Rebels abduct chief engineer

Assam development projects in peril

UDLA camps being burnt by police at Ghutghuti in Hailakandi district on the Assam-Mizoram border. Picture by Satananda Bhattacharjee Silchar, May 12 : Rebels dealt yet another blow to infrastructure development projects in south Assam when they abducted the chief engineer of a reputed Guwahati-based firm and his driver from Hailakandi district last evening. Kankan Gogoi, 54, and the driver of his Bolero jeep, Prafulla Nath, 29, were abducted from Vaicherra hamlet in Katlicherra block on the Assam-Mizoram border despite an elaborate police drive in the area to check the depredations of a tribal militant outfit. The abduction of the senior official of Sweeti Real Estates Private Limited, an infrastructure development company engaged in a national highway project, comes amid the threat of pullout by four construction firms from the East-West corridor project in North Cachar Hills district because of militancy. The threat has put a serious question mark on the completion of the national project. Gogoi’s abduction has opened up a new front in south Assam, compounding the government’s concern about carrying out infra-structure development in xfour of the state’s most under-developed districts. Police sources today said Gogoi had gone to Vaicherra to check the progress of the construction of a road on National Highway 154 between Dhaleswari in Hailakandi district and Bairabhi in Kolosib district of Mizoram. The chief engineer and his driver were last seen being escorted through a jungle alley towards a high hill en route to the inter-state boundary by local residents, they added. Police sources in Hailakandi town said Assam police and the CRPF launched a rescue mission in the jungles along the Assam-Mizoram boundary early this morning. The United Democratic Liberation Army, a motley gang of Reang tribals and local Muslims, led by Dhanyaram Reang, is suspected to be behind the abduction. The police are probing whether the owner of the firm, Bhagya Kalita, a Guwahati-based entrepreneur who was in Hailakandi yesterday to supervise the progress of the highway project, was the real target of the abductors. The sources said security could not be stepped up in the area yesterday as Kalita and Gogoi’s plans had not been made known to them. An alert has been sounded in Hailakandi following yesterday’s abduction. The incident comes within a week of the security forces rescuing three other employees of the same firm, who had been abducted on April 22, from a hideout of the United Democratic Liberation Army near Vaicherra after an exchange of fire on May 4. The militants, however, managed to escape.  In the follow-up operations, the police located and destroyed at least three of the gang’s camps at Ghutghuti in Hailakandi district on the Assam-Mizoram border and arrested two of its cadres, identified as Islam Uddin and Moinul Haque. The gang is said to have about 35 active cadres who are mainly involved in abduction and extortion. It has abducted at least eight persons from Katlicherra block since January this year.

New lease of life for Silchar hospital

Shiva Sundari Narisikshasram hospital in Silchar

April 25 : Assam’s first and only hospital for women, sprawled over six bighas of prime land in downtown Silchar, is turning over a new leaf.

Christened the Shiva Sundari Narisikshasram and Anti-Natal Clinic in 1934, the healthcare facility for women and children in this backward district is now well equipped, thanks to a handful of MPs and some charitable institutions.

The grants have come from the MP’s local area development fund of parliamentarians Arun Kumar Sarma, U.G. Brahma and Indramoni Borah.

Secretary of the hospital M. Syam, who is also a reputed doctor, said: “The cost of treatment is unbelievably cheaper compared to the present cost of hospitalisation.”

The initiative to serve the poor and the downtrodden came from its president Bimolangshu Roy, a Silchar-based lawyer and a former BJP legislator for two terms.

“I knew this old hospital had the potential to serve the poor in this neglected district and started mobilising necessary funds to turn this healthcare utility for women and children, the only one of its kind in Assam, into a modern one. It is now equipped with state-of-the-art gadgets that have so far remained out of bounds for the poor in this area,” Roy said.

As donations swelled, plans were drawn up for adding at least two multi-storey buildings and procuring the much-needed healthcare ancillaries to fulfil the wishes of its governing body to upgrade the hospital into a full-fledged entity.

Syam said within a short period a neonatal ICU, medicine, cardiology and paediatric outpatient departments, an immunisation programme under the guidelines of the World Health Organisation and a modern operation theatre with air-conditioning facility had been opened.

From a modest 12-bed hospital stagnating for many years in the pre-Independence era and even later, it is now a growing hospital with 60 beds in 38 cabins.

Not a speck of dust is to be found on the premises, thanks to the stringent cleanliness programme launched by the authorities. An incinerator has also been installed.

On an average, nearly 200 new patients throng this newly refurbished hospital, either for getting themselves admitted into or checked at the OPDs.

The hospital sprang to life in 1934 when a few social workers banded together to fulfil their dream of providing succour to deprived women by providing them with education, a source of livelihood and healthcare facilities.

The British administrators extended help. The Good Samaritans included former Assam governor Michael Keane, former director of the Delhi-based Maternity and Child Welfare Bureau, Ruth Young, and Cachar’s former civil surgeon Capt. R.A. Haythornwaite.

Local residents who contributed their mite included tea planters Bipul Chandra Gupta and Dinanath Das, lawyer and freedom fighter Arun Kumar Chanda and lawyer Hem Chandra Dutta.

NRHM scheme launched in Silchar

HAILAKANDI, March 4 – Urban Development Minister Dinesh Prasad Gowala and Education Minister Gautam Bora on February 28 inaugurated the Majoni scheme under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Silchar.

The meeting, held on the occasion at the District Library auditorium in Silchar, was presided over by the Cachar Deputy Commissioner and the chairman of District Health Society, Gautam Ganguly.

Under the Majoni scheme, every girl child will get a fixed deposit of Rs 5000 on her birth and it can be encashed by the girl child on attainment of 18 years of age. This facility will be available for every girl child born after February, 2009 both government and charitable instituions. The scheme is applicable only to families having two children.

Silchar club gears up for action today

Hailakandi, Feb 14 : Silchar Tennis Club is gearing up to witness some high-adrenaline matches with the two-day North East Tennis meet starting here from tomorrow.

The chairman of the organising committee, Vivek Poddar, said players from Mizoram, Manipur, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon and Silchar are expected to participate the tournament, which will take place in singles, doubles and veterans category.

The organisers are hopeful that this meet would boost the experience and energy of the local players.

The Silchar Tennis Club has already trained about 300 local players and at present 70 youngsters are being trained at the facility under the hawk eye of Jitu Kumar, a coach from Guwahati.

The main objective of organising the tennis meet is to encourage the budding players of Barak Valley, Poddar said.

AAMSAA hails decision of Assam Government

SILCHAR, Dec 28 : All Assam Municipal Service Association of Asom, has hailed the decision of the Asom Government to extend the municipal and panchayat employees of the benefits of admissible salaries and allowances as initiated long ago by the late Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India. The Chief Minister of Asom, Tarun Gogoi, has come in high praise for giving due importance and attention to the cause of employees in question.

This benefit of pay packages has been described as “unprecedented” example of benevolence towards municipal and panchyat employees. Bijit Ranjan Roy, working president of the Association while briefing media persons pointed out that Rajiv Gandhi had introduced a municipal bill in Parliament in the interest of employees which was opposed by opposition parties and could not be legislated then. The Congress (I) Government subsequently amended the 73 and 74 provisions of the Constitution to give concrete shape to the municipal act. The Asom Finance Commission accordingly was constituted under 243 Y of the Constitution.

The first Finance Commission (1996-2000) of the state recommended provincialization of the services of a section of municipal employees which as Roy stated was opposed by All Asom Civic Bodies Workers Federation (AACBWF) and could not be given effect to. The second Asom Finance Commission (2001-06) did not review the matter. It was however taken up by the Association and pursued it with the third Finance Commission and in particular with the Commissioner and the former Chief Secretary of Asom, Haren Das.

On July 31 last, a written agreement was signed between AAMSAA and the Government of Asom and the CMO directed the Chief Secretary and Commissioner Secretary to consider the demands of the Association for their expeditious implementation. As a sequel to it, the Cabinet Committee of the Legislative Assembly agreed to sanction Rs 11.86 crore as salary and allowances to the employees of 71 municipal and town committees for six months from April 2008 to September 2008 with provision of payment for another six months, revealed Bijit Ranjan Roy.

The Association expresses its gratefulness to Union Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev, Minister of Urban Development Dinesh Prasad Goala, Minister of Excise and Border Area Development Gautom Roy, and Parliamentary Secretary of Finance Ajit Singh, for their help and cooperation.

AAMSAA hails decision of Assam Government

SILCHAR, Dec 28 : All Assam Municipal Service Association of Asom, has hailed the decision of the Asom Government to extend the municipal and panchayat employees of the benefits of admissible salaries and allowances as initiated long ago by the late Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India. The Chief Minister of Asom, Tarun Gogoi, has come in high praise for giving due importance and attention to the cause of employees in question.

This benefit of pay packages has been described as “unprecedented” example of benevolence towards municipal and panchyat employees. Bijit Ranjan Roy, working president of the Association while briefing media persons pointed out that Rajiv Gandhi had introduced a municipal bill in Parliament in the interest of employees which was opposed by opposition parties and could not be legislated then. The Congress (I) Government subsequently amended the 73 and 74 provisions of the Constitution to give concrete shape to the municipal act. The Asom Finance Commission accordingly was constituted under 243 Y of the Constitution.

The first Finance Commission (1996-2000) of the state recommended provincialization of the services of a section of municipal employees which as Roy stated was opposed by All Asom Civic Bodies Workers Federation (AACBWF) and could not be given effect to. The second Asom Finance Commission (2001-06) did not review the matter. It was however taken up by the Association and pursued it with the third Finance Commission and in particular with the Commissioner and the former Chief Secretary of Asom, Haren Das.

On July 31 last, a written agreement was signed between AAMSAA and the Government of Asom and the CMO directed the Chief Secretary and Commissioner Secretary to consider the demands of the Association for their expeditious implementation. As a sequel to it, the Cabinet Committee of the Legislative Assembly agreed to sanction Rs 11.86 crore as salary and allowances to the employees of 71 municipal and town committees for six months from April 2008 to September 2008 with provision of payment for another six months, revealed Bijit Ranjan Roy.

The Association expresses its gratefulness to Union Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev, Minister of Urban Development Dinesh Prasad Goala, Minister of Excise and Border Area Development Gautom Roy, and Parliamentary Secretary of Finance Ajit Singh, for their help and cooperation.