NEW DELHI, Dec 11 – Did China block the flow of the Brahmaputra river on November 12?
The External Affairs Ministry’s reply to an unstarred question by Maya Singh in the Rajya Sabha has led to confusion over the sensational incident.
The BJP MP had asked “whether due to the construction work on the hydro-power project by China that is already underway on the Brahmaputra, the water flow was blocked on that day last month.
In response, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said the Government has taken up this matter with the Chinese side during the recent India-China strategic dialogue on November 16.
The Chinese side has conveyed that China has always taken a responsible attitude towards trans-border rivers. China has also clarified that Zangmu is a small power project, which would not store water or regulate the volume of water, and therefore, would not have an adverse impact on downstream areas, the Minister said.
As reported in this newspaper, international experts are sceptical about Chinese claims as a series of dams including 38,000 MW giant dam is proposed at the bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) has disclosed that it has awarded comprehensive basin-wise Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study in Arunachal Pradesh.
A comprehensive basin-wise EIA study for Lohit basin has already been awarded by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to Water and Power Consultancy Services (WAPCOS) India Limited, MoWR, Paban Bansal said in reply to a question by Kumar Deepak Das.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) is entrusted with similar studies for Siang and Subansiri basins in consultation with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and MoEF. The draft terms of reference for these studies are under finalisation, said Bansal.
The construction of ongoing big dams in Arunachal Pradesh has been taken up after considering cost benefit analysis, safety aspects, environment impact and obtaining mandatory clearances from the concerned agencies of the Government, he said.
The construction of proposed big dams would be undertaken only after conducting EIA studies including the impact of the projects in downstream areas according to the ToR sanctioned by the MoEF, Bansal said.
However, the Minister admitted that the USA has decommissioned some of its dams. He said it was due to various reasons such as obsolence, economic factors, safety considerations, risk reduction, high operation and maintenance costs and environmental concerns.
Studies related to decommissioning of dams are taken up for the dams in existence and not for construction of new dams. However, before issuing the green signal to the construction of big dams in the country including Arunachal Pradesh, Detailed Project Report (DPR) for hydro electric projects costing over Rs 500 crore is submitted to CEA for concurrence.
Guwahati, Dec. 11 : An expert on the Brahmaputra today said adequate regional and international co-operation is essential for management of water resources in the region.
Dulal Goswami was speaking at a two-day national workshop on Water Conflicts in the Northeast: Issues, Cases and Way Forward which began today.
Organised by Aaranyak in association with the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, it is deliberating on issues like impact of hydro power projects, rehabilitation of flood-affected people, flood management infrastructure, proposed seismic survey, ground water contamination, trans-boundary water management, water policy, river bank erosion, gender role in water security and a a framework for resolution of water conflicts.
“Having two major international rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Barak, that flow through three most populous countries in the world -— China, India and Bangladesh — besides a host of tributaries with inter-state watershed boundaries, the management of the vast water resources of the region needs adequate regional and international co-operation and pooling of resources at the national and global level,” he said.
Speaking on Northeast India: The Geophysical Context of Water Conflicts, Goswami said while it was true that the current utilisation of the colossal water resource potential of the region is dismally poor, the policies for the utilisation of these resources need to have a broader outlook.
He said Brahmaputra’s “classified” river tag has hit researchers, as there is a bar on getting hydrological data of the river.
A case study on conflicts over the Tipaimukh hydro-electric project by R.K. Ranjan Singh was also presented in the workshop.
A paper on River Bank Erosion in Rohmoria area in Dibrugarh district: Impact, Conflict and Peoples’ struggle by Siddartha Kumar Lahiri was presented.
“It is time for the state to understand that social negligence piling up for decades may boomerang at unexpected moments with unpredicted intensities unless a sincere effort is shown,” the paper said.
Guwahati, Dec. 11 : Assam is on its way to having a bicameral legislature. It is likely to have a legislative council or upper house by next year.
Announcing this here today, parliamentary affairs minister Bharat Chandra Narah said he had already sent a cabinet memorandum to the chief minister’s office.
“Once the state cabinet approves this, we will send it to Parliament for approval. Parliament will have its next session in February,” he said, adding that it might take some time as the state was heading for elections next year.
Narah had moved a resolution during the July session of the Assembly this year to create a legislative council in the state. He also recommended to the Union government that Parliament be moved to formulate laws to this effect under the provisions of Article 169 of the Constitution.
Legislators cutting across party lines had supported the resolution, which was passed by two-thirds majority.
Narah today said the basic idea behind the creation of an Upper house was to offer representation to small ethnic groups, which were not represented in the Assembly.
“It is our responsibility to give equal representation to all the indigenous communities of the state,” he said.
The minister said the upper house could not be more than one-third of the total size of an Assembly. As the total strength of the Assam Assembly is 126, the proposed upper house will have 42 members.
The role of the proposed council is likely to be primarily consultative with limited legislative powers. The expenditure of the council has to be borne by the state government.
“It is nothing new as setting up of an upper house has been one of the important points of the Congress Lok Sabha election manifesto in 2004 as well as in 2009,” Narah said, adding that Assam had an upper house from 1931 to 1938, which was abolished after Independence.
Various sections, including political parties, have been demanding a two-tier legislature in the state for long, considering the aspirations of diverse ethnic groups.
The state Assembly had adopted a similar resolution in 2005 but the Centre returned the proposal seeking more details, Narah said.
Guwahati: Though Assam is not a high AIDS- prevalent state till now but, it can very well acquire the status considering its position surrounded by Nagaland and Manipur where the dreaded disease has spread its tentacles wide.
Being the gateway to the Northeast, Assam is visited daily by a rainbow crowd of migrant workers, truck drivers, Army personnel and tourists from all over the region, making it highly susceptible to the spread of the disease.
Often this floating population, a lot of them from Nagaland and Manipur, engage in unsafe sexual practices during their temporary stay.
According to the Assam State AIDS Control Society, the state receives a very large number of trucks from outside every day and these long-distrance drivers come in contact with sex workers.
''Moreover, the region's easy access to drugs due to its close proximity to the heroin-producing Golden Triangle of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand contributes to the spread of the deadly disease,'' the ASACS said.
The ASACS will shortly implement the third phase of the National Aids Control Programme after successfully conducting the first two, it said.
Migration from outside the state in view of the large demand for manual labour in development projects is high and these migrants have been found to exhibit 'risky sexual behaviour', it said.
TEZPUR, Dec 10 – The 19-day drama festival of the National School of Drama organised here in association with the historic Ban Theatre concluded here recently with the staging of 19 different thought-provoking plays of the region in Mizo, Garo, Manipuri, Nepali, Assamese and Hindi languages.
The plays presented dealt with a variety of subjects ranging from mythology, social issues like caste, gender, lives of the marginalized and elderly, exploitation in feudal structures, revisiting of historical events, music and folklore. Mayabazar in Telegu directed by R Nageswar Rao was staged on the opening day of the drama festival followed by Assamese play, Akash directed by Baharul Islam, a multi-lingual drama of Manipur Dakghar directed by Heisnam Kanhailal, Kannada play, Ambapratigga directed by Guru Sanjib Subarna, Bengali play Rokta Korobi directed by Gautam Haldar, and Assamese plays Mirijiory directed by Anup Hazarika, Sup – Ak Prahasan directed by Ashim Kumar Sarma, Astarag directed by Dr Arup Barthakur and Siraj directed by Pratham Das.
Other plays that were staged were in Bengali language directed by Sisir Dev Ayudaan and English play, A Love Story of 1950, Mizo play directed by Nousad Mahamad The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Marathi play directed by Rabindra Kharein, Katyar Koljaat Ghusli, Manipuri play directed by Shila Devi, Gouralila Garo play directed by Pabitra Rabha Dukon Arunachali drama directed by Suk Bahadur Drowa Jhangmu- Ek Devi Ki Kahanu Tamil drama directed by Purisai Kannappa Sambandan, Panchali Sabatham and Maring drama directed by S Thaninleima, Khaalteba etc also conveyed a message among the audience regarding the cultural diversity of the across the country and the national integrity.
It may be mentioned here that the Poorvottar Natya Samaroh, which is presently running in its fourth year is a special platform that has been able to position to showcase the work of young directors and distinguished practitioners from within and outside the North-East.
Guwahati, Dec. 10 : The CID of Assam police has arrested a computer engineering student from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh on charges of morphing nude photographs of a girl from Guwahati with whom he had developed an “affair” through a social networking site.
Arpit Bhargav, 19, was arrested yesterday from his residence at Jabalpur based on a complaint lodged by the girl and her father on November 19.
A two-member CID team arrested the third semester computer engineering student of Takshila Institute of Technology, Jabalpur, with the help of Madhya Pradesh police. He is being brought here.
CID sources said according to the complaint lodged by the girl, Bhargav got in touch with her through a social networking site two years ago when she was studying in New Delhi and they developed an “affair”.
The boy used a fake profile photograph in his account and both exchanged photographs through the site.
“According to the complaint, both were in touch through the networking site for a long time and fell in love.
They exchanged photographs and even talked over mobile phone but when she came to know that the boy’s photographs were fakes, she stopped talking to him and gradually tried to snap ties with him.
But Arpit sent threat messages in her profile and sent SMSs from three mobile phone numbers.
When the girl asked him not to contact her anymore, Arpit morphed her nude photographs and uploaded these on the networking site,” a CID officer said today.
Based on the complaint, the cyber crime sleuths of the CID started an investigation and blocked Arpit’s profile on the networking site but the engineering student opened another similar account and again uploaded morphed nude photographs of the girl.
“We had a tough time to locate the boy as the photographs uploaded in his account were not his original. But we finally traced the mobile tower from where Arpit sent SMSs to the girl to Azad Bakeri at Jayanagar in Jabalpur. We reached Jabalpur on Tuesday and apprehended him with the help of local police,” the CID officer said.
The CID sources said the three mobile phones which Arpit used to send text messages to the girl were in his mother’s name.
The CID team seized the three mobile phones and the computer set used by the boy. They also found obscene morphed photographs of the girl stored in his computer.
Arpit has been booked under Sections 66A/67A of IT Act 2000 and was produced in the court of Jabalpur chief judicial magistrate.
The CJM remanded him in the custody of Assam CID for a week.
Haflong (Assam), Dec 9 (PTI) Six farmers were abducted by unidentified militants from two villages in Assam''s Dima Hasao (North Cachar Hills) district early today, police said.
Armed militants abducted four villagers from Maibang village and two others from Dehangi village and took them to an undisclosed destination.
The kidnapped farmers have been identified as Joybo Maramsa (55), Hamring Maramsa (46), Hamjen Maramsa (40) and Kajol Maramsa (38) from Maibong while Roben Hasnu (35) and Debendra Hasnu (32) from Dehangi area.
Security forces have launched a massive search operation to trace the abducted villagers, police said.
Meanwhile, the three surveyors of the Indian Oil Tanking Company, kidnapped by activists of the Dimasa National Democratic Front (DNDF) on December five from Langting area in the district, remained untraced.
Initially, DNDF activists had abducted surveyors Bandip Siva Garuda, Santosh Ashok Rai Chandra and Wilfred besides their cook Ranjit Das. The same day they released Garuda who conveyed to his employer, hired by Indian Oil Corporation to conduct seismic survey in the area, that the ultras were demanding a ransom of Rs one crore.
The decline of militancy in Assam's Karbi Anglong District has given a boost to the region in terms of socio-cultural development.
Recently, the district played host to the Eighth Rongthean Festival, where members of twelve different tribes like the Karbi, Kuki; Vheipes, Assamese, Nagas and Dimasa took part.
The three-day festival showcased the socio-cultural panorama of the region and also symbolized unity. he Rongthean Klimsomer Club organized it with the support of state and central departments and with the help of private sponsorships.
The main objective of the Rongthean Festival is to promote and preserve the culture of the region, which has been slowly taken away by modernization. We also want to promote our age-old traditions and skills to the younger generation," said Chiratin, the president of the Klimsomer Club.
To preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the district, a small market was set up at the festival venue, which showcased traditional Karbi attires, artificial jewellery, decorative items made from wood and Karbi cuisine.
Participants also took part in several competitions in various age groups.
A marathon was also organized to promote sports and sports persons of the area.
The fun filled affair also provided a platform for promoting Karbi fashion. Models in traditional attires walked the ramp and young artists sang and danced to folk tunes at a cultural night during the event.
"Karbi Anglong is a backward area. We organized this festival to develop the region and promote the youth of the region. We have included sports, cultural and educational events in the festival to promote the development of the youth," said Maria, a resident of Rongthean Village
The main attraction of the festival was the second Karbi Anglong Beat Contest, which attracted ten top rock bands of the country.
The contest was organized under the aegis of Eastern Beats Music Society that promotes music in the region.
Dementia, a popular rock band from Nagaland bagged the first prize.
"People of Rongthean village at this time of the year can come together and enhance the feeling of bonhomie and brotherhood that can go a long way in promoting the social and communal harmony," Ayushman Dutta, Secretary, Eastern Beats Music Society.
The region was once affected by militancy, but now peaceful and the new dawn of hope is clearly visible. (ANI)
By Anshuman Behera / South Asia Intelligence Review
On August 25, 2010, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that "while the year 2009 was a distinct improvement on the year 2008, it is in the 2010 that we have seen a dramatic decline in the number of incidents and in the number of casualties in the Northeast."
He disclosed, further, that there had been only 464 incidents until August 15, in 2010, as against 1,297 and 1,561 for the whole year in 2009 and 2008, respectively. However, the State ranked the second most vulnerable in the Northeast, according to a April 2, 2010, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) release, Assam, [Manipur was ranked the worst affected], has witnessed some distressing incidents, despite an overall improvement and the neutralization of a number of active insurgent groups.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, a total of 158 persons, including 98 militants, 48 civilians and 12 Security Force (SF) personnel, were killed in 417 incidents in 2010 (all data till December 5) as against 392, including 196 militants, 175 civilians and 21 SF personnel, killed in 753 incidents in 2009, indicating a 59.69 per cent decline in militancy-related fatalities, and a 72.57 per cent drop in civilian killings in 2010 as compared to 2009, indicating considerable improvement in the security scenario in the State.
The State witnessed 10 major incidents (involving three or more killings) in 2010, as against 24 in 2009. The major incidents of 2010 included:
November 8: At least 19 persons, including 13 Hindi-speaking people, were killed and several others injured when militants of the Anti-Talks Faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-ATF) went on a killing spree in five Districts across Assam.
October 3: The Police shot dead four NDFB-ATF cadres during an encounter in a thickly forested area at Dekatan in Dhemaji District and rescued an abducted trader, Cotton Nandy.
July 30: At least five Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers were killed and 33 were injured, when United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) blast and damaged a bus at Bhalukdubi under Goalpara District.
July 26: Four Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel, including an Assistant Commandant, were killed, and three were injured, in an ambush by the NDFB-ATF at Amlaiguri under Panbari Police Station in Chirang District along the Bhutan border.
March 1: Four suspected militants of the Bengali Tiger Force (BTF) were shot dead in an encounter with SFs at Chereng Chapori in Darrang District.
January 2: Unidentified militants shot dead three persons, including two NDFB-Pro Talks Faction (NDFB-PTF) cadres and one college student, Bilifang Basumatary (20), at Mukuldang under Gossaigaon Police Station in Kokrajhar District. A truck driver and two other students were also injured in the gun attack.
The NDFB-ATF has emerged as the most violent militant group in the State, despite the fact that the surviving rump of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the most dreaded formation till 2009.
The NDFB has been involved in 30 civilian killings in 2010, as against four by ULFA. 18 ULFA militants were killed in 14 incidents, while the NDFB lost 56 cadres in 42 incidents in the year. 25 of these cadres were identified as members of NDFB-ATF, killed in 23 incidents. Reports are not conclusive about the affiliation of the fatalities in remaining incidents.
While the NDFB-ATF has been on a killing spree, the NDFB-PTF has been engaged in a cease-fire with the Government since September 23, 2009, and has mostly remained away from militant activities. Unsurprisingly, on January 29, 2010, NDFB-PTF announced that it would participate in the Bodo Territorial Council Elections in Assam. The elections were held on April 9, 2010, and the Bodoland People’s Front won the majority.
The role of NDFB-PTF was, however, unclear. On February 1, 2010, a NDFB-PTF delegation met the Centre's interlocutor in Assam, P. C. Haldar, to press for an early solution to the impasse by creating a separate State for the indigenous tribal people of Assam.
As the NDFB-PTF sustained its commitment to peace talks, on July 1, 2010, the Union Government extended the cease-fire agreement with it for six months till December 31, 2010. Meanwhile, on November 19, as many as 43 Bodo political and non-political organisations came together to form the Bodo National Conference – a common platform to resolve various issues affecting the Bodo people.
The Conference was formed in a bid to convince the NDFB-ATF chairman Ranjan Daimary to join the peace parleys and also to ensure peace and unity among the Bodo people, and those living in the Bodo areas. On November 18, 2010, NDFB-PTF cadres had distributed a map depicting a separate Bodoland to participants at the Bodo National Convention.
The map included nine Districts. NDFB cadres insisted that a resolution be passed by the Convention on the basis of the map. Though some important resolutions were adopted during the two-day national convention, the Bodoland State issue was not included in the new set of resolutions, as it is one of the oldest demands of the Bodo community.
ULFA’s capacities have, of course, been decimated as a result of the capture or surrender of almost its entire top leadership. Nevertheless, the surviving elements continue to sustain a violent intent. In June, a group of 10 ULFA cadres were reported to have entered Guwahati city to carry out extortion and subversive activities as per directions from the ‘commander’ of the ULFA’s '709th battalion', Hira Sarania. According to partial data compiled by SATP, ULFA has been involved in nine reported incidents of extortion in 2010, as compared to 21 reported in 2009.
Reports indicated ULFA had launched an extortion drive in April 2010, and had served extortion notices to people in different parts of Assam. A November 2 report indicated that ULFA hardliners, headed by 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua, were trying to launch a fresh recruitment drive to replenish the organisation’s depleting strength. Highly placed Police sources indicated that the outfit had started its recruitment drive in the Upper Assam Districts. Nevertheless, sources claimed that ULFA had failed to recruit significant numbers of youth.
Despite this, on February 1, 2010, the Union Government proposed peace talks with ULFA. Immediately thereafter, on February 2, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, in custody since December 4, 2009, rejected the offer, saying that they could not talk with the Government while in custody. Rajkhowa was arrested in Bangladesh on December 2, 2009, and was subsequently handed over, along with nine other persons, to Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at the Dawki outpost in the Jaintia Hills District on December 4.
Meanwhile, Paresh Barua, in an e-mailed statement, on April 21, declared: "There is no question of talks without the issue of sovereignty on the agenda. Agreeing to hold talks without the sovereignty issue would be like surrendering to the colonial forces".
On November 27, 2010, however, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi stated that peace talks between ULFA and the Centre were expected to begin in January 2011.
On November 7, 2010, he had observed, "We have only expressed our hope to start the peace process in December. Before the initiation of peace talks, all jailed ULFA leaders have to be released on bail, which we can’t (do). Though the State Government isn’t against the release of the jailed ULFA leaders on bail, it depends on the Court." Nevertheless, the Government did release four prominent ULFA leaders, Raju Baruah, Pranati Deka, Bhimkanta Buragohain and Pradip Gogoi.
In another major development for the State, on February 11, 2010, about 400 cadres of the Karbi Longri NC Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) laid down arms and surrendered to the Government at a formal ceremony in Diphu, some 270 kilometers south of Guwahati. Thong Teron, ‘general secretary’ of the KLNLF, declared, "We initially started armed struggle to solve our problems, now we want to try to solve them politically."
Following the surrender of the KLNLF militants, Union Home Secretary G. K. Pillai stated, on February 22, 2010, that the Government was also engaged in peace talks with groups like Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), United Peoples’ Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), KLNLF, NDFB-PTF and ULFA, and would try not to have any further divisions in Assam.
Meanwhile, the KLNLF-Anti Talks Faction, on October 28, 2010, decided to test its support base among the general people of Diphu District by calling for a 24 hours District bandh (general strike) on October 30, to protest against the alleged killing of its cadres by SFs, in league with KLNLF rank and file presently under the cease-fire. However, there was no further report about such a general strike talking place.
On November 3, 2010, the State Government informed the Union MHA about the involvement of members of National Socialist Council of Nagaland – Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) in illegal activities such as extortion in Assam. The matter was also reported to the Cease-fire Monitoring Committee in Nagaland, which includes representatives of the Central Government and the militant outfit.
Worryingly, a November 5, 2010, report quoting Police sources indicated that the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) had established links with the Adivasi People’s Army (APA) raised in Sonitpur District with ULFA backing. This was discovered during the interrogation of Tarjan Majhi, the Sonitpur District ‘commander’ of the APA. Majhi was arrested along with five others on November 3, 2010, at Bhairabguri under Dhekiajuli Police Station of Sonitpur District.
Majhi claimed that an ULFA ‘sergeant major’, Das, had provided arms training to APA cadre in Majbat area of Udalguri District and helped them contact the Maoists. The APA ‘District Commander’ from Gossaigaon in Kokrajhar District claimed he had recruited a large number of APA members and procured some firearms.
Assam's counter-terrorism strategy still relies disproportionately on Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMFs). In the beginning of 2009, 150 companies of CPMFs were deployed in the State. According to Government sources, their number has come below 100 companies in 2010. However, the State Government has expressed the view that the present strength of Central Forces in the State is inadequate.
The Centre, on the other hand, has expressed the position that the overall improvement in law and order in the State, the decline in the strength of ULFA, and several other outfits entering into cease-fire with the Government, justify the pull-out of CPMFs from some Districts, leaving a sufficient Force to operate against the NDFB-ATF in areas of their dominance.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, during his visit to the State on November 12, 2010, in the aftermath of the NDFB-ATF killings between November 8 and 10, urged the State Government to mobilize its reserve Police battalions for deployment in the NDFB-ATF affected areas, to launch an offensive, along with the Army. The State Government was asked to fill up existing vacancies – over 6,000 – in its Police Force, to fight the surviving insurgencies and stabilize the operational gains of the past years.
Assam has a Police-population ratio of 172/100,000, better than the all India average of 124, but the lowest for any State in the troubled Northeast. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi while speaking at a conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security in New Delhi on February 7, 2010, said the Assam Government was proposing the recruitment of 4,100 Police Constables by June 2010.
He also said that the appointment letter for 2,401 Police personnel would also be given by June 2010, resulting in a decline in the Police vacancy to just 1,239. The State Government has also approved the recruitment of 10,000 Home Guards and 3,500 Special Police Officers (SPOs), including 1,500 to be deployed in major markets and 2,000 to be deployed on National Highways and Railways.
The Assam Government also proposed to raise the sanctioned strength of the Police Force by 50 per cent in a phased manner over the next four years. However, given the State's dismal financial profile, the implementation of such ambitious plans appears unlikely.
Assam has made very significant gains against insurgency over the past years, in part as a result of operational successes, in part because of chance factors such as the change in attitude of the regime in Bangladesh, and part, because several groupings have simply succumbed to exhaustion.
Nevertheless, it is evident that some groups retain significant residual capacities, even as others – ominously including the Maoists – are just waiting to fill the emerging vacuum. As far as its disturbing history of insurgency is concerned, Assam is still a long way from being out of the woods.
(The writer is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management)
Guwahati, Dec 7 : Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today claimed the state government was responsible for a scam of Rs 180 crore of NREGA funds besides the multi-crore fund diversion in N C Hills.
"I have with me relevant documents of the NREGA scam," the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly told reporters here.
The AGP leader also claimed that for the past six months, the government had failed to submit the utilisation certificate for the developmental scheme to the Centre.
"And for this the Centre should take action and dismiss the state government," he said.
Earlier Mahanta alleged that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was involved in the development fund diversion in North Cachar Hills district Autonomous Council.
Referring to the government's offer to hold a special session of the assembly in January to discuss the hill district scandal, he said, "We are ready for a debate, but the offer is a ploy to hoodwink the people and divert their attention from the massive scandal involving public money."
GUWAHATI, Dec 6 – The Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India (Forum) and the environment group Aaranyak are jointly organising a two-day national workshop on “Water Conflicts in the North East: Issues, Cases and Way Forward” in the city with a two-day programme from December 10 at the Kharghuli Don Bosco Institute.
The workshop will be attended by experts, practitioners, civil society researchers from the water sector and journalists who will discuss and deliberate on various aspects of the conflicts related to water, its management, utilisation and rights, said a press release.
The Forum and Aaranyak are compiling a compendium of case studies on water conflicts of NE India in which about twenty authors from different parts of the region are participating. The authors will present their case studies in the workshop on conflicts covering areas like impact of hydro power projects, rehabilitation of the flood-affected people, flood- management infrastructure, proposed seismic survey, ground water contamination, transboundary water management, water policy, river bank erosion, among others.
The authors are also highlighting the issue of developing a framework for resolution of water conflicts.
Renowned geo-morphologist Prof DC Goswami, a former Head, Department of Environmental Science, Gauhati University, renowned water management expert Prof Jayanta Bandyopadhyay of the Centre for Development and Environmental Policy, IIM-Kolkata, and eminent expert on environment policy and conflict management Prof Matthew McKinney, the Director of Centre for Natural Resources and Environment Policy, the University of Montana, will deliver three invited lectures at the workshop.
Former Water Resources Secretary, Government of India Prof Ramaswamy R Iyer will deliver a lecture on ‘Transboundary Water Conflicts: Issues and Way Forward’ at 4.30 pm on December 9 at the Uzanbazar Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture as part of the workshop. The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion on water resources of North East India: science, management, people, conflict and politics.
Prof DC Goswami, Prof Ramaswamy R Iyer, Prof J Bandyopadhyay, Shripad Dharmadhikary, of Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh and KJ Joy of the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management, Pune are taking part in the panel discussion as the panelists. They will offer their views on the theme and answer questions from the audience and the media, said the press release.
GUWAHATI, Dec 3 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Assam Pradesh, today demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for his dilly-dallying over the multi-crore NC Hills scam.
The party also accused Gogoi of trying to safeguard his ministers involved in the scam.
Addressing mediapersons here, spokesperson of the party Dr Pradip Thakuria regretted the stand adopted by Gogoi and said that the Chief Minister had lost the moral right to continue in office since the day the special audit report of the Accountant General (AG) was handed over to the government. “But Gogoi has been cheating the people by sitting idle even though the report clearly points out to the rampant anomalies in the NC Hills Autonomous Council,” said Dr Thakuria, adding that the BJP which has been voicing against corruption will mobilize public opinion on the issue of NC Hills scam.
It needs to be mentioned here that the party has already taken up several protest programmes demanding immediate steps against those guilty of fund misappropriation. It will again stage a protest demonstration against the government tomorrow in the capital city.
“Our agitation will continue till the guilty in the NC Hills scam are punished,” said Dr Thakuria, remarking that the party has taken to the path of agitation so that the future generation does not get a bad precedent.
