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                     Vol.3, No.13  [*] March 16, 1998
                     --------------------------------

            Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance
                       must necessarily be infinite.
                               - Karl Popper

   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   IMPORTANT: Telephone numbers  of  Jorhat, Mariani, Majuli, Sibsagar,
              Golaghat  and  Bokakhat have been changed from 16-Mar-98.
              New numbers will be transmitted to the AOL and the Assam
              mailing lists tomorrow.    - Mozz
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

1  ASSEMBLY SESSION BEGINS FROM TODAY		          [AT:16-MAR-98]
   ----------------------------------
   
   The Budget Session of the Assam  Legislative  Assembly  got  underway
   with the  address  by  Governor S.K.Sinha at 9 am today.  The session
   will continue till March 19.  The Governor's  address  was  broadcast
   live by  AIR Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Silchar stations.  The Budget of
   the State for the year 1998-99 will be submitted in the  Assembly  on
   March 23.    The introduction, consideration and passing of the Assam
   Appropriation Bill relating to the vote of accounts will be  held  on
   March 27.
   
   A new system will be introduced this time in the Assembly,  in  which
   the  Standing Committees will discuss the demands for grants relating
   to 26 departments.  The committees will meet  from  March  30.    The
   Assembly will again sit from May 4 to 19 after a recess from March 28
   to May 3.
   

2  AGP MEET URGES ARMY WITHDRAWAL			  [AT:12-MAR-98]
   -----------------------------
   
   The two-day long executive meet of the AGP which ended on March 11 in
   Guwahati suggested the Government to consider the withdrawal of  army
   operation  to  bring  a  permanent  peace  in the State and urged the
   Government to take initiative  for  discussions  with  the  insurgent
   groups.
   

3  ASDC TO FIELD KANAKLATA FOR RAJYA SABHA		   [S:16-MAR-98]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   The Autonomous State Demand Committee  (ASDC)  decided  to  field  Ms
   Kanaklata  Dutta, a leader of women's revolution in the State, as its
   candidate in the ensuing Rajya Sabha election from Assam.  It may  be
   mentioned  that  Ms  Dutta  was  seriously  injured  in  an attack on
   February 11 in which Lok Sabha candidate for the Dibrugarh  seat,  Mr
   Anil  Baruah was gunned down by ULFA militants at an election meeting
   near Naharkatia.  She is presently undergoing treatment.
   

4  CHARGESHEET FILED AGAINST ANUP CHETIA		 [PTI:14-MAR-98]
   -------------------------------------
   
   Bangladesh  police  said  on  March  14 that it has filed chargesheet
   against detained ULFA leader Anup Chetia and his two  associates  for
   illegal  entry into the country, possession of foreign currencies and
   forged Bangladesh passports.  Chetia  and  his  two  associates  were
   guilty of possessing foreign currencies of 16 countries without valid
   travel  documents,  the  mass-circulation  `Janakantha' daily quoting
   police sources said.  Chargesheets in two other cases against Chetia,
   wanted in India in several murder cases, are likely to  be  submitted
   shortly.  He and his associates were arrested in December last year.
   

5  ULFA SHOT DEAD, ULTRAS ATTACK, BOMB BLASTS	        [S:13-16-MAR-98]
   ------------------------------------------
   
   The  cultural  secretary  of  the North Lakhimpur unit of ULFA, Pulok
   Saikia and his accomplice Nitul Das were killed in an encounter  with
   the  Army  in  the wee hours of March 13 at Mahaijan Elanigaon in the
   eastern part of North Lakhimpur town.  A group of 10  ULFA  militants
   opened  fire on a group of soldiers who had gone there on receiving a
   tip-off, when the Army retaliated, the two militants were killed.
   
   One jawan of the Assam Commando (Black Panther) was  injured  when  a
   group  of  30 suspected ULFA militants attacked a camp of the former,
   housed at Azad Bhawan, Pathsala at  around  11:45  pm  on  March  11.
   According  to reports, the ultras surrounded the camp and opened fire
   with assorted weapons including rocket launchers.  The Black Panthers
   who were 19 in number  returned  the  fire.    The  cross-fire  which
   ensured, continued for 30 minutes before the ultras escaped under the
   cover of darkness.
   
   Many persons were severely  injured  in  a  bomb  blast  at  Chandrup
   Jhagkar  near  Assam-Bhutan  border at 2 pm on March 15. The bomb was
   kept inside a bag in the shop of one Umesh  Talukdar  by  miscreants,
   Nalbari  police  said.  Meanwhile,  NDFB  militants  killed one Major
   Prakash Baburao Patil and one nayak M.B.Gopal of No.2 Madras Regiment
   in a daring ambush at a village near Rowta in Mangaldoi on March 11.
   

6  POLICE BREAKTHROUGH IN EMBEZZLEMENT CASE		   [S:15-MAR-98]
   ----------------------------------------
   
   Chandmari police achieved a major breakthrough when they arrested the
   main culprits in a case of embezzlement of Rs.1.638  million  of  the
   Flood  Control  Department  through  the  New  Guwahati  Treasury and
   recovered Rs.1.012 million in  cash  of  the  embezzled  amount.  The
   police have arrested the clerk-cum-cashier of the New Guwahati branch
   of  the State Bank of India, one Trailokya Das and his three nephews,
   identified as Pranay, Ramen and Rana Das.
   
   According to police sources, Rs.851,000 was recovered from  a  cement
   bag  buried  in the ground and Rs.100,000 from the private firm `Hive
   India Limited' owned by Trailokya Das.  The entire money was siphoned
   off through fake bills through the New Guwahati treasury by Trailokya
   Das who himself sat in the cash counter of the SBI on January 13  and
   made payments   to   his   nephews.      The  bills  were  meant  for
   house-building advance for  eight  employees  of  the  Flood  Control
   Department.   The  fraud  was  detected  on March 4 when the Treasury
   Officer found his signatures on the bills were forged  and  lodged  a
   complaint with the Chandmari police in Guwahati.
   

7  ABDUCTED STUDENT RESCUED, SIX HELD		          [AT:15-MAR-98]
   ----------------------------------
   
   In a swift operation Guwahati police rescued a  class-XI  student  of
   Kendriya  Vidyalaya, Khanapara , Mr Rituraj Pathak, who was kidnapped
   by miscreants, from a cottage at Pilingkata area near Assam-Meghalaya
   border on March 13 and  arrested  six  persons  in  this  connection.
   Police  sources  said  that  a  group  of five youths, posing as ULFA
   dragged Rituraj, son of Purna Pathak, an executive of the  Irrigation
   department,  out  of  their  residence  in Hatigaon at around 4 pm on
   March 12 in a Maruti van and demanded Rs.500,000 as ransom  from  the
   father.
   
   The  abductors aged between 18-20 years and the owner of the cottage,
   Monaranjan Patgiri were arrested.  The five abductors were identified
   as Raju Bhuyan, a student of Dispur College, Chandrashekhar  Deka,  a
   student of Bongaon High School, Rup Kumar Das of Patacharkuchi, Ratul
   Kalita of Mirza, and Surajit Bhuyan of Nagaon.
   

8  HITLER ESCAPES, OC, CONSTABLE SUSPENDED		   [S:16-MAR-98]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   The officer-in-charge and a constable of Talap  police  station  were
   suspended  from  their  services  as  a  dreaded  dacoit,  one Hitler
   Hazarika, who was under the custody of the PS,  escaped.  Hitler  was
   arrested  by  the  Army  on March 12 for his alleged connections with
   ULFA militants. Hitler managed  to  escape  when  he  was  taken  for
   medical  examination  by the accused constable, who dared to take him
   alone, without waiting for his two colleagues to assist him.
   

9  HOBBIES AND SPECIAL INTEREST OF LEGISLATORS	          [AT:16-MAR-98]
   -------------------------------------------
   
   The Assam Legislative Secretariat has  brought  out  booklet  on  the
   members  of  the  10th  Assembly  which  also  contained  the special
   interest and hobbies of the legislators.   The  hobbies  and  special
   interests  of  Ministers and legislators varied from reading, sports,
   classical music, collection of folk songs, travelling, social  works,
   gardening,  farming,  weaving  and  hunting,  and  some  of them have
   special interest in contact sports like boxing and karate.
   
   Chief  Minister  P.K.Mahanta's  hobbies  include  playing  badminton,
   reading  books,  particularly  classics,  history  and  politics, and
   travelling. Alauddin Sarkar  has  special  interest  in  folk  songs,
   particularly,  Goalpara  folk  songs  and  to take part in drama. The
   majority of women legislators have listed  gardening  as  their  main
   hobby.  Ms  Pramila Rani Brahma's special interest is weaving cloths.
   Rajendra  Musahary  has special interest in hunting, while Haji Abdul
   Rauf in interested in `Saiari' and poetry.
   

______________________________[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.assam.org/assam/news/index.html
________________________________________________________________________