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                         Vol.4, No.22 [*] April 9, 1999
                         ------------------------------

                An earthquake achieves what the law promises
         but does not in practice maintain -- equality of all men.
                            - Ignazio Silone
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

1  MEET ON GAS-CRACKER PROJECT FAILS TO CLINCH DEAL       [S:8-APR-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  much-hyped  meeting  between  the  Reliance  Assam
   Petrochemicals  Limited (RAPL), the Oil India Limited (OIL) and the
   Gas  Authority  of  India  Limited   (GAIL),   organized   by   the
   Parliamentary  Consultative  Committee of Petroleum and Natural Gas
   in New Delhi on April 7 to decide the fate of the Rs.36 billion gas
   cracker project at Tengakhat  in  Dibrugarh  district,  once  again
   failed to make the promoter company, the RAPL and the OIL to clinch
   the crucial gas-supply deal thereby pushing the fate of the project
   to uncertainty.
   
   Official sources, while expressing serious concern over the outcome
   of the meeting, alleged that the Centre, despite repeated reminders
   from  the  Assam  Government  to  solve  the vexed gas-supply issue
   between the promoters and the OIL, has not as  yet  taken  a  tough
   stand on the issue to make both the parties clinch the deal.
   
   `What seems ironical is that the  Centre,  even  after  fixing  two
   deadlines,  has  failed to initiate any action against the Reliance
   Industries for reasons not clear' sources  said,  adding  that  the
   company,  after  getting  a great deal of concessions from both the
   Union and State governments, is `deliberately trying to  delay  the
   implementation  of  the  project by raising certain impractical and
   weird conditions.'

2  NEWS EDITOR NARESH KALITA PRODUCED BEFORE NSA BOARD    [S:7-APR-99]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  News editor of Assamese daily `Dainik Agradoot',  Naresh
   Kalita booked under National Security Act (NSA) was produced before
   a  three-member  committee  of  the  advisory  board  of NSA at the
   circuit house in Guwahati on April 6.  He was interrogated for near
   one hour by the members, comprising Prabhat Chandra Phukan,  Achyut
   Shankar Bhattacharya and Dhanjit Talukdar.
   
   Naresh  Kalita  produced  certain  documents pertaining to the case
   under which he was booked. Mr Kalita was arrested by the police and
   booked under the NSA for maintaining close links with the activists
   of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
   
3  MINISTER SPEND RS.12.4 MILLION ON OFFICIAL TOURS       [S:7-APR-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  The 35-member Assam Council of Ministers spent  a  total
   of  Rs.12,493,012  as  travelling allowance between May 15, 1996 to
   February 28, 1999, with the Chief Minister P.K.Mahanta billing  the
   highest  at  Rs.853,737 followed by Irrigation Minister Abdul Muhib
   Mazumdar at Rs.748,482 and Education  Minister  Thaneswar  Boro  at
   Rs.723,816.   This  was informed by the Chief Minister in the Assam
   Assembly in a written reply to a query by CPI(M) member  Nizamuddin
   Khan on April 5.

4  JT DIRECTOR, ELEMENTARY EDUCATION CAUGHT TAKING BRIBE  [S:7-APR-99]
   -----------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Acting  swiftly  on a complaint lodged by some harassed
   people, the police with assistance from the district administration
   arrested the Joint Director  of  Elementary  Education,  Mr  Hassan
   Ullah and a peon on charges of accepting bribe.
   
   Fed  up  with the mode of functioning of the joint director, who is
   allegedly in the habit of taking bribe for any official work,  some
   people  lodged  a  complain  with the Kamrup Deputy Commissioner on
   April  8,  who   immediately   directed   the   additional   deputy
   commissioner and the police to inquire into the matter.
   
   Accordingly,  the  police  laid  a  trap and sent the people to the
   joint director  with  a  bundle  of  notes  signed  by  the  deputy
   commissioner.  When the people approached, the joint director asked
   the people to hand over the money to his peon.
   
5  SMUGGLED TIMBERS SEIZED FROM ARMY DEPOT                [S:9-APR-99]
   ---------------------------------------
   TEZPUR:  Even as the alleged smuggling of forest resources of Assam
   by  a  section of Army personnel stationed in Sonitpur district was
   discussed  in  the  recently  held  Budget  Session  of  the  State
   Assembly,  a good number of valuable timbers, being sawed openly at
   an Army supply depot near Haleswar, 10 km from Tezpur, were  seized
   by the Army after receiving information from CMP.
   
6  YOUTHS PICKED UP FOR HOISTING ULFA FLAGS               [S:8-APR-99]
   ----------------------------------------
   BARPETA:   The  police  have  picked up 27 youths for interrogation
   from different parts of Barpeta in connection with hoisting of ULFA
   flags at Galiahati, Nahati, Isapurhati and many other localities of
   Barpeta town. The hoisting of ULFA flags on April  7,  the  raising
   day  of  the  ULFA,  has  baffled the general public as well as the
   police, despite tight security measures.
   
7  PARAFFIN WAX AND LPG BOTTLING PLANT DEMANDED         [PTI:7-APR-99]
   --------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  The employees of the Guwahati Refinery have demanded the
   setting  up  of  a paraffin wax plant and a liquefied petroleum gas
   (LPG) plant to make the refinery viable.    `Guwahati  Refinery  is
   technologically  very  old and small in capacity and in the present
   scenario it needs further expansion and value addition to  make  it
   more competitive', general secretary of the Refinery Workers' Union
   J.C.Sharma said.
   
   The  proposal  for  a  paraffin wax plant was submitted way back in
   1991 and an  agreement  was  reached  between  the  union  and  the
   management  over  the  issue in 1996 but it was yet to take off, he
   said.  The union also demanded that a  technologically  modern  and
   expanded capacity LPG plant be set up in a suitable location as the
   existing plant was technologically inefficient and unviable.
   
8  FERTICHEM LIMITED HANDED OVER TO PRIVATE COMPANY       [S:8-APR-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Assam  Government  has  handed over the Assam Fertichem
   Limited, a subsidiary company of the Assam  Industrial  Development
   Corporation  Limited  (AIDC)  located  Bonda  in Kamrup district at
   joint-participation to Beas Foundries Limited, New Delhi for  lease
   period of  five  years  at a lease rent of Rs.300,000 per annum.  A
   memorandum of understanding was signed by the senior  officials  of
   AIDC, the Fertichem and the Beas Foundries in March 1999.
   
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