Guwahati, December 21
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has come up with a panacea for the current turmoil in Assam over the demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status by six ethnic groups, including the Adivasi community, that had migrated to the state about 150 years ago for engagement in the British Raj tea estates.

As the state is faced with a turbulent situation precipitated by the ongoing agitation for ST status by six ethnic groups - Tail-Ahom, Moran, Motok, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi and Adivasi --whose demand had already been rejected by the Central government ignoring recommendations from the Congress government in the state, the CPI has suggested that the only solution to the problem lies in recognising Assam as a tribal state.

The CPI national leader and Assam state unit president Promode Gogoi said that given that Assam is home to a large number of indigenous tribal groups, it would be prudent on part of the Centre to declare Assam a tribal state to solve the problem of growing aspirations for ST status.

The veteran CPI leader commented that giving ST status to a few more ethnic groups would simply lead to fresh demands for the same status by smaller ethnic communities and the problem would keep burning. “In such a situation it is better to declare the state a tribal one suiting the aspirations of all ethnic groups,” he said.

Guwahati, December 21
The Assam unit of the BJP is facing threat from global terrorist group Al-Qaida for its continued tirade against illegal migration from Bangladesh and suspected Bangladeshi migrants residing in Assam.

Assam BJP president Ramen Deka claims to have received a hand written threat letter from Al-Qaida terrorists that was delivered at the state party headquarters here on Wednesday last.

Deka said in the letter addressed to him the Al-Qaida had threatened to kill him and blow up the state party headquarters in Guwahati. The letter from the Al-Qaida, which was signed by eight persons claiming to be associates of the terrorist group, threatened the Assam BJP unit and its president for their firm stand against suspected illegal migration from Bangladesh.

The terrorist group accused the BJP unit of causing harassment to local Muslim population in Assam in the name of a drive against illegal Bangladeshi migrants and threatened to the blow up the state BJP headquarters and kill its president.

The letter further criticised the state BJP president for making ‘derogatory’ comments against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. Alarmed at the Al-Qaida threat the state BJP unit has lodged a complaint with the state DGP, R.N. Mathur. The police is yet to verify the veracity of the threat letter

Deka said he was not going to be cowed down by the threat letter. He said it was a reflection of the failure on part of the ruling Congress in Assam in controlling the growing activities of fundamentalists and Islamic terrorist organisations in the state.

The BJP leader further informed that the Al-Qaida in the same letter issued a threat to the All Assam Students Union (AASU) adviser, Dr Samujjal Bhattacharrya, for his firm stand against the illegal Bangladeshi migrants living in Assam.

However, the AASU adviser said the students’ body was yet to receive any such letter from the terrorist group and he came to know about the threat from the BJP. The AASU leader said it was now the duty of the state government to ascertain the veracity of the threat letter.

Meanwhile, the Assam government has formally acknowledged the growing activities of Pakistani’s ISI in the state. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in his address at the meeting on internal security said the state and the Northeast as a whole had emerged as a hub of espionage agencies like the ISI.

Guwahati, December 21
Big cats on the prowl on streets of Guwahati, thanks to the unplanned urban growth and population burst in Guwahati, the gateway to the north-east has posed serious threat to the existence of wildlife in its surroundings.

The ever-expanding periphery of the city has led to the destruction of numerous wildlife habitats in the city, besides causing irreparable damage to its green forest cover that is rapidly shrinking.

The damage caused to the wildlife habitats by the urbanisation in Guwahati is well reflected in the frequent incidents of leopards trespassing onto various residential localities in the city. One leopard was found trapped inside the ground floor of a popular shopping mall in the heart of the city. The State Wildlife Department had captured eight such leopards from city localities so far during the year. In a few instances, these straying leopards attacked and injured the city residents.

“Because of shrinkage of the forest cover and subsequent reduction in number of prey animals leopard often come to human habitats in the city to prey on the domestic animals,” said Narayan Mahanta, the divisional forest officer (wildlife) of the Guwahati State Zoo.

According to a forest department source, there are 19 reserve forest (RF) areas within the greater Guwahati area as per the record of the State Revenue Department. All these forest areas have vanished because of coming up of human habitats over the years.

The burst of population in Guwahati is so alarming that the prices of land and houses within the city have sky rocketed during the last decade. A square feet of built up area in the city now cost in the range of Rs 2,200 to Rs 4,000 depending upon the quality of the structure and locality.

The real estate boom had led to the fast disappearance of open spaces within the city and that has become a cause for concern.

The Guwahati High Court in one of its latest directive to the Guwahati Development Department has imposed a temporary ban on giving permission to build housing complexes in city areas.

The court directive came in response to a Public Interests Litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO called ‘Save Guwahati Build Guwahati’, which in its petition sought a suitable directive from the court to stop fresh construction of tall multi-storied buildings in the city in view of fast disappearance of open spaces in the city.

Bowing to the rising concern over congestion in the city, the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) has incorporated a fresh clause in its new building by-laws making it mandatory for builders and real estate developers to keep 60 per cent open spaces within the residential housing complexes. This has triggered further escalation in the cost of land and built up area in the city.

Patna, December 21
Nandigram in West Bengal seems to have crossed the international boundary to cast its shadow on the proposed Indo-Nepal Saptakoshi multipurpose project bordering Bihar. The same Saptakoshi river, after entering Bihar from Nepal, is known as Koshi river here. The project that proposes to build a 269-metre high dam on the Sun-Koshi river, a tributary of Saptakoshi, is said to be the biggest river dam in the SAARC region with the potential to generate 3,400 MW of power. Besides, it also plans to control floods both in Nepal and India, with a special focus on Bihar.

Sources here said despite the eagerness shown by both India and Nepal to complete the project on time, it is under siege for almost seven months now due to opposition from local people under the banner Kiranti Rastriya Morcha in east Nepal bordering Bihar, seemingly on the lines of Bhumi Uched Pratirakha Committee of Nandigarm in West Bengal, who face displacement and related environment degradation. Some ethnic groups there are also said to be opposed to this project. When India and Nepal signed the Saptakoshi agreement in 1997, Rs 300 million was allotted for the detailed project report (DPR), which was expected to be completed in 30 months.

Besides the present opposition by local people and ethnic groups, in the past also work on the project was held up due to the Maoist insurgency and political instability in Nepal.

Based on the reports collected here by concerned quarters, despite opposition from different quarters even though the work could finally start in 2004, after seven years from the date of agreement between the two countries in 1997, work on the DPR was stopped again around June this year by the Kiranti Rastriya Morcha, which said authorities needed to take the consent of the local people who face displacement and environment degradation.

The prolonged delay has made the cost of the DPR shoot up already to Rs 700 million against the initial projection of Rs 300 milion.

India’s eagerness to carry out the Saptakoshi alias Koshi multipurpose project was shown during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to areas in Bihar affected by the summer monsoon floods in the past. “The high dam in Koshi is the only solution to floods in Bihar,” Manmohan Singh was then quoted by the media as saying.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar too in recent past urged the Prime Minister to open talks with Nepal for constructing dams on rivers originating from the Himalayan country to end the recurring floods in the state. Nitish also favoured constituting a ‘Flood Management Strategy Group’ for holding talks with the Nepal Government.

The Saptakoshi floods hit Bihar every monsoon and the dam is expected to tame it and use the water for irrigating about 15,00,000 hectares both in Nepal and Bihar.

This year itself, floods from it had killed over hundred people in the state, besides leaving a trail of destruction in Nepal as well. Apart from the reported opposition from local people halting the work on this ambitious project at present, it is learnt that some anti-dam experts in India and Nepal too are opposing it.

They reportedly, oppose the construction of the proposed high dam located in a seismic fault zone in the southern flank of the Himalayan range. Constructing a dam in a seismic fault zone area would enhance the fear of destruction of life and property because of its earthquake prone nature.

New Delhi, December 21
The Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA), an apex body of the cement industry, has come in for sharp criticism by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practice Commission (MRTPC) for its failure to check forming a ‘cartel’ by manufacturers to jack up cement prices in early nineties setting a stage for increase of its rates.

Though the role of the CMA was to coordinate between the government and cement companies to ensure that they did not indulge in ‘cartelisation’, the MRTPC said, “Marketing committees of the CMA have been dominated by market leaders in the industry and thus from the inputs of information they have been influencing the retail prices.”

“Others (companies) adhering to will qualify to be naïve collaborators and thus would have joined the conspiracy without knowing that there conduct could be unlawful,” the MRTPC said .

The MRTPC came to the conclusion while scrutinising the evidence of witnesses by director-general investigation and registration (DGIR) counsel O P Dua on how the CMA members had failed in their duty to apprise the PMO about the market position.

“Denial of knowledge of a meeting in the PMO, expressing concern about rise in cement prices, despite the fact that their own managements had participated in that meeting is also indicative of a similar frame of mind. Such a trend itself would point out towards a design reflecting certain forces which were working towards upward swing of prices at such short intervals (between February-August 1990) for almost all the brands,” he said.

The CMA had questioned the credibility of some witnesses produced by Dua, but the commission rejected the association’s stand and said several witnesses are or were high functionaries of their organisations and that their evidence could not be dismissed lightly.

“Their denial on such basics relating to an association which has been theirs for several years would lead to an inevitable conclusion that there is something which is sought to be kept away,” the commission observed.

The commission was of the view that there were elements of indirect evidence against the CMA in ‘influencing’ the retail prices of cement particularly when it was compared with the situation in countries like Argentina and Romania where the industry was coming out of the regulatory regime.

“It is also admitted that the CMA was collecting price information on very short intervals and was reviewing the price situation through the marketing committees,” the commission recorded, pointing out that in fact the committees were set up by the CMA to devise a mechanism of increasing the demand for cement.

“We have established that there is an element of direct evidence of the involvement of local committees in ensuring price parallelism and re-determining of retail prices at frequent and short intervals,” the MRTPC concluded.

Shillong, December 21
Confronted with an alarming increase in the cases of drunken personnel manning sensitive frontier posts, the Border Security Force (BSF) has decided to cut alcohol supplies to its men and officers so that they are in the “right spirit”.

In a bid to ensure that the sentinel at the vital Border Observation Posts (BOPs) are not tipsy while at vigil, a decision has been taken to supply liquor only during ‘Barakhanas’ and when they go on leave.

The decision to sober down the men was taken for apprehending risky situations like a tipsy armed ‘jawan’ getting ‘trigger-happy’ inside the barracks, or for that matter, a group of ‘spirited’ soldiers on patrolling duty actually loitering along the vulnerable international border.

Enforcing partial prohibition at the BOPs with immediate effect, the Assam and Meghalaya Frontier (A&M Ftr) of the BSF has sought the help of the Alcoholics Anonymous Service Centre for counselling of its personnel, who have fallen prey to the bottle.

“BOPs are operational sectors and we cannot have drunken personnel manning these sensitive forward posts along the international borders,” inspector- general P.K.Mishra said today.

Inaugurating the two-day counselling session at the BSF headquarters here today, Mishra made a passionate plea to the rank and file of his men to come out of the ‘disease’ that was alcoholism, which had infected the troopers.

Observing that earlier, alcoholism was deemed as a ‘disciplinary problem’, which was sought to be curbed by exemplary punishment, the IG said such tactics did not yield the desired result.

Mishra said, “from now on no vindictive punishment will be meted out. We shall identify the reasons behind the jawans taking to excessive drinking and then go for regular counselling by experts.” Alcoholism is not only having adverse effects on the family members of the jawans but it is also ruining their physical and mental health, the IG observed.

“Moderate drinking in itself is not bad but consuming more than required and then creating trouble is a problem that needs to be tackled,” he said.

Citing family feuds and loneliness while on duty at remote border posts as the main reasons for the prevalence of alcoholism among some of the jawans, the IG advised his men to take to games and sports instead. “Instead of wasting money on alcohol, you can use it for making regular phone calls to your wives and children,” the IG advised officers and jawans, who would undergo counselling. — PTI

New Delhi, December 21
The CPM today said the government should have signed nuclear agreement with Russia for supply of additional reactors to the Koodankulum power project during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to that country.

Answering queries from mediapersons on reports that Russia was prepared to sign the agreement for the reactors which would have been supplied after lifting of international restrictions, senior party leader Sitaram Yechury said the government should have signed the accord.

In reply to questions concerning controversial Bangladesh writer Tasleema Nasreen, Yechury said it was for her to decide where she wanted to stay.

On the question of Third Front, Yechury said it cannot be a cut and paste job and the party was looking forward to a third alternative. The party has maintained that the third force should emerge on the basis of common ideological issues and coordination at the ground level. The issue is likely to be discussed in detail at the the central committee meeting which will conclude tomorrow.

Besides the draft political resolution, issues such as the India-US nuclear deal and the Nandigarm are also expected to figure in the discussions. Sources said that the next meeting of the UPA-Left commitee could be held by the end of this month or early next month as the first round of talks at the IAEA had already been held by the government.

Hyderabad, December 21
After seeking to lure Muslims by praising the much-viled Nizam rulers, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K.Chandrasekhar Rao has now made a common cause with Christian organisations by opposing the government’s move to introduce a bill on Christian properties in the state.

“We will launch an agitation in the Telangana region if the government fails to withdraw the bill,” Rao told reporters here yesterday.

The legislation, ostensibly aimed at protecting the properties of Christian missionaries, churches and their educational institutions, evoked objections from a majority of Christian organisations, who see it as an attempt to infringe on their rights.

The TRS leader, whose party is fighting for separate state for Telangana, said, “The government has no right to exercise control over Christian properties in any form. We will resist such moves.”

He had recently stirred a controversy by eulogising the erstwhile Nizam rules of Hyderabad, unmindful of the strong public views on the turbulent period in the state’s history.

The showering of encomiums on the Nizam rulers was seen as a calculated move on the part of TRS to win the support of Muslims who constitue a significant chunk of population in the Telangana region.

Rao, who is also an MP from Karimnagar, has now turned his attention to Christians and sprang to their support on the property issue.

Hyderabad, December 21
Faced with heightened threat perception in the wake of a series of terror strikes, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to recruit ex-servicemen into the police force.

To begin with, they will be recruited at the constable level in the state capital, which was rocked by terror bombings in the recent past.

The services of ex-servicemen would be utilised in anti-sabotage checks, patrolling, beats, frisking and vehicle checking, an official said.

AGO has been issued to engage the services of 1,000 retired Army personnel to be posted as special police officers.

Taking a cue from Jammu and Kashmir, where a similar model is under implementation, the state government is prepared to relax some of the recruitment norms to accommodate ex-jawans in the police force.

A recruitment drive would be conducted here on December 22.

“The constables recruited from a normal background would be trained in maintaining law and order, preventing and detecting crime and traffic regulation.

But people with an armed services background have the added advantage of knowledge of a variety of national and international crimes, offenders and their designs,” the official said.

The state tourism department has already decided to hire the services of ex-defence personnel to guard the tourist places.

The department has asked all its recruiting agencies to forward the applications of only those who have defence background.

New Delhi, December 21
India's surface-to-air Akash missile was cleared by the government today for induction into the Armed forces after a series of trials in the last few days successfully proved the weapon's "kill capability". The induction came close on the heels of successful firing of the long range surface-to-surface nuclear capable missile Agni and strides in indigenous development of an anti-missile system.

An official announcement here said a series of user trials of the missile over the last days at the Interim Missile Test Range in Balasore, in Orissa, had been "fully successful" demonstrating the weapon's intended objective.

"The evaluation of the missile has been completed and the weapon system is now available for indigenous production," Sitanshu Kar, the Defence Ministry spokesman said. "The missile system is uniquely configured and customised for Indian Air Force and Indian Army," the spokesman said in significant remarks clarifying that Indian defence scientists had now managed to rectify flaws in the missile.

The success of the Akash came as a shot in the arm for the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which successfully test fired for the second time the 3,000 km range surface-to-surface Agni-III missile and an indigenous interceptor missile, which is planned to be turned into a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

The missile hit the bull's eye for the fifth time in a row in the last 10 days, the officials said.

"This was the grand finale of the 10 days user campaign planned by the Indian Air Force," the sources said.

The test was carried out at the Interim Test Range after the system had gone through functional evaluation at Kolar near Bangalore. — PTI