UDALGURI, Jan 3 – Compared to previous years, lesser number of picnic groups were spotted on the first day of the New Year.
Revealing the detailed data, Marius Mochahari, secretary. Bhairabkunda Picnic Spot Management Committee told this correspondent that last year the committee earned Rs 87,750 as entry fee from 1800 picnic groups out of which 30 per cent (Rs 26,325) was paid as royalty to the BTC authority and the rest amount was spent in development of picnic spots on the sandy and rocky valley of Dhansiri river.
The secretary also said that there were 350 picnic groups coming from various parts of Assam in the previous year on January 1 while there were only 215 groups spotted till evening on the very first day of the new year.
Niran Daimari, adviser of the committee however admitted that the group clashes in last October in Udalguri and Darrang districts might have discouraged the outsiders to make a pleasure trip to Bhairabkunda in Udalguri district.
It is to be noted that the BTC authority promised to develop Bhairabkunda as one of the tourists hub of BTC but till date steps to this effect were not taken by it except starting the construction of a tourists’ lodge which is yet to be completed.
Bhairabkunda in the northern foothills of Assam in BTC region bordering Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh is a beautiful, spacious and hygienic picnic spot which can be used as tourists’ hub. The BTC authority could earn handsome amount of royalty if the place is developed sincerely.
New IS building inaugurated: The new office building of Inspector of Schools of Udalguri district was jointly inaugurated by Rihon Doimari, PHE Minister of Assam and Emmanuel Mochahari, executive member for education of BTC on December 31 last here at Barnagaon in Udalguir.
Addressing the meeting held to this effect chaired by Dr S Meenaxi Sundaram, deputy commissioner of Udalguri district, the executive member for education of B odo Territorial Council outlined the various projects undertaken by his department to improve the quality of education in the BTC region. The meeting was also addressed by Rihon Doimari, PHE minister among many others.
sinlung.com
Labels: assam picnic, udalgiri
GORESWAR, Jan 3 – Though the tourism departments of both of the governments of Assam as well as Bodoland Terroritorial Council (BTC), Kokrajahr, have not paid much attention towards the infrastructural development of a scenic place like Bogamati to develop it as a tourist spot till date, picnickers still throng the place daily from remote places of Assam in groups from mid-December to January.
Bogamati is located in the Indo-Bhutan border area 30 km off Goreswar. It lies between two hill ranges and the foothills of the Bhutan border. The Bogamati hilly area lies in the newly created Baksa district.
Communication is easy through the Baihata Chariali-Goreswar-Sukla-Uporkhuti PWD road and the Nagrijuli-Ambarish Nagar PWD road. It is situated 5 km away from Ambarish Nagar bazar chowk. These two PWD roads are completely pitched. While there is no such suitable pitched PWD road just around 12 km from Uporkhuti (Bholajhar) to Bogamati except a PWD road without sand gravel. On the other hand, it has no wooden bridge over the Deusunga river but all kinds of vehicles can cross it easily particularly during the winter season. There are no settlers near the Bogamati area since many years.
The Bogamati hilly area is endowed with a fascinating natural scenery. It is a nature lover’s paradise. However, it is yet to be explored as a tourist project either by the authorities concerned of the Assam government or BTC government, Kokrajhar till date.
The Bogamati hill resort offers some most breath-taking beautiful sights. There is a river which originates from one of the Bhutan hills located 15 km away and it flows through two ridges of the hills. It divides itself into three tributaries — Mala, Deusunga and Jabra (Puthimari) and their banks covered with soft white sand.
The adjacent Bogamati area covers around 4½ square km with green shrubs. The land stretching on south-west side of the rivers are completely plain and high, compared to the agricultural lands. The soil’s colour is black and are deemed to be best suitable for gardening.
This correspondent while visiting the area recently found that there was no proper road either from Ambarish Nagar bazar and Uporkhuti Bholajhar to Bogamati. This portion of the road needs urgent repair with necessary wooden or concrete bridges for better surface communication to Bogamati.
Besides, the Barnali, wildlife sanctuary, Rajagaon in Udalguri district of BTAD which is quite famous for its rare fauna like pigmy hog, horn-bill, elephant, bison, partridge etc lies 8-10 km on the eastern part of Bogamati and southern part of the river Barnadi.
Unfortunately there is no direct PWD road from Boagamati to Barnadi wildlife sanctuary now except Uporkhuti-Atharighat-Dimakuchi PWD road.
Meanwhile, Biswajit Daimary, MP(RS), and with the BTAD authorities have proposed to construct three agricultural bunds namely, Jabra, Mala and Bogamati soon at a cost of Rs 9.96 crore with a view to make Bogamati more beautiful and a potential tourist project. Daimary stated this in the open meet of the Suklai Serfang block BPF held recently at Bongalipara in Baksa district.
sinlung.com
Guwahati, Jan 3 : Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has expressed happiness over Sheikh Hasina's victory in the Bangladesh elections and said that her coming to power is good for both India and Assam.
Gogoi said he was hopeful about Hasina taking appropriate steps to destroy camps of Indian insurgents and Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HUJI) militants there.
"It is a very good news for the people of India and particularly for the people of Assam also. I was looking forward to Hasina's victory. We know she is a friend of India. I am very much interested because all my insurgency, the bases are in Bangladesh," said Gogoi.
Gogoi added that he wanted the bases of the fundamentalists, including those of HUJI creating trouble in Assam, to be wiped out and expected Bangladesh's cooperation in this regard.
In the last few years, the role of the HUJI has been proved in several terror acts in India, including in Assam in November 2008, Varanasi in 2006 and Hyderabad in 2005.
Labels: assam, insurgents, tarun gogoi
"The government will stay steadfast in its determination to root out terrorism and that the measures initiated recently in this direction will be taken to their logical conclusion," he had said.
Labels: manmohan singh, prime minister
Kokrajhar (Assam), Jan 3 Army today arrested the prime suspect in the murder of Jagajit Saikia, a journalist with a leading Assamese daily here.
Official sources said on a tip off the Army raided the hideout of Ranjit alias Sansurang Basumatary, the key suspect in the November 22 murder, from Ranighat under Kokrajhar police station in the wee hours today.
A 9-mm pistol with six rounds of ammunition were recovered from Basumatary who was being interrogated at the army camp there, the sources said.
The army will later handover the suspect to the local police.
Six bullets were pumped into Jagajit Saikia (35), the Kokrajhar district local correspondent of the popular Guwahati-based daily' Aamar Asom', as he was coming out of office in the heart of Kokrajhar town, in lower Assam.
Saikia was immediately taken to the R N B Civil Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries triggering widespread protest among the journalist community in the state.
The journalist is survived by his wife and a child.
sinlung.com
RANGIYA, Jan 3 – A scene of massive protest and vandalism including assault of a railway assistant station master (ASM) and ransacking of the ASM office by irate train passengers was witnessed at the Rangiya Railway Station this morning following detention of the 701 Up Manas-Rhino passenger train for nearly an hour at the station. According to reports, after its usual arrival at the Rangiya station this morning, the 701 Up Manas-Rhino passenger train was reportedly stopped at the station for nearly an hour as per the directive of the railway authority to facilitate crossing/track clearance for the Dn Rajdhani Express.
This irked the passengers on board the said train as most of them were either government employees or worked in different establishments in Guwahati and were getting late for work.
The situation worsened and hundreds angry passengers came down from the train and ransacked the ASM office breaking window panes, damaging furniture and other railway properties. The mob even allegedly assaulted the ASM. The angry mob later got down on the railway tracks at the station and obstructed the movement of other trains for nearly two hours till 11 this morning.
The angry passengers calmed down only when senior railway officials arrived at the site and assured non-occurence/non-repetition of such prolonged detention of trains in future.
Railway sources said the incident occurred due to the instruction of the Senior Divisional Opearting Manager, who directed his chief operating staff to detain the passenger train.
Most of the passengers blamed the sheer negligenge of the railway authorities for such untoward incidents. They gave due significance only to the Rajdhani Express, goods trains and other express and mail trains at the cost of loss of valuable time of those travelling by passenger trains.
DOOMDOOMA, Jan 3 – the pro-talk group of the banned outfit ULFA has given up the demand for sovereignty. In a press meet held at the designated camp at Kakopotnar yesterday, pro-talk group leader Mrinal Hazarika told that they would now sit for talks with the government within the framework of Indian Constitution.
He also told that instead of sovereignty, they would fight for complete autonomy for the State. The pro-talk group has also released a charter of their demands.
Mrinal Hazairka also informed the media that their appeal for peace to their central authority failed to evoke any response. As a result, the pro-talk group has given up all its connection with the banned outfit from now onwards.
From now onwards the cease-fire group of the banned outfit would be known as ULFA (pro-talk group), Hazarika added.
With this, ULFA which was formed in 1979 has virtually been bifurcated into two fractions. It can be mentioned here that the ‘A’ and ‘C’ company of the outfit has declared ceasefire on June 24, 2008.
KALYAN BAROOAH
NEW DELHI, Jan 3 – Bowing to pressure India is likely to ask Bangladesh to crack down on the Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs), with New Delhi deciding to rush External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee to Dhaka later this month. Highly placed sources said the External Affairs Minister has a two-point agenda. He would be taking up the issue of shelter being enjoyed by the North-East militants and urgent need to mount a crackdown, besides cross border trade, sources added.
Mukehrejee is likely to seek to expulsion of select ULFA and NDFB leaders including Anup Chetia, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Paresh Barua and Ranjan Daimary, said said.
India and Dhaka does not have an extradition treaty and hence New Delhi is insisting on handing over the militant leaders.
India is unlikely to send any representative to Dhaka to attend the swearing – in ceremony of Sheikh Hasina, tentatively scheduled on January 5. Instead Mukherjee is going towards later part of January to do some plain speaking.
However, India is unlikely to talk tough at this stage, sources clarified, adding that New Delhi wants the new government to settle down first. The date for Mukherjee’s visit has not been firmed up because the new government is yet to take over charge in Dhaka, sources said.
The recent incidents of blasts in Assam and the emerging links of involvement of the fundamentalist elements based across the border has led the North Eastern States to mount pressure on the Centre to prevail upon Dhaka to end the free run enjoyed by the militants.
Though Mukherjee is going to seek the expulsion of the militant leaders, sources in the Home Ministry said they are not hopeful of securing the custody of any one of the top guns of ULFA and NDFB.
Reports with the Centre suggested that ahead of the December 29 polls, top leaders of ULFA, Arabinda Rajkhowa, Paresh Baruah and Raju Baruah left Bangladesh for Thailand. They are now suspected to be holed somewhere in South East Asia.
Intelligence inputs suggest that the ULFA leaders have been shuttling between Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and East Timor. Ranjan Daimary for instance has reportedly bought some property in East Timor.
India, meanwhile, has adopted several measures to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the aftermath of spiralling violence in Assam. The Ministry of Home Affairs decided to replace fencing under Phase-I along Indo-Bangladesh border. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has approved extension of time for this project up to March 31, 2010.
Sources said in pursuance of the decision of the Government to replace the entire 861 Km of fencing constructed under Phase-I in West Bengal, Assam and Meghalaya, which got damaged due to adverse climatic conditions and repeated submergence. At least 364 Km of fencing has been replaced so far, sources said.
sinlung.com
Labels: assam, bangladesh, new delhi, northeast
GUWAHATI, Jan 3 – State BJP president Ramen Deka on Friday warned that the situation in the State would continue to be volatile until and unless terrorism masterminded from Bangladesh is exterminated. Condemning in strong words the serial blasts triggered in the capital city on the first day of the New Year, Deka said that it was indicative of more trouble ahead.
Deka regretted the failure of the government in taking the necessary steps to prevent the recurrence of an October 30-like situation, the day when a series of bomb blasts had rocked the capital city.
Demanding stringent measures to tackle the scourge of terrorism, the senior BJP leader said that the government should immediately plug the security loopholes.
The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) today demonstrated against the security lapses and increasing terror acts and warned that it would take up more vigorous protest programmes in the coming days if there was no improvement in the security front.
The student body further said that the Tarun Gogoi Government had no moral right to continue in power as it had failed to protect the life and property of the common people.
The Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) while criticizing the Tarun Gogoi Government said the failure of the government to take up necessary security measures even after having prior information that terrorists might strike again, was reflective of the government’s indifference towards the common people.
The All Assam Markazi Jamiat Ulama has asked the government to identify the perpetrators of yesterday’s serial blasts and mete out exemplary punishment to them.
GUWAHATI, Jan 3 : Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today arrived at the city. Governor SC Mathur and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi received him at the Borjhar LGB International Airport this evening. The Prime Minister is accompanied by his ministerial colleagues Manishankar Aiyer, Kapil Sibal and Prithivraj Chouhan.
After his landing at Borjhar, the Prime Minister rushed to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital to meet the injured ones of the yesterday city blast cases.
The Prime Minister also held discussion with the Governor and the Chief Minister on the present law and order situation of the State. He will stay at the Raj Bhawan tonight and leave for Shillong to inaugurate the five-day 96 th session of the Indian Science Congress on the North East Hill University (NEHU) campus there.
He will leave Shillong, via Guwahati, for Delhi at 12-30 pm, said official sources here.
Spl Correspondent from New Delhi adds: Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh has said that Government of India would stay steadfast in its determination to root out terrorism and that the measures taken recently in this direction would be taken to their logical conclusion.
While expressing grief over the loss of lives of people in the serial bomb blasts at Guwahati, the Prime Minister has sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of those deceased, the Prime Ministers Office announced today..
It has been further announced that Rs 1 lakh would be paid each to the seriously injured from the Prime Ministers National Relief Fund.
The Prime Minister had, yesterday condemned the terrorist blasts in Guwahati. He expressed his condolences to the near and dear ones of those killed in the blasts and his sympathies to those injured.
sinlung.com
Labels: assam, GMCH, manmohan singh
GUWAHATI, Jan 3– Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said that the ultras involved in the two of the three cases of blast that took place in the city on Thursday were identified and the security forces would soon nab them. He also announced that a government decision on extension of the ceasefire pact with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) would come up within a day or two.
The Home Minister also claimed that fencing along the Indo-Bangla border in Assam was substantially completed and the gap in the riverine areas only remained to be plugged.
Addressing a press conference after attending a meeting of the Unified Command Structure, Chidambaram said that the State Government was requested to concentrate more on developmental activities, while the security forces were asked to deal with the ‘banned organisations threatening security and sovereignty of the country.’ The strategy group of the Unified Command would evolve more effective strategies to deal with these organisations, he said.
The militant groups signing the statement of understanding (SoU) with the government should adhere to the terms and conditions laid down in the pacts in letter and spirit. Those organisations, which are yet to sign such pacts with the government, would be dealt with firmly, he said.
The NDFB has provided a good point to begin the discussion on the issue of extension of ceasefire with its statement yesterday. The discussion with the outfit on the issue is scheduled for today and tomorrow.
At the moment the Union Government is concentrating on settling the issues related with the NDFB and then it will go for resolving the issues concerning the other four militant groups of the State, the Union Home Minister apprised mediapersons.
On the report of the A and C companies of the ULFA 28 th battalion giving up the demand for a sovereign Assam, he said that officers concerned were asked to collect a copy of the ULFA companies’ statement on the issue and to study it carefully. Reiterating the Government’s stand on the issue of holding discussion with the militant groups, he said that the government was open for talks with those eschewing violence and militancy and renouncing the demand for sovereignty.
On the issue of two of the State’s militant groups taking shelter in Bangladesh, he exuded the hope that the statement made by the Prime Minister-elect of the neighbouring country on the issue would be the basis for a new beginning on the issue. The statement was positive, he said, adding, the people in this part of South Asia were for peace and development.
Avoiding a categorical reply to a question on whether the Government was in a position to name the organisation involved in Thursday’s blasts in the city, he said that as soon as the culprits involved were nabbed their organisational allegiance would become clear to the people.
However, he informed the mediapersons that one of the bombers was identified prior to the incidents, but he could escape the dragnet of the Assam Police, as, a ‘little bit of luck favoured him.’ He left the explosive devices in a garbage dump while giving the police a slip.
Stating that though the Assam Police was not lucky this time, the Union Home Minister expressed the hope that it would be lucky next time in nabbing this militant.
The Home Minister also visited the Guwahati Medical College Hospital this morning and talked to the victims of yesterday blast incidents.
He assured that NSG hubs would be set up in all states of the country in the longrun.
Labels: assam, bomb, Chidambaram, culprits
