Haflong : One person has died and both road and railway links between Assam's North Cachar Hills district and the rest of the country has been completely cut-off following continuous heavy rainfall for the last two days, official sources said here today.
One person, identified as 45-year old Isak Indu, died last night when his house was washed away by mudslides in Haflong town.
Meanwhile, rail communication has been disrupted with landslides affecting railway tracks at 28 places between Mahur and Maigrandisa in the Lumding-Silchar section with 40metres of track completely washed away.
NF railways have suspended rail services in the section till the tracks can be repaired and restored.
Road communication, too, has been disrupted in the district with the road connecting Haflong and Lanka severely damaged, sources said.
The water level of river Duyang has also been rising following heavy rainfall with several houses and animals washed away along with damage to paddy fields at Tahizubari area of the district.
DR SATYAJIT BHUYAN
The Jorhat Engineering College (JEC) came into existence on October 10, 1960 in the Garamur area of Jorhat town. It started its journey with the Civil Engineering department and, that too, with an intake capacity of only 60 students. In the meantime, Assam had got its first engineering college at Jalukbari with three branches, namely Civil, Electrical and Mechanical with an intake capacity of 60 students per branch. RJ Thacker, who was a professor at the Assam Engineering College (AEC), was transferred to the JEC and posted as its principal. He continued till Prof PC Dutta joined as a regular principal in April, 1961.
The JEC was set up with some kind of speciality. In the minds of alumni, teachers, employees and well-wishers the college is unique. Starting with the Civil Engineering department, it soon expanded itself and students in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering departments were admitted. Like the AEC, the JEC also tried to contribute to the development of this forlorn region. In union with the former, the JEC tried its best to carry the torch of technical education to all the corners of the region. It started its journey under the able leadership of Prof PC Dutta who was a product of the Benaras Hindu University (BHU). He was instrumental in establishing the JEC at the proper forum. He carried the images of his alma mater, the BHU, in his mind. He desired to model the JEC on the BHU. He was the planner. The college and hostel buildings got the touch of his imagination with roots in the BHU. There was a good amount of effort on the part of Lokanayak Debeswar Sarma, HP Baruah and others also.
Debeswar Sarma was instrumental in establishing other institutions like the Assam Agricultural University and the Regional Research Laboratory, (now called the North East Institute of Science & Technology) in Jorhat. HP Baruah was a man of a different class. In 1915 he had topped the merit list of the Civil Engineering discipline at the Calcutta University. His dream project was the AEC and he became its founder principal.
Initially, the classes for the first batch of the Civil Engineering students at the JEC were held in the dining hall of Hostel No. 2. Students resided in Hostel No. 1. Prof Hemen Borthakur was the hostel superintendent. Bhaba Chetia was the monitor. The teaching staff initially comprised Debajit Chaliha (Electrical Engineering), Sashi Sarma (Mechanical Engineering), Hemen Borthakur (Civil Engineering), SD Phukan (Civil Engineering), Nirupoma Buragohain (Mathematics), Hamidur Rahman (Physics) and Kamruz Zaman (Chemistry).
Bhaba Chetia, a member of the first batch, said that new faculty members gradually came in. They included Sakti Pada Bhattacharyya, SK De Purkayastha, Sashi Mahanta and others in the Electrical Engineering department, Moheswar Changmai (Civil Engineering), Dilip Borthakur (Sociology), Dugdha Sarma (part-time teacher in English) and others.
Prof PC Dutta left the college on the expiry of his contract. Prof RJ Thacker again took over. Then Prof D Chaliha was appointed as the regular principal and he continued up to 1977 till he was appointed as the Director of Technical Education of Assam. After D Chaliha left, several principals guided the JEC through various ups and downs. The sequence is as follows: SK De Purkayastha, Sahsi Sarma, SD Phukan, U Miri, RN Chowdhury, Amal Sarma, HK Das, TK Bhattacharyya and A Bora. Prof D Chaliha had been the principal for the longest period.
During the last 50 years, the JEC has produced many engineers. India has a four-tier system of technical colleges – IITs, NITs, State Government engineering colleges and private engineering colleges. The total number of such colleges may be around 1,500. These produce several lakhs of engineers every year.
In the recent times, engineers have been forced to seek even clerical jobs at banks, etc. In spite of all these odds, new colleges are coming up with newer branches. The JEC is also offering a postgraduate course in Computer Applications and Mechanical Engineering. Besides, it offers the BE course in Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Computer Science and Instrumentation. It has eight boys’ hostels and one girls’ hostel.
The JEC still remembers its first batch of students including Bhaba Chetia, Alok Sarma, Nani Gogoi, Sunni Phukan, Pramod Bora, Mridul Bhattacharyya and others. The college also remembers its various faculty members who served the college at different periods. They include AM Peters, B Sarma, M Borgohain, MC Bora, PK Bordoloi, DK Mahanta, GC Kakoti, A Deb, NB Deb, D Deka, MM Das, S Das, L Bhuyan, B Bora, DPS Thakur, M Deb and others.
The JEC products are serving in different parts of the world, making the institution proud. The education system is changing with the passage of time. But in the case technical education, the campus and classroom system is the best. The JEC is an example of this fruitful system. However, it is also the right time for the college to respond to the changing curricula and changing system quickly.
Technology itself is everchanging. It has both good and evil effects on the society and civilization. Keeping all these things in mind, the JEC should be able to do a lot in association with other similar institutions. A creative profession like engineering can flourish with a proper amount of timely inputs. At the same time, the service of an engineer has a direct bearing on the welfare and safety of the society. So, it is the right time for the JEC to prepare a suitable action plan for a better future on the strength of unity.
Tezpur (Assam), Oct 8 (PTI) Power Grid Corporation of India Limited and Assam Forest department have jontly a launched a scheme of planting 5,500 trees in Sonitpur district''s Balipara Reserve Forest.
They would plant trees in an area of five hectares near Dharikhati area, PGCIL''s Deputy General Manager Supratim Das said here today.
PGCIL had taken up the initiative under its corporate social responsibility scheme and will spend Rs three crore in implementing various schemes in the state, he said.
Four rubber boats will also be provided for utilisitaion by members of the Joint Forest Menagement Committee under Balipara Reserve Forest on the river Jia Bhorali, a major tributary of river Brahmaputra.
Guwahati: Two elephant calves died of suspected poisoning in a tea estate near Kaziranga National Park in Assam's Golaghat district, officials said on Thursday.
The carcass of the calves, a male and female were found in Diffloo Tea Estate on Wednesday and forest officials suspected this to be a case of poisoning as the tongues and eyes of both the animals had turned blue, they said.
Pesticides were sprayed inside the tea garden and this could have poisoned the elephants.
The viscera of both the calves have been sent to the forensic laboratory for tests, the Estate manager Rajshekhar Dutta said.
However, Dutta denied that the elephants had died due to pesticide poisoning saying "we have been using the pesticide for a long time. If it was a case of pesticide poisoning, elephants who regularly visit our gardens and other cattle would have died earlier but no such cases have been reported."
He said that an enquiry would be conducted to ascertain the cause of the death of the elephants.
Guwahati, Oct 7: The Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD) has fulfilled the demand of All Assam Students' Union (AASU), including Guwahati as one of the 14 world-class universities to be set up across the country.
Earlier the students' body had expressed strong resentment when there was no inclusion for Guwahati during a MHRD meeting on Sep 28.
"The Prime Minister had assured that one of the 14 universities would be set up in Guwahati but surprisingly the same did not materialize during the MHRD meeting. We opposed the discriminatory attitude and finally after putting a lot of pressure on the Centre, Guwahati was allotted the university," said Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya adviser of the students' body.
The AASU has further urged the state government to initiate necessary steps to facilitate the process.
Guwahati, Oct 7 (IANS) Separatist groups in Assam are outsourcing terror by hiring students to carry out kidnappings and seek ransom to fund militant activities, police said.
Assam has, of late, witnessed a series of abductions - most of them blamed on militant groups like the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
The disturbing trend is that most abductions were carried out by youths, some of them just of out of their teens and studying in colleges. Clearly, they have been engaged by militants with promises of big money.
“It is true there are instances of militant groups contacting youths to carry out kidnappings and then hand over the captor to the outfit,” police Inspector General Pallab Bhattacharya said.
On Monday, Rohan Dutta, a 20-year-old management student and son of a doctor in Guwahati, was kidnapped by about six armed men.
The gang entered Rohan’s home, tied the family members, looted the house and took the victim away at gunpoint.
After 36 hours in captivity, police commandos rescued Rohan from Dhekiajuli in northern Assam and arrested nine young men, including two college students.
“The arrested youths were in the age group of 19 to 23 and two of them are college students,” the police officer said.
One of then, Parashar Das, is a second year bio-chemistry student at a city college.
“Consumerism coupled with the lure for easy money could be reasons for youths getting trapped in criminal activities,” Bhattacharya said.
“The need of the hour is proper parenting. The society at large should respond to such evil designs.”
Victim Rohan told IANS: “I think I was kidnapped purely for money. I am still unable to reconcile to the fact that I almost escaped death.”
There were instances in the past when groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) hired students to carry out bombings - in some cases they were paid mobile phones or even second hand motorcycles as reward.
“Using vulnerable youths to execute terror designs seem to be the latest modus operandi of militant groups,” another police officer said.
As most bombers and shooters from the rebel groups are known to police, the outfits are now hiring unknown faces to avoid being caught or easily identified by security forces.
Guwahati, Oct 7 (PTI) Two elephant calves have died of suspected poisoning in a Tea Estate near Kaziranga National Park in Assam''s Golaghat district, official sources said today.
The carcass of the calves, a male and female, were found in Diffloo Tea Estate yesterday and forest officials suspected this a case of poisoning as the tongues and eyes of both the animals had turned blue, they said.Pesticides were used inside the tea garden and this could have poisoned the elephants.
The viscera of both the calves had been sent to the forensic laboratory for tests, the sources said.
Estate manager Rajshekhar Dutta, however, denied that the elephants had died due to pesticide poisoning saying "we have been using the pesticide for a long time.
If it was a case of pesticide poisoning, elephants who regularly visit our gardens and other cattle would have died earlier but no such cases have been reported." He said that an enquiry would be conducted to ascertain the cause of the death of the elephants.
Guwahati, Oct. 7 : Assam can finally breathe a sigh of relief with the human resource development (HRD) ministry including Guwahati in the innovation university map, along with 13 other centres across the country.
Markets to better farmers’ income
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar interacts with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi while agriculture minister Pramila Rani Brahma looks on in Guwahati on Friday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Guwahati, Oct. 2 : Dispur has decided to set up a terminal market to provide multiple choices to farmers to sell their produce directly to exporters, processors and retail chain networks under a single roof.
Assam government has claimed that 19 commanders of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) came on their own from Bangladesh to join the peace process and are now sheltered at an unidentified location in the state.
Reports suggested that the rebel commanders, led by Anu Buragohain, Bhaiti Baruah, Biju Deka, and Pradyut Buragohain, gave themselves up before Bangladeshi authorities Wednesday. They were arrested on technical grounds and then handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) somewhere along the border with Meghalaya Saturday.
Assam Chief Minister has meanwhile claimed that the rebel leaders are very much in Assam and are not arrested as they came on their own from Bangladesh to join the peace process. Chief Minister also termed the developments as a very good sign that more and more ULFA leaders are realising the futility of an armed struggle and deciding to come and join the peace process.
Earlier reports said 19 ULFA leaders and nine of their family members arrived in Assam Saturday and were in the Assam Police custody.
Meanwhile, self-styled ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah termed the development as a betrayal by some of the senior leaders.
In an emailed statement to Press,the ULFA commander-in-chief said some of ULFA cadres with their family members fled the camp with the help of Indian intelligence agencies and also with the active support of two senior jailed leaders and are now taking shelter in the enemy camp,"
A police official said: "There is no question of the ULFA members being produced before the court as technically they were not arrested as they came on their own."
It may be recalled that Dhaka has last year launched a massive crackdown against the ULFA and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and got several of their top leaders arrested and later handed them over to India. Among those arrested in last year's crackdown include ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, and finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika. NDFB chairman Ranjan Daimary was also arrested in May and later handed over to India.
Activist Akhil Gogoi (left) and minister Jairam Ramesh discuss dams (Photo: Rituraj Konwar)ASSAM is on the brink of a movement, like the one that ended with the 1984 Assam Accord. This time the concern is not illegal immigrants but dams proposed upstream in Arunachal Pradesh.In the past year and a half people in Assam have held a number of protests. The latest one was on September 10 when Union Minister of Environm ent and Forests Jairam Ramesh visited Guwahati to consult academics, activists and student and political leaders on large dams, particularly a mega hydel project under construction on the Subansiri, a tributary of the Brahmaputra. The 2,000 MW Subansiri Lower Project is the biggest of the three dams under construction in Arunachal Pradesh.
The protest led by the two biggest pressure lobbies in the state—All Assam St udents Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS)—signals no-holds-barred attempts in the future to stop Subansiri Lower. Asom Gana Pari shad (AGP), the main opposition party in the Congress-ruled Assam, has also joined the agitation.
At the heart of the protest and Ramesh’s visit is the impact on Ass am of the dams planned in Arunachal Prad esh. The state has signed 168 memoranda of understanding with private and public companies to develop hyd ropo wer (see ‘Electric rush’, Down To Earth, May 15, 2008). These projects are on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. “Aru nachal Pradesh is set to gain reve nue from these projects, but Assam will be the victim if anything goes wrong,” said Samujjal Bhattacharya, adviser to AASU.
The Subansiri effect
Dams in Assam got politicised after work on Subansiri Lower began in 2005. Till then discussion regarding dams was limited to academics and a handful of ecological activists and lawyers. In 2004, the Supreme Court had allowed Subansiri Lower but banned more dams on the Subansiri because no one had assessed their cumulative impact downstream. The following year AASU led protests in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts demanding an assessment of the impact of Subansiri Lower. The agitation led to a tripartite meeting between AASU, NHPC (the company building Subansiri Lower) and the Assam government in December 2006, said Bhat tacharya. At the meeting it was decided that a team of experts from Gauhati University, Dibrugarh University and IIT Guwahati, would assess the downstream impact.
Arunachal Pradesh plans 168 damsOn June 28, 2010, the team recommended lowering the height of the dam and making technical changes in its structure to increase river flow (see ‘Reduce Subansiri dam height: panel’, Down To Earth, July 31, 2010). “So far AASU has only demanded downstream study. It is yet to take a stand on whether it opposes big dams,” said Arupjyoti Saikia, professor at the department of humanities and social sciences, IIT Guwahati. But the organisation that claims to represent farmers and fishers in the state, KMSS, has made it clear it will not allow dams in Arunachal Pradesh.Akhil Gogoi, its president, claims the support of nearly 500,000 fishers dependent on the Brahmaputra. He said his outfit will agitate peacefully but as a last resort would not hesitate to block roads leading to Arunachal Pradesh. Initially, concerns of downstream imp act did not evoke much response from political parties. On two occasions, in 2007 and 2008, the concerns were raised in the Assam Assembly but no party showed interest, said AGP MLA Girindra Kumar Baruah.
In July last year, the opposition forced the minister of power and industry, Pradyut Bordoloi, to re ply to a calling attention motion on Subansiri Lower. A debate on big dams ensued, with emph asis on Subansiri Lower. “The treasury benches joined to raise concerns about downstream impact,” said Membar Gogoi, Congress MLA from Teok. After the debate the Assembly decided to set up a multi-party panel to look into the impact of Suban siri Lo wer and Ranganadi hydel proj ect in Arunachal Pradesh. The committee, chaired by Membar Gogoi, submitted its report on July 17, 2010. “We have asked NHPC to stop work till it acts on the recommendations of the expert team (set up in 2006),” Membar Gogoi said.
The sudden surge of political interest in dams is because of two reasons: Assembly elections in 2011 and growing anti-dam agitation. Today about 40 organisations in districts downstream of the Subansiri reservoir are working against mega dams. “No political party wants be seen as a supporter of Subansiri Lower,” said a senior AGP worker.
Congress dodgy, AGP aggressive
But the state government is in a bind. On the one hand, elections dictate it respect the popular sentiment. On the other hand, it cannot go against the Congress-led government at the Centre which wants dams. Although the Assam power minister presided over the 2006 meeting between AASU and NHPC that led to the setting up of the expert group, the state government refuses to acknowledge the group’s report as official, said a po wer department official. The government has only now, after se eing the AGPled opposition, decided to opp ose dams in Arunachal Pradesh till dow nstream concerns are addressed, he added.
Arunachal Pradesh will gain revenue but Assam will be the victim if anything goes wrong with the dams — SAMUJJAL BHATTACHARYA, adviser to AASUAGP sees votes in opposing big dams. Baruah believes the dams will become a big issue in elections, especially in the districts immediately downstream of Subansiri Lower, including Lakhimpur and Dhemaji. In January this year, the party held consultations in Guwahati to understand downstream effects. According to witnesses, former chief minister and AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta sat for two days listening to activists and academics. “First, it was difficult to explain party leaders the downstream worries, but after two days they were co nvinced the issue could get them votes,” said an academic who was part of the consultations. AGP has followed up the talks with a rally near Subansiri Lower at Gerukamukh in Lakhimpur in September.The Assam government is catching up. In August while addressing the power ministers of the north-eastern states in Shillong, Bordoloi expressed anguish over wanton building of dams. According to sources close to the minister, a day before the meeting Bordoloi was tutored by the expert group that had recommended lowering the Subansiri dam’s height. Bordoloi, who is also the spokesperson for the state Congress, has since become more vociferous in his critique. Recently, writing in a national weekly, Bordoloi criticised the Arunachal Pradesh government for signing contracts with fly-by-night operators for building dams without a comprehensive assessment of the fallouts.
According to sources in the power ministry, the Assam government is trying to implement the report of the interministerial group on hydropower in north-eastern states. The report, published in February this year, recommended sub-basin level studies for the Subansiri and Dibang rivers by the Cen tral Water Commission. Neeraj Vagho likar of Kalpavriksh Environ mental Act ion Group in Pune, who is working on dams in the Northeast, said sub-basin level studies are mere academic exercises because the group’s report state’s clearance of projects on these rivers will not be held up till the studies are completed.
Even as Ramesh left Guwahati with the promise of assessing cumulative downstream impact before clearing dams, a storm is brewing on the banks of the Brahmaputra in Tezpur. A barge with turbines for the Subansiri Lower is stationed at Jahaj Ghat. It cannot be taken to the dam because KMSS and AASU have threatened an agitation. Tu laram Gogoi, president of the Lakhim pur unit of AASU, said people are on standby. They will hold sit-in on the highway linking Te zpur to Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh if the state administration or NHPC tries to move the turbines before the recommendations of the expert group are followed.
