenging task
for the teachers,” Dutta said.
As a damage control meas-
ure, noted educationist Dr
Amarjyoti Choudhury put
stress on the need for reme-
dial classes and special treat-
ment to weak students, includ-
ing those who have failed to
take the benefits of online class-
es. He further cited that the
issue is very critical and lack of
proper and timely steps will
cause inequality in the educa-
tion system.
Reacting on the issue, a sen-
ior education department offi-
cial Preetom Saikia said the
informal classes could be a so-
lution to address the problem.
He further informed that the
issue is under active consider-
ation of the state government.
CITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Kha-
di and Village Industries Com-
mission (KVIC) Chairman Vi-
nay Kumar Saxena said KVIC
is focused on promoting the
honey industry in the North
East while speaking at the first
online national conference on
honey titled ‘Honey Season
2020’ on Saturday. He compli-
mented FICCI on the unique
initiative taken up by the in-
dustry body to promote bee-
keeping and honey industry.
The conference was organ-
ised by the Federation of Indi-
an Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI) and
KVIC with support of the Di-
rectorate of Horticulture and
Food Processing.
He further said North East
has huge potential for honey
production, particularly mono-
floral honey with specific prop-
erties, like rubber honey in
Tripura. He also mentioned
that KVIC is working on de-
veloping mobile honey
processing units for the ben-
efit of beekeepers in remote
areas.
“KVIC has a set a world
record in distribution of bee
boxes in a single day. Under
the mission, 1,000 bee boxes
were distributed among vil-
lagers around Kaziranga,” he
added.
FICCI-Northeast Advisory
Council Chairman Ranjit Bar-
thakur highlighted the impor-
tance of integrating nature in
the decision-making process.
“The world view towards
nature positive business struc-
ture and estimations associat-
ed with opportunities and em-
ployment show that there
could be an annual savings and
revenue of 15 billion by 2030.
It is time that industries and
companies start building resil-
iency with the help of collec-
tive leadership and inspiring
companies, and governments
can learn from the current
COVID-19 pandemic and in-
tegrate nature into their deci-
sion-making process,” Bar-
thakur said.
Dr Subodh Jindal, President,
All India Food Processors As-
sociation, who was also present
during the conference, high-
lighted the importance of
changing the strategy of bee-
keeping in India to become a
global player. To compete glo-
bally, strict monitoring of quali-
ty standards is a must by adopt-
ing NMR (Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance) technology and ad-
equate market support to be
extended to the beekeepers.
Abdul Jalil, Director of Hor-
ticulture and Food Processing,
Government of Assam, also
spoke on the initiatives under-
taken by his department to
develop the honey industry in
the State.
Over 300 participants from
across the North East and oth-
er states participated in the
programme.
KVIC focuses on promotionof honey industry in NE
CITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: The
Maligaon-headquartered
Northeast Frontier Railway
(NFR) has undertaken vari-
ous infrastructure develop-
ment projects to improve the
average speed and punctuali-
ty of both passenger and
freight trains.
As most of the NFR is still
predominantly a single line
section, this affects the aver-
age speed and punctuality of
trains.
The smooth running of
freight trains is vital for main-
taining the supply of essential
and other commodities to all
the Northeastern States
which are landlocked. In view
of this, NFR is working to-
wards reducing the con-
straints in train movement and
works are on at various loca-
tions in this regard.
The major ongoing works
include construction of a new
bridge over the Teesta river
near Jalpaiguri in West Ben-
gal along with laying of a new
double line track of about 5.71
km, which is expected to be
completed by January 2021.
Track-laying and other
works between Betgara to
Gumanihat stations (46.34
km) in West Bengal is also
part of the new double line
work that is expected to be
completed by March 2021.
Once completed, the entire
portion from New Bon-
gaigaon to New Jalpaiguri will
have two railway tracks to
operate trains.
Work has also begun on the
new BG line from New Bon-
gaigaon to Kamakhya via
Rangiya (142 km) in Assam
and it is also expected to be
completed by March, 2023.
Work for the second BG line
in New Bongaigaon - Goalpara
Town - Kamakhya (176 km)
section in Assam is also pro-
gressing and targeted to be
completed by March, 2023.
Between Digaru and Hojai
stations in Assam, construc-
tion of a new double line (102
km) is in progress and it is
expected to be over by May,
2021. Once completed, the
capacity of train movement in
Guwahati - Lumding section
will increase substantially.
Construction of a new line
connecting Gauripur to Ab-
hyapuri as an alternative route
bypassing New Bongaigaon
(86.44 Km) in Assam is also
going on in full swing and ex-
pected to be completed by
February, 2021.
All these above works are
expected to reduce the exist-
ing constraints which affect
the punctuality and average
speed of trains in areas within
NFR’s jurisdiction to a sub-
stantial extent. NFR will be
in a position to handle more
trains and economic activity
within its service area.
NFR aims to improve speed,punctuality of trains
Unaccountedcash seized,one heldCITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30:
Police on Sunday seized Rs
6 lakh of unaccounted cash
at Tetelia and arrested one
person in this connection.
Acting on a tip-off, a
team from the Basistha
Police Station intercepted
Rustam Ahmed in the area
and seized the money from
his possession.
Two injuredin roadmishapCITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30:
Two persons received
grievous injuries in a road
accident on B Borooah
Road here last night.
According to police, the
accident occurred at 12.30
am after the driver lost
control of the vehicle.
A team of Latasil police
rushed to the spot and sent
the injured persons to
MMCH.
The injured persons
have been identified as
Pratik Bujarbaruah and
Manish Hazarika, both are
the residents of Ulubari.
Virtual mootcourtcompetitionCITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30:
NEF Law College,
Guwahati is going to
organise the Shivam Saraf
Memorial 1st National
Virtual Moot Court
Competition 2020 on
September 3, 4 and 5.
So far, students from 45
law colleges from across
the country registered
their names for the
competition.
The competition will be
organised in memory of its
student Shivam Saraf who
lost his life in March this in
an accident.
Justice Jasti Chela-
meshwar, former Judge of
Supreme Court of India, is
likely to inaugurate the
competition. Justice
Bhushan Gavi, sitting Judge
of Supreme Court, will
preside over the valedicto-
ry session.
Book onSankaradeva
praisedGUWAHATI, Aug 30: The
members of the Dispur Last
Gate namghar committee ap-
preciated the work of its sec-
retary Ramen Das who has
written a book titled Aketi Bak-
yat Guru Pranati on Mahapu-
rush Srimanta Sankaradeva.
The book is written in one
sentence which consists of
29,619 words.
The work of Das was also
recognised by India Book of
Records. – City Correspondent
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: The
Indian Association of Wom-
en’s Studies (IAWS) North-
east regional e-conference on
‘Gender during COVID-19:
Perspectives from North
East India’ was held from
August 25-27.
It attempted to address
the voices and experiences of
marginalised groups, espe-
cially in relation to women
from the Northeast and con-
sidered the diverse and man-
ifold issues which have im-
pacted their lives in the times
of COVID-19, stated a press
release.
The e-conference was joint-
ly hosted by 14 organisations,
including eight major univer-
sities and research institutes,
and women’s collectives and
NGOs from the region.
Addressed by Dr Meera
Velayudhan, president of
IAWS, Prof Ishita Mukhopad-
hyay, convenor and treasur-
er of IAWS, and Vice Chan-
cellor of Cotton University
Prof Bhabesh Chandra Gos-
wami, the conference opened
to a large virtual presence of
prominent academics and ac-
tivists from the region.
The exchange of views in
the e-conference has paved
new ways of understanding
the onslaught of COVID-19
and how it has amplified gen-
der inequality, disrupted ex-
isting modes of living in the
context of women, visible
both with respect to their
household dynamics and the
professional front, the re-
lease said.
“In this context, the three-
day discussions provided a
common platform to promi-
nent academicians and intel-
lectuals, scholars and re-
searchers to throw light on
those areas which would re-
flect on the coping mecha-
nisms of women in the
Northeast during the pan-
demic and to take note of
their unheard voices of resil-
ience,” it said.
E-conference focuses onCOVID-19 impact on women’s lives
CORRESPONDENT
JORABAT, Aug 30: Two
books written by Pankaj Ku-
mar Paroi, an employee of
Sonapur College, during the
lockdown were released at a
function held at Raha on Fri-
day.
Paroi made full use of his
free time during the lock-
down to pen the two books.
Aank Baank Alibat, a col-
lection of poems, and Mou-
monor Xadhu, a children’s
story book, were unveiled by
Dr Devabrot Khanikor, Prin-
cipal of Sonapur College.
Dr Khanikor appreciated
the talent and the initiative
of the author and expressed
his desire to see more such
creative works from him in
the days to come.
The function was organ-
ised under the auspices of
‘Akonir Kabita Ghar’, a chil-
dren literary society, adher-
ing to the COVID-19 guide-
lines.
Director of ‘Akonir Kabita
Ghar’ Abani Kumar Saikia,
former Principal of Raha
Higher Secondary School
Bijoya Gogoi and poet Prem
Narayan Nath spoke about
CITY CORRESPONDENT
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: The
Midway Journey, a citizens’ in-
itiative led by youth, organised
a webinar on waste handling,
including reduction and segre-
gation of waste, on Saturday.
The main objective of the
webinar was to spread aware-
ness about the global waste
crisis and how citizens can
contribute to improving the
situation.
“The Guwahati city ranked
303rd last year in Swachh Sur-
vekshan but this year it
dropped further down the list
to 356th position among 382
cities of the country. This
sheds light on the plight of
solid waste management sys-
tem of the city and role of the
citizens in handling the
waste,” a member of Midway
Journey said.
“We are also focusing on
our ongoing social experi-
ment titled ‘power of 300’
whereby we are promoting
recycling of milk and oil pack-
ets and polythene bags which
are usually not collected by
the waste collectors,” he said.
According to him, more
than 150 families in various
wards of Guwahati are segre-
gating and keeping the recy-
clable packets, which are col-
lected by their team and sends
them for recycling.
“The money generated by
recycling the discarded pack-
ets will be used for providing
ration to the families of waste
collectors who are facing a dif-
ficult time during the present
crisis,” he added.
Webinar on waste handling held
Books on poems, children’s stories released
the literary contributions of
Pankaj Kumar Paroi, who
hails from Raha in Nagaon
district.
Jatindra Kumar Paroi, a sa-
tirical poet and writer and
former HoD of Geography at
Raha College, lauded various
literary initiatives of ‘Akonir
Kabita Ghar’, which has pro-
duced a large number of bud-
ding literary talents.
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Aug 30: Sen-
ior journalist DN Chakravart-
ty, who is also the president
of the Guwahati Senior Citi-
zens’ Association (GSCA), has
been requested by the gen-
eral secretary of the Bhasha
Swahyd Station Swahid Sma-
ran Samiti of Tarapur, Silchar,
formed in 1961 following a
movement for the cause of
the Bengali language in the
Barak Valley, to exercise his
influence to get the necessary
clearance from the Assam
Government publicising the
name of the Silchar railway
station as Bhasha Swahid Sta-
tion Silchar.
Chakravartty said the As-
sam government should
demonstrate its goodwill and
the goodwill of the people of
the Brahmaputra Valley to-
wards the hopes and aspira-
tions of the people of the Bar-
ak Valley.
He requested Chief Minis-
ter Sarbananda Sonowal to
issue the necessary gazette
notification in this regard.
On the other hand, Chakra-
vartty conveyed his best wish-
es to over 400 members of
the Association on the occa-
sion of the 21st foundation of
the Association today.
The Association earlier de-
cided to felicitate retired Chief
Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi
for his performance as a legal
luminary for decades but the
foundation day could not be
celebrated today due to the
pandemic situation.
He paid tributes to the
memory of Justice Bholanath
Sarma, the founder president,
and former presidents Chief
Justice Dambarudhar Pathak,
Justice Haque, Kamaleswar
Bora and former general sec-
retary Prafulla Kumar Mahan-
ta for their leadership in
bringing up the Association.
He also recollected the
contributions of several past
members and office-bearers.
Silchar body’s request toGSCA president
Rly station’s renaming
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI, Aug 30:
Jansankhya Samadhan Founda-
tion held a webinar for its vol-
unteers from Assam in partic-
ular and North East in general
on Saturday. The national
chairman Anil Choudhary and
national secretary and in
charge of North East India
Krishna Murari took part in the
webinar. Assam Prant presi-
dent Sibaprasad Sarma, prant
coordinator Nipon Saikia, foun-
dation’s North East chapter
chairman Sailendra Pandey and
coordinator Lalji Sonari also
shared their views on the prob-
lems faced by North East In-
dia and means to tackle the
same. Volunteers from other
North East states also took part
in this webinar.
Jansankhya SamadhanFoundation’s webinar held
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 20206 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI NATIONAL
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Noting
that the global toy industry is
worth over Rs 7 lakh crore but
that India’s share is very small in
the sector, Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi on Sunday gave a clarion
call to be “vocal for local toys”,
stressing on the need for making
the country a toy hub.
Addressing his monthly radio
programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the
Prime Minister said India has the
talent and the ability to become a
toy hub. The Prime Minister said
that the toy industry is very diverse
and some of the regions in India are
being developed as toy clusters to
make the nation a toy hub.
Channapatna in Karnataka’s Ra-
managara, Kondapalli in Andhra
Pradesh’s Krishna, Thanjavur in
Tamil Nadu, Dhubri in Assam, and
Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh are among
the places in India which are being
developed in the toy sector.
Mentioning that there has been a
tradition of local toys in India, the
Prime Minister said there are sev-
eral expert toy craftsmen in India.
“There has been a rich tradition of
local toys in our country. There are
many talented and skilled artisans
who possess expertise in making
good toys,” Modi said. “You will be
surprised to know that the global
toy industry is worth more than Rs
7 lakh crore. Such a big business of
Rs 7 lakh crore but India’s share is
very little in this,” the Prime Minis-
ter said.
“Now, just spare a thought for a
nation which has so much of herit-
age, tradition, variety and young
population. Will it feel good to have
such little share in the toy market?
Not at all, you too won’t feel good
after hearing this.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic,
Modi said he was thinking about his
young friends and how they can get
more toys. He said that the best
toys are those that bring out crea-
tivity. In the National Education Pol-
icy, the Prime Minister said, a lot of
attention has been given on the im-
pact of toys on different aspects of
children’s lives. Learning while play-
ing, learning to make toys, visiting
toy factories, all these have been
made part of the curriculum, he said.
“Let us team up for toys. This
industry is very vast. We should fo-
cus on this industry be it cottage
industries, small industries and
MSMEs. Big industries and private
entrepreneurs too come in the am-
bit of this. The entire country will
have to work hard together to take
the toy industry forward,” the
Prime Minister said in his half-hour
address to the nation.
Modi said the country will have
to persevere together to promote
this. Mentioning the works of CV
Raju in Vishakhapatnam, the Prime
Minister said once the ‘Eti-Koppa-
kaa’ toys of his village were very
popular as these were made of
wood, and secondly, there are no
any angles or corners in these toys
anywhere.
“These toys were round from all
sides hence there was no scope for
injury to children. Raju has now
started a sort of a new movement
for ‘Eti-Koppakaa’ toys along with
the artisans of his village. By mak-
ing excellent quality ‘Eti-Koppakaa’
toys he has brought back the lost
glory of these local toys.”
Suggesting two things that can
be done through toys, Modi said we
must bring back the glorious past in
our lives and also spruce up our gold-
en future. Seeking support of those
trying to begin start-ups and new
businesses, he said this is the time
to be “vocal for local toys”.
“To my start-up friends, to our
new entrepreneurs, I say ‘Team up
for toys’. For everybody it is the
time to get vocal for local toys. Come,
let us make some good quality toys
for our youth. Toys should be such
that in their presence childhood
blooms and smiles. Let us make toys
which are favourable to the envi-
ronment too.” – IANS
‘Vocal for local toys’: PM Modistresses on making India toy hub
Funeral procession of martyr Prashant Sharma, who was killed in an encounter withmilitants in Pulwama late Friday night, in Muzaffarnagar on Sunday. – PTI
BJP supporters wearing Prime Minister Narendra Modi masks listen to his radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, in Kolkata on Sunday. – PTI
LUCKNOW, Aug 30: The
contentious issue of ‘love-jihad’
is on the rise in Uttar Pradesh.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
has instructed strict measures
be taken to curb harassment
against women and ‘love jihad’
incidents reported from many
districts, including Kanpur, La-
khimpur Kheri and Balrampur,
in the state.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP), which has been advo-
cating firm action against love-
jihad for a long time, demand-
ed that a law be enacted to curb
the menace.
Seeing the rise in such inci-
dents, Adityanath has instruct-
ed officials to chalk out an ac-
tion plan to prevent such inci-
dents. In recent days, cases of
love jihad in Meerut, Kheri and
Kanpur have been reported.
According to Additional Chief
Secretary Avnish Kumar
Awasthi, the Chief Minister
has asked for instant and strict
action against women’s harass-
ment and love jihad incidents.
Meerut, Kanpur and La-
khimpur Kheri have recently
reported cases of girls being
trapped under the pretext of
falling in love.
Madhuram Mishra, Vishwa
Hindu Parishad’s Kanpur unit
organisational head says, “The
cases of love jihad are quite
old. A gang is active in carry-
ing out such operations. In
Kanpur, Farrukhabad, Jhansi,
Etawah, Hamirpur, Lalitpur,
Fatehpur and other districts,
there have been cases of love-
jihad. People are in touch with
us. We are raising awareness
about it.”
Recently, a young girl in
Kanpur had released a video
on social media which went
viral, saying she would un-
dergo religious conversion
on the pretext of consummat-
PATNA, Aug 30: Suraj Kumar, a na-
tive of Vaishali was a part of the group
comprising eight persons that arrived
at the Jai Prakash Narayan Internation-
al airport here to catch a flight to na-
tional capital Delhi.
During an interaction with IANS on
Saturday, he said that his employer has
sent air tickets to group members to
reach Delhi to resume their work that
was on a pause due to the coronavirus-
triggered crisis.
“Our group specialises in marble in-
stallation in under-construction residen-
tial as well as commercial buildings. Our
contractor needed our services since
Unlock period began in Delhi. As se-
lected trains are currently operational,
our employer sent air tickets as well as
three months’ advance salary before re-
appointment,” Suraj said.
His colleague Ram Mahto said, “it
was a painful experience for us when
the lockdown was imposed in late
March”.
“We had walked 35 km to reach
Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi. Then
we somehow managed to board a UP
roadways bus bound to Lucknow. After
waiting there for three days, we decid-
ed to walk 650 km... through Gorakhpur,
Chapra and other districts to reach our
native place in Vaishali,” Mahto said.
“We have started looking for a job
since the first Unlock period was an-
nounced in June. We have visited cities
like Patna and Muzaffarpur in expecta-
Migrant labourersto be electionissue in Bihar
PATNA, Aug 30: The migra-
tion of labourers is turning out
to be a poll issue for opposition
parties in Bihar as Leader of
Opposition Tejashwi Yadav has
slammed Chief Minister Nit-
ish Kumar for being unable to
create jobs in the state.
As a result, labourers who
walked thousands of kilome-
tres are heading back to states
offering more job opportuni-
ties, Tejashwi alleged.
His statement comes a day
after Pappu Yadav, president of
Jan Adhikar Party, blamed Ni-
tish Kumar for the same.
“The development of Bi-
har is currently reflecting at
Patna airport where hundreds
of labourers are assembling
to catch flights. The develop-
ment is also visible in villages
where buses are sent by em-
ployers from other states to
take our skilled labourers,”
Tejashwi said.
“These labourers have trav-
elled thousands of kilometres
during the Covid-19 lockdown
to reach their homes. Do they
not deserve some respect and
jobs back home? The employ-
ers of other states are sending
air tickets and buses for the
labourers of Bihar. It explains
the approach of the Bihar gov-
ernment,” he added. – IANS
tion of some job. We are ready to work
as labourers despite being skilled in
marble installations but no one has giv-
en jobs,” Mahto said.
“We are lucky that our employer
contacted us and provided air tickets.
We are not in a position to buy flight
tickets costing around Rs 6,500 per
person,” said another person Sunil
Kumar.
“We are skilled in mushroom farm-
ing and our employer wants us. He has
given us air tickets,” said Vinod Shar-
ma, a labourer. “I would be travelling
on an air plane for the first time,” he
added.
Pappan Singh Gahlot, another mush-
room farmer in Tigi Pur village in the
outer district of Delhi is one of the farm-
ers who has provided flight tickets to
his labourers.
“I have 3 acres of land which I have
been using for mushroom farming. It
required skilled labourers,” he said.
Migrant labourers of Bihar return-
ing to other states like Delhi, Haryana,
Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra have now
become a poll issue for the state’s op-
position parties.
Tejashvi Yadav, the Leader of Oppo-
sition and younger son of RJD chief Lalu
Prasad, slammed the Nitish Kumar
government for his failure on job crea-
tion. Jan Adhikar Party chief Pappu Ya-
dav also criticised the JDU-BJP com-
bine government on the same issue on
Friday. – IANS
UP CM Yogi to curb‘love jihad’, VHP
demands stringent law
ing the marriage.
After hearing this, activists
of Vishwa Hindu Parishad cre-
ated a ruckus outside Kidwai
Nagar police station, accusing
a youth of forceful religious
conversion.
They demanded that the ac-
cused be arrested and the girl
handed over to them.
Bholendra, the area head of
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad,
said the love jihad syndicate is
active in every district of Ut-
tar Pradesh. Each syndicate
comprises several agents. The
incidents in Lakhimpur and
Kanpur have come to the fore.
The poor sections of society
especially villagers were pri-
marily targeted.
ADG law and order Prashant
Kumar said, “The police are
working with sensitivity in cas-
es of violence against women.
Special attention is being given
to inter-faith harmony. Reports
of such incidents are being
looked into promptly. Each case
is treated on its merit.”
The issue of love jihad was
raised with gusto in the Uttar
Pradesh Assembly bypolls.
During the 2014 bypolls, Yogi
Adityanath used to say at elec-
tion rallies, “Now Jodha bai will
not go with Akbar and Alexan-
der will be forced to give his
daughter to Chandragupta
Maurya.” Yogi has often de-
scribed it as an international
plot. – IANS
LUCKNOW, Aug 30: The
15-year-old daughter of a rail-
way official was taken into cus-
tody on Saturday after she al-
legedly shot dead her mother
and brother.
The wife and son of RD Ba-
jpai, Executive Director, Rail-
way Board, were found mur-
dered at the government
bungalow under Gautam Palli
police station in Lucknow on
Saturday.
The officer’s daughter, who
studies in Class 10 and is a
trained shooter, and is said to
be suffering from depression.
Lucknow Commissioner of
Police (CP) Sujeet Pandey said,
“After killing the two, the mi-
nor girl, who was not in good
Depressed minor daughter killed mother, brother
Life crawling towardsnormalcy for Bihar labourers
mental health, also tried to
harm herself by slitting her
wrists with a razor.”
At the time of the incident,
the railway officer was in Delhi
where he is posted. The girl
has been admitted in hospital,
the police commissioner said.
This act reflected the girl’s
mental instability and that she
required immediate medical
assistance, he added.
The police official said the
girl, who is a trained shooter
and prolific user of weapons,
used a .22 bore rifle to com-
mit the crime.
Pandey said the girl fired
three bullets — one hit a mir-
ror and two others killed her
mother and brother. He said
that the girl had written the
words ‘I am a disqualified hu-
man’ on the washroom mirror
with fruit jam, which made her
a suspect.
The girl was questioned
before her maternal grand-
parents and she confessed to
committing the crime. The
rifle used in the crime had
been recovered on the basis
of her disclosure.
The girl, police sources said,
was inspired by Japanese au-
thor Osamu Dazai, who talks
about estrangement of the in-
dividual from society.
Police stumbled upon the
revelation after the confession
of the girl in presence of wom-
en cops and a counsellor.
A senior officer who inter-
rogated the girl, said she used
to follow the characters of
Dazai. “A character in Dazai’s
novel called Oba Yozo tries to
adapt, cope and fit in but fails to
become a human. The girl iden-
tified with that. In her notebook,
she has scribbled ‘to fail to be
human, to be disqualified as a
human being’. This is an excerpt
from the book ‘Longer Human’
by Dazai,” said the officer.
The police also recovered a
toy ‘skull’ and other grotesque
photos from inside her room.
It may be recalled that the
railway official’s wife Malti (45)
and son, Sarvdutt, were found
murdered while sleeping on
Saturday afternoon.
The double murder sent
shock waves since the bunga-
low is located in a high-security
zone, barely a kilometre from
the Chief Minister’s residence.
Initially, the police quizzed the
servants since no forceful en-
try had been made in the house.
The girl remained quiet and
the police thought she was in a
state of shock. However, the
girl kept caressing her hand
over the full sleeved shirt she
was wearing.
It was later found that the
hand was bandaged and
when her grandparents
made her take off the band-
age, they found several cuts
made by a razor. This made
her a suspect. – IANS
3 minor sisters die ashouse collapses in UP
CHITRAKOOT (UP), Aug 30: In a tragicincident, three minor sisters were killedwhen a wall of their thatched house collapsedfollowing heavy rain in Raipura area of UP’sChitrakoot district.
Sub Divisional Magistrate of Mau tehsil RajBahadur said, “The wall of the thatched houseof Ashok Varma collapsed, killing his threedaughters. The deceased have been identi-fied as Ritu (12), Shivdevi (9) and Pooja (5).The sisters had died by the time the villagersremoved the debris.” The bodies have beensent for post-mortem. – IANS
Soldier killed in Pakfiring on LoC
SRINAGAR, Aug 30: A soldier was killed inaction on Sunday after Pakistan resorted toceasefire violation at the Line of Control inJammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.
The ceasefire violation took place inNowshera sector, the Army said, adding thattroops responded strongly to the enemy fire.In the incident, Naib Subedar Rajwinder Singhwas critically injured and later died. – IANS
Mega infra projects totransform Gadchiroli
NAGPUR, Aug 30: One of the region’sworst hit by Maoist violence in the country,Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra is set to betransformed with five critical infrastructureprojects to enhance connectivity withadjoining Chhattisgarh and Telangana states.
Union Minister for Road Transport &Highways Nitin Gadkari set the ball rolling byinaugurating the projects via videolink alongwith Minister of State Gen VK Singh andState Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan onSunday.
These include: a 855-metre major bridgeacross River Pranahita at a cost of Rs 168crore and a 630-metre high-level bridge onRiver Indravati near Patagudam costing Rs248 crore, both on Nizamabad-Jagdalpur Road(NH-63).
Besides, another 30-metre high-levelbridge will come up near Lankachen onBejurpalli-Aheri Road, with the improvementof the same road (SF-275) between Watra-Moyabinpeta and the Garanji-Pustola Road.
Terming it as a “dream come true after 25years”, Gadkari said he had conceived theseprojects when he was a minister in Maharash-tra (1994-1999), which are expected to go along way in curbing Maoist extremism in theregion. – IANS
Punjab doctor diesof COVID-19
CHANDIGARH, Aug 30: A 53-year-oldgovernment doctor posted in Amritsar’s CivilHospital in Punjab died on Sunday owing tocoronavirus.
Health and Family Welfare Minister BalbirSingh Sidhu attended the cremation of SeniorMedical Officer Arun Sharma and describedhim as the true corona warrior.
Sharma was one of the brilliant and diligentofficers of the Health Department. He wasenthusiastically battling against the COVID-19 in the frontline since March and passion-ately performing his duty round the clock inthe district hospital, the minister said.
Sidhu said Sharma was a cardiac patient. Hewas put on a ventilator. Intensivist from thePGI Hospital in Chandigarh was guiding hisclinical management and the state waspreparing to airlift him either to the PGI orMedanta Hospital in Gurugram.
The victim doctor was survived by his wife,a daughter and a son.
“Saddened to lose one of our hardworkingcorona warrior Dr Arun. It’s sad to lose such abrilliant and committed doctor. Heartfeltcondolences to his family,a Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh tweeted.
Sharma had done doctor of medicine intransfusion from Medical College in Amritsarand also played a key role to establish a bloodbank in Amritsar. – IANS
Yediyurappa flags offRO-RO train
BENGALURU, Aug 30: Karnataka ChiefMinister BS Yediyurappa flagged off the roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) train service from Nelamangalain Bengaluru’s northwest outskirts to Solapur,Maharashtra ferrying trucks loaded with goods,an official said on Sunday.
“The RO-RO train with 42 loaded goodstrucks on its flat wagons will take 17 hours toreach Solapur, covering 682km distancebetween the two cities,” an official of theSouth Western Railway (SWR) zone told IANShere. Drivers and their assistants likecleaners of each truck will sit in their vehiclesduring the journey. – IANS
A member of the Muslim communityparticipates in a procession during theMuharram, in Kolkata on Sunday. – PTI
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 7NORTH EAST
Forecast for North Eastern
States : Rain/thundershower is
very likely to occur at many
places over Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram
and Tripura.
Warning: Thunderstorm with
lightning is very likely to occur
at isolated places over Assam,
Meghalaya, Nagaland,
Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
Heavy rain is very likely to
occur at isolated places over
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam
and Meghalaya.
Temperatures :
Max (°C) Min (°C)
Dibrugarh 29.4 24.1
Tezpur 33.5 26.6
Silchar 31.2 25.3
Dhubri 31.4 27.5
Jorhat 32.2 25.0
N Lakhimpur 27.2 22.2
Shillong 24.0 17.4
Cherrapunjee 23.7 18.0
Aizawl NA 19.9
Kohima 24.0 18.5
Pasighat 25.7 23.2
Itanagar 30.1 24.1
Imphal 30.2 21.7
Agartala 35.5 26.6
WEATHER
NORTHEAST
CORRESPONDENT
AGARTALA, Aug. 30: Four More
COVID-19 patients died in Tripura,
while 443 new positive were cases de-
tected in the State during the past 24
hours, according to official sources.
The death toll in the state has risen
to 98, while overall COVID tally
stands at 11,046, and more than 3,000
patients are undergoing treatment in
VARIOUS COVID care hospitals.
Of the total new infections, West
Tripura district has witnessed the
worst affected with 198 cases. While
the average infection rate in the state
Tripura reports four more COVID deathsis around 3.99 per cent, according to
a medical bulletin issued by the
Health department.
Worried over rapid infection in
West Tripura district, especially in
Agartala Municipal Corporation
(AMC), the Technical and Advisory
Committee on COVID-19, appealed
to asymptomatic patients to undergo
home isolation instead of rushing to
the government hospitals.
“Today, we had a meeting on the
recent trend on pandemic. In the
meeting, it appears West Tripura dis-
trict has more CORONAVIRUS pa-
tients than other districts. The peo-
ple must follow the government
guidelines to break the chain of novel
coronavirus,” said Prof Dr Sanjib
Kumar Debbarma, one of the mem-
bers of the panel.
While speaking to the media in the
conference hall of AGMC, Debbar-
ma said that in view of the rising cas-
es of COVID in various parts of the
State, people should be more care-
ful. “The government has already
taken steps to intensify COVID tests
to trace and treat the patients. The
asymptomatic patients should adopt
home isolation instead of government
hospitals”, said Dr Anjan Das.
Dr Damodhar Chatterjee said, “In
case of home isolation, the patients
will be given the phone numbers of
nearby doctors so that they can con-
tact for treatment”.
Meanwhile, the State government
government is planning to go for an-
other round of lockdown to check the
spread of COVID-19 infection in West
Tripura district. “It appears commu-
nity transmission of novel coronavi-
rus has already begun in the AMC
area due to careless attitude of the
people, for which we may go for an-
other round of lockdown,” said a sen-
ior state government official.
CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR, Aug 30: Arunachal Pradesh
on Saturday recorded 132 positive cases, tak-
ing its tally of confirmed cases to 3,877. The
State also saw discharge of 45 COVID-19
patients following their recovery, raising the
number of recovered cases to 2,754.
Arunachal Pradesh has presently 1,116 ac-
tive cases. It has already registered seven
casualties due to the virus, according to a bul-
letin issued by the State Directorate of Health
Services here last evening.
Of the 132 fresh cases, 31 cases were de-
tected in Itanagar Capital Complex, followed
by West Kameng with 27, 12 cases came
from Papum Pare and Tawang. East Siang
reported 10 cases and Tirap detected eight
and East Kameng seven.
West Siang recorded five cases. Four cases
each were found in Upper Siang and Lower
Siang, three each in Changlang and Pakke-
Kessang, two each in Lohit and Lower Dibang
Valley, and one each in Siang and Longding.
Among the 45 positive patients discharged
on the day, Changlang accounted for 11 re-
coveries, as Lohit came second with seven,
followed by Lower Siang, East Kameng and
Itanagar Capital Complex at four each.
Three cured cases each were released
in West Kameng, Shi-Yomi and Tirap, while
East Siang recorded two. Tawang, Anjaw,
Longding and Lower Subansiri released
one each.
Arunachal tally mounts to 3,877
East Khasi Hills district administration conducting sanitization at Khyndailad, Police Bazar and GS Road in Shillong,
Meghalaya on Sunday. – UB Photos
60 new cases inMeghalayaSTAFF CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG, Aug 30 : Sixty new COVID-19 positive cas-
es were reported in the State and 14 patients also recov-
ered in the State.
With these new cases, the total active cases in the State
have gone up to 1,284 and the total number of patients who
have recovered from the infection has risen to 1,049.
Most of the new positive cases were reported from East
Khasi Hills district (31) East and West Garo Hills districts
reported 9 new cases each. Ri-Bhoi district reported 6 new
cases, East Jaintia Hills 4 and South Garo Hills 1.
East Khasi Hills district has the highest number of active
cases with 920. West Garo Hills district has the second-
highest number of active cases with 137, followed by East
Garo Hills district with 80.
CORRESPONDENT
AIZAWL, Aug 30: Mizoram reported five
new cases of COVID-19 during the last 24
hours, bringing the state’s tally to 1,008.
From a total of 1,484 samples tested in
different districts, five new cases were de-
tected, an official source said. While Mamit
district and Kolasib district reported two
CORRESPONDENT
IMPHAL, Aug 30: With 53
new recovered cases in the
past 24 hours , the recovery
rate of the COVID -19 posi-
tive cases in Manipur has
reached 69.35 per cent on
Sunday.
Manipur COVID recovery rateimproves to 69 per cent
So far, 4,239 persons have
recovered from five COVID
care centres in the State.
The cumulative number of
positive cases now stands at
6,112 and the recovery rate
in the State is 69.35 per cent,
an official release claimed.
The release added that dur-
ing the last 24 hours, 133 per-
sons were found to be positive.
Till Sunday, a total of
3,44,481 persons were
screened at various entry
points of the State, while
1,52,229 individuals were
tested for COVID-19 in sev-
eral testing centres .
Mizoram virus tally climbs to 1,008cases each, one case was reported from Aiza-
wl, it said.
Of the five new cases, Four were return-
ees while the one case reported from Venglai
locality in Aizawl was locally transmitted, the
source added.
Of the total,1,008 cases, 424 are active cas-
es. With no new discharge today, the number
of discharged cases remain at 584.
AGARTALA, Aug 30 : Six of the eight north-
eastern states’ capital cities will come on the
Indian railway map by March 2023, top rail-
way officials said.
The North-east Frontier Railways (NFR),
which has already connected Assam’s main
city Guwahati (adjoining capital Dispur), Tripu-
ra and Arunachal Pradesh’s capital cities, is
laying tracks to connect the capital cities of
three more north-eastern states -- Manipur,
Mizoram and Nagaland – by March 2023.
The first train in the region chugged out
from the industrial city of Dibrugarh in eastern
Assam 138 years ago. NFR’s General Manager
Sanjive Roy said new railway lines were laid to
extend the railway lines in three more capital
cities of region- Imphal (Manipur), Aizawl (Mi-
zoram) and Kohima (Nagaland) -- excluding
Meghalaya’s Shillong and Sikkim’s Gangtok.
“The work to lay the broad gauge railway
line has been progressing well in Manipur,
Mizoram and Nagaland. There are some land-
related and other environmental problems in
Sikkim and Meghalaya, causing the delay in
extending the railway networks in the two
Rail connectivity for 3 more N-E states by 2023hilly states,” Roy told IANS.
The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones
in India, operates fully and partially in six of the
eight north-eastern states, excluding Megha-
laya and Sikkim, and in seven districts of West
Bengal and five districts of north Bihar.
The NFR General Manager said the gov-
ernment had sanctioned electrification of rail-
way lines in the region and tender-related
work was being undertaken for the purpose.
He said, “The works for the 12.23-km Agar-
tala (Tripura)-Akhaura (Bangladesh) new rail-
way lines are underway and it would be com-
pleted by March next year.”
The Agartala-Akhaura railway line would
facilitate ferrying of goods to and from both
the countries and greatly benefit India’s land-
locked north-eastern states. The journey time
between Agartala and Kolkata via Bangladesh
would be reduced by a third, from 1,613 km
through mountainous terrain to only 514 km.
Linking with the existing Agartala railway
station, of the 12.23 km India-Bangladesh new
railway line, 5.46 km railway tracks were laid
in India (on the outskirts of the capital city
Agartala) and 6.57 km railway line laid on the
Bangladesh side.
The Rs 972-crore project was finalised in Jan-
uary 2010 when Bangladesh premier Sheikh
Hasina met the then Indian Prime Minister Man-
mohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.
Spending Rs 1,150 crore, the NFR had ex-
tended the railway lines up to two bordering
sub-divisional towns – Sabroom and Belonia
– both cities situated along the Bangladesh
border, facilitating the link with the railway
networks of the neighbouring country.
NFR’s Chief Public Relations Officer
(CPRO) Subhanan Chanda said although the
NFR has been able to make headway in most
of the N-E states with rail connectivity, Sikkim
was still left out of the Indian railway map.
“Work for providing rail connectivity was
sanctioned for Sikkim way back in 2008-09.
The work could not make much headway due
to various environment-related issues as the
proposed railway line would pass through the
Mahananda wildlife sanctuary. This is a na-
tional project and is very important for over-
all development of the state of Sikkim. Once
completed it is expected to boost connectivi-
ty of the land-locked state which shares its
border with three neighbouring countries –
China, Nepal and Bhutan – apart from being
strategically important,” Chanda said.
According to the CPRO, of the 44.96-km
stretch, 41.55 km fall in West Bengal and 3.41
km in Sikkim. The entire section is being con-
structed using the latest technology so that
trains can run at a speed of 100 kmph. The
anticipated project cost would be nearly Rs
8,900 crore of which nearly Rs 335.52 crore
have already been utilised till July 2020.
The Indian Railway Construction company
on behalf of the NFR was carrying out the
construction work of the project. There would
be 14 tunnels (38,555 metre) and 13 bridges
in the 44.96-km section while five stations –
Sivoke, Riyang, Teesta Bazar, Melli and Rang-
po – would be constructed.
The NFR engineers said the landscape, soil
conditions and other natural challenges have
forced the railways to invest more money
and to confront diverse challenges in the
north-eastern region. – IANS
Tripura police and BSF personnel destroying ganja cultivation at Boxanagar, Tripura on Sunday. – Correspondent
CORRESPONDENT
AIZAWL, Aug 30: In a major opera-
tion, the Aizawl Battalion of Assam Ri-
fles seized methamphetamine tablets
worth Rs 3.50 crore in Champhai dis-
trict on Saturday.
An Assam Rifles source said one lakh
tablets of methamphetamine were
seized at Diltlang village along the Indo-
Myanmar border following a joint oper-
ation with DRI.
“The recovered drugs were handed
over to concerned department for further
investigation and prosecution,” it said.
Meanwhile, Serchhip Battalion of As-
sam Rifles, in a joint operation with Cus-
toms Prevention Force, seized 80 bags
of Areca Nuts at Melbuk village near
Myanmar border on the same day.
The market value of the seized contra-
Drugs worth Rs 3.50 cr seized in Mizoramband is estimated to be Rs 11.24 lakh. One
person, a resident of Vairengte, Mizoram,
has been apprehended and has been hand-
ed over to Custom Prevention Force.
IANS report adds: An Assam Rifles’
press statement said, “Ongoing illegal
drug trades are a major cause of concern
for. Assam Rifles, rightly christened as
the ‘Sentinels of North East’ have been
successful in launching such operations
against the illicit smuggling in Mizoram.”
Methamphetamine tablets (also
called Yaba tablet or party tablet) con-
tain a mix of methamphetamine and caf-
feine and are misused as high-dosage
drugs in India, Bangladesh and neigh-
bouring countries.
According to the Border Security
Force, Assam Rifles and intelligence offi-
cials, Yaba tablets and other drugs are
smuggled into the north-eastern states
from neighbouring Myanmar and then
smuggled to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and
various Indian states. Although Mizoram’s
international border with Bangladesh and
Myanmar and inter-state borders with
Tripura, Assam and Manipur are sealed in
view of the Covid-19 outbreak, smuggling
of various drugs, arms and ammunition
and other contraband are still going on.
Mountainous Mizoram has an un-
fenced international border of 404 kms
with Myanmar and 318 kms with Bang-
ladesh. While the BSF guards the Bang-
ladesh border, the border with Myan-
mar is looked after by Assam Rifles.
Assam Rifles has so far seized drugs and
other contraband including heroin worth
of around Rs 26 crore since July 1.
Many drug peddlers, including My-
anmarese and Indian nationals, were also
arrested by the Assam Rifles.
Meghalaya CMreviews watersupply project
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG, Aug 30: Meghalaya Chief Minister Con-
rad K Sangma reviwed the ongoing works of the PHE de-
partment on implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in
Sohiong on Saturday.
Meghalaya has set December 2022 as the target for Func-
tional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) to every rural
household in the State.
The Chief Minister after visiting Sohiong said that rural
household water connections under JJM would be complet-
ed as per schedule.
During his visit, Sangma was accompanied PHE Minis-
ter, Samlin Malgniang and a team of officials from the de-
partment to assess the implementation of the JJM in the
area. Sangma also interacted with the beneficiaries.
Under the scheme, the State Government has set a tar-
get to provide safe drinking to almost 2 lakh households in
this financial year.
“The PHE department is doing a tremendous job to pur-
sue the completion of all works mandated under the pro-
gramme and move forward aggressively even under such
difficult circumstances that we are facing currently,” the
Chief Minister said.
Jal Jeevan Mission is a project funded by the Ministry of
Jal Shakti. The objective is to provide safe and adequate
drinking water to all households in the rural India.
Arunachal Guv,CM extend
Onam greetingsITANAGAR, Aug 30: Aru-
nachal Pradesh Governor
Brig BD Mishra ( retd) and
Chief Minister Pema Khandu
have extended warm greet-
ings and good wishes to the
people including those from
Kerala living in Arunachal
Pradesh on the festive occa-
sion of Onam.
In his message, the Gov-
ernor said that Onam, the
thanks giving festival of the
harvest season is celebrated
with traditional gaiety and
enthusiasm. It is celebrated
to honour the kind-hearted
and much-loved King Ma-
habali, who is believed to re-
turn from his celestial abode
to Kerala during this festival.
Extending his good wish-
es to the people celebrating
the festival in India and
abroad, Chief Minister Pema
Khandu exuded hope that
this festival would bring im-
mense joy and prosperity to
all. – Correspondent
Arms dealer heldDIMAPUR, Aug 30: The
security forces apprehended
an alleged arms dealer near Li-
len Kuki village in Peren dis-
trict of Nagaland. Three 12
bore rifles, two .22 live rounds,
eight 12 bore live rounds and
arms making accessories
were recovered from him, a
Defence release said today.
Based on specific intelli-
gence regarding presence of
the arms dealer in the area,
the forces, along with police,
launched an operation and
apprehended the individual.
The apprehended individu-
al, along with recovered items,
was handed over to Athibung
police. – Correspondent
Panel submits reportSTAFF CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG, Aug 30: The consultative committee consti-
tuted to relocate the Sweepers’ Colony located near Motphran
has submitted its report to the high-level committee constitut-
ed in this regard. The contents of the report are not immedi-
ately known. The consultative committee, headed by Urban
Affairs Minister, Hamletson Dohling, was tasked to find ways
to relocate the residents from their present location.
8 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020STATE
AMBK relief to flood victimsDHEMAJI, Aug 30: The Pasighat unit of the Adi
Mising Baane Kebang (AMBK), provided relief toDhemaji’s flood victims. Sources said that theorganisation that distributed about 57 quintals of ricewith dal, potato and salt packets, among 1,000 worst-affected families of Jonai subdivision in Dhemaji districton Saturday. Moreover, it also donated Rs 1.50 lakh tothe Jonai unit of AMBK for helping the flood victimsincluding the relief camp inmates. Last year too, theAMBK gave flood relief to the affected families ofDhemaji, Gogamukh and Majuli areas of Assam. –Correspondent
Bio-diversity parkBONGAIGAON, Aug 30: State Forest Minister
Parimal Suklabaidya unveiled the plaque of a bio-diversity park (Sahitya Manisha Upaban) at Chitkagaonin Bongaigaon district on Saturday. In his address, theMinister said that his government has given morestress on plantation and this project is a part of thatinitiative. While interacting with the media, theMinister said the pre-poll alliance between Congressand AIUDF will help the BJP in the coming Assemblypolls. Food and Civil Supply Minister and locallegislator Phani Bhushan Choudhury, the MLA ofBilasipara East Ashok Kumar Singhi, MLA of Abhay-apuri South Ananta Malo and forest officials were
present in the ceremony. – Correspondent
26 positive in Morigaon distJAGIROAD, Aug 30: As many as 26 people tested
positive for COVID-19 last evening through the RapidAntigen Test taking the total number of positive casesin the district to 1091 (RAT) till the filing of this reporton Saturday. Out of them, 14 were found positive inJagiroad area, said the District Nodal Officer Dr ArunNath. The positive cases have been admitted at theCOVID-19 hospitals in the district.– Correspondent
COVID death at DhemajiDHEMAJI, Aug 30: One more person died of COVID-
19 on Saturday at Dhemaji, taking the total number ofdeaths in the district to nine, official sources said. DrKrishna Kemprai, Joint Director of Health Services,Dhemaji district said that a COVID -19 patient namedJugal Paniyang was referred to the AMCH on August28 and he died on Saturday in the hospital. Dr Kempraialso informed that the deceased had also beensuffering from diabetes and hypertension. – ANNService
AASU justifies scooty demandUDALGURI, Aug 30: “Students are students and
their demands must not be politicised by the ministersin power. The BJP had a poll promise to providescooties to the girl students of the HS 2018 and 2019batches who had passed the final examinations withflying colours. But all of them were ignored mostlybecause of tug of war between the two ministers inpower. But that is not known to the innocent studentsand they had hoped that they would be providedscooties as per the poll promises, but it was not done.It is quite unfortunate,” said Bitopan Das, stateexecutive member of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The AASU leader also held that the ChiefMinister should interfere in such cases. Making anappeal to the concerned Education Minister, the AASUleader said that if the present government is reallyserious about their poll promises, it should not cheatthe innocent girls students of the State and shouldaccede to their demands. – Correspondent
Scooty demand in memoNAGAON, Aug 30: Appealing to Chief Minister
Sarbananda Sonowal to provide scooties to all thosemeritorious girl students too who passed HS FinalExamination in 2018 and 2019, various studentsfrom the district submitted a memorandum to theChief Minister through the Deputy Commissioner,Nagaon on Saturday. The student body of the districtalso addressed a press conference in this regard atthe Anundoram Borooah Junior College and appealedto both Sonowal and the State Education Minister DrHimanta Biswa Sarma to show their kindness byproviding scooties equally to all the eligible andmeritorious girl students of the State. – A Corre-spondent
Karam Puja observedDOOMDOOMA, Aug 30: Karam Puja, the agricul-
ture-based festival observed by the tea tribe peopleof the State was observed on Saturday. Due to thecurrent pandemic situation, there was no pomp andgrandeur in the celebration this year. The Doom-dooma Kendriya Karam Sanmilan Samity observedthe festival by just hoisting the flag, offering smrititarpan and lightning of earthen lamp and offeringprayers to the ‘Karam Devata’ for the well being ofall at the Doomdooma Town Field by following all theguidelines of COVID-19 laid down by the Healthdepartment. In his speech delivered after hoistingthe flag, the president of the Doomdooma KendriyaKaram Sanmilan Samity and the local MLA DurgaBhumij urged the government to declare the ShuklaEkadashi in the month of Bhado as State holiday onaccount of Karam Puja every year. – Correspondent
Int’l webinar on horticultureJORHAT, Aug 30: An international webinar on
‘Horticulture Industry under COVID-19 Pandemic’was jointly organised by the Department of Horticul-ture and College of Horticulture, Assam AgriculturalUniversity at Borbheta here on August 27 and 28. AnAAU press note informed that over 1000 participantscomprising researchers, students, academicians,entrepreneurs and farmers from India and abroadattended the webinar, which was anchored by Dr BijitKumar Saud, Professor, Department of Horticulture(AAU). Dr Madhumita Choudhury Talukdar, OSD,College of Horticulture and Professor and Head,Department of Horticulture, AAU, delivered thewelcome address. – Staff Correspondent
Mangaldai MP’s warning
MANGALDAI, Aug 30: Mangaldai MP Dilip Saikiawhile addressing a meeting of the District Develop-ment, Coordination and Monitoring Committee(DISHA) here at the Deputy Commissioner’sconference hall on Saturday warned the districtheads of the State government departments againstanomalies and faults in implementation of thedevelopmental schemes in Darrang district. Saikia,the chairman of the DISHA, the district levelhighest empowered committee reviewed theprogress of various public welfare programmesundertaken by both the Central and the Stategovernment in presence of its member secretary-cum-Deputy Commissioner Dilip Kumar Borah andall the four legislators of the district namely Guru-jyoti Das, Binanda Kumar Saikia, Maheshwar Boroand Ilias Ali. – Correspondent
NEWS IN BRIEF
AJIT PATOWARY
The Deepor Beel Wildlife
Sanctuary, which is an inte
gral part of Deepor Beel, the
lone Ramsar Site wetland of the
State, needs to have its boundary
properly demarcated and its Inte-
grated Management Plan formulat-
ed. This is important also due to the
fact that this wildlife sanctuary is in-
alienably linked with the Rani and
Garbhanga Reserve Forests’ (RFs)
ecosystems too. Besides, the very
location of the wetland demands that
the existing watch tower of the For-
est Department and the restaurant
with picnic spot should be shifted to
its northern bank.
Deepor Beel was declared a Ram-
sar Site in 2004. A 4.1 sq km area of
it was notified by the State Govern-
ment as a wildlife sanctuary on Feb-
ruary 21, 2009. This wetland is a
large natural wetland and it has a great
ecological importance, besides being
the ‘only major storm water storage
basin for the city of Guwahati.’
Many migratory birds visit this
wetland during the winter and wild
elephants from Rani and Garbhanga
RFs also visit this wetland frequent-
ly for foraging. But the Deepor Beel
Wildlife Range’s existing watch tow-
er, which is used to watch the move-
ment of the elephants coming down
from the Rani and Garbhanga RFs
to the wetland, together with the
picnic spot and the restaurant, has
been causing disturbance to the jum-
bos as the campus of the watchtow-
er and the restaurant and its adja-
cent picnic spot are located just near
an important elephant corridor.
Considering all these, the Divi-
sional Forest Officer (DFO), Gu-
wahati Wildlife Division pleaded
with the Principal Chief Conser-
vator of Forests and Chief Wild-
life Warden of the State through a
letter on August 4, 2020 (No A/
GWL/EcoTourism/Deepar Beel/
2020/1080), for proper demarca-
tion of the boundary of the Deep-
or Beel and formulation of an In-
tegrated Management Plan in ac-
cordance with the Wetlands (Con-
servation and Management)
Rules, 2017 of the Union Govern-
ment. “…all development plan-
ning of Deepar Beel shall take
place after proper demarcation of
its Boundary and preparation of
Integrated Management Plan as
per the new Wetlands (Conserva-
tion and Management) Rules, 2017
of the Government of India and
giving due consideration to the
movement of wild elephants of
Rani and Garbhanga Reserve For-
ests to Deepar Beel,” said the
DFO.
The DFO, who was offering his
views on the proposal of the Forest
Department to develop the Deepor
Beel area under the ‘Uttoron’
scheme for subsidiary tourism and
eco-development activities, stated
that the entire stretch of land start-
ing from Deochotal to Chakradeo,
and even beyond them on both east
and west, is used by the wild ele-
phants of Rani and Garbhanga RFs
as passage to Deepor Beel. This is
because of the fact that this wetland
is a part of the elephant habitat and
contiguous to Rani RF, he said.
He maintained that increased hu-
man presence on the southern bank
of the wetland may lead to stopping
the movement of wild elephants
from Rani RF to Deepor Beel per-
manently. “Therefore, the watch
tower and restaurant with picnic
spot should be constructed on the
northern bank (of the wetland), as
per the new Wetlands (Conserva-
tion and Management) Rules, 2017
of the Government of India,” said
the DFO.
He reasoned that after restoration
of the wetlands and improvement in
the visitor facilities, there will be in-
creased inflow of visitors to the site,
which will create disturbance to the
jumbos visiting the water body.
The Garbhanga RF elephants
come to Deepor Beel via the Rani
RF and both these RFs are habitats
of over 100 Asian elephants and thus
are important habitats of the jum-
bos, besides other wildlife ecologi-
cally important for our environment.
Since 1986, the Asian elephant has
been listed as Endangered on the
IUCN Red List.
Need to demarcate Deepor Beel’s boundaryto protect jumbo habitat stressed
‘Increased human presence on the
southern bank of the wetland may lead
to stopping the movement of wild
elephants from Rani RF to Deepor Beel
permanently’
OBITUARY
ShubhenduSarkar
ANN SERVICE
GOSSAIGAON, Aug 30:
Shubhendu Sarkar, a pharma-
cist by profession and a noted
social worker, breathed his last
following a cardiac arrest on
August 29. He was 51.
He was UPPL’s assistant
secretary for Gossaigaon Pri-
mary Ward no. 3. He was also
actively associated with Gos-
saigaon Sub-Divisional Com-
munication Development
Committee.
The Asam Sahitya Sabha’s
Gossaigaon branch committee
along with several other or-
ganisations, has condoled his
untimely demise.
He leaves behind his wife,
an-eight-year-old daughter and
aged mother.
Prof Arun Kumar Dutta,
a man of high morals and
having a missionary zeal for
social service, breathed his
last on Wednesday, August
19 at his own residence at
Chowkidingee, Dibrugarh
owing to old-age ailments,
leaving behind two young-
er sisters, one brother and
a host of relatives, friends
and admirers. He was my
elder brother’s brother-in-
law and from the time I
met him, I never ceased to
wonder how he could do
so much for his family and
friends, so much so that he
could not even spare time
to get married. Doing good to
others was in his DNA and many
had benefited from it. He de-
voted his entire life to the larg-
er family, particularly to take
care of his two younger sisters
and their two adorable sons.
Born to late Dr Chitta Ran-
jan Dutta, the District Medi-
cal Officer of Health, Dibru-
garh and late Debabala Dutta,
a pious homemaker at Tezpur
on November 15, 1937, he had
his early education in different
parts of Assam including
Tezpur, Nowgong, Shillong
and Dibrugarh. After complet-
ing his Masters degree in An-
thropology in 1962 from Gau-
hati University, he became the
founder Head of Department
of Anthropology in Hanuman-
bax Surajmall Kanoi College,
Dibrugarh, having helped in
setting up its Anthropology
department. Under his able
guidance and meticulous su-
pervision, this department had
gone on to become an entity
of excellence. His contribution
in upgrading the laboratory
and museum of the department
through collecting artefacts,
museum specimens, tools
and even a demonstrative
human skeleton from far
and wide is even now
talked about in awe and
with reverence by stu-
dents and faculty alike. He
was a good teacher, an ex-
cellent administrator, an
institute builder and a fine
human being. His field-
work among the tribal pop-
ulation in the North East
would remain as a pathfind-
er. Later, he rose to the
position of Vice Principal
of the college where he
demonstrated purpose and
balance and wherefrom he
retired in 1998.
He was a multifaceted per-
son with a passion for service
to community. He was the
founder vice-president of Sen-
ior Citizen Manch, Dibrugarh,
treasurer of Dibrugarh Club,
member of Dibrugarh Nagar-
ik Mancha, to name a few. His
unfortunate demise left a huge
void and a feeling of rootless-
ness in the family.
Today, on the day of his ad-
yashraddha, I pray to the Al-
mighty to grant eternal peace
to the departed soul.
– Dr Bhupati Kumar Das
Arun Kumar Dutta:a tribute
CORRESPONDENT
DHEMAJI, Aug 30: The
Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra
Parishad (AJYCP), Dhemaji dis-
trict unit is seeking help from the
Adi Students Union (AdiSU) of
Arunachal Pradesh to control il-
licit trade of tobacco, narcotics
and other contraband drugs at
the inter-state boundary areas.
The AJYCP leaders called on
the AdiSU functionaries and
sat in a crucial meeting at Jonai
on Saturday, wherein they
agreed to work together to
control sale of tobacco and to-
bacco products such as gutkha,
paan masala and other nico-
tine-based edible items in the
shops and ghumtis.
AdiSU (Apex)’s spokesper-
son Nungku Aze and its East
Siang district unit President
Kangir Jamoh, who attended
the meeting, assured AJYCP
members that they would
press the Arunachal adminis-
tration for conducting regular
drive against sale of the harm-
ful substances at Assam-Aru-
nachal boundary areas.
Attending the meeting,
former AJYCP president Jyo-
tish Doley, district committee
executives –Jiten Mili and Nila
Kanta Gogoi suggested to the
union members to have a joint
effort to curb the narcotics and
drugs menace and save the
younger generation from the
trap of the detrimental prac-
tices. They further suggested
continuing the move and also
to help the authority to curb
the illicit business.
Meanwhile, different ancha-
lik units of AJYCP in Dhemaji
submitted separate petitions to
the administrative officers con-
cerned demanding regular
drive against the illicit business
in the district.
The AJYCP leaders in their
petition stated that unscrupulous
traders supply tobacco and to-
bacco products such as gutkha,
paan-masala and other narcot-
ic substances for selling in the
shops and ghumtis in the area,
which is posing a serious health
hazard to the youngsters.
Taking serious note on the
social menace and considering
the fate of the younger gener-
ation, the AJYCP is moving
district administration (As-
sam) to control the sale of to-
bacco products and narcotic
substances in the area.
The AJYCP leaders said
they would submit petition
with Additional Deputy Com-
missioners of Ruksin and Nari
in Arunachal, seeking their in-
itiative to root out the illicit
narcotics trade from the
boundary area.
AJYCP seeks Arunachal studentbody’s help to curb narcotics trade
KAMAL KUMAR BRAHMA
DIPHU, Aug 30: It is hard to be-
lieve and at the same time a harsh
reality, that the residents of Upper
and Lower Tarapung, located in the
eastern part of Karbi Anglong have
to trek the hilly terrains for 12 hours
to reach the nearest rural locality,
Dolamara to apply for their Aadhaar
cards. According to the people, this
wholly unavoidable pain could have
been reduced by the authority in
Tarapung residents trek 12 hours to apply for Aadhaar cardsthis hi-tech age, had they been a
little compassionate towards their
problems.
Government requirements have
made Aadhaar an obligatory certifi-
cate for all its citizens but the local
implementing agencies at the helm
of power have never bothered to
redress the constraints of the peo-
ple. In this digital age, it is an igno-
miny that people are forced to walk
for 12 hours to reach the nearest
facility centre (which too becomes
non-functional frequently) for apply-
ing for this document and repeat the
same process a number of times to
have it delivered.
Recently, three women from Tara-
pung accompanied by a man came to
Dolamara last Sunday; the group
began trekking early in the morning
and reached Dolamara late in the
evening. They were forced to live
with an acquaintance, that too, at this
time of the pandemic for the night
and for the next two days just for
applying for Aadhaar. On Wednes-
day they made their homeward jour-
ney towards the hill, another
twelve-hour uphill walk.
They have employed a horse to
carry their goods. For them, reach-
ing home in a car is a delusion.
Schools for their children, health
centres, electricity, medical facility,
all-weather roads are like a dream.
They are just living a primordial life
in the year 2020.
A ‘bizarre’ sense of duty, as a cit-
izen of this nation prevails among
these people who are deprived of
everything that the government
has offered to its citizens. Inhabit-
ants of Upper and Lower Tarapung
have never skipped any citizen’s
duty and have participated in eve-
ry election. As luck would have it,
the elected representatives and
the local government have never
ever bothered to rescue these
miserable people from their archa-
ic standard of living.
CORRESPONDENT
BISWANATH CHARIALI,
Aug 30: A good number of social
organisations of Bedeti in Biswa-
nath district have raised a char-
ter of demands for the develop-
ment of greater Bedeti area.
The organisations including
Pub Behali Anchalik AASU,
Bedeti Anchalik Unnayan Sami-
ti, Behali Small Tea Growers’
Association, Uddipta Chora,
Morning Club, Nature’s Bany-
apran, Bedeti and Nachbar Ban-
ik Santha etc., have raised is-
sues ranging from education to
health, from law and order to
financial services, from forest
to handloom etc., in a letter
written and sent to the Chief
Minister of Assam recently.
The organisations said that
Bedeti needs an undergraduate
college having Arts and Com-
merce streams for which land
was also allotted, but due im-
portance was allegedly not giv-
en in the Signature Scheme
through which ten colleges were
set up in Assam including one at
Balipara. Bedeti is lagging be-
hind in the medical and health
sector. They allege that though
there are two ten-bed hospitals
at Bedeti and Bihmari, respec-
tively, the people in those are
often deprived of proper medi-
cal facilities. The people have
demanded to upgrade the pri-
mary health centre situated at
Bedeti to a 30-bed hospital.
Arrangements should be
made to set up a sub-treasury
at Behali near the Behali branch
of State Bank of India (SBI). An
approval was made for setting
up of a police outpost at Bedeti
vide memorandum no.G / X /
47/2016/23 dated 04-11-2016,
but the matter has not yielded
any result till today.
Demands have been raised to
provide services to the farmers
by setting up an agricultural of-
fice and an agricultural centre in
this agriculture-centric area. The
Forest Department’s attention
has been by organisations to set
up a Block Wildlife Office at
Rangshali, a sub-forest office at
Bihmari and also to declare Be-
hali Reserve Forest a sanctuary.
Demands have also been raised
for the development of agro-co-
operative sector for building a
self-reliant Assam and also to set
up industrial farms at Bihmari
and Jamuani. The Minister of
Handloom and Textile, Govern-
ment of Assam has been asked
to set up a Silk College at
Rangchali Silk Farm.
The organisations urged the
government to pay heed to their
demands and expressed the hope
that the problems would be sort-
ed out as soon as possible.
Measures for developmentof greater Bedeti area urged
CORRESPONDENT
DOOMDOOMA, Aug 30:
Thirteen out of the 16 council-
lors of Hapjan Anchalik Pancha-
yat (AP) in Tinsukia district
have brought a no-confidence
motion against the president
of the AP, Rup Kumar Tanti.
In a letter written to the
Deputy Commissioner of
Tinsukia district, the 13
rebel councillors stated that
the president of the AP used
to take all decisions by him-
self. “The president did not
take the councillors in confi-
dence and he used to allot
the contracts of various de-
velopment schemes of the
AP to his close associates by
taking commissions from
them without any discussion
in the AP body”, the coun-
cillors alleged. Recently, the
AP president completed the
procedure of the tender of
the canteen and the pond for
the year 2020-2021 without
holding the AP body meet-
ing. The councillors have
brought six al legations
against the AP president.
On Friday, 10 out 13 rebel
councillors convened a press
conference here and informed
the local scribes that they had
submitted the letter regard-
ing the no confidence motion
to the Tinsukia DC on August
25. They also made it clear that
they had taken this decision
following their own con-
science, and not due to any in-
fluence.
The BJP has got an abso-
lute majority in the anchalik
panchayat with 14 councillors
while two councillors are
from the Opposition Con-
gress. One Congress coun-
cillor has also extended sup-
port to this no confidence
motion.
It can be mentioned here
that the president of Hapjan
Anchalik Panchayat, Rup Ku-
mar Tanti has filed an FIR at
Doomdooma PS recently
against the BDO of Hapjan
Development Block, Harry
Paul Fernandez levelling
charges of corruption against
him.
No-confidence motionagainst Hapjan Anchalik
Panchayat president
THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 9MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
The Mahamaya Padika Dham at Alokjhari. – Photo: Dhubri Correspondent.
ers and located in the hilly
area, has always restrained a
section of devotees to visit this
important religious place,
which once had its own glory.
But the ongoing lockdown
has cut down the number of
visitors to this important re-
ligious place manifold and
hence making management
of the temple an uphill task
as the temple management
committee fully depends on
donations by the devotees.
It may be mentioned here
that the Mahamaya Padika
Dham, situated in the remot-
est corner of Alokjhari for-
est, almost 4 kms from Tam-
arhat, is considered an im-
portant Shakti Peeth, where
legends says that a holy man
named Sachidananda found a
golden idol of goddess Ma-
hamaya about two centuries
ago. The then king of Gau-
ripur, Pratap Chandra Barua,
dreamt of the deity and do-
nated 108 bighas of land in
the name of Mahamaya and
built a temple in that remote
forest, which is popularly
known as Alokjhari Temple
or Dham.
“Every year, a mela is or-
ganised in the Dham where
visitors from all over the
state as well as many parts of
the county arrive, and we
generate a good sum of do-
nations from it to survive for
the entire year. But this year,
the mela was not conducted,
scheduled for the month of
April for about 15 days. We
are therefore facing the
worst financial crisis”, said
Binoy Kumar Dev Sarma,
who informed that the daily
pujas in the temple are con-
tinuing.
Narayan Chandra Prodha-
ni, general secretary of the
Dham, informed that they had
appealed to the state govern-
ment several times to devel-
op the area into a tourist spot
and develop the road commu-
nication and also construct the
rickety bridges connected to
the temple, but in vain.
“Had the roads been prop-
erly developed, I believe we
would not have faced such an
acute financial crisis”, Prod-
hani said.
SHAMBHU BORO
MISAMARI, Aug 30: At a
time when the ongoing hu-
man-elephant conflict has be-
come an issue of major con-
cern in the state and rendered
many people homeless, be-
sides maiming or claiming
many lives, the farmers of a
particular area near the Sonai-
Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary in
Sonitpur district have been
able to set a rare example and
protect their crops from the
far-ranging wild elephant
herds, thereby blazing a trail
of co-existence with the slatey
grey giants.
Farmers of this nonde-
script Jwkhangsree village
along the Assam-Arunachal
Pradesh border under Misa-
mari Police Station in Sonit-
pur district are now becom-
ing the focal point for both
the media and the Sonitpur
Forest Department for their
elephant-friendly activities.
If one visits the area, many
tree-top houses known as
machans are seen, which
serve as lookout posts. Lo-
cally popular as tongee ghar,
Misamari farmers manage to co-exist with wild elephants!the villagers keep a lookout
from these strategically
placed platforms and often
manage to chase away the
marauding elephant herds
which forage for green fod-
der after straying from the
nearby Sonai-Rupai Wildlife
Sanctuary. As a result, no
lives are lost or crop dam-
aged, primarily due to eter-
nal vigilance by the tenacious
villagers.
In this context, it may be
noted that as per the official
record, due to the perennial
problem of human-elephant
conflict in Sonitpur district,
seven persons were killed in
2005-2006, while 285 hous-
es were damaged, in 2006-
2007, five elephants and 10
persons were killed and
eight persons injured, while
221 houses and 642 bighas of
standing crop were damaged.
In 2007-2008, eight wild el-
ephants and 6 persons were
killed and 4 persons injured,
while 367 houses and 510
bighas of standing crop were
damaged. In 2008-2009,
three wild elephants and two
persons were killed and
three persons injured, while
109 houses and 109 bighas of
standing crop were damaged.
Similarly in 2009-2010, one
wild elephant and 6 persons
were killed and one person
sustained injuries while 99
houses and 101 bighas of stand-
ing crop were damaged. 2010-
2011, three wild elephants and
four persons were killed while
23 houses and 23 bighas of
cropland were damaged.
Likewise in 2011-2012,
five persons were killed and
three injured in wild ele-
phant attacks while 71 hous-
es and 10 bighas of standing
crop were damaged. In 2012-
2013, two elephants and sev-
en persons were killed and
eight persons injured while
79 houses and 46 bighas of
crop were damaged. In 2013-
2014, one wild elephant and
9 persons were killed and
three persons injured, while
112 houses and 66 bighas of
crop were damaged.
In 2014-2015, three wild
elephants and eight persons
were killed and 5 injured,
while 116 houses and 535
bighas of standing crop were
damaged. In 2015-2016, sev-
en wild elephants and 16 per-
sons were killed and 6 per-
sons injured, while 120 hous-
es and 492 bighas of crop
were damaged.
In 2016-2017, six wild ele-
phants and 10 persons were
killed and two persons in-
jured, while 194 houses and
99 bighas of crop were dam-
aged. In 2017-2018, nine
wild elephants and nine per-
sons were killed and six per-
sons injured, while 187 hous-
es and 82 bighas of crop dam-
aged. In 2018-2019, one wild
elephant and five persons
were killed and two persons
injured, while 171 houses and
1,115 bighas of standing crop
were damaged. In 2019-
2020, one wild elephant and
three persons were killed
while 100 houses and 74
bighas of crop were dam-
aged. This year till date, 3
houses and 4 bighas of crop
have been damaged.
Saurav Barkataki, honour-
ary wildlife warden of Sonit-
pur district, who has been
vocal on this issue, alleged
that the outstanding cases of
ex-gratia payment totalling
Rs 28,79,250 is yet to be paid
to the concerned victims,
which may be considered as
a grand failure of the present
dispensation at Dispur, there-
by resulting in justice denial
to the victims.
Barkataki added that
though the Forest Depart-
ment was perennially plagued
by manpower shortage, yet
a sizeable section of staff were
working dedicatedly despite
the surmounting odds and
occasional bursts of anger of
the victim villagers. The sit-
uation, he felt, was yet to at-
tract the attention of the high-
er authorities of the depart-
ment, nay the government.
“If things continues like
this, the department will face
a very tough challenge in the
near future,” he speculated.
However, the farmers of
Jwkhangsree village, who have
been maintaining a balance of
sorts with their wildlife-friend-
ly modus operandi since sev-
eral years now, mentioned that
they were pained to hear news
about poisoning or electrocu-
tion of wild elephants.
“We maintain a mutually
rewarding co-existence with
the wildlife and spend much
time in the tongee ghars, from
where we tactfully chase
away the wild elephant herds
from the farming areas, but
never harm the pachyderms
like some unscrupulous peo-
ple often do.”
Prafulla Boro, a wildlife
lover of the area observed,
“because of the presence of
vigilant villagers, poachers do
not dare to enter the wildlife
sanctuary,” thereby contrib-
uting significantly towards
wildlife conservation.
Tongee ghars on trees among the paddy fields, at Misamari. – Photo: Tezpur Correspondent.
AMBU NATH SHARMA
GAURIPUR, Aug 30: The
idol-makers of greater Gau-
ripur area have been strug-
gling for their livelihood since
March last as they have been
forced to sit idle due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
No organisers of puja com-
mittees or individuals have
placed orders to make idols
of Durga and as a result these
people have lost hope of their
annual earnings. Besides,
they also make idols of Lord
Ganesh, Biswakarma, Lord
Shiva, Saraswati, Lakshmi,
Kali etc., to meet the demands
of the customers. But this
year, such puja festivals are
not being held and as a result
the idol-makers have re-
mained jobless.
There are more than 40
idol-makers in the area. They
are Binoy Paul, Babul Paul,
Manindra Malakar, Sudhir
Paul, Rajesh Paul, Bikash Paul,
Ram Dulal Paul, Rintu Paul,
Gopinath Paul, Karen
Malakar, Dhiren Paul and a few
others. Considering their un-
certain future, they have
formed a committee headed
by Binoy Kumar Paul and
Babul Paul as president and
secretary respectively and
Gauripur idol-makersstruggling for survival
ers. The MLA assured them
that he will place their demand
before the Chief Minister.
This year Durga Puja is
scheduled to be held from
October 22 to 26 next, but till
date the idol-makers have not
received any order from the
puja committees.
Generally, two to three
months are necessary to
make an idol ready for deliv-
ery, but due to high price of
the material at source, they
have failed to collect the ma-
terial, for which their future
remains bleak.
Last year, some idol- mak-
ers sold the idol of Goddess
(big size) Durga at Rs 80,000
-Rs 1 lakh, medium size at Rs
50,000 to Rs 70,000 and the
smaller ones at Rs 20,000 to
Rs 30,000. But this year due
to the abnormal situation and
lockdown, they have not col-
lected the costly material and
even the adhesive clay due to
incessant rains and floods for
making the idols.
The present condition of
the idol-makers is obviously
beyond description and they
need financial assistance from
the government so that they
can survive and continue their
profession like in previous
years.
State government awardee artisan Karen Malakar makingan idol. – Photo: Gauripur Correspondent
approached the local MLA
Nizanur Rahman and submit-
ted a memorandum to help
them to somehow survive.
The MLA handed them an
amount of Rs 10,000/- and the
amount was distributed
among the needy idol-mak-
WASIM RAHMAN
JORHAT, Aug 30: CSIR-North East In-
stitute of Science and Technology at Puli-
bor here has started serological testing for
anti-body for SARS-COV-2, which is likely
to be the first in the north-eastern region.
A COVID-19 anti-body test, also known
as a serology test, is a blood test that can
detect if a person has anti-bodies to SARS-
CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The said tests can help identify people who
may have been infected with the SARS-
CoV-2 virus or have recovered from the
COVID-19 infection.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Prin-
cipal Scientist and Head of Research Plan-
ning and Business Development Division
CSIR-NEIST, Jatin Kalita disclosed that
the initiative is a part of the all-India project
named 'Phenome India - A long-term lon-
gitudinal observational cohort study of
health outcomes' initiated by CSIR and led
by CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and
Integrative Biology), New Delhi.
CSIR-NEIST is among 30 laboratories
across the country and first in the North
East to undertake such kind of study, Ka-
lita said.
Kalita said that the exercise started
since August 25 with collection of 450 sam-
ples of CSIR-NEIST employees and 200
samples from adjoining villages of the in-
stitute.
The principal scientist informed that the
initiative has two components, with the first
one being the serological testing and its
analysis, while the second part was to car-
ry out a long-term comprehensive study
49 personsdonate plasma
at SMCHSTAFF CORRESPONDENT
SILCHAR, Aug 30: In what could be
called an encouraging development, as
many as 49 persons from Barak Valley
who had been affected with symptoms of
COVID-19 and recovered have respond-
ed to the requests made by the Govern-
ment as well the district administration
and donated plasma for the cause of hu-
manity at the Silchar Medical College and
Hospital (SMCH), said Dr Bhaskar Gupta,
Vice Principal of the hospital.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Dr
Gupta said, “so far, 49 people have donat-
ed plasma at the hospital while 94 patients
have received plasma, including Assam
Assembly Deputy Speaker Aminul Haque
Laskar. Of the total units of plasma re-
ceived, five were from Guwahati, while
another five were from Tezpur.”
Elaborating on the COVID-19 cases
at the hospital, Dr Gupta said out of the
84,398 RTPCR samples tested, 4,158
samples have turned out to be COV-
ID-19 positive, while 615 have been
found to be positive from the 5,141
samples of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT)
done so far.
There are 20 critical patients at the hos-
pital and five of them are in the High De-
pendency Unit, while 15 others are under
treatment at the ICU. One patient is kept
under ventilator support.
While there have been three non-COV-
ID-19 casualties recorded at the hospital
in the last 24 hours, 1,246 patients have
been discharged from the hospital till date,
the Vice Principal maintained.
CORRESPONDENT
SIVASAGAR, Aug 30: The Deputy
Commissioner of Sivasagar, Lakhinan-
dan Gogoi ordered an inquiry on Friday
and directed an Additional Deputy Com-
missioner to investigate into an alleg-
edly sensitive comment by Gita Kam-
rupi, chairperson of Women Power
Strengthening Forum (WPSF), Assam,
which created a storm in the social me-
dia here.
Gita Kamrupi, while briefing media-
persons here, said that there are 200
HIV positive cases in Sivasagar and over
1,500 unregistered sex workers who
are allegedly supported by the different
ANN Service
NILAMBAZAR, Aug 30: Karimganj
Eraligol Deen Dayal Upadhyay Model
College organised a webinar recently on
coronavirus prevention.
Noted scientists and academicians in
various countries have emphasised on
wearing face masks, using sanitizer fre-
quently and maintaining social distance,
as well as community awareness to pre-
vent group transmission of coronavirus,
the webinar surmised.
In addition to 19 states of India, scien-
tists, research scholars and academicians
NEIST starts serologicalanti-body test for COVID-19
on proteomics and metabolomics (health
parameters) of five to 10 percent of sam-
ples of CSIR-NEIST employees.
He said that samples have been collect-
ed from people aged 18 years and above
who have voluntarily come forward to par-
ticipate in the study. However, certain cri-
teria of the volunteers were taken into ac-
count while collecting samples like their
family history, biochemical risk status, etc.
He stated that the study also involves
the use of well-designed detailed question-
naires to capture the demographic, lifestyle
and clinical history, including current drug
usage history.
Along with the said information, the
measurement of heart rate, blood pressure,
etc. and anthropometric measurements, in-
cluding height, weight, hip circumference,
and waist circumference too were collect-
ed, he said.
Kalita said during the initial findings it
was found that 6.5 percent of the samples
of the institute’s employees had anti-bod-
ies of COVID-19, while 17.82 percent of
the samples of nearby villages of CSIR-
NEIST showed presence of anti-bodies.
He added that the analysis on the anti-
body tests was expected to be completed
and submitted to the Government by Sep-
tember 15 next.
Dr G Narahari Sastry, Director of CSIR-
NEIST stated that the objective of the
project was to build a medical cohort to
give long-term perspective on the malais-
es that affect Indians and determine if such
a databank could be used to help with pre-
dicting the onset of diabetes or cardiovas-
cular diseases.
Seminar on coronavirusprevention held at Karimganj
from Nepal and Bangladesh too took part
in the webinar through video conferenc-
ing. State Minister for Education (inde-
pendent charge) Bhabesh Kalita also took
part and appreciated the initiative of Deen
Dayal Upadhyay College. Dr S Lax-
manan, Director of Asom Sarba Sikhsa
Abhijan Mission said, social awareness
is the only way to prevent coronavirus.
He emphasised on wearing masks,
using sanitizers and maintaining social
distance as advised by the government.
He appealed to the common people to
voluntarily visit swab collection centres
for conducting covid test.
Prof. Jyoti Prasad Tamang, former VC
of Sikkim University, Prakash Om Hala-
mi, chief scientist of CFCRI, Mohisur,
Prof Namrata Tamang of NBBD Gang-
tok, Dr Manjit Paul of Hailakandi Civil
Hospital, Dr Sarmista Bhattacharjee of
Silchar, Prof. PK Saxena of Mujaffarna-
gar College, Prof. SN Ghose of Nashik-
Jagdole, Prof. SN Chouhan of Mujaffar-
nagar Engineering College participated
in the webinar, among others.
The webinar was held under the chair-
manship of Dr Jayasree Chakrabarty,
Principal of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Mod-
el College.
Probe ordered againstcomments by Gita Kamrupi
social organisations.
The Deputy Commissioner later told
mediapersons that the matter is highly
sensitive as Gita Kamrupi claimed that
she had made the comments on the ba-
sis of data received from the district ad-
ministration.
However, he said that there are dif-
ferent wings of the administration and it
was not clear where she found the num-
bers. In the meantime, several socially
conscious women have condemned the
comments and an FIR was lodged against
Kamrupi in Sivasagar Police Station yes-
terday. Leading women activists, namely
Manika Saikia, Tulika Chetia Yien, Mi-
tali Saikia and many others have demand-
ed action against Gita Kamrupi. Joutha
Sangrami Moncha, an umbrella forum
of several organisations here burnt an
effigy of Gita Kamrupi at Doulmukh
Chariali on Saturday and protested
against her alleged remarks.
Meanwhile, talking to this Correspond-
ent from Guwahati, Gita Kamrupi said
that a section of media distorted her
statement, the content of which was al-
together different and far from being
communal. She said that an enquiry will
bring the truth to light.
She said she made a comment intend-
ed for all in Assam who have been weak-
ening women’s power and not against
someone in Sivasagar.
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LOCKHORNS
THE PHANTOM ® By Lee Falk
HAGAR THE HORRIBLE
BLONDIE
Know your DAYBy JACQUELINE BIGAR
HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Monday, Aug. 31, 2020:
Influential, dynamic and fun, you’re psychologically astute and know what
makes others tick. The first half of the year is frazzled and challenging; the
second half is an outright triumph. Your projects soar. If single, you’re so
attractive and charming that they’re lining up. But you hate pretention so much
you rarely go on a second date. If attached, your bond is powerful and deeply
private. TAURUS goes the extra mile for you.
The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-
Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)HH Unexpected occurrences are coming your way. They will be posi-
tive, but they might rattle you. Unusual insights come up as a project
reaches fruition. Be aware that people around you might be acting erratically.
Tonight: It’s going to be a nutty night. Hide out.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)HHHH Professional concerns are the focus of the day. Business is
highlighted. You make new advances in your career. You are more open
and accessible but take care to avoid emotional displays, especially in public.
Tonight: Gather a few friends together and make merry.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)HHHH You are a thinker and a dreamer. Your mind is active and you
feel restless and yearn for new experiences. You feel a need to get
away and break from the usual routine. You might create positive change
through your ideas. Tonight: Network online.
CANCER (June 21-July 22)HHH Things could get emotionally intense before the day is over. This
is particularly true if you are facing issues related to shared belong-
ings. Use the day for expansion, reflection and concluding projects. Tonight:
Catch up with old friends. Keep a light heart.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)HHHHH Romance is highlighted. This is a great day to schedule an
adventurous encounter with that special person. Your friend is apt to
be feeling as excited and enthusiastic about the day as you are. Feed your
creative juices; indulge in music and art. Tonight: Relax.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)HHH You seek perfection in all you do today. But this slows you down,
and you might find colleagues speeding ahead while you are stuck
checking details on your project. Cease the worrying and go at your own natural
pace. Tonight: A quiet night at home.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)HHHH It is a great day for a creative project. You clearly have a
romantic vision. You might be somewhat possessive of loved ones and
children. Your communication skills are vital now. Talk over your feelings with
someone you trust. Tonight: At home. Make it easy.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)HHHH Spend time with your family and other loved ones. Stick close
to home and work there if possible. Attend to a home-repair project in
your spare time. You might be dealing with parents. You feel a tie to your roots.
Tonight: Let your imagination fly.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)HHH You are busy keeping your mind occupied with new information.
Keep conscious control of your emotions when communicating. Your
thinking is unduly influenced by the past. A short trip works to your benefit
today. Tonight: Make a meal for those you care about.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)HH You studiously look for new ways of making money. Be aware that
change will be stressful. Take time to plan your actions. Do not make
mountains out of molehills. You experience a willingness to give up things you
no longer need. Tonight: Pamper yourself.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)HHHH It’s all about your health and emotional self today. It’s OK to
be selfish now. Take care of yourself, especially any health issues.
Your feelings and thoughts are aligned. Tonight: Treat yourself and loved ones
to an expensively made dinner.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)HHH It is a good day to work quietly behind the scenes. Hide your
moodiness from others. Take time to reflect and meditate. Uncon-
scious attitudes can be difficult. The past, even your childhood, affects you
today. Tonight: As you like it.
H H H
Thought for the dayRule number 1 – Never lose money. Rule number 2 – Never forget
rule number 1.– WARREN BUFFETT
Transcendence constitutes ___. – Martin
Heidegger (8)
Words: Rogue/rouge, trots, legged, shifty.Answer: Transcendence constitutesselfhood. – Martin Heidegger
Given below are four jumbled words. Solvethe jumbles to make proper words and movethem to the respective squares below. Selectthe letters in the shaded squares and jumblethem to get the answer for the given quip.
JUMBLED WORDSHEALTH CAPSULES®
by Bron Smith
Health Capsules is not intendedto be of a diagnostic nature.
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12:00 WWE Raw Talk12:30 WWE Raw15:30 WWE Raw Talk16:00 WWE Raw19:00 Monster Knockout19:30 Whacked Out Sports20:00 WWE Raw23:00 WWE Raw Talk23:30 FA Community Shield HLs
12:00 UFC Fight Night
15:00 UEFA Champions League
09:50 Kyo Kii... Mai Jhuth
Nahin Bolta
13:20 Swarg
16:45 Kalank
19:50 Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha
22:40 Golimaar
11:15 Shivam14:20 Robot17:45 A Flying Jatt20:50 The Real Tevar
10:10 Jackass Presents: Bad
Grandpa 5
11:05 Katy Perry: Part of Me
12:35 Justin Bieber: Never Say
Never
14:15 Drop Zone
16:00 Escape from LA
17:40 The Peacemaker
19:40 Red Eye
21:00 Blade
22:45 Nick of Time
STAR MOVIES
22:30 Zootopia
HBO
19:55 Ishq
STAR MOVIES
22:45 Nick of Time
12:00 Keemat: They Are Back
15:00 15th August
18:00 Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke
21:00 Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya
10:30 Baaghi 2
13:35 The Lion King
16:15 De Dana Dan
19:50 Total Dhamaal
22:35 Dishoom
12:00 Secret Superstar15:00 Pavitra Rishta
17:00 Banoo Main Teri Dulhann18:00 Yahan Main Ghar Ghar
Kheli19:00 Punar Vivaah20:00 Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil
Champs 202023:00 Pro Music Countdown
12:00 Mann Ki Awaaz...Pratigya
12:30 Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai
15:00 Saath Nibhaana Saathiya
18:00 Anupamaa
18:30 Mahabharat
20:00 Star Parivaar
Ganeshotsav 2020
22:00 Total Dhamaal
12:00 StreetDance 2
13:35 Seinfeld
14:00 Holmes & Watson
15:35 Seinfeld
16:00 Community
19:00 BattleBots
22:00 Seinfeld
23:00 Super Moon House Party
12:00 Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hain!
15:00 Laal Ishq
19:00 Kahani Ab Tak Raat Ka
Khel Saara
20:00 Raat Ka Khel Saara
21:00 Laal Ishq
23:00 Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hain!
14:00 Naagin 5
16:35 Balika Vadhu
20:00 Naagin 5
21:00 Fear Factor: Khatron Ke
Khiladi Made In India
12:30 Best Of The Kapil Sharma
Show
17:00 India’s Best Dancer
18:30 The Kapil Sharma Show
20:00 India’s Best Dancer
21:30 The Kapil Sharma Show
12:00 Koffee With Karan
SOLUTION TO TRIBUNE CROSSWORD – 6986
10:40 Vardi
13:50 Baazigar
17:15 Main Faisla Karunga
19:45 Lal Baadshah
22:25 Diler – The Daring 2
11:45 Supreme Khiladi
14:35 Finding Dory
16:45 Silent Venom
18:35 Journey to the West: The
Demons Strike Back
21:00 The Crew
23:40 Zootopia
Across
1 Stand-in
doctors (6)
5 Male feline
(3)
8 Mystique (4)
9 Grows old (4)
10 Self-
possession
(6)
11 Citizens of a
North African
country (9)
13 Bangkok
man (4)
15 Charged
particle (3)
16 Exactly
vertical (5)
17 Cricket trophy
(5)
20 Inquire about
(3)
22 Negatives (3)
23 Most recent (5)
24 Abolish (5)
26 Loud noise (3)
27 Misfortune (4)
28 Followers (9)
31 Startles (6)
32 Ground (4)
33 Inactive (4)
34 Not well (3)
35 Those men
from
Stockholm (6)
Down
1 Shed (4-2)
2 Cave in (8)
3 Mother (4)
4 Majestic (7)
5 Captured (5)
6 Republic in W
Africa (4)
7 Pound parts (7)
12 Lump (3)
14 “Silk” anagram
for types or
kinds ? (4)
18 A put-down (4)
19 Yelled (8)
20 Coming (7)
21 Toughens by
heating and
slow cooling (7)
24 Become sick
(3)
25 Dances - as
Oliver might
have ! (6)
26 A British
doctorate (5)
29 Basic monetary
unit of Ghana
(4)
30 Killed (4)
LEISURE & LIFESTYLE10 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
17:00 Impact Wrestling
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19:00 UFC Classics
20:00 National Icons
20:30 UCL HLs
21:30 UEL HLs
22:00 Impact Wrestling
23:00 National Icons
23:30 UEL HLs
12:00 England vs Pak T20I HLs
12:30 WWE Raw
15:30 England vs Pak T20I HLs
16:00 WWE Raw
19:00 England vs Pak T20I HLs
19:30 WWE Raw
22:30 England vs Pak T20I Live
13:00 OMG! Yeh Mera India
13:25 Pawn Stars
13:45 Storage Wars
14:15 Modern Marvels
15:05 OMG! Yeh Mera India
15:55 Forged In Fire
16:45 Counting Cars
17:10 Storage Wars
17:35 Shipping Wars
18:00 OMG! Yeh Mera India
18:30 Extraordinary Humans
19:00 Counting Cars
20:00 Destination India
21:00 Dynamo Beyond Belief
21:50 Pawn Stars
22:10 Storage Wars
22:35 Battle Factory
23:05 Spartan X
12:00 AP Exclusives: Great...
12:55 Modern Dinosaurs
13:35 Wild Flicks
15:05 Vultures: Beauty In The...
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16:50 Fierce 5
17:40 Animals Unleashed
18:05 Extreme Survivors
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19:50 New Life
20:45 Snake Squad
21:05 The Lion Kingdom
21:30 Nature’s Strangest
22:00 River Monsters
22:50 Ten Deadliest Snakes...
23:30 Wild Africa: Rivers of Life
Darjeeling-based filmmaker Shenpenn
Khymsar makes his directorial debut with
the film, Broken Wings, which he says is based
on real issues of his land.
Khymsar claims that this is the first time in
post-Independence India that a Nepali-Hindi lan-
guage film has been “made in Darjeeling”,
though there are many films that have been shot
in the hill station.
“I am from Darjeeling and I felt it is best to
resonate your story and sites of your upbring-
ing in your filmmaking. A lot of people in the
Hindi belt and South India aren’t aware that this
is a part of India. They know it for the tea and
the toy train. Darjeeling is an intricate part of
India where Nepali is a spoken language. Nepali
is actually also a constitutional language of In-
dia,” Khymsar said. The story of the film is set
from 1988 to 1992, against the backdrop of the
Gorkhaland agitation.
About his film being the first to be made in
‘Made in Darjeeling’A movie on the Gorkhaland stir is said to be the first
Nepali-Hindi language film to be made in the hill station
Darjeeling, he said: “I secretly wish I wasn’t the
13:00 Remember The Titans14:55 The Lion King16:55 Million Dollar Arm19:00 Queen Of The South
12:00 Khatra Khatra Khatra
13:55 Kitchen Champion
14:50 Naagin
17:00 Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan
18:00 Swaragini
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22:00 Bepannaah
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12:00 Savdhaan India - F.I.R.
13:00 Savdhaan India
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22:00 Savdhaan India
23:00 Savdhaan India - Naya
Adhyay
STAR GOLD
22:35 Dishoom
Darjeeling-based filmmaker Shenpenn Khymsar with actor Vinay Pathak.
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MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020 BUSINESS & ECONOMYTHE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 11
AS per the latest auction (Sale No 34)of Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC)held on August 26-27, the total tea of-ferings were 1,48,962 packages out ofwhich 81 per cent was sold in the mar-ket. Overall, the market witnessedgood demand with selected best teastending irregularly easier. The me-dium sorts sold around last levels.TCPL was active while HUL lent good
support along with western Indian buyers. The auctionaverage price for this week stood at Rs 268.
Dinesh Bihani
Secretary, Guwahati Tea Auction
Buyers Association (GTABA)
Top garden prices
BOP Price BOPSM/BP Price OF/PF Price
HALMARI 513 BANAMALIE 465 HOOKMOL 390
DUBBA 440 HOOKMOL 456 SOTAI 386
HOOKMOL 400 SOTAI 431 GELAKEY 381
PABOI 390 DEHA 430 KORANGANI 376
TEZPOREGOGRA 389 BANAMALIE 421 LUKWAH 371
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: As severalStates continue to oppose the bor-rowing options proposed in lieu of theGST compensation, the Centre hastold States that Central revenues havebeen under greater strain comparedto GST revenue.
In a letter to the States, and UnionTerritories proposing the two optionsand explaining them in detail, the Fi-nance Ministry also laid down the is-sues faced by the Centre in disburs-ing the compensation cess.
“The prevailing economic situationis such that Central revenues are un-der greater strain than GST reve-nue. While indirect taxes are linkedto transactions, and recover in pro-portion to activity, direct taxes onprofits are disproportionately reducedin the present situation,” it said inthe 12-page letter.
Along with direct taxes on wagesand salaries getting seriously affect-
Central revenues under greaterstrain than GST revenue
ed, customs revenues are also hit bythe slowdown in imports, it said.
Central expenditures are stretchednot only by the pandemic responsebut also by the needs of national se-curity, the Finance Ministry stressed.
“This is a national problem, not a Cen-tral government problem alone,” it said.
On the question of borrowing by theUnion government, to pay the com-pensation cess, the ministry said thatthe Centre already faces a very largeborrowing requirement this year.
Further, additional borrowing bythe Centre influences the yields onCentral government securities (G-secs) and has other macro-economicrepercussions, it said.
“The yield on G-secs acts as abenchmark for State borrowing aswell as private sector borrowing.
Hence any rise in Central borrowingcosts ipso facto drives up borrowingcosts for all borrowers, including notonly the States but also the entireprivate sector,” the letter said.
As per the design of the options
given to the States by the Centre tomeet GST compensation gap, if theStates decide to meet the entireshortfall of Rs 2,35,000 crore (includ-ing the COVID-impact portion)through issue of market debt, thenadditional unconditional borrowinglimit of 0.5 per cent and the final (bo-nus) tranche of 0.5 per cent providedunder the Atmanirbhar Bharat pack-age as a COVID relief measure willnot be available separately.
Under option one, the Centre hasoffered a special borrowing windowto States, in consultation with the RBI,
for an amount of Rs 97,000 crore (theshortfall arising out of GST implemen-tation) at a “reasonable” interest rate.
The Centre will endeavour to keepthe borrowing cost at or close to theG-sec yield, and in the event of thecost being higher, will bear the mar-gin between G-secs and the averageof State Development Loan yields upto 0.5 per cent (50 basis points)through a subsidy.
The second option given by theCentre allows States to borrow theentire projected GST compensationshortfall of Rs 2,35,000 crore (totalshortfall of Rs 3-lakh crore minus Rs65,000 crore collected as GST com-pensation cess) for FY21. But thisborrowing will be allowed by sub-suming the additional unconditionalborrowing limit of 0.5 per cent andthe final (bonus) tranche of 0.5 percent given to States as a special limitto fight the COVID pandemic. – IANS
Centre writes to States, UTs
An artisan busy with his craftworks on Goddess Durga using thermocol ahead of theupcoming Durga Puja festival, at Kumartuli in Kolkata on Sunday. – PTI
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Riding on astrong 5G push, the global smartphonemarket will return to a full recovery by2022 and 5G smartphones are expectedto capture 50 per cent of the global mar-ket by 2023, according to a new IDCreport.
5G remains a priority for all smart-phone OEMs despite the challenges withthe COVID-19 pandemic and lack of con-sumer demand.
“While many of the top vendors havereduced their 2020 production plans toalign with the market decline, we'veseen most of the cuts focused on their4G portfolios,” said Ryan Reith, Pro-gramme Vice-President with IDC's‘Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers'.
Most channels in developed marketshave set the expectation that the port-folios they carry will be dominated by5G units by the end of 2020, leaving lessshelf space for 4G.
“However, we still believe that con-sumer demand for 5G is very low andwhen that is combined with the econom-ic headwinds facing the market, the pres-sure to drive down hardware and serv-ice fees associated with 5G will becomeincreasingly important,” Reith said.
The worldwide smartphone marketis forecast to decline 9.5 per cent (year-on-year) in 2020 with shipments total-ling 1.2 billion units.
While the second quarter resulted inslightly better-than-expected numbers,the market was still down 17 per cent(year-on-year) with visible signs of eco-nomic concerns.
This supply-driven 5G push mixedwith a poor economic climate will onlyaccelerate the drop in 5G average sell-ing prices (ASPs) in 2020 and beyond.
In the past quarter, China saw 43 percent of 5G devices priced under $400.
IDC expects global 5G smartphone
ASPs to hit $495 by 2023, which shouldeliminate most of the price concerns voicedby consumers in recent IDC surveys.
Prior to the pandemic, there was anexpectation that total smartphone saleswould return to growth in 2020. That isobviously not going to happen.
“Although we expect year-on-yeargrowth of 9 per cent in 2021, that is onlydue to the large drop in 2020. The realrecovery won't happen until 2022 whensmartphone volumes return to pre-COVID levels,” said Nabila Popal, Re-search Director with IDC.
Other elements beyond 5G will playa role in the market recovery, most no-tably the continued opportunity in de-veloping markets.
“There continues to be a strong shifttowards low- to mid-end 4G devices indeveloping regions, which make up over80 per cent of smartphone volumes inthese regions,” Popal said. – IANS
5G smartphones to capture 50% ofglobal market by 2023: IDC
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman will review the implementa-tion of resolution framework for COVID-relatedstress in bank loans, with the top management ofscheduled commercial banks and non-banking fi-nancial companies (NBFC) on Thursday.
As the pandemic hasled to severe economicstress across sectors, theReserve Bank of India(RBI) earlier this month announced to pro-vide a resolution framework to enable thelenders to implement a resolution plan, inrespect of eligible corporate borrowers with-out change in ownership while continuing theaccount status as standard, subject to speci-fied conditions.
“The review will focus on enabling business-
FM to review implementationof resolution framework
es and households to avail of the revival frame-work on the basis of viability, necessary stepslike finalising bank policies and identifying bor-rowers, and discussing issues that require ad-dressing for smooth and speedy implementa-tion,” a Finance Ministry statement said today.
Announcing the movepost the Monetary PolicyCommittee's (MPC)meeting, the RBI Gover-
nor said that the move has been announced ina bid to provide relief to stressed companieswhich have not been able to repay loans due tocash flow issues amid the pandemic.
The prudential framework dated June 7,2019 provides a principle-based resolutionframework for addressing borrower defaultsunder a normal scenario. – IANS
COVID-relatedstress in bank loans
Economic ministers ofIndia, ASEAN discuss
review of FTANEW DELHI, Aug 30: The ASEAN-India Economic Min-
isters Consultations were held to discuss the review of theASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), an of-ficial statement said today.
The virtual meeting, held on Saturday, was co-chaired byPiyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industryand Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade of Viet-nam. It was attended by the trade ministers of all the 10ASEAN countries.
The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to take col-lective actions in mitigating the economic impact of the pan-demic and resolved to ensure macroeconomic and financialstability and resilient supply chain connectivity, particularlythe unimpeded flow of essential goods and medicines in theregion, in compliance with the WTO rules. They appreciat-ed the growing trade ties and deepening economic engage-ment between two parties.
The report of the ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC)was placed before the ministers. The AIBC report has rec-ommended that the AITIGA be reviewed for mutual benefit.
As per the Commerce Ministry statement, the minis-ters from India and ASEAN countries instructed the sen-ior officials to start the discussions to determine the scopeof the review at the earliest to make the Free Trade Agree-ment more user-friendly, simple, and trade-facilitative forbusinesses.
“The review will make the agreement modern with con-temporary trade-facilitative practices, and streamlined cus-toms and regulatory procedures,” it said. – IANS
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: Af-
ter company law, the govern-
ment has now set out to de-
criminalise various offences
under the GST laws to im-
prove ease of doing business
and ensure better compliance.
As part of the changes be-
ing considered by the Finance
Ministry, a group of officers has
been constituted by the Cen-
tral Board of Indirect Taxes and
Customs (CBIC) to hold stake-
holder consultations and get
inputs from the industry.
A final proposal will then
be moved to the Cabinet.
The Directorate General
of Goods and Services Tax
Govt starts process to decriminalise GST laws(DGGST) has already writ-
NEW DELHI, Aug 30: The government has directedbanks to refund charges, including merchant discount rate(MDR), if any, collected on UPI transactions on or afterJanuary 1, 2020.
With an aim to promote digital transactions, the Centre inDecember last year announced that no charges would beapplicable on both RuPay and BHIM-UPI transactions.
In a circular today, the Central Board of Direct Taxes,which comes under the Department of Revenue in theFinance Ministry, said that it has received representations,saying that some banks are imposing and collecting chargeson transactions carried out through UPI. A certain numberof transactions are allowed free of charge beyond whichevery transaction bears a charge.
“Such practice on part of banks is a breach of Section 10Aof the PSS Act as well as Section 269SU of the IT Act. Suchbreach attracts penal provisions under Section 271DB ofthe IT Act as well as Section 26 of the PSS Act,” thecircular said.
“Banks are, therefore, advised to immediately refund thecharges collected, if any, on or after 1st January, 2020 ontransactions carried out using the electronic modesprescribed under Section 269SU of the IT Act and not toimpose charges on any future transaction carried throughthe said prescribed modes.” – IANS
GAIL looks atpetchem,
renewablesfor growth
NEW DELHI, Aug 30:State-owned GAIL India Ltdis eyeing expansion in petro-chemicals, specialty chemicalsand renewables to supple-ment growth in its core busi-ness of natural gas marketingand transportation, its Chair-man Manoj Jain has said.
The nation’s largest gasmarketer and shipper hasadopted a revised strategicplan identifying priority busi-ness initiatives.
“This strategic plan will helpus to address our challengesin changing industry scenariosand provide new areas forgrowth with geographic ex-pansion,” he said in the com-pany’s latest annual report.
GAIL transports over 70per cent of all gas shipped in
the country through its
12,426-km network of naturalgas trunk pipelines. It sells 55
per cent of all natural gas in
the country and has petro-chemical plants at Pata and
Lepatkata in Assam that gives
it a 17.5 per cent market share.It has a small portfolio of
wind and solar power gener-
ation capacity.“While gas will remain our
core segment, we will look
for growth in other areas suchas petrochemicals, specialty
chemicals, renewables, water,
etc., to reach new heights incoming years,” he said.
GAIL in its annual report
for 2019-20 said it has under-taken ‘Strategy 2030’ exer-
cise to define its journey
through the next decade.“The strategy has been
developed with the objective
of building a strong businessportfolio and organisation
structure which is not only
robust enough to respond tothe fast-changing business
scenario but also unlocks
growth opportunities for thelong-term growth of the
company,” it said.GAIL said it plans to bid
for new pipelines put on of-fer by the regulator. Also, itwill continue to grow its gastransmission business by lay-ing important sections ofNational Gas Grid – about7,500 km of lines, mostly tothe eastern part of the coun-try, are currently being laid.
GAIL said it shall push forhigher gas usage in the indus-trial and transport segmentsusing CNG and LNG. – PTI
12 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATISPORTS
MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2020
Printed and published by Ganesh Ch. Das on behalf of Assam Tribune Pvt. Ltd. at the Tribune Press, Tribune Buildings, P.O.- Assam Tribune, M.R.D. Road, Chandmari, Guwahati-781003. Tel. 0361-2660102 (EPABX), 0361-2661360, 0361-2668807 (News Desk), FAX 0361-2666396. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]. Editor: Prafulla Govinda Baruah
National SportsDay observed
GUWAHATI, Aug 30:The Assam TraditionalSports and Dragon Boat As-sociation celebrated the Na-tional Sports Day at Chhay-gaon on Saturday.
On the occasion, a small pro-gramme was held under thepresidentship of Taher Ahmedwhere the players from As-sam who represented the na-tional team in various interna-tional championships were fe-licitated. The players are –Bijulee Kalita, Beuti Kalita,Dipannita Kalita, Amiya Kali-ta, Hiramoni Kalita, Mainud-din Ahmed, Mushahab Ali,Rupen Rabha and Ainal Ali,stated a press release.
