Vol 4 Issue 30 by G Plus

Water supply project materials worth over Rs 1 Cr stolen; mafia angle suspected

PG 02

VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 30 MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017 PRICE `10

Assam Govt crunched in numbers The Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mandate

1 year in power: the bouquets and the brickbats

PG 12

New Chic on the Block Archana Sarma PG 24

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Lead Story

Water supply project materials worth over Rs 1 Cr stolen; mafia angle suspected The daring late-night theft of pipelines, a baby roller and also a DG set from various locations of the ongoing JICAfunded water supply project in the city has stumped the police department besides creating an added hassle for the embattled contractors

Water supply project materials on the city’s roads | G Plus photo

Kalyan Deb kalyan.deb@g-plus.in

he much maligned delay in the completion of the water supply project has been a reason of outrage and the Guwahati Jal Board has been under fire on several occasions due to multiple shifts in the deadline. While the concerned authorities have stated several hindrances such as lack of public cooperation, fund constraints and others, another major reason or rather obstacle has come to light that has not just added to the delay of the project but has robbed the state off public money. There have been reports of theft of material used in the water supply project from various parts of the city. Material worth of over Rs 1,17,00,000 crores has been reported as stolen from the various locations where the project is being currently implemented. The stolen items include DI pipes (Ductile Iron pipes), MS pipes (Mild Steel pipes) and objects as big as a baby roller. Moreover, the pipes that have been stolen from the various locations of the city are of different sizes varying from 100 mm to 1000 mm in diameter and are of 6 metres to 12 metres in length. Meanwhile, the sheer bulkiness of the stolen items casts a direct suspicion towards the involvement of a possible mafia.

Modus Operandi It could be learnt that the execution of the theft of the materials involves thorough planning. Due to the bulkiness of the pipes it makes it humanly impossible to lift the pipes even with the collective effort of a few people

ing implemented late in the night most locals of the areas do not get any whiff of a theft. The labourers also remain unaware or apathetic about the transportation of any material which works as an added advantage. “There is already a hue and cry regarding the water supply project and amidst all this, such incidents have been taking place. We have been using the most superior quality pipes for the project and theft of such items becomes an exorbitant loss. The sizes of the pipes are so big that a truck can only accommodate three pipes at a time. Some of them are large enough for a human to easily pass through its hollow. The thefts have occurred at some of the prominent areas of the city such as Chenikuthi, Gauhati Club, Lokhra, VIP Road, Kharguli, Hatigaon and Hengrabari among several others. We have estimated the theft to be valued at around Rs 1,17,82,000,” said an official of Guwahati Jal Board. It could also be learnt that the thefts have been taking place since January last but the occurrence of such incidents started

the involvement of the contractors in the project has been dismissed the participation of some insiders are suspected. “We do not suspect the contractors as the materials, once issued from our stock yard, become their responsibility. However, there has to be an insider involved otherwise executing the theft in such a smooth manner would not be possible. It could be learnt from some of the labourers that, of late, the vehicles used for the theft have GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) marked on them and so they do not create any suspicion,” the official said, adding that FIRs have been lodged against all the cases but no response has come from the police .

Police’s say

On approaching police officials at the thana level, even the men in khaki remained clueless about the process of nabbing those involved in the incident. Stating about their failure in eradicating the theft of public property that are being used to fill others’ pockets the police mentioned

Nath, Commissioner of Police, Guwahati, said that it is the miscommunication from the general public or the contractors that is working as a hurdle in police’s work. “There have been several such incidents and on many occasions several people have even noticed the materials being taken away but they think that the materials are being taken away by the concerned department. Even the policemen on duty have no clue as we do not have any account of the materials dropped at such locations,” the Commissioner of Police said. He also added that it has been informed to the department on several occasions that the local police stations should be kept in the loop and provided with a list of the materials dropped within the vicinity. “There is also a possibility that the materials were never even delivered to the spot. Moreover, we cannot rule out the involvement of insiders who are involved in the theft of the materials,” Nath added. n

Data of items stolen, location and their values Police Station

Case number

Date of Filing

Item Stolen

Latasil Latasil Geeta Nagar Geeta Nagar Latasil Gorchuk Dispur Paltan Bazar Bhangagarh

26/2016 191/2016 109/2016 110/2016 201/2016 71/2017 632/2017 267/2017 67/2017

29-01-2016 18-06-2016 21-06-2016 22-06-2016 06-07-2016 15-02-2017 15-03-2017 20-03-2017 21-03-2017

Latasil

93/2017

30-03-2017

Bhangagarh Hatigaon Chandmari Fatasil Ambari Dispur

67/2017 191/2017 339/2017 139/2017 703/2017

13-04-2017 25-04-2017 26-04-2017 28-04-2017 22-03-2017

Dispur

878/2017

09-04-2017

Baby Roller DI Pipes (67 Nos.) DI Fittings DI Pipes (4 Nos.) DI Pipes (44 Nos.) DI Pipes (45 Nos.) DI Pipes (40 Nos.) DI Pipes (48 Nos.) DI Pipes (19 Nos.) DG set (1 No.) & DI Pipes (2 Nos.) DI Pipes (29 Nos.) DI Pipes (40 Nos.) MS Pipes (6 Nos.) MS Pipes (6 Nos.) DI Pipes (73 Nos.) DI Pipes (12 Nos.) MS Pipes (6 Nos.)

let alone escape with it. Thus, to execute the theft, the pipes need to be lifted by cranes onto a large trailer attached to trucks. Since, in most areas, the projects are be-

since June 2016. It is also suspected that the pipes are being smuggled to other states and are used in other such projects being carried out around the city. Although,

Total Value in Rupees 12,00,000 17,80,750 **** 1,76,000 8,88,000 9,00,000 4,62,000 9,60,000 7,32,000

4,50,000 4,95,000 4,62,000 12,00,000 14,40,000 17,860 6,26,496 about their lack of manpower and amenities to fight such crimes. Meanwhile, the commissioner of police had a different opinion to share. Talking to G Plus, Hiren

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Youth vandalism repeated; property worth Rs 10 lakhs damaged G Plus News

n yet another act of vandalism, a few miscreants got involved in a bitter brawl with some college students and in the process damaged private property worth Rs 10 lakhs. The Guwahati Town Club building took the brunt of the misdeed. It was in the evening of 17th May when a private celebration in the club got obstructed due to a tussle and ended on a very sour note. The auditorium of Guwahati Town Club had been hired by the National Law University for holding a farewell function. The party was slated between from 5:30 pm and 9:30 pm and it continued accordingly. It so happened that a couple of students had gone out of the venue for some timeonly to get entangled in a vicious scuffle with some outsiders. The situation erupted into a full-fledged fracas as the miscreants managed to gather a large number of people. “After the students of the law

The damaged facade of Gauhati Town Club | File photo

university had returned to the club the miscreants came looking for them. They came by the hundreds. The miscreants demanded that the club evict the students from its premises but the club management did not do so as it would have led to the situation worsening further. The miscreants then pelted stones and broke several glass windows, chairs and several other items. The vandalism caused damage to the property to the

tune of around Rs 10 lakhs. A mob-like situation had been created by that time and although the police had arrived, it took quite some time to control the situation,” said a member of Guwahati Town Club. The incident took place between 9:30 pm and 11:30 pm following which GTC authorities filed a case. Allegations soon surfaced that indicated that the students of Cotton College and Cotton College State Uni-

versity (CCSU) were involved in the vandalism. However, no concrete evidence has been emerged yet. “We have submitted the requisition to collect the CCTV footage and identification process is on. More details will unfold after we get hold of the footages. Although no such information has been mentioned in the FIR, we cannot rule out the possibility of the involvement of students of the premier institute. There are many who have mentioned about their involvement but no concrete evidence has been obtained so far,” said a senior police official. While, the surfacing of the name of the premier institute has certainly been a cause of worry it has to also be considered that its students have been involved in several brawls in the past. On two occasions at least the students were involved in brawls with Uber drivers and one of these remains one of the worst chapters in street brawl history of Guwahati. n

In The News

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Concern

City elevators under DA scanner: harsh penalty on non-compliance to safety norms The spotlight on lifts has come as a consequence of an elevator mishap that resulted in the death of a senior citizen at an apartment building creating apprehensions among residents of the city’s high-rise buildings Dimension of Hospital Lifts as per Assam Lifts and Escalators Rules, 2010 Machine Room Load Persons Car inside Area in Lift well Area in Entrance Width in Area in Square Kilograms Square meters Square meters millimeters meters

A lift in a commercial building of Guwahati | G Plus photo

Kalyan Deb kalyan.deb@g-plus.in

n 11th May, the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district administration announced that a survey and inspection of elevators in the district would be conducted soon. In an order issued by Dr M Angamuthu, Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (M), it was directed to all Circle Officers to conduct the survey and inspection of the lifts/elevators taking along with them staff from the Land Records department as also with the assistance of the competent authority of Guwahati Municipal Corporation and Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and asked them to submit a report after 30 days. The officers have been asked to prepare circle-wise database of the number of lifts and their functioning and ensure inspection by a team comprising the circle officers’ staff along with authorized officers of GMC and GMDA. It was also informed that any non-compliance and failure to qualify for the service will attract harsh legal action. The order came as a consequence of an incident that caused the death of a senior citizen in an elevator mishap at an apartment. Lily Bora, who is a resident of Bhetapara, was in the lift when it collapsed to a free-fall all of a sudden. However, what led to the demise of the senior citizen and the exact malfunction of the lift is yet to be known. Meanwhile, the tragic incident at the apartment in the Japorigog area had created panic among other residents of high-rise buildings and brought the safety of the lifts of the city under the scanner of the administration.

Possible Obstacle While approaching the Inspectorate of Electricity which is also the nodal agency of licensing and inspection of lifts it could be learnt that only 1,531 licenses have been issued by the department over all the years of its existence. Guwahati, as a developing city, has been seeing construction of high-rise buildings every day and lifts in such buildings have become a mandatory component. Thus, with the increasing number of buildings within the vicinity and the outskirts of the city, it can be assumed that the number of lifts that exist will exceed the number of licenses issued. Moreover, the

1020

2.28

5.10

800

20.35

1360

3.12

6.60

1200

23.10

1768

3.84

7.05

1200

23.92

conditions of a license or a direction given by the Chief Inspector shall, on conviction, be punishable with fine not exceeding five thousand rupees and, in the case of continuing contravention, with an additional fine which may extend to one hundred rupees for every day during which such contravention continues after conviction for the first such contravention.” In case of offences by companies, the concerned company or person in-charge of the company shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly. If the licensee has contravened any of the provisions of the Act or rules or any of the conditions of the license or directions given to him, the Chief Inspector may, after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard, suspend the license as per the violation. However, a loophole has surfaced in the order issued by the district administration. Despite being the nodal agency for inspec-

creteness of the inspection of the lifts without the expertise of the inspector of lifts.

The Act The Assam Lifts and Escalators Rules came into being in 2010 followed by Assam Lifts and Escalators Act, 2006 in order to provide for the regulation of the installation, maintenance and safe working of electric lifts and escalators and of all machinery and apparatus pertaining thereto in the state of Assam. The Act came into being as it is expedient to provide for the regulation of the installation, maintenance and safe working of electric lifts and escalators and of all machinery and apparatus pertaining thereto in the state. As per the Act, the owner of a place intending to install a lift or an escalator is to submit an application for permission to erect such lift or escalator. It was after the Rules were implemented that a notification was is-

Dimension of Passenger Lifts as per Assam Lifts and Escalators Rules, 2010 Load Persons Kilograms

Car inside Area in Square meters

Lift well Area in Square meters

Entrance Width in millimeters

Machine Room Area in Square meters

272

0.77

2.47

800

12.92

408

1.10

3.04

800

13.94

544

1.43

3.61

800

14.96

680

1.75

3.99

800

15.64

884

2.20

5.25

900

18.40

1088

2.20

5.25

1000

18.40

1360

3.10

6.00

1000

19.60

possibility of absence of legitimacy of the lifts may also be followed by a large number of elevators being liable to penalty. As per the Assam Lifts and Escalators Act, 2006, “Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Act, rules or the

tion of lifts the order does not have any mention of the Inspectorate of Electricity and the officials of the department have not been made aware of the order until they were approached by G Plus. Meanwhile, it also raises questions on the con-

sued by the state government followed by the appointment of the Chief Inspector of Lifts and Escalators and the Inspector of Lifts and Escalators. Any person, prior to installing an escalator or a lift has to obtain a license from the Inspec-

torate of Electricity. The process can be fulfilled by make an application to the authorized officer before any work in connection with the installation of the lift or escalator. The concerned installer has to get the license renewed annually

against a fee.

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

City

City buses to keep doors shut during motion Vistara to start self-service kiosks at Guwahati airport for easy check-in

A city bus of Guwahati with its doors closed while in motion | G Plus photo

G Plus News

anaging the city buses of Guwahati has always been a mammoth task for the traffic department. Unlike other cities the bus-stops of the city require continuous monitoring of traffic cops to ensure prevention of any violations by the buses and also to make them stop in a straight line so as to prevent traffic congestion.

To augment these efforts, the traffic department has issued an order by which the doors of all the buses are to remain closed while the vehicle is in motion. The decision has been taken in view of the routine practice of the bus conductors to hang out from the door while calling out for passengers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The drive is to ensure discipline of the city buses and encourage the

practice of stopping at designated stoppages. Meanwhile, it is a common sight to see the bus conductor hanging out of the door while the vehicles are in motion. The same can also be seen with passengers in case of overloaded buses which is a dangerous practice and can lead to accidents,â&#x20AC;? said Amanjeet Kaur, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic). Violation of the order will result in a fine of Rs 1,000. The traffic department has been making continuous efforts in order to provide safer commuting experience to the people of the city. However, despite several efforts made by the traffic and the transport departments, bus services in the city remain far from adhering to norms and rules. The initiation of the drive is likely to ensure safety of the passengers and those commuting on the roads but the success of such drives will also require effort and cooperation of the people. On the other hand, the sections of the commuting public have raised apprehensions about the heat that would be generated if the doors of the buses remain closed during the summer. n

Representative image of a self-service kiosks

G Plus News

o ease check-in facility for the passengers, Vistara airline will soon launch self service kiosks at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati. Starting the service in Delhi and Mum-

bai airports, the airline will soon expand the service to 17 other airports, including Guwahati, by the end of June. The facility will allow customers to check in, select seats and print their boarding passes for their flights without queuing up at check-in desks. n

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

In The News

NFR on ‘track’ towards changing NE surface connectivity With a spurt of developments in the railway connectivity scenario in the recent times, G Plus details all that has materialized and is forthcoming in the plans chalked up by Northeast Frontier Railway Kalyan Deb kalyan.deb@g-plus.in

n the recent past, while addressing the centenary celebrations of the prominent voluntary organisation, Bharat Sevashram Sangha in Shillong through video conferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the government is trying to make the Northeast a gateway to Southeast Asia and has made huge investments towards the same. The Prime Minister said that the major thrust would be to improve connectivity and develop the entire region for tourism purposes. “All these initiatives will help to make the Northeast the gateway to Southeast Asia,” the Prime Minister said. Modi said that an investment of Rs 40,000 crores is being made to improve the road infrastructure in the region while 19 big railway projects have also been started, as

A view of Guwahati Railway Station in its current situation | G Plus photo

Highlights (2016-2017) yy yy yy

reported by the agency. “We are also improving the electricity situation in the Northeast and trying to bring even more tourists to the region,” Modi said. In the mean time, improving railway connectivity remains equally important as the Guwahati junction of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) receives the maximum footfall when it comes to people travelling to other parts of the country. Among recent developments, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Union Minister of Railways, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a 26-kmlong new broad gauge railway line from Murkongselek in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and on 7th May, announced commencement of surveys for seven new broad gauge railway lines in Arunachal Pradesh. He also flagged off a new Shatabdi Express (No. 12088/12087) between Naharlagun and Guwahati. The newly flagged off Shatabdi Express train will provide a faster and more comfortable connectivity between the capital cities of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. This superfast fully air-conditioned train will cover the distance in six hours. It will start from Naharlagun at 5 am and arrive in Guwahati at 11 am every Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. From Guwahati it will leave at 3:20 pm to reach Naharlagun at 9:20 pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This new train is expected to fulfil a long standing

demand of the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Along with the aforementioned trains NFR got 26 new trains during the financial year 2016-17. There have also been several new developments along with the introduction of DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) Trains. With eight coaches to each train, the trains were launched in October 2016 and every coach has an independent

over, it was informed that NFR has a target of replacing all the passenger trains with DEMU trains.

The Blueprint With Northeast being fully broad-gauged, NFR plans to connect all the capitals of the north-eastern states by BG train connectivity along with the capital of Sikkim by 2020. A line will be built from Dimapur to Kohima and

make Guwahati the hub as all the trains will travel through the city. Moreover, the major role of railway is that with so many different places connected we open up avenues for development. Meanwhile, the trans-nation concept will bank heavily on NFR and as per the planning the trains will travel through Myanmar via Tripura and then touch Bangladesh. So NFR has been mandated to connect India with Bangladesh and further a line has already been sanctioned from Tripura to Bangladesh from a place called Akhaura. So the day may not be far when we could have a train from Tripura to Bangladesh and eventually to other places,” said CPRO, NF Railway, Pranab Jyoti Sharma. Among other projects, the railway electrification is already in progress and by 2019 all the trains of the Northeast will be electrified. The project has already reached Katihar junction and is being executed on a budget of Rs 646 crores. Flagging off the trains on 7th May, the railway minister said that Indian Railways has accelerated its developmental work and in the last three years alone had invested close to Rs. 3.5 lakh crores for various projects in the country for capacity enhancement. He also said that currently projects worth about Rs. 90,000 crores are being executed in the northeast region. Shri Prabhu said, “Indian Railway is committed for not only providing

Extension of existing services in 2016-17 Train number

Extended To From

w.e.f

15909/15910 New Tinsukia-Lalgarh A. A. Exp

New Tinsukia

Dibrugarh Town

04-04-2016

15901/15902 Bangalore-Dibrugarh Exp (via Moranhat)

Dibrugarh

New Tinsukia

04-04-2016

12377/12378 Sealdah-New Jaipaiguri Exp

Sealdah

New Alipurduar

01-10-2016

15927/15928 Rangiya-Dibrugarh Exp

Dibrugarh

New Tinsukia

01-10-2016

15817/15818 Dhubri-Slighat Rajya Rani Exp

Dhubri

Alipurduar

01-10-2016

55727/55728 Katihar-Kaliyaganj Pass

Kaliyaganj

Radhikapur

01-10-2016

15658/15657 GHY-SDAH Kanchanjungha Exp (New No. 15660/15659 Agartala-Sealdah)

Guwahati

Agartala

08-10-2016

55661/55662 Mahishashan-Karimganj Pass

Karimganj

Silchar

05.12.2016

driving mechanism that helps the train to accelerate and decelerate in a very short span of time. More-

another one up to Imphal. “While all the states get railway connectivity it will ultimately

better connectivity but also better passenger experience.” He added, “Our Prime Minister

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

In The News New Train Services introduced in 2016-17 With effect from

Train number

Route

15655/15656

Kamakhya-Katra Exp (weekly)

55665/55666

Silcharaibam Pass (Daily)

55667/55668

Silchar-Bhairabi Pass (Daily)

14019/14020

Agartala-Anand Vihar (Weekly)

25255

DJ-Ghurn-DJ Sp! (New No.52556 w.e.f. 01.03.17)

25256

DJ-Ghum-DJ Sp' (New No.52557 w.e.f. 01.03.17)

25257

DJ-Ghum-DJ Spi (New No.52558 w.e.f. 01.03.17)

15967/15968

Rangiya- Dibrugarh Exp (Triweekly)

55663/55664

Agartala-Silchar Pass (Daily)

55675/55676

Agartala-Dharmanagar Pass (Daily)

55677/55678

Silchar-Dharmanagar Pass (Daily)

55679/55680

Agartala-Dharmanagar Pass (Daily)

55773/55774

Teznarayanpur-Katihar Pass(Daily)

55893/55894

Rangiya-Rangapara North Pass (Tri-weekly)

55895/55896

Rangiya-Murkongselek Pass(Triweekly)

75901/75902

Tinsukia-Ledo DEMU (Daily)

75903/75904

Dibrugarh Town-Tinsukia DEMU (Daily)

75905/75906

Dibrugarh Town-Ledo DEMU (Daily)

75907/75908

Dibrugarh Town-Ledo DEMU (Daily)

75909/75910

Dibrugarh Town- Dangari DEMU (Daily)

75911/75912

Tinsukia-Ledo DEMU (Daily)

55661/62

MSSN-KXJ Pass (Except Sunday)

55685/86

MSSN-SCL Pass (Except Sunday)

12504/12503

Kamakhya-Bangalore Humsafar Exp (weekly)

55681/55682

Udaipur-Agartala Pass. (Except Sunday)

25-12-2016

55683/55684

Udaipur-Agartala Pass. (Except Sunday)

24-01-2017

27-05-2016

has taken special interest in the development of the North-eastern region as part of the Act East Policy and we have been relentlessly trying to improve our services, in-

31-07-2016

21-09-16

07-10-2016

08-10-2016

10-11-2016

frastructure and amenities for the passengers. The electrification project work between Raninagar Jalpaiguri to Guwahati (382 kms) has already begun and is being

Kamakhya Junction | G Plus photo

already been sanctioned during the last budget session. The elevated quadrupling will consist of four

there are several issues that will be involved such as land acquisition, jellying the metro plan, mas-

2015-2016 (Upto February)

2016-2017 (Upto February)

Goods earning (Crores)

1702.78

1706.85

Passengers earning (Crores)

926.33

1043.17

Total earnings (Crores)

3257.09

3281

Punctuality (Mail Exp)

86.59 %

88.82%

done at a cost of Rs. 646 crores and will be completed by March 2020. Also, electrification of the entire mainline section of NF Railway (1102kms) has been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 1,432 crores.” Meanwhile, a project of an elevated corridor between Kamakhya and New Guwahati (10 kms) has

lines - two each for passenger and goods trains. The initiation of the project will certainly help in eradicating the problem of the urban issue of level-crossing congestion. “The Detailed Project Report (DPR) is currently under presentation and once it is made we will get a detailed estimate. However,

ter plan, smart city and we have had meetings with the concerned authorities and we are palliating the project. The bigger plan is, we are looking forward to developing Kamakhya as a more important station that will ease the pressure off Guwahati station,” the CPRO informed. n

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Health

City to get new heart institute from May 21

Assam has a high rate of heart disease and it is expected that by 2020 the disease will turn out to be a leading cause of death across the country as well according to a study

Juthika Baruah juthika.baruah@g-plus.in

eart disease has emerged as one of the major killers globally and India is not an exception. The Northeast region and Assam also have a high rate of cardiac ailments and according to a study it is expected that by 2020 heart diseases will turn out to be a leading cause of death and disability. Every year thousands of patients go outside for treatment of heart disease but now people can expect state-of-the-art facilities for cardiac treatment and cardi-

ac surgery here in the city with the opening of the new Nemcare Heart Institute & Research Centre and Super Speciality Hospital from 21st May, 2017. “Heart disease has become one of the most common ailments and every 33 seconds 1 person dies of heart attack in India. 272 people suffer from heart diseases for every 1 lakh population in India while the figure is 235 internationally which shows that India has a very high rate of cardiac arrests. In Assam, it is seen that most patients go outside for better treatment but now people will get the same treatment here in the city as the entire team of cardiology including me

will be present here in the Nemcare Heart Institute,” said cardiologist Dr. Apurba Kumar Sarma while speaking to G Plus. The doctor said that rheumatic heart disease, which is most common, has gone down as the people have become aware and go for treatment early. The most critical heart diseases are Congenital Heart Disease which is detected during birth itself, Valvular Heart Disease and Coronary Artery disease. The doctor also said that earlier heart disease was detected after 40-45 years of age but now people are suffering from the disease before 40 and certain symptoms should be noticed for early detection of the same. One should not ignore the following symptoms, especially those who are 40 or older and are overweight or diabetic, have high cholesterol or hypertension and if one is a smoker then the following symptoms should be noticed like chest discomfort, vomiting tendency or indigestion, heart burn or bloated abdomen (gas problem), spreading pain with or without relation to exertion, throat and jaw pain, getting exhausted easily after or during a bath or a meal, feeling dizzy and unconsciousness, abnormal sweating, persistent cough without respiratory tract infections and swelling of legs

and feet. Managing Director of Nemcare Hospital, Dr. Hitesh Baruah, on the other hand, said that people have to go outside for treatment as there is lack of infrastructure here. The problem will now be solved as the Nemcare Heart Institute will provide the infrastructure for better treatment facility and instead of people going outside patients from across the country will now come for treatment here to the city at the Nemcare super speciality hospital. The newly built infrastructure is as per the latest concepts in hospital design and equipped with the most modern medical gadgets with 38 ICUs, four cardiac operation theatres and Cathlab. Dr. Baruah also said that the main objective of establishing the heart institute is to provide the best treatment at affordable prices and it will also target the BPL families which will be provided with all the facilities. According to one cardiologist, women are still discriminated against when it comes to the management and treatment of this disease. Women are more likely than men to be under diagnosed and under-treated mostly because the presentation, progression and outcomes of the disease are different and less understood in women than in men. One

in three women die due to heart diseases and the need of the hour is that each and every woman must be educated about the risks associated with heart diseases to reduce the mortality rate. n

Assam’s first water ATM inaugurated G Plus News

hief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday inaugurated the state’s first water ATM at Dibrugarh with the objective to provide safe and potable drinking water at an affordable cost. Inaugurating the ATM at the Kadomoni Water Supply Scheme campus, Sonowal said that people

will now be able to avail the facility of safe drinking water which meets the standards of World Health Organisation. People can now buy 20 litres of RO water by paying Rs 10 and ATM cards will be provided to avail the facility. Sonowal also launched an education programme ‘Lakshya’ at the Chowkidinghee playground which aims to improve the quality of education. The aim of the programme is to make learning

an interesting process, improve students’ attendance, setting up digital classrooms on pilot basis, involve the contribution of parents and guardians in developing the child’s education, improve the child’s education by making them understand the concepts as against memorizing, motivate them to set goals, and improve overall performance in the important examinations of their education life. n

Weather report for the week Guwahati

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

Scattered T-Storms

T-Storms

Scattered T-Storms

T-Storms

32°/23° C

33°/24° C

33°/25° C

SATURDAY

Scattered T-Storms

32°/23° C

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Will free diagnostic services by govt affect the private diagnostic centres?

Health

The diagnostic centres in the city charge double the rate than the government hospitals as they have to pay commission to the doctors

File photo of an ultra sound in progress

Juthika Baruah juthika.baruah@g-plus.in

ith increasing health problems, the number of diagnostic centres has also increased in the city. In fact, this has become a booming business in the health sector as these diagnostic centres charge customers exorbitantly for clinical tests. The same are much lower in the government hospitals. Now that the government has made CT-scan and X-ray services free of cost in the government hospitals people will now be able to avail such services rather than spend heavily in the private diagnostic centres. The Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, has launched the free diagnostic services in 16 districts of the state and urged the people to take advantage of the new facilities. The project was launched under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with Spandan Diagnostic based in Bengal which is expected to provide a major fillip to medical services in the state by providing time-bound free diagnostic CT scan, X-ray and laboratory services completely free of cost to all sections of people through the centres set up in 13 districts. Spandan Diagnostic will operate GE Healthcareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Revolution ACTs 16 slice CT machines in all the centres. The Revolution ACTs are the first CT machines developed and manufactured by GE Healthcare in

Bangaluru. The initiative has been taken based on the assumption that a recent study says that there are high rates of accidents in the state. Road accidents cause 50.4%

hour and two out of them become disabled as a result. The yearly figure of stroke-affected people in the state is 54,890. Faster diagnosis by CT scans,

spoke model. The primary health centres and circle health centres will send samples to state-of-the-art laboratories in all the 28 district centres which will send back the results within 24 hours for normal cases and three hours in case of emergencies. The state health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, had once said that the private diagnostic centres are running based on the doctors. It is the doctors who refer their patients to particular diagnostic centres for the tests to be done as they get commission from each test. The minister therefore said that the fee structure will be made uniform for all the diagnostic centres so that they cannot charge exorbitantly from the customers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fees have not yet been made uniform in the diagnostic centres but it is necessary to do as they charge very high prices for some of the tests. The machines used are the same as the machines used in the government hospitals and therefore, the price should not differ,â&#x20AC;? said Superintendent of MMCH, MC Rajbongshi while speaking to G Plus. Lifestyle disease has increased

Rates of different tests in both public and private centres Name of Tests

Government Hospital Rates (Rs)

Private Diagnostic Centre Rates (Rs)

C.T Scan Brain

900

2400-3600

C.T Scan whole Abdomen

1500

5400-7920

C.T Scan Throax

1200-1400

3470

C.T Scan Spine

1200

5620

C.T Scan Brain & Orbit

900

4500

C.T Scan Brain & Mastoi DS

800-1000

4640

Blood Group

120-190

Uric Acid

200-220

Blood Sugar Fasting

Blood Sugar PP

Stool RE

150

MRI

3000

6790 up to more than 10000

X-ray

50-70 (different types)

310-2000 (different types)

Stool RE

150

cent survey of International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there are 382 million people living with diabetes worldwide and India accounts for nearly 69 million. Guwahati has witnessed that diabetes patients have doubled since the last five years which is now more than 15% and the most frightening thing is that the disease remains hidden. Half the patients remain undiagnosed as they are not aware of it and for every one person diagnosed there are 3-4 persons in the pre-diabetes stage. According to a renowned radiologist of the city it is only the people from the urban areas who are aware of lifestyle disease and come for diagnosis and the rest of the people from the rural areas mostly remain undiagnosed. It can be assumed from the doctors that only a small percentage of people come for diagnosis but this small percentage is enough the business of the diagnostic centres to boom. According to the Health Minister who once stated that the doctors, in order to earn commissions from the diagnostic centres, refer their patients to particular diagnostic centres, the Radiologist said that it is not that they receive commission but some people are not aware as to where they should go in order to get a better facility of health care and they take suggestions from the doctors and accordingly the doctors suggest them to go to a particular diagnostic centre. n

yy deaths in the state, a number which is significantly higher than the national average of 36.4%. The state also has a high incidence of stroke where six persons get a stroke every

expected to be six hours for normal cases and two in case of emergencies, will result in speedier treatment and save lives. The free laboratory services are based on a hub-and-

at an alarming rate and diseases are common among the urban population especially diabetes, cancer and heart diseases which are silently killing people. According to the re-

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Special Feature

Government Performance Poll - Year

As the chief minister and the finance minister were too busy to talk to G Plus with regard to the performance of their government in the last one year, G Plus conducted a survey taking the people of Assam as the universe to understand how the newly elected government performed in its first year after having raised the expectations of the people Rahul Chanda rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

he BJP will complete one year in power on 24th May. Before the elections of 2016, the BJP had claimed that they had prepared their manifesto by taking suggestions from experts in different fields and on the basis of the information obtained, the manifesto drew the sketch of BJPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Assam dream. After almost one year how many promises were fulfilled? Are the people happy with the performance of the government? In what sectors has the government scored well and in what sectors did they fail? G Plus tried to talk to the chief minister and the

finance minister to understand how they felt about their own performance in the last one year, but they were too busy to talk to us. So, G Plus conducted a survey and propped up a questionnaire to 500 respondents through social media channels and collected the responses by also using other methods of sampling. The methodology of the survey was random sampling and the universe of the survey was people living in Assam. What are the findings of the survey? Are people happy with the performance at all? Or have there been some heart burns? G Plus analyses the data collected from the survey.

The promises

The BJP, in its manifesto before

elections, talked about safety and security of the state and promised that it will set up basic infrastructure and civic amenities in vulnerable areas. The manifesto said that it will ban those insurgent groups which have declared war against the state and will follow a zero tolerance policy against those who want to create disturbances in the society. The manifesto also talked about the Assam Accord and claimed that it will implement the Accord in its letter and spirit. The BJP manifesto said that it will protect the Xatras, and other religious, cultural and ecological entities from its infiltrators. Regarding employment generation, BJP said that it will set up 100 BPOs in the state to absorb the existing unemployment

talent pool. The BJP also emphasised on skill development and vocational trainings as mandatory components of all courses and syllabi in the education institutes of Assam. Further, the BJP said that it will build 30 new ITIs in the state if it came to power. Similarly, it also made promises of better connectivity to the people of Barak Valley, establishment of a secretariat there and many other development plans. In the sector of infrastructure development BJP promised to provide land patta to every landless family of the state. It said that it will construct affordable housing complexes on the plots of land belonging to the government and local urban bodies. BJP claimed it will introduce housing

micro finance for people with low or irregular income. Similarly, the BJP promised many things with regard to the development of roads, waterways, aviation, railways, energy and renewable energy, public health and healthcare, education, sports, labour, local languages and culture, environment and forests, water management and many more. Guwahati was declared as an upcoming smart city and within five years, since 2015, it was expected to become smart. Similarly, BJP made 110 concrete promises. In the survey questionnaire, G Plus asked 19 questions out of which 9 were direct close ended questions. For the rest, the respondents were asked to rate the government in certain sectors.

The Analysis On asking whether Guwahati made any progress in the smart city project in one year, 56.2% people said no progress at all, 27% said there may be some progress and 16.8% people feel there is progress. So, maximum people feel there has been no progress in smart city project.

28.00% YES NO 72.00%

YES NO 73.00%

YES NO MAYBE

In one year did Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan bring any change in Guwahati? 63.4% respondents feel there is no difference at all, whereas 36.6% people feel the abhiyan did bring some change to the city.

36.60% YES NO 63.40%

56.20%

In the last year, did the quality of roads improve in the state? 72% people said there was no improvement in the quality of the roads whereas 28% respondents feel there has been improvement in the quality of the roads in the state.

Do you think BJP government has addressed the issue of illegal migrants in Assam after coming to power? 72.2% people feel BJP failed to address the issue and 27.8% people feel the government has addressed the issue.

27.00%

27%

16.80%

38.60%

NO 61.40%

Did the government take adequate safety measures for women in cities like Guwahati and do the women feel safe? 58.4% people feel women are not safe and measures were not taken whereas 41.6% respondents feel women are safe in Guwahati.

27.80% YES NO 72.20%

Talking about the issue of unemployment, 73% people feel the government did not address the issue of unemployment and 27% feel the government has addressed the issue but maximum people feel the issue was not addressed adequately.

YES

47.40%

YES 52.60%

Talking about corruption 61.4% people feel corruption has decreased in the state and 38.6% people feel corruption has not decreased.

41.60% 58.40%

YES NO

Has the government effected a positive economic growth for Assam? 52.6% respondents feel that the government has effected a positive economic growth for the state but 47.4% feel that there was no effect by the government for a positive economic growth.

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Special Feature 3.40%

0.80%

1.40%

Enquiring who the most popular political leader is in the state, 67.2% respondents feel Himanta Biswa Sarma is the most popular leader and 27.2% people feel Sarbananda Sonowal is the popular leader. Parimal Suklabaidya and Chandra Mohan Patowari among others were also mentioned.

Himanta Biswa Sarma 27.20%

Sarbananda Sonowal Chandra Mohan Patowary Parimal Suklabaidya 67.20%

Other 17.2 15

The Ratings

12.4 8.2

After the direct close ended questions G Plus asked the respondents to rate the government between 1 and 10 on their performance in various sectors.

7.6

6.4

5.8

14.6 12.8

12345678 12 1

11.4

5.6 3.8 1.8

11.6

9.8

2345678

Asking about road and infrastructure, the government scored 4.32 out of 10 on an average as 15% gave 5 out of 10, 14.6% gave 1 out of 10 and similarly, various ratings were given to the government.

In the field of education, on an average the government scored 5.58 as 17.2% respondent gave 7 out of 10 and 15% gave 5 out of 10. Similarly with all other ratings the Himanta headed department scored 5.58 for the development of the education sector.

19.2 16.6

In Guwahati development and smart city project progress the government scored 4.12 on an average.

19.6

In the health sector the government scored 5.57 on an average.

13.4

14.4

8.2

4.6

7.4

7.2

5.6

16.6

10 1

In tackling corruption many people, talking to G Plus, said that the government has shown some proactiveness in reducing the menace but according to the survey, the government scored 5.84 out of 10.

7.8

4.8

5.6

12345678

10.2

4.6

In maintaining law and order scenario the government scored 5.28.

123456789

20.4

In Make in India schemes the government scored 4.5 out of 10.

Central Schemes As the Narendra Modi government is also completing 3 years soon, G Plus also asked the respondents to rate the state government in the implementation of some central projects to find out how the state is faring in those projects. Talking about Digital India, the government averaged 5.2 out of 10.

12.8

12.4 9.2

9.4

23456789

14.2

10 11.8

10.2

3.8

3.4

8.8

18.8

8.8

7.2

123456789

10.8

13.4

11.6

12.6

12.4

11.6

11.4 10

11.2

9.4

11.6 8.8

9.4

7.6 4.2

5.4

9.6

7.2

23456789

5.2 16.4 14.6 13.2

2345678

11.4

0 9.2

So the survey findings show that the government needs to pull up its socks and start showing some results; they had made a slew of promises before the polls and the performance over one year just does not look impressive enough.

10.8 8.8

7.8 4.4

23456789

3.4

In Skill India Campaign the state government received 4.6 points out of 10 on an average

All data in histograms represented in percentage (%)

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Special Tarun Gogoi Former chief minister “As far as performance is concerned first we have to see the promises they had made. They were talking about paribartan - change for better. Price rise, creating employment, checking corruption, freeing the country from foreigners - these were the basic promises. The rest is of course to safeguard the land, identity and culture of Assamese people. They were exploiting the religious sentiments. The question is how far they have completed in one year. The government could not even form the complete ministry in one year. They have totally failed to control price rise. Again, if corruption has at all gone down, illegal gates have been removed, why have the prices gone up? A few arrests have been made but you have to wait and watch how many of them will be convicted. There is a serious charge against one of their ministers also. Everybody knows about Ranjit Dutta, his officer himself said that on his instructions, he took bribe. The officer made a statement before the police also, in spite of that the minister continues to be there. The BJP charged some ministers of corruption when they were in our government but now they are very important ministers in their government. One minister, when he was with us, they themselves brought charges against him. And today he is the key man. In creation of jobs, both central and the state governments have failed miserably. Even for the Subansari project their top leaders claimed they won’t allow it, and today they are for it. In health you just see the condition of 108. Are the model hospitals filled up with doctors? Are the patients getting medicines? In Majuli, the chief minister’s own constituency, a patient died due to absence of doctors. In the field of education, the education minister created a lot of mess by making all sort of comments about SEBA examination process and the procedure of giving grace marks. He has exposed himself by saying all these things. If the previous government is responsible then he himself is equally responsible. At that time he himself was the education minister. I don’t see any minister performing well, performing in activities not in advertisements. In advertisements, yes, the chief minister is number one. In publicity, they are performing well because there are many advertisements but no work. For a simple logo contest there is a huge publicity with the chief minister’s photo. I have never seen such kind of publicity. So to gain publicity they are number one. Himanta Biswa Sarma and the CM, both are good in gaining publicity but work wise nothing.

Ranjit Das State BJP president Our government will complete one year on 24th May. So far as my knowledge goes, the performance during the year has been very good. Firstly, let’s analyze the PWD department. When I was the firsttime MLA in the year 2011-12, the department sanctioned only Rs 50 lakhs for a scheme in a year. But this year within eight months, the BJP has sanctioned Rs 9 crores for each and every MLA - Rs 2 crores for one scheme and Rs 7 crores for another scheme. In 2011-12 I was able to make only one road with Rs 50 lakhs. This time, with Rs 9 crores, I have completed 18 roads in my constituency. So the difference is that during Congress rule, one year, one road, but in BJP rule in eight months 18 roads. Secondly, our government announced free admissions to the college-going students, particularly to the poor students. 4.80 lakh students got free admissions. Earlier, no government took this kind of decision. We have also decided free admissions at the university level. Congress was never able to take such decisions. Talking about health sector, in Atal Amrit Abhijan, cancer patients, heart patients, kidney patients, neurological patients, in burnt case, new born baby, in six cases, government will provide Rs 2 lakhs as medical expense if somebody applies to the government for help with prescriptions, bank details and other documents. 3,414 beneficiary patients recently received Rs 2 lakhs each. In fishery sector, our government decided to open some new fisheries. In spite of so many ponds, rivers and lakes our fish production is low compared to other states. Our government has decided to increase the fish production in Assam. Also there are so many Satras in Assam and recently the state government announced a huge amount of money to develop the infrastructure of the Satras in the state. The achievement is also very good where protection of the rights of the indigenous people of the state is concerned. In comparison to earlier years, the revenue collection growth this year is 21%. Corruption is decreasing, it is difficult to eradicate corruption entirely but it is going down. Similarly, many good decisions have been taken and if we evaluate the performance of the government, it is very good. According to me the top performing ministers are Himanta Biswa Sarma and Parimal Suklabaidya. Himanta, because of his capacity. His system cannot be compared with others. All the ministers have worked satisfactorily but Himanta and Parimal score more than letter marks.

Kulkul Rahman Political Observer

Hiren Gohain Social scientist “Well, they are making a lot of promises. Let us see some results. Some good work in detecting and punishing corruption, but one does not know how they are going to check it.”

“One year of BJP rule in Assam. Nothing has changed. One Namami Brahmaputra festival was held which turned out to be a damp squib, literally. The money could have been used in curbing the erosion in Majuli. A cosmetic makeover of changing some of the names of the roads of Guwahati was just that - cosmetic. This government seems to be still fumbling as to what its priorities are.”

The BJP government in the state is of water has flowed down the Brah activities that have been without p feeling that the initial buoyancy th “poriborton” or change for the bet general feeling is that the governm the second year. G Plus felt it appro government has performed during

Ripun Bor

APCC Preside

“You will call me biased if I do not mention I have not seen any good things happening. Aft that for three-four months there was a slight change in from bad to worse. And talking about negative things there are many. the country especially in Assam, in the name of fundamentalism, religi to impose the ideology of RSS but in a very silent manner and very met camouflaged manner. This will damage the social fabric of our state. Se what they have said about corruption but now I have seen that they ar not want to take names. But some ministers and high profile political lea the BJP who raised alarm and raised voices that Congress is the most c even the BJP parliamentary party, in their white paper, had said that am is the most corrupt state and they had targeted one particular ministe leaders like SS Ahluwalia, Amit Shah and even Rajnath Singh used to say power in Assam so and so people will be put behind bars. I will not take after joining the BJP the corruption charges have gone and they have bec this is something very bad by the government. BJP is a hypocrite when t that a few ministers seem to be working and coming on the media, but t can’t say if any of the ministers in BJP government is performing. This go passed and they have not been able to fill their full cabinet. Eight minist

Aabhijeet Sh President, APW

“First thing I want to say is that the governmen complete the honeymoon on 24th May. In the hon them, but still we think it was a zero performance fro going to mandirs, masjids and worshipping. He is busy asking p no practical work done by him till date. On the other hand we are getting results Mohan Patowari. From the agriculture department we are getting some resul now. People of Assam expect more from the chief minister, because we want so any work spirit from him. So we hope after the honeymoon period the CM will metres and the development work will go at that rate. We are very sad to say t Brahmaputra a new culture came among the DCs which is the donation cultur lecting donations in the name of Namami which is a very sad moment for Ass pockets of government employees. No doubt he represented a social organisati organisation, now he is the chief minister of Assam, and people will not like the in their pockets, whether it is for Namami Brahmaputra or any other festival. Eve ister is Himanta Biswa Sarma and second is Chandra Mohan Patowari. You can but you cannot ignore his work. The BJP government came in Assam for the i that we are in favour of 1971, it’s better the Congress be here.”

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Special Arup Borbora Senior Advocate

s at the threshold of completing one year in power. Plenty hmaputra and the past year has seen a few governmental precedents in the state. At the same time, there is a certain hat the government displayed in bringing the promised tter seems to have tapered down drastically and the ment has to pull up its socks long and hard going into opriate to procure some educated opinions on how the g its one year in power.

ent

n any good thing but through my eyes fter observing very carefully, I only see the environment. But now it has gone Firstly, they are dividing the people of ion, caste, creed and so on. They want ticulously. In a disguising way and in a econdly, they have compromised from re surrounded by corrupt persons. I do aders, while they were in Congress, it is corrupt government in the country and mong the Congress-ruled states, Assam er of Assam at that time. Even big BJP y that when BJP government comes to names but everybody knows that now come as pure as the water of Ganga. So they talk about corruption. I have seen there is nothing visible in their works. I overnment is so indecisive; one year has ters are yet to be inducted.”

harma

nt is in a honeymoon period and they will neymoon period we can’t expect more from om the chief minister of Assam. He is busy people to wear dhoti, he is busy in festivals, ts from Himanta Biswa Sarma and Chandra lts. So as a whole, you can say 50-50 right ome spirit from him but we are not getting l be on a right track, at a speed of 120 kilothat for first time in Assam due to Namami re. Very sorry to say that the DCs were colsam, and money receipts were given in the tion, but now he is not representing a social CM or his employees having donation slips eryone knows that the top performing minn like him, hate him, you can do everything issue of 1951. If the state government says

“As a person not having any pre-emptive mindset for and against any political party, I must say that installation of Sarbananda Sonowal’s government was very refreshing in the backdrop of the 15-year long misrule, corruption, mismanagement of public fund, degradation on many fronts and sectors during the regime of Tarun Gogoi. So it was refreshing. One year thereafter, it is a mixed feeling. While we see the refreshing face of Sarbananda, who appears to be mature and more presentable than Tarun Gogoi as a statesman, that itself doesn’t suffice. He doesn’t speak haywire like Tarun Gogoi, doesn’t make light of any serious things like Tarun Gogoi. But yet, what is expected is not statements or gimmicks but some real work and some ground work. First and foremost, people were happy to see the reduction in the VVIP culture. The credit goes to Narendra Modi for removing the red lights. I believe Sarbananda will do well in removing the sirens as well. Corruption is one area in which this government appears to have taken a certain stance. The members and chairman of APSC and other officers of various departments like irrigation, social welfare, etc. have been arrested. Bribes have been detected. In fact, the office of the commissioner secretary in Janata Bhawan was raided and the amount of bribes taken by his office was recovered. So those were good signs. But yet I feel at a certain stage they halted, they didn’t proceed further, and we are yet to see any politician, any minister - current or past - being roped in as on date. But there have been allegations galore on the basis of various newspaper reports. Not only newspaper reports, RTI activists and other social activists, with facts and figures, have shown and implicated the ministers of the current term as well as the earlier term. Some of the earlier ministers are in the present ministry as well. Education has further deteriorated and it is better not to go for any gimmicks and announcements. And if at all you say that textbooks will be distributed free, it’s the absolute responsibility of the government and more particularly the education ministry to ensure at the beginning of the academic year itself, without the delay of even a day or two, that the books are equitably distributed in government schools. Here they have miserably failed for two months and passing the buck will not do. They are viciously liable for this. And then, the government has compromised on issues like rehabilitation of Hindu migrants from Bangladesh. 2016 amendment bill doesn’t go well with their declaration on the pre-poll manifesto. At the same time the so-called declaration and adoption of a cabinet resolution pertaining to adoption of Sanskrit as a compulsory subject at the school level, and suddenly abandoning the decision! These are the grey areas which have diminished the credibility of the government. One more thing: Sarbananda Sonowal, at times, appears to be the proxy chief minister. It is as if Himanta Biswa Sarma is actually running the government in all forms. I don’t understand how a particular minister of one department can announce the general policy of the government which only the chief minister is expected to speak about. So the people are confused whether it is Sarbananda or Himanta who is really at the helm of affairs. I hope Sonowal will realise this. Of course it is just one year; it is not enough to criticise more in other areas. We are yet to see the first monsoon, let us see. People have seen Namami, people have seen other various utsavs, now it is the grass works. How the government successfully comes across the ensuing monsoon season will only justify the very idea of going for festivities during the winter season.”

Nani Gopal Mahanta GU Professor and political commentator “Talking about the positive part, politics is not only about realism, it’s also about perception. The burden of expectation or hope was very high on this government. That way the government has started on a positive note. Some positive changes have definitely taken place. Complaints about corruption even to Tarun Gogoi previously used to make him ask for evidence to action - a defensive move. There used to be legitimisation of violence at the institutional level; there used to be a lethargic attitude towards things. This government is after corruption. How many have gone to jail or will be convicted will take some time to process. The APSC scam, agriculture scam, excise scam - examples are galore. There is a huge fear psychosis now, a kind of alertness. Corruption has not been eradicated completely but there is a conscious effort towards it. The population policy was an important decision. In Assam population explosion of certain people is a cause of concern. The census pinpoints this increase particularly in four-five districts. The whole population policy has been designed after consultation with various international stake holders. Minorities have been given some facilities: the victims of triple talak will get state protection and pension. An effort has been made to uplift the minority women, especially the Muslim minority women. Education: they have come up with appointment of high school principals: The gap was huge and lay vacant for many years. Appointment of TET teachers is a positive step. But there are many areas which need urgent attention as there is no mega achievement. I am worried about PWD. The minister is making very area-specific efforts. Some places like Majuli and Barak Valley are getting special attention much like Ajanta Neog’s approach. The PWD minister is responsible for the entire state. The government is going very off-track with imaginative projects which could never take place. National highway on both sides of Brahmaputra is a very bizarre expectation. Dredging is required but it is a very long term process. Such mega schemes are doubtful. Also suddenly, a lot of festivals have started happening. Rather than going from the bottom to the top, what we have done is just borrowed the name, borrowed the culture, theme and everything. I haven’t seen the fishermen; I haven’t seen any tribal chief there. We have showcased a technocratic gala event rather than the riparian culture. It has failed to serve its purpose. Regarding foreigners’ issue: Nothing concrete yet; the fencing is not yet done. Regarding NRC, the government is in a dilemma, as per official insights there are not only Muslim but also Hindu illegal migrants. The government is confused; my accusation is that it hasn’t taken the people into confidence. Assamese identity is primarily based on linguistic nationalism: right from 1830 when the Assamese were getting replaced by Bengali babus to the Assam agitation. My accusation is that there is no effort by the present government to have a negotiation on these issues. What has become popular is vigilant nationalism. There is no effort by the state government to negotiate with the Government of India regarding the Citizenship Act amendment and if they amend the act it does not justify the Hindu Bengalis to come and live in Assam from another country. Employment: The government had promised employment to 22 lakh people; where is the direction? Chandra Mohan Patowary doesn’t know where he is going. Forget employment but at least create opportunities by making people skilled. 22 ITIs are in deplorable condition. There is no effort in the power sector, no industry came to the state. Except Himanta no one in the government is performing. You might criticise but his work is obvious. He made the population policy, Priyanka Chopra came on board. Things are happening. So except for Himanta, I don’t see any performance from the government in the last one year.

Continued on page 16

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Special Continued from page 16

Akhil Gogoi Social activist

What the

“I feel that the government is not running in the right manner. They had made many election promises before the polls. Most of the promises remain unfulfilled. We did a survey according to which they have started working to fulfil only 6% of the promises. They have started some work against corruption. They started to give free school education to female students. The first promise they are trying to work on is to not take fees from the students. But at higher secondary level the fees is waived only for girl students. They promised that they will create a corruption-free Assam. Till now, including APSC, they have done only some work. They had promised to provide LPG to each and every family. The state government did not do anything on that but with the central government’s Pradhan Mantri Ujala Yojana some work has started. They had said that they will create Awesome Assam under tourism department. A bit of work has started in that sector with Priyanka Chopra being roped in. They had claimed that through e-governance module things will be cleared through a single window. Only Ramdev got land through single window clearance. Only these five promises were worked upon but during election they had made 110 promises. One important promise was that 25 lakh unemployed youths would get employment. Till now nothing is visible. They had promised Scooties to college going girls, it has not happened. They promised 24/7 electricity but after BJP came to power; the power outages have increased, the situation is deteriorating. Regarding irrigation nothing has happened and in fact an officer of the department, Kujendra Doley, was arrested for corruption and in a statement under 164, he confessed that cabinet minister Ranjit Dutta had ask him to take bribes and commissions. The transparency which they were claiming is just eyewash. They are just doing two works in Assam: creating communal tension and creating huge differences between the people of Assam. They are evicting indigenous Assamese people from their land and providing land to businessmen from outside like Ramdev. 3,800 bighas of land was given to Ramdev in BTAD area, in Tezpur 350 bighas, and he will be getting more than 200 bighas in every district of Assam. Some communal works are continuing in the state like eviction drives against Muslim people in many areas. They are attacking the Madrassas, attacking people’s sentiments by not allowing the Madrassas to be closed on Fridays. So they are just creating a communal tension. Developmental work is almost zero. So last year development was nil; communal tension was number one.”

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demic88 #Zomato hacked! Now they

know which place I had dinner at. Krishvanth Suresh @krish-

Matiur Rahman GS, GU Students’ Body “The people of Assam had expectations from the current government. They came to power with the commitment of ‘Jaati-Maati-Bheti’. The current chief minister, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, was always considered a leader and people voted him to power considering that fact. With all these facts and beliefs, the people of Assam demolished the Congress government and brought the BJP government to power. But sadly, the BJP government has failed to execute their promises and commitments into a reality. They’ve failed the expectations of the people of the state. People of Assam are emotionally attached on preserving their rights within their state, and that is where the state and centre have let the people down. The government has also failed the people on the issue of ‘Big Dam’ which they had promised to tackle before coming to power. Citizenship to illegal migrants is yet another issue where the centre and state have failed, or more so cheated the people. The oil fields of Assam are important resources. Before coming to power the government promised to preserve all sorts of resources of Assam. But after coming to power, the same government planned on handing over the oil fields to foreign companies. Till now the government has joined hands with the central government and failed in the development of the state in all respects. As the General Secretary of Gauhati University, I express disappointment on the work and contribution of the government towards the state. However, in the coming four years, I hope they take better steps for the development of not only the corporate sectors, but also for the welfare of the farmers of the state, and overall development of the people of the state, who are hoping for better days ahead.”

Tanushree Hazarika Entrepreneur “The Sonowal government, in its first year, has given the impression that it is committed to its promise of ‘paribartan’. Some good initiatives have been undertaken. As an entrepreneur, I look forward to sustainable positive changes and encouragement of private enterprises and upcoming talents of the state in the coming years.”

DN Bezboruah Veteran journalist “In terms of actual performance there is really nothing to talk about. Yes, they had made some attempts at tackling corruption. But there also what happens is that the people have to see the results and there you cannot create a great impression because of the laws and inherent delay all over the country and especially here. In the matter of tackling corruption a whole lot of people have been arrested, charge-sheeted, but people will want to see the results. Where is the punishment? For example, take the case of a woman engineer who has amassed Rs 59 crores in a matter of four years. They have established it, they have arrested her, they have done all that. But what the people would want to know is what the government has done with the property that she had amassed through corrupt practices. Has the government confiscated that property and sold it? In Karbi Anglong the other day, a group raped a girl and she eventually died. It is good journalistic practice not to publish the picture of the girl, but at the same time it would do a world of good to have the photographs of the culprits published. Why is it not happening? What I am beginning to see is that there is a great delay in investigation, arrests and so on. I do not see in this one year any result of the outcome of the punishments meted out. Even in terms of strategy, the ideal thing would be that the government says: Look we are out to fight corruption. So in such matters the whole business of trial, hearings and verdicts should be speeded up. Then you are getting somewhere. Otherwise its investigation of corruption is leading to nothing. We would like to see results. I am saying this because this is something that Singapore has shown us. Singapore administration decided that in cases of rape, murder, they will finish investigation and then trial in a matter of a month or 40 days. 40 days has been made the outer limit and in a large number of cases, especially rape cases and murders, the government has been able to punish the culprits within 40 days. You will say that this impossible in India. It is very difficult in India, I concede that, but I will not admit that it is impossible. All that the government has to do, if it is really concerned about corruption, is to identify the cases where speedy justice is necessary and directives should go out to judiciary that here we are looking for speedy action, so please apply. We are thinking of 100 cases where in the litigation scenario there are thousands of cases. If you can show results with 100 cases and if you can show that the culprits have been punished, if you can show that people who have amassed huge wealth, their wealth has been taken away from them, if you can show all that, then we are getting somewhere. The government will also have to show the projects that they have taken up and completed in one year. Just to say that one year we have spent tackling corruption is not good enough. So there is nothing visible. When you ask me about what the performance has been like, I am asking you in return: Where is the performance?”

vanth

so someone had #Zomato for lunch Kaustubh Unhale @awesomedotkad #Zomato Now The hackers will judge me by seeing how much money I spent on ordering Pizza on @ZomatoIN ‘s app! #foodieforlife Kaushik Bora @instant-

koko666

In other news, a #tomato was hacked. #Zomato : Wait , I’ll Ketchup! Sasta Kohli @imsastakohli Kids : Hack Rahul Gandhi Account. Adult : Hack the world with Ransomeware Legends : Hack Zomato to get best Biryani details. #Zomato sourabh @sourabhonnet Zomato user data stolen.. will they tell my doctor what all ‘unapproved’ food i was eating? #Zomato #hacked Saurabh @SaurabhSaggi #zomato hacked. can everyone please stop posting this #news with yummy #food pics.. its forcing me to have an early lunch Vikrant Joshi @WidefaceViki The guy who didn’t get to eat the last slice of pizza left is the one who hacked Zomato for revenge. #Zomato #Zomato-

Hacked

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Snippets

Sub-Inspector arrested for demanding bribe Free lunch programme for OPD

pecial Task Force Sub-Inspector Dipali Barua on Friday was arrested for de-

manding Rs 10 lakhs from a person falsely implicated in a case. The tainted police official is being interrogated at the Garchuk police station. The arrest was made after Biren Haloi filed a case against the police officer and two others. Constable Ranjit Hazarika and Simanta Gogoi were also arrested along with Dipali Barua. Haloi in his FIR alleged that the lady police officer had detained him alleging that anti-social activities were carried out at his garage. Subsequent to this, he was taken to the STF office in Bhangagarh

and the officer demanded a sum of Rs 10 lakhs to free him. However, Haloi in his FIR stated that he had handed over Rs 4 lakhs to the corrupt police official. The police official had produced fake documents citing to seal down Haloi’s garage. Besides this, Dipali Barua is also involved in exchanging demonetized notes in exchange of hefty commissions. Constables Ranjit Hazarika and Simanta Gogoi is also involved for which a case in under trial at the CJM court. n

Festival of dance and music at Rabindra Bhawan

bhinaya Society, in collaboration with the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Govt. of Assam, will present the 7th Param-

para – a festival of dance and music, at Rabindra Bhawan, Guwahati on 22nd and 23rd May, 2017 from 5.30 pm onwards on both days, stated Anita Sharma, Secretary of the Abhinaya Society. On 22nd May, the festival will present Borgeet by Prashanta Rajkhowa, an Odissi dance recital by Anjanamoyee Saikia, Hindustani Classical Vocal performance by Joyprakash Medhi and Samanvaya – an amalgamation of Sattriya and Kathak dance by Anita Sharma and Vidhi Lal (of New Delhi). On 23rd May, Meernanda Borthakur will present a Sattriya dance recital which will be followed by a violin rendition by Manoj Baruah. There will also be a Kuchipudi Dance recital by Vyjayanthi Kashi and Prateeksha Kashi from Bangaluru which will be followed

FIFA U-17 World Cup tickets available now

by a vocal rendition of Hindustani Classical by Bidushi Mandira Lahiri of Kolkata. n

cancer patients of BBCI launched

he GLP Social Circle, Shri Hanuman Sewa Nidhi Trust and B. Barooah Cancer Institute (BBCI) have come forward to start an ambitious scheme for the first time in the Northeast to provide free lunch to cancer patients attending the Outpatient Department of the hospital on

regular basis. Due to various socio economic factors, more than twothirds of all cancer patients present in the hospital is in advanced stage which requires palliative care. As per population based Cancer Registration of Indian Council of Medical Research, the incidence of cancer is highest in the North Eastern region of India. The relatively higher incidence of cancer in the North eastern region is due to excessive tobacco consumption, betel nut chewing, alcohol, and dietary habits. The number of cancer cases recorded in Assam in the year 2015 was 31,474 and about 16,029 patients died due to cancer in the same year. n

SRIMANTA SANKARADEVA UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES NARAKASUR HILLTOP, BHANGAGARH, GUWAHATI-32 No .SSUHS/121/2017/1865 EDUCATIONAL NOTICE

ADMISSION INTO B.Sc NURSING AND DIPLOMA IN PHARMACY COURSES IN THE INSTITUTES UNDER DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL EDUCATION, ASSAM FOR THE SESSION 2017 Application Forms for Common Entrance Examination for selection of candidates for admission into both 1st year B.Sc. Nursing and Diploma in Pharmacy courses in the institutes under the Director of Medical Education, Assam for the session 2017 shall be issued from 25-05-2017 to 05-06-2017 at the Office of the Principal, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh / Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati / Silchar Medical College, Silchar / Jorhat Medical College, Jorhat / Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College, Barpeta / Tezpur Medical College, Tezpur/ Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati on deposition of a non-refundable amount of Rs. 50/-(Rupees Fifty only) in the form of Bank Draft/Banker’s Cheque drawn in favour of “Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences” payable at “SBI, GMC Branch, Guwahati” during office hours. The last date of submission of filled in Application Form is 05-06-2017 (up to 5:00 PM). However, filled in Application Forms may be submitted directly at Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences, Narakasur Hilltop, Bhangagarh, Guwahati on 6th June, 2017 (after the last date of submission in the Colleges) during office hours along with a late fine of Rs. 200.00 (Rupees Two Hundred only) in the form of an additional Banker’s Cheque/Demand Draft drawn in favour of “Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences” payable at “SBI, GMC Branch, Guwahati”. Application Form, if sent through Post or Courier, should reach the office before closing time and date. Application received after closing date and time shall not be considered under any circumstances. The Entrance Test is going to be held on 2nd July, 2017 at Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat, Barpeta and Tezpur. Details of the Entrance, Examination including eligibility criteria and requirements shall be available at the University website, http://www.ssuhs.in

he early bird season tickets for FIFA U-17 matches in Guwahati are available now and are priced at Rs 480. The season tickets have been available since Tuesday at an early-bird discount of about 60%. For Guwahati, which will host 9 matches, the season ticket rate starts at Rs 480 for the North and South stands at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium. The West stands

costs Rs 960 for the season, while the season ticket for the main stand will be Rs 1,920. The tickets for the main stand aren’t available as yet. Guwahati will host 9 matches including one round-of-16 match, one quarter final and a semi final. Speaking on the occasion, Javier Ceppi, Tournament Director said, “You can see World Cup Final in less than Rs 50, if you’re buying tickets for 10 matches. n

Admit Cards will be issued from the Office of the Principal, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati, Silchar Medical College, Silchar, Jorhat Medical College, Jorhat, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College, Barpeta, Tezpur Medical college, Tezpur and Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati on 27th and 28th June, 2017 during office hours as per the Examination Centre of choice mentioned in the Application Form. No duplicate Admit Card shall be issued from any other College. Applicants are therefore informed to collect their Admit Cards only from the Office of the Principal of College of the Examination Centre of their choice. In case they are unable to collect the Admit Card themselves, Admit Card will be issued only to persons duly authorized by the candidate in writing on the date and time mentioned above. An Examination Fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees One thousand only) will have to be paid at the time of submission of Application Form in form of Bank Draft/Banker›s Cheque drawn in favour of «Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences” payable at “SBI, GMC Branch, Guwahati”.

Registrar & Control of Examinations (i/c) Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences Guwahati JANASANYOG 431/17

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Fun Horoscope of the week

As Mercury moves into your sector of travel, you may become curious about exploring countries or cultures you’ve never encountered before. The coming weeks might see you booking a trip or vacation to a place that can provide sensual delights, heady experiences, and plenty to explore. You may also have an chance to make some positive changes on the home front because of a brilliant idea. It could save you a lot of work if you put it into action.

You might be very aware of subtle undercurrents that could be influencing a relationship or important situation. And these insights might help make a difference in a matter that has been niggling at you for some time. In addition, you may also be thrilled by a relationship that seems to offer something different. This person could be a breath of fresh air in your life, enabling you to see key issues from a fresh perspective that’s very liberating.

Mercury eases into your sector of relationships to encourage more conversation and interaction. Gauging other people’s reactions before you make key decisions can be crucial if everything is to work to plan. Also, other factors could bring up ideas that have an impact on your income and moneymaking ability. If you’ve experienced some difficulty in this area recently, a key blend of energies could coincide with a job offer or business proposal that is very good for you.

With a focus on your lifestyle sector, you may be curious about how you can make better use of your time in order to accomplish more. The coming week could encourage you to take a closer look at your routines and daily activities and streamline them in order to give yourself more leeway. In addition, you could find that a new hobby, sport, or creative activity has a liberating effect on you, bringing friendships your way that may be very welcome.

This week and the coming weeks could see you getting organized at home by clearing out closets, tackling chores, and making sure that everything you keep has a home. You might be able to earn extra money by selling items you no longer need. Another key aspect suggests that if you’re willing to cooperate with a friend or group, something unique may be achieved. A blend of new information and tried and trusted techniques could pave the way to success.

As Mercury enters your sector of communication, this can be a good time to take a class that enables you to learn a new skill. It’s also a great opportunity to reach out and make some vital connections that can bring new offers, deals, and contracts your way. At the same time, you might be able to increase your income if you act on an idea. It could be a game changer for you. Someone in authority may welcome your genius!

Picture Perfect

QThis early 14th century painting

titled Adoration OfThe Magi is the reason a probe from the European Space Agency (ESA) launched in 1986 was named after its painter. Who, and why was the space probe named after him?

2The word comes from an Italian word

meaning “pasteboard.” It was used to refer to the full-size preparatory drawing for a fresco or similar, done on pasteboard. It is now associated with another art form enjoyed by the young and the old. What word?

The product emerged fromthe legendary chairman’s desire for convenience while playing golf. It went on sale for the very first time on July 1, 1979, but only 3,000 were sold in the first month. The company representatives began approaching people on the street and giving them a chance to try out this new product. What once-iconic device?

4What word comes to us from the Italian for “40 days” as this was the amount of time ships would be required to stay at sea before docking at a port, to ensure that no disease like plague was brought ashore?

Anustup Datta, Bengaluru This quiz has been brought to you by Brain Jam, a property of Priya Communications

Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce

Giotto – his painting depicts Halley’s Comet in the top foreground. The probe Giotto was launched in 1986 to study the comet that appeared that year.

In 1329 Pope John XXII erected the first Diocese (a district under the supervision of a bishop) in India on 9th August 1329. On August 21, 1329, he appointed the French Dominican friar JordanusCatalani de Severac as the first Bishop.Where?

curio-city

Picture Perfect

curio-city

1. Quilon / Kollam 2. Cartoon 3. Sony Walkman 4. Quarantine

While you may be very busy with your job or responsibilities, a focus on your leisure sector could entice you to explore hobbies that you might relish. And even though you may have a lot of your plate, the opportunity to relax and do something you enjoy might be too tempting to resist. Improvement could show up concerning a family or domestic matter, and it may be due to a brilliant idea. Although it might require patience, it’s worth following through.

3 8 1

5 69 9

7 7 4

4 7 9 5 6 9 5 4 9 6 8 52 69 2 9 4 35 3 1 5 3 6 7 2 3 3 2 6 1 5 2

Daily Sudoku: Wed 10-May-2017

Although the Sun’s presence in your career zone puts you in the spotlight, you might enjoy the chance to make a big splash. This is your chance to show off your skills and let others know what you can do. Mercury also enters this sector, so you might be eager to give a presentation that can augment your image. Once the Sun moves into your social sector this weekend, the idea of relaxing with friends or enjoying community events could appeal greatly.

6 1

Your social life gets a boost, which could encourage you out and about. If a new club or dating website beckons, this might be the time you go for it. There may also be a new opportunity associated with your work that looks promising. Although this may just be a stage in the overall process, you’ll feel like you’re making solid progress. The Sun’s move into your spiritual zone later in the week could encourage you to enjoy more quiet time.

Sudoku

very hard

Daily Sudoku: Thu 18-May-2017

6 7 4 4 1 25 19 62 38 83

1 3 2 7 7 6 8 68 94 59 45

5 8 9 6 3 9 2 42 17 75 61

2 8 9 5 7 3 3 8 4 7 6 9 34 1 58 6 46 2 12 7

4 1 6 1 2 87 55 98 43 39

7 6 1 9 5 54 72 33 19 48

3 2 8 8 9 11 67 24 76 95

9 4 5 2 6 4 3 83 75 18 26

5 3 9 1 2 7 Daily Sudoku: Wed 10-May-2017 very hard 8 7 1 3 5 6 2 4 9 4 5 2 8 9 7 6 http://www.dailysudoku.com Word of the week3 1 6 9 3 4 1 2 8 5 7

Slacktivism

Daily Sudoku: Thu 18-May-2017

As your personal planet Mercury heads into a secluded sector of your chart, you may find that you’re naturally more connected with your feelings. This week and over the coming weeks it may become easier to discuss issues that you’ve so far kept to yourself. In addition, letting go of any situations that no longer serve you can also leave you feeling quite liberated. As the Sun enters you sign this weekend, mixing and mingling can be rewarding and uplifting.

very hard

noun [slak-tuh-viz-uh m]

Actions taken to bring about political or social change but requiring only http://www.dailysudoku.c minimal commitment, effort, or risk.

Crossword Across

Down

1 Spanish capital (6) 4 Walk with long steps (6) 8 Wed (5) 9 Type of lettuce (7) 10 Puzzling questions (7) 11 Call upon (5) 12 Dispirited, downcast (9) 17 Happen (5) 19 Wind instrument (7) 21 Sleep (7) 22 Plunder (5) 23 Be unsteady on one’s feet (6) 24 Away from the coast (6)

1 Remembrance (6) 2 Made fun of (7) 3 Story or scene of happy innocence (5) 5 Dozens (7) 6 Thoughts (5) 7 Fourscore (6) 9 Police officer (9) 13 Short moral story (7) 14 Certificate (7) 15 Tight-fitting undergarment (6) 16 Remained (6) 18 Pastry covering (5) 20 Not rural (5)

As Mercury, the planet of talk and thought, eases into your sign, you might want to share ideas that you’ve been mulling over recently. You’re very much in your element at this time, and this week could be an opportunity to take steps to fulfill one of your heart’s desires. It may not happen overnight, but bit by bit you’ll get there. Friday night can be perfect for a sizzling date, while the weekend could see you enjoying a little retail therapy.

last week solution

You may breathe a sigh of relief this week as tensions begin to ease and you start to feel more relaxed. And with communication planet Mercury moving into the practical sign of Taurus, this can be a time for planning ahead and doing the groundwork when it comes to new projects. In addition, you’ll be willing to think outside the box and embrace new ideas in a very down-to-earth way. Studying and networking could also be important.

Last week’s solution

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Buzz

For the love of books

G Plus checks out the book reading tendencies of Guwahatians and weighs their enthusiasm of visiting the city’s main libraries Pallabi Roy

t is said that people these days are not interested in reading and as information is gathered with just the click of a button on the internet, libraries are becoming obsolete. But, on the other hand, it is also said that those people who had cultivated reading habits in life have stuck to it for good. What is the reality today so far as Guwahatians are concerned? To get through to the inside factor, G Plus looked at some of the city’s most visited libraries viz. District Library on GNB Road, Dr Surya Kumar Bhuyan Library of Cotton College and Hem Barua Library of B. Borooah College. District Library was established in the year 1955-56. It has three sections which are Reading and Reference, Science and Technology and Issue Section. Apart from various state and national newspapers, it also has a very popular collection of books. It has an impressive collection of books that include fiction and books on different subjects. The Reading and Reference section has 40 seats and the average number of people who visit the library is 50-60 per day. The Science and Technology section has all types of science books and it can accommodate 30 people at one time. The Issue section has all types of collections including works on Social Science, Political Science, Economics, Law, Education, Fiction (English, Hindi

A collection of books at District Library | G Plus Photo

Assamese and Bengali), General every day.” She further added, “We work, Biographies, Religion, Phi- organize awareness programs like ‘Kitap Porhu’ to encourage students losophy and children’s books. The issue section issues books and other people to adopt the good habit of reading. We also organize to more than 20 people a day. The widely issued books are those on different activities like art competitions, on-the-spot story writing Assamese and Bengali fiction. The competitions, recitations etc to enlibrary has recently started the trend of digital cards for members. lighten the students about reading habits.” The library’s issue section also has Dr Surya Kumar Bhuyan Lia computerized mechanism at the entrance which alerts the counter brary is the one present in Cotton attendant if someone takes a book College and is presently known without issuing it through the li- as Cotton College Library. It was started in 1901 and since then it brary register. Speaking to G plus, the librar- has been a storehouse of education ian of District Library, Srimati Kr- and information for a lot of people. ishna Bordoloi said, “The library It is one of the oldest libraries of is filled with students and other north east. The table is an indicator people at any time of the day and of its impressive collection. The library has a seating caso we don’t think that people have pacity of 170 and around 250-300 stopped coming to the libraries students visit the library every day. these days. We have around 40,000 members in our library and around The librarian, Dr Zabeen Ahmed 60-70 people come to the library informed that the Cotton College

Library has other facilities than things in a better way. She said, just the reading section. She said, “The number of students have in“Along with books and reading ma- creased than before and as a result terials, we have a software named the present seats are not enough for them and so the library will be ‘Natural Reader’ which is installed in all the library computers and extended for the benefit of the stuthis helps the students to get inter- dents. Though our library is never net access and also the opportunity short of students, the reason for the to learn things in a simpler way.” new generation moving away from She also informed about the trans- libraries is the emergence of electronic gadgets.” She further added, lation of Assamese texts into audio books to allow students to learn “We organize book fairs and also show movies in the library every Friday to attract and encourage the Cotton College Library students towards reading habits.” statistics The Hem Barua library of the B. Borooah College is also one of Total collection – 1,34,978 the renowned libraries of the city. It was established in 1943 and has Books – 27,107 three sections in it viz. Circulation section, Reference section and CorReference books – 3,389 ner section. Out of these, circulation secPrinted journals - 134 tion is for issuing books; reference section is for the reference help Bound volumes – 3,017 and corner section is for the reading purpose of the students. The Reports - 641 library has a seat capacity of 60 and around 300-400 students visit Maps - 50 it every day. Around 60-80 books are issued every day. The academic E-Books (offline) – 1,85,000 books are the most sought after by E-Resource Database (online) the students. - 12 So, we can’t say that people have stopped going to the librarVideo lecture - 500 ies because the top libraries of the city are visited by many people Newspapers - 15 every day. Those people, who had reading habits earlier, had always Periodicals - 42 maintained it and the good habit of book reading will hopefully remain CDs & DVDs - 474 in the city always. n

Women vigilantes for making state alcohol-free According to the vigilante group, Swadhin Nari Sakti, alcohol is the main reason for which crimes take place and for which women are not safe in their own state Juthika Baruah juthika.baruah@g-plus.in

eware of Swadhin Nari Sakti! Men who will now try to abuse women will be cruelly beaten up by the Nari of this non-political organization as they will not tolerate such alcohol-induced injustice meted out to women and expressed that they will not let any men smear the image of women. Swadhin Nari Sakti is a non-political organization which alleges that it is due to consumption of alcohol that the state has witnessed so many heinous crimes and therefore the state should be made alcohol-free like the state of Bihar. “We are against

alcohol and want to make the state alcohol-free as it is alcohol and its consumption that makes people commit heinous crimes. Even after the Supreme Court ordered that the wine shops should not be set up within 100 metres of educational institutions, here in the city it is seen that many wine shops are well-established near schools and educational institutes. The question that arises is how they can get permission or license to open a wine shop near an educational institution,” said Working President of the organization Mousumi Bora while speaking to G Plus. The organization is trying to collect 1 lakh mass signatures which will be sent to the President of India

in order to make the state free from alcohol. “The government wants to make the state digitised in today’s scenario where social media seems to be very popular. There itself some miscreants threatened the girls of Assam that they should be raped. If this be the scenario then how safe are the girls in their own state? Therefore, we demanded that the government should either protect our girls or they should close down the women commission which has done nothing for the women and rather receiving salaries from the government by merely sitting around in their office,” said Bora. Slamming the present government, Bora said that the government is an Event, the Chief Minister is the

Event Manager and the public is the Event Viewer. “The government has been formed not by its own capacity but because of the public who voted for them and therefore they should solve the problem of the public within 72 hours. A Janata Darbar should be set up so that the problems of the people could be placed and these should be solved immediately,” said Bora. The Nari Sakti organization also demanded that the government should provide employment to one female of each and every household based on her capacity. “The government provides reservation for women but we demanded that instead of having reservation they should provide government jobs to the women

so that they can stand on their own. We also demanded that the government should provide manpower to assist the elderly for their old age pension. The government people should assist them as they don’t know where to go and how can they proceed,” Mousumi added. She said that if the Indian Constitution has said that all the bad things can be banned then why can’t the state government ban such things which are affecting the society? The organization has also demanded artist pension for regional artists. Bora said that if the government can spend Rs 1 crore on Priyanka Chopra for promoting Assam Tourism it can also afford to provide artists with pensions. n

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

G Talk E

Link failure

he newest excuse in town for bankers to desist from working is link failure it seems. Consider a recent experience of mine and I am sure you will empathize with me with similar experiences of your own that often results in colossal wastage of time, money and effort – ours, not the banks’. Having parked my car and walked a fair distance in this blazing May sun, I managed to drop into my bank at Panbazar. My quest was simple and I took it for granted that the visit would be short and quick: I needed to update my passbook. The passbook update counter was not manned at that moment. I asked around and was informed that the “officer” had just stepped out for his ritualistic tamul and would be back in 5 minutes. 5 minutes turned to 15 and then appeared a gentleman shabby enough for me to infer (no confirmation though) that he had recently got promoted from peon to his current position of holding customers to ransom. “Yes?” he asked even as I fished out my passbook. “Link nai...,” he offered unapologetically. “When will it be restored?” “No idea.” “Should I hang around?” “Up to you. Or you can leave it behind and collect it later.” The ordeal ahead stood clear for me. There was no guarantee that if I hung around a while, the link would be restored soon enough whereby I would feel that I had not wasted too much time. Leaving the passbook behind and

returning later essentially meant another avoidable trip to congested Panbazar – especially with its current road conditions and parking problems. I stood there recalling a friend of mine complaining about a situation where he had to deposit some tax with the bank and it was the last date. And sure enough, there was link failure and the bank just would not accept the deposit – last date be damned! For all the good intentions of digitising India, doing away with cash, resorting to and relying on the “link” that facilitates transactions, tax payments and passbook updation, I just got the feeling that our digital infrastructure is not right. Too much link failure for anyone’s comfort! “Why, oh why is there so much link failure nowadays?” I wondered aloud. My peon-turned-officer apparently heard me and in a pathetic attempt to perhaps offer succour to his irate customer, was ridiculous enough to say, “Why shouldn’t there be link? There is link in the bank otherwise.” I looked at him, my soul brightening, suddenly hopeful that my small errand would be completed and requested him to please update my passbook somehow, anyhow. He blankly stared back at me and said, “Can’t” “Why?” I asked. He looked at incredulously, almost marvelling at the stupidity of my question and said, “LINK NAI...” Swapnil Bharali Editor

Class Monitors

ver the past week, social media has been living in a storm of rumours with some ransom ware making the headlines and texts being circulated on WhatsApp. Added to that, the Zomato security breach that put almost 17 million ids at risk has raised a lot of questions on data security. This has also raised the value of data on the ‘dark-web’ that is supposedly acquired from our digital footprint on the internet. Although internet security is an immediate concern, the internet is also an open world where people are making opinions and sharing information every second. In fact, every 60 seconds on Facebook, 293,000 statuses are updated (Source: Zephoria) which is a sizeable number and now that the government is ready to hold page admins and moderators punishable for posting ‘questionable’ updates, this is raising questions on our mere presence on the internet. And since everyone seems to be forwarding me these messages with the tag: “What does this mean?” I can only respond by asking the source directly. Posting social media updates for the sake of information or mala fide intent is subject to a lot of digging. Plus, why take it seriously? However, here are some questions that the government should choose to answer before it clamps down on circulation of information on social media: What is the status of the Louis Berger Scam? Can someone shed light on the NC Hills case? Where is the white sheet on flood expenditure? In other updates: Does blue tick really pass as a court statement? SIDHARTH BEDI VARMA

Opinion

1GB/sec

Anshuman Raji Das went up too. With 4G, data points, as they are called today instead of a tower, are not more than 200-250 metres away from you. What about 5G? For that you would need to have a tower every 20 metres. Now, that would be quite a sight! Would it be a feasible option? Absolutely not! So where do we go from here? The radio spectrum is getting occupied and fuller every day. Why can’t we move out of radio spectrum? Yes, the use of radio signals may soon come to an end as far as broadcasting signals for your mobile phones is concerned. The next generation of connectivity may be broadcast to you from a “lightsource.” Yes, you heard me right, your unmodified off-the-shelf LED

ireless communication was brought into our city by the police department which had moved into Guwahati even as Meghalaya carved itself out from the state of Assam. The Assam Police Radio Organization (APRO), the radio wing of the Assam Police was born, which was headed by my paternal grandfather, Late BN Saikia - may his soul rest in peace. I remember him having a wireless telephone in his official ambassador. He called it his Radio phone. It was connected to lights. These lights can be prothe grid, the repeater stations. This grammed to change shades and was in the early 80s. There were repeater stations on top of hills colour, you may have noticed. This which relayed the signals. You will means that we can encode inforsee one if you go to Bhubaneswari mation in the subtle changes of the brightness of light emitted by the Peak, a little beyond Kamakhya temple on the same Nilachal Hills. Light Emitting Diodes also known They still exist and are functional. as LED lights. If you have an offBut communication technology the-shelf solar panel connected to has reinvented itself again and a laptop and an LED light broadagain, exponentially, though ba- casting an HD video, it is possible to decode such information to sic principles have remained the same. Even today, you receive your stream the HD video on the laptop. This could open up vast posmobile connectivity via waves which form part of the radio spec- sibilities as the light spectrum is trum. Radio spectrum is a part of a thousand times bigger than the the electro-magnetic spectrum. radio spectrum. And of course for the fact that we all know – light But with the need for speed of the internet becoming increasingly travels the fastest. Think of security, important, the number of these as light does not go through walls. mobile towers is increasing too. Imagine street lights, a city full of Requirements have changed. User lights, the entire infrastructure that already exists. Think of all the base had a drastic increase. While we were working with a 2G net- airports, shopping malls, hospitals work, a tower would broadcast to - all light. There will be no WiFi, all light. It will be the end of the diga radius of around 35 km. When we moved into 3G, the radius went ital-divide. Imagine yourself with down to 5 km. But the speed at a dongle, much like the internet which you would access the net dongle you get to see today, but it

r Sheer hypocrisy

will be called Li-Fi or “light fidelity.” Think of the roof-top solar panel that you are planning to install to power your home; yes they will also be able to receive light signals and decode the light fluctuations which are so subtle and fast that it is not visible to human eyes, but not for the solar panels. The solar panels will harvest power as well as receive signals in light-waves to keep you online. And that too, it will transit at an obscene speed of 1 GB/sec. By 2020 maybe, we will not call it internet, possibly “interlight.” The most amazing truth about the “interlight” will be that it will not need to build an infrastructure as it pretty much uses what can be availed off-the-shelf today. Think of the carbon points

saved, self-sustaining. Have you heard of something called the “internet-of-things?” It is a network where your fridge is also connected, so is your AC. Your buses and cars are already a part of it. This acronym, I.O.T., or internet-of-things, will be fuelled by LED lights and with this new technology of coding and decoding light. The lighting industry will go through a complete transformation. It will merge with the wireless communication sector and a new industry will emerge. It will definitely revolutionize. As they say, let there be light. Anshuman Raji Das is a former Vice President with Deutsche Bank. In 2012, he collaborated with the Guwahati City Police Department and now runs Crimatrix, which is a real-time crime monitoring platform for prevention, detection and reporting of crime and pre-crime intelligence. He designs technology for the future using data-analytics for an increasingly more data-centric community.

Letter to the Editor

he so-called liberals and seculars namely Farooq Abdullah, Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Yadav and leftists become very vocal and attack the security forces when they use rubber pellets or water cannons to control unruly mobs in Jammu & Kashmir alleging human rights violations. But theses politicians become completely mute when Pakistani forces shell relentlessly on our border villages along the LOC killing and maiming many innocent civilians. They even do not utter any word of condemnation when any brave soldier is martyred by a Pakistani bullet. Is it not a sheer case of hypocrisy? Dr. Ashim Chowdhury, Ambari, Guwahati-1.

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

In Focus

Sumon Kalyan Dutta

Musician

hile the rock music scene can be said to be “rocking” in Guwahati, with some of the local rock outfits making waves in the national circuit, the roots of the culture can be traced back to the 1980s when Guwahati came out of its rock music shell. One of the original perpetrators to break this shell is Sumon Kalyan Dutta who has rocked numerous stages with his compelling performances over the years. The singer today is a cult figure having launched highly successful bands like Moonwind and SKD besides a plethora of live performances with both covers and originals. It won’t be wrong to categorise Sumon as one of the first generation rock musicians of the state who came into his own when there were only a handful of bands. Born to doctor parents, music was not Sumon’s first preference; he was rather inclined towards sports. The singer had, after all, gone on to represent the state and even held a national ranking in table tennis. “I was in the 3rd grade when my music teacher Jesse Ma’am (Josmaya Monin) inspired me to take up singing. We used to have music classes twice a week and I believe Nichols’ High School was the only school back then that held music classes. And one fine day I was asked to sing. However, prior to that I was more into sports. I used

to play cricket and table tennis; I also sprinted. So I sang a song called Beautiful Sunday by Daniel Boone and that is when Jesse Ma’am noticed me and said that I can develop further. So, from that session onwards she used to make me sing at least one song during each class. She had put in a lot of hard work and even mentored the type of songs I should pick up starting with Jimmy Olsen, Carpenters, Abba, Ventures, Cliff Richards and several others,” Sumon mentioned during a conversation with G Plus. Sumon had to switch schools after he was promoted to 6th grade and joined Don Bosco. This detached him from music for some time. He became more inclined towards sports but music never kept itself from crossing paths with him. It remained close to him in the form of his mandolin. The same went on for three years until the singer had shifted to Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara where he shared the stage with his brother Eamon Dutta during assembly sessions before classes commenced. Little did the duo realize that an opportunity that would set the track of Sumon’s life lurked just around the corner. In 1984, the brother duo was invited to open for a band named “Friends” (it requires no mention that Friends was the most popular band of Assam at that time). Sumon even bagged the opportunity to be a guest vocalist for

Friends and it led him to the idea of forming a band of his own. In 1987, with Rakesh Baruah, Kalyan Baruah, Chandan Chakrabarty, Rajiv Hazarika and Simanta Bordoloi, Sumon brought Crystal Palace Band into existence. The band toured all over the northeast for several years before Kalyan left for Mumbai. “I was in 11th grade when it all started off and Dhruba (Late Dhruba Sarma) played a major role in putting me up on stage. The band “Moonwind” came into existence in 1995 with half of the people from Crystal Palace and we started playing in clubs and concerts. It was then that we had truly developed as a band and came out with a CD of our original compositions called Colour My Life,” the singer said. A major development took place in 2001 when Mrinmoyee Goswami joined Moonwind following which the band left no clubs unconquered. The band performed in almost all the clubs in eastern India and even got associated with several awareness campaigns of the government. While the band was conquering hearts with their enthralling performances, a

major upset took place in 2014 when Moonwind disbanded due to some irreconcilable differences. However, Sumon did not hold back and continued his journey with Gaurav Pom, Kailash Sharma, Diganta Banikya, Simanta Latu Boro under the banner ‘SKD’. The singer came back with a bang with the song “Living Free” that was very well received by the masses with Ritrisha Sarma joining forces on vocals. SKD has not looked back and has gone on to conquer more grounds even going on to create several multilingual songs. Living Free, 37 Down Street, Xur are some of the several other songs that have made a mark in the music circuit. In another development that took place in March last, Sumon was invited to form a new cluster named Heavy Fuel comprising Gaurav Pom, Rittique Phukan, Sumith Ramachandran (from Plan B, Kolkata), Sumit Raja Gupta, Simanta Latu Boro and Sumon himself and has been asked to do promotional gigs for the international band “Dire Straits” around the country. “Along with Heavy Fuel I am also concentrating on my western solos and will soon be coming out with five new singles of which two will be western singles and three Assamese songs,” the singer informed. Apart from his music career, SKD is also involved in organising promotional shows for aspiring singers. One such concept is Saturday Night Live that used to take place in Royal Regency in Bamunimaidan which gave several singers a platform to perform

in front of niche audiences. The concept will be revived from July and comes as good news for performers of the city. However, the journey of living his passion has not been a lap of luxury and being born to parents who have remained successful doctors, there was also an expectation of the legacy being continued. Sharing his experience of dodging the expectation Sumon mentioned that his choice of education stream also came as a shock for his parents. The singer, without the knowledge of his parents, chose commerce while he was expected to take up science for his Higher Secondary but the support of the family members remained. Moreover, the rock music scenario is still struggling to make it to the mainstream. Sumon, back in those days, struggled to get support that walks hand-in-hand with the lack of performing arenas. “Singing is a talent that comes with you and it is up to you how you nurture and develop it. My mother has been an avid listener of good music such as Bach, whereas my father was a sportsperson. So I and my brother inherited both their abilities. My brother is a great guitarist and pushed me tremendously to take to stage. Taking up music has only made me happy,” Sumon said. A shy person by nature Sumon never fails to rock the stage on any given occasion. The singer who experiences stage fright till this day considers each performance as a fresh attempt but only leaves his audience awestruck and gasping for more by the end.

Reactions on 1 year of BJP Government G Plus did a survey and conducted a poll across its social channels as Assam’s BJP government completes its first year in power. The polls elicited several observations from the citizens including ones on changing of road names and the Changsari-Raha debacle as the possible locations for AIIMS

Suraj Kumar

Roads should have been repaired rather than renamed. Totally against such decisions. Retired employees are extended in govt organisations and youths are kept on contractual, daily wages basis. Is this the way unemployment will be removed? In this inflated economy we temporary employees get around 6,00010,000 rupee salaries. Reformation required. An appeal against the extension of retired employees should be filed in high court. There are around 1,400 vacant posts in GMC but the authorities are not regularising the 1,200 temporary employees. They are not entitled to any benefits, just working on daily wages.

Nazim Ahmed

No it was a useless idea. Rather than change the name of these roads they should repair them. They should also think of how to avoid the traffic jams because in daily life the traffic jams of Guwahati city is a terrible thing.

Himsiring Hapila

Well need good roads and better drainage system to avoid flash floods. And names should be changed after significant changes in that road take place, like no more pot holes and so got new name, like no more traffic jams and so got new name, like no parking zones etc. GS Road is such a wide road at Khanapara and Sixmile area but as we approach Ganeshguri and ABC, the road looks small. Why? It’s all because of parking. So name should be changed only after achieving success. That’s what I believe.

Kaushik Sharma

This govt as a whole should stop dictating what people should eat, what people should wear, change names of already existing roads. Instead they should start some real work by improving the conditions of the road (not just to show the PM when he comes for a visit). Instead of organising events like Namami Brahmaputra and wasting money they should have done something to improve the banks of the Brahmaputra for tourist attraction as well as for commutation. The list of what they should have done is long. There is still time if they start with some real work instead of big talks.

Mukund Kumar Sah

Swacch Bharat Abhiyan is at its peak on government paper. Next was the awesome move of renaming the roads. Now their next aim is to start AIIMS and that too will be done on paper. Assam government is doing everything in their power to get attention of the people. Instead, they could have worked on the real issues of enhancing transportation, education and giving new job opportunities.

Manisha Kalita

Maximum comments are like manuhe cooperate kora nai (People are not cooperating). Whenever the government makes a policy the bureaucrats implement it. Implementation is not only about public fund allocation. Awareness has to be created among people which the minister cannot do by just taking a broom for a ceremonial sweep. There are no adequate dustbins. How many public toilets are there on GS Road? Assam’s literacy rate is less and the literate are not educated. It requires a bit of tactical leadership o create an impression on the people.

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Reviews Cast: Amy Seimetz, Billy Crudup, Callie Hernandez, Carmen Ejogo, Danny McBride, etc Director: Ridley Scott

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hen the larval alien at last explodes out of a human torso, you may experience, along with the expected jolt of fright, a curious sensation of relief, even affection. So much has changed in the world, and in movies, since the first “Alien” freaked out audiences in 1979, that the appearance of a chittering, scurrying, fast-spawning extraterrestrial predator feels like a visit from an old friend. Humanity may have lapsed into terminal tedium or hubristic stupidity, but that creature, with long, slender limbs and a cranium like a speed-skater’s helmet, remains interesting. The same can be said about “Alien: Covenant,” which follows “Prometheus” in Ridley Scott’s 21st-century refurbishing of the franchise he initiated almost 40 years ago. Covenant, for all its interplanetary ranging, commits itself above all to the canny management of expectations. To complain about its lack of ambition would be to misconstrue its intentions. Rather than setting out to conquer new worlds or excavate primal fears, this “Alien” is content to uphold a long-lived and well-regarded brand. Correcting

some of the previous film’s mistakes — not enough alien! too much mythological mumbo-jumbo best left to movies with “Star” in the title! — Mr. Scott parcels out carefully measured portions of awe, wonder and terror on the established instalment plan.This episode needs to satisfy you just enough to make sure you come back for the next one. The story begins 10 years after the events of “Prometheus” and ends en route to a sequel that will bring us closer to the beginning of the cycle. As usual, a starship is plying the far reaches of space, the crew is a collection of talented actors obeying the imperatives of science-fiction seriousness. There are a bunch of married couples — James Franco and KatherineWaterston; Danny McBride and Amy Seimetz; Demián Bichir and Nathaniel Dean; Billy Crudup and Carmen Ejogo — and others with enough personality to make us feel a little something when they die. David — seen in “Prometheus” and in a Kubrick-esque prologue here — is played by Michael Fassbender. So is another robot named Walter, a slightly updated model from theWeyland Corporation.

Album ONE MORE LIGHT By LINKIN PARK

here’s not an ounce of nu metal in sight. Since their debut album Hybrid Theory turned them into overnight superstars, Linkin Park have bounced from style to style like a pissed tramp staggering between park bins. They love guitars! They hate guitars! They think they’re Depeche Mode! One More Light is their latest career flip-flop: a gleaming, featherweight 21st-century pop album. They’ve stripped away the guitars to the point where only trace elements remain. Good Goodbye (featuring rapper Pusha T and grime star Stormzy) and Heavy (a soft-centred duet with US singer Kiiara) are more Radio 1’s Big Weekend than Download. Linkin Park have always leapt be-

nails the trials and fist-bumps follow. Madhav and Riya bond over basketball, bad English and worse chemistry. Director Mohit Suri tries hard to save this half-baked story with many wistful songs and rain numbers... the latter would need an entire page to itself. Riya Somani’s obsession with walking out in the rain, eyes half-open, is used so many times and in so many places that you want to shift to the Atacama once you’re done with the film. While writing Half Girlfriend, Chetan Bhagat might have known that it would eventually be developed into a Bollywood film, hence there are half-speeches on patriotism and loving your own language, ‘Hindi’, thrown in into the story. There’s a reference to the‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign too. By the end of the film, you’re a confused mess. You don’t know if it’s got something to do with love, or relationships, or women education and empowerment, or moving on in life, or the English-Hindi divide... you just don’t know. Beware of Half Girlfriend. You’ll let go of half your sanity within the theatre.

Game Injustice 2 Platform PlayStation 4, Xbox One

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tween genres throughout their 17-year career, and on electro-rap albums like 2010’s ‘A Thousand Suns’ their sound drifted far from the classic nu-metal of 2000 debut ‘Hybrid Theory’. It’s worked for them so far, but everyone’s luck runs out. From opening track ‘Nobody Can Save Me’ onwards, Linkin Park are unrecognisable on ‘One More Light’, and Chester Bennington’s cloying vocals grate. ‘Talking To Myself’ is full of unsophisticated hooks and forgettable melodies, and ‘Heavy’ could be anything off Radio 1’s daily rotation. The album drips to a close with ‘Sharp Edges’, which could pass for Mumford & Sons. The only not-awful moment is ‘Good Goodbye’, featuring Stormzy and LP’s Mike Shinoda, but it still sits awkwardly.

he makers of Mortal Kombat return to the DC Comics universe, with a fighting game that’s just as much fun on your own as it is in multiplayer. To be fair to Mortal Kombat developer Nether Realm, their story campaigns have always been far superior to most Japanese-made fighters. And while we do have some issues with the nature of the story itself, the amount of effort put into Injustice 2’s single-player is extraordinary. Importantly, the gameplay is also extremely impressive, and arguably the most technical Western-made fighter ever made. And yet as DC Comics fans we feel we should have hated the original Injustice: Gods Among Us. Not because it wasn’t any good, but be-

Half Girlfriend (UA) Hindi, 2D 09:15 AM 05:45 PM Gold Mine (7D) () English (7D), 7D 11:00 AM Hindi Medium (U) Hindi, 2D 11:45 AM Haunted House (-) English (7D), 7D12:00 PM 04:30 PM Forest Adventure & Aero Bike (7D) () English (7D), 7D 01:00 PM

PVR Cinemas Dona Planet 08800900009

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Vikrant Massey, Seema Biswas, Rhea Chakrabarty Director: Mohit Suri iven that the film is called Half Girlfriend, from Chetan Bhagat’s book of the same name, one would be tempted to write half-reviews of it. But lesser mortals need to make do with the entire movie, more than two-hours of mind-numbing torture, and then get out of the theatre to write full reviews of half-films. First things first, Half Girlfriend - Dost Se Zyada Girlfriend Se Kam the movie does not begin in ‘writer Chetan Bhagat’s room’. Kudos to director Mohit Suri for that. But chopping out Chetan Bhagat’s parts from Half Girlfriend has probably done it more bad than good. So Madhav Jha (Arjun Kapoor, trying hard to look like a 17-year-old but failing miserably) ‘coming from village area’ reaches St. Steven’s College for the interviews. He tries hard to impress the panel with his knowledge of ‘samajshastra’ (Sociology!). After a half-English-half-Hindi speech, Madhav reaches the basketball court for the trials (he’s applied through Sports quota) and spots Riya Somani (Shraddha Kapoor, learning how to get on your nerves, one film at a time). He falls in love, at first sight, with next-to-no attention from Riya. He tells her a few basketball moves with which she

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cause it somehow managed to become a primary influence on the DC cinematic universe. Zack Snyder never seems to have realised that Injustice’s over-the-top grim dark tone was always partially tongue in cheek, as the game sought ever more unlikely reasons for why heroes and villains with completely different power sets would be fighting each other. The opening to Injustice 2 is almost identical to the animated movie Superman: Unbound, itself an adaptation of the comic book arc Superman: Brainiac. It shows a young Supergirl escaping the destruction of Krypton by Brainiac, and arriving on Earth after Superman – and into the middle of the mess created by the first game.

Half Girlfriend (UA)Hindi, 2D 10:00 AM 03:35 PM 09:00 PM Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (UA) Hindi, 2D 12:30 PM Hindi Medium (U) Hindi, 2D 06:10 PM

Grande Cines Paltan Bazar 09854017771 Half Girlfriend (UA) Hindi, 2D 09:30 AM 12:05 PM 06:05 PM 09:15 PM Hindi Medium (U) Hindi, 2D 10:00 AM 03:15 PM Soi Gaaor Chompa (U) Assamese, 2D 12:30 PM Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (UA) Hindi, 2D 02:45 PM 05:45 PM 08:45 PM

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G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Lifestyle

How can we cleanse our Chakras? Part-III

oday morning itself, a lady approached me and told her story. She had visited some sage or some mystic who told her to do certain things. When she did all that, she experienced a lot of difficulty and it became very horrible for her. She experienced great discomfort. She told me, “Gurudev, I am not able to go to the temple and my body is not in my control”. It should be the opposite way around. Even the involuntary system comes into our control when you do Sadhana. When you do wrong Sadhana without proper authenticity, or by just reading books and other materials, then even the voluntary and involuntary system get messed up. So, you should be careful about this. The key word is proper guidance and effortlessness. The energy should be awakened very naturally and effortlessly. When energy rises naturally and through the proper technique, one experiences so much enthusiasm, joy, total belongingness. All these are signs of a true awakening of the Shakti (energy). It anyway happens spontaneously when you do the Sudarshan Kriya. Do you not feel as if every particle of your body has become so infused and full of energy? This is what the awakening of Kundalini is. There is no serpent or lotus flower as such within our system, so do not go looking or imagining such things foolishly. The lotus flower is only depicted as an example, as a means of symbolism. In the olden times, one of the

names of the Lord used to be Kamala-Nayana : means having eyes like a blossomed lotus. Now just imagine what it would be like if someone really grew two lotuses in the place where the eyes are. Everyone else would get scared and run away from them. See, this is just a symbolic example. In the same way, the energy has been symbolically compared to a serpent. In the mythological stories, it is said that the Mother Earth rests upon the hoods of the serpent Shesha Naag. What does this actually mean? What does the Shesha Naag mean? It symbolizes the centripetal force and the centrifugal force. Our Earth is supported by two kinds of forces. These forces do not act in a linear direction. These forces act in a circular fashion. A snake also never travels in a straight line. A snake also coils in a near-about circular manner as it moves forward. The movement of the serpent is propelled by centripetal and centrifugal forces. The Shesha Naag symbolizes the two forces that the Earth is supported by. It does not literally mean that the Earth is resting upon the hood of some giant serpent. No, it is not so at all. India has recently completed the trip to Mars using the Mangalyaan space vehicle. There are so many artificial satellites around the Earth today. So there is no scientific evidence in favour of the Earth resting upon the hood of a giant serpent.

This is a symbolic story. The Shesha Naag here is not some actual living being, it is actually a giant supportive force or power. No one today can refute the fact about these two kind of forces: the Centripetal and Centrifugal forces exist. It is these two forces that sustain the Earth in its revolution around the Sun. This same truth was expressed in the ancient days by our wise ancestors using such symbolism, and through the example of the Shesha Naag. This is a really important and unique aspect of our scriptures, and our heritage. In the same way, when we say that there is a lotus flower within us, it means that when the mind blossoms and becomes soft and supple, when the mind becomes refined, only then can we experience the subtle consciousness in us. When the Kasturi BorKotoKi Kasturi is a palettethen knife artist mind is stuck in inertia, weand canpaints impressionist floral designs in oils.any She hails from Guwahati. not experience energy or power Blog: kasturiscanvas.blogspot.com in us. That is why our scriptures advocate the KasHmiri practicenatH of Mittaahara – Foodie, ownerbalance at XOXO cupcakes, meaning exercising and refood blogger, recipe developer and straint in eating They advocate expert food. on Assamese cuisine. proper rest for the body. Then the body becomes tuned and conducive KuLKuL raHman Entrepreneur, mother and a to experiencing this subtle phenompassionate cook. enon. (This is a part of Sri Sri Ravi Hemanta Kumar sarmaH Shankar’s article - “What are Chakras Engineer, Businessman, Advanced Pranic Healer andthem?”) Su Jok Acupresand how do we cleanse

VAASTU SHASTRA

A FEW SPIRITUAL METHODS FOR VAASTU CLEANSING

ince the science of Vaastu was first practised by the Hindus, they used several spiritual methods for Vaastu rectification. These involved audiometric benefits of sounds and disinfection by heating, i.e. fire.

THE AUM The AUM is associated with the creation of the universe. It has purifying effects on the body, mind and the surroundings. The Christians, Jews, Muslims and some other religions use a similar sounding word ‘AMEN’ for this purpose. The sound Aum can be divided into three syllables, i.e. Aa, oo and mmm. The ‘Aa’ part is generated from the stomach, the ‘oo’ is produced from the throat region and the ‘mmm’ is from the head. So when this magic word is pronounced properly, the entire stomach, throat and the head areas are energised with positive vibrations. Incidentally, these three parts of the body are associated with Lord Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu respectively. The Aum sound is vibrating throughout the cosmos and it has three manifestations; those of creation, preservation and destruction by Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswar or Shiva respectively. These three virtues of Aum are observed whenever a person utters any letter or the word as a whole. Vaastu prescribes extensive use of this word for cleansing of the body, the mind and the household. Regular chanting of Aum can nullify many Vaastu defects. It is almost a must before starting any kind of meditation because it calms down the body and the mind. THE FIRE WORSHIP The fire worship or Havan purifies the atmosphere and destroys negative energy. It is done to remove Vaastu Doshas in houses, commercial Kasturi BorKotoKiestablishis aof palette knife artist and ments, institutions, industries and localities. VariousKasturi types Yajnas perpaints impressionist floralare designs in oils. She hails from Guwahati. formed with the fire worship to overcome marital disharmony, loss in business Blog: kasturiscanvas.blogspot.com and problems in the family caused by evil effects as a result of bad Vaastu. The burning of incense and ghee with sandalwood can transform a negative area KasHmiri natH Foodie, owner at XOXO cupcakes, into a positive one. food blogger, recipe developer and Specific mantras are recited which have specific Recitation of experteffects. on Assamese cuisine. Vaastu Purusha Mantra brings peace and harmony in the house. Also removes Vaastu Dosha. It goes like this:KuLKuL raHman Entrepreneur, mother and a passionate cook.

sure specialist.

sHri sHri ravi sHanKar Founder- Art of Living Foundation.

Namaste Vaastu Purushaay Bhooshayyaa Bhirat Prabho | Madgriham Dhan Dhaanyaadi Samriddham Kuru Sarvada ||

Hemanta Kumar sarmaH Engineer, Businessman, Advanced Pranic Healer and Su Jok Acupressure specialist. sHri sHri ravi sHanKar Founder- Art of Living Foundation.

Red and Green! Assamese delicacies on canvas

ost people of my generation have spent wintry childhood afternoons gorging on green olives or ‘Jolpai,’ which is abundantly found in Assam. The Assamese olive, for those who are not aware, is bigger than the cocktail variety found in the bottles in stores. It is tangy, fleshy and usually had raw with salt or as a boiled and mashed addition with rice and dal or pickled in mustard oil. Some years ago, on one of my

visits to Assam, I found these olives in the market and marvelled at the green, steadfast colour. I at once wanted to paint them as I was on a still-life spree those days. However, I thought they had to be juxtaposed with something wilder, brighter and warmer in colour and spirit to make a good painting. As I was trying to think up a good composition, I spotted these Bhutjolokias in the market. Bhut-jolokia (Fiery red chilli), which grows in Assam, happens to be the hottest chilli in the world and has been slowly taking the whole world by storm. It has stepped out of the Assamese dinner plates in the past few years and has found pride of place in stores and homes in India and abroad bottled as sauces, pickles and chilli

flakes. What’s more, whenever I tell people in Mumbai that I hail from

Assam, the next thing I hear is: “Hey, I know about Bhut-jolokia!”

I had found the partner for the olive. I set up a simple composition of the Bhut-jolokia and an olive and made a quick acrylic sketch. As I was painting, I remember being distracted by the appetising smell of the red chilli and dreaming of the next meal with it! As I finished my painting, I packed both the fruits into my luggage as I was hurrying to catch a flight back to Mumbai. I am planning to make a bigger painting with the red chillies on my next visit which is round the corner. It has been a few years since then and I have meanwhile grown into a steady palette knife painter. In my next column, I shall write about the palette knife technique and the wonderful ways of painting with the palette knife. Till then, I must fish out the Bhut-jolokia bottle! Kasturi Borkotoki Kasturi is a palette knife artist and paints impressionist floral designs in oils. She hails from Guwahati. Blog: kasturiscanvas.blogspot.com

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Entertainment

Shooting of new genre Assamese film ULKA completed

Kalyan Kumar Kalita

LKA is a 2017 Assamese drama movie based on a piece of fiction which has relevance to a real life incident. Ulka is directed by Pranab Vivek and produced by Bhaskar Upadhyaya under the banner of Eastern Green Pictures (EGP). The entire movie is being made keeping in mind the need for introducing satirical comedy in today’s new age Assamese film industry especially admired by our youth. Shooting of Ulka has been completed and post production work is going on in full swing. Prominent Bollywood singer and heartthrob of the region Angaraag Papon Mahanta has sung the theme song of Ulka which has been

penned by Ibson Lal Baruah and it will be released soon. The lead character of Ulka includes award-winning actor Rupam Chetia who is seen in a completely new avatar. Director Pranab Vivek reveals that Rupam’s character in the film would bring a very fresh concept and a mark in the history of the Assamese film industry. Veteran actors like Minu Bania, Baharul Islam, Nipon Goswami, Arun Hazarika, Satyen Sharma, Ashim Krishna Baruah, Kabindra Das and Ruma Kalita will also be seen in the star cast. Amit Kumar Borah, Please Stone Ingti, Pankaj Mahanta, Allismita Goswami and Papari Kalita have portrayed the characters of university students in this film. Dilip Khanal, Tapash Borah and Madan Talukdar are part of the cast. Bhargav Das has also made a

special guest appearance in Ulka. Eastern Green Pictures (EGP), for the first time, has taken a bold step towards dedicating itself in creating a pure content-rich entertainment feature with a sound technical setup. The movie’s director Pranab Vivek recently directed one of the most popular Assamese mega-serials ‘Abhimaan’, under the banner of EGP for Jonack channel. Ulka is also the debut commercial Assamese feature film of young and dynamic producer Bhaskar Upadhyaya whose directional debut short film ‘Tez’ was critically acclaimed. “The team behind this film is a mixture of experienced and young enthusiastic generation with the zeal of showcasing a film full of energy and entertainment,” said producer Upadhyaya. The story and script of Ulka is written by Manas Sagra. Amiya Ranjan Das is the director of photography. Meghraj Timsina is the executive producer. For Ibson Lal Baruah, a renowned music production expert working in Bollywood and in the regional film industry, Ulka is his maiden project as the music director for a commercial feature. The assistant direction team includes Dhrubajit Baishya, Mrinal Barman, Debojit Das, Mrinal Deka and Pompi Borah. n

‘Maharastra Gaurav Samman’ award for Rupak Deb Kalyan Kumar Kalita

ssam is a land of talents and a lot of people from Assam have been able to earn name and fame at national as well as international levels making Assam proud. One such talented Assamese music director is Rupak Deb (Partha). Rupak, son of renowned classical vocalist and trainer of Assam, Late Ranjit Kumar Deb and popular sitar player of Namita Deb, had grown up in a musical environment. He initially started his carrier as a key-boardist and worked with not only Assamese singers but also with Bollywood’s popular playback singers like Sudesh Bhosle, Anupama Deshpandey and Sadhna Sargam gaining popularity. Later, he worked as a music director and directed songs as well as albums in various languages like Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Assamese. Some of his popular albums are – Santa Uzir’s ‘Jumi Jumi’, Pulok Banerjee’s ‘Bojai Mone Akul Xure’, Jitul Sonowal’s ‘Violina’, Jutilekha’s ‘Pancham’, Santa Uzir and Pronob Roy’s Bengali album ‘Choleychi Aaj’, Tanmona Deb’s ‘Manjusha’ etc. Besides these, he has also musically arranged a lot of songs

and albums for Mumbai’s popular playback singers Mahalaxmi Iyer and Sadhna Sargam and also composed a song titled ‘Maya’ for Mumbai-based Assamese singer Tushar Arjun. He has also brought the concept of acoustic piano for the first time to the northeast by playing acoustic piano in Guwahati’s ‘Hotel Landmark’ back in the year 2001. For his 20 years of glorious journey in the field of music and the huge contribution to Marathi music, he was recently felicitated with the ‘Maharastra Gaurav Samman’ award. After receiving his life’s first award, music director Rupak Deb shared his feelings saying that this achievement will really help him to work more passionately. The entire northeast feels proud of Rupak Deb’s achievement. n

A look back at Assamese Classics- A series of old movies for the readers with a story, its origin, its cast and its relevance to contemporaries.

apt. Rana Phukan comes to the village to be with his mother in the last days of her

life.

Aparoopa, wife of Mr. Barua, a tea estate owner, feels totally neglected and imprisoned because of her husband’s busy life; he cannot give her much time. Things get worse when she discovers that her marriage was for the sake of wiping off a huge debt that her father owed. She considers herself as having been sold to her husband. One day Mr. Barua meets Rana while he

is taking a walk in the tea estate and brings him home to meet Aparoopa. After meeting Rana, Aparoopa starts recalling her bygone days and how beautiful they were. As the story proceeds, the two start meeting each other frequently. Mr. Barua shows no objection as well since he is cognizant of the fact that Aparoopa is always lonely and has no one to talk to. Mr. Barua tells Rana that he feels pity for Aparoopa and he also feels that this marriage has ruined her life. On the other hand, rumors started spreading across the village that Rana and Aparoopa are having an illicit affair. Radha is a girl in the village and is like a sister to Rana. She worked as an actress in a local drama company and this had brought her a bad name in the village. The villagers even termed her as prostitute. Rana gets her married to one of his

damn to the society as no one has friends, Anil, which brings much thought about her future and her relief to her father. One day Radha life. Aparoopa’s mother goes to the comes back at night and asks her village panchayat and complains father never to send her back to her about Rana. The panchayat sumin-laws as the rumor has reached mons him, but Rana has his own arher new home as well and her inguments. He faces the villagers and laws have started believing in the declares that since his mother is rumor. But her father refuses to dead now and he has no one in the keep her back and says that she village, he is going to leave forever. needs to go back in the morning itHe donates his entire property to self as that is her destiny. She finalhis servant ly commits Aparoopa (1982/Color) Ramu and suicide. a piece of MeanStory, Produced, Edited and Directed: land to the while, ApJahnu Barua village to aroopa’s Cinematography: Binod Pradhan construct a mother Music: Bhupen Hazarika school. He comes to Cast: Biju Phukan, Suhasini Mulay (actor urges the meet her and says who played the role of Amir Khan’s mother in villagers Lagaan), Girish Karnad to concenthat she Special appearance: Kulbhushan Kharbanda trate on is worried This was Jahnu Barua’s directorial debut and education about her the film won the National Award in 1982. rather than daughinvolving and ter’s rumors wasting time gossiping. He also with Rana. But Aparoopa asks her accuses the villagers of instigating where her mother’s love was when Radha to commit suicide. Rana they decided to get her married to goes to Aparoopa to bid her farea rich person just to clear off debts. well. She asks him to take her with She also mentions that she gives a

him, but he refuses. This makes Aparoopa angry and she asks him never to come back. Ramu, the servant asks Rana to take him along as well, but Rana tells him not to be dependent on anyone and work hard to live an honest and good life. Next morning as Rana waits for his train, Aparoopa comes to meet him at the station. In the concluding scene, Rana tells the audience, “I brought Aparoopa with me as I realized that I needed her in my life. I never went back to my village and I did not meet Mr. Barua either. I have no idea what happened to him after his return from Calcutta. He might have anticipated everything. He must have blamed me, or Aparoopa or maybe himself; but for me no one was to be blamed. Each of us was right in what we did. A year has passed and suddenly Aparoopa fell ill. She died a few days back. During the last days of her life she got everything she wanted; that’s what she told me before she died.”

Mirza Arif Hazarika

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

special

Why did Arnab Goswami resign from Times Now? Answered By: Sneha Jaiswal, former Senior Reporter at Times Now (2012-2014)

hen Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party first contested Delhi elections and stunned all by its performance, Arnab made a joke in the newsroom. “I will join the Aam Aadmi Party,” he said. He didn’t seem to mean it. After a few days, something happened in the newsroom and he was a little disappointed with us. (We probably missed covering a breaking news story before other channels, I can’t remember.) “When I leave this channel, you can do whatever you want with it,” he said. What I am trying to say is that, even back in 2013–2014, the signs were there. Arnab would say these things that meant he would not always be with Times Now. I remember discussing back then with my colleagues if he was planning to leave. Why? Think about this - Someone puts in money to buy you a house. But they refuse to give you any share in that house. They let you do whatever with the house. So you paint the entire house blue, put in the furniture you like and live in it as if it’s your own. One day, the owner calls and requests you to paint one room red. You hate the idea and protest. But he insists. So you do it. Because you may be living in the house like it’s yours but the owner is there to remind you it’s not. Times Now was literally built by Arnab, no one can deny that, but the owners will always be the Jain brothers. With the new Channel Republic, Arnab has majority stakes. Would you not leave a rented house for a house of your own?

Trotter

A viral story about a Chinese lesbian billionaire couple

pparently two Chinese billionaires who were in a lesbian relationship had got married. A tweet was posted with an image of two women attached, and within hours the internet was convinced of the stunning love story. But call it fake news or fan fiction, the story of Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi was too good to be true. The online post claiming they had wed received more than 20,000

Beijing International Film Festival. It showed the two women in flowing dresses – which the fake tweet made to look like wedding dresses and cropped out two men. WJSN member Xuan Yi had uploaded the image to the internet. Abby Fry, the teen behind the original post, spoke to BuzzFeed News about her reasons for the original post. She said it had been a joke designed to entertain fans of

shares. It read: “Lesbian Chinese Billionaires, Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi, marry. Making them the richest couple alive.” However there was one significant problem with the viral post: it wasn’t true. Neither of the women are billionaires, and they are not in a same-sex relationship with one another. They are, however, members of the South Korean–Chinese band Cosmic Girls, also known as WJSN. The photo that convinced the internet of their marriage had been taken earlier in the week at the

the group. She couldn’t believe the reaction after it went viral. Fry told BuzzFeed News: “I thought they looked like they were at a wedding with the dresses they were wearing, and the dresses sure looked expensive,” Fry said. She said that she thought people would fact-check first, but added that it “just shows the power of what we want to happen.” Eventually the internet clocked that it had not been real – but it was still pretty epic. (Source: Pink News)

Guy beheads deadly snake with shovel after it killed his dog

his Australian snake catcher has spoken out after a dog owner decapitated a snake in response to the death of his pet dog. Now I can’t promise what I would do if a snake snuck into my garden and killed my dog – even though I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t mind snakes – especially if it was attacking my pet. After the dog’s body was discovered following a deadly brown snake bite, the owner decided to take matters into his own hands and things got a little brutal. Faced with the dangerous creature, I suppose he did what many people in that situation would be inclined to do and attacked it in any which way he could – and in this case, it was by taking aim with a shovel. Unfortunately professional snake catcher – Tony Harrison – arrived on the scene too late and was furious at the grim and bloody sight before him. Angry and upset, he decided to share the graphic snaps to social media to demonstrate how this act of revenge is not necessary. He wrote on Facebook

alongside grim pictures of the beheaded reptile: Although his actions did not bring his dog back… It did not make him feel better.. It did risk his life doing it… It also risked his neighbors kids and dogs life…. It is still a risk as the front half is still alive and very upset... The snake did not plan to kill his dog but the dog did plan to kill the snake. The snake just defended itself and now we are down two

animals. He went onto urge people not to use their dogs to catch snakes and instead call him to catch them and free them of their terror, which is probably a much safer way of going about things anyway. It’s understandable the guy was enraged after the untimely death of his dog, but unless he was in immediate danger responding an eye for an eye was perhaps unnecessary. (Source: UNILAD)

Gigantic mystery creature washes up shore — but what is it?

giant, rotting mystery creature washed up on the shore of an Indonesian island -- and no one can figure out what it is. The nearly 50-foot beast was discovered floating off Hulung Beach, on Seram Island, Indonesia. The Jakarta Globe reports that it was found by 37-year-old Asrul Tuanakota, who initially thought it was a stranded boat. Though photos and videos of the creature went viral, no one can figure out quite what it is. People have speculated that it is a squid

or a sperm whale. Giant squids can grow to be 42 feet long and sperm whales are usually 52 feet long. Videos posted by a villager show the sea creature disintegrating into the water. Several videos posted by

a local villager show the sea creature slowly disintegrating in the water, turning it dark red. A group of marine scientists are plotting to take samples of the creature soon, Detik reports. Residents have flocked to see the giant creature, which died about three days ago. Some have asked for the carcass to be removed so it doesn’t contaminate the area. For now, the local military command is keeping watch over the beast. (Source: AOL)

Nevada pit bull mauls 6-monthold baby to death

6-month-old from Hawaii was mauled to death Monday by her family’s pit bull. Layla Tsuda, who said she was with the girl, told KHON-TV that the baby was playing in a baby walker inside their home in northwest Las Vegas valley when she was attacked. Tsuda reportedly went to the bathroom and when she came back she found the dog mauling the girl. Tsuda was able to stop the attack, but the baby already suffered major injuries, according to KTNV. The child was rushed to the hospital where she died. “It’s an absolute true tragedy,”

Larry Hadfield, a Las Vegas police officer, said. “Regardless of how trusting you are of animals you have to make sure you are supervising. You have a family that’s going to be grieving for today and the rest of their lives.” The family said they were left blindsided by the attack. The pit bull was part of the family was for the last nine years and had not bit anyone prior to the attack. “I have no words to explain my pain,” Tsuda said. The family said that the dog will be put down. Police said no charges will be filed. The child’s organs were donated and the family created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. n

G PLUS MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2017

Catching Up Most shared story of the week

New

About Me

nshu Jansempa from Arunachal Pradesh unfurled the Indian tricolour for a record fourth time on Mount Everest. This is the first time an Indian mountaineer has scaled the peak for the fourth

time

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Did you know?

Pandu - The River Port

Chick on the block

Archana Sarma, is a 22 year old young and dynamic Assamese girl, who is born and brought up in Guwahati, and currently pursuing her Masters in Political Science. She keeps keen interest in dancing and modelling. She bagged the title of Miss Cottonian in 2016. She is also the winner of Amway Fashion Show. Mojo For Archana, modelling is both her hobby and passion. She considers Priyanka Chopra to be her inspiration. She started her journey in the year 2014, as freelance model, but with perseverance, has achieved new heights in the field. Route in the Woods Archana wants to take modelling as a full time profession and desires to achieve fame as a successful model from Assam on the bigger platform. We wish her good luck for her future endeavors!

Archana Sarma

andu derives its name from the Pandunath Temple that stands on the bank of the mighty Brahmaputra River. As Pandu was surrounded by extensive fortification (Gar), it is also known as 'Gar Panduâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Pandu remains one of the important ghats (river harbours) of the Brahmaputra. Raibahadur Gunabhiram Barua in Assam Bandhu refers to Pandu as Paru or Padu which was the main harbour of Guwahati at that time. This extensive area, comprising people belonging to different castes and communities was the populous Pandu Village that has now almost disappeared. Only a few families around the temple of Pandunath now bear testimony to the glory that was the old Pandu. The 41st session of Indian National Congress (A.I.C.C.) was held at Pandu on 26th December 1926. Mahatma Gandhi had also attended the event. Pandu had this moment of glory and celebration to its credit. Printed & Published by Sunit Jain on behalf of Insight Brandcom Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Arkashish Publications (P) Ltd., Katahbari, Garchuk, Guwahati and Published at H/No. 34, K. C. Choudhury Road, Chatribari, Guwahati - 781008, Editor: Swapnil Bharali. Phone: 0361 2737737, Email: info@g-plus.in, RNI No: ASSENG/2013/52641