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                   Vol.2, No.41 [*] September 8, 1997
                   ----------------------------------

      Thunder in the North is blank fire. Run, if it's in the South. 
         (uttare marile janiba khor, dakhine marile mariba lor) 

                     Old Assamese weather forecast.
   --------------------------------------------------------------------

1  TATA TEA FOOTED PRANATI'S BILLS			[S+AT:8-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------
   
   The State Director General of Police  (DGP),  Mr  K.Hrishikeshan  had
   confirmed  on  September  7  at  a press conference in Guwahati, that
   certain tea companies had been hobnobbing with the  banned  ULFA  and
   revealed  that  the  corporate  giant,  Tata  Tea  Ltd bankrolled the
   maternity bills of the outfit's cultural secretary, Pranati  Deka  at
   the Jaslok  Hospital  at Mumbai.  It had also paid for her to and fro
   airfare between Mumbai and New Delhi on at least two  occasions,  and
   her  hotel  bills  for  her  stay at the three-star Shalimar Hotel in
   Mumbai, incurring a total expenditure running well over Rs.100,000.
   
   Pranati  Deka  had undergone a caesarean operation to give birth to a
   baby girl at Mumbai and she was arrested along with her two comrades,
   Ms Kamala Barua and Arun Deka by the  Mumbai  police  at  Santa  Cruz
   airport  while  trying  to  board  a  Delhi-bound plane on August 23.
   Pranati is the wife of ULFA finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika.
   
   Meanwhile, the Tata Tea Limited said that the ULFA  activist  Pranati
   Deka  may  have  availed  of their Medical Aid Programme, which has a
   non-discretionary screening system and under which many  people  have
   benefited by  way of medical treatment.  The Company in a fax message
   claimed that it does not make any payment in cash or  kind  to  those
   receiving such medical help. The company said that it  had  no  other
   involvement  of any kind and is proud of its medical schemes and will
   continue  to  run  them  as  part  of  their  multifarious  community
   development activities in troubled-torn Assam.
   

2  TELECOM CHIEF GENERAL MANAGER ARRESTED		[S:8-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------------
   
   The Chief General Manager of the Task Force of the Telecommunications
   department, Mr K.Ganesh was arrested by the Azara police  at  Borjhar
   airport  in  Guwahati  at  noon on September 6, following recovery of
   Rs.2.53 million  from  his  possession.     He   was   to   board   a
   Calcutta-bound plane en-route to Chennai.
   
   The CGM reportedly stated to the Police that the amount was 'donated'
   to  him by a section of his favorite contractors, operating under his
   establishment.  He was, in turn, supposed to donate the  money  to  a
   charitable society in Chennai, the police said.  An additional amount
   of  Rs.400,000  and  a  Panasonic video camera was recovered from his
   official residence  on  September  7,  making  the  total  amount  of
   unaccounted  cash  recovered  from  Mr  Ganesh's  possession  to over
   Rs.2.93 million.
   

3  HUGE QUANTITY OF EXPLOSIVES RECOVERED		[S:7-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------------
   
   The  Government  Railway  Police  (GRP)  recovered  a  huge amount of
   explosives from Guwahati railway station platform No.7  on  September
   6.   The  Police  said that acting on a tip-off, a GRP team recovered
   1,225 gelatin sticks, 1,900 detonators and 16 bundles of  fuse  wires
   from  three  abandoned  holdalls,  four travel bags and one suitcase.
   The gelatins packets had the company name of the Hyderabad-based  IDL
   Industries Ltd.    A  book  on  Christian literature, written in Mizo
   language, a pair of hunting shoes and two  Army  uniforms  were  also
   recovered from the bags.
   
   According to State police, the couriers of the  explosives  had  used
   army uniforms as a subterfuge since the luggage of army personnel was
   not normally  subjected  to  checks by the police.  On account of the
   incessant rains, the persons who had been carrying the explosives had
   left their contraband on the platform and  were  in  the  process  of
   finding an alternative place for it when the police recovered it.
   
   Meanwhile,  Guwahati  police  recovered  a  plastic   bag   full   of
   incriminating documents belonging to the ULFA from an omni bus coming
   from  Nagaon  to Guwahati at about 11 am at Bhangaghar in Guwahati on
   September 7 in a routine check up. The bag contained  copies  of  the
   outfits'  newsletter,  receipt  issued  against extorted money to the
   tune of Rs.996,000 and some other documents.

4  ABETTORS WILL BE DEALT WITH FIRMLY:  JAFA	[S:8-SEP-97]
   ----------------------------------------
   
   The Chief Secretary, Mr Vijendra Singh Jafa has made  it  clear  that
   'anyone  who  aids  and abets waging of war against the country -- an
   editor with his pen or an industrialist through his money -- must  be
   treated  with equal firmness.' The CS was referring to the funding of
   the medical bills and other expenses of the ULFA activists,  by  Tata
   Tea, while talking to newsmen at Guwahati on September 7.
   

5  NATIONAL ALERT TO NAB FORMER SP OF GOLAGHAT	[S:8-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------------------
   
   The  Assam  Police  had issued a nationwide alert to its counterparts
   across the country to nab the former SP of Golaghat,  R.Awasthi,  who
   went underground when the Gauhati High Court issued a warrant for his
   arrest  in  connection  with  the  alleged  murder  of a youth of the
   district.
   

6  AJIT BHUYAN TO BE ARRESTED IN SANJAY CASE	[AT:8-SEP-97]
   -----------------------------------------
   
   Manab  Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS) chairman and editor of Sadin and
   Asomiya Pratidin,  Mr  Ajit  Kumar  Bhuyan  who  was  arrested  under
   Prevention  of  Unlawful  Activities Act last month, will be arrested
   again in connection with the case of social activist Sanjoy Ghose, on
   the  basis  of  some  incriminating  documents  recovered   recently,
   according to Assam DGP K.Hrishikesan. 
   
   According  to  a  September  5 newsreport in The Sentinel, a document
   which the newspaper claims to have been in possession,  has  revealed
   that  the ULFA had made an abortive bid to rake up a campaign against
   the slain social activist and AVARD-NE secretary Sanjoy Ghose at  the
   advice of the Asomiya Pratidin and Sadin editor Ajit Bhuyan.
   

7  NON-FIXATION OF EXCISE RATE BEHIND LOSS 	[S:6-SEP-97]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   The Assam Government has been incurring a  loss  of  Rs.49,223  every
   month  as  excise  revenue  due  to  non-fixation of excise rates for
   liquor for the Army and the paramilitary forces.    Even  though  the
   State  Excise Department has cleared the decks for raising the excise
   rate from Rs.8 to Rs.22 per bottle, the State Finance  Department  is
   yet  to  approve  it,  resulting in loss of excise tax, sales tax and
   also gallonage by the Government  since  the  last  16  years.    The
   present  excise  rate  are Rs.8 per bottle of Rum, Rs.20.31 for India
   made foreign liquor and Rs.1 per bottle of  beer.  These  rates  were
   fixed by the Government way back in 1981.
   

8  A VEHICLE FOR EVERY 14 IN NAGALAND		[PTI:6-SEP-97]
   ----------------------------------
   
   Nagaland has attained the distinction of having one vehicle for every
   14 people, one of the largest number of vehicles in proportion to the
   total population,  official  sources  said.  The number of registered
   vehicles, both private and government, in the State is 101,121  while
   the population  stands  at  little  over  140,000.  Nagaland had only
   1,000 vehicles in 1963 when it attained statehood.

9  SCREENING COMMITTEE ON TEXTBOOKS		[AT:6-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------
   
   The  first  meeting  of  the  State  Screening  Committee  for School
   Textbooks of Assam was held  recently  at  the  Assam  administrative
   Staff College,  Khanapara  in  Guwahati.    Mr  Jatin Mali, Minister,
   Secondary and Elementary Education called upon the  educationist  and
   writers  of  textbooks  to  help  remove  inaccuracies in the present
   textbooks and suggest remedial measures so  that  the  textbooks  are
   made attractive and interesting for children.
   
   Valuable  suggestions  were  put  forward  by  Mr D.N.Bezbarua, Prof.
   Tafazzul Ali, Prof Jogesh Das, Prof K.K.Borah, Prof  Tarak  Choudhury
   and others.    Dr  Hiren Gohain who could not attend the meeting sent
   his suggestions in writing.
   

10 ASSAMESE FILM ADAJYA FOR ARGENTINA FEST		[AT:1-SEP-97]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   The  Assamese  feature  film,  Adjya, directed by Dr Santana Bordoloi
   will be screened at the international film festival  at  Mardelpleta,
   Argentina from  November 18.  The organisers also invited Dr Bordoloi
   to be present at the festival as  guest.    Adjya  has  already  been
   screened   at   Montreal,   Carloviveri  and  Japan's  Fukuwaka  film
   festivals.
   

11 WORLD ARMSPORTS MEET IN GUWAHATI		[UNI:5-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------
   
   The 18th world  armsports  championship  1997,  the  greatest  annual
   armsports  bonanza  of  the  universe, would be held at Guwahati from
   December 1 to 6.  The Championship would be organized  by  the  Assam
   Armsports  Association  and the Indian Armsports Federation under the
   auspices of World Armsports Federation.
   
   According to the chief convenor of the championship, Ramendra Narayan
   Kalita, Assam  Minister  for  Sericulture,  about  400  arm-wrestlers
   representing  nearly  35  countries  are expected to take part in the
   championship.  This would be the first time that  a  championship  of
   such a  big  magnitude  would  be held in the Northeast.  Last year's
   championship was held at Virginia, USA.
   

______________________________[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://piglet.uccs.edu/~kalita/assam/news/news-from-assam-index.html
________________________________________________________________________