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           _ m m m  (Guaranteed 100% Pure Local News from Assam) 
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                       Vol.1, No.4 * October 8, 1998
   ------------------------------------------------------------------  

                         Make Vandana a Habit.
               - Ad in a Guwahati cinema hall, Vandana.
   ------------------------------------------------------------------

1  PRICES OF MUST ITEMS YET TO COME DOWN                [AT:4-OCT-98]
   -------------------------------------
   DIBRUGARH:  Prices of  all  essential  items  continue  to  remain
   outside  the  purchasing power of the average citizen, despite the
   fact that the business community can  no  longer  say  that  their
   trucks are  stranded  at  Malda  or  Nalbari.  Potatoes is sold at
   Rs.15 a kilo while onions is Rs.32,  no  vegetables  is  available
   below  Rs.16  a  kilo  in  the main market of Dibrugarh (and other
   markets throughout Assam).  Also, thanks to the Dropsy  scare  due
   to  adulterated  mustard  oil,  it now sell for Rs.64 per litre, a
   hike of Rs.20 within a couple of months.
   
   Traders inform that they are helpless because `we have to purchase
   the  commodities  at  a  premium  from   the   wholesalers.'   The
   wholesalers,  on  their  part,  flash newspaper clippings of roads
   being blocked by floods to justify the high prices.  When they are
   told that the roads have reopened, they are quick  to  point  that
   their trucks  have  not arrived.  In case the trucks have arrived,
   the businessman would say that more than half of  the  goods  have
   been damaged.    So, they have to make a profit be selling a third
   of the saleable goods.
   
   (Meanwhile,  the  Government  of  India  have imported onions from
   Dubai and Iran, edible oil from Malaysia and sugar from Pakistan.)
   
2  FIRST AIDS DEATH AT GOLAGHAT
   ----------------------------
   GOLAGHAT:  The first case of death due to AIDS has  been  reported
   when a man in his early twenties died recently at Golaghat.  About
   three  years  ago,  the HIV positive patient was detected after he
   was discharged from the defence service.   He  had  contacted  the
   AIDS virus while working as a jawan in a peacekeeping force of the
   United Nations in Cambodia.
   
3  FIVE HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES PICKED UP FOR INTERROGATION   [S:7-OCT-98]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   TINSUKIA: Police picked up five employees of LGB  Civil  Hospital,
   Tinsukia  on  October  6  for interrogation in connection with the
   missing of a file of the  hospital  containing  vital  records  on
   police  and related cases. The file also had records pertaining to
   maternity death case that rocked the  hospital  recently  and  the
   government instituted an inquiry also.
   
   In another incident  at  Sibsagar,  acting  on  a  tip-off  police
   unearthed  a  racket in medicine amounting to Rs.10 million in the
   ONGC Hospital  and  arrested  J.M.Dihingia,  a  pharmacist;  Rajib
   Gogoi,  godown chowkidar; Paban Changmai, the ambulance driver and
   another Durga Gogoi of ONGC  Nazira  recently.    There  has  been
   allegation  of  non-availability  of  medicine  in the hospital in
   spite of regular supply by the authorities.
   
4  GAMBLING DEN IN IRRIGATION OFFICE BUSTED             [AT:5-OCT-98]
   ----------------------------------------
   MANGALDOI:  In a major drive against gambling at Mangaldoi town, a
   gambling  den in the Assam Government Irrigation Department office
   campus was busted by a police party led by the probationary deputy
   superintendent of police, Mr Nanda Singh.  More than Rs.9,000 were
   seized from five persons, including an advocate and a  few  office
   assistants of the deputy commissioner's office.  The five arrested
   persons were later remanded to police custody.
   
5  TREASURY OFFICER, ASEB ENGINEER GHEAROED         [AT+S:4+7-OCT-98]
   ----------------------------------------
   KAMALABARI:   Mr  Nabanit   Saikia,   Treasury   Officer,   Garmur
   sub-treasury,  was  ghearoed by a group of angry teachers in front
   of the United Bank of India on September 26 while he  was  on  his
   way to  his  home  at  Golaghat.  The teachers and other employees
   were angered because they were deprived of their salary on the eve
   of the Durga Puja festival.  Almost 90  per  cent  employees  were
   deprived  of  their  salaries, some did not get their salaries for
   several months.
   
   The teachers and the employees alleged that for prompt passing  of
   pay bills at the sub-treasury, the corrupt officials and the staff
   have  to  be  satisfied with Rs.10 to Rs.1,000 as bribes depending
   upon the amounts to be drawn.   In  that  case,  the  question  of
   budget, allotment  and  retention  does  not  arise.  The deprived
   employees demanded  a  high-level  enquiry  into  the  matter  and
   appropriate punishment to the corrupt officials.
   
   In Jorhat town, irate  public  ghearoed  the  ASEB  superintending
   engineer  on  October  6  in  protest  against non-availability of
   electricity in several parts of the town for four days.  A  500-KV
   transformer  in the busy area has developed fault resulting in the
   blackout.
   
6  PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRE WITHOUT DOCTOR                  [S:7-OCT-98]
   ------------------------------------
   PATACHARKUCHI:  The  Charna Bazar primary health centre near Jalah
   has been running without doctors for two years. The pharmacist who
   managed the centre without  doctors  also  died  recently.  Now  a
   grade-4  employee is in the centre to keep its door open and shut.
   The people in the area are suffering a lot for want of doctors. It
   is learnt that the  concerned  people  have  already  brought  the
   matter to the notice of the authority, but nothing has been done.
   
7  VILLAGES REMAIN UNDER SAND AT NAGAON                  [S:7-OCT-98]
   ------------------------------------
   NAGAON: Eight villages under Bhuragaon revenue  circle  have  been
   buried  under  sand owing to large-scale deposition of sand during
   the nine consecutive waves of flood with heavy erosions. The paddy
   fields, the housing sites all looked like  deserts.  Most  of  the
   people  in the area have gone to Dimapur and other areas in search
   of their bread. Those clinging to their habitats have nothing  but
   a murky future before them. 
   
8  WHEN FORTUNE DID NOT SMILE ON HER                    [AT:5-OCT-98]
   ---------------------------------
   DIGBOI:  Arpita Chakravarty, a meritorious student of Digboi,  who
   got admitted into Women's College, Tinsukia, in degree course, was
   made a  victim  of  the  whims  of the college authority.  She had
   secured 83 per cent marks in both General and Advanced Bengali  at
   the HSSLC  examination,  1998.  But she was denied to take Bengali
   as Major subject in the degree course.
   
   The  reason  for  the refusal was that she could not appear at the
   screening test held by the college. The  medical  certificate  she
   produced  to  prove  that  she was undergoing medical treatment at
   Calcutta during  that  time  did  not help.  Her fervent appeal to
   appear for a screening test fell into deaf  ears.  Ultimately  she
   had to withdraw her name from the college rolls.
   
9  CHUTIYA-DEURI XAHITYA XABHA ON JANUARY 16             [S:7-OCT-98]
   -----------------------------------------
   NORTH LAKHIMPUR:      The   three-day  maiden  conference  of  the
   Chutiya-Deuri Xahitya Xabha will be  held  in  Lakhimpur  district
   from January  16, 1999.  A 101-member reception committee has been
   formed with Khagen Rajkhowa and Rana Prasad Deuri as president and
   secretary respectively.
   
10 BLACKERS RUN THE SHOW IN GUWAHATI CINEMA HALLS       [AT:3-OCT-98]
   ----------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Barring the privileged section, for whom  it's  just  a
   matter  of  a phone call to arrange for tickets, it has become too
   tough for the common moviegoers to get a ticket.   Thanks  to  the
   black marketeers -- popularly referred to as `blackers' -- who now
   run  the  show  with  the  patronage  of  the cinema staff and the
   policemen.  The members of the `blackers' community have increased
   manifold in Guwahati in the last few years.  A sizeable section of
   the community are females, who find the trade less taxing and more
   rewarding.
   
   The modus  operandi is very simple.  The cinema staff pass on over
   60 per cent of the tickets to the `blackers' while the  people  in
   the  queues waste their time waiting for the counter to be opened.
   The `blackers' then fleece the desperate  moviegoers  by  charging
   exorbitant prices  on  every ticket.  Usually the minimum price in
   the black market is double and can go up to five times the  actual
   price.   A  share  of the profit also goes to the cinema staff and
   the policeman posted at the cinema hall, one `blacker' claimed.
 
11 TOCKLAI SCIENTIST SELECTED FOR UN FAO MISSION         [S:6-OCT-98]
   ---------------------------------------------
   JORHAT:  Dr A.C.Barbora of Tea Research Association (TRA), Tocklai
   Experimental Station, Jorhat has been selected by  United  Nations
   FAO, Rome  for  a  FAO mission in Vietnam.  He will participate as
   tea ergonomist in a team of  scientists  selected  from  different
   countries.   This  international  team of scientists will complete
   the first phase of the mission in Vietnam  within  October,  1998.
   He was nominated by the TRA.

______________________________[Mozz-RG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
           Comments and Feedback to: mozz@cyberspace.org
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