NEWS & EVENTS

GUWAHATI, June 3 – An ill-prepared Guwahati city welcomed the onset of the monsoons season with water and silt on the roads, overflowing drains and traffic snarls due to waterlogging.

Heavy downpours for several hours in the early morning today, resulted in flash flood in several areas and many arterial roads of the city, restricting the movement of commuters – most of them being the office and school goers.

Meanwhile, at a meeting called by the GDD Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the instruction of the Gauhati High Court to listen to the citizens’ grievances related to civic problems, the Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) today suggested that a monitoring cell should be set up to monitor flash-flood situation at least during rainy season. “We asked the State government to take bold steps to remove encroachments from the marshy lands and natural water canals and ensure regular cleaning of the drains,” said SGBG president Dhiren Baruah. The NGO also demanded that a person who knows Guwahati city thoroughly should be appointed as the GMC commissioner.

Meanwhile, for the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) workers, it became an arduous task to clear the mud from the arterial roads of the city, despite an additional force of 150 workers being deployed specially for the monsoons.

Areas like Chandmari, Silpukhuri, Anil Nagar, Saraniya, Lakhara, Zoo Road faced acute waterloggings and traffic problem in morning hours.

“For the past 40 years, our area is facing the flash-flood problem. Today, children of our locality couldn’t go to schools and the water even entered many of the houses. The small water-pumps and sluice gate in our area are hardly of any help,” said Biswanath Das a resident of Tarun Nagar, where by-lane 6 and 7 are the most affected areas.

“GMC will keep attending the problem, like clearing the silt from blacktopped roads and cleaning the drainage following every rainfall. But the major cause behind the problem of flash-flood in Guwahati is the mud-flow from the surrounding hills that should be dealt with on a larger scale with a scientifically designed scheme,” said S Thiek, Additional Commissioner of the Corporation.

“With the infrastructure available with us, the GMC has cleaned all the silt chambers of the city to maintain a smooth water flow. For the next three months, we have put our officials on high alert, with no holiday at all in the field work,” he added.

However, the temporary measures are doing the least to ease the urban floods in the city as even the drains, that have been cleaned accumulate silt at a brief spell of showers.

Other government departments like PWD, GDD, Water Resource have also been engaged at different levels to take measures against flash floods, but no significant results have been achieved yet.

“The non-functioning of 1.5 kilometres-long underground channel, constructed by Town and Country Planning authorities is the major cause behind flash-flood in Anil Nagar. Now it is being demolished by the PWD authorities, which is yet to complete,” a GDD source mentioned.

“Considering the frequent recurrence of flash-floods in Guwahati, it is evident that the infrastructure to prevent urban flood is not in place. Rather than adopting the quick-fix measures, the State government should opt for a scientifically designed scheme considering the geographical location and existing infrastructure of the city,” a senior citizen from Anil Nagar area mentioned.

Even after the arrest of Ranjan Daimary, cadres of the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) are indulging in abduction to extort money and according to records available with police, at least nine persons are in the captivity of the outfit in the jungle areas along Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

Police sources told The

Assam Tribune that the persons in the captivity of the NDFB at present include an Indian Forest Service Officer and one 12-year-old boy kidnapped from Sonitpur district. The outfit has demanded amounts ranging from Rs 1 to 5 crore for the release of the abducted persons and the family members of some of them have already started negotiating with the abductors.

Police sources said that the kidnapped persons are kept in an area north of Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district and from time to time, whenever major operations are launched, they are taken inside Arunachal Pradesh.

“Though the police and security forces are aware of the area where the kidnapped persons are kept, it is not possible to launch a full scale operation as it may pose threat to the lives of the persons in captivity," sources said.

Sources revealed that the NDFB has demanded a sum of Rs 5 crore from the family members of VS Bardekar, an Indian Forest Service officer kidnapped on May 12 from West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Giving an account of the kidnappings by the NDFB in recent times, police sources said that one Ram Prasad Raunia was kidnapped from Belsor weekly market on April 22 and on the same day, a teenaged boy, Rama Das was kidnapped from Hugrajuli. On April 23, the militants kidnapped three persons– Rubul Nath, Shiv Kumar Singh and Amar Kalita from Ramnathpur village, while on May 2, one Haridas Roy was kidnapped from Majbat. The outfit also kidnapped Ranjit Ghosh and Swapan Seal on May 21. It is believed that all the kidnapped persons are kept in the same locality, sources added.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), investigating into the financial scam in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council, has started the process of collecting the documents relating to financial management of five departments and the probe is being conducted on the basis of the report of the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

CBI sources told The Assam Tribune that the case is being investigated by the Shillong office of the Bureau and a team of officers of the Bureau are now camping in Haflong to scan the relevant documents. The zonal DIG of the CBI also visited Haflong to personally supervise the work.

Sources said that the NIA, which was entrusted with the responsibility of probing into a case of militant-politician nexus, stumbled upon documents which proved beyond doubt that large scale financial irregularities were taking place in the Autonomous Council. But as probing into the financial irregularities was not the mandate of the NIA, it suggested in the chargesheet filed in the court that the financial irregularities should be investigated into by the CBI.

Sources revealed that the NIA submitted a report to the Government on its findings on the financial scam and the CBI has started the process of investigation on the basis of that report. Sources said that in the initial stage, the CBI has started scanning the relevant documents of PWD, Public Health Engineering (PHE), Social Welfare, Soil Conservation and Agriculture as according to the report of the NIA, most of the irregularities took place in those departments.

When asked to give details of the process of investigation, CBI sources said, “we have just started the process of scanning of the documents and our officers are on the job for the last two weeks. It will take some time to complete the process of scanning the documents relating to the financial transactions of the five departments and the next phase of the investigation will start only after the completion of the process.” Sources said that the CBI would take decisions on whether any person would be questioned for their alleged involvement of the scams only on the basis of the findings of examining the documents. Sources also admitted that in such cases of financial irregularities, examining the documents is a painstaking process. But at the same time, sources asserted that it would not be possible for anyone to tamper with the documents now.

CBI sources also clarified that the Bureau has not been given any period for which the financial irregularities should be probed into and it would all depend on the findings of scanning of the available documents.

It may be mentioned here that the NIA , during the course of the investigation into the politician-militant nexus, came across documents, which proved that financial norms and regulations were flouted blatantly in the council for years and Chief Executive Members, Executive Members and even senior officials of the Government issued orders to release substantial amounts of funds on plain papers or their pads without mentioning the projects for which the money was withdrawn. Even the Governor’s secretariat issued orders for release of funds without mentioning the projects for which the money was required. Interestingly, the accounts of the Council were not audited for years and only recently, the Government initiated a process of auditing the accounts.

The financial scam in the Council led to a major political issue with the opposition parties and other organizations demanding a probe by the CBI and only after the intervention by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which advised the Assam Government to get the matter investigated by the CBI, the case was referred to the Central investigating agency.

The people of Numaligarh area and its adjacent places are spending sleepless nights due to the depredations of wild elephants. A herd consisting of 60 elephants is damaging houses at Numaligarh and its neighbouring areas including Bihora Mikir Chang tea garden where the elephants damaged 14 houses and seven shops. The shops belonging to Goush Tauti, Bipul Munda, Gopal Tamuria, Meghnath Tanti, Bakul Tanti, Azit Tanti and Motilal Tanti had been damaged.

The people had demanded of the Forest department of Golaghat to drive out the elephants. But so far the Forest personnel have been unable to drive away the elephants from the rural and tea garden areas.

Appointed: The Director of the Minority Welfare and Development department has appointed Prince Azizul Haque as the chairman of Golaghat Minority Development Board.

Prince Azizul Haque is an inhabitant of Nahoroni area within Golaghat district. The members of the board who were appointed were Anizuj Jaman, Ruidar Rahman, Mofida Begum and Bubul Hussain.

The Muslim Jatia Mahasabha Golaghat district committee has welcomed the appointment.

GUWAHATI, June 1 – There is a likelihood of vigorous monsoon in the State said Director, Weather of the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) here H Pathak. It needs mention here that the usual date of onset of monsoon over Guwahati is June 3, and it covers NE region by June 6.

Pathak said that since a number of flash floods have already been reported from various parts of the State during the pre-monsoon period and normal monsoon rainfall has been predicted by the India Meteorology Department (IMD), flood frequency this year is feared to be more compared to the previous years.

The IMD has declared a monsoon rainfall of 98 per cent accuracy with the possibility of four per cent departure on either side, during the coming monsoon.

The IMD has declared onset of monsoon over entire Kerala, Tamil Nadu and some parts of bay of Bengal as on May 31 last.

This year, during pre-monsoon period itself (March 1 to May 31), good amount of rainfall already occurred over the region. Assam recorded 30 per cent excess rainfall during this period, Meghalya 41 per cent excess rainfall, said Pathak.

GUWAHATI, May 31 – The pace of construction of fencing along the Indo-Bangla border should be expedited and the Government must provide photo- identity cards to the Indian citizens living in the vulnerable sections of the border, said the outgoing Inspector General of the Assam-Meghalaya frontier of Border Security Force (BSF), Prithvi Raj. He also admitted that the vacancies in the force are turning out to be a major problem for the border guarding agency.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, Raj, a Himachal Pradesh cadre IPS officer, who is going back to his parent cadre after completing his tenure in the border guarding force, said that the overall security scenario in this part of the country improved considerably following the improvement of the relations with Bangladesh and he hoped that the scenario would improve further in the days to come. He expressed the hope that with the BSF in the process of strengthening the troop deployment along the border, the border management would also improve in the days to come and a new Frontier Headquarters of the border guarding force in Guwahati has already been sanctioned and it is likely to be in place by next year.

The BSF IG said that the pace of construction of the fencing should be expedited and floodlights should be installed along the fencing. The BSF is coordinating with the agencies involved in construction of border fencing and the concerned State governments to ensure that the pace of construction is expedited. He admitted that there were some problems in construction of the fencing in Meghalaya because of agitations by some organizations and the BSF is in regular touch with the State government to deal with the matter.

Raj said that the BSF has been stressing the need for providing photo identity cards to the citizens living near the international border to improve border management. He said that though it would be a national project, priority should be given on the Dhubri sector as because of the ethnic similarity of the people living on both sides of the border, it is impossible to detect a Bangladeshi national if he manages to sneak into India. He further said that the concerned State governments should take immediate measures to improve the condition of the roads leading to the border to facilitate free movement of the troops to the border and the BSF has already taken up the issue with the State governments.

The BSF IG said that vacancies in almost all the battalions are another major problem as filling up of the vacant positions take a long time and adds extra burden on the troops on the border. He revealed that the overall vacancy position is around 10 to 12 percent, which is a big number considering the fact that the men on the ground are already overburdened. He also expressed the view that the process of developing infrastructure for the troops along the border should be expedited.

Commenting on the performance of the troops along the border during his tenure as the IG of the Assam-Meghalaya frontier, he said that deployment of one additional battalion early this year in the Tura sector, once considered vulnerable to movement of anti-national elements, improved the scenario considerably, while optimum utilization of the modern equipment like the hand-held thermal imagers, monocular, night vision devices, etc., acted as force multipliers and improved the performance of the force.

Raj, who took over as the IG of the Assam-Meghalaya frontier in February last year, admitted that border management was a new experience for him and in this sector, the main task of the BSF included preventing infiltration of both foreign nationals and anti-national elements and movement of contraband items. He said that the civic action programmes taken up by the BSF helped a great deal in getting the support of the people living near the international border, which resulted in improved performance of the BSF. He said that in the past one year, the BSF managed to apprehend more than 50 anti-national elements along the border and in the counter-insurgency operations, while 17 hardcore militants surrendered before the BSF.