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                          Vol.3, No.62 [*] August 21, 1998
                          --------------------------------

               God is on the side not of the heavy battalions,
                           but of the best shots.
                                - Voltaire
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

1  RACKET ON FORGED CITIZENSHIP PAPERS BUSTED	          [AT:21-AUG-98]
   ------------------------------------------
   The  Assam  Police  in  North  Lakhimpur  busted a racket involved in
   issuing forged citizenship certificates, true copies of voters  lists
   etc  and  arrested five persons including a petition writer (Toroni),
   Abdul Barik.  Police has so far detected 200  forged  documents  that
   helped  a sizeable number of illegal Bangladeshi nationals to stay in
   Assam.  The police recovered forged seals of the office of the Deputy
   Commissioners of Lakhimpur, Barpeta and Nagaon  districts,  electoral
   officers,   Superintendents   of  Police,  Majid  Committees,  School
   headmasters etc.
   
   Abdul Barik and one Nabi Hussian were the  main  persons  behind  the
   racket,  and  on interrogation told the police that scores of persons
   all over the State are carrying out such forgery to mint money.   The
   members  of  the racket earned Rs.500 to 2,000 for the forged papers.
   Barik is also a block level leader of the Congress.
   
   Meanwhile, the Government Railway Police Force (GRPF)  on  August  17
   apprehended  three Bangladeshi citizens who had illegally entered the
   State through the Assam-Bangladesh border district of Karimganj.  The
   GRPF stated that Nurul  Huda,  Motiur  Rahman  and  Dilil  Wak  while
   interrogation  confessed that they had sneaked into the State through
   Karimganj and arrived Guwahati, and was planning to go to Delhi.
   
2  COP DIES IN BOMB BLAST IN NALBARI			   [S:21-AUG-98]
   ---------------------------------
   One security guard of Assam Police Battalion was killed  and  several
   others  injured  when  suspected  ULFA  militants  exploded  a remote
   controlled  powerful  bomb  blowing  up  a  vehicle  carrying  police
   personnel  at Bongaon in Nalbari district at around 4:30 pm on August
   20.  The bomb planted under a culvert went off while the Maruti Gypsy
   was crossing over it.  Mr Ajit Das, Commandant of  the  AP  Battalion
   along  with  his  escort was coming from Daulasal to Nalbari when the
   explosion took place, killing security guard Zulher Ali, while Mr Das
   escaped unhurt.  The vehicle was badly damaged.
   
3  ULFA'S CALL FOR UNITY, ARMY DENIES KILLINGS	          [AT:18-AUG-98]
   -------------------------------------------
   The  banned  United  Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) called upon the
   people of the State to stand united against the heinous  and  inhuman
   plots of the Indian state against them.  In a press release on August
   17,  the  ULFA  alleged  that  the  Indian  Army and the Research and
   Analysis Wing (RAW) are bent upon eliminating the  entire  population
   of  Assam through unprincipled and meaningless bloodshed, rather than
   physically liquidating the ULFA cadres.  They termed it as a `product
   of the frustration which has been gripping the Indian state following
   its failure to suppress the national liberation struggle of Assam for
   the last eight years,' in its press release.
   
   The  Nalbari unit of the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), a human
   rights group alleged that serial incidents of human rights  violation
   had made the inhabitants of the district feel insecure, and it sent a
   memorandum with vivid description of the violation of human rights in
   Nalbari  district  to  the  President  of  India,  through the Deputy
   Commissioner of Nalbari on August 13.
   
   Meanwhile, the Army denied involvement in the recent killing  of  the
   relatives of some top ULFA leaders. In a Defence press release issued
   on  August  18,  claimed  that  this  was  part  of  a disinformation
   campaign being spread by the ULFA leadership.
   
4  STOP MISUSE OF CENTRAL FUNDS, URGES BARDHAN		   [S:21-AUG-98]
   -------------------------------------------
   Mr.A.B.Bardhan,  general  secretary  of  the Communist Party of India
   (CPI), said that the party would launch an agitation with a  view  to
   ensure   that   funds   received   from  the  Centre  was  spent  for
   developmental schemes.  Mr.Bardhan, who is in Sibsagar in  connection
   with  the  State-level  CPI conference told newsmen that the region's
   economic backwardness was not due to lack of funds, but  because  the
   money received from Centre are shown spent in papers only.
   
   He pointed out there had been large-scale  corruptions  in  utilizing
   MPs and MLAs Area Development Funds as the concerned MPs and MLAs put
   pressure  on  the  government  officials  to  allot  the works to the
   contractors of their choice so they could get commissions from them.
   
   Another CPI leader and former Union  Home  Minister,  Indrajit  Gupta
   while  addressing  a  massive rally at the Boarding Field in Sibsagar
   said, the slogan that `India is one nation, one people' as propagated
   by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata  Party  (BJP)  is  a  grave
   threat  to  the  unity  and  integrity  of India which is a colourful
   mosaic of various peoples.

5  CRISIS HIT STATE BJP LEADERSHIP			   [S:18-AUG-98]
   -------------------------------
   Uncertainty  prevails  over  the  fate  of  the  State BJP president,
   Narayan Borkotoky as majority of the  party  workers  have  expressed
   dissatisfaction  over  his  leadership  and  levelled  allegations of
   corruption against him, as stated by a high-level source of the party
   to newsmen at Guwahati on August  17.    Sources  revealed  that  the
   president instead of working for the betterment of the party, is only
   working for his vested interests.
   
   The source alleged that Mr.Borkotoky failed to submit the accounts of
   more  than Rs.8.5 million sanctioned by the BJP Central committee for
   the last midterm elections expenses.  And  further  alleged  that  Mr
   Borkotoky had recently signed a contract for three television serials
   with Guwahati  Doordarshan  under  different  names.  The name of the
   firm under which the contract was signed is said to be Kamarupa.
   
6  FIVE DEPUTY COMMISSIONERS TRANSFERRED		   [S:21-AUG-98]
   -------------------------------------
   The Assam Government have transferred  the  deputy  commissioners  of
   five   districts   -   Dhubri,  Bongaigaon,  Goalpara,  Golaghat  and
   Kokrajhar.  Ms Gayatri Devi has  been  appointed  as  DC  Dhubri,  Mr
   Biswaranjan  Samal  at  Bongaigaon, Mr K.N.Buragohain at Goalpara, Mr
   Ravi Kota at Golaghat and Jones Ingti Kathar as DC Kokrajhar.
   
7  SEVEN NEW FACES IN EXPANDED MAHANTA MINISTRY		   [S:20-AUG-98]
   --------------------------------------------
   For the first time in 27 months since P.K.Mahanta assumed  office  as
   the  Chief  Minister  of  Assam, he expanded the Cabinet by inducting
   seven new ministers, raising the strength of the Ministry to 32 in  a
   House of 126 members, and elevated five Ministers of State as Cabinet
   Ministers.  Of the seven new ministers, three have been given Cabinet
   rank and the remaining four the status of Minister of State.  All the
   12 ministers in their new responsibilities were sworn in by the Assam
   Governor S.K.Sinha at the Raj Bhawan in the morning on August 19.
   
8  STATE INLAND WATER TRANSPORT COMES TO GRINDING HALT	   [S:20-AUG-98]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   Despite  Assam  Government's  announcement  to  modernize  its  water
   transport   system,   the   functioning  of  Inland  Water  Transport
   Department has virtually come to a  grinding  halt  due  to  lack  of
   planning and  apathy of the authority.  The department which operated
   commercial services from Assam to Calcutta till 1930, is  now  unable
   to  mobilize  a fleet on nearly 270 vessels and the large work force.
   Most of the vessels  are  lying  idle  for  a  long  time  since  the
   department is unable to purchase petroleum fuel for their operation.
   
   In  1994-95, the department earned Rs.12 million and in 1996-97 Rs.23
   million, but failed to earn more than Rs.5 million in  the  last  two
   years.  They  have  seven  tugs with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes.  The
   department had given direct  settlement  of  18  ferries  to  private
   parties without inviting open tenders as per government rules.  It is
   alleged  that the department have not initiated any action to trace a
   vessel, Mahabahu, that has been missing from Jorhat a month ago.
   
   The river trade with Bangladesh, which began in  1996  for  supplying
   boulders  from Bhutan for Jamuna Bridge in Bangladesh had been halted
   two months ago since  the  ITW  had  no  agreement  for  loading  and
   unloading of  cargo.    The ITW which grabbed the opportunity to ship
   heavy cargo from Calcutta to Numaligarh Refinery in Golaghat,  failed
   to  continue  the  service after its first consignment from Calcutta.
   It is alleged that the department failed to  implement  the  proposed
   passenger  service  between  Guwahati and Dibrugarh, the contract for
   which was signed with an Australian firm  which  assured  to  finance
   Rs.75 million for the luxurious air-conditioned yacht Catamaran.
   
9  INTERNET NODE BY VSNL AT SILCHAR		         [PTI:18-AUG-98]
   --------------------------------
   After  Guwahati,  Silchar has become the second town in the Northeast
   region to get access to the Internet  with  the  inauguration  of  an
   Internet  node  by  the  Union  Telecommunication  Minister  Kabindra
   Purakayastha.  The facility, being provided  by  the  central  public
   sector  Videsh  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited (VSNL), is part of the phased
   plan of the Department of Telecommunication  to  develop  and  expand
   telecommunication infrastructure in the Northeast.
   
10 DOCUMENTARY ON AIDEO HANDIQUE			   [S:21-AUG-98]
   -----------------------------
   Moushom  Production, an audio visual production unit of Guwahati, has
   taken up plan to produce a documentary on Aideu Handique, the actress
   in the first Assamese film Joymoti. The unit has started shooting  at
   Mohuramukh,  Panidihingya,  Gamarighat,  and  will  soon  proceed  to
   Naharani tea estate and Bholaguri tea estate in Golaghat district.

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