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                         Vol.4, No.20 [*] March 26, 1999
                         -------------------------------
   
                 In a world where everything is ridiculous,
                         nothing can be ridiculed.
                         You cannot unmask a mask.
                              - G K Chesterton
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                   AOL wishes its readers Eid Mubarak. 
                 There will be no issue of AOL on Monday.
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1  ASSAM MLAs TO VISIT DHAKA BY BUS                   [IANS:22-MAR-99]
   --------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:    A  team  of  legislators  from  Assam  plans  to  take
   India-Bangladesh relations to a new high by undertaking a  goodwill
   bus trip  from  Guwahati  to Dhaka in May.  The team of at least 25
   will be led by Assam Assembly Speaker Ganesh  Kutum.    Apart  from
   studying Bangladesh's parliamentary system, the legislators propose
   to  hold  talks  with  the  country's business community to promote
   trade links with the Northeast.
   
   `It will be much cheaper to travel by bus and so we have decided to
   use the existing road links through Dwaki  in  Meghalaya  to  reach
   Dhaka via  Sylhet,'  Mr  Kutum  said.    The  road distance between
   Guwahati and Dhaka through this route is about  550  km  and  would
   take about  12  hours.    Kutum  has  sought  the  External Affairs
   Ministry's clearance for the tour.

   `Although the problem of militants taking shelter inside Bangladesh
   and the controversial issue of illegal migrants entering  Northeast
   will  bot be in our official agenda, we might exchange our views on
   these issues at a personnel level  informally,'  Kutum  said.    He
   added  that  there were plans to take similar `friendship tours' to
   other neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal in  the
   future, depending on the success of the proposed Bangladesh visit.

2  TEN-YEAR TAX HOLIDAY FOR NORTHEAST APPROVED         [PIB:25-MAR-99]
   -------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  Union  Government  has  approved  a  proposal  for
   converting growth centres and integrated infrastructure development
   centres in the northeastern region into a total tax-free  zone  for
   the next  ten years.  It is also decided to give capital investment
   subsidy as 15 per cent on investment in  the  plant  and  machinery
   subject  to a maximum ceiling of Rs.3 million to industries located
   in growth centres in the northeastern region.
   
3  INTERNET ACCESS AT LOCAL CALL RATES IN ASSAM          [S:26-MAR-99]
   --------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Customers from anywhere in  Assam  can  now  access  the
   Internet through the Internet public call office set up at Guwahati
   at local call rates, instead of long distance charges.  The numbers
   to dial  are  172222  for TCP/IP and 172223 for shell account. 
   
   The Internet PCO, first of its kind in the Northeast, was opened at
   the Central Telegraph Office, Guwahati on March 24.   The  facility
   will  be  useful  to customers who do not have Internet connection.
   The per hour charges for using the  facility  is  Rs.50  for  shell
   account and Rs.80 for TCP/IP access.
   
4  AAMSU CONDEMNS EVICTION DRIVE AT NAGAON               [S:20-MAR-99]
   ---------------------------------------
   NAGAON:   The  All  Assam  Minority  Students  Union  (AAMSU)   has
   condemned  the  illegal  eviction of 200 houses, carried out by the
   authorities in the Lathimari `char' areas under  the  Juria  police
   station in  Nagaon  district  on  March  19.  Mohammed Saiful Islam
   alleged that the eviction was not notified earlier and  the  Forest
   department personnel set ablaze four houses, shot dead two cows and
   the elephants used in eviction operation trampled two cows.
   
5  CITIBANK, POST OFFICE, LOCAL FIRM IN UTI SCAM         [S:23-MAR-99]
   ---------------------------------------------
   TINSUKIA:  A scam of fraudulent withdrawal of income  warrants  was
   detected recently in Tinsukia involving an unscrupulous local firm,
   Chemico  Centre,  Unit  Trust  of  India (UTI), an American bank --
   Citibank and a post office.
   
   Income Distribution Warrants (IDW) issued by the UTI in respect  of
   Master Gain-92 scheme to local residents was fraudulently withdrawn
   by  the  Chemico Centre, Na-pukhuri Road, Tinsukia, owned by one Mr
   Saraf.  The scam was detected when one investor Mr Purshottam Swami
   of Tinsukia found that an income warrant issued to him by  UTI  was
   fraudulently  withdrawn  at  Citibank,  Fort  Branch, Mumbai by the
   unscrupulous firm.
   
   The modus operandi suspected to have been employed by  the  Chemico
   Centre was that, after collecting the warrants from the post office
   through  dubious means, deposited to the Citibank after forging the
   signature of the investor on the reverse side of the cheque.    The
   bank then credited the amount in the firm's account.
   
   The  process  in which the fraud is carried out, the involvement of
   the Citibank officials in the illegal deal, involving  millions  of
   rupees, is not ruled out, since a cheque belonging to a third party
   is   credited   into  a  dubious  account  holder  when  a  genuine
   beneficiary holds no account at the bank.
   
   Besides, as these warrants were  sent  through  the  Indian  Postal
   Department   to  the  respective  address  of  the  investors,  the
   involvement of the postal employees in intercepting the cheques  at
   the post office for Chemico Centre, for a price, is also suspected.
   
   It may be mentioned that the  UTI  investment  scheme  had  fetched
   several  tens  of  million  rupees  from Tinsukia town alone as the
   investors found the scheme  most  profitable  at  the  time.    The
   aggrieved  investors have demanded immediate arrest of the culprits
   and have sought for a through inquiry into this organized fraud.
   
6  NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION NOTICE TO HPC        [S:21-MAR-99]
   ----------------------------------------------
   JAGIROAD: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued  a
   show-cause  notice  to  the  Hindustan  Paper Corporation's mill at
   Jagiroad in Morigaon district for not providing cooperation to  the
   people  whose  lands  the HPC authorities had acquired years ago to
   set up the mill.
   
   The NHRC action came following  complaints  by  the  Manab  Adhikar
   Sangram  Samiti,  a  human  rights  organization,  and the Jagiroad
   Anchalik Praduxon Pratirodh O Unnayan  Samiti,  a  local  pollution
   control and town development group.  The NHRC has registered a case
   in this regard.
   
7  ASSAM SEEDS CORPORATION MANAGING DIRECTOR SUSPENDED   [S:25-MAR-99]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  The Assam Government has recently suspended the managing
   director of Assam Seeds  Corporation,  Mr  Sibsankar  Dey  for  his
   involvement  in  a  fictitious  deal  with  a  Calcutta-based firm,
   Tirupati Agencies, involving Rs.19.7 million regarding  the  supply
   of poor quality onion seeds to the flood-affected farmers of Assam.
   
   The  decision  was taken after the inquiry committee constituted in
   this regard had submitted its report.  The report  stated  that  Mr
   Dey  had  facilitated  the  supply  of  seeds from the firm without
   calling any tenders.
   
   Meanwhile, the Assam Assembly Speaker  Ganesh  Kutum  on  March  25
   rejected the demand for a House Committee probe into the onion seed
   scandal  demanded by the Congress, as the Minister for Agriculture,
   Mr Chandra Mohan Patowary  advised  the  House  to  wait  till  the
   departmental  inquiry  being  conducted by the joint secretary into
   the scandal, is completed.

8  AGCL TO PROVIDE PIPED GAS TO SILCHAR RESIDENTS        [S:24-MAR-99]
   ----------------------------------------------
   SILCHAR:  If  everything goes well, consumers in Silchar can expect
   to have piped gas for domestic use  within  the  next  six  months.
   Assam  Gas Company Limited which is to execute the scheme has moved
   the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for allocation of  15,000
   scmd  of gas for the purpose. The AGCL managing director P.K.Baruah
   has asked the Ministry for early settlement of the deal.
   
   The Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) Cachar project at present is
   supplying 100,000 scmd of gas from its Banskandi and another 50,000
   scmd of gas from its Adamtila gas fields to Delhi Land and  Finance
   and Power Company for generation of 25 megawatt of power. According
   to ONGC sources, Cachar project has discovered abundant natural gas
   from its newly-found Bhubandar structure which in now sealed.
    
9  ASSAM FOOTBALLERS SELECTED FOR PRE-OLYMPIC CAMP       [S:25-MAR-99]
   -----------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Three Assam footballers, Janak Basumatary  of  Guwahati,
   Crispin  Chetri and Jiten Rai of Williamson Magor Football Academy,
   Tezpur have found their place among  the  48  footballers  selected
   from  across  the nation for the pre-olympic football camp starting
   at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex  in  Bangalore  from
   April 3.    While  both India and Thailand have offered to host the
   Pre-Olympic qualifying round, the exact date and venue is yet to be
   finalized.

______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
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