HC notices on temple

Gauhati High Court today issued showcause notices to chief secretary Naba Kumar Das, the GMC and the GMDA regarding alleged construction of a temple at a public place on AT Road.

The court of Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel issued the notices after it took suo moto cognisance of a letter written by Deenesh Sharma, a resident of Bharalumukh, recently and registered a suo moto public interest litigation (PIL).

In the letter which he had written on behalf of residents of Bharalumukh and Kumarpara and submitted to Chief Justice Goel on February 12, Sharma complained that construction and expansion of a Shani temple were causing inconveniences to people on the streets and had also affected flow of traffic.

Genetic monitoring at Namdapha

The National Tiger Conservation Authority is carrying out a comprehensive genetic monitoring programme at Namdapha Tiger Reserve to confirm the presence of tigers in the easternmost tiger reserve of the country.

This exercise in being carried out at Namdapha for the first time and the information collected through this process will be crucial for implementing future conservation plans.

Three tigers are believed to be in the 1,985 square km reserve. The presence of two tigers was confirmed after DNA analysis from tiger scat (faecal matter) and the third big cat was spotted through a camera trap last year.

Carcass of ‘poisoned’ tiger found in Orang National Park

The carcass of a full-grown Royal Bengal tigress, suspected to have been poisoned, was found in Orang National Park today.

This is the third tiger carcass to have been found in the park this month. The carcass of a male tiger was found on February 9 and the second was found two days later.

Orang divisional forest officer Sushil K. Daila said the partially decomposed carcass of the tigress was found inside a dense foliage near Panchnoi forest inside the park. “The tigress probably died about 10 days back and poisoning cannot be ruled out. We have sent the viscera for forensic examination,” he said, adding that the reports of the viscera of the two carcasses found earlier had not arrived yet.

2 cops hurt in Jorhat grenade attack

Two security personnel were injured in a grenade attack by a suspected ULFA militant this morning at Kenduguri By-pass here.

The militant hurled a hand grenade at an Assam police naka party checking vehicles at 2 No. Bamungaon at the Jorhat By-pass around 4:30 am when he was stopped by the party.

The militant was coming on a bicycle from the direction of Lahdoigarh and he did not stop at the signal of the policemen on duty. Four policemen were on guard at that place during the incident. The team tried to stop him, but he managed to escape after hurling the grenade, police sources said.

Bomb defused near Guwahati Refinery

A low-intensity bomb was diffused by the bomb squad after it was spotted near the Guwahati Refinery in Noonmati area this morning.

The bomb was planted inside a container with 50 grams of ammonium nitrate and splinters, police said.

Police said the container was kept in a bag which was spotted by the people in an abandoned state and appears as the handiwork of a militant group, although it cannot be confirmed at this moment.

KMSS to open 2 more vegetable outlets

After the huge response to the two vegetable outlets, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) will set up two more such shops in the Silpukhuri and Panbazar areas of the city.

The existing two outlets at Zoo Road and Chandmari sold 130 quintals of vegetables at reasonable rates to the residents of the city.

In a statement, the organisation said that if the State Government provides ten shops at proper and hygienic locations here, it would be able to supply vegetables at half the prices the people are paying now.

Over 12,000 people still in BTAD relief camps

More than 12,000 people displaced in the ethnic violence in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) areas are still living in relief camps in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts.

An official release said that as many as 12,644 displaced people are still living in 20 relief camps. Of which 4615 are in Kokrajhar district, all of whom belonging to the minority community and 395 Bodo and 7634 minority people are living in camps in Chirang district. The release said that 65persons left the relief camps in the last 24 hours.