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                     Vol.I, No.83 [*] January 17, 1997
                     ---------------------------------

o  BOMB THREAT LOOMS OVER GUWAHATI			[S:16-JAN-97]
   -------------------------------
   
   The Guwahati police effectively managed to thwart designs by the Bodo
   Liberation  Tiger  Force  to  trigger a series of explosions at three
   separate areas of Guwahati on the uruka night on January  13.  Police
   sources  said the newsmen that while a number of BLTF activities have
   been rounded up at Rangiya, an a US carbine had recovered from  their
   possession, the information they provided on interrogation proved far
   more valuable.
   
   Sources  said  the police had received information on January 12 that
   some BLTF activities had entered the city with explosives to plant in
   different places and had sounded a red  alert  throughout  the  city.
   Vegetable  markets,  normally crammed with bihu-eve shoppers, and the
   railway station were combed till 3 am on January 13 for any bomb that
   might have been planted there to cause maximum casualty and to create
   a fear psychosis.
   
   The  police  spent  most  of  the  day  on  January  15  scouring the
   Bombay-bound Dadar Express for a bomb which an informant claimed  had
   been planted  on board.  The bomb squad, including sniffer dogs, were
   pressed into service, but the search had yielded  nothing.  Vigilance
   had been stepped up in the railway station and  all  trains  entering
   and leaving the city had been under surveillance, sources said.
   

o  ULTRAS KILL COP NEAR ORANG		        	[S:16,17-JAN-97]
   --------------------------
   
   Suspected  Bodo  extremists gunned down the in-charge of the Silabori
   police outpost  in  the  Rowmari  area  near  Orang  on  January  15.
   According  to  sources,  the  deceased  was travelling to his home at
   Dhekiajuli on a scooter along with a person when the killers  struck.
   While  the  cop  died  on  the  spot the pillion-rider was hit in the
   shoulder and is now under treatment at Mangaldai.  No  one  has  been
   arrested so far.
   
   Later,   the   National   Democratic   Front   of   Bodoland   claims
   responsibility  for  the  killing  of  the  in-charge of the Silabori
   police outpost.  A spokesman of the outfit informed that the cop  was
   killed for ignoring several warnings from the outfit for stopping his
   various illegal activities including trafficking of rhino horns.
   


o  ARMY KILLS ONE MORE BY ACCIDENT			[S:17-JAN-97]
   -------------------------------
   
   Even before the outrage evoked by the killing of  Mr  Dilip  Boro  at
   Khetri  could  subside, another person, 36-year-old Dasarath Singh (a
   native of Manipur), fell a victim to ostensibly  accident-prone  Army
   personnel at  Hojai  in  Nagaon district on January 16.  According to
   sources, eyewitnesses have told the district administration that  the
   killing  occurred when a soldier's gun went off 'accidently' during a
   search operation in the Jogijan Rajabari area of Hojai.  A brother of
   the deceased was injured in the gunfire.
   
   According to the Deputy Commissioner of Nagaon, a magisterial inquiry
   has been instituted in this connection.  The Army, on its  part,  had
   claimed  to  have  recovered  'something'  from the possession of the
   deceased, he said.
   

o  CENTRE MOOTS 3-TIER COMMAND				[S:17-JAN-97]
   ---------------------------
   
   The Centre has proposed  a  3-tier  arrangement  for  the  operations
   against  the  militants  in  the  State and the 'unified command' has
   given way to 'unified headquarters'.  According to  latest  proposals
   there  will  be  a  policy-making committee headed by the State Chief
   Secretary as their first tier.  The second tier will be an 'operation
   wing' headed by the GOC of the 4 crops of the Army, and will  consist
   of police,  paramilitary  forces  and  the  Army.  As the third tier,
   district level committees have been proposed.  These committees would
   have be headed by divisional commissioner.
   
   However, the State Government has expressed its reservations  against
   the  Army heading the 'operation wing', official sources said, adding
   that the Government was yet to accept the  proposal  of  the  unified
   headquarters.   The  Army  seemed  to  have  started implementing the
   proposals unilaterally and this has put the  State  Government  in  a
   difficult situation.
   

o  NCHADC GIVEN MORE POWERS				[S:14-JAN-97]
   ------------------------
   
   Within 24 hours of transferring jurisdiction of 30 departments to the
   Karbi  Anglong  Autonomous  District Council on January 12, the State
   Chief Minister, Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta completed the same exercise
   in  respect  of  North  Cachar  Hills  Autonomous  District  Council.
   According  to official reports at Guwahati, the transfer of power was
   formally announced at a public rally at Haflong.  The Chief  Minister
   also  announced that the Government would soon appoint its stipulated
   four nominees in the NCHADC.
   

o  SEPARATE PROFITABLE UNITS OF SICK CPSUs		[UNI:13-JAN-97]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   The  State  Industry  Minister,  Mr  Gunin  Hazarika,   has   favored
   bifurcation  of all the profit-making divisions of the Central public
   sector units in the State.  Mr Hazarika said on January 13  that  the
   profit-making  units  of  the  Hindustan  Fertilizer  Corporation  at
   Namrup, the Hindustan Paper Corporation  unit  at  Jagiroad  and  the
   Cement  Corporation  of  India  at  Bokajan should be bifurcated from
   their respective parent companies.
   
   He expressed anguish that the parent companies were already  becoming
   sick and  some  of  them were heavily banking on the Assam units.  He
   expressed the  fear  that  unless  some  remedial  steps  were  taken
   urgently,  these  three  profit-making  units  would go sick in about
   fours years from now, thus  further  compounding  the  problem.    He
   informed that the Assam Government would soon place a formal proposal
   before the Union Government in his regard.
   

o  SAIL UNIT IN ASSAM					[UNI:16-JAN-97]
   ------------------
   
   The  Steel  Authority  of   India Limited  chairman Arvind Pande said   
   the SAIL would set up a galvanizing unit in Assam.  He  told  newsmen
   on  January  16 at Guwahati that the unit would be part of the Bokaro
   steel plants at an investment of about Rs.400 million.  He also  said
   Assam and other north-eastern Governments had agreed to help the SAIL
   to buy  its  products.   The organization was also hopeful of getting
   the required land for the proposed unit  besides  other  concessions.
   The unit will have a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum.
   

o  LEAD STOLEN FROM GUWAHATI HOSPITAL			[S:17-JAN-97]
   ----------------------------------
   
   About 665 kg of lead has been stolen from the isotope laboratry of the
   B.Barua   Cancer  Institute,  Guwahati. The  lead was to be used as a
   shield against radioactive rays used in the laboratory for  treatment
   of  cancer.  Interestingly, 161 blocks of lead, each weighing about 7
   kg, had been stolen from the same laboratory in January, 1995 also.
   
   Talking  to  newsmen,  the  director  of the institute, Dr Gazi Ahmed
   said, the theft was discovered on December 18 when the laboratory was
   opened.  But it could not be ascertained as to when and how the  lead
   disappeared,  he  said  adding  that  the  lock of the laboratory was
   intact.  The State Government had been informed of the theft  and  an
   FIR had  been  lodged  with  the  Birubari  police, he  said.    When
   contacted, the Health Minister, Dr Kamala Kalita said,  the  incident
   was being probed.
   
   In the light of  the fact  that lead  is widely used in manufacturing 
   cartridges of guns and bombs, the theft is taken seriously.

o  DR HO EARNED NOTORIETY IN HONG KONG TOO		[PTI:16-JAN-97]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   Dr  Jonathan  Ho,  the Hong Kong based surgeon arrested on charges of
   flouting Indian organ transplant laws  recently  was  the  centre  of
   controversy  earlier over 'experimental' ox heart valve operations at
   the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong,  according  to  a  leading
   newspaper in  Hong  Kong.    Dr  Ho,  who  was  arrested  after  hoax
   transplant of a pig's heart into a human,  left  Hong  Kong  hospital
   just last month, the South China Morning Post reports.
   
   The heart specialist  spearheaded  a  controversial  ox  heart  valve
   program  at  the  hospital as head of the Chinese University surgical
   team in 1992, the paper said.
   
   The operations ground to a halt after six of the 12 patients died, it
   said,  adding  that the inventor of the valve was Dr Dhani Ram Barua,
   who was arrested along with Dr Ho and C.J.James on January 9 in Assam
   after the death of a 32-year heart transplant patient, Purna Saikia.
   

o  PIONEERING ROLE OF NGO				[S:14-JAN-97]
   ----------------------
   
   Over 34  voluntary  organizations  for  rural  development  from  the
   Northeast  concluded their second joint meeting under the auspices of
   Vikas Kebang at Silchar on January  10.    Kebang  in  Adi  Arunachal
   language means  'parliament'.  The three-day parliament was organized
   by the north-eastern chapter of Association of Voluntary Agencies for
   Rural Development in which participants came  from  Tripura,  Mizoram
   and Barak Valley.
   
   In  April  1996,  AVARD  selected  Majuli, India's largest freshwater
   river island, for its development planning.  The  150,000  people  on
   the  island  practice  natural  farming  and grow rice, vegetable and
   crops.  AVARD is engaged in  action research on alternative  cropping
   patterns on  the  island.   In  collaboration with technical resource
   agencies, a remote sensing based map of the  island  to  serve  as  a
   baseline  for  future  land use planning and erosion control is being
   drawn up.
   

o  CPI LEADER DIES IN GUWAHATI				[S+AT:16-JAN-97]
   ---------------------------
   
   Noted CPI leader and former Lok Sabha MP Dhireswar Kalita died at the
   Downtown Nursing  home  in  Guwahati  on  January  14.  A graduate of
   Cotton College, he remained underground before going to jail in  1949
   and was  elected  as MP in the 1967 elections. He was a member of the
   State Executive of CPI Assam Unit.  He leaves behind  his  wife,  two
   sons and a daughter.
   

o  JOB-SEEKERS LATHICHARGED				[S:14-JAN-97]
   ------------------------
   
   Several aspirants for teachers posts sustained injuries when a  group
   of  CRPF  and  police personnel resorted to a lathi-charge to control
   excessive rush at the SBI branch premises at Barpeta on  January  13.
   The  job-seekers  had  congregated  at  the  bank  to submit fees for
   treasury challans that are required for submitting applications.  One
   youth sustained a severe head injury in the lathi-charge and has  had
   to be  hospitalized.    A  memorandum has since been submitted to the
   Deputy Commissioner to protest the excessive  use  of  force  by  the
   security personnel.
   
   It may be  mentioned that hoardes of job-seekers  are crowding at the
   banks,treasuries and Deputy Commissioner's offices all over the State
   in response to a Government advertisement for jobs of teachers. 


o  BOMMAI TO OPEN TEZPUR UNIVERSITY CAMPUS		[UNI:16-JAN-97]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   Human Resource Development Minister S.R.Bommai will   inaugurate the
   Tezpur   central   university   campus on the occasion of its fourth 
   foundation dation day on January 21 at Napam in Soonitpur district.

o  LAND GRANTED FOR TEZPUR UNIVERSITY			[S:14-JAN-97]
   ----------------------------------
   
   The State Government has granted 131 bighas of land in the Napam area
   of  the  Soonitpur  district  to the Central University at Tezpur for
   establishment of an  Institute  for  Management  Sciences  (including
   hostels) and a Centre for Mahapurush Sankardev studies.
   

o  ASSAM EMERGE ON TOP AS NE FEST ENDS			[UNI:12-JAN-97]
   -----------------------------------
   Assam  topped  the medal list of 11th Northeast Sports Festival which
   concluded at Itanagar on January 12.    Assam  bagged  17  golds,  20
   silvers and 21 bronzes.

______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
              http://www.cyberspace.org/~mozz/aol.html  
  http://www.cs.uccs.edu/~kalita/assam/news/news-from-assam-index.html
________________________________________________________________________