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.

South Point enter final

South Point School marched into the final of the Munindra Chandra Paul Guwahati Sports Association inter-school cricket tournament, beating Little Flower School by six wickets in the first semi-final at Parade Ground in Dispur here today.

Little Flower won the toss and elected to bat. They posted a challenging total of 191 for seven in the stipulated 25 overs. The South Point boys chased the target successfully, scoring 193 for four in 23.4 overs.

Abhijit Mandal topscored for Little Flower with an unbeaten 63 and was ably supported by Sanjay Das, who remained not out on a quickfire 48.

Hirokjyoti Bharali of South Point captured three wickets for 20 runs and Himjyoti Sarma chipped in with two for 22.

Antariksh Barma (53) was the topscorer for South Point while Subham Dutta remained not out on 34. David Chhetri of Little Flower claimed a wicket for 28 runs.

Shrimanta Sankar Academy will play Presidency School in the second semi-final tomorrow.

Yoga way to kids’ health - Gogoi stresses promotion of physical activity in schools

The Assam government is taking steps to ensure that the only bug that will afflict schoolchildren in the state is the fitness bug.

Yoga will soon become a part of the school curriculum in the state, with chief minister Tarun Gogoi expressing concern over an increasing number of cases of diabetes and obesity among children, because of a sedentary lifestyle.

An official at the chief minister’s office told The Telegraph that Gogoi held a high-level meeting with education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to introduce yoga in all schools and help students to lead a healthy and disciplined lifestyle.

Schools reminded of fire safety norms

The state fire service department has said most of the city’s schools that had been earlier issued notices for not adhering to safety norms, are in the process of installing the facilities.

Officials of the department said schools which would fail to put in place required safety measures even after being given sufficient time, would be closed down.

The officials have been monitoring these schools for more than a year now.

Last year, the GMC was compelled to seal one school in the city after it was found that the school administration had grossly violated safety norms even after getting the notice.

Car rally rolls into Silchar - Bordoloi flags off Second part today

The four-country car rally that aims to strengthen the bond of fraternity among the south Asian countries of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar rolled into this second biggest town of Assam to a tumultuous welcome this afternoon.

The rally was flagged off in Calcutta by Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday after six years of preparation. It will culminate at Kunming in Yunan province of south China on March 5, traversing a distance of 3,000km.

Hundreds of people lined the streets to welcome the participants from the four countries on their way to Silchar DSA stadium where the Cachar district administration had arranged a colourful performance of Assamese, Bengali, Mizo and Manipuri dances.

KMSS vegetable shops draw huge crowd in Guwahati

In a bid to rid of middlemen, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) today opened two ‘fair price’ stalls for vegetables at Chandmari and RG Baruah Road Tiniali after procuring the produce in bulk from farmers in Barpeta Road where they had been deprived of their due remuneration due to large-scale presence of middlemen and illegal syndicates in the trade.

Both the stalls run by the KMSS drew overwhelming response from the citizens who made a beeline to the stalls to get vegetables at half the price sold in the city markets.

“The response has been so great that we exhausted our supply meant for the proposed six stalls in the first two stalls itself. We are committed to sell vegetables at half the market price here, and will open eight more stalls in the city,” KMSS publicity secretary Kamal Kumar Medhi said.

Paresh Baruah switches off phones, logs into Skype

Hounded and tracked by snooping Indian intelligence agencies that has cost him dearly, anti-talks Ulfa leader Paresh Baruah has switched off all his mobile and satellite phones and shifted to Skype. This is the last bit of information intelligence agencies intercepted while eavesdropping on Baruah's conversations about a week ago.

Baruah reportedly also asked his men to shift to the much-safer video chatting using Skype for all communication through a jump server that allows users to maintain online anonymity and hides their locations as well.

In recent times, many of his plans have been foiled and some of his men have been caught after they gave away their locations to security forces that continuously keep their ears glued to cellular phone networks and satellite phone frequencies.

Man in hospital after 'sexual abuse' by jailor

A 28-year-old man, an inmate of Karimganj jail, has been admitted to the local civil hospital for treatment allegedly after sexual abuse by the assistant jailor. Following the incident, at least three more inmates, all male, made similar allegations of sexual abuse on the assistant jailor, Dulal Das, before a district magistrate probing the incident.

The matter came to light after the hospitalized inmate was found bleeding profusely on last Monday. The inmates' doctor gave him first aid and suggested to the jail authorities that he should he admitted to hospital but the latter refused to do so. When the health condition of the inmate turned critical, the other inmates on Tuesday started an indefinite hunger strike seeking his immediate admission to hospital and action against Das.

Tough talk on middlemen - Himanta vows action against GMCH touts as B. Borooah adds more facilities

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today told The Telegraph that the state government had taken serious cognisance of instances of patients being duped by middlemen or harassed by any medical staff for money at the GMCH.

“If we get any complaint against any medical staff of government hospitals demanding money from patients in lieu of treatment, we will take tough action against him or her and in extreme cases even file FIRs. If we take cognisance of any complaint, the middlemen too will come under scrutiny,” Sarma said.

Cases of patients being harassed by middlemen at the GMCH are not uncommon. Early this month, a doctor of the GMCH was reportedly caught demanding money from two patients to conduct a surgery. The state health department has suspended him.

Bihu enthusiasts of the world, unite at Latasil ground - Experts to conduct workshop on Assam’s most popular folk dance form for 11 days

Get ready to tap your feet to the tune of dhol, with training from expert bihuas.

At the historic Latasil playground, where Bihu came onstage from the village courtyards, experts like borbihuwa Prasanna Gogoi, bihu samragye Dreamly Gogoi and borbihuwa Ranjit Gogoi will give lessons on the state’s most popular folk dance form.

The organisers, Raamdhenu Foundation, an NGO, and Gandharba Kalakendra, a city-based dance school, are hopeful that the 11-day All-Assam Bihu Dance Workshop-2013 will be the largest congregation of Bihu enthusiasts this season. Pradip Das, the working president of the organising committee, said the popularity of Bihu has increased over the years, mostly among schoolchildren.

9 new B Barooah Cancer Institute deluxe cabins

The B. Borooah Cancer Institute here will open nine deluxe paying cabins in order to provide better facilities to cancer patients from across the Northeast.

These new paying cabins will not only be bigger in size than the existing ones but each cabin will also have better facilities like a small dining area, separate water purifier and a mini-kitchen attached. The cabins will cost Rs 1,200 per day.

The paying cabins will be formally inaugurated during a function on Saturday.

At present, the 200-bed cancer hospital has 30 paying cabins. While patients are charged Rs 250 daily for the non air-conditioned cabins, they have to pay Rs 500 for the air-conditioned ones.

Sattriya evening at Chatiya enthrals audience

A fascinating evening on Sattriya dance and music was organised recently at Chatiya Natya Bhavan, which enthralled the audience for more than two hours at a stretch.

Organised by Sattriya Kendra of Guwahati, Centre for Sattriya Dance, Music and Theatre, Traditions of Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in association with Cultural Centre of Jamugurihat, Government of Assam and Chatiya Natya Samaj, the unique show evinced keen interest among the connoisseurs of Sattriya culture.

Battalions to protect Kaziranga National Park

Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain today flagged off two battalions of Assam Forest Protection Force for protection and guarding of wildlife in Kaziranga National Park.

At a programme organised at the State Zoo cum Botancial Garden, Hussain said that of the 300 personnel, 200 would be deployed in South Band North bank.

From time to time, the status of the deployment would be reviewed.

The Forest department is waiting for the clearance from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for deployment of the proposed unmanned aircraft.

NE States to jointly check Maoists

The police forces of the States of the North East region have decided to launch coordinated efforts to check the Maoist rebels from establishing strong roots in the region. The forces are also of the view that the peace talks with the militant groups, which have already signed cease- fire agreements, should be expedited.

A meeting of the heads of the police forces of the North East States, convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which concluded in Gangtok last evening, discussed in detail the efforts by the Maoist rebels to establish roots in the North East region and observed that there is need for formulating strategies to check the growth of the Maoists and all the States decided to launch coordinated efforts in this regard.