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                          Vol.3, No.36  [*]  June 1, 1998
                          -------------------------------

            He who passively accepts evil is as much involved
                  in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
                           - Martin Luther King

   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   Union Budget 1998 documents on NIC websites:
   http://www.nic.in/indiabudget   and   http://indiabudget.nic.in
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

1  DISSIDENTS' DEMAND HAS NO LEGAL BASIS: LAW MINISTER    [AT:31-MAY-98]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   
   The State Law Minister, Surendra Nath Medhi on May 30 said  that  the
   demand  of  the  AGP  dissidents  for  a special session of the State
   Assembly for the trail of strength of the Mahanta  Ministry,  has  no
   legal  basis.  Mr Medhi said that though 53 legislators pledged their
   support to the leadership of Mr P.K.Mahanta, officially the AGP still
   has the strength of 63 members in the House  as  the  dissidents  are
   still members of the party. He said that till there is a split in the
   party,  the AGP would continue to enjoy the majority in the House and
   there is no need for convening a special session of the Assembly  for
   a trial of strength of the Ministry.
   
   Former  PWD  Minister  Atul Bora on May 29 demanded that the Governor
   should convene a special session of the Assam  Assembly  and  ask  Mr
   Mahanta to prove his majority in the floor of the House. He said that
   as the supporters of the Chief Minister had claimed that they had the
   support  of  only  53  MLAs,  Mr Mahanta has lost his majority in the
   House. The Law Minister said that a special session can  be  convened
   to  discuss  urgent  matters relating to the interest of the State or
   the country.
   
   (Stay tuned for breaking news about the ongoing  crises  in  the  AGP
   Ministry.  Vernacular  dailies  indicated an imminent fall of Mahanta
   Ministry within a very short time. - Mozz)
   

2  AGP MLA ARRESTED ON ASSAULT CHARGES			   [S:31-MAY-98]
   -----------------------------------
   
   The AGP MLA from  Sonai  constituency  in  Barak  Valley,  Mr  Anowar
   Hussain  Laskar  was  arrested  on  May  29  by the police on various
   charges from his residence.  The Chief Judicial  Magistrate,  Silchar
   rejected  the  bail application and remanded him to jail custody till
   June 2 when the police was asked to produce the case diary.
   
   The  Cachar district administration said that Mr Laskar had assaulted
   an assistant project officer of DRDA, Cachar on  November  17,  1997.
   On  the  same  day, Mr Laskar along with several accomplices, entered
   the house of one Ms Rehana Begum Laskar of Mr  A.J.Laskar,  assistant
   project officer, DRDA, Cachar, in her husband's absence and attempted
   to loot  money.    He and his accomplices, `wrongfully restrained and
   assaulted' one Mr Ratish Chanda, executive engineer, PHE, Silchar.
   
   Dissident AGP MLAs in Dispur alleged that the  vindictive  Government
   had  arrested  Mr  Laskar  for  not  supporting  the leadership of Mr
   P.K.Mahanta while AGP's publicity  secretary  Mr  Moidul  Islam  Bora
   refuted  the  charge,  saying  Laskar was arrested in connection with
   certain criminal cases pending against him and this has nothing to do
   with dissident activities.

3  FRESH BANGLA BID TO FLUSH OUT NE ULTRAS		   [AT:1-JUN-98]
   ---------------------------------------
   
   Bangladesh Rifles have decided to launch a fresh operation  to  flush
   out  the  militants  of  the Northeast, staying in `make shift camps'
   along the Indo-Bangla border.  The decision was taken at a high level
   security agencies meet of both countries.  The  three-day  long  meet
   which  was  attended  by  a  team  of Bangladesh Rifles headed by its
   Deputy Director General expressed the view that the ongoing militancy
   had turned  the  law  and  order  situation  along  the  border  more
   complicated and have affected the border trade.
   

4  BODIES OF MISSING COUPLE RECOVERED AT TANGLA		    [S:1-JUN-98]
   --------------------------------------------
   
   The bodies of Dhiren Das (45) and his wife Geeta  Das  (25)  who  had
   been  missing  since May 22 from the Subhaspalli area of Tangla town,
   were found buried in a paddy field  in  south  Nalbari  under  Tangla
   police station on May 31. Police said Dhiren Das was believed to have
   been  killed by strangulating. The body bore marks of torture and cut
   injury in several places. Ms Geeta Das's both the breasts were  found
   to  be  cut  out. The couple, who were making a hand-to mouth living,
   leaves behind four children. Police investigation is on. 
   
   Meanwhile, one Krishna Gopal Debnath (20) son of  Sushil  Debnath,  a
   trader  of Hojai, who had been abducted by unidentified miscreants on
   May 18, has been killed following the refusal of the  family  to  pay
   ransom to  the  abductors.    The  abductors  had reportedly demanded
   Rs.200,000 initially and later came down to Rs.500,000.  The body was
   recovered in the Ambari forest village under Marajhan police  station
   in Hojai subdivision.  Police investigation is on.
   

5  EXPLOSIVES RECOVERED FROM RAILWAY TRACKS AT SALAKATI    [AT:1-JUN-98]
   ----------------------------------------------------
   
   Six  explosive  devices  were  detected  from  the  railway tracks in
   between Basugaon and Salakati at about seven on the morning of May 31
   near the Champa river on the Guwahati-New Jalpaiguri section  of  the
   NF  Railways.  Railway officials as well as State police teams rushed
   to the spot on receiving the information and defused the devices.
   

6  PURKAYASTHA PROMISES INTERNET IN NE TOWNS	           [AT:1-JUN-98]
   -----------------------------------------
  
   All  major  northeastern  towns  with  digital  electronic  telephone
   exchanges will soon have Internet facility for subscribers,  promised
   the Union Minister of State for Communications, Kabindra Purkayastha.
   He  sought  three month's time for commissioning the state-of-the-art
   digital electronic OBC-283 telephone exchange in Dibrugarh.  He  said
   that the State's 22,000 Village Public Telephones (VPT) function most
   erratically as these are not manned properly due to acute shortage of
   trained staff.    Mr  Purkayastha  is  on  a  brief  tour of Assam to
   campaign for the BJP candidate for the ensuing by-poll to  Margherita
   Legislative Assebbly Constituency.
   

7  INVENTOR OF FUEL-SAVING DEVICE GETS RAW DEAL 	  [AT:31-MAY-98]
   --------------------------------------------
   
   A  retired  soil  conservation  officer  of  the Assam Government who
   invented a mechanical  device  to  bring  down  fuel  consumption  in
   automobiles  11 years ago has been running from pillar to post to get
   recognition for the device. Mr P.K.Debgupta developed the device  way
   back  in  1987 and named it `Power Multiplication Device.' The device
   is a  simple  nine-toothed  iron  disc,  which  is  attached  to  the
   differential  of  the vehicle with the propeller shaft. The principle
   used is that applied force may be multiplied through lever or  levers
   on changing the unit from one to another keeping the revolution (rpm)
   constant. 
   

8  ASTC DECLARED UTILITY SERVICE			   [S:30-MAY-98]
   -----------------------------
   
   The Assam Governor has declared the Assam State Transport Corporation
   (ASTC)  as  a  public utility service for a period of six months with
   effect from May 28 under the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947.  The  step
   came in view of the continued strike by the ASTC drivers and workers.
   
   Meanwhile,  ASTC  sources  at Jorhat said that the Jorhat division of
   the corporation has been making a loss of at least Rs.100,000 as  the
   13  ASTC  buses  in services of the ONGC Jorhat division could not be
   run due to the strike which has entered the 13th day on May  31.  The
   loss  due  to  disruption in general bus services in the division has
   been Rs.15,000 to Rs.18,000 daily.
   

9  UNPRECEDENTED TRAFFIC HOLD-UP ON G.S.ROAD		    [S:1-JUN-98]
   -----------------------------------------
   
   Vehicular  traffic in the busy highway from Khanapara to Jorabat from
   where the highway bifurcates to Shillong and upper Assam via  Nagaon,
   was  caught  in  an unprecedented snarl since May 29 afternoon when a
   truck, carrying a huge pipe for the Numaligarh Refinery,  was  caught
   on the  highway.    This  happened when the pipe hit a hillock as the
   truck tried to negotiate a curve and itself got struck on  the  other
   end of  the  highway.  As the highway was blocked midway, traffic was
   held up for over 24 hours from both ends  till  police  pressed  into
   service  a crane and made way for the traffic on the afternoon of May
   30.

______________________________[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
________________________________________________________________________