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                    Vol.4, No.68 [*] December 3, 1999 
                    ---------------------------------

                Superstition is the dark side of wonder.
                          - Dean Koontz
   --------------------------------------------------------------

1  GRAMEEN BANK'S SUCCESS BODE ILL FOR ASSAM        [S:23-NOV-99]
   -----------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   The   popularity   and   spread  of  micro-credit,
   particularly through the unique experiment  of  Grameen  Bank,
   and  other factors such as huge amount of aid coming from many
   donor countries and disbursed through government agencies  and
   NGOs  which  saturate  Bangladesh,  bode  ill  for  Assam  and
   Northeast. 
   
   According to H.N.Das, former chief secretary to Government  of
   Assam  and presently the ombudsman of Reserve Bank of India in
   Guwahati, the prosperity of the people of  Bangladesh  at  the
   grass  roots,  will  further motivate them to migrate to Assam
   and the Northeast to purchase land and settle.
   
   In  a  chapter  in  the  book  `Grameen  Bank  of  Bangladesh'
   published by the North Eastern Institute of  Bank  Management,
   Das   expresses  grave  concern  that  a  vast  population  of
   Bangladesh which has benefitted from the bank activities, will
   now hunger for land.    This  is  natural  because  people  of
   Bangladesh  have  been  migrating  to  this  region since past
   several decades.
   
2  LAFARGE TO SET UP CEMENT PLANT IN B'DESH         [S:28-NOV-99]
   ----------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Lafrage,  a  multinational  company  in   building
   materials,  will  soon set up a 1.2 million tonne cement plant
   in Bangladesh based on mineral  resources  of  the  Northeast.
   K.Swaminathan, the general manager of Lafrage India, said that
   the  mineral  resources, particularly limestone from Meghalaya
   will be utilized in the new plant.
   
   He added that the plant could not be set up in  the  Northeast
   due  to technical factors as the concerned authorities refused
   to give clearance in view of the environmental concerns.   The
   local  people  of  Meghalaya  who own the limestone mines have
   agreed to supply the materials to the company he said.
   
3  STOP SELLING LANDS TO ALIENS: AASU               [S:28-NOV-99]
   ----------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Criticizing the Assam Government  for  giving  land
   settlements to aliens without following any definite policy on
   it,  the  All  Assam  Students  Union (AASU) demanded that the
   government should resurvey the land  in  the  state  and  stop
   selling and purchasing of land.
   
   The  AASU  president Prabin Boro and the secretary Amiya Kumar
   Bhuyan said that if the settlement of aliens in  tribal  belts
   and  block  areas  were not checked now, the indigenous people
   would lose their existence.

4  RIGHTS OF PEOPLE ENCROACHED: ULFA CHIEF          [S:30-NOV-99]
   ---------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI: The  ULFA  chief  Arabinda Rajkhowa has alleged that
   India has encroached upon the right of the people's freedom in
   the  northeastern  states  of  Assam,  Nagaland,  Manipur  and
   Tripura  since  the last 10 years. He claimed that despite the 
   State atrocities on the people of Assam, have failed to weaken 
   the ULFA or alienate it from the people.

   ULFA  has  survived  even the diplomatic assault on the outfit 
   and  has  been  successful  to  mobilize  diplomatic and human 
   rights  support  in  the world. The  press  release issued  by 
   Rajkhowa  indicated ULFA's stand quoting a report of the State 
   Department of USA, which alleged killing  of 622 civilians and 
   270 armed persons in the northeastern states in 1998.

5  TENSION OVER APPOINTMENT OF BIHARI TEACHER       [S:27-NOV-99]
   ------------------------------------------
   NAGAON:  A great deal of resentment and  tension  prevails  in
   educational  circles in Nagaon over the illegal appointment of
   a youth from Bihar, one Hit Narayan, as a teacher in the local
   Marwari Hindi High School, prompting many eligible  candidates
   to  send  fax  messages  of protests to even the President and
   Prime Minister of India.
   
   The  candidate  from Bihar had arrived Nagaon only a couple of
   months ago and he has not been able to  produce  his  original
   testimonials,  certificates  etc,  before the headmaster, who,
   however, allowed him to join the post.  The headmaster further
   allowed him to go on leave apparently to collect his  original
   certificates, local youths alleged.

6  ACCUSED IN SANJOY GHOSE MURDER HELD              [S:21-NOV-99]
   -----------------------------------
   BIHPURIA:  Acting on a  tip-off,  a  joint  team  of  Bihpuria
   police  and  Central  Reserve  Police  Force  (CRPF)  arrested
   hard-core ULFA militant Milan Hazarika alias Kania  (30),  who
   had  been accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
   as one of the killers of social activist Sanjoy Ghose.  It may
   be mentioned that the government had  announced  a  reward  of
   Rs.100,000 for  clue  about  Milan Hazarika.  He was allegedly
   involved in the killing of Putul Saikia at Laluk recently.
   
7  DARING DAYLIGHT ROBBERY, YOUTHS HELD, RELEASED   [S:27-NOV-99]
   ----------------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Three  unidentified  youths,  armed with automatic
   weapons, decamped with Rs.30,000 from Drugs India,  a  medical
   firm  in  the Panbazar area of Guwahati at 1:30 pm on November
   26.  After looting the cash, the youths hit the  cashier  with
   the  butt  of  their  pistols,  and  fled  from  the  scene in
   motorcycles. 
   
   On receiving information, police which swung into  action  and
   apprehended two youths from Pandu area and recovered Rs.37,000
   from their  possession.    After  through  interrogation,  the
   youths were let off, police said.  The  cashier  of  the  firm
   Manoranjan Sharma was admitted to hospital with head injuries.
   
8  BIJOYA ASSURE MARWARIS ON TRAIN SERVICES         [S:26-NOV-99]
   ----------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:   Bharatiya  Janata Party (BJP) MP from Guwahati and
   Union Minister of State for Water Resources Bijoya Chakravarty
   assured a delegation of the Marwari Sanmelan  that  she  would
   take  up  the  matter  of  introducing  superfast  trains from
   Guwahati-Calcutta  and  Guwahati-Jaipur  with  Union   Railway
   Minister Mamata  Banerjee.    She gave this assurance when she
   was met by the delegation at Fancy Bazar where she had gone to
   take stock of the civic amenities of the area.
   
9  HISTORIC STONE BRIDGE ON DORIKA REOPENED         [S:26-NOV-99]
   ----------------------------------------
   JORHAT:  The  historic  stone  bridge across river Dorika near
   Simoluguri in Sibsagar, which  has  been  closed  for  traffic
   since  October  25 due to cracks, was reopened on November 25.
   The Second Mountain Division of the Indian Army, who had taken
   the task of repair of the bridge,  made  it  fit  for  traffic
   within  a  month.  The  stone bridge was built during the Ahom
   period about 300 years ago.
   
10 MULTILINGUAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA ON THE ANVIL        [S+AT:2-DEC-99]
   ---------------------------------------
   GUWAHATI:  Plan to publish  a  multilingual  encyclopaedia  of
   Assamese,  Rabha,  Bodo,  Karbi, Mising, Tai and various other
   ethnic languages and dialects of Assam has been  taken  up  by
   the  Axom Xahitya Xabha with active cooperation of the Xahitya
   Xabhas of these languages.
   
   The  decision was arrived at a meeting in Guwahati on November
   29 participated by the presidents and general  secretaries  of
   the Xahitya Xabhas.  The meeting also decided to translate and
   publish  quality  literary  creations  of the local languages.
   
   Meanwhile, a two day seminar on contemporary Assamese language
   of the Axom Xahitya Xabha discussed the lexical, phonetic  and
   other  inconsistencies, and formed a committee, entrusted with
   the responsibility to suggest and evolve a guideline to  solve
   the inconsistencies of the language.
   
   The suggestions and guidelines of the committee will be placed
   before representatives of the three universities and  all  the
   newspapers  of  the  state,  All India Radio, Doordarshan, the
   Board of Secondary Education, the Higher  Secondary  Education
   Council,  the  Assam Publication Board, and the State Textbook
   Production and Publication Corporation for further discussion.

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