Assam to take on Tripura

Women’s Cricket

Dibrugarh, Oct. 30 : Hosts Assam will take on Tripura in Tinsukia while Bengal will play Jharkhand in Dibrugarh in the two opening matches of the limited overs Women’s Cricket League (East Zone) beginning November 3.

Preparations are on at the Dibrugarh District Sports Association (DDSA) outdoor stadium and the Tinsukia District Sports Association (TDSA) stadium for the meet allotted by the BCCI to the Assam Cricket Association (ACA).

“All preparations are being made as per the specifications of the BCCI. We hope that we will be able to successfully conduct the tournament,” Tariq Khan, the cricket secretary of the DDSA, said.

The DDSA officials worked hard to prepare the ground, which got damaged during recruitment rallies organised by security forces in August and September.

In Tinsukia preparations are on full swing with the district association receiving funds of Rs 1 lakh from the ACA to prepare the wickets prior to the tournament.

The Assam team reached Tinsukia this afternoon and will start net practice from tomorrow.

Fake currency seized in Tripura, two held

Agartala, Sep 8 (IANS) Fake currency with the nominal value of Rs.500,000 was seized from a Tripura village bordering Bangladesh and two men were arrested, officials said here Tuesday.

The seizure and arrests were made during searches in Sobhapur village along the India-Bangladesh border, 60 km west of Agartala, Monday night by a joint team of Assam Rifles troopers and Tripura Police.

“Acting on a tip-off, the counterfeit notes in Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 denominations were recovered Monday night from Sobhapur,” said Tripura police spokesman Nepal Das.
The forged notes were concealed in a bag that was hidden in the bush.
Senior police officials, who were interrogating the arrested duo, suspect that the fake currency might have been supplied from across the border through a clandestine channel.
The police in Mizoram and Tripura in August and November last year busted an international fake currency racket and arrested six people, including a Myanmar national and a local bank manager.
The six were arrested from Mamit district of Mizoram and North Tripura district, and fake currency notes with the nominal value of Rs.1 million in Rs.100 and Rs.500 denomination was recovered.
A senior Tripura police official said Tuesday: “Security forces in the northeast India are on the alert for fake currency notes being circulated – strongly believed to be the handiwork of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.”
He said that the matter came up for serious discussion at the recent high-level meetings of the region’s police chiefs held in Guwahati and New Delhi.
“ISI was pumping fake currency notes into the region (to destabilize the economy) along with guns, ammunition and other contraband items, often with the help of various insurgent groups,” the official added.
Fake currency in Rs.100, Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 denominations are mostly in circulation in the northeast region.
Nationalised banks and various other financial institutions in northeast India have taken a series of measures, including installation of fake note detection machines to identify fake currency.

Govt law college crisis deepens

Guwahati

Bishnu Ram Medhi Government Law College March 25 : The uncertainty over the future of the 95-year-old Bishnu Ram Medhi Government Law College has deepened with the Bar Council representing the Northeast states opposing immediate lifting of the ban on admission into its three-year law course. The college has already lost a year as it could not conduct admission for the academic session 2008-09. Many poor students had to take admission in other colleges by paying hefty fees. Last year, the Bar Council of India (BCI) imposed a ban on the college against admitting students for the year 2008-09 as the institution failed to fulfil certain basic conditions like a permanent campus, permanent teachers and a standard library. The chairman of the Bar Council of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, G.N. Sahewalla, told this correspondent that the college was yet to fulfil some basic criteria and another fresh investigation must be conducted before lifting the ban. “Following instructions of the BCI, I made an inspection of the college recently and examined the present status of the institution. Though the college has made some progress in infrastructure and other facilities, the basic criterion like appointment of permanent teachers has not been fulfilled yet. The preliminary process of appointment of the teachers has not started. Appointment of permanent and qualified teachers is very important to become a standard law institution,” he added. He said under these circumstances, lifting of the ban on admission into the three-year law course would not be appropriate. According to him, the BCI must conduct a fresh inquiry and the college should be given a specific time frame to fulfil basic criteria like appointment of permanent teachers. “I have submitted my report to the BCI and it is up to the council to take the final decision,” Sahewalla said. Sources said with the model code conduct in force ahead of the parliamentary elections, the law college could not start the appointment process immediately. “There is no chance of starting the preliminary process of appointment before June. The admission for the 2009-10 academic session should start by August. Given the present circumstances, the college will fail to start the admission in time,” a source said. Principal H. Munir, while admitting that the process of appointment of permanent teachers was yet to start, said certain other conditions like the construction of a permanent campus had been met.

ONGC to invest Rs.24.65 bn in Assam

New Delhi, March 5 : State-run major Oil and Natural Gas Corp Thursday said it will invest Rs.24.65 billion (Rs.2,465 crore) for revamping oil fields in Assam.

The board of the upstream major approved the investment for the first phase of renewal of the Lakwa and Lakhmani surface facilities in the northeastern state, a company statement said.

The project will allow the company to continue its operations in the field for another 25 years. Other ONGC assets in Assam will also be revamped in a phased manner.

Besides, the ONGC board also approved $206 million for two different development projects in the western offshore field of Panna and Mukta.

ONGC has set up a joint venture with Reliance Industries Ltd and British Gas India to develop the Panna-Mukta fields.

The board was also notified of five new discoveries, including a significant find in Tripura.

Reduced fare rates spark opposition

Agartala, Feb 10 : The reduction of fares in trucks, buses and autorickshaws scheduled to take effect from tomorrow is likely to create more trouble than it will solve as the transporters and workers’ unions have refused to accept the government’s decision.

According to the reduction schedule announced by the transport department and transport minister Manik Dey, the fare of autorickshaws is scheduled to go down by Re 1, those of buses and minibuses will be reduced by Rs 4 while long distance buses will have five per cent fare reduction.

An official source here said an increase in petroleum prices had led to fare hikes, touching an 8.5 per cent rise last September. When the petroleum prices came down recently, it led to a demand for reduction in fares.

The transport minister convened a meeting of transport associations at his chamber last week to discuss a possible reduction in fares. Barring Citu, which was lukewarm, other associations, including the Intuc, opposed the proposed climb-down because of the uncertainty in petroleum prices and the losses they incurred earlier.

But the minister was adamant and virtually gave an ultimatum, announcing that the government would take a unilateral decision on the matter.

The conceded that the organised unions were unlikely to toe the government line.

“What we are scared of is that there will be regular tiffs and trouble involving transport workers and passengers and this chaos will be difficult to resolve,” sources in the transport department said.

S.K. Saha, the vice-president of Citu-affiliated Tripura Motor Sramik Union, however, said the government’s decision was “supposed to be complied with” and union members were being instructed to accept the reduced fare rate.