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                         Vol.4, No.29 [*] May 28, 1999
                         -----------------------------

                 If thou fearest treachery from any group,
                    throw back to them, on equal terms.
                                - Qur'an
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

1  FIVE BEC MEMBERS RESIGN IN PROTEST                    [S:27-MAY-99]
   ----------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Three  general members and two executive members of the
   Bodo Executive Council (BEC) tendered  their  resignations  to  the
   Assam  Governor, protesting against the high-handedness of Bodoland
   Autonomous  Council  (BAC)  chief  Kanakeswar  Narzary  in  matters
   relating to  the  functions  of the council.  The executive members
   are Hemen Brahma, and Bolo Ram Brahma, and the general members  are
   Satyendra Barman, Alindra Mushahary and Prabin Kumar Iswary.
   
   The members, in their resignation letters said that they had abided
   by  the  direction  of  high  command  of People's Democratic Front
   (PDF).  They alleged that the BAC  chief  had  violated  the  party
   guidelines and  was  against  the  party.    `We  would not like to
   continue office under the  control  of  a  dissident  leader,'  the
   leaders said.
   
2  GOVERNMENT STARTS PROBE INTO TAX EVASION BY AMUL      [S:28-MAY-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI: In quick response to  the  news  item  published  in  The
   Sentinel  about  massive tax evasion by the Gujrat Cooperative Milk
   Marketing Federation Limited, best known for its Amul products, the
   Sales Tax Department has initiated a through probe into the matter,
   and  has  entrusted  a   senior   official   to   carry   out   the
   investigations. Already several documents have been seized from the
   company office at Guwahati.
   
   Informing  that the department has the authority to cross-check the
   documents of  the  company  for  the  past  eight  years,  the  Tax
   Commissioner  said that, if required, the higher-ups of the company
   would also be summoned for interrogation as the involvement of  the
   senior officials of the company could not be ruled out entirely.

3  ONE HUNDRED NATIONALIZED BANKS BY THIS FISCAL         [S:28-MAY-99]
   ---------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Union  Finance  Minister  Yashwant  Sinha  announced the
   setting up of at least 100 branches of nationalized banks in  Assam
   within  the  current  financial  year  in  order to facilitate easy
   credit flow  for  the  development  of  agriculture  and  effective
   implementation of the rural development schemes in the State.
   
   He  was addressing the valedictory function of a two-day seminar on
   `Institutional Credit Flow for Agriculture and Rural Development in
   Assam' at Guwahati on May 27. Mr Sinha asked the  State  Government
   to take the initiative to install 100,000 shallow tube wells within
   March  2000  for  providing  irrigation  facilities and augment the
   agriculture production in the State, with  financial  support  from
   banks and other financial institutions.
   
4  CBI ULTIMATUM TO SHAMBHU OJAH IN ABDUCTION CASE       [S:27-MAY-99]
   -----------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  Central  Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken a
   serious note on the noncooperation by former Congress minister Sheo
   Shambhu Ojha in connection with  his  alleged  involvement  in  the
   mysterious  abduction  of Abhishek Verma, son of P.P.Verma, and has
   served  an  ultimatum  to  Mr  Ojha  to  appear  before  the   apex
   investigating  agency  on  or  before June 3, failing which the CBI
   would be  constrained  to  procure  his  presence  for  examination
   through legal process.
   
5  POLICE ALLEGE INFLUENCE OF CABINET MINISTER IN THEFT  [S:28-MAY-99]
   ----------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Police  could  not  make much headway into the theft of
   Rs.375,000 from the iron  safe  of  the  Office  of  the  Executive
   Engineer (Mechanical), Department of Agriculture, Ulubari, Guwahati
   on May 17.  Police investigations revealed that there was no damage
   to the exterior of the safe, which appeared to have opened normally
   except that the inner box had some of its screws removed.
   
   While police found a key of the safe in the custody of the cashier,
   the duplicate key could not be  located.    Neither  the  executive
   engineer nor the subdivisional officer could say anything about the
   whereabouts of  the  duplicate  key.    Police  have  alleged  high
   political influence of a cabinet minister in the whole affair.   It
   may  be  mentioned that the headquarters of the Director General of
   Assam police is close to the office where the theft took place.
   
6  TIKHAR ESCAPES FROM KALIABOR POLICE LOCK-UP           [S:27-MAY-99]
   -------------------------------------------
   NAGAON:   The  escapement  of Karuna Bora alias Tikhar, a hard-core
   activist of ULFA's Kaliabor  unit  from  the  lock-up  of  Kaliabor
   police station on May 25 night has created a sensation in the area.
   According  to  sources, Tikhar, who had been arrested on May 25 and
   many incriminating documents recovered from his possession, was put
   in the lock-up at the police station.  After spending  the  day  in
   police  custody,  Tikhar  managed  to get out of the lock-up on the
   pretext of answering to nature's call  and  then  immediately  fled
   away from the scene.
   
7  AGRICULTURE OFFICER KIDNAPPED, DRDA OFFICER RELEASED  [S:28-MAY-99]
   ----------------------------------------------------
   GOALPARA: Narendra Nath Das, Deputy Director, Field  Trial  Session
   under  the Agriculture Department has been kidnapped on May 27 at 3
   pm from his official residence at Balijona,  15  km  from  Goalpara
   town.  Four  unidentified  masked  gunmen  who forced Mr Das into a
   white Maruti van, sped off towards Lakhipur. 
   
   Meanwhile,  Mr  Suresh Buragohain, the Project Director of District
   Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Nalbari, who had been abducted  by
   suspected  ULFA  militants  on February 19 from Tilana village near
   Nalbari town, was released by the abductors  near  Tamulpur  police
   station at 4.10 pm on May 26.  It is alleged that Mr Buragohain was
   released after payment of a huge amount of cash to the abductors.
   
8  MOHIM BORA REFUTES ULFA'S ALLEGATION ON SURRENDER     [S:27-MAY-99]
   -------------------------------------------------
   NAGAON:  Former president of the Axom Xahitya Xabha (AXX), Mr Mahim
   Bora stoutly refuted the allegation made by the ULFA that he had to
   attend the function organized  on  the  occasion  of  surrender  of
   militants  at  Nurul  Amin Stadium, Nagaon on May 26 because he had
   been threatened by the Army to do so.
   
   `I  was  not  threatened  by  anybody. I was requested by the State
   Government and the Commanding Officer of the Mohkhuli Army camp two
   days before the surrender was scheduled. As  I  am  not  physically
   fit,  I asked them to drop me at my house if necessary. They agreed
   to my condition and I attended the function', Mr Bora said.
   
9  SULFA LEADER REFUTES NEWS ABOUT WITHDRAWING SECURITY  [S:28-MAY-99]
   ----------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Stoutly refuting news items published in  a  section  of
   the  press  that  the  State Government had withdrawn security from
   senior surrendered ULFA (SULFA) leader  Sunil  Nath  following  his
   outbursts  on  the  SULFA-sponsored seminar `A Day for Peace', that
   the  Government  machinery  was  manipulating  a  section  of   the
   surrendered  activists  against  the  underground  rebels,  Mr Nath
   clarified that the Government was  not  interfering  in  the  peace
   process  initiated by the coordination committee of the former ULFA
   members.
   
10 FOUR HUNDRED BOTTLES OF LIQUOR SEIZED FROM JAWAN      [S:27-MAY-99]
   ------------------------------------------------
   JORHAT:  Jorhat police seized over 400 bottles  of  foreign  liquor
   and  arrested  a jawan of paramilitary forces in this connection on
   May 25.  The liquor was brought illegally from Khatkati of  Dimapur
   in Nagaland  in  a  Jorhat-bound  bus.    It  is suspected that the
   particular brand of liquor -- Boss -- is being sold in some  liquor
   shops in upper Assam towns.
   
11 ASSAM CANDIDATE AMONG FIRST 10 IN IAS                 [S:28-MAY-99]
   -------------------------------------
   BHOGPUR CHARIALI:      Mr  Bhaskarjyoti  Sharma  of  Narayanpur  in
   Lakhimpur district has become the first Assamese in a decade to  be
   selected for  the  Indian Administrative Service (IAS).  He secured
   the  ninth  position  in  the  recently-declared   civil   services
   examination results.
   
   Bhaskar had passed the HSLC examination in 1986 securing the second
   position  and  the  HS  (Science)  examination in 1988 securing the
   third position.    After  graduating  from  the  Assam  Engineering
   College in  1992,  he  joined  a  multinational company.  Later, he
   obtained his M.Tech degree from IIT, Delhi in 1996 and  joined  the
   institute as a junior scientist.

______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
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