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                        Vol.4, No.10 [*] February 20, 1999
                        ----------------------------------

             Fortitudine vincimus  -- By endurance we conquer.
                     - Ernest Shackleton family motto 
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       AOL completes three years of service to friends of Assam.
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1  ULFA ULTRA, EX-ULFA MAN BASHED UP BY LOCAL PEOPLE     [S:19-FEB-99]
   -------------------------------------------------
   JORHAT:   The  local people of Jorhat bashed up and injured an ULFA
   ultra and a former member of the banned outfit -- Madhab Bhuyan and
   Shashanka Bora -- respectively mistaking them as dacoits when  they
   were  demanding  a  written  assurance  from  the  Jorhat  District
   Elementary Education Officer (DEEO) in his residence  stating  that
   he, besides giving up misdeeds, would pay Rs.200,000 to the outfit.
   
   The  officer  was  asked  to  write  the letter to the `general' of
   Jorhat district unit of the ULFA.  The two  youths,  who  had  been
   arrested  by  the  police  later, are in Jorhat civil hospital now.
   Police later arrested  one  Nirmal  Bhuyan,  an  assistant  of  the
   District Elementary Education Office, who happens to be the brother
   of Madhab Bhuyan, in connection with the incident.
   
2  XATRADHIKAR OBSERVE FAST TO PROTEST CRPF ACTION       [S:17-FEB-99]
   -----------------------------------------------
   NAGAON:   Over  one  hundred devotees, several of them Xatradhikars
   observed a fast at the pilgrimage of Batradava  protesting  against
   the  unethical  act  of  the  Central  Reserve  Police Force (CRPF)
   entering the core room of the shrine containing the  footprints  of
   the saint  Sankardeva  on a stoneplate. 
   
   The CRPF personnel entered the place with the plea  to  search  the
   armoury  of  the  ULFA, violating the prescribed code -- by which a
   devotee has to enter the room after a day's fast prior to it. 
   
   This has extremely hurt the sentiments of  the  devotees  who  said
   that  the  shrine has been polluted by the CRPF's entering the room
   with shoes on, and handling of the sacred books with  their  sticks
   with least regard to the sanctity of the shrine and the saint.

3  POLICE PROPOSES NEW DOG SQUAD                         [S:19-FEB-99]
   -----------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  With a view to check increasing cases of crime and other
   subversive activities,  the  Assam  Police  have  recently  sent  a
   proposal to the State Government for raising a new dog squad of six
   members. The proposal has been sent after taking into consideration
   the  acute shortage of the trained dogs in the police force and the
   difficulty faced by the police  in  detecting  explosives  at  busy
   localities and public places, sources said.
   
4  SUSPECTED ALIENS PICKED UP BY BORDER POLICE           [S:19-FEB-99]
   -------------------------------------------
   JORHAT:   Border  police  picked up as many as 35 suspected foreign
   nationals -- two Nepalese and 33 Bangladeshis.   While  arrangement
   have  been  made  for  deportation  of  the  two  Nepalese  through
   Srirampur  gate  at  Assam-West  Bengal   border,   the   suspected
   Bangladeshis have  been released after taking their addresses.  The
   addresses have been sent  to  the  respective  police  station  for
   verification.
   
5  JUDICIAL INQUIRY DEMANDED BY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS      [S:17-FEB-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The All Assam Medical Laboratory Technician Association
   demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident of beating up of  two
   technicians  of  the  blood bank at Nagaon Civil Hospital following
   the death of female patient at the hospital by  a  group  of  irate
   people on February 9.

   Terming  the  incident as unfortunate, the association in a release
   said that it takes about 45 minutes to do the necessary  tests  and
   other  related  works before blood can be transfused from the donor
   to the patient.  Moreover, the system of storing blood in the blood
   bank of the hospital is also in an incomplete stage.   So  patients
   have to be given blood after it is collected from donors.
   
   Without  taking  into  consideration these facts, the beating up of
   the laboratory technicians was really uncalled for and necessitated
   a judicial inquiry, the release said.
   
6  HIGH COURT ORDER ON IOC RECRUITMENT                   [S:19-FEB-99]
   -----------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  Gauhati High Court by its order on February 17 has
   allowed the Indian  Oil  Corporation  (IOC)  to  hold  the  written
   examination  on  February  28  for  the  1,702  candidates  of  the
   Northeast who were left out on  account  of  anomalies  in  issuing
   admit cards.
   
   It may be recalled that pursuant to an advertisement  published  in
   The  Times  of  India  in December 1998 for filling up 435 posts of
   engineers etc, about 2,400 candidates from  the  Northeast  applied
   for  the  posts  and  written  test conducted by IOC at Guwahati in
   January 1999 without issuing admit cards to most of the  candidates
   of the  region.    Guwahati  was  the  only  centre  for the entire
   Northeast out of 16 centres all over India.
   
   Being  aggrieved,  some local candidates led by Ms Geetima Bordoloi
   had approached the Gauhati High Court  seeking  appropriate  relief
   challenging  the  entire recruitment process and the High Court, by
   its order on February 8 stayed the recruitment process by IOC.

   However, on an undertaking given by the IOC that it would hold  the
   written  test  again for the candidates who could not appear in the
   test due to the anomalies, the court allowed the IOC  to  hold  the
   test once again.
   
7  SCHOOLS CLOSED TO GIVE PRESENCE TO MANOHARAN PANEL    [S:20-FEB-99]
   --------------------------------------------------
   NAGAON: Following a grotesque blunder on the part of the  education
   authorities  in  Nagaon district, 85 Middle English (ME) Schools in
   the Nagaon subdivision and 43 others in Hojai subdivision  remained
   closed on February 19.
   
   This  happened  when  the  Manoharan  Committee  entrusted with the
   verification of the irregularities in the appointments of  teachers
   between  1991 and 1996 visited the district to re-examine the cases
   of 374 such teachers and wanted  their  presence.    The  education
   authorities  invited  all categories of teachers including even the
   grade-IV staff resulting in the closure of the schools.
   
8  FISRT MONKEY PARK TO COME UP IN ASSAM               [PTI:17-FEB-99]
   -------------------------------------
   JODHPUR:   The  first  monkey  park to provide sanctuary status and
   facilities to five rare species of non-human primates will  be  set
   up  in  the Borjan Reserve Forest, according to S.M.Mohont, project
   director of the Indo-US primate project with  its  headquarters  at
   Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
   
   The Union Government had agreed in principle to declare the 4.9  sq
   km  area  as  `primate  sanctuary'.  The  park would provide a high
   primate diversity and  support  five  species  --  rhesus  macaque,
   assamese  macaque,  pigtailed  macaque,  capped  langur  and  holok
   gibbon, Mr Mohont said.
   
   During 1995-97, there was a population loss  of  these  species  by
   48.42  per  cent  and  tree  canopy  by  55.9  per  cent,  he said,
   `therefore, the Borjan Reserve Forest will be upgraded to save them
   from extinction.'
   
9  ANCIENT IDOLS OF VELUGURI IDENTIFIED                  [S:18-FEB-99]
   ------------------------------------
   JORHAT: The four ancient stone  idols  which  were  recovered  from
   Veluguri  area  of  Moriani  in Jorhat district of February 5, have
   been identified. According to Gautam Bordoloi, officer-in-charge of
   Jorhat District Museum, all the four  idols  date  back  to  period
   between the 8th and the 10th century.
   
   Three  idols  are  of Hari-Har (Vishnu-Shiva) and the fourth one is
   Lakshmi-Narayan. The district museum authorities have  appealed  to
   the  higher authorities of Guwahati to carry out more excavation in
   the area in view of the possibility of recovering more such relics.
   
______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
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