__
                    /  \    _____ _____ ____      _    _
                   /    \  (  __/(  __/(_   \    / \  / \
                  /  __  \  \  \  \  \  / __ O N L I N E \
                 (__/  \__)/____)/____)(______)(__/    \__)
                         Vol.4, No.58 [*] September 6, 1999
                         ----------------------------------

                  In the absence of certainty, instinct
                          is all you can follow.
                             - Jonathan Cainer
   -------------------------------------------------------------------

1  INTELLECTUALS CAUTION AGAINST COMMUNAL ELEMENTS        [S:6-SEP-99]
   -----------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  The country is gradually heading towards a  doctrine  of
   `one  country, one state and one leader' putting real democracy and
   secularism  at  stake,  said  a  press  release  issued  by  twenty
   intellectuals of  Assam.    They  warned against the frenzy noticed
   among the fundamentalist elements in the country working to promote
   fundamentalism.
   
   One  one  side, in the name of the ISI activities in the country, a
   frenzy of activity is promoted, the  masses  are  being  influenced
   through  different religious processions and activities of the many
   temples and trusts and the electronic media.  Turning more  towards
   mythology,  the school curriculum gradually introducing elements of
   faith and modifying the  historical  facts  based  on  science  and
   rationalism, breeding a kind of antagonism against other religions.
   
   On the other hand, the religious minorities too are working towards
   a fundamental awareness,  distancing  from  others.    The  release
   signed,  among  others, by Dr Hiren Gohain, Shibnath Barman, Rebati
   Mohan Datta Choudhury, Hiren  Bhattacharya,  Amalendu  Guha,  Tilak
   Hazarika,  Mohendra  Borthakur, Nilomoni Phukan, Udayatiya Bharali,
   Akhil Gogoi, asserted that the people can  be  well  aware  of  any
   foreign  design or elements to baffle them but the subtle growth of
   the situation today may bring a catastrophe and land it in a  state
   of fascism.
   
2  ARRESTED IMAMS SUSPECTED TO BE ISI AGENTS RELEASED     [S:6-SEP-99]
   --------------------------------------------------
   TEZPUR:   The  Imams of Rupahi in Nagaon district, Abdur Rahman and
   Mahib Ali, who has been arrested from Tumuki graveyard near Bihguri
   in Sonitpur district along with Moinul Haq Hazarika  of  Likhakgaon
   on  September  4  suspecting them to be ISI agents were released on
   September 5 after interrogation.  They were arrested  after  police
   suspected  them  to  have  come  to the Tumuki cemetery to organize
   subversive activities in the region.
   
   It may be mentioned that the Imams  of  Paltan  Bazaar  mosque  and
   Birubari  mosque  in Guwahati were arrested last month on suspicion
   of helping the four ISI agents arrested in Guwahati recently.   The
   Imams were later released after interrogation.
   
3  GOVT UNCONCERNED OVER ABDUCTION OF FOREST OFFICER      [S:5-SEP-99]
   -------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  recent abduction of the divisional forest officer,
   Mr Ranjit Chandra Goswami,  by  suspected  Bodo  Liberation  Tigers
   (BLT)   militants  from  his  office  at  Gossaigaon  in  Kokrajhar
   district, has exposed the State Government's insincerity  and  lack
   of concern  in providing security to its employees. 
   
   Family  sources  of  the  abducted  officer  have  alleged that the
   Government did not seem to take responsibility of ensuing the  safe
   rescue  of  the forest officer from the captivity of the militants.
   `Nor have they cared to express a word of sympathy to the aggrieved
   family, leave aside doing anything to rescue him', they said.
   
4  AHRC CASE AGAINST SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT            [S:4-SEP-99]
   -------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Acting  on  a  news  report  in  The   Sentinel   about
   large-scale   anomalies   in  the  implementation  of  the  Special
   Nutrition Project (SNP)  in  the  State,  the  Assam  Human  Rights
   Commission  (AHRC)  has  registered a sou moto case, and has issued
   show-cause notices to both the secretary and the  director  of  the
   State  Social  Welfare  Department,  asking  them  to give detailed
   accounts of the performance of the project within September 28.
   
   The project, which was launched as a part of the  Integrated  Child
   Development  Project for the benefit of the poor and undernourished
   children, as well as expectant and lactating mothers, has been  the
   focus  of  controversy, because without serving the actual purpose,
   it has been a source of easy money for a section of higher-ups  and
   other staff of the department and a coterie of contractors.

5  GOVT OWES MILLIONS TO CONTRACTORS: CONTRACTORS UNION   [S:3-SEP-99]
   ----------------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Mr  Sibanath Bora, adviser to the All Assam Contractors
   Union said that the Assam Government owes Rs.11  billion  to  3,500
   odd contractors.    Speaking  at  a press conference in Guwahati on
   September 2, he informed that some of the contractors are forced to
   sell their valuables to maintain their families.  He alleged that a
   few contractors are  favoured  for  all  the  works  and  are  paid
   regularly.
   
   Citing his own case he quipped that the Government owes  him  Rs.36
   million  since  1996  while  one  Pappu  Singh who became a class-I
   contractor overnight was given work order for Rs.16 million with an
   advance of Rs.5 million.    Mr  Bora  said  that  contractors  from
   outside  the  State are dominating the scene and regretted that the
   sum paid to them goes outside the State.
   
6  RELIEF STOPPED TO PROTEST AGAINST NEWS REPORT          [S:4-SEP-99]
   ---------------------------------------------
   BOKAKHAT: Distribution of food stuff to the  flood-affected  people
   at  the  Diffloopathar  High  School  relief  camp was suspended on
   September 2 following the distributors'  unwillingness  to  perform
   their  duties  in  protest  against  a  news  report published in a
   Guwahati-based Assamese daily on September  1  alleging  that  `the
   distributors  attempted  to  sell  two bags of rice from the camp.'
   However, the Subdivisional Officer (Civil), Bokakhat  pacified  the
   distributors, and they agreed to continue their duties.
   
7  DC MORIGAON REFUTES NEWS REPORT ON HIS WIFE'S DEATH   [S:25-AUG-99]
   ---------------------------------------------------
   MORIGAON:   The  Morigaon  deputy  commissioner Ajoy Shankar Tiwari
   expressed serious concern over some reports appearing in a  section
   of the press, about his wife's death.  Mr Tiwari talking to newsmen
   said that his wife Meenakshi Tiwari died due to raised intracranial
   pressure  (according to the death certificate) issued on June 11 by
   the Institute of  Neurological  Sciences,  a  private  hospital  in
   Guwahati.
   
   But  an Assamese daily published some reports saying that Mr Tiwari
   killed his wife on June 9 at Guwahati circuit  house,  based  on  a
   petition  filed  by  the  mother  of  the  deceased  before the CBI
   alleging  that  the  death  might  have  occurred  due  to  torture
   committed to  her.   Mr Tiwari said that the fabricated news was an
   attempt to defame him, and added that  newspapers  are  not  courts
   that they may declare a man a killer.
   
8  AICTE ORDER PUTS AIM STUDENTS IN A TIZZY              [S:22-AUG-99]
   ----------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The  career  prospects  of  at least 80 students of the
   Assam Institute of Management  (AIM),  Guwahati  hangs  in  balance
   after  a  notification  of  the  All  India  Council  of  Technical
   Education  (AICTE)  de-recognized  the  postgraduate   diploma   in
   management  (PGDM) offered by the institute as not being equivalent
   to the Master of Business Administration (MBA).  This also  applies
   to  500  institutes  countrywide  including the Indian Institute of
   Management (IIM), Lucknow, one  of  the  country's  top  management
   institute.
   
9  ASSAMESE WEEKLY `KOLONG PAR' LAUNCHED                 [S:23-AUG-99]
   -------------------------------------
   NAGAON:   A new vernacular weekly `Kolog Par' published from Nagaon
   was released at a function on August 18 at Nagaon.  Speaking on the
   occasion, former Axom Xahitya Xabha president Mahim Bora  expressed
   the  hope  that  the new weekly would be able to meet the hopes and
   aspirations of the people of Nagaon, while being able to  draw  the
   attention of the authorities towards the difficulties and hardships
   faced by the people.
   
   Mr  Bora  in  his  ethical  reverberations  cautioned  the  budding
   journalists  to  be  extremely  cautious  about  the  import of new
   vocabulary and usage of words in their  reporting.    Mr  Jyotirmay
   Jana  while  releasing  the  first  copy  of  the weekly, urged the
   journalists to try hard at exposing the hidden  truth  and  thereby
   making people  conscious.   He also called upon the journalists not
   to marginalize their pen to a puppet in the hands of any government
   or bureaucracy.  The weekly paper should be more analytical in  its
   approach than the daily newspapers, he said.
   
______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
              http://www.cyberspace.org/~mozz/aol.html  
             http://www.assam.org/assam/news/index.html
         To unsubscribe write to: kalita@pikespeak.uccs.edu
________________________________________________________________________