Development / Assam

GUWAHATI, July 12 ? Power requirements in the remote and inaccessible areas of the State can be met to a great extent by tapping the non-conventional energy sources. The Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) has successfully implemented several solar power projects at different remote areas where electricity was a thing unheard of till recently. One such project of the ASTEC is in Cachar district which covers 850 households in 36 remote villages. This project of village electrification through solar energy was started in April 2000 and the final batch is under installation...

GUWAHATI, July 11 ? For the deluge-affected Guwahatians, some relief is forthcoming. The State Government, concerned over the plight of the residents of the city, has constituted a task force to co-ordinate implementation of short-term and long-term measures to remove the city?s problem of flash flood and sanctioned an amount of Rs 2 crore to activate the four pumps at the Bharalu sluice gate while another amount of Rs 3 crore is being released to press into service two barge-mounted excavators to keep the Bharalu free from silt. This amount is being released from the Central Government?s Non...

UDALGURI, July 10 ? At a time, when the State Police department has been observing ?Operation Green Earth Project? throughout the State with the help of other government and non-governmental social and nature organisations, conscious citizens of Udalguri area expected that the illegal felling of valuable logs by antisocial elements would come to a (temporary) end, but ignoring all such government efforts to check the deforestration process, the felling of valuable trees in and around Indo-Bhutan foothills and Assam - Arunachal foothills has been going on unabated and it is feared that the...

AGARTALA, July 9 : Due to a massive landslip on the railway line between Bandarkhal and Damcherra about 75 kilometres from Badarpur, rail link between Tripura and Assam has been snapped. The two-kilometre stretch of railway line between Bandarkhal and Damcherra was washed away by the sliding mud and rocks from the adjoining hills early Sunday morning. ?It would take at least three weeks to restore the railway link between Tripura and Assam,? sources said. Though restoration works have started from both sides, but due to incessant rainfall for the past two days, works could only progress at a...

GUWAHATI, July 9 ? More than 2.26 lakh people of seven districts of the State have so far been affected in the first wave of floods this year, which started on June 21, an official release said. The release said that as many as 269 villages of the districts of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Darrang, Goalpara, Nalbari and Kamrup have been attached by the floods so far this year. The total area affected is 15,618 hectares, of which 13,449 hectares are crop land. The worst hit Dhemaji district remained cut off from the rest of the State for the seventh day today. The road link to Dhemaji was snapped on July...

GUWAHATI, July 6? About four years back The Assam Tribune carried a newsitem titled Guwahatians burying their own city. The story was about the adverse impact of hill cutting. Today, when a move to politicise hill cutting in the name of providing land to the thaluas (indigenous people) and the ?landless?, is on, we feel it our duty to remind the people of the same things we wrote about four years back. The Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (ASTEC) conducted a study on hill slope destabilisation and its impact on urban drainage planning between May 1993 and October 1997 taking...

NORTH GUWAHATI, July 6? Due to incessant heavy downpours during the past few weeks, there has been a rise in flood waters along the 4.5-km-long historical embankment stretching from the foothills of Monikarneswar to the Dirgheswari pedestals, thereby endangering the lives and properties of the adjacent villages like Rongmahal, Bamunigaon, Fulung, Chandra, Borbaka, etc. Not only that, the entire North Kamrup would also be affected if there occurs any damage to the time-worn ?great royal embankment?. The prestigious IIT campus, bottling plant, Brahmaputra Hydraulic Research Centre, several...

NEW DELHI, July 4 ? The battlelines between the Congress party and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have been drawn over the issue of the eviction drives, with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today charging the regional party with playing politics of opportunism. Describing the AGP?s charge of the Congress party protecting the Bangladeshi immigrants from being evicted, as baseless, false and malicious, Gogoi said that he was in a way glad that the regional party has raked up the issue. ?I want to know what the AGP during its tenure had done to evict these so called Bangladeshis, if there were any. They...

GUWAHATI, July 3 ? Though the expert committee on identification of forest areas, formed as per the directive of the Supreme Court, had expressed concern at the depletion of the forest cover and recommended finalisation of a forestry action plan way back in 1997, the State Government failed to act on time to save the forest cover. The expert committee, headed by the Commissioner and Secretary to the Forest Department, was of the view that the State Government should approach the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Planning Commission with a full-fledged forestry action plan. The...

NEW DELHI, July 2? Assam Government is likely to constitute an expert committee to examine the entire gamut of issues involv-ing encroachment of forest land in the State and formulate an Action Plan. This was conveyed at the Congress party?s Manifesto Review Committee meeting here this morning by Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi. The meeting was attended by Dr. Manmohan Singh, AICC general secretary in-charge for Assam, Mohsina Kidwai, general secretary, Oscar Fernandes besides Assam Congress chief, Paban Singh Ghatowar, took stock of the implementation of the promises made by Congress party in...