BJP Accuses Govt’s Negligence To Majuli

Guwahati: Assam BJP has accused that it is due to the negligence of the Government of Assam that the the river island Majuli has been deprived of making its place in the list of UNESCO World heritage Site.

majuli – the world’s largest river island

BJP spokesperson Adip Kr. Phukan in a press statement said that though the NDA led central government wants to take effective measures to give Majuli its legitimate recognition, its due to the incomplete and inappropriate data from the Assam government, the island is being deprived of being a World Heritage Site.

State BJP also said that the water Resource Department of Assam Government is doing huge corruption and anomaly of fund meant for the development of the island. BJP also demanded immediate step from the government to curb flood and erosion in Majuli.

Source: TNT

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Jayanta Hazarika Remembered On His Birthday

GUWAHATI, Sept 20 – The birthday of singer Jayanta Hazarika was celebrated under the aegis of Susandhan near the bust of the singer at Chandmari this morning.

A number of singers, including Sudakshina Sarma, Kula Baruah, Surya Goswami, JP Das, among others, regaled the audience by rendering evergreen numbers of Jayanta Hazarika.

Musician and composer Ramen Choudhury was also honoured with Swikriti – a lifetime achievement award at the function as a recognition to his achievements over the decades. Another cultural programme titled Swaranjali was organised at the District Library auditorium in the evening, which was inaugurated by singer Manisha Hazarika, wife of the late artiste. Among the highlights was a chorus on Jayanta Hazarika directed by JP Das. Pankaj Sarma presented a santoor recital. Singers Santa Uzir, Nilima Khatun, Kabita Hazarika, Niyor Hazarika, Dawar Hazarika, Sangeeta Bora and Ashimjyoti Baruah, among others, regaled the crowd.

Source: The Assam Tribune

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Assam Girl Gangraped, Killed In West Bengal

GUWAHATI, Sep 18: An 18 year old girl from Baksa of Udalguri district was raped by a group of seven men in Koch Behar of West Bengal. She was then killed and thrown to a railway track. The Body of the girl was found on Wednesday by police.

The girl was taking admission in a college in Kochbehar after she passed Higher Secondary exam from her native district in Assam. Her father works as a businessman in Dhoopguri area. The girl was abducted by the miscreants on her way from college on September 11. Though the family members had filed an FIR regarding the matter in the Koch Behar police station, the police could not trace her.

On Wednesday her body was found near a railway track by the police . Postmortem report says the girl was brutally gangraped and murdered after that.

Police investigation is on and so far two persons have been taken into custody for interrogation.

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Government To Address Citizenship Issue Of Refugees

NEW DELHI, Sep 17 (IANS): Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the government is committed to settling citizenship and long-term visa issues of Sindhi and Bengali communities from neighbouring countries, who have taken refuge in India.

“The home ministry is committed to addressing issues faced by them (Sindhi and Bengali communities) and has already constituted a task force headed by JS (joint secretary), foreigners division, to look into such issues,” a statement from the home ministry quoted Singh as saying.

Singh added that the task force will monitor and expedite processing of citizenship and long-term visa (LTV) applications from these minorities from neighbouring countries.

“Singh informed the minister of surface transport and highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari that the cases having complete documents will be processed within two months by the task force, which had been constituted on Sep 5,” the statement added.

The task force will soon be visiting Lucknow, Nagpur and other cities where such migrants live in large numbers.

“This decision is expected to facilitate the minorities from neighbouring countries who want to stay back in India for fear of religious persecution back home,” the statement said.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of Sindhi and Bengali communities accompanied by Gadkari met Singh and submitted a memorandum to highlight their plight on visa and citizenship-related issues.

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Assam’s Former Director General of Police Commits Suicide

NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI, Sep 17 (IANS): Former Assam Director General of Police (DGP) Shankar Baruah Wednesday shot himself dead at his residence here, police said.

Baruah’s name had cropped up in the multi crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam last month, but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed through an official statement that he was not summoned as yet.

The CBI expressed its condolence over the death of Baruah and said it was a sad and unfortunate incident.

Baruah was admitted to a private hospital for the past three days due to some illness. After being discharged from the hospital around 11.20 a.m. Wednesday, he reached his home and shot himself.

His family members took him to a private nursing home where the doctors declared him dead, said a neighbour of the former DGP.

“He is dead. We have examined the place of incident. We are going for a post-mortem examination,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (City) Anand Prakash Tiwary.

Baruah, a 1974 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, retired as the state DGP in January 2012.

The CBI is likely to summon several persons from Assam, including politicians, former DGPs and some influential businessmen, for their alleged involvement in the scam.

The CBI recently arrested Assam’s prominent singer and filmmaker Sadananda Gogoi in the case.

Besides the house of Shankar Baruah, the CBI sleuths had Aug 28 also raided 12 locations in Assam, including the houses and properties of two former ministers of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Anjan Dutta, and singer Sadananda Gogoi.

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Bid for independent identity of Assamese script in Unicode

GUWAHATI, Sept 16 – A broad-based committee will be constituted to study in detail the computational intricacies of the Assamese writing script in the Unicode standard. This was announced by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here today.

An official press release said the committee comprising linguists, IT specialists-language technologists, domain specialists, IT experts

from universities, information technology and cultural affairs departments, would go into the computational intricacies of the Unicode script and the uniqueness of the Assamese script, which makes it very different and independent from the Bengali script or any other script.

The Chief Minister also directed the IT Department, the nodal department, the Cultural Affairs Department and AMTRON to organise a workshop involving IT experts, linguists, domain specialists and representatives from literary organisations to examine the issue and submit a proposal to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India for an individual and separate Unicode for the Assamese script. As of now the Assamese script in Unicode has been shown as a modified version of the Bengali script.

Gogoi has also asked Chief Secretary Jitesh Khosla to formulate the future course of action in this connection to ensure a place for the Assamese script in the Unicode standard.

It may be mentioned here that it was at the directive of Chief Minister Gogoi that steps were initiated in 2012 during the tenure of Chief Secretary NK Das to include the Assamese script in the Unicode in its own right and identity. Several meetings were held with IT experts, linguists and heads of educational institutions, including IT Department of the Gauhati University in this regard, the press release said.

Source: The Assam Tribune

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Priyanka Chopra Arrives In Guwahati

Tuesday, Sep 16: Priyanka Chopra arrives in Guwahati airport today. She is excited about the success of “Mary Kom” the movie and is back to northeast to see the impact of her movie.

Priyanka Chopra in Guwahati airport

“Heading to Guwahati…So glad to go to the North Eastern part of the country. Esp after #MaryKom. Looking forward… In more ways than one (sic),” the National Award winning actress tweeted Monday.

Priyanka Chopra in Guwahati airport

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