GPlus Vol 4 Issue 44 by G Plus

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Volume 04 | Issue 44 Aug 26 - Sep 01, 2017 Price `10 PG 06

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Bhupen Medhi was never my bodyguard, says Bhagya Kalita

Blood trading in GMCH a common trait of racketeers

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Commuters face woes as NFR struggles for 24 hrs chemistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tender

Assam GPS system at risk of leaking vital info to China GPS devices currently installed in commercial vehicles are not empanelled with the transport department and even the servers are not regulated increasing risk of data theft as most servers are located in China Rahul Chanda rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

he entire world is watching the India-

China relations closely. The standoff between India and China on the Doklam issue may not have progressed into a full-blown armed conflict, but a cold war is on and people are concerned about every stand that the government is taking to resolve the issue. Even the State Cabinet Minister Himanta

Biswa Sarma hinted that the third wave of flood in Assam might have had a China angle. G Plus is raising an important issue this week

which deals with the vehicular data that

can

be accessed by China anytime it wants. According to media reports, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has directed 21 smartphone makers, most of which are Chinese, to inform it about the procedures and processes they follow to ensure the security of mobile phones sold in India following reports of data leakage and theft. The government will verify the details provided and act against companies that have failed to

Continued on page 2

AFSPA clamped Assam casts doubts on proper Right to Privacy implementation Avishek Sen Gupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

9-judge Supreme Court bench had, on Thursday, unanimously ruled that privacy is a fundamental right protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty and as part of the freedom guaranteed by the

Constitution. The bench comprising all the sitting judges in the Supreme Court and headed by Chief Justice of India, JS Khehar included Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, RF Nariman, AM Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay K Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer. The bench upturned a 63-year-old ruling of an 8-judge bench that had

refused to recognise privacy as a fundamental right and has rekindled the possibility that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which holds that gay sex is a crime, might soon become history. The ruling has also opened possibilities for data security constricting biometric-linkage of personal information with the Aadhar card, Continued on page 5

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Lead Story

Assam GPS system at risk of leaking vital info to China

File photo of a GPS device

Continued from page 1

meet the security requirements. Similarly, talking about Assam, the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) installed in vehicles here are mostly linked with servers located in China increasing the vulnerability of providing the state’s vehicular data to the Chinese. What is GPS and how does it function? How can it provide data to China? Is the transport department aware of the issue and keeping any track on the devices that are installed and the servers being used? Is it a security concern? G Plus analyses the situation. GPS installation in Guwahati

According to a source in the transport department, GPS installation was made mandatory for all commercial vehicles in Assam since mid2016 and vehicle owners cannot obtain a permit from the District Transport Office (DTO) without showing the GPS installed in the vehicle. Now, do the motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs) physically check the devices installed? A source in the DTO said that the MVI is expected to check the GPS installed in the vehicle but what usually transpires is that the permit applicant attaches a certificate of

the GPS service provider and the MVI just checks the certificate. A middleman who works in the DTO and helps others in obtaining licenses, registration certificates and permits, talking to G Plus in anonymity, said that these days the middlemen do not have much work in the DTO but take their chances in helping out the applicant when it comes to GPS. He said that there are GPS devices ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000 available in the market. He said that the low cost devices are all Chinesemade and do not come with any warranty. The expensive ones are mostly made in India and have warranty periods. He said that the device again has to be connected to a server and he did not know where such servers are located. G Plus talked to a service provider in Guwahati. The service provider

A Guwahati-based service provider, talking to G Plus in anonymity, said that in Assam there are two or three service providers. Then, there are Indiabased service providers and there are many China-based service providers like Protech, Techpro etc. He said that GPS is a small electronic device which, when attached to a vehicle, can

be tracked from a computer or a mobile phone. It requires a data-only SIM card to work. He said that some GPS installations are also capable of providing additional security services like remote engine off, alerts on ignition, panic button for emergency etc. He said that while the initiative is important and the intent is right, it is however becoming evident that there has not been much defined thought on its implementation. He said, “There is however a government approved certification process which guarantees that the device is waterproof and can store location information even when there is no data connection. However, there is nothing mandating the use of these devices in Assam.” He said that authorities should have, at the least, made a list of approved devices or mandated certifications like ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) to protect consumers and citizens from fraud. The end result is that the market is flooded with low cost, unreliable Chinese devices. Talking about servers, he said that ideally, all these data should reside in a secure location and preferably within India. Without this location, information of

citizens can be susceptible to security lapses. The GPS service provider said, “Unfortunately, many low cost Chinese devices get activated with servers that reside in China and without any secure access. In effect, the Chinese companies selling those devices and through local agents are collecting huge amount of data on the whereabouts of Indian vehicles and their locations in real time. This exposes our citizens and country to obvious security threats.” He also said, “Consumers get the location of the vehicle by logging in with a username and password. This is, as we know, a standard procedure and is ok if security processes are followed. However again, there is no guideline around that. HTTPS ensures security of the username and password that you send over internet. This is a basic common sense requirement but still a lot of services that are being sold are lacking in it. It does expose the citizens to identity thefts and possible denial of service.” He further said, “Currently, the only way for police to track a vehicle is to ask the owner for information like username/password, web address etc. How ridiculous is this? Imagine getting a call from someone identifying himself as police and asking for your username and password to track your vehicle. And what happens if the owner is kidnapped in his own car at gun point? Where will law enforcement agencies get this location information?” He said that another popular scam is where some vehicle owners activate GPS services on prepaid SIM cards just to procure the certificate and thereafter stop paying for data service effectively making the vehicle untraceable. And then one year later, before the license renewal, the GPS certificate is re-activated just to get the license renewed. There is no safeguard to ensure that the service has been active for the period that the license has been awarded. He said that there are simple solutions to these issues like the government should demand pre-paid service for the period license is issued. Pre-payment should be for SIM cards as well tracking service. He said that the police should

be given special direct access to location database which is accessible from a secured control room. The government should work with service providers to make this information available 24X7 to the authorized law enforcement department. A city-based GPS device dealer, Ranjay Jain, owner of Hello Cars (a car parts and accessories wholesaler) said, “Even before GPS was made mandatory in Assam for commercial vehicles, we used to deal in such devices. We sell Intelli 7, Track n Tell, which are

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Lead Story made in India and the MRP is Rs 7,000.” Jain further said that this is a device made in India and is connected to an Indiabased server (Bits & Bytes) where information security is guaranteed. He said that the service subscription is free along with the device for three years and it can be renewed after three years. Jain said that in other cheap devices the subscription is for one year and many companies even cease to exist after one year. He said that he sells India-made devices and his sales are low because the prices are high but the quality is guaranteed. But there are Chinamade cheap devices and even service providers who sell cheap devices but such devices are not repairable and even the service providers are not accessible when required. Armed with this knowledge, G Plus thought of talking to the authorities.

officer in the city crime branch, talking to G Plus, said that when a vehicle installed with GPS gets stolen, the police have to ask the

The authorities

owner to track the device as they do not have any technology to track the vehicle directly. A very senior police officer, who is technically sound and deals with artificial intelligence,

The DTO Kamrup (Metro), PK Ghosh, confirmed that none of the GPS devices are notified and people are using whatever GPS device they want to. A police

talking to G Plus in anonymity, said that this is a situation of concern and the irony is that Assam Police has not done any

“

Unfortunately, many low cost Chinese devices get activated with servers that reside in China and without any secure access. In effect, the Chinese companies selling those devices and through local agents are collecting huge amount of data on the whereabouts of Indian vehicles and their locations in real time. This exposes our citizens and country to obvious security threats.” - A local GPS service provider work in this field. The police officer accepted the fact that GPS is connected to servers and agreed that many servers are located in China and because the service providers can easily

access the data, the vehicular data of the city, state and the country is vulnerable to getting accessed by China. He said that if China has to attack India, it can easily identify a crowded area by looking at the number of vehicles gathered at a place and target the area for maximum damage. He said that this is a very grey area and things have to be analysed before it is too late. G Plus talked to Commissioner of Transport, Puru Gupta who said, “I am aware of the issue. China accessing India’s vehicular data comes later. But what is important is that the vendors have to be approved at least by ARAI as, according to the state transport authority, all commercial vehicles are supposed to be GPS-installed and none will be exempted.” He also said that even three-wheelers have to be installed with GPS and they will not be able to renew the permit without GPS in their vehicles. He said, “We have finalised the set of specifications with clear cut conditions which the GPS devices have to follow and accordingly, within a month,

all the accepted GPS device companies will be empanelled with the department so that only devices with the particular specified requirements are available in the market.” He said that business with China cannot be barred as there are policies for that but the specifications and guidelines will have to be maintained. He said that there are 20 to 25 criteria and the department will soon finalise them all. He said, “The issue which you raised is very pertinent and it will be ensured that the confidentiality of the data is not sacrificed.” He said that there will be a mechanism that the law enforcing agencies can access the data when required and even the data is secured with the service providers. He said that there will be terms which will ensure that no one can avail the data from the servers. At least the transport department is aware of the issue. But as the India-China standoff can easily turn into a war, the vehicular data, at present, remain susceptible and possible leakage to China cannot be n brushed off.

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Concern

Most city by-lanes dilapidated despite fund flush into councillors’ accounts Although the councillors of GMC get enough funds for development work, especially for the by-lanes and sub-lanes of their wards, public outcry for construction continues. G Plus checks out a few wards and talks to the respective councillors even walk by the roadside. There is a wooden bridge in the area and the public has repeatedly requested the councillor and even the concerned departments to reconstruct the bridge and make it an RCC bridge. But they are least bothered and now

List of development work under councillor fund in Ward No 31 (Rs 50 lakhs)

Remaining portion of Niribili Path- Rs. 5 lakhs

Development of Aambari Kabarsthan Road- Rs 5 lakhs

Hill top road from Namghar Path- Rs 3 lakhs

Panjabari Jyotisikha Mahila Parishad Bihu Mancha (construction)- Rs. 4 lakhs

Dilapidated condition of Lachit Nagar Road | G Plus Photo

Juthika Baruah juthika.baruah@g-plus.in

here is still some time to go for the current term of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) councillors to end. In these five years, each councillor received funds in crores of rupees for development projects, especially roads, but it is observed that the condition of some roads that are under the purview of the councillors in most parts of the city are even worse than those in rural areas. In the first year, i.e. 2014, the councillors of each ward received Rs. 60 lakhs. 80% of such funds are granted for roads while 20% are utilised for other works like streetlights, garbage collection, construction of drains etc. “The money which comes into the councillor’s fund are mainly utilised for construction of roads and only a small amount is utilised for development of parks, water well-bores, streetlights etc. There are 44 lanes and by-

lanes in Ward No 21 and the construction of most of the roads have been completed. The major roads do not come under the councillor’s purview as such a small amount is not sufficient for construction of major roads,” said Councillor of Ward No 21, Shashanka Jyoti Deka while speaking to G Plus. Deka also informed that a devolution fund of Rs 40 crores has been sanctioned of which Rs. 20 crores will be divided amongst the 31 councillors and Rs. 5 lakhs will be given to 93 Area Sabha Members. The Zila Parishad also sanctioned a District Development Fund (DDP) of Rs. 25 lakhs in three phases. Deka said that the DDP fund has been used for the construction of Milanpur Road, Arunachal Path and Piyali Phukan Path under Ward No 21. The public always complain about the bad road conditions and non-availability of streetlights, door-to-door garbage collection being stopped in many areas, scarcity

of drinking water etc. Although the councillors received funds in huge amounts the roads continue to wear a dilapidated look. Councillor of Ward No 31, Swapan Das, said that the money which comes for councillor fund can be utilised mostly for roads but not for major roads. “We can only work for by-lanes and sub-lanes. The main roads come under PWD but people think that it is the responsibility of the councillor to construct the main roads as well. We cannot invest the amount in the main roads as the funds are minimal and if it is utilised for the construction of a single road then the bylanes and sub-lanes will remain as they are,” Das said. Dakhin Gaon in Ward No 26 is facing a tough time as the roads are in the worst possible condition where it becomes difficult for the commuters to even pass by on a scooty. “This ward is one of the largest wards in the city but the roads are in such a condition that it becomes difficult for the commuters to

New Namghar Path-

Chaneki Path (By-lane 3 and 4)- Rs. 8 lakhs

Soniya Path- Rs. 5 lakhs

Chaneki Path (Kali Mandir to Na Para Link Road) -

Rs. 8 lakhs

Rs. 7 lakhs

2nd List of councillor fund of Ward 31 (Rs 50 lakhs)

Sweetland - Rs. 10 lakhs

Amritpur (Botahghuli) -

Sukafa Path - Rs. 10 lakhs

Chilaray Path (By-lane 2) -

Malon Path- Rs. 5 lakhs

Homeopathic College Road (By-lane 4)- Rs. 5 lakhs

Botahghuli Manipuri Mandir Path- Rs. 5 lakhs

Rs. 10 lakhs

Rs. 5 lakhs

they have again constructed a wooden bridge. There is a school and the bridge has become a risk to the small kids who commute over it. People cannot ride bikes and scooters as the roads have potholes and despite the public repeatedly requesting the councillor for construction of the roads it has not been done,” said a resident of the area. On the other hand, Councillor of Ward No 8, Sunita Vilwaria, said that the funds are mostly used for construction of roads but other developmental works can also be willingly taken up as the councillors are helped by many NGOs or local committees who are interested in developing their own wards. “The councillor funds are utilised for developing the roads but the other developmental work like streetlights, drinking water can be provided with the funds offered by NGOs and many people also donate money for developmental work. I am also associated with an NGO and they are willing to construct public toilets but it is due to lack of appropriate space that we are unable to start the construction work. People always complain about lack of public toilets but when we urge them to provide a specific location they do not oblige saying that construction of toilets in some areas will make the area even dirtier. It is due to the non-availability of space that public toilets cannot be constructed in the city,” said Vilwaria. All in all, given the seriously bad conditions of most of the city’s by-lanes and sub-lanes, one is often left wondering if the funds awarded to the councillors are indeed enough to cater to the requirement. Needless to say, councillors have to prioritize their road development work giving importance to one road over the other when utilizing their funds. This leads to a lot of heart burn among residents of one locality and the best efforts of some the well-meaning councillors are met with disdain or displeasure by those who are not on his or her priority list. n

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Governance

AFSPA clamped Assam casts doubts on proper Right to Privacy implementation While the nation welcomed with open arms the landmark Supreme Court verdict that ruled privacy as a fundamental right, Assam, that ranks second in human rights violations after Jammu and Kashmir, awaits the verdict’s implications with bated breath due to AFSPA. This right restricts the state from interfering in the lives of the citizens but I am sure, citing security reasons, the government will still continue interfering.” Prafulla Mahanta, who spearheaded the 6 year long Assam Agitation (1979-1985) and was a two-term chief minister from Asom Gana Parishad under whose rule, the state saw its darkest chapter with secret killings of alleged ULFA leaders said the Right to Privacy was a much needed move back then. “I welcome this move. People talk about secret killings. But in the same backdrop, when AFSPA File photo of Supreme Court of India was in force, several people were brought under the intelligence large. According to a right to radar and were harassed Continued from page 1 information (RTI) query in July unnecessarily. Those could have upholding women’s choice this year, in the backdrop of the been avoided had this right regarding abortion, reframing Centre extending the “disturbed been implemented back then,” laws regarding euthanasia and area” tag for Assam till 31st Mahanta said. marital rape and even choice August, it was revealed that there Leader of Opposition of meat amidst the Centre’s are 58 complaints against human in the Assam Assembly, attempts to ban the sale of cattle rights violations under AFSPA in Debabrata Saikia, too for slaughter. the state. It comes next to Jammu expressed apprehension on In laymen’s terms, the Right and Kashmir that recorded the its implementation and said, to Privacy will reaffirm the highest with 92 complaints and is “This was a much needed state and central government’s followed by Manipur that stands move, but to what extent the intervention in the personal third with 21 complaints filed incumbent government, which choices of its citizens while against the same. has, at numerous instances, maintaining a balance between All India United democratic violated fundamental rights the right to privacy and the right Front (AIUDF) general secretary will implement the same is still of the state to impose reasonable and legislator Aminul Islam told doubtful. For now, the Congress restrictions on it for legitimate G Plus, “As long as AFSPA is Party will attempt to make people aims such as national security, clamped in this state, no right will aware about the right so that prevention and they are not investigation misled.” of crimes and When This judgement will probably be distribution contacted, of welfare the final nail in the coffin for the IPC the Director resources. General Assam too Section 377. So far, the section has only of Police, welcomed the received condemnation from political Assam, move, but for Mukesh a state that parties but when it came to scrapping Sahay said, has had the “Every right the law, there was no progress. This controversial has certain Armed Forces judgement will finally pave way for the restrictions (Special Power) and when real freedom of the LGBT people” Act (AFSPA) it comes to clamped on it national since 1958 and security - Abhishek Chakraborty, LGBT rights activist has witnessed or dealing the second with highest human rights violations, be properly implemented. There issues pertaining to law and a cloud of apprehension on already are several fundamental order situations, the state has its which extent the new right rights violation issues against the legitimacy to act upon. I don’t will be implemented looms Indian armed forces conducted think there will be any violation

“

of the right due to AFSPA or by the security agencies while dealing with insurgency or law and order issues.” Advocate Bhaskar Dev Konwar however brings forth a separate concern – that of Aadhar card verification - which was halted due to the upgradation process of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He said, “The judgement, although not an exhaustive enumeration or catalogue of rights to privacy, however, by declaring the right to privacy as fundamental right

time to address the same. “The state is currently focussed on the upgradation of the NRC. Once that process is completed and the indigenous citizens of Assam are recognised, the state will go on with the upgradation of Aadhar card as per the rules of the country. It is too early to speculate as of now,” a source in the NRC office said. The LGBT community in the state however rejoiced at the verdict and termed the ruling as the first positive ray of hope for decriminalising consensual

An LGBT activist during a rally in Guwahati | File Photo

has paved the way for further adjudication of the rights of LGBT including decriminalisation of homosexuality, change in laws on abortion, euthanasia and marital rape.” “With reference to Assam, where Aaadhar card is yet to be issued and linked with personal database of individuals unlike in some other states where it is mandatory to link Aadhar card with bank accounts and other personal transactions, it will have far reaching impact. Issuance of Aadhar cards in Assam has always been a contentious issue since there is reasonable apprehension that foreigners may get hold of Aadhar cards and they may claim it as a proof of citizenship,” Konwar added. The NRC office however refuted the concern saying it is a “long shot” and there still is

gay sex and marriage. “This judgement will probably be the final nail in the coffin for the IPC Section 377. So far, the section has only received condemnation from political parties but when it came to scrapping the law, there was no progress. This judgement will finally pave way for the real freedom of the LGBT people,” Abhishek Chakraborty, an LGBT rights activist told G Plus. The BJP termed the judgement as beginning of “Achhe Din” (Good days). “Off late, several allegations were raised against this government of being biased, polarised and that of not being secular. This verdict has silenced them all. We welcome this verdict and the government will take every step to protect this fundamental right,” Pramod Swami, spokesperson of Assam n BJP said.

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Crime

Bhupen Medhi was never my bodyguard, says Bhagya Kalita A top contractor and one of the wealthiest men in Assam, Bhagya Kalita says that he had never had an affair with Karabi each other’s homes. Karabi’s family was involved in the music industry and many people used to visit her home. I was dragged into the case because the youngster said that my security guard killed his mother. But at that time any person who visited her house and carried a gun was considered to be my security personnel.” He said that no one used to visit their house with security other than him as at that time he was targeted by ULFA and so the then Chief Minister, Hiteswar Saikia, had provided him with two security guards. Bhagya kalita coming out from the court after his acquittal | G Plus Photo

Rahul Chanda rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

he final verdict on the sensational KarabiDubori murder case 22 years ago was pronounced recently by the District & Sessions Judge Court, Kamrup (M). The court acquitted businessman Bhagya Kalita and his driver Fatiur Ali of all charges in context to the infamous killings of Karabi Das, wife of Ujjal Kr Das and their minor daughter, Chandrani Dharitri Das alias Dubori in 1995. Both have been declared innocent by the court. The final hearing came after 22 years and 22 days. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had charge-sheeted Bhagya Kalita and two of his associates, who were allegedly involved in the sensational killing of the duo. Both Karabi and her daughter were murdered in cold blood on July 31, 1995 at their residence in Ambari, Guwahati. The incident had triggered wide sensation in the entire state and was considered to be one of the most controversial criminal cases in Assam. Karabi’s 3-yearold son, who was reportedly

Who was Bhupen Medhi?

an eyewitness to the crime, had reportedly said Kalita’s bodyguard had fired the shots in presence of Kalita, who was a regular visitor to the house based on which the CBI had filled the charge-sheet. The son’s statement, however, was not taken into account due to his age. The CBI charge-sheet was filed in October 1998. One of the accused, a “bodyguard” of Kalita, Bhupen Medhi, has been untraceable for the last 22 years. After his acquittal, G Plus talked to Bhagya Kalita seeking his opinion on the case and how he got dragged into the controversy if he was innocent. Bhagya Kalita and his involvement

Exclusively talking to G Plus, Bhagya Kalita said, “I was pulled into the case because the day the incident took place at 10 o clock, I was in Advocate General Pachu Gopal Baruah’s house on some work related to my business in Numaligarh. The next day we came to know about the incident and I was dragged into the case because of the statement of her son who was around 3 years old then. I had good relations with the family; we used to visit

Talking about Bhupen Medhi, Kalita said, “Bhupen Medhi was never my bodyguard. It is a false accusation. He was a SULFA and used to help the cops in trapping ULFA cadres.” He said, “My house was on the 1st floor of DIG office at Rehabari; the ground floor housed the CWR office. On the second floor lived Ex DGP Subramaniam and on the third floor IGP Kalipath Chakravorty used to live.” He said that behind the building there were some police barracks and Bhupen Medhi was given shelter there because he used to help the police in snaring ULFA cadres. Kalita said Bhupen Medhi had connections with the police. He used to roam around the city with the police and identify the ULFA cadres and their locations. So Bhupen Medhi did not have any relation with Kalita; in fact he was related to the police. He said, “Sometimes, we used to acknowledge each other with a hi-hello as he used to live in my close proximity.” Our driver, Fatiur Ali, in his statement had said that Bhupen Medhi had taken Ali to Karabi’s house. Medhi had taken something in a plastic bag and Fatiur heard the gun shots. Kalita said that instead of Bhupen Medhi police

came after him. He said, “The police should have gone after Medhi but they came after me,” and added, “Lora tuye kole Bhagya Mamar securitye maak mari gol (Bhagya uncle’s security killed my mother). They should have identified my security. I had two security guards provided by the police and both of them were quizzed by the police and later they were let off after which they dragged me into the controversy. Police arrested me and I spent 90 days in jail.” At that time, according to him, there was a public outrage and to save their own position the police made Kalita a scapegoat. Talking about CBI, he said that central investigating agency came into the picture one year later. CBI did not arrest Kalita but interrogated him and quizzed 57 witnesses along with him. All the witnesses said that Kalita was not involved. CBI charge-sheeted Kalita as the culprit but was not able to prove it in the court. Talking about Bhupen Medhi, Kalita said that the police should be still aware where he is. What relation did Kalita have with Karabi?

He said that Karabi Das was an LIC agent and singer Sadananda Gogoi had introduced Kalita to her. Kalita had bought an insurance policy from her. He said that gradually she asked him for some more contacts so that she could get some more clients and Kalita accordingly helped her with many references. She became a good performer in LIC thereafter. He said, “Then gradually we became family friends and we used to visit each other’s houses.” On being asked if he had an extra-marital affair with Karabi, Kalita said, “It is not true. Why I used to visit their house only I know and her family knew. People created

unwarranted rumours.” He said that he had very good relations with Karabi’s husband and all her family members. Kalita said that he met Karabi’s husband through her and they were family friends. How did he make his fortune?

Talking about all that he faced in the last 21 years he said, “I faced a lot in the last 21 years, especially from the society. After this incident people started casting aspersions on me and even my close friends were sceptical about continuing their friendship with me. I suffered mentally for 21 years. High profile people used to feel awkward to invite me for any occasion.” He said that he however always knew that he was innocent and believed that one day God would give him the justice he deserved. He said that recently the Income Tax Department had awarded him for paying tax to the tune of Rs 2.40 crores and he is considered one of the richest men in Assam. He said, “I am successful because my mind was never criminal and I was never scared of anything because I have never done anything wrong.” He said he was committed to his work and no one can level allegations that he has done any illegal work. “Whatever I do God sees like a satellite,” said Kalita and added that 21 years ago he used to undertake small contracts worth Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakhs but now he owns a Rs 2,000 crore company. He said that construction works in veterinary department and highways changed his life. Meanwhile, Karabi’s family said that it will approach a higher court. On this Kalita said that he cannot stop anyone from going anywhere especially when he is confident that he is innocent. n

Weather report for the week Guwahati

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

Rain

T-Storms

Scattered T-Storms

T-Storms

31°/25° C

33°/26° C

34°/26° C

30°/25° C

SATURDAY

T-Storms

31°/26° C

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Ward Watch

Athgaon NGO ensures selfsufficiency in ward maintenance G Plus reviews the brilliant work of an NGO in Athgaon that has been persistently and tenaciously carrying out daily disposal of garbage in the locality and giving a breather to the GMC

The NGO, ADWA ensuring placement of dustbins at strategic locations in the ward | G Plus Photo

Avishek Sen Gupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

bout 23 years ago, a group of like-minded people, frustrated with the debris around the city’s Athgaon locality, started with two rickshaw-pulled carts and six sweepers. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisaged the same and gave it the name: Swachh Bharat Mission – cleaning the litter around. Athgaon Development and Welfare Association (ADWA) today has six such carts manned by about 25 workers and caters to more than 200 shops and residential establishments disposing garbage in two shifts—day and evening. The move has converted Athgaon, Ward No. 8, to one of the most self-sufficient wards under Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) so much so that the incumbent Mayor, Mrigen Sarania, after taking charge of GMC last year, lauded the efforts of the association and extended every help to the ward which is one of the largest in the city. Located at the heart of the city, Athgaon connects east and west Guwahati with Paltan Bazar to its east and Bharalumukh to its west and has been one of the major commercial areas of the city having developed over the years along with Fancy Bazar. Back in 1960s-70s, while Fancy Bazar developed primarily as a grocery and clothes market, Athgaon, due to its proximity to Fancy Bazar and being the connecting road to lower Assam from Paltan Bazar railway station,

developed as a commercial area providing every motor related need to the vehicles travelling through it. This area also served as the most suitable residential area for the traders and location of godowns for products as Fancy Bazar had already started over-crowding. The pace of infrastructural development, however, could not match the area’s commercial development. By the mid 1990’s, potholes covered most of the historical Sati Jaymati Road and waste from houses and shops lay strewn around in abundance. “We reckoned that we needed to do something ourselves as this could not go on forever. Instead of looking up to the city administration to solve our problem for us, we took matters into our hands. It started with about 10 persons coming together and contributing Rs 5,000 each for the purpose,” Sabhash Swami, general secretary of ADWA said. “We started with two rickshawpulled carts and appointed six persons to the task. We asked the people to put their garbage in the carts only and the carts were used to dispose the garbage off in the GMC dumping area at Goshala. It really clicked and so we thought of making it a permanent solution and sought contributions from the shops. About 30% of them helped and thus began our journey,” Swami said. The association, however, got its first breakthrough in 1998 when the then PWD minister in the AGP’s Prafulla Mahanta cabinet, Nagen Sarma, visited the area and discussed about its development with the association in a day-long

meeting. “By 1998, we had already taken up quite a few initiatives. We had procured steel ashes with which we filled up the potholes. Back then, the over-bridge wasn’t there and the Sati Jaymati Road was the major artery. We also installed streetlights and the cleanliness drives continued. However, there still remained several areas of the road which needed attention during the minister’s visit. But he was really impressed with the way we conducted the development works and when we told him that we were willing to take up the construction of the road properly, the minister was more than happy to give us the contract,” Swami said. The association got the tender worth Rs 14.10 lakhs for repairing the road in June 1998 which it completed within a year. Today, the association has more than 150 members including shop owners and about 50 odd residential complexes who chip in with Rs 30

Concentrated area – Sati Jaymati Road (8 B) Ward No. – 8 Population of the ward – 25,000 Voter Population – 20,300 Population of Jayanagar Road – 9,250 Ward Councillor: Sunita Bhilwariya per month. The ADWA has inspired other localities too and quite a few similar associations came up only to fade away with time due to mismanagement and instances of fund embezzlement. “Our organisation passed the test of time because it is a selfsustaining module. All the members are established in their respective fields of work and so don’t eye the association money. The workers are more than willing to work because not only do they get their regular salary but whatever they can get from the scraps belongs to them. After collecting the wastes from houses, they separate the recyclable wastes and dumps the rest at Goshala from where GMC collects it,” Swami said. Over the two decades, the association has solved the problem of waste disposal for the already

cramped Athgaon ward to the extent that people shared that they do not mind paying extra to the association even after paying the GMC taxes. “The sweepers come in the morning and collect all the wastes from the houses daily. If we miss the morning shift somehow, they come again in the evening. People in several other areas of the city have to wait for the GMC people. At several others, they even have to carry their garbage to the bins on the street. We are saved from all that harassment and we only have to give one rupee per day,” Sushila Jain, a house wife of the area said. Another resident, Nripen deka, a worker in a food joint there said, “It is very convenient. Food joints generate a lot of garbage daily, and with the two-shift clearance, a lot of n our chores are taken care of.”

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

City

Commuters face woes as NFR struggles for 24-hour chemist’s tender Lack of a 24-hour-open pharmacy at Guwahati railway station brings endless woes to the commuters; NFR had started the tendering process but did not find any bidders as it turns out to be a profitless proposition means manning the stall in three eight-hourly shifts. Sales being lesser at night, it won’t even cover my costs if I keep it open till late. Even now also, we don’t get much business through medicines as most of the people tend to travel with their own medicines and I have to survive by selling juice, ORS and bottled water mostly,” Das said. Gravity of the problem

The solitary chemist stall with its shutter down at Guwahati Railway station | G Plus Photo

Avishek Sen Gupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

2-year-old Sailen Medhi hoped for relief from a stomach ache that he felt two hours after he boarded the Kamrup Express from Dimapur, Nagaland at 2 am. He reached Guwahati railway station at 6 am only to be disappointed by the closed shutters. The railway station that has a traffic of more than 150 trains daily throughout the day and night doesn’t have a 24 hour-open chemist’s shop or pharmacy which has led to endless miseries for the passengers, especially those who travel late at night. The only pharmacy, located on Platform No. 1 about 10 metres from the senior station manager’s office, only opens for two shifts – 9 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm. “The pain was excruciating and all it needed to subside was a pill. For that, I had to walk more than a kilometre. I searched the entire station and found all sorts of shops selling tea and grocery items, even a few gutkhas, but not a single chemist store. Finally on finding one, its shutter was down while a tea shop was open just adjacent to it,” Medhi said. He further added, “This clearly shows what bears more

priority to the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR). If this was my condition, I cannot even fathom the kind of hardships the medical passengers are facing,” Medhi told G Plus. The contract for the chemist shop was given to one person named RN Das. Das cannot be found at any other time except at the time that he opens his shop.

However, commuters point out that medicines fall under one of the basic amenities and are not an item that cannot be measured through profitability. “Of course people will travel with medicines, but even then, it is one of the basic amenities which needs to be present at all times. Otherwise, if people suddenly fall ill, there won’t be any medicine available,” Parikshit Deuri, who travelled from Dhubri said. Another passenger, Raju Sahu, travelling from Darbhanga in Bihar, who had to halt at the Guwahati railway station for more than 10 hours, shared the kind of harassment he faced due to lack of a pharmacy.

“

I have sent the request for a 24hour chemist shop twice. The station manager before me too sent the same quite a few times, but no reply came from them. On an ad hoc basis, we set up a medical camp near Platform No. 1 but that does not serve the purpose” - Paresh Kalita, Senior Station Manager, Guwahati Railway Station

When G Plus spoke to him, Das said that he was not given a 24 hour license and that business is not very flourishing in the late hours. “I have been licensed to open twice in the day only. I could have extended the licensing terms, but it didn’t seem like a very profitable business proposition. Opening 24 hours

“I felt a bit of shiver when I boarded the Awadh-Assam Express from Darbhanga. The shiver progressed to fever by the time I reached Guwahati at around 3.40 am. On reaching I realised that I had missed the midnight train to Agartala, my final destination. There was another train the next afternoon and I had to stay at the station

for the night. I thought of taking medicines from the pharmacy but found none. I had to suffer for the rest of the night,” Sahu said. Pabitra Gogoi, a regular commuter from Sivasagar recalling one of his experiences from last May when he was travelling with his ailing mother for her treatment in Guwahati, said, “She (the mother) had high pressure and high blood sugar due to which we carried almost all the medicines for gastric and her prescribed ones. But during the journey, she suddenly developed pain in her lower back and she could not get up. I rushed down the platform to buy a pain reliever or some kind of spray for her pain, but found none. Finally, after a lot of struggle and with the help of fellow passengers, we got her off the train. A simple chemist’s shop would have solved all the harassment.” Authority speaks

The railway department on the other hand is facing a different problem – lack of bidders. The Senior Station Manager at Guwahati had already sent a requirement for a 24-hour chemist shop several times, but no reply came from the NFR headquarters in Maligaon. “This had been a persistent problem of this railway station. I have sent the request for a 24hour chemist shop twice. The station manager before me too sent the same quite a few times, but no reply came from them. That is why, on an ad hoc basis, we have set up a medical camp near the gate to Platform No. 1. We were only capable of giving a few basic medicines, but that does not serve the purpose,” Paresh Kalita, Senior Station Manager said. “One must realise that Guwahati being an important station not only serves commuters but also serves those who change trains and choose to stay on the platform or the waiting halls to spend a night. In most of the cases, they are poor

and weary from their journeys and need basic medical attention such as ORS, gastric or acidity medicines or pain killers. We should be able to make those available to them round the clock at least,” Kalita added. When G Plus contacted the NFR headquarters, Public Relation Officer Nripen Bhattacharya said, “The railway has put up several tenders. But we’ve got very few bidders for the same. People don’t want to open chemist shops due to lesser profit margin. We provide ORS and other medicines to passengers when the rush is more during festive seasons or Ambubachi Mela and Bol Bom. We also set up medical camps when trains get stranded due to floods or natural calamities. We have put up the concern to the Railway’s head office too and a permanent solution can only be reached after receiving an order n from them.”

G PLUS | AUG 19 - AUG 25, 2017

Health

Blood trading in GMCH a common trait of racketeers Five persons have been found involved in fund misappropriation and illegal sale of blood at the GMCH blood bank; four have been arrested by police and one is absconding

Representative image of blood donation

Juthika Baruah juthika.baruah@g-plus.in

exus in blood trading at Guwahati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH) has been a daily issue as hundreds of patients are in need of blood. As blood of all groups are not easily available people have to depend on blood donors as a life-saving recourse and some racketeers have turned this to their advantage selling and trading in blood taking a good amount of money from the patients. This time it is not outsiders but official employees of GMCH who were involved in this blood nexus after which they were caught red-handed and arrested by the police. Five persons namely Dhrubajyoti Sarma, Parag Kalita, Kuldeep Nath, Jintu Talukdar and Abdul Hai have been arrested for registering a case of fund

misappropriation in the blood bank of GMCH. “Dhrubajyoti Sarma and Kuldeep Nath were computer operators of the blood bank. Parag Kalita, who is absconding, is a government employee and Jintu Talukdar and Abdul Hai are laboratory technicians in the hospital. Hai and Talukdar have been suspended. The accused were contractual employees in the hospital,” said Superintendent of GMCH Dr Ramen Talukdar, while speaking to G Plus. Dr Talukdar said that 150160 units of blood are required every day as many emergency cases come to the hospital. Cancer patients and patients of Thalassemia are provided with free blood. “The accused may also be a part of the racket involved in illegal sale of blood to the patients. The availability of blood is less in the blood bank of the hospital as there is a lack of voluntary blood donors. Blood is exchanged; if

one unit of blood is given to a patient then that one unit should be returned by the patient or the donor,” Dr. Talukdar said. “Blood cannot be sold. It can only be exchanged or obtained from the hospital. The public must understand that accepting blood from unknown donors or people against money can be dangerous. The blood groups A, O and B are in requirement in greater quantity. We have also told the people that if we are providing them blood, they should return a similar amount of blood later. But most of the patients do not observe this rule and therefore there is a shortage of blood in the blood bank for which it becomes difficult to provide blood to other patients during emergencies,” the Superintendent said. Giving an overview of the present blood transfusion scenario in Assam, Assistant Director, Blood Transfusion Services (BTS), Assam State

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AIDS Control Society (ASACS), Fokhrul Alam Choudhury said that 68 numbers of licensed blood banks are functioning in Assam out of which 26 are National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) supported. In 2016-17, Assam was able to collect 2,12,256 units of blood against the target of 2,20,000 units of which 1,17,261 units were collected through voluntary blood donation. He also urged the youths to come forward and donate blood voluntarily. An inside source in GMCH has informed G Plus that such type of rackets frequently take place in the hospital but as the staffs do not want any harassment from the police, they do not report matters. “The racketeers deal with the patients or their attendants outside without having any consent of the authority. The trend is increasing as the youths, especially in the urban areas, whether from middle or elite classes, require spending money for their indulgences. People will not believe that youths from well-to-do families donate blood only for the money,” the source informed. “For the sufferers, money is not a consideration as they only want the patient cured and therefore they agree to buy the blood. Further, they are compelled to do so as there is perennial scarcity of blood in the blood bank; especially the negative bloods are not available. Patients are also at fault as whenever they are in need of blood, they have to consult the concerned department rather than directly consult middlemen for blood and they have to face serious difficulties consequently,” the source reiterated. According to the source, a person having Haemoglobin of 12.5%, weighing 45 kg and aged 18-60 years can donate blood at a frequency period of 3 months. “People who donate blood regain the loss within 90 days and

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therefore they can donate blood after 90 days. If people were eager to donate blood then the crisis wouldn’t have been there in the hospital. A patient of Thalassemia needs 3-4 packets of blood in a month and if the blood is not available then we have to ask the family members to arrange for the same. The problem wouldn’t have arisen had the voluntary organisations provided blood to the hospital,” the source informed. He further informed that the administrative system of the hospital has plenty of loopholes and therefore such incidents take place frequently. It has also been informed that there are some varieties of people who do not want to donate blood; they would buy blood but wouldn’t donate. The people should be aware that blood donation does not affect the health of the people; rather it is good for health and as people do not want to donate voluntarily such type of crises arises in the n hospital.

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

City

Campus Talks at KC Das Commerce College sees enthusiastic participation Dr. Abhijit Hazarika delivering his lecture

G Plus News

Plus successfully concluded the fourth edition of Campus Talks at KC Das Commerce College on Saturday, 19th August for final year B Com students. The hour long interactive session was attended by over 100 final year students. The speaker at the event was Dr. Abhijit Hazarika, CEO, Ayursundra. A dynamic entrepreneur, Dr. Hazarika is a trained laparoscopic surgeon with more than 15 years of experience in running trauma/surgery units and management of hospital and healthcare professionals.

Entrepreneurship’ and the students were able to gain valuable insights from his life. Dr. Hazarika enlightened the audiences with the most direct insights from his experiences in his professional as well as personal life. He shared his personal experience of becoming an entrepreneur, talked about the challenges faced by budding entrepreneurs in the city and also gave tips to overcome those challenges. He spoke at length about the importance of time saying, “The most important thing in life is time. It doesn’t wait for anyone, just goes on.” He further encouraged all the students present to aim at becoming job creators rather than job seekers and said that in order to succeed in life; one has to talk nicely to people. “Many things can be easily achieved if you just talk nicely to a person.”

and use them for self-growth. A student of KC Das Commerce College expressed his opinion on the initiative saying, “It was a new experience for us - meeting such an experienced person and getting to learn from his experiences. I’d like to say that it was a brilliant initiative taken by G Plus and I’m really thankful for it.” Campus Talks is an initiative by G Plus, primarily aimed at creating an open platform for students of the educational institutions of

the city, to discuss relevant issues. It encourages public speaking among the youth and educates them regarding the issues. The first edition of Campus Talks was held at Gauhati Commerce College in November 2016. Following its success, the second edition was conducted at B. Borooah College in March 2017 and the third edition was held at Handique Girls’ College in June 2017.

G Plus official presenting a memento to Dr. Hazarika

MODIFICATION OF EARLIER ADVERTISEMENT In pursuance of the guidelines issued by the Govt. in the Personnel (B) Deptt. Vide letter No. ABP 70-A.2016/6 Dtd. 16” 16” August, 2016 and the Assam Directorate Establishment (Ministerial) Service (Amendment Rule, 1973 issued by the Government in the personnel (B) Deptt. Vide Notification No. ABP 199/2015/3, Dtd. Dispur the 27” September, 2016 and Finance (Estt.-A) Deptt’s letter No. FEG32/2016/8, Dtd. 28’ Oct. 2016 regarding application fees, it is informed that the applications of the candidates who had applied for the post of Junior Assistant in response to our earlier advertisement was published in the Assam Tribune on 3” March, 2016 (janasanyog/14861/15) and other News Papers is hereby treated as cancelled and modified. After the modification fresh applications are invited from Indian Citizen in the prescribed Standard Form as published in Assam Gazette Part-1X from the intending eligible candidates along with requisites mentioned below for filling up of the following vacant posts under the Inspectorate of Electricity, Assam, as “ Special Recruitment Drive for Persons with Disabilities in Government Service: 2017.

SI. No.

Name of the Post

Junior Assistant, Grade-III for office of the Chief Electrical Inspector-cum-Adviser, Assam at Guwahati.

Junior Assistant, Grade-III for office of the Senior Electrical Inspector, Tezpur Zone, Tezpur.

Nos of Vacancy

Reservation

I (one)

Persons with Disabilities (PwD)

I (one)

Persons with Disabilities (PwD)

Educational and other qualifications (Minimum) (a) A candidate must have possess a Bachelor's Degree from a recognized University or any examination declared equivalent by the Government. (b) Must possess Diploma law' computer skills for handling data and text on computer typing both English and Assamese.

Scale of Pay Rs. 14,000/- to 49,0001- plus Grade Pay Rs. 6,200/- in Pay Band 2 Rs. 14,000/- to 49,0001- plus Grade Pay Rs. 5,600/- in Pay Band 2

Eligibility, requisites, procedure, terms & conditions etc.:

Dr. Abhijit Hazarika with the students post his interaction

However, his entrepreneurial journey began when he left his job and started the venture of Ayursundra Healthcare India. After working for many years, he got tired of the monotonous routine and that’s when he called it quits on a ‘regular’ job. The underlying objective of the event was to provide a common platform for college-going youth and to connect them to one of the most inspiring public figures of the city. The topic of discussion was ‘Skill Development and

Expressing his gratitude for the event, he said, “The biggest thing which excited me here was that on a Saturday afternoon, we received a full house. The students were very interactive and engaged in asking questions. I’d like to thank G Plus for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and I hope that G Plus organises such events more often.” The hour long interactive session was meant to help the students draw great opinions

(1) Candidates must be Citizen of India within meaning of Article 5 to 8 of the Constitution of India. (2) Candidates must not be of age less than 21 years and more than 43 years as on 14 January 2017. However the upper age limit is relaxable by 10 (ten) years in case of Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Category of persons as per Govt. OM No. ABP 144/95/121, Dtd. 28’ October, 2015. (3) Candidates applying for the above posts must possess the prescribed minimum qualification mentioned above. (4) Candidates, who are already employed, should submit their application through proper channel. (5) Candidates will have to appear for written test/computer proficiencies test at their own expenses if and when called for. (6) Incomplete and wrongly filled application form will be rejected and no appeal and/or correction in that regard shall be entertained. (7) The envelope containing the application should be clearly marked as “Application for the post of Junior Assistant-category PwD” (8) The applications are to be submitted with the following requisites attached thereto:  One self addressed envelope of 5 Cm X 11 Cm affixing unused postal stamp of Rs. 5/- (Rupees Five Only).  Attested copies of all certificates in support of Educational Qualification, Age.  2(two) copies of recent passport photographs signed and dated by the candidate on reverse side of those.  Attested copy of valid Registration Certificates of Employment Exchange. (9) Pension Scheme: “Government servants joining the service of the State Govt. on or after 1” Feb./05 shall not be governed by the existing Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 and orders issued there under from time to time. So far as their pension and other retirement benefits are concerned, they will be governed by a new set of Pension Rules formulated in line with the Contributory Pension Scheme announced by the Govt. of India vide Finance Deptt. Circular No. BW3/2003/pt.-1/1, Dtd. 25’4 January/05”. (10) No TA/DA shall be provided to the candidates for appearing the selection process. (11) The applications are to be submitted to the undersigned. (12) Any postal (Hay in the process of this matter shall not be a matter of responsibility of the undersigned. (13) Canvassing directly or indirectly will be deemed to be appropriate ground for disqualification of the candidature. (14) The undersigned reserves the right to accept, modify or cancel the advertisement and to cancel or postpone written test/interview without assigning any reason thereof. Last date of submission of application to the undersigned is 18’ September, 2017.

Janasanyog 1315/17

Sd/(A.C. Khataniar) Chief Electrical Inspector-cum-Adviser, (i/c) Government of Assam Housefed Complex, Dispur, Guwahati-781006

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

City

District administration evicts encroachers from Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary

Authorities using an elephant to demolish an illegal construction | G Plus Photo

G Plus News

n eviction drive was carried out on Friday at Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary as per the directives of the Gauhati High Court. The eviction took place at Khanapara,

Panjabari and Botahghuli and around 300 houses were evicted. It has been alleged by the locals that the administration had served notice to the people to vacate the land one month ago. Forest officials had also visited the area on Thursday and asked the encroachers to leave

the place within 24 hours failing which they would be evicted. “The forest officials had given us just a small notice to vacate the land and we repeatedly asked them to give us some time so that we could find alternative accommodation. The people mostly belong to Dhakuakhana, Lakhimpur and Majuli and we have been living here since 1998. We came here in search of livelihood as most of the places in upper Assam remain under floods half the year,” said one of the locals who were evicted from the area. The people, mostly from the Mishing tribe, had settled here in the city and cannot go back to their native places as there is neither any compelling reason to do so nor do they have any places to live in. Speaking to G Plus, one of the forest officials said that the people had encroached the forest land and were staying there since 1998. But the Congress had not evicted them as they had been its vote bank. During the eviction

drive, most of the people had even shouted the slogan, ‘Tarun Gogoi Zindabad.’ Employees from the local authorities made use of excavators to demolish the illegal structures and also pressed into service an elephant to destroy the houses in Botahghuli. Later, the locals protested against the eviction and the evicted people pelted stones at the police officials. One Suresh Sarma of the Forest Department and a police official were injured during the conflict that took place during the eviction drive. Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, when contacted by G Plus said, “These people are not encroachers but flood victims who sought refuge in the city. Nobody wants to encroach government or forest land on their will. They are here because their lands are lost and they have nowhere to go. We are not against eviction of encroached land, but keeping the condition of the people in mind, the

Curtain raiser event of Swachhathon 1.0 in city

Chief Secretary, VK Pipersenia, delivering his address

he Curtain Raiser program of Swachhathon 1.0 took place in the city which was organized by Mission Directorate Swachh Bharat Gramin (Assam). The event which was held at Assam Administrative Staff College, Khanapara was organized with the objective to crowd source ideas for some of the pressing problems related to sanitation and hygiene in Assam. The event started with the lamp lighting ceremony by VB Pyarelal, Additional Chief Secretary, PHED in presence of Siddharth Singh,

Mission Director, SBM(G). Along with them, VK Pipersenia, IAS, Chief Secretary, PHED also graced the occasion. The state-level event received 98 participations from all over the state that were selected after the Swachhathon 1.0 contest happened at the district level. Participants presented innovative, novel and viable solutions on various topics such as Monitoring Usage of Toilets, Triggering Behaviour Change, Toilet Technologies in Difficult Terrains, Working Solutions for Maintenance and

Operations of School Toilets, Technological Solutions for Safe Disposal of Menstrual Waste and Solution for Early Decomposition of Fecal Matter. All the participants were presented a participation certificate by VK Pipersenia and VB Pyarelal. In his welcome address, Siddharth Singh mentioned, “Swacchathon 1.0 is an initiative to bring different innovative ideas in order to make Assam an ODF state within this year. I am glad to announce that our target was to provide sanitation facilities to 8.5 lakh families, but we have already exceeded our target by providing all the facilities to 10.4 lakh families. Interestingly, we are heading towards the post ODF stage, that’s called ODF+. We are happy that Nalbari and Kamrup Metro have been declared as ODF districts and very soon we expect Chirang and Sivasagar to be added to the list.” Additional Chief Secretary, Mr. V B Pyarelal added, “This is a great initiative by Mission Directorate (SBM-G). I hope this initiative will be able to give a sustainable solution to make Assam ODF by the estimated time

frame. For achieving our goals, it is not sufficient to construct the toilets only; we also need to create awareness on its use and maintenance actively.” On the occasion, Sri VK Pipersenia launched the trailer of a movie called ‘Ajanite Mone Mone’ based on Swacchta produced by Swachh Bharat Mission and directed by Upakul Bardoloi. This movie is scheduled to be released on Gandhi Jayanti, i.e., 2nd October. On concluding the event, he said, “I think we still have a long way to go. Just by building toilets and talking about it won’t make us reach our goals. We need to focus on combating behavioural and psychological aspects as well.” The Government of Assam is conducting Swachhathon 1.0, a Swachha Bharat Hackathon as part of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) to supplement Government of India’s vision to make India open defecation free by 2019. The implementation of this programme is monitored by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India at the national level and done by the Public Health Engineering Department, Assam in the state. n

government should have first rehabilitated them.” The operation was conducted by the forest department with support from the district administration, police, health department, APDCL etc. Dr M Angamuthu, Deputy Commissioner Kamrup (M), had briefed the teams before the operation not to damage, destroy or burn any belongings of the encroachers and also directed the police to use minimum force during the eviction operation. Hiren Chandra Nath, Commissioner of Police, Haraprasad, Chief Conservator of Forests and Joint Commissioner of Police, Diganta Baruah were also present during the briefing. The operation included more than 500 numbers of police and forest officials, elephants, JCB’s, wage labours with tool kits etc to make Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary encroachment-free. It is worth mentioning that many families were seen vacating their houses without any resistance. n

‘Protected Zone’ declared around Janata Bhawan

n view of the upcoming Assam Legislative Assembly, the administration has declared areas surrounding the Legislative Assembly and the Assam Secretariat (now known as Janata Bhawan) as ‘Protected Area’ with effect from 30th August, until further orders. In an order issued by Dr M Angamuthu, District Magistrate of Kamrup Metro, certain specified areas have been put under this category to regulate the entry of unauthorised persons into the areas specified. The areas are the southern side of the GS Road starting from the Ganeshguri Flyover up to Super Market police point, the 60-feet road starting from Super Market police point to Last Gate, from Last Gate along the RP Road up to the entry point of the Assam Legislative Assembly, and from Ganesh Mandir up to n Ganeshguri Chariali.

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

City

CMs capturing state guest houses due to lack of official CM residence Congress slams Sonowal for occupying state guest house; BJP says CM living in city for better connect with masses

File photo of Hotel Brahmaputra Ashoka which will be converted to a state guest house and convention centre

Rahul Chanda rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

wo state guest houses are currently being occupied respectively by the incumbent Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal and former Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi. Meanwhile, the Government of Assam has recently declared conversion of the Brahmaputra Ashok Hotel into a state guest house and convention centre. According to a notice issued by the Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), the hotel, situated on the bank of Brahmaputra River, is closing operations permanently from 1st September this year. ATDC sources said that all pre-closure operations of the hotel are being handled by the ATDC which had taken over the hotel from 1st July this year. The state guest house atop the Koinadhora Hill, which was used as the official residence of Tarun Gogoi during his regime, is yet to be vacated by him. After coming to power, present Chief Minister, Sonowal,

started residing in the other state guest house known as Brahmaputra Guest House at the Satpukhuri area. So is it because the two state guest houses are occupied by the former and the present chief ministers that the government is converting the hotel into a guest house? What about the future of the hotel’s contractual employees who were recently seen agitating against the move? Why are the chief ministers occupying the state guest houses? G Plus explores the situation and tries to find out the reasons. Why is Tarun Gogoi not vacating the Koinadhora residence?

Since taking oath for the first time in 2001, former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been residing in the guest house at Koinadhora which was constructed in the 1970s. Soon after the decision of the present state government was announced that the Brahmaputra Ashok Hotel will be converted into a state guest house, Gogoi in

NFR suffering from flood induced losses worth crores

aligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway has suffered monetary losses to the tune of over Rs 37 crores during the last eight days due to disruption of train services from and to this region and other parts of India following the heavy floods in eastern Bihar which inundated tracks and also led to incidents of collapse of bridges. Besides loss from disruption

ATDC chairman Jayanta Malla Baruah, talking to G Plus, said that 30 years ago, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and the Assam state government had jointly decided to start Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok with ITDC

taking 51% share and state government owning 49% share. According to him, all these days the company which was formed between the two (Assam Ashok Hotel Corporation Ltd) was running the hotel and since a few months now it was running up losses. According to him, during Namami Brahmaputra, ITDC asked that the hotel be entirely given to them and the state government had also made a similar request. Baruah said that after repeated requests made by the state government the Centre decided to completely hand over the hotel to the state government and on 27th April, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between ITDC and the state government. It was decided that the state government will take over the hotel from July 1. Baruah said, “ATDC controlled the hotel for two months and there was a monthly profit of around Rs 12 lakhs to Rs 13 lakhs.” He further said that according to the memorandum, the state government can take over the hotel if it is converted to a guest house and a state convention centre. Therefore, it was decided that both the adjacent Circuit House and the hotel be combined and converted to a world class state guest house and a convention centre. Baruah said that things are in the planning stage and the guest house will be planned on the lines of India Habitat Centre. On being asked whether it was because the present chief minister is staying in the Brahmaputra Guest House that the decision was taken, Baruah said that in the entire state there is no official residence for the chief minister as such. He also said that the Koinadhora property is also a guest house

and not a CM residence and the CM, after all, also has to live somewhere. He said that Brahmaputra Guest House now has all the infrastructure of providing security to the chief minister and there are rooms in which various important meetings are conducted. Baruah said that this was not the reason why the hotel is being converted to a guest house but the move is as per the memorandum which has been signed with the ITDC. Baruah also said that all the permanent employees of the erstwhile hotel will get decent remunerations and the contractual employees might get placed by the Assam Hotel Association as the government already has had a meeting with them. Reacting to Gogoi’s charges, BJP chief spokesperson Bijan Mahajan said, “The Congress party has no leader having mass appeal like the honourable Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. He has mass appeal and good connect with the people of Assam. He resides in the centre of the city of Guwahati so that people from far flung areas can easily contact him.” Another source in the BJP said that the present chief minister prefers to live there because he can easily connect with the people and not live royally like Tarun Gogoi on a hill top. The Congress might blame the BJP and the BJP might counter the Congress but the fact remains that the guest houses made for the state’s guests with public money are being occupied by chief ministers and it is somewhat amusing that a state like Assam does not yet have a permanent residence for its Chief n Minister.

in passenger service and freight traffic, the zonal railway has also given refunds to the tune of Rs 425 crores to passengers whose trains were cancelled in the last eight days. On an average, 34 longdistance trains are interchanged to and from the NFR zone to other parts of the country every day. The average number of passengers in each train is approximately 1,800. Since rail connectivity between this region and the rest of the country got snapped on August 13, many trains had to be cancelled. So far, 393 mail and express trains and another

284 passenger trains have been cancelled. NFR has so far incurred a total loss of Rs 23.77 crores in PRS earnings and Rs 2.66 crores from non-PRS earnings. In addition, the loss from the ticket checking segment has been estimated at Rs 72.05 lakhs. During the last eight days 2,01,326 PRS berths and 5,63,638 non-PRS berths have been affected due to cancellations. With the rail link remaining snapped for such a prolonged period, the loss from the freight segment has also been substantial. So far, the loss in goods traffic has been Rs 8.13 crores, while Rs

1.75 crores has been lost in parcel service. Inward-bound goods to this region are also stuck at various places due to severing of the rail link. Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of NFR, said that all efforts are being made to ensure that restoration work could be completed as soon as possible. However, with the Railway Ministry already stating that services are unlikely to return to normalcy before August 28, losses for the NFR zone could mount further. n

a press conference, opposed the decision and said that the present government is taking the decision because Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has “captured” the state Brahmaputra Guest House and has converted it into the chief minister’s residence. On being asked why he himself had not vacated the Koinadhora premises, Gogoi said that since the last one and a half years he has been trying to get a new quarter. He has even sent many applications but the quarter which is being allotted to him is not fully constructed and it does not even have rooms for his security personnel. He said that he started living at Koinadhora because Prafulla Mahanta, the chief minister before him, had combined 4-5 quarters in the MLA Hostel and had customized it to suit his requirements. It seems after Gogoi came to power, Mahanta requested that he be allowed to continue living in this customized residence as he had security personnel who also needed to stay in the quarters. Gogoi then got the Koinadhora property repaired and started living there. Gogoi also said that Sonowal can live in the Koinadhora guest house and Gogoi would vacate the residence whenever required. If that is the case why is the present government converting the Brahmaputra Ashok Hotel into a guest house? The conversion

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

G Talk E

What’s in a name?

guess we are saddled with a classic case of the 69 perspective. Any way you look at it, the conviction only reinforces itself. The Himanta Biswa Sarma – Dr Hiren Gohain spat is ‘the’ case in point. And in the centre of this controversy is the monumental figure of a long-deceased ideologist called Deendayal Upadhyaya, the longest serving general secretary of the Bharatiya Jana Sangha which was the forerunner of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Now, when it comes to ideologies, there is no way that Upadhyaya’s vision for India can be faulted. I believe it was sheer luck that we had to toe the Nehruvian ideology because of the popular mandate Nehru enjoyed post our Independence. Upadhyaya’s political philosophy was “Integral Humanism” and he was convinced that India, as an independent nation, could not stand on western concepts of individualism, democracy, socialism, communism or capitalism. According to him, these were superficial western foundations and not rooted in the traditions of India’s ancient culture. Well, we cannot fault him at all there and may be, had more Congressmen been Sanghis like Himanta Biswa is today, we could have had Upadhyaya’s ideologies guiding our lives. As with many tall leaders, he died under mysterious circumstances in 1968. The only touch of discomfort in the Upadhyaya ideology, as far as Assam goes, is his unadulterated RSS image where

he was recognized as the ideal swayamsevak. Discomfort because Assam has never courted the RSS consciously until recently, at least not as perceptibly as over the past year. As such, all these new Deendayal entities like roads and colleges that are sprouting up have brought in a sense of intrigue that is a trifle discomforting. And rightly so! No wonder Dr. Gohain is distressed by the fact that new colleges are being named after Upadhyaya, who was not really known in these parts until the past few months. It is mighty strange if not ominous of things to come, especially when we have had stalwarts of equal or higher stature in our own small Assamese society. But I also feel, with all due respect to him, that Dr. Gohain is being purely sentimental. The government’s need of the hour is political. It has come to power with the people’s mandate and is well within its rights to fortify its political future. Each soul in this world is guided by his or her own sense of self-righteousness. Had that not been the case, the ISIS guys would have been like you and me - peaceful. And so, if Himanta Biswa feels that he is doing the right thing in pushing his current political party’s agenda of proliferating RSS into our Assamese society, one can’t really fault him that. Well, so long there is development, what’s in a name, I guess! Swapnil Bharali Editor

Hail the Judiciary!

he Indian Judiciary, it seems, is serving aces. An institution, on which the country virtually lost faith, seems to be getting its traction back. With the landmark judgement on declaring Triple Talaq as ‘unconstitutional’, declaring ‘Right to Privacy’ as a Fundamental Right and then convicting self-styled Godman, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on charges of rape, all in one week, is a tremendous achievement. In India, the four pillars of democracy have never functioned in tandem. The Legislature has been in question for shrugging off responsibilities, e.g. the case of Article 377. The Executive is a bunch of elected representatives who are too busy filling their own coffers. The public is never happy with the media, leaving room for improvement. And the Judiciary has faced the heat more than often for delayed verdicts. However, this is a major turnaround and the Judiciary deserves three cheers. With the ministers refusing to give up their babudom and parties appointing criminals as functionaries, it is hard to be dependent on these ‘elected representatives’ while expecting them to be the people’s representatives. The Judiciary, for at least this week, has set the example that when the going gets tough you need to just make the headlines. This should serve as a wakeup call for the other pillars to get their act together. Nothing can stay unaccounted for if the Judiciary starts playing its game right; And I mean nothing! In other news, the Sessions court sealed their lips about a 22 year old case stating that the “Evidence does not implicate the accused persons.” Wonder how that happened! SIDHARTH BEDI VARMA

Regional cinema coming of age?

o say that regional cinema (read Northeast cinema and not just Assamese) seems to have come of age would be making a sweeping statement and I am not just about to do that. For one, it has yet to gain a foothold at some semblance of commercial success. So, such statements are unwarranted. And premature. Yet, given the constraints that local filmmakers face in pursuing their passion, winds of positive change are definitely picking up speed when it comes to the content of our films. And I am saying this having watched the trailers of forthcoming movies like Aei Matite, Tumi Ahibaane, and Mission China as also having had a very fresh, enjoyable experience of the last week’s release, Gangs of Northeast. Let us just remind ourselves that we cannot fault ourselves in comparing these local low-budget productions to the Hollywood/ Bollywood heavyweights. That comparison is inevitable since all kinds of cinema are easily accessible and the production values of Hollywood and even to a lesser extent, Bollywood give their productions a massive edge. But then, this actually throws a huge challenge to our local filmmakers to come up with cinematic works that would match the “watchability” quotient of their offerings to at least those of Bollywood. So let us once again revisit these challenges just to understand why a good regional production deserves its share of viewership. The biggest constraint facing regional cinema is funds and the arithmetic is very simple here. Seven states speaking a number of languages that have no commonality with each other reduces the scope of a movie’s viewership which, otherwise, is just one form of communication. Given this digital age where

r Time to deliver

a projection or transmission screen is basically on everyone’s phone, the business of movie exhibition has taken a massive hit; quite a number of singlescreen halls have closed down reducing a film’s ability to break even or expect any ROI. These apart, there are the qualitative and quantitative constraints in artists that add to a casting director’s nightmare. For example, I am not sure who I can cast if I am to make a bio on the 6’5” Lachit Barphukan! Film technology for additional special effects comes at an unaffordable premium and so scripts have to be suitably compromised. These and a number of similar factors (include an apathetic government here) add to the challenge of offering a good watchable production that would be a preferred alternative to a Bollywood movie. As a layman pondering over the issue, I often find myself convinced that it is undeniably the script which would always be the best bet for the local filmmaker. Cinematic history is replete with instances where the biggest star has come a cropper against another movie that simply has a great script. The other stumbling block is of course the language. In case of Assamese movies, the population of movie watchers just isn’t large enough to guarantee a decent ROI; the other languages don’t even come into reckoning. Having said all of this, I venture to state that the smartest move in movie production in recent times has been Gangs of Northeast. My immediate Facebook review (that I am pathologically prone to put up nowadays out of sheer delight and as an immediate tribute to having watched a brilliant piece of work) went: Chaste Hindi had no chance of survival in the entertainment industry and so was born Hinglish. Likewise, our regional cinema had

O p i n i o n Swapnil Bharali

to find that particular survival kit from where it could revive itself. Trust me folks, this HINDI movie is that pathfinder which has shown the road that needs to be traversed. Taut, absorbing, visually stunning with brilliant cinematography capturing a crisply edited love story on the violent landscape of drugs, Gangs of Northeast was way beyond my expectations. A refreshing cast that was at ease with its Hindi dialogues and which included some mind blowing characters, director Rupak Gogoi lived up to his legacy as much as Avishka Phukan to her potential with her riveting screenplay. The story encompassed a fair bit of the Northeast including Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya where it was based. The director thought it best to make the film in Hindi, it being a possible lingua franca of the region. All in all, the film has raised the curiosity factor in the entire NE region and has not restricted itself to the Brahmaputra Valley thereby constraining its reach. And beyond this, the cast of oriental faces makes it a decent choice for screenings in Southeast Asian countries; projecting our visually stunning landscape to our immediate neighbourhood is a delightful thought by itself. With Gangs of Northeast already released and the three others in the pipeline (Mission China being a Zubeen Garg production, Aei Matite addressing the issue of witch-hunting and Tumi Ahibaane coming from the very capable Prerana Barborooah), I think it’s time we shed our prejudices towards regional cinema and start purchasing theatre tickets. I am still not saying that our regional cinema has come of age but it is very evident that it is making some giant strides in the right direction. Cine lovers like us have to give our industry a fair n chance!

Letter to the Editor

ime seems to be running out pretty quickly for the Sarbananda Sonowal led NDA government in the state. The promises made during the lead up to the assembly elections are hardly fulfilled. It is observed that government officers are not taking the Chief Minister’s directives seriously as most of the welfare projects and schemes are getting delayed and the angry people will definitely solely blame him. Sarbananda Sonowal should not get complacent as instances are galore when many governments are thrown out by public in the next election. The best example one can quote here is former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu who came with a thumping majority some years ago but in the subsequent election he was made to bite the dust due to non-fulfilment of electoral promises. The dominating mandate in 2016 doesn’t guarantee the NDA regime that the same will be repeated in the subsequent elections. Already one year has passed now. It is high time for Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and company to deliver or else they have to face music in 2021. Time is still with him and it is just the eagerness to work that is missing. It has to be remembered that this government carries huge public expectations which can be a double edge sword. . Gaurrav Chowdhury, GNB Road, Guwahati

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Opp-Ed

Crime against women and security issues - I Jyotirmay Chakravarty joined the Indian Police Service in 1986 and has been working in the State of Assam as well as outside. He was Guwahati’s first Commissioner of Police.

he subject needs to be examined from various perspectives. Careful attention must be paid to the wide spectrum of views ranging from the traditional and the conservative to the ultraliberal and the radical. People and the society cannot be transformed over night. We have to deal with them as they are at a given point of time, and not as what we wish them to be. Secondly, it is not contended in this essay that crime against women has attained serious proportions in the state of Assam. But issues of safety, security, dignity and rights of women ought to be a concern of civil societies at all times. Thirdly, we must note that there is an element of subjectivity in emotions such as fear and insecurity. One must make realistic assessments as to how probable and imminent the threat is at any given time and place. Even in an ideal society there is no absolute security against crime; but the perception of insecurity will definitely be low. If we agree that there are threats to the safety and security of women, the first question that arises is - threat from whom? The answer, unfortunately, is - from us, that is, from elements that belong to the same society. Bad people of the society commit offences while the good people demand justice and ensure it. But the truth is that both the bad and the good people come from our own homes. In the case of sexual offences, there are situations where the bad and the good get intermixed and often reverse their roles. Therefore, after having lodged the customary protest in the streets we really need to take a serious look at our own homes. The malaise of sexual abuse is far more wide spread than we would like to believe. Child sexual abuse victims include male children in large proportion, because parents are not as careful with the male child as they are with the female child. Cases of child sexual abuse often go unreported to police because the offenders happen to be close relatives, trusted neighbours or friends, or ‘respectable’ persons. It will not be an exaggeration to say that almost every child faces sexual abuse of one kind or the other as it grows up. Similarly, most women working in cities face sexual harassment or molestation of some kind at least once.

he malaise of sexual abuse is far more wide spread than we would like to believe. Child sexual abuse victims include male children in large proportion, because parents are not as careful with the male child as they are with the female child. I make a small digression here to comment on the recent activism aimed at abolishing Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes punishable the acts of sexual intercourse ‘against the order of nature’, such as

sodomy and bestiality. One ought to understand that until the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act was enacted in 2012, section 377 was the only penal provision available for protecting the male child from sexual abuse of severe nature. Even now, an adult male who has been subjected to forced carnal intercourse, can seek justice only under Section 377. It is sufficient for the purpose of preventing unjust harassment to homosexuals, to make an ‘exception’ to the application of this section when the act is committed by two consenting adults. Laws dealing with sexual offences were amended post Nirbhaya rape-and-murder case of Delhi. For a layman the language of the law is cumbersome, but educated women ought to have some knowledge of various types of sexual offences and also be familiar with the basic procedures of the Criminal Justice system. Presented below is a compact summary of ‘crimes against women’ (where the victims are only women) with the corresponding section numbers of the Indian Penal Code shown in parentheses: 1. Rape (376) : A ‘consent’ may be invalid for the reason of age or other circumstances. 2. Rape causing death or vegetative state (376A), marital rape during separation (376B), by a person in authority (376C), gang rape (376D), repeat offence of rape (376E) 3. Kidnapping & abduction of women for various purposes (363, 364,364A, 366) 4. Dowry death (304B): when it is not a clear case of culpable homicide and death occurs within 7 years of marriage. 5. Throwing of acid (326A, 326B) 6. Other forms of sexual assault and harassment: i. Assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty (354): Molestation in common parlance. ii. Sexual harassment through physical contact, remarks, sexual overtures (354A) iii. Assault with intent to disrobe (354B) iv. Voyeurism (354C) v. Stalking (354D) 1. Insult to the modesty of a woman (Sec 509): Eve-teasing in common parlance. 2. At home: subjected to cruelty by husband or in-laws (498A). 3. Importation of girl from foreign country up to 21 years of age (366 B). 4. Abetment of suicide of women (306). 5. Disobeying, violating procedures of law; not registering a case of rape or molestation (166A). 6. Disclosure of identity of a rape victim without lawful authority or permission (228A). According to surveys made on the subject, things that make women feel unsafe are - absence of visible policing and surveillance, absence of street lights, general disrespect for women in the society, a pathetic lack of concern on the part of the public for their dignity and disregard for their safety. The most vulnerable places include public transport and bus stops, crowded market places, dark and desolate areas. Offences that are most rampant are sexual harassment of various kinds such as passing of lewd comments, leering and staring, groping and stalking. Surveys conducted in some cities indicate that only about 20% of the victims of sexual harassment actually protest or resist, while about 30% of them do just nothing. Only

about half of the victims ever think of lodging a complaint with police. When the victim suffers the abuse without a protest, the perpetrator gets emboldened and becomes more aggressive while the victim, paradoxically, starts feeling guilty and gets demoralised. Other than murder, the most heinous of all crimes against women is rape. In Assam 1700 to 1900 rape cases are reported every year. The reason why we do not get to read or hear much about them is that in a vast majority of the cases, the rape is committed by persons from within the family or from within the close group of friends or neighbours. A case of rape becomes sensational when it is committed by a person who is completely unknown to the victim, when the perpetrator is not identified or caught, or when the rape is accompanied by murder or grievous hurt. Among lesser crimes, molestation and sexual harassment in public places pose a serious threat to the safety and dignity of women. The fact that the perpetrator dares to intrude upon the close personal space of a woman, assault and violate her in public, and that the victim is afraid to protest or call for help, sends a disturbing message to the society - that something is seriously wrong with the attitude of the people towards women. Various types of criminals:

Road-side lechers: They pass lewd comments, make obscene gestures and exposure. Sometimes they commit sexual assaults of minor nature. Bike-borne molesters: They swoop down on young women in dark lanes or lonely roads. These offenders are from relatively well to do families and are generally shielded by their parents and friends. Professional criminals on bike snatch purses and chains. Stalkers: They pick up their victims at bus stops or on the way to workplace or home, and follow the subjects persistently. If an opportunity comes, they may attempt molestation. They generally operate in fixed areas or routes. Vehicle borne stalkers and kidnappers: Here the victim may either be on foot or in a vehicle. Offenders often use cars with tinted glass. Gropers: They operate in public transports, crowded marketplaces and in other crowded areas. They take full advantage of the victim’s reluctance to attract public attention by protesting. They quickly vanish in the crowd if challenged. Moral police: As in the case of the Bhangagarh incident, these organized or unorganized groups of people actually believe that they are working for a social cause! Their targets are women (together with men accompanying the women) who show ‘immoral’ conduct in public places. Sometimes they raid private places also. Spurned lover: Here the target is a specific person. The crime can be anything from assault to throwing of acid to murder. Relatives, friends, neighbours or strangers: Rape is driven by lust and occasioned by opportunity. A large number of rapes are committed by people known to the victim and people who had access to her. Robbers: Their main aim is to rob, but may also commit molestation or rape. Psychopath: Here the crime may be preplanned or sudden, but often of a serious nature. The offender may look quite normal and the motive may not be easily discernible. (To be concluded)

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

In Focus

Nituparna Rajbongshi Cartoonist

stablishing conversation out of elements other than words is not easy. To build a meaningful communication through sketches and cartoons and pepper it with the right dose of humour and subtlety takes a lot of effort. But cartoonists seem to do this easily. One such prominent cartoonist of Assam, who has often been in the news for his creative and controversial works, is Nituparna Rajbongshi. Nituparna’s recent sketch of PM Narendra Modi hoisting dead children instead of the tricolour landed him with a massive controversy. The sketch that even

got him a death threat was hard hitting and stirred anguish and agitation at different levels. The sketch depicted innocent faces of children (who died in the Gorakhpur oxygen incident), the sorry plight of a farmer who commits suicide due to poverty as also molestation of women. The cartoon, in the words of the artist, was an outcome of his agony and frustration at the recent occurrences in the country. According to him, the fact that amidst catastrophic floods and multiple deaths, the Government deemed it expedient to celebrate Independence Day with pomp and grandeur showing total indifference to the plight of the people, was an insult to humanity and the essence of independence. “I believe it is adding insult to the injuries of the common people. ‘Independence’ is a fundamental right of the common people but the reality across the state of Assam and other parts of the country is ironical. Are we actually independent?” shares Nituparna. Born in a quaint locality of Barpeta, the artist had a humble past that shaped his appreciation

of the common people. Growing up being fascinated by the cartoon columns of Dainik Asom and The Assam Tribune, Nituparna, since a tender age, wanted to pursue it as a medium of communication. Cartooning, for Nituparna, is not a mission, but a revolution. He draws professionally, but more often passionately. When asked to share his expertise in drawing, the cartoonist said that he was never good at drawing. However, there is a strong co-relation between sketching cartoons and making drawings otherwise. Drawing, according to him, is the foundation of all art forms whereas cartoon is the language of the common people without words. While drawing for him is a medium of expression, cartooning for him, is the medium of communication. Cartoon is art which is people-centric. Speaking about his inspiration in this field, Nituparna said, “Ever seen a child sketching on benches and walls? Those are not just drawings, those are imaginations. I have always followed and observed this in kids. Your art work is what

your imagination is. Although I’ve never followed any veteran artist, I’ve often been spellbound by the imaginary world that drives a kid. It motivates and inspires me.” Nituparna, who began cartooning in 1997, has often been considered controversial and pessimistic. His illustrations, which often depict sorrow, betrayal, deprivation and suffering, are considered to spread negativism. On the other hand, the artist considers it to be portraying reality. “My drawings are strong and true and this is unpalatable to people with vested interests. People who are affiliated to certain political parties find my sketches hard hitting and hence express their displeasure thereby creating controversies,” he says. The artist considers this less coveted art form as a noble profession and treats it as equivalent to an editor’s job. He expresses disappointment that Assam is yet to value this profession. He sighs at the fact that a cartoonist in Assam is treated as an arbitrary, shallow comedian who fills the gaps between the otherwise boring programmes with poor humour. Extending his humble gratitude to cartoon artists of the region, he names Pulok Gogoi and Trailokya Dutta as people who have given this genre a somewhat respectful position in the minds of the people.

Nituparna feels that the voice of cartoon artists these days is becoming biased and their freedom of expression is often suppressed by political forces. Nowadays, media houses controlled by corporates or political leaders often suffer from lack of unbiased criticism which, in turn, results in cartoons that praise the rulers instead of reflecting the voice of the people. At a time when this art form and talent is failing to achieve due respect and identity, Nituparna has made an initiative to give scope to budding artists with a platform to showcase their thoughts. He has established a platform on his official website welcoming all young artists to share their inputs with the idea ‘Let your thoughts flow.’ While a section of audience have been slamming his ideas as ‘negative’ and ‘dark’, the artist himself has emerged to encourage many young talents across the state of Assam. Currently residing in Guwahati, Nituparna keeps travelling across the state to understand the lesser known realities of the region and take those to the masses through his own artistic forms. ‘Your art is your thought, and your thought, an art.’ With this belief, the cartoonist pledges to deliver more to people on issues that are hard hitting and often neglected by the higher authorities of Assam.

Is the logo for FIFA U-17 Guwahati venue a Quality Logo Design?

The logo, created by Nibir Das, was selected from a competition organised by the Government of Assam. Nibir is the son of Dilip Das, a renowned music composer and the present Station Director, AIR, Guwahati, and Riju Das

Bhaskarnil Hazarika Logos should be minimalistic and expressive of the theme. It’s not a 10 marks essay question to put everything you have or want. This is nowhere near the mark. Should be scrapped.

Anirudh Barman This one is of such hideous extents. The creator is confused, lacks vision and fails to give definition or the subject behind it. It’s only an abstract. Why would anyone encompass a temple unless the subject is that of a religious association?

Umesh Sinha Is it necessary to incorporate every element of Assam in each and every event? I am unable to relate my mind to FIFA U-19 World Cup event by looking at this logo. Being in the creative industry, I guess a logo should relay a clear message of its purpose or the subject. But here it took me a few seconds to locate the football. Simant Borthakur Opportunities are given to the sons/daughters or relatives of all the big shots. Reference is what works in Assam. No one knows or even tries to find talent whereas Assam is filled with vivid talents. This is corruption. An artist’s son may not b an artist. And by the way does he even understand what a logo needs to be like? I doubt. Knowing a few steps of Photoshop doesn’t make anyone an artist. Grow up.

Arup Majumder This logo is a total s***! I don’t know on what basis the judges have selected it. May be he is the son of a renowned person. I have seen many good logos on the Assam government website but I’m totally surprised to see this kind of amateur logo to be selected. If this logo represents Guwahati FIFA U-17 then I’m very sorry to say that it will bring a very bad impression to our state. FIFA U-17 is a big football tournament of the world and it is really a shame for our city to be represented by such a logo. Kishore Kr Ray A very bad and disgusting logo. Such a big event and such cheap illustration. We have many great artists in Assam. Let them work on it. If the artist wanted to put the complete Assam culture on the logo, it could have been done better by using line drawings. The Assam tourism logo was already bad and now this is another. All in all it’s a very bad logo and the people who selected this logo should go for some course in design sense. Rituraj Borah As far as I know, the logo design brief was to create a logo for the FIFA U-17 football host city - in this case Guwahati. So a couple of elements like the Kamakhya Temple and the Brahmaputra plus the Japi with the football impression looks just okay. But, sorry to say, this lacks appeal. Shashanka Deka I would like to know more about the Government of Assam selection committee. We don’t actually deserve anything good and this very well proves it.

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Trotter

Mark Zuckerberg’s post on two months’ paternity Dog finds drugs worth $85,000 while digging, becomes K-9 narcotics officer leave wins Facebook

acebook super boss, Mark Zuckerberg, is expecting his second child with wife Priscilla Chan and has decided to take two months of paternity leave. In a Facebook post that’s winning lots of ‘likes’ and

‘hearts’, Zuckerberg announced that he would take two months leave when his ‘new daughter’ is born, just like he did when his daughter, Max, was born. “This time, I’m going to take advantage of Facebook’s option

to take leave in parts. I’ll take a month off to be with Priscilla and the girls at the beginning and then we’ll spend the whole month of December together as well,” he said on Facebook. His post, since being shared many hours before this is published, has collected over five lakh reactions and more than 13,000 shares so far and is still counting. “At Facebook, we offer four months of maternity and paternity leave because studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, it’s good for the entire family,” he said on Facebook. “And I’m pretty sure the office will still be standing when I get back,” he adds. (Source: Indianexpress)

Meet the world’s largest Samosa at 153 kilos

he world record for the largest samosa was smashed in London on Tuesday by a whopping version of the popular Asian snack weighing in at 153.1 kilograms (337.5 pounds). A dozen volunteers from the Muslim Aid UK charity built the giant samosa and then deep-fried it in a custom-built vat at an East London Mosque. Adjudicators from Guinness World Records were on hand to oversee the process and certify that the mega-samosa passed the required tests. The previous record of 110.8 kg was set by Bradford College in northern England in June 2012. The samosa was built on a giant wire mesh, then winched into a vat of cooking

oil before being hauled out to be weighed. “My heart was beating really fast,” said Farid Islam, 26, the project organiser. “It was very tense. It looked like it was going to slide off. A crack appeared and I feared the worst,” he told After the team carefully made the triangle-shaped supersnack, it was hauled up to the industrial winch by the biggest

men available and slowly plunged into the vat. Once it was winched out, and after the nervy weighin, the independent food safety officer, who had overseen proceedings, gave it the taste test. A simple thumbs-up triggered cheers around the hall. It was then down to Patel, Guinness World Records adjudicator, to tie up all the certification and deliver the verdict: 153.1 kg. “It’s an absolutely great achievement,” he declared. The samosa took around 15 hours of work and was dished up into hundreds of portions and distributed to the local homeless via the Salvation Army. (Source: NDTV)

Monkey menace: Delhi assembly to seek civic body’s help

acing monkey menace on its premises, the Delhi Assembly has decided to seek the help of the municipal corporation to keep them in check and allow MLAs to work without fear of being bitten by simians. The move comes around 10 days after a monkey stunned legislators by abruptly walking into the House as they discussed the issue of guest teachers. During the voting for the presidential elections too, held at the Delhi Assembly on July 17, a troop of monkeys had torn down a part of the tent erected for journalists and security personnel. Not just monkeys, snakes are also frequently caught slithering across the sprawling expanses of

the chamber of the 70-member House. “Often, there is a risk of MLAs and employees of the Vidhan Sabha being bitten by monkeys. I will write to the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) asking them to send their teams to the assembly and catch monkeys,” Speaker Ram Niwas Goel said. He said the NDMC could shift the monkeys to some other places so that MLAs and staffers could work without fear. Goel said he had asked NDMC officials to do something in this regard earlier also. He said that security guards have spotted snakes also at least two-three times but that he has himself not seen them. On August 10, as lawmakers

discussed the issue of guest teachers, a monkey had dodged armed security personnel, swiftly slipped between the legs of marshals standing at the doors and darted towards the treasury side from the end of the opposition benches. (Source: NDTV)

family dog earned himself the position of an honorary narcotics K-9 for life when he discovered heroin while doing what he does best - digging. Kenyon, an 18-month-old golden retriever from Yamhill County, Oregon, USA, found a suspicious item buried in his family’s backyard in early August. His owners, who do not wish to be identified, thought that it was a time capsule buried in the backyard by some previous owners and decided to record themselves unpacking it. It turned out to be over 15 ounces of black tar heroin, worth approximately $85,000 or Rs. 50 lakhs. Upon discovering the heroin, Kenyon’s family contacted law enforcement and the Yamhill County Sheriff’s office arrived. According to their Facebook post, Sheriff Tim Svenson praised Kenyon and presented him with

an official Yamhill County K-9 citation ribbon and named him an honorary narcotics K-9 for life. “Opioid addiction and overdose deaths are on the rise and with the help of Kenyon this large quantity of heroin is removed from our community” said Sheriff Svenson. People on Facebook also awarded Kenyon the title of a ‘Very Good Boy’ for rooting out drugs from the community. (Source: Newseleven)

Moon trolls the sun on Twitter in NASA solar cyber spat stunt

he moon threw some virtual shade at the sun on Twitter on Monday as millions of people watched the first coastto-coast total eclipse in the United States in nearly a century. ‘HA HA HA I’ve blocked the Sun!’ wrote NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) on its verified Twitter account, which was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ‘Make way for the Moon. #SolarEclipse2017.’ The tweet was accompanied with a screenshot photo showing that the moon had blocked the verified Twitter profile of NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun). The sun’s response was swift. ‘Uh EXCUSE me?!? #solareclipse2017,’ tweeted @ NASASun. Tens of thousands of Twitter users liked the exchange and many social media users responded with amusement. ‘This is just too perfect. Congratulations. You have won the entire internet,’ one user replied. Some users exacerbated the

spat online using GIFs of celebrities applauding and toasting to the moon while some accused it of being petty and demanded that the sun

respond. Finally, NASA Moon tweeted: ‘Let the Sun shine. @ NASASun, I unblocked you in the sky and on Twitter:) #SolarEclipse2017.’ After weeks of anticipation, the sight of the moon’s silhouette blotting out all but a halo-like corona of the sun drew whoops and cheers from onlookers when it began over the west coast on Monday. The celestial event began in Oregon at just after 9 am PDT, and by 10.20 am, the sun was completely blocked out except for a halo-like solar corona plunging the area into twilight. Over the next 90 minutes, the total eclipse travelled through 14 different states ending in South Carolina. The other 36 states were all treated to a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers only a part of the sun. (Source: Dailymail)

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Reviews Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Shraddha Das, Jatin Goswami, etc Director: Kushan Nandy

vie Mo view Re Babumoshai Bandukbaaz

ove and lust in the hinterlands of UP: we’ve seen this cocktail of violence and intrigue before in Vishal Bharadwaj and Anurag Kashyap’s dark dramas. This latest iteration is peppered with interesting characters and moments, except you can never shake off the feeling of the film being atmospheric but much too familiar. The most eye-catching of the characters is of course Siddiqui, who plays Babu Bihari, Gun-For-Hire. When Babu is not notching up his barrel, he is cosying up to buxom belle (Bag). The best part of the film is in the way it sounds right. The accents, which usually go awry in Bollywood going rustic, are almost all there. Some interesting actors are in here, especially Divya Dutta as the power-hungry Jiji, and the actor who plays burly cop who fathers a brood of boys in the hope of a girl: the excellent Vincent George remains underutilized, though. Nawaz is fully immersed in his role; as is Goswami. The banter between Babu and Banke makes you smile. And then you are back to the film playing out the beats of the genre. Shoot-outs in the fields, killings with rifles, sexually pumped men and women, local netas wrestling for power, local cops on the take, and curvaceous women on the make. It’s all there, but we’ve seen it all, or variations of it, before.

Cast: Aadar Jain, Anya Singh Director: Habib Faisal

anju (Aadar Jain) and Bindu (Anya Singh) are two undertrials who keep waiting for another court date in the hope of getting bail. However, this jail isn’t as bad as a real-life jail. After all, it’s a Yash Raj film, not an Anurag Kashyap or Madhur Bhandarkar one. The jailor Dhulia (Sachin Pilgaonkar), who keeps eating most of the time, is a weird mix of Sholay’s Asrani and Karma’s Dilip Kumar. Dhulia floats the idea of a culture programme by the inmates that catches the attention of a minister. Featuring prisoners of different races and backgrounds, this programme turns out to be a hit and now the minister wants to use this ‘Qaidi Band’ for his political canvassing. Meanwhile, we get to hear the genius of music composer Amit Trivedi, who is the real star of this interesting yet ordinary film. His I Am India that the characters keep referring to as jail anthem is one of the finest songs produced this year. But it’s just the beginning, because you’ll forget the lousy script and sloppy dialogues for some minutes once another song Hulchul plays. It goes beyond goose bumps and stirs the soul. Kausar Munir’s lyrics are icing on the cake. But once the song is over, what’s left are some really disciplined prisoners attempting a jail break. Lame as a banana pizza, they couldn’t even generate enough sympathy for the audience to wait for another song.

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Art Review

PAY-OFF pays off!

wo friends. A writer and a photographer. Both fallen to hard times, and with a shared history. 48 minutes of intense revelations, fights, high drama, and subtle skullduggery. All of this literally had the audience at the edge of their seats during this short performance that was sourced from a highly abridged and adapted version of Chinese Coffee by Ira Lewis. Rohan Das and Ranjeev Lal Barua’s Pay-Off that was put up at Gauhati Club on the 20th August, 2017 once again reminds us that we have immensely talented actors in our midst, here at Guwahati, but there is surely a dearth of good audiences before whom they can showcase their skills. This is especially true in the case of English theatre. On a makeshift stage, two middle-aged men spar with each other. They are old friends, who know intimate details about each other’s lives. And though the play begins with the big question of a loan, it ends with that of art and how it is wrapped around lives. During the course of 48 minutes, these two friends played by Rohan and Ranjeev tear into each other’s psyches – feel empathy, hatred and a wide range of emotions. Both the actors built their parts up with skill; using lapel microphones, they were able to vary the tonalities easily to bring in hatred, resentments, irony,

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and wry humour into their dialogues. Sometimes they whispered, sometimes they roared. Always, they hit the right chords. The set was makeshift due to the limitations posed by the venue. But perhaps they could have used more innovative ways to use the available space – for instance, eliminate all furniture and use more spotlights to more intensely focus on the actors. The lapel microphones were a necessary evil here, again because of the venue; there was however, an avoidable amount of static that distracted us from all the intense action. I imagine this play would work wonderfully as theatre-in-the-round. The two actors would then be surrounded by the audience on all sides, the microphones would not be required, and spectators would actually become part of the action. The original Chinese Coffee is associated with some legendary names: its film version was directed (also acted in) by none other than Al Pacino. The longer version of this play has been performed on the Mumbai stage too. But the big reveal that one came away with after this performance was this: intimate theatre works wonderfully for Guwahati. The Gauhati Club is known to have hosted many such performances, and the members of the audience never fail to respond to the small nuances of the performance. Kudos to them, too. Pay-Off was performed brilliantly by two splendid actors; one only wishes that Guwahati could offer such intimate stage spaces for more frequent performances of this sort.

Dr Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Entertainment

Bhaskar Hazarika’s film selected at Asian Project Market, South Korea

ilmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika’s latest Assamese film Aamis (Voracious), which is currently under development, has been selected for the prestigious Asian Project Market (APM), the biggest investment and co-production market in Asia which will take place for three days starting October 15, 2017 at Busan, South Korea. Produced by Poonam Deol of Signum Productions and Shyam Bora of Metanormal Motion Pictures, Aamis is a love story set in contemporary Guwahati and is a film about empathizing with people who make terrible decisions in the pursuit of love. The project is presently in the pre-production stage and casting for the film is in process. Commenting on the selection of his new film at APM, Bhaskar said, “The APM is a major film market and as an official selection, we will be able to attract attention from global collaborators who can help us achieve international standards of film production. I’m really thankful to the APM and the Busan International Film Festival for continuing to support our work after their post-production grant for our first film “Kothanodi” in 2015” One of the biggest and most

important pre-market for films in Asia, APM offers emerging film makers the opportunity to meet international leading film professionals and links them with global film investors, producers and distributors. Producer Poonam Deol from Signum Productions says, “When the story of Aamis was narrated to me, I deeply felt that this is a rare film that had to be made for its profound and universal take on love, femininity and sexuality. Needless to say that it is a tremendous boost for our project to be selected at APM Busan. We are certain that the collaborations we foster at Busan will help us in producing a film of the highest international standards.”

This year is the 20th edition of the Market and 28 films from 17 countries were announced earlier today as official selections. Aamis was one of only two projects selected from India. This year’s APM selection includes projects from Golden Globe best foreign language film award winner Siddiq Barmak (Osama) and Berlinale Generation director Yoon Gaeun (The World of Us) among others. According to organizers, the number of projects submitted to APM this year went up “almost 25%” from the previous year to reach 317. In the 19 previous years, “a total of 499 projects have been selected with more than 220 of these projects realized into films.” “This selection is a great honor. We hope to find the right international partners and collaborators at Busan to help bring this unique story from Assam to audiences the world over. Hopefully, APM will be the first of many steps in Aamis’ journey to its eventual release sometime later in 2018” said Producer Shyam Bora from Metanormal Motion Pictures. Bhaskar’s debut film Kothanodi, was released last year to critical and box office acclaim and went on to win the National Award for Best Film in n Assamese.

NEZCC Young Talent Award for Kismat Bano of Guwahati

he upcoming stage artist from Guwahati, Kismat Bano, has been selected for the Young Talents Artistes Award for the year 2016-2017 by the selection committee of the North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) under the Ministry of Culture, Govt of India. This was announced on the eve of Independence Day by the Dimapur Office of NEZCC through a notification. Kismat Bano, who had earlier received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, Govt of India, has in recent years performed in major drama festivals across the country as well as abroad. Two of her most recent plays staged in Guwahati, ‘Helen’ and ‘Bano’, not only received appreciation from the theatre loving crowd of the city but also critical acclaim from the press. Kismat Bano, at a very young age, has already acted in over

20 plays in different languagesincluding Assamese and Hindi and these plays have been staged in many major cities of the country. To mention some of these plays: Aakaas, Madyhyabartini, Jatra, The lesson, Komala Kuwaori, Helen, and Puhor. She has participated in different top drama events and festivals such as Bharat Rang Mahotsav, Nandikar, EZCC, Sangeet Natak Academy, Prithvi, Nehru Centre, PDA festivals, Kalakshetra Chennai,

Octave festival (Goa and Rajasthan) and at Qadir Ali Baig theatre festival etc. Although she is a graduate, soon after completing her higher secondary education she had joined Seagull Theatre in Guwahati under the patronage of Bhagirathi and Baharul Islam. After undergoing many workshops and trainings in creative arts, Kismat participated in the 2nd National Children’s Theatre Festival in 2013 organised by Guwahati Sishu Natya Vidyalaya. Thereafter, Kismat Bano established her own theatre troupe Wings Theatre (cultural group) in Guwahati at her own residence. The main activities of Wings are using theatre in education to children, working for spastic girls in association with Sishu Sarothi, India, conducting theatre performance oriented workshops for orphans and indigenous girls

Second trailer of Aei Maatite released

fter receiving huge response to the official trailer from movie lovers, Angeekar Films, on Monday, launched the second trailer of the first full-length Assamese feature film on the witch hunting problem “Aei Maatite.” The film is set to release on 6th October 2017 in all major cinemas across Assam and northeast. At a function held among the energetic students of the prestigious Cotton University on Monday, the second trailer was released by the varsity’s ViceChancellor Dr. Bhabesh Chandra Goswami in the presence of the director of Aei Maatite, Dr. Sitanath Lahkar and other crew members. The second trailer has been edited by Hiranya Kalita, who is a faculty of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Regional Government Film and Television Institute. The music of the trailer was created by Tapan Das, while the mixing was done by Bijoy Kumar Nath at Jyoti Chitraban Film Studio. The length of the video clip is two minutes and thirty three seconds. Releasing the second trailer, Dr. Goswami said, “Dr. Lahkar’s attempt to cure a social disease like witch hunting is highly appreciable. I hope that Aei Maatite, made by the former teacher of Cotton College with his own resources, will be accepted wholeheartedly by the public and will help in eradicating the evil practice. That is what we all hope.”

The movie, made under the banner of Angeekar Films, is directed by independent filmmaker and eminent theatre personality, Dr. Lahkar and it is an adaptation of his famous stage play Tamasaa on the burning problem of witch hunting. The story, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics have also been penned by Dr. Lahkar, a retired Principal of Cotton College. Dr. Lahkar said, “The massive response to the first trailer, which was launched last month, has boosted our morale. In less than five days, the trailer was watched by more than one lakh people on various social media platforms. It was just overwhelming. It simply proves that people appreciate those stories which are real and can connect to them. Aei Maatite is a story of our own Assam. “After seeing the public response, we decided to make a second trailer of the film. We hope that movie enthusiasts will appreciate this trailer also like the first one and will come to the theatres to watch Aei Maatite on 6th October this year.” The ‘action-drama’ film has some very critical scenes, shooting of which were done with utmost care and precision. Such type of rustic action scenes are hardly seen in Assamese films. The film cinematically showcases some of the inhuman killings in the name of witch hunting. Angeekar Films received the clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification for Aei Maatite with a U/A certificate. n

in rural areas, and working with the blind children of Guwahati in promoting theatre among them. Bano did her graduation from Handique Girls’ College Guwahati. Dr Srutimala Duarah, who taught her English there said, “Besides being a good theatre artiste, what endears Kismat to all is her zest for life and her keen desire to spend time with the differently abled children, training them in the art of theatre.” Talking to a band of admirers

who came to congratulate her on Friday, Kismat said, “Performing my play Helen at Shilpakal Auditorium in Dhaka last December, in the programme organised by ITI UNESCO & Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, increased my eagerness to perform all over the world and now I am working on performances which I would organise in different countries around the world.” n

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Fun Horoscope of the week

A new beginning may be possible due to a powerful influence in your spiritual sector. If you feel like learning to meditate or taking up some other spiritual practice, go for it. Doing so could change your life in a dynamic way, allowing you to bring your vision to life. And with the Sun moving into your sign on Tuesday, you’ll also feel more energized and vital over the coming weeks. Focusing on projects that have special meaning for you could be very rewarding.

An encounter or social event could have a profound effect on your life and mark a turning point for you. Because of this, you may make a key choice or perhaps decide to follow a new path that could turn out to be especially fruitful. When the Sun moves into a more secluded and spiritual sector of your chart, you’ll be entering a phase in which it helps to take time out for yourself. Quiet reflection could be particularly rewarding over the coming four weeks.

This week brings an opportunity that may not be repeated for some time. The dynamic solar eclipse in your sector of ambition suggests that any decisions made now could be crucial. Don’t feel you must make a choice on the spot, though. With a more practical influence showing up, the cosmos suggests getting advice from knowledgeable others. And with interactive Mercury now in its retrograde phase, it might best to take each day as it comes. You might need to factor change into your plans.

An opportunity to explore new territory could be a turning point for you, one you may embrace with great enthusiasm. The coming weeks could lead to fresh options that you may never have considered before, and this could be very exciting. In addition, with the Sun moving into your sector of career and ambition, this might be an opportunity to take stock and consider whether you’re making the best use of your skills and abilities. If not, it might be time to showcase your talents.

You might decide to make a radical change that could have a major effect on your life. While you may have been mulling this over for some while, events could act as a catalyst that pushes you to do something. At the same time, a focus on your sector of far horizons, travel, and study could encourage you to explore new opportunities for development and growth. Over the coming weeks, ideas could shape your thinking and lead you in a direction that proves enriching.

A relationship could take a new turn, particularly if you’re eager for it to move to a new level of intimacy. A dynamic influence could encourage you to commit to a deeper connection with a loved one, business partner, or collaborator. But it’s equally possible that you might want to disengage from someone and go your own way. If your instincts tell you that a relationship has run its natural course, it might be wise to listen.

A conversation or encounter could act as a catalyst that encourages you to get fit or deal with a health issue. Your mindset could change over the weeks ahead and become much more positive. If you have felt disheartened by your progress over recent weeks, this could now change. Relationships will also be in focus, encouraging you to take stock and consider how you might improve them. Being overly critical won’t help, whereas a more compassionate outlook certainly could.

tions in India. How did Shillong get its name?

2Jyoti Prasad Saikia started his career as a journalist in Tripura writing on

Bangladesh events in 1970-72. Later he joined the Government of Assam and held numerous senior and vital positions. He is credited with many popular titles including the ----------, a coinage that has caught on stage and radio plays, films, documentaries for the small screen, creative writings in Assamese, Bengali, English. Which popular phrase related to Northeast was coined by Jyoti Prasad Saikia?

4According to author Dilip Kumar Dutta, Gorky’s books on peasants and

their struggles (written after he had worked his way across the length and breadth of Russia at the age of twelve after receiving a beating and leaving home) rather than Mark Twain’s books (which stood for white Americans essentially and contained nothing about the struggles of African Americans or the common man) were part of the inspiration behind the creation of X. Both authors are referenced in X. Just give me X.

Abhra Das; Ace Quizmaster of Assam This quiz has been brought to you by Brain Jam, a property of Priya Communications

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

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Puzzlers' Cave™ Crosswords

Pregnant

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Puzzlers' Cave™ Quick Crossword No. 347

Crossword

3It was way back in 1926 that Late Jadav Prasad Chaliha, freedom-fight-

er and a pioneer tea-planter of Assam undertook the daunting task of clearing a densely forested grant of land locally known as ------------ due to the abundance of the ---------- tree and refilling the plot with tea plants. Battling the hardships of a severe environment and colonial harassments, his determination bore fruit and the young plantation began to flourish. One of the most popular brands of tea was thus born which was named after that densely forested grant of land .Name this popular brand of tea.

curio-city

1Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya is one of the most popular tourist attrac-

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1. The name Shillong originated from ‘Leishyllong’ meaning god who is believed to live on the Shillong peak overlooking the city. 2. The phrase “The Land of Seven Sisters”. The Seven Sister States also called “Paradise Unexplored” is a name given to the contiguous states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in northeastern India. 3. Korangani brand of tea. (Due to the abundance of the ‘Koranga’ tree). 4. Dr.Bhupen Hazarika’s one of the best composition “Moi Eti Jajabor” (Mark Twainor homadhit bohi Gorkyr kotha kolu…).

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The weeks ahead could see you shaking off your old image and adopting a newer, more charismatic approach to life. With a solar eclipse in your sign acting like a turbocharged new moon, it could seem like anything is possible. All you need to do is set your plan in motion. In addition, with Saturn, the planet of limitation, now forging ahead after its retrograde phase, your confidence can begin to build, especially in self-expression and romance. A special dream could be realized soon!

The coming week could see a moneymaking idea taking off and becoming a money tree. With a powerful lunar phase underway, there’s the possibility of a new beginning that could enhance your income considerably. But if it’s to succeed, you’ll need to apply some elbow grease and plan your steps in some detail. This should become easier as the Sun moves into meticulous Virgo. Indeed, attention to detail and a desire to work harder could appeal to you greatly and lead to success.

Sudoku

Collaborating with others on a dynamic idea could work out well for you over the coming weeks. With a solar eclipse in your sector of communication, there is the potential for a fresh start that evolves over time and leads to success. If it includes creative possibilities, so much the better. You might also find that relationships begin to lighten up over the weeks ahead as Saturn turns direct after many months in its retrograde phase. Interacting should become much easier from now on.

Whatever decisions you need to make could occur quite naturally this week as events unfold. Changes on the domestic front could leave you excited about the potential for a new beginning. This could relate to a move, buying or selling real estate, or redecorating or remodeling your home. The important point is to take the first step and everything else should fall into place. You’ll also be looking for leisure and pleasure options to relax and unwind, which can be a restorative.

last week solution

If you’ve doubted yourself, events this week could encourage you to have confidence and move forward with a can-do attitude. All you need to do is make the decision to do so. Once the Sun, the symbol of the self, moves into the practical sign of Virgo, you’ll find it easier to create a step-by-step plan that can help you reach your goal. Involving other people might work well for you, as you could achieve so much more with their help.

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Last week’s solution

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ACROSS Spherical sports impliments Investigation to find cause of death Touch gently Desperate

DOWN Latino headgear An untruth A trend / look The closest point to a corner

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G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Lifestyle

Who Wakes up First?

ho wakes up first – you or God? YOU. You wake up first – while God is still asleep! And you should wake up because you are not asleep. If you are asleep, how can you ask the question? When you wake up, you experience pleasure and pain. You become aware of the beauty and the shortcomings of the world. Then, when you seek the ultimate, your cry for help wakes up God. And when God is awakened in you, there is no “two.” You realize that the whole world is filled with the atma (soul): it all Me. It is one Consciousness. This one consciousness works through one person in one way, through another person in another way. It is one ocean with many waves. If this vision comes to you even for just five seconds then there will be such a major transformation in your body and mind. Then a realization will spring in you: Aho! All worries are washed off. Just for a second, recognize that it’s only Me in my enemy. I myself have started the Game. Understand this, but don’t turn it into a mood making.

God is asleep in every particle of this universe. God is in you in seed form. When he wakes up, neither you nor the world remain. The rishis made a mock practice of awakening God every morning. They call it Suprabhatam service. Many people find this ridiculous because they don’t understand the depth of it. Only awakened God can see that God is everywhere asleep! Brenda: Why should we you wake up? Sri Sri: Because you are not asleep. If you are asleep, how can you ask the question? Bill: Once you are awake, can you go back to sleep? Sri Sri: If you have not had tea, of course! Bill: Who wakes us up? Sri Sri: You figure that out.

SIP is a Good EMI!

uying an asset over loan means commitment and discipline towards paying regular installments to the bank as EMI. Depending upon the type of asset so acquired, EMI amounts may vary. The youth of today gets more satisfaction buying fancy gadgets to impress their friends and social circles. As such, means or no means, buying an asset is in style these days. More often than not, it is the debt that has to be resorted to. So, they end up paying more EMIs than making some regular savings. EMIs add up a psychological burden to the already stressed lives, besides

eating up higher amount towards the interest. However, what if there was something like a good EMI. Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) turns out to be the answer for you. Making an investment in mutual funds through SIPs helps you gradually create a healthy corpus and achieve your financial goals in life with the compounding benefit. So, in the course of planning to buy, you might get a bit late on buying the things you need and you have always dreamt of, it is indeed

shri shri ravi shankar Founder- Art of Living Foundation.

preferable and advisable to avoid the debt trap. If not managed properly, debt trap ends up as a vicious circle when you end up rolling over your loans by taking another loan to pay your existing loans. SIP makes you disciplined in your financial journey and you indeed have the flexibility to choose the tenor and amount of the investment. SIPs help make you investments in monthly installments instead of making lumpsum investments. As such you may wonder, it is quite similar to an EMI itself, since you make monthly payments in both. However, the point worth noting is that while EMI on loans takes away additional returns from you in the form of interest, SIP, on the other hand, provides you a potential for higher returns to you. Assuming that you need to buy a house worth Rs. 50 lakhs by taking a housing loan for 20 years, you will be required to pay an EMI of approx. Rs. 50,000 with a rate of interest of 10.5% perannum. You end up paying around Rs. 1.20 crores including Rs. 70 lakhs as interest only over the loan period. On the other hand, assuming you change your decision to buy a house and instead take it on rent. You may get it easily for around Rs. 10,000-12,000 per month assuming dividend yield of 2.5%. However, getting the calculations on the conservative side, it is assumed that you will be able to get the house on rent for Rs. 15,000 per month. As such, you still have Rs. 35,000 to invest when compared with housing loan EMI. The amount invested in an equity mutual fund over 20 years and

WhatsApp introduces colourful text based status updates

hatsApp, arguably the most used chat app in the world, has announced a new feature. The app on Tuesday noted that its users could now post status updates in colourful text, in a way somewhat similar to how they can do it on Facebook. Incidentally, Facebook owns WhatsApp. For the last one year or so WhatsApp is trying to position itself as a social media app and not just a chat app. It recently introduced Status tab in the app, which allows users to share photos with their contacts. These updates appear in the timeline for 24 hours after which the user must make the update again. Until now users could share only images in the Status tab but with today’s announcement WhatsApp is also adding ability to share text based updates. “Now you never have to worry about getting the word out to all your family and friends. Whether you’re looking for vacation recommendations or notifying a group about the address for a party, the text-based status feature allows you to update your contacts in a fun and personal way,” the company said in a press statement. How to set text-based WhatsApp status

The new feature is available for both Android and iOS users. You can also view Status updates on the instant messaging app for the web. To get started, ensure that you have the latest version of WhatsApp. To post a textbased status, tap on the status icon in the app. The text screen features three options: font, background colour, and emoji. However, don’t confuse WhatsApp Status with the

giving a conservative return of 15% per annum will leave you with a healthy corpus of Rs. 5.31 crores. So, just in comparison, the house prices will have to appreciate by 10 times over 20 years. No wonder, monthly SIPs are good EMIs. Even while there are social and emotional considerations of owning an asset, SIPs in equity mutual funds should always be

older option on the messaging app. While you can still have text-based taglines, Status is a separate functionality, similar to Snapchat’s Stories feature. Control who can see your status update

In WhatsApp’s privacy settings, users have the option to choose the people who will receive their update. Users can select from the following three options: My contacts, contacts except and only share with.

See who has viewed your status update

Tap the eye icon at the bottom of any Status update to view a list of contacts that have seen your update.

Reply to an update

When users view someone’s status update, there is a reply button, so they can comment on any photo, video, or GIF. Once they tap reply, their message will be sent in a WhatsApp chat with a thumbnail of the status update. n the first choice while making an investment decision over a longer period. Choose the good EMI way. Stay invested through Mutual Funds and reap the benefits in n form of higher returns. Pallav Bagaria CEO, Brand New Day – one of Northeast’s leading Mutual Funds Investment Consultancy and Portfolio Management Services pallav@salasarcapital.com

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Buzz

Students of Guwahati College organise crowd-funding Guwahati gets new Forkaal

he NSUI unit of Guwahati College organised a crowd-funding initiative for the victims of Assam floods on Wednesday. For the third consecutive year, students of Guwahati College have successfully organised crowd-funding to support a cause. Starting from 11 am, the students reached out to many on the streets of Guwahati and got amazing response from the people – rich and poor alike. Expressing joy at the success of the initiative, the members said, “People have donated as per their wish and we have collected Rs 40,900 in 3 hours. We will donate the amount in places where the victims have

Music Festival

not got any relief material as help.” The members further stated that they wish more

organisations and educational institutions come up with such initiatives to help those who’ve been affected by the floods. n

Antarjuddha to be staged at Kalakshetra auditorium

eeping the passion burning for drama lovers, dramatist Rituparna Das is back with yet another play entitled “Antarjuddha.” For the insertion of some unique and unusual features every time, the plays of this young dramatist have always been favourites with the audience as well as critics. Antarjuddha, the upcoming dialoguecentric drama to be staged on September 3, 2017 at Madhav

Dev Auditorium Hall of Kalakshetra in Guwahati, talks about a heart-rending issue that might unexpectedly hit the door of any normal family in today’s world. Antarjuddha, which means a ‘battle within’, is that battle which might run in any of our hearts and minds. In words of the playwright, “After watching the drama, a battle will begin in the heart and mind of each audience and that is Antarjuddha.”

It is mention worthy that after a long period, there’ll be a comeback of two of the renowned and fine actors of Assam. One is Pranjana Dutta, a strong stage actor and Rupam Baruah, who is also the son of recitationist and actor, Late Ishan Baruah. Similarly, playing another strong character is Dr Padmapani, a scientist and Ex- Director, Directorate of Forensic Science, Assam. Other significant actors of the drama are Chinmoy Bhattacharya, Moni Bordoloi, Bhabna Kakati, Karabi Das, Sikha Mahanta, Dr Dipesh Bhagawati, Sanu Daimari and child artists Tonmoyi Borah, Fridalin and Swadheen. Meanwhile, lighting design is being done by Dr Mrinaljyoti Goswami, stage design by Jyoti Shankar Bhattacharya, music by Sudipta Sarma Bharali and make-up by Tibramoti Bairagi. Notably, the play which is under the banner of ARDSI, Guwahati has two show timings being 3.30 pm and 6 pm. n

7th Edition of PACM held at GMCH

he 7th edition of the Potential Awards Ceremony for Merit (PACM), the annual event by Potential was held at GMCH Auditorium on 20th August, 2017. The Chief Guest for the event was Ex Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi. The meritorious students were awarded with Laptops and iPhones for their performance. n

Former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi handing over an award to a student

he first edition of the Forkaal Music Festival will be held on September 23rd and 24th, featuring Polish death metal band Vader, Mumbai metallers Demonic Resurrection, post-rock outfit, As We Keep Searching and more. Two years ago, Guwahatibased events company, LAC Group, started curetting concept gigs with the intention of exploring the depths of human imagination. After the success of their 2016 showcase ‘Through My Mind’ (which featured performances by Guwahati-based bands such as alt rockers Jupiter Island, blues outfit Street Blues and Hindi rock group Northeast Diaries), the next step for the LAC Group was to organize a concept-based music festival. The organizers built a strong story format and thus was born Forkaal Music Festival, which will be held on September 23rd-24th at Khanapara Veterinary Ground in Guwahati. LAC Group event manager, Bandeep Rabha, explains the concept behind the festival, “It showcases an individual’s encounter with his own darkness and his journey beyond searching for an escape.” Rabha explains that Forkaal is an Assamese word which means, “The clear sky after the rain and thunder.”

The two-day festival is divided into two themes; The Dark Night for Day 1 and Clear Night Sky for Day 2. The acts slated to perform on Day 1 are metal-centric–Mumbai metallers Demonic Resurrection, Bengaluru metal outfit Kryptos, Kolkata prog metal act What Escapes Me and Guwahati’s own metal band Dark Carnage. Polish death metallers Vader are set to headline Day 1. Day 2 will witness performances by Mumbai dream-pop duo LANDS (previously known as Nicholson), Mumbai/Pune post-rock group As We Keep Searching, Shillong rockers Dossers Urge and more. On what festival-goers can expect at the festival, Rabha says, “We will be presenting a mechanized story version of the philosophy in the festival. People can come expecting different genres of music with a trippy and beautiful environment, meet music lovers from all over the northeast and other parts of India.” Tickets for the festival are now available, with day passes for Rs 700 and season passes for Rs 1000. The organizers want to expand the festival to other parts of the northeast in the near future as they feel that the northeast is the next big music hub of South Asia. “(We) hope it will get bigger with time,” said Rabha. n

City all set to host 2nd season of Guwahati Futsal Festival

nder-13 players from all over the state will have a shot at showing their Futsal skills in the upcoming “IO-Plus Guwahati Futsal Festival, Season -2” organized by Guwahati City FC (GCFC). In order to give a football platform to the young players of the state, GCFC said in a statement that Futsal is the smartest and most popular platform for kids to develop football skills as it needs close ball control and sharp mind because of the format of the game. Interested kids’ teams can contact at 9706570219 or 8638698279 for details. Kaustab Chakraborty, director, GCFC said that many great players like Pele, Messi, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Neymar among others learnt

their techniques through futsal in their childhood and for a state like Assam, where proper football infrastructure is still not in place, futsal can do wonders in nurturing talent. With this vision, GCFC has decided to extend the futsal festival’s reach towards kids and teams from across the state and region. Chakraborty has stated that schools and academies can also send their five-a-side futsal teams for the festival. For details, interested teams can follow the club’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. The festival will be held at DTRP Indoor Stadium (Nehru Stadium), Dr. B. Baruah Road, Guwahati on 15th and 16th September, 2017. n

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Events Event –Autumn Notes Date – August 23, Wednesday Venue –Vivanta by Taj Meghna Rai Medhi organised Autumn Notes (Fall 2017) at Vivanta by Taj on Wednesday. The exquisite fashion show featured renowned actors from the Assamese film fraternity - Kopil Bora and Diganta Hazarika – who walked the ramp. The highlight of the show was actress Nishita Goswami walking the ramp with her baby bump. An auction of designer garments took place to support the cause of cancer treatment, initiated by Morning Club NGO.

Meghna Rai Medhi (C) with Nishita Goswami (R) and show-stopper Frizi (L)

Nishita Goswami proud to pose with her baby bump at Autumn Notes

Kopil Bora strikes a pose at Autumn Notes

Actor Diganta Hazarika walking the ramp at Autumn Notes

Pay-Off, an intimate play, was performed brilliantly by Ranjeev Lal Baruah and Rohan Das at Gauhati Club on 20th August last

Rohan (L) and Ranjeev (R) performing Pay-Off

Rupam Phukan poses with Nishat Ahmed at Gauhati Club after the play

Sattyakee D’Com Bhuyan shows his appreciation for Pay-Off

G PLUS | AUG 26 - SEP 01, 2017

Catching Up

GYAN

Did you know?

Ganesh Mandir, Uzan Bazar

he Uzan Bazar Ganesh Temple, with the Brahmaputra River flowing behind it and the Latasil Field in front of it, dates back to the 16th century when the present day Assam was part of the Koch dynasty. After the Kamakhya Temple was reconstructed by the Koch king Naranaryan and his brother Chilarai in 1658, they asked for priests to perform rituals in the temple from Varanasi. It is

Kamur

believed that the priests, who are now known as Pandas here, after getting down from their boats at Uzan Bazar ghat halted at the Ganesh Temple and proposed the king to build a temple to welcome people coming from other parts of the country. Accordingly, the Ganesh Temple was built in the late 17th century and one of the pandas used to conduct rituals there. A lineage of the pandas still performs rituals there.

of the week

The Guwahati weather was a pretty big kamur this week as during the day people had to encounter scorching heat and on some days in the evening rains marred all plans. A school student in Lal Ganesh area, on Wednesday, fainted while returning from school because of the heat.

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