Vol 5 Issue 38

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G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018 @guwahatiplus www.guwahatiplus.com

Inside

Volume 05 | Issue 38 Jul 14 - Jul 20, 2018 Price `10

Newborn girl child found abandoned in drain rushed to MMCH PG 03

Tele-calling fraud on the rise in Ghy; customer negligence to blame PG 05

Govt slaps 10-day ban on fish from other states after samples confirm formalin PG 06

HIMA DAS Toast of the nation Clocking 51.46, Hima Das clinched Gold in the 400 metre track event at U-20 International Association of Athletics Federations Championship at Tampere, Finland She is the first Indian to win gold in a world track event Her personal best over 400 metres is 51.13 seconds at the 58th National Inter State Athletic Championship, 2018 held at Guwahati Hima Das, daughter of Jomali and Ronjit Das, a rice farmer, hails from Kandhulimari village, about 5 kilometres from Dhing town in central Assam’s Nagaon District She started running on tracks formally just two years ago She will participate in the Asian Games 2018 that will begin from August 18 this year at Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia

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Lead Story

SNIPPETS Swati Bidhan Baruah: Assam’s first transgender judge

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Assam sprinter Hima Das is the toast of the nation; most trending on Twitter Avishek Sengupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

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ssam will witness its first transgender judge mediate cases in the Lok Adalat of Kamrup (Metro) district and sessions court.

In a welcome change, Swati Bidhan Baruah has been appointed by the Kamrup (Metro) District legal service authority to act as a mediator in pre-litigation cases related to finance companies.

Baruah, will be a member of the 20-member judges’ bench to be presided over by H Ali Hazarika, a retired district and sessions judge.

The 26-year-old Baruah had earlier filed a PIL in the Gauhati High Court for nonimplementation of a 2014 Supreme Court order on the welfare of transgenders. The Gauhati High Court, in May 2018, directed the state government to implement it within six months.

The appointment of Baruah comes as a relief to over 5,000 transgenders living in Assam who had to run from pillar to post with their legal and other social problems. They have a new hope in the form of Baruah. n

Demonetised notes worth Rs 1 lakh seized, 2 arrested

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n a drive led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Nandita Kakati, two persons have been arrested along with demonetized 1,000 rupee notes with face value of Rs 1 lakh.

The apprehended two have been identified as Mukut Ali and PrabodhTalukdar. n

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ccolades and financial aids have started flowing in for Hima Das, the teenager from Kandhulimari village near Dhing in Assam’s Nagaon district, who created history on Thursday by winning the gold medal in the women’s 400-metres event at the IAAF World U-20 Championships, held at Tampere, Finland.

Assam Athletics Association (AAA), the first platform from where she sprinted to international events with her sheer will, commitment to her sport and love for competition, has announced a financial aid of Rs 2 lakhs while former chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, announced another aid of Rs 1 lakh to her.

The 18-year-old daughter of a rice farmer, youngest among 5 siblings, clocked 51.46 seconds in the 400 metres event at the Ratina Stadium leaving behind Romania’s Andrea Milkos (silver) and America’s Taylor Manson (bronze), to emerge as the first athlete from India to have clinched gold in track events at a world event.

While appreciating her feat, Rockybul Hussain, the president of AAA marked yesterday as a “red letter day” for sports in Assam.

“With Hima Das, the golden era of athletics in track events for Assam and the entire country has just started. She has finally brought to an end the long drought of medals in this field,” Hussain said.

Nipon Das, a coach with the Directorate of Sports & Youth Welfare in Assam, who has often been credited with recognising Hima’s raw speed and talent and convincing her to come to

Guwahati from Kandhulimari village, about five kilometres from Dhing town in central Assam, has been her guide for a long time.

Rockybul Hussain however suggested, “Now is time that she gets an internationalstandard coach dedicated for her.”

“What Nipon Das has done so far is very commendable.

But to develop her sport, she should have an international level coach. The AAA will try to get her a dedicated coach so that her performance can be further developed,” Hussain said.

However, yesterday’s feat was not her personal best with the records already set at the Inter State Championships at Guwahati this June where she clocked 51.13 seconds. This has left a window of hope for her supporters who are now aiming for her to live the Olympics dream.

Pradip Nunisa, general secretary of AAA said, “The way she is running and developing herself in every tournament, we are very hopeful that she will clinch gold for the nation in the Japan Olympics,” Nunisa said.

Nunisa said that Hima is the first example and more will follow from Assam into the field of athletics.

“We will initiate talent hunts in the interiors and at the very grassroots level now. Assam is full of such talented sportspersons.

Hima Das is just a beginning. What we need more is more athletic

File photo of Hima Das (L) with her coach Nipon Das academies,” Nunisa added.

However, Olympic dream is still far as the stakes are much higher for her. The record in the Rio Olympics 2016 for 400 metres is 49.44 by Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, about 1.69 seconds lower than Hima’s personal best.

“She is just 18 years old. She still has two more years to train.

And age is on her side. Hard, but gold in Olympics is an attainable dream,” Nunisa added.

Hima’s track records show that her speed has been improving in every tournament she participates in.

In the Bangkok Asian Youth Championships in May 2017, she finished the 200 m sprint in 24.52 seconds; in the Nairobi World Youth Championships in July the same year, she clocked 24.31 seconds; in the Jakarta Asian Games test event in February this year, she did it in 23.59 seconds; in March, she cut it down to 23.37 seconds in the Federation Cup in Patiala, well below the qualifying cut-off for the Commonwealth

Games. The best timing recorded this year in the 200 m sprint has been 22.83 seconds by Brittany Brown of the USA. The national record is 22.82 seconds, by Saraswati Dey Saha made in 2002. Both figures seem within touching distance for Hima.

Hima is currently preparing for the Asian Games that will begin from August 18 this year.

Meanwhile, she has turned into most trending subject on Twitter. Dignitaries such as Prime Minister of India, President of India, other renowned sportsperson and film stars have congratulated her for the magnificent feat.

Minister from Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, in his tweet addressing Hima mentioned, “You have done an incredibly inspiring job by becoming the first Indian track athlete to win a gold medal at a World event Hima Das. We are so proud and happy. Your Gold at women’s 400 m World Under-20 Championships is a priceless jewel. Keep it up!” n

Weather report for the week Guwahati

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City

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

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Newborn girl child Baby doing found abandoned in well, kept in ICU drain rushed to MMCH O Saumya Mishra saumya.mishra@g-plus.in

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newborn baby girl was found abandoned in a dry drain near Gauhati Club in the city on Monday.

The passersby and morning walkers found the baby lying in a dry drain and informed the police early in the morning around 5:30 am. The locals who found the newborn said she bore injury marks around her face.

“While we were passing by the area near Gauhati Club on Monday morning, we saw a newborn baby lying abandoned in a dry drain in the morning. We at once informed the police who then took her to the hospital,” said Nitin Baruah, an elderly local resident who was present at the spot.

The passersby saw the baby and informed the Latasil police who then rushed her to Mahendra Mohan Choudhary Hospital (MMCH) at Panbazar.

“Our patrolling team which keeps making rounds at different places when residents go for their morning walk, found a group of people huddled around the newborn baby girl near a drain.

Our officers wrapped the baby in

The new born baby at MMCH | G Plus Photo a fresh soft cloth and then took her to the hospital,” said Sunil Kalita, officer in-charge of the Latasil police station.

He added that till now they

have no leads about the possible parents or relatives of the baby.

“It is very difficult to find out the details of parents in such cases,” informed Kalita. n

n the other hand, officials at MMCH told G Plus that the baby has been kept under observation and has been admitted to the special care newborn unit (SCNU) at present but is doing well and is showing signs of improvement.

SCNUs provide special care for newborns with complications.

Assistant superintendent at MMCH, Dr KK Deka, said that the baby was possibly abandoned within the first few hours of its birth since the umbilical cord was still fresh when she was brought to the hospital.

Deka further added that the baby is active and weighs 1.6 kilograms and on Wednesday completed her third day at the hospital.

“There were a few injury marks on the face and knee of the child when she was brought to the hospital which was possibly from being kept in the drain; these have still not completely healed. She also has skin infection for which we are administering antibiotics and she is also being given intravenous therapy (IV) fluid,” informed hospital authorities.

A nurse at MMCH informed that the baby is being spoon fed and will be ready for discharge only when the antibiotics’ course is over and when the authorities deem her fit to be let go.

Hospital authorities said they were considering two possibilities due to which the baby might have been abandoned. They

suspect that either the baby is illegitimate or the parents wanted a boy instead of a girl and hence abandoned her.

“It was by stroke of luck that the baby was found in time by the locals and was saved. Since she is a premature newborn baby, they need a lot of care especially during the initial hours of birth,” said Dr Deka.

He added that state social welfare minister, Pramila Rani Brahma, also visited the hospital on Tuesday and asked the authorities to ensure that the baby receives proper care.

Commenting on the future course of action, hospital authorities said that they will hand the baby over to the police who will get in touch with officials from the district child protection unit.

Additionally, former chairperson of the Kamrup (Metro) child welfare committee, Jitu Dutta informed that usually in such cases, the child is first sent to the district child protection unit (DCPU) which officially declares that the child is abandoned and then gives the child up for adoption.

It may be mentioned that G Plus received the first video footages of the baby as it was being rescued from the drain and handed over to the police. The video was aired exclusively on the digital channels of G Plus and the act was condemned vociferously by followers. n

Assam Police mulls legal provisions to check hate messages on WhatsApp Nehal Jain jain.nehal@g-plus.in

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he Assam Police is currently exploring legal provisions to enforce stricter rules to check the circulation of fake news and spam messages on the popular messaging app, WhatsApp. In a report by PTI, it has been made clear that any factually incorrect rumour or misleading information on a social media group could result in an FIR against the group administrator. A law has been enforced in Hyderabad regarding the same and the Assam Police is currently looking at the legal provisions to enforce the same here.

According to highly placed sources in the Assam Police security cell, the police receive numerous complaints against unruly behavior of people on various social networking sites and messaging apps on a daily basis. “There are enough responsible citizens who reach out to the police and report against

certain people creating mischief in numerous groups. Social media networking sites have their own boundaries and the chance for foolproof investigation is tough. But instant messaging applications present a different scenario because recovering evidence is easier,” he told G Plus.

While the actual WhatsApp chats (including multimedia files) are end-to-end encrypted, the police have no plans to intrude on the privacy of the public to check for such messages. Rather, the police are dependent on information from the citizens who can reach out to the police via social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter or contact the numbers provided on their web pages. Assam Police is also easily reachable via WhatsApp helpline numbers.

It has raised great concern in the cyber cell as fake news, morphed photographs and disturbing videos with fabricated local narratives can easily be circulated hiding behind the words “Forwarded as received.”

Any post that could promote

enmity on grounds of religion, nationality, race, language, etc in any WhatsApp group might lead to jail for the admin of the group. The WhatsApp admins are, therefore, to ensure that each and every member in the group is reliable and inform the police if members resort to mischief.

WhatsApp has been struggling to control the spread of misinformation and fake news on its platform. While this is an issue across social media, it is a more complex problem on WhatsApp as all messages and media shared here are

end-to-end encrypted. Following a strong missive from the Indian government, WhatsApp had responded with a list of features it was rolling out to control the spread of messages that had led to instances of violence across India over the past few weeks.

WhatsApp’s new update will now allow the group admins to send messages whereas the members can only message to the admin directly. With this update, members of any group now can’t send messages to other members without permission of the admins. The

admin can now enable a setting to either post messages himself/herself exclusively or give the privilege to a select few members by making them co-admins.

Along with more control for group admins, the platform had listed the labeling of messages as one of the features that could help bring down the virality of such posts. WhatsApp has finally enabled a feature which will indicate that a certain message has been forwarded, and not created by the sender. The initiative is expected to help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow.

This move comes in one month after two youths from Assam – Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das – became victims of mob lynching following a piece of alleged fake news that spread over WhatsApp regarding child-lifters. So far, 45 people have been arrested by Assam Police in connection with it. According to reports, the same scare has caused 27 casualties in 15 cases of lynching by frenzied mobs across nine states across the country in the last one year. n

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In The News

SNIPPETS Assam ranked 17th in ease of doing business

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ssam surged ahead by seven places to rank 17th best state in the country to do business in India.

Assam has been clubbed in the “fast movers category” in the rankings and shares the category with Himachal Pradesh and Bihar.

The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industries, released the final rankings of states in “ease of doing business” in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The DIPP, Ministry of Commerce & Industries, in collaboration with the World Bank, has conducted an annual reform exercise for all states and Union territories under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2017.

The aim is to improve delivery of various central government regulatory functions and services in an efficient, effective and transparent manner.

Earlier, Assam was ranked 24th.

The top rankers are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana.

Jharkhand and Gujarat stood fourth and fifth respectively. n

Charge sheet filed against Basanta Doley for altering marks

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harge sheet has been filed against Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) member, Basanta Doley, for allegedly altering and enhancing marks of candidates who had appeared for the post of Agriculture Development Officer (ADO) in 2014.

The charge sheet has been filed by investigating officer, Sujit Saikia.

Doley was arrested for the second time in connection with the cash-for-job scam.

Sources have revealed that forensic reports have confirmed tampering of 27 optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets of candidates. These candidates have appeared for the ADO examination in 2014. The reports revealed that Doley had used his power to change the marks for the benefit of the candidates who had secured the jobs by paying cash. n

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Renaming of GU buildings: PGSU files memorandum against govt’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay fixation Saumya Mishra saumya.mishra@g-plus.in

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fter the names of major roads of the city were changed a few months ago, now the buildings of Gauhati University (GU) will follow suit. The Post Graduate Students’ Union (PGSU) at the university decided to submit a proposal against the government’s earlier decision to name upcoming model colleges after Deen Dayal Upadhyay - co-founder of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the ruling government’s ideologue.

The decision has come after a PGSU delegation met with the vice-chancellor (VC) of the university recently and submitted their memorandum for the same.

The VC agreed to the proposal to change the names of the buildings.

“We have a number of eminent personalities from our state after whom the colleges can be renamed and we are against naming institutes after Deen Dayal Upadhyay as had been earlier decided by the state government,” informed Monjit Sharma, general secretary of PGSU. He added that they had submitted the memorandum before the government could decide to name the GU buildings after Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

Talking to G Plus, Sharma said, “We wanted to show some respect for the scholars and eminent personalities who made their contributions towards establishing universities in the northeast and towards bettering the educational scenario in the state.”

Further, members of the

Surya Kumar Bhuyan Surya Kumar Bhuyan was a Padma Shri awardee writer, poet and scholar from Assam. He was also an elected member of the Rajya Sabha. Bhuyan wrote a number of books in English and Assamese. He was the president of the Asom Sahitya Sabha, a literary, non-government organisation formed in 1917. He began his career as a teacher in a Mission School in Jorhat and was then appointed as a lecturer in Cotton College. Bhuyan later became the first Assamese to be appointed the principal of Cotton College (now Cotton University), Guwahati after he completed his PhD from the London School of Orien-

The newly built main entrance gate of Gauhati University | G Plus Photo PGSU added that they have made continuous efforts to retain the memories of these men of great repute. They mentioned that some of the steps taken in this regard include installing their busts at various places across the university in the past.

After the decision, names of four buildings at GU would be changed. These include the New Academic Building, Academic Building, New Arts Building and the Arts Building.

Authorities informed that this month, the executive council tal & African Studies.

Lakshminath Bezbaroa Lakshminath Bezbaroa was a much-respected figure of Assamese literature and one of the foremost literary personalities of the state. He wrote different literary pieces including plays, historical works, farces, oneact drama, biographies and his autobiography. This apart, he also wrote for children. In his works, Bezbaroa often used satire to comment on the prevailing social scenario with a view to bring about some positive change through his works. He was conferred the title of ‘Roxoraj’ by the Asom Sahitya Sabha.

- the decision making body of the university - will conduct a meeting with the members of the students’ council and the members will decide on the future course of action to formally change the names of the buildings.

According to sources, the names would be changed next academic session onwards.

“The current names of the buildings sound a bit odd and are very generic in nature and since one building hosts as many as 10 and 12 departments, it makes sense to properly name them,”

Dr Banikanta Kakati Born in 1894, Dr Banikanta Kakati was a scholar and a prominent literary figure of Assamese language who made enormous contributions towards the language with the help of linguistics, cultural anthropology and literature. He excelled in his academics and topped the state in English in his matriculation examination.

He completed his intermediate from Cotton College in which he scored the first position and later he completed two MA degrees in English Literature and English Language. He was also a well-known critic.

said a member of the students’ union.

As per the students’ demands, the New Arts Building will now be renamed as Surya Kumar Bhuyan Bhawan, the New Academic Building will be called Lakshminath Bezbaroa Bhawan, Arts Building will now be named as Dr Banikanta Kakoti Bhawan and AT Hall will be renamed as Bishnu Prasad Rabha Bhawan.

Interestingly, all the four figures after whom the buildings would be named belong to the field of literature. n

Bishnu Prasad Rabha

Bishnu Prasad Rabha was born in 1909 in Dhaka. He was best known for his contribution towards the indigenous Assamese communities. Rabha had also played a significant role in the country’s struggle for independence. He was passionate about the upliftment of indigenous communities as was also evident from his written works. For this, people belonging to the indigenous community called him ‘Kala Guru’ or the ‘master of the arts’. Apart from being a litterateur, he was also a singer, music composer, director and an actor.

Concern

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Tele-calling fraud on the rise in Ghy; customer negligence to blame

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SNIPPETS Old age home asked to vacate premises due to water crisis

Nehal Jain jain.nehal@g-plus.in

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n recent cases that occurred in Guwahati, it came to light that customers of various banks including the State Bank of India (SBI) and Central Bank of India have become targets of telecalling agents and have lost huge amounts of money to fraudsters.

One of the victims is Devapriya Das who is an account holder at Central Bank of India. Allegedly, an amount of Rs 24,999 was siphoned off from her account on June 28. The incident came to her knowledge only after she received a message regarding the withdrawal of the said amount through an SMS. The victim has

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fficials at the Crime Branch informed G Plus that a total of 135 cases of cheating over calls and social media have been reported in Guwahati this year. On the contrary, in 2017, a total of 384 such fraudulent cases had come to light.

L registered a case in connection with it at Chandmari police station.

The second such incident happened with one Tarini Baishya, who holds an account at SBI. Reportedly, Baishya lost a total of Rs 30,000 after he gave his 16-digit ATM number to a tele-caller who claimed to be an employee of SBI. Baishya filed a complaint with the Bharalumukh police station on June 15.

“Nine out of 10 people are victims of cyber crime. Usually, a

team of fraudsters work together to commit multiple frauds over a couple of days using blank SIM cards that they obtain with the help of the operators from telecom service provider. Thus, it becomes very difficult to arrest the culprits,” informed officials at the cyber cell of the police department.

Earlier this year, a city-based doctor was duped of Rs 17,798 by a cyber fraudster bearing mobile number 8375045888 who impersonated an ICICI bank officer and

sought details of his credit card for the purpose of upgrading it. The doctor, being busy with his patients, did not give it much thought and divulged vital details of the card in good faith.

However, when he realised he had been duped, it was too late.

A sum total of Rs 17,798 had been transferred from his account in three different transactions. The case has been registered with Paltan Bazaar police station and no arrest has been made so far in this connection. n

SIM Swipe: A sophisticated form of tele-calling fraud

How to protect yourself from such frauds?

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growing reliance on phone-based authentication has made SIM swapping an increasingly lucrative enterprise. A high proportion of banking customers now have mobile numbers linked with their accounts, making this attack more common.

This sophisticated form of fraud that allows hackers to gain access to bank accounts, credit card numbers and other personal data is the newest tele-calling fraud taking place in Guwahati.

So far, two cases of SIM swipe have been registered at the Paltan Bazaar Police Station alone.

Explaining the modus operandi, an investigating officer told G Plus, “The fraudsters turn into tele-callers and introduce themselves as representatives from your telecom service provider. You will be informed that within half an hour, your SIM card will be blocked as the KYC is not updated. After they create a panic situation, they will leave

you with only one option, that is, to provide them with the OTP sent on your mobile number. Once you do so, your SIM will be blocked within 15 minutes.”

Senior officials claim that with the help of the operators from telecom service providers, the fraudsters manage to get blank SIM cards. In the meantime, the other gang members identify the target and access all their personal bank information using the nexus with the banks.

Extracting all the information, one of the members will make a call to the target and inform them about blocking of the SIM card.

Once the target is convinced to send the OTP, the original SIM card of the victim is deactivated forever and the new SIM card (which is already in possession of the fraudsters) is activated.

As a result, the gang gets access to all the bank account details and other potential areas where the mobile number is used to receive the OTP or other security passwords. n

nowing the basics of SIM card frauds and ATM frauds help protect you against them, and recognizing an attack in advance can help you head off the worst of its effects.

Speaking to G Plus, Rosie Kalita, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP Crime) said, “Most people fall prey to such frauds because of their own greed. People nowadays want easy money and if they get a call from someone claiming to be bank officials, they provide vital information over phone just to avoid a visit to the bank.”

She further added that awareness is the key if one wants to be protected from tele-calling frauds. While the Assam Police has been taking steps to create awareness and sensitize people, they need cooperation from the public to share the information ahead. Stating that ATM frauds are the most common form of tele-calling frauds, she has urged the public to spread maximum

awareness regarding the same.

There’s no problem with taking a call from an unknown number but once you know that the caller is a conman, always mark the number as spam, block it and immediately report to the police. This will help other people know that the caller cannot be trusted and save them from becoming the next victim.

Further, do not click on unknown URLs as they mostly take the user to bogus websites.

And once you fall in the trap, you come in their grip.

And most importantly, always keep your WiFi and Hotspots security protected. “In a recent case that took place in Guwahati, a crime had been committed using someone’s open WiFi because of their negligence. Not only did it lead to questioning of the owner of the network, it further complicated the case and made it very difficult to find the actual culprit,” a highly placed source in the police informed G Plus. n

ocated in the heart of the city, Mother Old Age Home at Pub-Jyoti Nagar is facing grave crisis.

The old age home was taken up on rent from one Vijay Krishna Das of Jyotinagar for two years and serves as a home to 60 elderly people.

The management of the old-age home are now in a great dilemma as the owner has asked them to vacate the house immediately. He has even cut down the water supply to the old age home for past 6 months.

It is to be mentioned that the renewal of the agreement was due for October this year.

With 60 elderly people under its shade of charity, who have none to care for them, the management is now seeking a piece of land so that it could accommodate the elderly permanently.

Speaking to G Plus, Utpal Uday, one of the management of the old age home said, “It is very difficult situation for us. We have been changing our location for some or the other reason from time to time. We will be grateful if the government helps us with a premises where we can help the elderly residents settle down.”

Mother Old Age Home was established on 21st June 2012, with one elderly male inmate. The old age home was first opened at Jayanta Nagar, New Guwahati, and then shifted to Ganesh Nagar of the same locality. With space falling short, the old age home had to be further shifted to Pub Jyotinagar. n

1,679 traffic violators lose driving licences in six months

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rom 1st January, 2018 till date the transport department has suspended licences of 1,679 violators for jumping red lights, overloading, speeding, using phone while driving and drunken driving in the city. In 2017, a total of 2,849 numbers of driving licences were cancelled.

This was reported in a meeting of the Kamrup District Roads Safety Committee at DC office, under the president-ship of District Development Commissioner Dr Bijoya Choudhury on Monday. n

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City

SNIPPETS Pay fine for smoking cigarettes at public places in Guwahati

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he Guwahati city police have started a campaign to stop people from smoking and consuming tobacco products in public places.

Those found offending will be charged under the ‘Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act’, 2003 and can be fined or jailed.

The Act prohibits smoking of tobacco in public places, except in special smoking zones in hotels, restaurants and airports and open spaces.

The city police have started this campaign from Ganeshguri.

The fine can range from Rs 200 to Rs 5000 and the offender can be jailed for up to 5 years.

Guwahati police is going to continue this operation in other places of the city. n

Guwahati-Patna direct flight from August

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n a bid to accommodate proper communication between Patna and Guwahati, flyers will have a direct flight from Patna to Guwahati from 31st August.

Patna’s Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport director, Rajendra Singh Lahauria, on Sunday, said that the SpiceJet would operate a Patna-Guwahati flight daily and may increase its frequency in future depending on the passengers’ rush on this route.

“At present, flyers are required to change flights at Kolkata for Guwahati. It consumes a lot of time and doubles the cost of fare in comparison to a direct flight,” Lahauria said adding even delayed trains on the route is another factor that people look for flights for Guwahati.

“Just a week back, the operator gave us a proposal to initiate a flight on the route and sought permission for it,” Lahauria said and added that the proposed flight from would arrive at Patna airport at 9.35 am and it would depart at 9.55 am. n

Woman trafficker held for trying to sell 22-yr-old girl

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he Bharalumukh Police on Tuesday arrested one Rohila Mondol (46) for human trafficking.

According to the police, acting on information provided by the victim’s family and other civilian sources, the kidnapper and the victim were held near Samastipur, Bihar en-route to Rajasthan. n

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Govt slaps 10-day ban on fish from other states after samples confirm formalin Saumya Mishra saumya.mishra@g-plus.in

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he state health & family welfare department banned the entry of fish from other states in Assam for ten days after test samples confirmed presence of formalin in the fishes.

Minister of state (MoS) for health & family welfare, Pijush Hazarika, announced this on Tuesday. He added that fish samples were collected from Betkuchi fish market on June 29 and were sent to the State Public Health Laboratory in Bamunimaidan for testing.

“We found traces of formalin in the fish samples which we all know is harmful for human consumption and the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 prohibit the use of the chemicals such as formalin in food items,” said Hazarika.

Formalin is a colourless chemical substance derived from formaldehyde, which is a substance that is carcinogenic to humans. When mixed in the right proportion with water, the paste is used for embalming and preventing the decay of dead cells. Formalin, which contains 37–40% formaldehyde, is used in mortuaries and labs apart from different industries including textiles, plastic and paper.

Formalin is often illegally used to preserve fish, which is an easily perishable commodity whose value depends on its

The deserted wholesale fish market at Betkuchi after Assam government slapped the 10 days ban | G Plus Photo freshness. And when fish is imported from another state, to prevent rot during transport, fish traders resort to using formalin, even though its consumption is harmful to human beings.

The government is, however, reluctant to stop the fish procurement from outside Assam also known as ‘chalani’ fish for a longer period of time as a large number of people might be affected by such a step.

“After 10 days, we will again conduct drives and if formalin is still found, we will punish them under the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act

2006. The original sellers will be contacted through the cash memos. Also, we will request the local sellers to not increase the price during this period,” said Hazarika.

He added that the Act provides for imprisonment of up to 7 years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakhs.

Commenting on steps being taken to make the process of testing faster, the minister informed that special testing kits are being procured from Germany.

“We have procured a testing kit from Germany and they are in transit. It will reach us within 7 days. After that it will be able

Fisheries dept ‘reluctant’ to take proactive measures

O

n the other hand, officials of the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries have issued circulars to the district level officials to take action against erring fish sellers in consultation with the district officials as well as the health & family welfare department authorities.

Authorities informed that a majority of fish brought in from other states belongs to Andhra Pradesh followed by West Bengal and Kanpur.

Director of fisheries, Padma Nath Das told G Plus, “After the

health department’s directive banning import of fish from outside, we have directed district officials of all districts to visit markets and collect samples of fish for testing and take action if formalin is found in them.”

Further, three top officials from the fisheries department of Andhra Pradesh visited Guwahati on Friday in order to meet with officials here. They also visited the fish market at Betkuchi.

The officials included additional director of fisheries, Andhra Pradesh, P Koteswara Rao, food safety officer, Machilipatnam G Venkateswara

Rao and assistant director of animal husbandry department, Andhra Pradesh, Dr G Malleswara Rao. However, officials of fisheries department maintained that they are not directly involved in the process of banning the fish as it is looked after by the health department.

Officials at the directorate of fisheries informed that during the year 2017-18, a total of 3.27 lakh metric tonnes of fish was produced in the state while the total requirement was 3.48 lakh metric tonnes and the deficit was of 21,000 tonnes. n

to test fish on spot. At present, it takes some time to get the results and can’t be done on spot,” confirmed Hazarika. n

Effects of formalin

T

here are several risks associated with ingesting formalin – having even 30 ml of a solution, which contains as little as 37% formalin, can kill a fully grown adult. Once ingested, formalin releases toxins into the body and the sustained ingestion of formalin can eventually lead to cancer.

Breathing even the smallest amount of formaldehyde gas can lead to pneumonia and bronchitis.

Further, if formaldehyde is present in the air at a level more than 0.001 ppm, people could experience a burning sensation in their eyes, nose and throat, apart from coughing and sneezing. They could also experience nausea and skin irritation.

If formalin reaches the stomach, a person could experience stomach ache and nausea. Even if the fish or vegetables treated with formalin are cooked, it doesn’t stop the formalin from releasing the toxins into the body. n

In The News

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

7

Delhi-based website’s take on NE cuisine comes in for heavy criticism Chandrika Das

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video titled “Uncles Trying North Eastern Cuisine” released by MensXP, a Delhi-based men’s grooming website, that touts to be an attempt to understand cuisines from the northeast food by a group of four elderly persons on camera, did not go well with Twitter and Facebook users from this region who slammed the website and the video.

Though the video title went by Northeast cuisine, it only featured selected food items of two states – Singju, Soibum Eromba and Bora Pakora from Manipur and pork with bamboo-shoot and Akhuni (that the tasters referred to as “Nagaland ka Rajma”) from Nagaland.

The elderly persons were found saying that the food was not up to their taste as they tried each item and reacted to it in a way that can only be said to be “disapproving” in taste.

Singju is a Manipuri salad made with lotus seeds, cabbages and herbs while Soibum Eromba is made with dried fish and mashed

Screenshot from the video potatoes. Bora Pakora is lemon basil’s fritters. Akhuni, on the other hand, is fermented soybeans.

People of the northeast, however, took the video as a sublime attempt by the mainland

India to nudge the northeast food and its culture.

A Facebook user, Samuel Baruah, commented on the video, “Yes we know how much you guys underestimate us, and look down

upon us. It is very clear from your video. You people are not at all welcome here. If it’s in your head that we are from a different country or you think that we are foreigners, it is okay with us. We are proud to be North-easterner.

We can be self-sufficient. We can survive without you so-called intellectual high-class people.”

Some, on the other hand, questioned the adaptability of the tasters regarding various tastes of food.

“With NO regards to whoever made this nonsense video. First, gather some knowledge about food before making bull**** stuff.

Second, learn to respect culture, when u don’t, never expect any respect from us. Third, not knowing the capital is not joke, it’s a matter of shame n shows your poor IQ levels. Fourth, have u personally ever been to NE??

Well, I guess u never got out of your box!! Fifth, I’m not insulted actually. You have insulted yourself by showing the world what a shi*** mentality you have. No thanks, actually an epic face palm... from a Foodie,” (sic) commented Geeta Dutta, a food blogger from Guwahati.

“Most cuisines are unpalatable for people belonging to different

cultures. The video is nothing but a distasteful attempt of stereotyping cultures. It is done with absolutely no homework on the food of North East as a whole.

See Andrew Zimmern, Kiran Jethwa or Gordon Ramsay’s take on different foods,” said another user, Anupa Lahkar Goswami.

Bedanta Bhagowati, who is the owner of a city-based ethnic cuisine restaurant says, “Healthy and delicious are the two terms that come to my mind when it comes to North East delicacies. Each north eastern state has a unique way of preparing food which comprises different varieties of herbs with tremendous medicinal values. We hardly use any spices and very less oil and yet deliver a delicious and healthy platter. Many people from outside Assam visit my restaurant to taste the unique recipes which is cooked without oil and spices.

Northeast cuisines are revolve around an array of herbs, but certainly not ‘grass’ like the way it has been shown in the video.” (sic) Within three days of uploading, the video received 11,000 reactions of which, 356 were of frowns and have received 383 comments, most of which had criticised it. n

Help desks set up to make Guwahati police stations more people-friendly Nehal Jain jain.nehal@g-plus.in

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ith the intention to make police stations more people-friendly and treat visitors in a disciplined and polite manner, police stations across the city will soon be provided with comprehensive reception desks.

A total of 47 receptionists, who happen to be women constables, have undergone special training on how to handle visitors and will be directly reporting to their respective officers-in-charge.

The constables underwent two days of training for the program on July 9-10. They were trained in soft skills by Anjan Choudhury of the Indian Skills Academy while Indrani Phukan, the head of Public Relations at Vivanta by Taj, Guwahati trained them in public relations. Further, officials of the Guwahati city

police, including Ponjit Dowarah, ACP Jalukbari, Inspector Dilip Bharali, officer-in-charge of Fatasil Ambari and Inspector Biren Ch Deka, officer-in-charge of Chandmari, familiarised the constables with the functioning of a police station and the police commissionerate.

Additionally, Ranjan Bhuyan, DCP Central, Mousumi Kalita, Assistant Commissioner of Police (women unit) and Diganta Barua, Joint Commissioner of police taught the women how to communicate differently with different stakeholders of the public.

There are a total of 20 police stations that fall under Guwahati Police District and to begin with, five stations have been equipped with the reception desks.

Gradually, all the stations will get full-fledged reception desks.

The test phase began in five police stations namely Dispur, Fatasil Ambari, Pan Bazaar, Bharalumukh and Jalukbari on July 12, Thursday. “During the

File photo of Bharalumukh Police Station first test phase, 15 constables have been assigned duties – three at each of the stations. The rest of the constables will also be assigned

their duties once the stations get equipped with the infrastructure,” informed Mousumi Kalita while speaking to G Plus.

She further added that while two batches of constables have been trained, a third batch is yet to undergo training. Apart from getting apprised of the functioning of the police stations and handle the help desks, these constables may also be taken for cases by the officer-in-charge.

The registration desks/help desks are expected to be officially inaugurated by Director General of Police, IPS Kuladhar Saikia sometime in the coming week.

The help desks being set up at the police stations are expected to fight the negative public perception towards police behaviour. The objective is to achieve better connectivity with the public by providing assistance to all complainants and other individuals coming into the stations. It is a kind of single window system for visitors to the police station to not feel uncomfortable during their visit which is expected to be open round the clock soon. n

8

Business

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Guwahati-based start-up giving ‘ek chai dena’ an altogether new definition G Plus profiles a creative start up venture that is making fine tea available right at the customers’ doorsteps through various e-commerce portals Nehal Jain jain.nehal@g-plus.in

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etting premium quality tea delivered at your doorstep is no longer a far-fetched idea.

Namhah, a Guwahati based start-up, offers over 16 varieties of premium tea that can be ordered from every nook and corner of the country. Available on their official website as well as other e-commerce websites like Amazon and Snapdeal, Namhah offers some of the rarest available teas including the White Tea, the Oolong Tea, Yellow Tea and other flavoured teas. It is also the supplier of nonalcoholic Wine Tea in Guwahati.

28-year-old Ankit Baid launched Namhah in 2016 along with his friend Abhishek Chowdhury. The idea of selling specialty tea online came when the duo visited a tea-exclusive

industry. Namhah also raised an undisclosed amount of private investment in April 2018 from the duo who he met during a tea expo held in Guwahati in December 2017.

Currently, Namhah Tea is run by a nine-member team, including the founder and marketing agents.

Namhah brings to its customers the rarest and the finest teas from some of the most elite gardens in India.

Each tea is selected in person for its unique characteristic.

These teas are produced in very small quantities and are most often handpicked by experts.

The utmost care dedicated to the production and packaging results in impeccable perfection and exclusivity. Namhah Tea is carefully packaged in tin boxes and delivered within two-three days of receiving the order.

“Tea available in the market in the form of tea bags is not of

the best quality because they use Golden Orange Fanning (GOF) grade teas which are nothing but dust. Instead, we sell fresh, loose leaves packaged in tin boxes along with DIY tea bags,” said Ankit Baid, co-founder and CEO of Namhah.

Apart from

cafe in Delhi and found that the quality of tea wasn’t up to the mark. Further, premium quality teas were available at very high costs making them inaccessible to the masses. So they launched an online platform with the aim to provide garden fresh teas to people all over the country and across the continents at reasonable rates.

Ankit later roped in Aditya Agarwal and Ramesh Mundhra as core team members. While Aditya, who is Namhah’s investor and marketing partner, comes from a family that has worked in the tea industry for more than a century, Ramesh is a tea broker and taster with over 20 years’ experience in the

selling over 16 different varieties of premium loose tea leaves that are sourced from boutique gardens in top tea destinations like Assam, Darjeeling, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, Namhah also offers 12 different tea blends that claim to be naturally blended with sterilised herbs and flowers without any artificial flavouring.

The platform also provides monthly and yearly subscription plans that promise to surprise tea lovers every month.

Namhah mostly caters to the upper middle and elite classes.

Ankit informed G Plus that the company has a zero delivery charge policy in Guwahati and they’re currently providing tea to over 40 regular customers here including restaurants, hotels and retail outlets.

Claiming to have served over a million cups of tea in the past couple of years, Ankit further added that about 80% of their customers place repeat orders.

While they are currently only delivering pan India, a lot of their clients are based abroad, which is why they’re planning to take Namhah global and start

exporting specialty teas.

Whilst CTC Assam Tea and Green Tea remain the highest selling varieties, Rose Ooling Tea and White Tea are among

the highest selling premium teas of Namhah. Speaking to G Plus, Ankit informed, “Over the years, people have become much more health conscious. They only want the best for their health and skin and White Tea serves both the purpose. It is one of the purest forms of tea, difficult to find in the market and very expensive compared to other teas.”

India is the second largest tea producer in the world and while a substantially higher population of our country consumes tea instead of coffee, coffee was more easily accessible until a few years ago.

There were a number of coffee retail outlets like Cafe Coffee Day, Cafe Mocha, Barista and Starbucks. But, there were hardly any tea-specific outlets until recently. With places like Chaayos, Chai Point and Tea Trails, the trend of tea boutiques and tea lounges has started to pick pace in the metro cities but it’s yet to catch up in Guwahati.

However, Ankit is looking to set up small tea lounges and tea stores across India, aimed at delivering teas fast and fresh.

Starting up in Guwahati, where the early-stage start-up ecosystem prevails, wasn’t a cakewalk for the team. From finding a location to procuring the license, everything was very difficult compared to other startup ecosystems in the country.

“We faced difficulty in finding a location to operate from due to the high costs of property in the city. Further, since people from the region were not selling on e-commerce platforms until then, finding a good shipping partner was a task on its own.

We also could not find proper packaging facilities in Guwahati and we have to export all raw materials from other parts of the country,” Ankit emphasised on the problems Namhah faced as a start up. n

City

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

45% respondents believe that competence should be given priority over mother tongue for govt jobs Chetan Bhattarai

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he Asom Sahitya Sabha recently announced that knowledge of Assamese should be made compulsory for all government job applicants.

According to a statement by Dr Parmananda Rajbongshi, president of the Sabha, not knowing the official language should debar anyone from getting a job in Assam.

He further stated that the Sahitya Sabha won't let anyone get a job without the knowledge of the mother tongue or other regional Assamese languages. The literary organisation believes that Assamese identity and language is in danger and needs protection.

G Plus wanted to know what the citizens of Assam actually thought about the statement. The

G Plus Poll had a total of 1,023 re-

spondents and it had a very divided house.

Of the 1,023 respondents, 55% said that knowledge of Assamese or mother tongues used in Assam should be a must for all government job applicants. These respondents felt that Assamese language has been losing its hold in the state, as the recent census has revealed. Moreover, they quoted reports that in the past, refugees from Bangladesh had included their mother tongue as Assamese in the census. In the recent census, they have switched to non-Assamese as their mother tongue. According to these respondents there is a serious concern among the Assamesespeaking population, who can do nothing but helplessly wait and watch the state language getting destroyed slowly and systematically.

They largely blame the apathy of the state

government and also its apathetic citizens who have not been doing much to save the language.

A large number of respondents, 45%, were of the opinion that knowledge of Assamese language for government jobs should not be mandatory. A good chunk of these respondents have Assamese for their mother tongue.

Many respondents opined that for a job, qualification, eligibility and competence should be given priority rather than the knowledge of mother tongue.

Examples of IAS and IPS officers were given who undergo language training. Similar methods can be adopted to make the deserving candidate well-acquainted with the Assamese language in a short time.

Some respondents feared that there were reports that illegal Bangladeshi migrants have been learning the Assamese language to sneak into government posts.

Should the govt make knowledge of Assamese or local language mandatory for govt jobs as demanded by Asom Sahitya Sabha?

Yes

55% Votes

1023 No

45% This has deprived the indigenous citizens of their right to get government jobs. There have been many instances where it has been alleged that doubtful Bangladeshi nationals have found a way to get into electoral rolls, which even the government has confirmed.

Hence, the demand by Asom Sahitya Sabha that the knowledge of the local mother tongue for

Citizens want their food items to be tested on regular basis

T

he Health & Family Welfare Department of Assam recently put a 10day restriction on fish coming from outside the state. This step was taken after the State Public Health Laboratory, Assam confirmed presence of formalin in samples of fish that were taken from the city's Lokhra market.

There were reports of fish, mainly coming from Andhra Pradesh, containing formalin, a mortuary-embalming chemical, to preserve the fishes. Acting on this, Assam’s minister of state for health and family welfare, Pijush Hazarika, had earlier, on June 29, announced that the state will ban procuring fish from outside if the sample results came positive for formalin.

G Plus asked the citizens what they felt would be the outcome of the ban. Who would be affected more, the general public or the fish sellers? And whether, they

supported the ban.

Of the 1,119 respondents in the G Plus poll, 75% said that the ban would adversely affect the vendors whereas only 25% said that it would affect the common public.

What the G Plus poll revealed was that almost everyone unanimously wanted a ban on fish treated with any sort of chemical. The general public does not want to eat anything – may it be bananas or mangoes – laced with any chemicals. They would like the government to take strict action against those involved in such practices.

Just for the sake of saving the business of a few vendors, selling something which was carcinogenic to the larger population should be dealt with firmly, opined the respondents.

Fish or no fish, the respondents were for strict checks on fruits and vegetable markets by the authorities as these remain the

main items in their everyday plate. Citizens want it to be a regular practice and not just eyewash.

Many respondents wanted regular inspections on food items being procured from outside the state.

Respondents were sympathetic towards the local vendors and blamed the bigger players for this fishy business. They want that those supplying the fish should take the responsibility of providing fresh fish. The local vendors have no means to check whether the fish has been laced with formalin or not, believed the respondents.

Respondents also raised their voice against other fertilizers, like urea, that is being used to fatten the fish. The G Plus Poll respondents were aware of methods being used by breeders to augment the size and shape of the fishes being sold for commercial consumption. People

Vendors

75%

Votes

1119 Public

25%

Scan the QR code

seem to know what they were eating, but were helpless, as they have no means to find out the quality of the consumables.

Many were also of the opinion that the ban will unnecessarily give rise to price rise of other meat items as people will switch

Have a story to tell? Be a Citizen Journalist Get in touch with us, Contact/WhatsApp

8486002318/8486002320

government jobs is valid.

A few respondents said that the fabric of the Indian democracy should not be further tattered by such issues and jobs should be awarded solely on merit irrespective of cast, creed, language, religion and colour. If possible, jobs, where language is not a factor, should be given to rightful candidates, was their opinion. n

Who do you think will be more affected by the fish ban in Assam?

Lighter and faster

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9

to other options available.

They also pointed out that there were very few government employees involved with checking and testing food samples. Moreover, food testing kits were not easily available for the general public said a few. n

10

In The News

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Temporarily shut down Kareem’s counter punches with FIR against customer Nehal Jain jain.nehal@g-plus.in

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he owner of Kareem’s, Alen Ahmed, has lodged an FIR against its customers, Prasanna Saikia and Kongkona Medhi Saikia, for allegedly creating a scene in public and defaming the restaurant. A case (1944/18) has been initiated by the Dispur Police Station under section 294/506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

City-based restaurant, Kareem’s, was recently in the news for allegedly serving stale food to its customers. However, the management at Kareem’s had a different version of the story to tell.

According to the management, the customers had made the complaint after finishing their food and this has been well recorded on the CCTV cameras of the restaurant.

Speaking to G Plus, a member of the management of Kareem’s said, “According to the CCTV footage captured, the customer entered the restaurant along with five of his family members at 9:13 PM. They ordered starters initially about which they had no complains. Thereafter, they ordered dinner which they almost finished and complained 12 minutes later that the meat in

Kareem's restaurant is an upscale fine-dining eatery of Guwahati the Chicken Dum Biryani was stale - when only a single piece of meat was left. Yet, we offered to replace the dish but the customers declined. Instead, they called the police and media and refused to pay the bill, which had amounted to Rs 2,712.”

While the customer alleged that the restaurant does not

have Goods & Services Tax (GST) registration and doesn’t offer a printed bill, the restaurant showed G Plus a copy of their printed bill dated July 10 that carried the GST registration number. “Due to software issues, we were unable to provide the customers with a printed bill for a couple of days but we did provide them with a

Precursor: Customer files FIR against Kareem’s for serving stale food

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uwahati’s Prasanna Saikia took to Facebook recently to narrate his dining experience at Kareem’s restaurant in the city. In the post, Saikia alleged that when he visited Kareem’s on July 8 along with his family members for dinner, they were served stale meat.

Saikia’s wife, Kongkona Medhi Saikia, who is an advocate by profession, while speaking to G Plus said, “When we settled at our table we saw that one of spoons set on the table was unwashed and carried stains of leftover food. We then reported the same to the waiter who changed the spoon. Then we were served with the starters and the main course that included Murgh Musallam, Mutton Rogan Josh and Chicken Dum Biryani among others. The meat they served was completely rotten and was giving off a foul odour. We asked for the manager or owner of the restaurant to seek a clarification. To this, one of the waiters suggested that we make a

cordial mutual settlement on the issue. No manager or owner could be seen at the restaurant.”

The customer further alleged that the kitchen of the restaurant was in a filthy condition and meat pieces were kept on the floor, with fungus visible in the mutton. The customer then filed an FIR against Kareem's at Dispur Police Station and called the media immediately.

A case (1904/18) was registered by complainant Prasanna Saikia under section 270/273 IPC. Officials at the Dispur police station informed G Plus that the case is currently in its initial stage of investigation. The future course of action will depend on the test results that will come from the public health laboratory.

If the food samples are found to be of substandard quality, a charge sheet will be filed and a court case will be initiated.

In the Facebook post shared

by Prasanna Saikia, it has also been alleged that the restaurant neither had FSSAI clearance nor did they serve a proper bill with

The complainants - P Saikia and his wife the GST registration number printed. However, the restaurant owners, when approached by G Plus, said that the restaurant, opened on May 4 this year, received GST registration number 18AGVPA9246M3ZK on June 20.

Clarifying on not having FSSAI clearance, they further added that the management had confused the clearance from the state health department to be the same as food safety clearance. n

Printed bill showing GST No. normally issued by Kareem’s hand-written bill that carried our authorised stamp and signature,” informed the management.

The management further alleged that the whole ruckus created by the complainant could have been a pre-planned motive since the same customer had visited Kareem’s the previous day as well and had allegedly

complimented on the food.

After receiving of the complaint, food samples from Kareem’s were collected and sent for testing at the public health laboratory. The restaurant has been shut down temporarily until it gets clearance from the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). n

Ministry level checks keep city eateries on alert

A

team comprising the minister of state for health & family welfare, Pijush Hazarika, along with officials of the department, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and the State Public Health Laboratory (SPHL) have been making surprise visits to various hotels, milk vans, sweet shops and factories to check the quality of products being sold to customers. Yet, of late, there have been multiple instances when questions have been raised on the quality of food being served in the restaurants and hotels of the city.

In another incident that took place on July 9, 15 people including artists Ranjit Gogoi and Sitarani Hazarika allegedly fell sick after consuming food from a food truck named Street Za. The owner of the food truck, however, denied the claims that their food poisoning was caused by food from Street Za. Speaking to G Plus, state minister Pijush Hazarika said,

“There are certain problems with food sample collection since we cannot conduct the test on the spot and it generally takes around 15 days to get results from the laboratory. Necessary steps are being taken by the department to curb the problem of unsafe food and the Assam government has procured a testing kit from Germany that will be able to test food samples on the spot. It is expected to be delivered in a week.”

Enforcement officials of the Commissionerate of Food Safety recently ordered three hotels and restaurants of Guwahati to keep their shutters down for three consecutive days during a food safety drive conducted in Paltan Bazar area of the city. Three hotels and restaurants - Raja Hotel & Restaurant, Kamakhya Hotel and Green View Hotel were found not adhering to safety norms and were asked to keep their kitchens clean. Earlier, five city-based sweet shops were also issued similar notices. n

City

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

City boy clinches silver at World Karate Championships in Croatia Avishek Sengupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

H

e is his father’s son!

Hemphu Bongjang, beaming with a smile, a silver medal around his neck and a certificate in his hand, stands beside his father and mentor, Nagen Bongjan, general secretary of United Karate-Do Association (UKAA) of Assam.

The 11-year-old Karate champion from Guwahati returned to the city recently after clinching the silver medal in the World Karate Federation’s championship for Kids, Under-12 and Under-21 at Umang in Croatia defeating Bosnia’s Tarik Solkic in the Kata category.

Hemphu, the only participant from the northeast, was part of a 50-player team from India that took part in the championship in which at least 96 countries participated.

“After his victory, my son is the world’s second best player in his age group in Kata category, while he is the best from India,” a palpably proud Nagen, who also accompanied his son on the trip, told G Plus at his residence today.

On their arrival, a mood of festivity had set in their residence at Geetanagar; the residence also serves as a Karate training centre for about 40-50 Karate aspirants daily. Hemphu, however, feels that he could have played better and is determined to do so in future.

“This time, prior to the championship, I could not practice more as my school exams were around the corner. But in the next championship, which is the Commonwealth KarateDo Championship to be held at Durban, South Africa from November, I think I will clinch at least one gold medal,” a resolute Hemphu said.

Scan the QR code & Get the G Plus app

He trains for about 2 hours daily under his father’s supervision. To be eligible to participate in the championship, Hemphu had participated in the district, zonal and national championships where he clinched gold in each of the categories.

“Hemphu started practicing Karate when he was of the age of four. It’s now been eight years.

His first official championship was a state championship in 2011 when he won gold. This followed two unsuccessful attempts in the national championships in

2015 and 2016 and eventually a bronze in 2017. Last year itself, he participated in 10-12 youth cups and he has performed well,” Nagen said.

A part of the credit however goes to the UKAA too which, Hemphu said, has helped him to develop through the numerous inter-district championships that are held every year.

With no sponsors to support, funding however remains a stumbling block for Hemphu.

“In this championship, we went by spending our own money. After returning, we have received Rs 53,000 in total from various district associations and about Rs 45000 from the parents of the Karate students. The government will give Rs 1 lakh more. The association too gets Rs 1 Lakh every year. But most of the earning of the association is from fees. If the association was a bit more empowered, we could have participated in a lot many other championships,” Nagen added. n

11

New Guwahati water taps remain dry for years on end Akanksha Khound

S

carcity of water in Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Ward No 23, that mostly comprises the New Guwahati area of the city, has remained the main point of concern among the residents here.

It is not just the availability of water but residents have also complained that the little water they get has high turbidity. Many complained that the problem has come to such a point that a number of residents have resorted to paying for private tankers that is costing them a fortune.

“We have been paying for private tankers for the past 3-4 years. Even though we have reported the issue to the GMC, no steps have been taken for proper water supply in our locality,” complained Priyanka Kashyap, a resident here.

It may be mentioned here that the water supply problem in these areas has remained perpeual for over half a decade with little or no steps towards rectification taken so far.

“If no immediate measures are taken before the dry season, this issue is likely to create havoc in the locality,” another resident, Vikram

Kaushal said.

It is not that there is much wastage of water as the residents said that they virtually ration their water.

“We are aware of the water crisis in the entire city and the fact that water conservation will help make our environment better too.

But, with 20-30 litres water being delivered daily, I don’t think it is enough for a family of four or six despite the best of the conservation attempts. Still, we all are putting our best foot forward to save water,” Kulajit Saikia, who lives here with four other family members, said.

The local residents had their hopes stacked on the incumbent government that had mentioned solving the city’s water crisis in its poll manifesto where after it won the elections with a landslide victory in 2016.

When contacted, the councillor, Bijuli Kalita Medhi, asked the residents to be patient. Putting the blame on the former Congressrun-government, she said, “The projects were undertaken during their tenure and they had more than nine years to work on it. They had not done any work. Now, we have taken up their past burden and, as told to me by the GMDA, the works are being done on a war footing. Not immediately, but the problem will be solved at the earliest.” n

12

Ward Survey

G PLUS | Jul

Mathgharia vicinity in Ward 24 naturally blessed with minimal waterlogging G Plus reports on its survey conducted in Ward No 24 and finds the ward better placed in most parameters of living standards

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Positive Response

ater logging, a problem that is common to almost all the wards of the city, is not much of a concern for the residents of Ward No 24 that includes Narengi, Mathgharia and Geetanagar.

In a ward survey that is being conducted by G Plus in which 50 persons of a particular ward are asked questions on 14parameters of living standards, a majority of 30 respondents (60 per cent) in Ward No 24 said that water logging does not happen in their locality.

Off the rest 20 respondents, 10 (20 per cent) said that it happens in some lanes only while the rest said that water logging does occur in their lanes.

“Unlike other parts of the city, we don’t have much waterlogging.

But we are equally hit by this problem as our commutation gets disrupted due to flash floods in other wards. For example, if it rains too hard and we have to travel via Geetanagar, then Zoo Road gets inundated and if we choose the Chandmariroute,

Ward 24 is reasonably well lit with adequate streetlights | G Plus Photo Bamunimaidangets inundated.

But, thankfully, we don’t have to deal with water entering our houses. That way, we are blessed,” TanuzKashyap, a resident said.

76% Yes 24% No 0% Could be better

24% Smooth 64% Occassionally crowded 12% Pathetic

Drainage system

90% Yes 10% No 0% Needs improvement Ambulance, Health Services

30% Everyday 26% Twice a week 4% Once a week 0% Fortnightly 18% Irregular 22% Never Garbage Collection

The more flash flood prone Chandmari and Ward No 24 is separated by a hill in the middle.

While Chandmari and Bamunimaidan are at the

20% Good 40% Average 38% Bad 2% Pathetic Road Condition

90% Yes 0% No 10% Needs improvement Transport Connectivity

receiving end, Mathgharia and Geetangar are protected from this woe due to its natural location.

“The hill slope is gentler on the Chandmari side, while it is

20% Yes 60% No 20% In some lanes Water Logging issues

60% 4% 12% 24% Street Lights

30% Sometimes 6% Half an hour daily 4% An hour daily 6% More than an hour 54% No load shedding Load shedding

steep on this side. That might be the reason for less flash flood here. Also, there are wide RCC drains that run along the hills and fallinto the Bharalu at Zoo Road,” another resident, Kalpajyoti Das, said.

The residents have also expressed satisfaction regarding the drainage system in the ward with 38 respondents (78 per cent) rating the drainage network here upto the mark;the rest want it to be improved.

These apart, the survey showed that the ward has lesser woes than many other wards in the city with residents expressing satisfaction about 10 living standards out of the 15.(See chart) Lack of streetlight, another perennial problem in most of the parts of the city, is not a major factor here with 30 respondents (60 per cent) saying that the roads are well lit at night. Off the rest, 2 persons (4 per cent) said the roads are vaguely lit, 6 (12 per cent) said there is insufficient light and 12 others (24 per cent) said that there are no lights.

However, in a previous survey conducted by G Plus, it was found that lack of streetlights remained a worrisome problem, particularly in the Mathgharia area. And the problem continues here. n

Councillor Report

Avishek Sengupta avishek.sengupta@g-plus.in

48% Alway 28% Somet 24% Never

Councillo

48% Yes 14% No 28% Somet 10% Only d

Councillo

Ward Survey

14 - JUl 20, 2018

Eve-teasing and lack of security remains a perennial problem

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afety remains a major issue for the residents of Ward No 24, especially in Mathgharia area where danger lurks due to insufficient streetlights and hooliganism of drunken truck drivers.

In the survey, more than half the residents – 26 persons (52 per cent) – said that there is no proper police patrolling or security arrangement in the ward.

Mathgharia, located in the area 24 A, is one of the busiest routes for vehicles carrying goods into the city.

Besides goods carrying vehicles that enter the eastern part of the city from the national highway through VIP Road and Mother Teresa Road, several oil tankers of the refinery also remain parked in the Mathgharia area.

Residents complained that a perennial disturbance is the pollution arising from the unloading of goods from the vehicles.

Eve teasing has been a common phenomenon in the area although other criminal activities have not yet been reported. “The only activity is among the truck drivers here at night. People from this area go to other parts of the city to work and return at night between 9 to 10 pm.

While returning, the women especially feel insecure due to the presence of these trucks and the drivers. We have instructed our wives and daughters to

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Public cooperation required to solve security problem: Councillor

C Trucks perennially parked at Mathgharia | G Plus Photo reach back home before 8 pm,” a resident,GautamBaishya said.

Another resident, Simanta Hazarika, alleged that the trucker drivers have converted the road into a “roadside bar.” “Every night, below a streetlight that isn’t working, the truck drivers sit together and start drinking.

Earlier, the interceptors used to make rounds in this area and these drivers would disappear.

But now, they have managed to dodge them too, and thus, it has become a roadside bar for them,” he said.

Karabi Das, a housewife who lives in the same area, added that youths were getting hooked to

different kinds of addictives in the narrow and dark corners of the street.

“After 9:30 pm, youths would get together and indulge in several kinds of addictions. And it is quite natural to happen. When they see people drinking every day, they would also feel like doing it and thanks to darkness around, there is nothing to stop them,” she said.

While safety remains a major issue, the residents also complained that the ward lacks recreational areas, parking spaces, public toilets and like most other wards, is lacking in potable water supply. n

ouncillor PareshKalita points out that he had taken several steps, but the truckers somehow manage to come back every time.

But he also mentioned that a part of the blame goes to the residents of Mathgharia who had refused to install streetlights under the GMC’s scheme, Project Jyoti, some time ago.

“We had approached the residents several times and held meetings to make them understand the benefits but they did not opt for it,” he said adding, “By the time, the residents understood the project; all the streetlights were being set up in other parts of the city.”

“The rest of the ward has proper streetlights thanks to this project.

Only this area lacks streetlights.

Finding a darker place to park, the truckers too gather there. We have launched numerous drives to clear them out.But every time, they come back again,” Kalita added.

HesaidthattheformerGuwahati Development Department minister,HimantaBiswaSarma, had also assured that the problem would be resolved and the department is mulling an alternative route for the trucks to enter the city.

He said that he had already

Councillor Paresh Kalita apprised the transport and traffic departments regarding this menace.

While post this complaint, the traffic department has increased the extent of patrolling at night, the transport department seems to be at a loss regarding any solution.

“The transport department had said that these trucks bring goods to the rest of the city and it is essential for them to avail parking in this area. I had suggested that the trucks should be parked in our area only after 12 midnight and they replied saying that they would examine the matter,” Kalita said. n

Concentrated Area: Mathgharia (24 A) Ward No: 24 Population of the Ward: 78,000 Voter Population: 36,700 Population of Mathgharia: 11,750 Ward Councillor: Paresh Kalita

ys

times

or in Community Works

times

during election

or Interaction

100% Yes 0% No Do you know Councillor?

0% Excellent 40% Satisfactory 60% Under performing 0% Poor Councillor Performance

Negative Response

Survey conducted by Priyanka Baroi

26% Yes 74% No Parking Spaces

0% Yes 100% No Public Toilets

60% Yes 40% No Water Supply

18% Yes 64% No 18% Sometimes Pest Control Measures

20% Very secured 20% Secured 8% Needs more security 52% No security Law and Order

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No orchids for the elderly

he philanthropy that Guwahatians often indulge in is laudable; it is a manifestation of the large heart that the city possesses. So, the moment now, if not ever, is apt to bring to focus a situation that deserves a colossal philanthropic gesture from anyone who might care in easing the situation of an old-age home that is barely managing to hobble along with its 60 odd elderly inmates who have no other place to call their home.

Mothers Old Age Home, situated at Jyoti Nagar in Bamunimaidan, is a congested two-storeyed structure that has been taken on rent. It is home to the abandoned elderly and is managed by two crimsonhearted youngsters, Utpal and Monika. While sheer happiness pervades the atmosphere here, the elderly, all aged above 70 with some as old as perhaps 100, are totally oblivious to the problems plaguing the establishment. As they should be! The home is facing serious issues and the most vital, among all others, is eviction.

While the house owner cannot be faulted or decried for his intention to evict his tenants which, after all, is within his rights, the condition of the old

age home could have been elevated to a better situation than what it is facing now. Last heard, it is facing acute water shortage which again is usually purchased from private sources. A fair number of the residents are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and at their advanced age, they are as helpless as new born babies. Yes, they have to be kept constantly draped in diapers. All these do not require any great imagination to understand the daily struggle that is going on within the confines of the home. In fact, the water shortage is so acute that serving the morning tea is often rendered impossible; washing diapers is a luxury.

Given these facts, the social work being done by Utpal and Monika deserves nothing less than the greatest humanitarian award. And it is just appalling that there is nothing within the schemes of the government that could alleviate the plight of the abandoned elderly of the city. Rest assured, it is only through private philanthropy that this serious issue can be addressed; these most lovable aitas and kokas need a permanent residence. Can anyone please help?

Swapnil Bharali Editor

A Gold for us khar khuas

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ima Das, the name now every Indian should be proud of. This homegrown athlete has now taken Assam to the world, with a gold medal finally in the bag at an international track event. The sun seems to be shining on Hima Das. Or are we celebrating too early?

This has taken India a long time despite several possible cases making headlines in the past. What is more worrisome is that Hima’s story, like most Indian athletes, is filled with hardships and challenges to acquire basic services for a holistic training.

Clearly, athletes here lack a basic support system, both in terms of coaching and with training infrastructure.

Athletes like Hima should not be subject to fighting for their daily needs where they are trying to make ends meet.

In fact, their potential and talent should be nurtured so that all of their attention and energies are focused on getting the next medal, and the one after that. Unless that support infrastructure is put in place, we cannot produce a Hima at every world event.

This of course still ignores the fact that the sporting federations in the country are riddled with politics, favoritism and lack/siphoning of funds.

Two things should be the takeaway from Hima’s victory; one, it is time to clean and rev up the infrastructure at the earliest if India aims to win more medals. Two, when are the government’s grassroots programs actually going to yield results? Is there any program currently underway and are there any talents being scouted? Are the private players in this sector doing enough? Somebody needs to find answers to these questions…

Sidharth Bedi Varma

India – a perpetually ‘developing’ nation

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otwithstanding its cultural superiority ingested through manifold experiences across centuries and the ability to withstand change continuously yet embosom new civilizations, India still languishes as a developing nation. A country that is the seventh largest in the world, has the second largest human resources, the world's 3rd largest standing army, a country that propels satellites into space, whose “Yoga” & spiritual way of life have emerged as the greatest healer in modern times, a nation that sends Mars orbiters at a cost lesser than an average Hollywood movie, doesn’t yet find itself in the league of developed nations.

Isn’t it intriguing to know why such an ancient country with such enormous potential, still struggles to find its rightful place among the developed nations?

As the country liberated itself from British control and embraced democracy in the last century, little did it know that several pernicious seeds had already been sown by the time the British left, and which would soon enlarge into massive trees of self-destruction acting as major impediments to the country’s development in the years to come. Let's discuss some of the major factors: • Poverty: Poverty has been a major hindrance in India’s quest to be a developed nation.

70% of the country lives in rural areas in conditions that have seen little or no improvement since independence. And sadly, poverty is co-related with other social problems like illiteracy, over-population, malnutrition, unemployment, homelessness etc.

It’s all linked together in a vicious circle thriving on each other.

• Corruption: From schools to the parliament, corruption

permeates the length and breadth of India. It has become a part of our system in a manner that it’s impossible to spend a day without some experience of it. Corruption has eroded the institutional capacity of governments as procedures are disregarded, resources are misused and public offices are traded like household items crushing democratic values like trust and tolerance.

• Religion: Religion has been more of a divider in this country than a unifier. And the reason for this is not just the people who follow it but also the unwanted political interference that has always existed and inveigled people whether educated or illiterate as per their convenience.

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sn’t it intriguing to know as to why such an ancient land, a country with such enormous potential, still struggles to find its rightful place among the developed nations?

• Population: If there could be one single factor that has played the most significant role in decelerating India’s development march, it has to be its over-population. For a country that was ripped off all its treasures and wealth by the erstwhile British rulers, feeding its hungry and ever-multiplying population was always a Herculean task. The supply and demand equation has always been highly unbalanced, the latter far exceeding the former thereby creating irreversible imbalances almost in every sphere of living.

• Illiteracy: India has the highest population of illiterate adults in the world at 287 million. Illiteracy in India is more or less due to the different forms of disparities that exist in our society like imbalances in gender, income, states, caste, technology etc. Even more worrying is the fact that illiteracy is directly linked to other social evils like poverty, child labour, child marriage, unemployment,

rKaziranga National Orchid Park

O pinion Subhasish Das

social crimes etc that should ideally have no place in a developed society.

• Caste system: The division of society into so many castes and sub-castes is sinful as it doesn’t allow upward mobility for persons belonging to the lower strata in society and is replete with gross inequality and injustice. Not just this, it has made a mockery of democracy and its values as people in this largest democracy vote on the basis of caste and religion most often overlooking merit, resulting in unfair selection of candidates throughout the country.

• Terrorism: Be it Pakistan-sponsored, Maoist-sponsored or north-east insurgency, terrorism has slowed down the country’s development in more ways than one. A major portion of the country’s GDP gets diverted towards bolstering defence capabilities that could otherwise have been directed towards other development activities. A terrorist attack, in any part of the country has significant impact on the economic growth, investments, overall expenditure, not to mention the safety and security of the general people.

• Brain drain: India has failed to hold back its talented youth and skilled workforce from migrating to developed nations. This has been a significant reason for the country’s non-development. The mammoth population, the iniquitous reservation system and the insane cut-offs for admission to top Indian institutes/colleges/ universities that deny enrolment to even the deserving candidates, all play their part. Besides, better work opportunities, better pay packages, high quality of life and facilities tempt most of the students who go abroad to stay back in their host country thus triggering a prodigious amount of brain drain from India.

Well, challenges of this complexity and magnitude cannot be solved by governments and ministries alone. To find out a solution to these issues, a collaborative approach that includes business leaders, members of civil society and academia, youth groups and social entrepreneurs as well would be required. n

Letter to the Editor

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verybody knows that there is no credit in destruction. Instead of creation, the present state government is going to dismantle the magnificent Kaziranga National Orchid Park on the plea of recovering government land. Is it justified? “NO” is the answer. The government should opt for constructive activity instead of “Kalapaharian Destruction.” The general public of the state do demand that status quo be maintained in respect of the Orchid Garden which belongs to the people of Assam and it is a treasure indeed. Vox populi vox dei.

Nichi Raj Kamal Khanapara, Guwahati – 22.

In Focus

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Sankalpajit Hazarika Theatre director, producer

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enowned theatre directorproducer, Sankalpajit Hazarika of Hengool Theatre is a recipient of the Best Director award at the Udyaman Bhraymaman 2nd Mobile Theatre Awards for Boliya Droupadi.

Hailing from Jorhat, Assam, Sankalpajit has produced groundbreaking plays in his career spanning over a decade.

After the success of his first play Astapath, he went on to produce Soku, Jhankar and Boliya Krishna, among others.

Sankalpajit, after completing his schooling from Don Bosco School Jorhat, moved to Guwahati to pursue higher secondary education from Swadeshi Academy, Gauhati University. He then went on to graduate in computer application from Bangalore University. Later, while studying post graduation in computer application (MCA), he was simultaneously working at a software firm based in Bangalore which he had to quit soon enough.

Born to renowned theatre personalities, Late Prasanta Hazarika and Late Ila Kakoty, the Assamese entertainment

industry has always been close to Sankalpajit’s heart. Married to Anindita Hazarika, Sankalpajit is a father of two.

“Before I started my school life I, along with my parents, used to move with Hengool – the theatre that was actively run by them at that time. But once I started going to school, I could never get find time to move around with them.

Hence, I was never practically involved with theatre life when I was young,” Sankalpajit told G Plus about his association with Hengool theatre.

He got actively involved in theatre when his mother (then coproducer of Hengool Theatre) was in an advanced stage of cancer post the untimely demise of his father. “Hengool theatre, for my family, has never been a business.

Rather, it is a part of the family and I couldn’t think of anything apart from taking up its responsibility,” Sankalpajit expressed.

Belonging to a family of eminent theatre and film personalities, Sankalpajit constantly feels pressurised to meet the audience’s expectations and carry forward the legacy but he says that this pressure is what

keeps him going, pushing him to perform better and bring further glory.

The young and dynamic Sankalpajit has always tried to keep the essence of natural acting in his plays, as intended by his father. He also continues to produce premium plays featuring the best of artists and constantly introducing new innovations.

Further, he has introduced writers, actors and musicians from the film industry to the mobile theatre industry.

Among all the plays that Sankalpajit has been associated with, ‘Boliya Krishna’, being his directorial debut holds a special place in his heart. He says, “All my production works are special to me but what makes Boliya Krishna special is that it was my first directorial attempt and it turned out to be a major hit.”

Speaking to G Plus about the current scenario of the Assamese mobile theatre industry, Sankalpajit said, “Mobile theatre is one of the most unique industries of Assam. But currently, there is an excess of theatres in Assam. This is leading to failure of many theatres and production

of poor quality plays which are disappointing the audience.”

He further added that the double stage concept is exclusive to the Assamese mobile theatre and while mobile theatres are running in other Indian states like West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam’s is the largest.

Commenting on the lobby system in the mobile theatre industry, Sankalpajit told G Plus that every theatre has its own dynamics, problems and achievements, which have to be taken care of by its producer.

“Lobby or not, I take my own decisions to run my theatre, not anybody else’s,” he says.

Talking to G Plus about the problems that filmmakers from the region face, Sankalpajit said, “The main problem that our film industry is facing is that of financial crisis and the lack of proper training institutes in the region. In order to encourage and enhance the budding talents and ensure better production, more training institutes are the need of the hour.”

He says that the

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soul of any play is its script. While a director puts life into the script and artists give character to it, the script should be the main thrust of a play. All other aspects like music and lights come thereafter.

Sankalpajeet is currently working on three plays for the season of 2018-19 – Mahaveer by Abhijeet Bhattacharjee, Bandookor Kobita by Rajdweep and Meerabai by Himangshu Prasad Das.

Dist Admin bans sale of fish from outside Assam for 10 days; local vendors express dissatisfaction on the ban as it would affect their livelihood. What does the Vox Populi say?

Moumita Goswami Use of chemicals should be banned. The step taken by district administration is totally justified as playing with the lives of people cannot be allowed. There should be a chemical test system before passing those fish to the retail market for sale. I’m happy that such step has been taken and I hope a drive like this is carried out on a regular basis.

Madhurya Kakati There are full time employees paid by the government to conduct regular tests. But they never do. These people should be sent to markets to conduct tests every day. Only then will the vendors stop selling these poisoned fishes. Daily checks and immediate jail if found adulterated. If something like is done, only then something will happen. These vendors have been selling fish for so many years and because there is no action we still find such fish in the market.

Strict steps like this time should be taken always if we really need to see better days. And not only fish, fruits and vegetables should be also checked as there are a lot of chemicals which we the common people have no idea about.

Brajmohan Lahkar I hope such inspections are carried out on a regular basis. Vendors will be affected but at least people will be safe from consuming carcinogenic fish. A good step has been taken and now at least people won’t fall sick after consuming such fish. It’s sad to see how the sellers are playing with the lives of people.

Kamal Sharma It’s not just about formalin. There are other ways to dupe people by even selling live local fishes. Formalin is a preservative but what about the urea used to make fishes bigger within weeks? What about toilets on top of ponds so that fishes get human excreta for food and the most common practice is to build a coop for hens on top of the pond so that fishes get bigger in no time by consuming the poop that has been released by hens as supplements. It’s really a horrible process. We think that we are eating local and live fishes, we need serious intervention!

Tapash Poddar Good job! Just want to say that people have been eating these fishes from the market but has anyone died? No! But it’s killing us from deep inside since this poisoning has started and one day we will die for sure because of the harm on our body going on for so long. So I want to ask why they acted so late when they actually knew that it is happening openly since a long time. The harm has already been done.

Samrat Barman The only way to live healthy and spare yourself the diseases is having your own agriculture, fishery. And I’m sure more than 90% of all kinds of vendors use some kind of harmful chemicals. We should actually avoid buying commodities from such vendors and work on something which will help us be safe or the government should take some action. Because banning fish for 10 days won’t help anyway as after that we will still go the market and consume it.

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Feature

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

When rationality becomes wholly irrational The author questions the rationale behind the government’s eviction decree to Akhil Gogoi’s Kaziranga National Orchid & Biodiversity Park over pretexts of encroachment

Bishaldeep Kakati Student, GU

D

uring prehistoric times or during the time man first evolved in this planet, he was not a social being but a nomad, roaming from one place to another. The concept of civilization was not known to him as a result of which, he didn’t develop any conjecture regarding absolute ownership of land. He was wild in a terra firma that was naturally quite rich. However, with each passing day, man started extrapolating the main concepts of survival in this land, by wanting an exact periphery for his residence and garden, peaceful and salubrious conditions of survival, along with the power of freehold of his land. Thus, his ideas and notions developed gradually, and with it, he wanted a nonchalant civilization to subsist, which was again not sequestered from healthy inter civilization associations. But the matter of the fact is that as humans started evolving from one generation to another, their needs and demands along with the concepts of civilization also widened, and thus with it they became heavily dependent on the natural world. And to fulfill their never ending desires, humans started destroying nature continuously, without even realizing the fact that their acts would one day construct their own graveyards.

However the good news is that humans have slowly started realizing their own mistakes and in order to compensate for the same, they have started planting more and more trees and have also adopted numerous ways to preserve the nature in order to maintain the equilibrium.

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hen the park is also holding 500 varieties of orchids, fruits, flowers, herbs, a unique rice museum, a water body with indigenous fishes, weapons and artifacts of the Gorkha Community etc, then destruction of it would mean destroying a biodiversity hotspot.

File shots from the Kaziranga National Orchid Park of Akhil Gogoi The above scrupulous deliberation is intentionally done in order to bring to notice two transparent facts. The first thing deals with the fact that human beings, because of their ceaseless desires, have completely destroyed nature; and the second fact is that human beings have realized their mistakes and are now trying their best to preserve nature in every possible way. However, in the path of preservation of nature, sometimes even the rationalist cadre seems to act in such an irrational way that even in the time when planting and preservation of greeneries have become an absolute need, they are more concerned about evicting those places that are the storehouse of greeneries on the ground of illegal holding.

The entire thing started when the Bokakhat district administration, on 5th July last, issued an eviction notice against Akhil Gogoi’s world famous Kaziranga National Orchid & Biodiversity Park alleging that the park had encroached six bighas of government land. The notice also ordered Akhil Gogoi to vacate the land within 7 days, or else the authorities would themselves carry out the eviction drive. And as soon as this news circulated, it created a great deal of hue and cry among the people.

But now it’s time to analyze the

broader picture of it.

If we look at this entire episode through the perspectives of law, then we will find that the eviction notice issued by the government is legally correct, since the additional six bighas of land, till where the park extends, is not registered in Akhil Gogoi’s name.

And the known fact is that the earlier government had allotted only 22 bighas of land for the park and not 28 bighas (the total area of the park). So the conspicuous fact is that the six bighas of land definitely falls under government holding.

However another information revealed the fact that the particular six bighas of land was held by the Gorkha Community (for not less than 50 years), and the same community donated the land to Akhil Gogoi for societal purposes.

And as per the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, a person assuming charge of any estate of a proprietor, landholder or any share therein as a co-proprietor, co-landholder or as a manager can apply for registration. So the baffling question is that: even after Akhil Gogoi qualifying and applying for registration of that piece of land, why has he been deprived from the same by the government?

Further Section 5.2(iii) of the Land Laws of Assam, clearly stipulates that preferences

should be given to cooperatives of indigenous unemployed youth when it comes to land allotment. And the park which is run under the cooperative system has already been a source of employment for about 100 persons.

Along with this, Section 5.3 of the Land Law mentions that the maximum ceiling for allotment of land for special cultivation is four hectares in case of individuals and aggregate of the holdings of the number of members in case of registered cooperative society.

Thus, if we go by this section, then it means that the park is entitled to more than 28 bighas of land.

Furthermore, when the park is also holding 500 varieties of orchids, fruits, flowers, herbs, a unique rice museum, a water body with indigenous fishes, weapons and artifacts of the Gorkha Community etc, then destruction of it would mean destroying a biodiversity hotspot as well as a unique place that has created a distinct identity of its own.

Added to this, the park has also acted as a preventive measure against global warming and its establishment area is neither disturbing a Village Ground Reserve (VGR) nor a Professional Grazing Area (PGR). At a time, when 150 acres of land can be given by the government to private industries like Patanjali, that even

disturbed the natural habitat of elephants, killing a few, then the government should not step back either when the talk comes about allotting only 6 bighas of land for an environmental-friendly orchid park.

Moreover, the park, over the years, has also become an integral part of the tourism sector of Assam, generating huge amount of revenue. Thus an orchid park of such importance should not be evicted because of probable personal acrimony, political dissensions or antagonism.

Thus, rather than giving a plethora of reasons and excuses for eviction of the orchid park, the government should take innovative steps to preserve the naturally rich park. And by reconsidering its decision of eviction, the government will not only create benefits for it and the people, but also will receive applauses and praises from the burgess. Therefore, for the greater benefit of all, the government should quash its decree of eviction and allot the six bighas of land for the purpose of the orchid park. But amidst all these, the one question that has been lingering around the citizens’ mind for quite a long while is: what benefit will the government actually get by evicting the Kaziranga National Orchid and Biodiversity Park? n

Trotter

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

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Indian man having world's longest Newlyweds narrowly nails clips them after 66 years escape falling tree branch during wedding video shoot

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hridhar Chillal, an octogenarian from India with the world's longest fingernails measuring over 9 metres, has finally cut his nails. The 82-yearold is a Guinness World Record holder for having grown the nails on his left hand for more than 66 years. In a nail clipping ceremony yesterday, Chillal finally cut his nails. He was flown from Pune to New York for this ceremony by Ripley's Believe It or Not museum - where his nails will be immortalized.

It is estimated that the nails have a combined length of 909.6 centimetres. Chillal's longest single nail is his thumbnail, measuring 197.8 centimetres.

He had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2016 for having the 'Longest Fingernails on a Single Hand Ever'. His fingernail exhibit will be unveiled at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum at Times Square, New York.

Since being shared yesterday,

the video has collected over 1.3 lakh views and hundreds of comments.

(Source: theindianexpress)

Traffic police use ‘Yama’ to warn motorists against violations

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mace-wielding “Yamaraja,” (God of Death), attired in his traditional golden dress, intercepted motorists near the Town Hall in Bengaluru and warned them he would visit their homes if they flouted traffic rules.

The Halasuru Gate traffic police roped in “Yamaraja” as their brand ambassador to drive home the message of the dangers of not wearing a helmet, driving recklessly and other violations.

“We are observing July as road safety month. As part of it, we are conducting various programmes such as lectures in schools & colleges and street-plays,” Deputy Commissioner of traffic police, Anupam Agrawal said.

“Also, we thought of using the character ‘Yama’ to send the message across that if you disobey the traffic rules, Yama will come to your home,” he said.

The actor, who stopped motorists and reminded them of the importance of sticking to road rules, was Veeresh - a theatre artiste performing Hindu mythology-based dramas.

After intercepting mostly young motorists, Yama waved his mace in the air warning them that he would not spare them.

In some cases, he rode the pillion on those motorcycles that were driven recklessly.

The campaign aims to raise awareness among pedestrians and motorists about the importance of traffic safety rules. According to traffic police, the public awareness drive helped in minimising accidents.

Till June-end this year, 2,336 accidents have been reported, of which 330 were fatal, they said.

By last Decemberend, 5,064 accidents had been reported, of which 609 were fatal. In 2016, 7,506 accidents took place of which 754 were fatal.

(Source: ndtv)

English bulldog named world’s ugliest dog dies at age 9

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sa Zsa’s 15 minutes in the limelight are over: the copiously drooling English bulldog named the World’s Ugliest Dog just weeks ago has died. The nine-year-old canine died in her sleep, owner Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minnesota said. “I’m in shock still,” Brainard said adding, “I haven’t even processed her winning and fame.”

The dog won the ugliness title at a contest last month in Petaluma, California.

Brainard said then that the dog slobbered a lot because it had trouble keeping its tongue in its mouth. Its upper teeth were almost horizontal and it also had a pronounced under-bite.

(Source: ndtv)

W

edding videos usually show breathtaking ceremonies and loved-up couples talking about their fairytale romance that make you go “aww”. For starters, it is titled “Newly-weds Near Death Experience” on Facebook.

Posted by Freddy Hernandez Photography & Media, the video shows the bride and groom almost being hit by a huge branch as they spoke about their love story. Talk about a wedding to remember!

Newlyweds Cheyenne and Lucas Kopeschka were finishing up an interview for their wedding video when the bizarre incident happened. The couple, talking lovingly about each other, suddenly had their attention diverted to a sound above them. It turned out that it was the sound

of a cracking tree branch.

The video shows the couple dart forward in the nick of time as the branch falls right where they were sitting. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident.

“This couple’s love will forever be stronger than that tree...” says the Facebook caption posted along with the video, which is the teaser of the wedding.

While the couple got married on June 30, the teaser of their wedding was shared on Facebook on July 3. It has since collected quite a few reactions.

“Insane!!! That’s crazy. So glad they are ok, it was a matter of seconds omg! I’m in shock,” said one Facebook user. “OMG! Thank God they are ok and beautiful wedding video,” said another.

(Source: cnninternational)

Burning bird falls down from wire, sets 17 acres of land on fire

I

n an unfortunate incident in Germany, a bird caught fire from an electric cable, fell down and burned 17 acres of land. The incident took place in the coastal city of Rostock. According to local reports, the fire began in a dry field and soon spread to nearby railway power lines that began to short circuit. The winds also began to spread it towards the residential districts of Riekdahl and Kosterbeck, and it took a crew of 50 firemen and volunteers, along with a helicopter, to control the fire.

The local fire department wrote on Facebook that according to initial estimates, 7 hectares of land were destroyed by the fire.

However, people were never in danger as the fire was brought

under control.

Though the extent of property damage is still unclear, nobody was injured in the incident. This is not the first time that something bizarre has led to a fire. In March this year, three American students in Italy tried to cook pasta without water and set fire to their apartment.

(Source: cnbc)

18

Review

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, etc Director: Dr Peyton Reed

A e w Movi vie e R

Ant-Man and the Wasp

sequel to Marvel's smallest hero's first adventure, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a rare sequel that improves on the first film in every single way: endearing characters, a lot of jokes and some truly unique sequences of Ant Man’s size shifting abilities. While you may want to overlook the scientific aspects of the adventure film, the pace of the plot and the extraordinary action pieces make for a thoroughly amusing and fun ride. San Francisco has never looked better!

The movie is packed with one of the greatest car chase sequences in recent times, quicker, bigger and funnier than the first film, keeping the audience hooked and spending a great time for two hours in the

theatre.

Paul Rudd returns to reprise in his Ant-Man role with a new villain character, new associate and some surprising teammates in the new film for Marvel's AntMan and the Wasp.

Unlike the bizarrely dull ‘AntMan’ feature that came and went three years ago, this one tangles us up optimistically, almost right away, in its high-tech screenplay and witty dialogs, never loosening its grip.

Rudd smashes the record once again; he has never been funnier. It is all set up really nicely leading up to the next Avengers film and even though it is not tough to guess how Ant Man is going to face Thanos and thrash him, the wait for the inevitable moment until next year is going to be excruciating. n

Starring: Diljit Dosanjh, Tapsee Pannu, Angad Bedi Director: Shaad Ali

M

aking biopics is trending right now in the Bollywood industry.

After numerous biopics like Sanju, M.S Dhoni, Sachin, Dangal, we are now getting to watch Soorma, a film based on legendary Indian hockey player Sandeep Singh. It is the second Bollywood film on hockey after Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chak de! India’.

Sandeep’s character is played

by Diljit Dosanjh in the film. The movie portrays real events where Singh was hit by a stray bullet while travelling in Shatabdi Express and had gotten paralysed. However, it is inspiring to see how through his strong determination and perseverance, he made a comeback into the Indian Hockey team after two years, and goes on to bring more accolades to Indian hockey.

Under Sandeep’s captaincy,

India went on to win the 2009 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and even qualified for the 2012 Olympics.

But the moment Soorma starts looking like a sports film, director Shaad Ali changes the spotlight of the movie on a desi, hurt and heartbroken hockey player’s lad-to-adult journey. Sandeep’s hockey never takes the front seat in the movie.

In one scene, we see Diljit lying powerless in a hospital bed and on the lookout for help in the middle of the night where he ends up wetting his bed. Cut to a few scenes, he is scoring goals against Pakistan internationally. Diljit’s smiling, turban-clad, zealous sportsman character will win your heart. Pannu’s character, also a national-level hockey player, is the voice behind the narrative and the reason for Sandeep Singh’s drive in the film. n

Gadget Review

Infinix Hot 6 Pro

I

t's been almost a year since the online-only smartphone brand Infinix came to India.

It has dished out some pretty exciting offers so far along with the launch of a new model called the Hot 6 Pro, whose main target is users who are looking for a large display for a decent price of Rs. 7,999.

Infinix Hot 6 Pro design

The matte finish of the back of this phone offers a good grip, and doesn’t attract fingerprints too much. It is available in Matte black, Magic Gold and Bordeaux Red colour options. The best part of the phone is of course the display, which measures 5.99 inches diagonally and has an HD+ resolution (720x1440). The power but-

ton on the Infinix Hot 6 Pro has a textured surface, making it easy to tell apart it from the volume buttons. At the bottom there's a 3.5mm headphones socket, a Mi-

Cinepolis Christian Basti 09435025808

Soorma 10:30 AM,

English, 3D 12:15 PM, 02:55

PM, 05:30 PM, 09:00 PM

Ant-Man and the Wasp, PM, 05:35 PM, 08:15 PM Soorma 12:35 PM, 03:25 PM, 06:15 PM, 09:05 PM Sanju 12:55 PM, 04:15 PM, 07:35 PM

Anuradha Cineplex Noonmati 0361 2656968

Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hindi, 3D 10:30 AM Ant-Man and the Wasp, English, 3D 02:45 PM Krodh - The Devil Inside, Assamese 12:45 PM Soorma 05:30 PM Sanju 08:15 PM

01:00 PM, 06:30 PM Ant-Man and the Wasp, English, 3D 12:30 PM, 03:00 Sanju 03:30 PM, 08:00 PM

PVR Cinemas Dona Planet 08800900009 Sanju 11:45 AM, 03:45 PM, 05:45 PM

Ant-Man and the Wasp, English, 3D 01:15 PM, 07:00 PM, 09:30 PM Soorma 03:00 PM, 09:00 PM

Galleria Cinemas HUB 09706989143 Soorma 10:00 AM, 09:00 PM Ant-Man and the Wasp,

English, 3D 12:35 PM, 06:05 PM

e w Movi vie Re

Gold Cinema Paltan Bazaar 09854066166 Soorma 11:00 AM, 05:00 PM, 08:00 PM Sanju 11:15 AM, 05:15 PM, 08:15 PM

Sanju 03:00 PM

Carnival Cinemas Beltola 098643 53627

Ant-Man and the Wasp, English, 3D 10:00 AM,

Teri Bhabhi Hai Pagle 02:00 PM Krodh - The Devil Inside,

12:20 PM, 03:25 PM Krodh - The Devil Inside,

Assamese 02:15 PM

Assamese 10:30 AM Soorma 01:00 PM,

Soorma cro-USB port, and a mono speaker. There’s a SIM tray on the left which supports two Nano-SIM cards and a separate microSD card (of up to 128GB).

The back of the Infinix Hot 6 Pro is not detachable, even though the design seems to hint otherwise. In the mobile box, you get a set of the usual accessories such as a Micro-USB cable, power adapter, case, screen guard, and SIM eject tool, but no headset.

Grande Cines Paltan Bazar 09854017771 Infinix Hot 6 Pro specifications and software

Infinix uses its own custom Operating System called Hummingbird XOS v3.2, which is based on Android 8 Oreo. The customized Operating System looks quite unlike the stock Android but thankfully, Inifnix hasn’t messed with the functionality too much.

It comes with a face recognition system for unlocking the phone, but it is time-consuming and only works under good lighting. If the light isn’t ideal, even the fill light from the front LED flash doesn’t work.

Infinix Hot 6 Pro performance, cameras, and battery life

The overall performance is strictly average. The interface runs quite efficiently most of the time, but there are some lags when you’re switching between apps.

Also, scrolling through heavy web pages in Chrome can get rough and apps take a little longer to load than usual, especially while playing games.

06:00 PM, 09:00 PM Sanju 02:45 PM, 05:45 PM, 08:30 PM

The model features a 13-megapixel camera and a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor on its rear. Focusing is fairly swift when lights are good, but you can get better results when you tap to focus manually rather than leaving it to auto-focus.

The Infinix Hot 6 Pro packs in a 4000mAh battery, which gives us a full day’s worth of usage on one charge. However, it takes nearly three and half hours to fully charge this phone.

Verdict

The Hot 6 Pro is definitely not one of the winning charms in Inflix’s portfolio. With all the centre of attention being on delivering a large display, the company seems to have ignored the other aspects of the phone.

The cameras are disappointing, the security features like face and fingerprint recognition are almost up to no good, and battery life, while decent, could have been better for atleast some video consumption and gaming. n

Entertainment

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

CD of ‘Geetimalika’ evergreen songs released

A

ll India Radio, Guwahati formally released a CD comprising 60 numbers of evergreen Assamese songs of the popular radio programme “Geetimalika.” The CD, the first of its series, was formally released at a function in the Vivekananda Kendra auditorium on July 6, Friday.

Popular songs have been sung by very eminent personalities like Dr Bhupen Hazarika, Dr Birendra Nath Datta, Birendra Kumar Phukan, Parvin Sultana, Dilip Sarma, Dipali Borthakur, etc. Lyrics of the songs

have been penned by legends like Jyotiprasad Agarwalla, Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Laxminath Bezbaroa, Parvati Prasad Baruah.

Prasar Bharati Chairman and writer, Dr A Surya Prakash, formally released the CD in the presence of a gathering that included a number of eminent artistes of the yesteryears.

Addressing the function, Dr Prakash termed the AIR Guwahati initiative a laudable venture which also reflected the overall responsibility and mandate of Prasar Bharati.

“It’s a unique initiative

towards preserving our diverse cultural heritage. Geetimalika has been a niche programme spanning seven decades that comprises compositions by a number of eminent artistes including singers, lyricists and composers,” he said.

He added that Geetimalika’s time-tested endurance was testified to by the connect it made to three generations of Assamese music lovers, something unique for any radio station in the world.

Mitali Chatterjee, Deputy Director General of AIR Guwahati, Dilip Kumar Das, Station Director, PP Bhattacharya, ADG (E) NEZ Guwahati, Deven Basumatari, Advisor ADG (P), Dhatwalia DG PIB, Mitali Chatterjee, DDG (E) AIR Guwahati, RC Boro Director (E) and DK Srivastava, DDE were present among the invited dignitaries.

Mitali Chatterjee, in her welcome speech, said that it was a difficult task to choose sixty songs from among the many gems preserved in the AIR Guwahati archives and which had been holding the audience for generations. Dilip Kumar Das also addressed the gathering.

Assam boy clears audition for singing reality show

A

nimesh Sarma from Rangiya in Assam has been selected to be a part of singing reality show Dil Hai Hindustani Season 2. Animesh, 24, cleared the recently held auditions to embark on his journey of becoming a professional singer.

What sets Animesh apart from other participants on the show is that he stammers while conversing.

Animesh began stammering when he was around five years of age but that didn’t stop him from dreaming big. Every member of his family is musically inclined. His aunt, a student of Nilima Khatun, was a very good singer in the midseventies who lost her life during the Assam Movement. His mother, Chhabi, takes classical music classes at home and his father

teaches music in a school founded

by Animesh’s uncle, Ashish Sarma.

Animesh’s brother Arghadeep is a good tabla player.

On July 8, Sunday, Animesh performed the song ‘Aaj Ibaadat’ from the movie Bajirao Mastani and left everyone in the audience as well as the judges spellbound.

While he seemed nervous before the performance, he performed really well.

A Visharad (expert) in classical music from Bhatkhande Sangeet Vidyapith in Lucknow, Animesh began training in music under his uncle Ashish who launched the Sargam Kala Niketan in Rangiya.

Earlier, Animesh has also auditioned for Voice of India, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Bangla and participated twice in Indian Idol.

Judged by singer Sunidhi Chauhan, rapper Badshah and music composer Pritam Chakraborty, Dil Hai Hindustani Season 2 is scheduled to be telecast on Star Plus every weekend at 8 PM. The show is hosted by actor and dancer Mukti Mohan and the dancer Raghav who is well known for his comedy stints.

19

Guwahati band among top 9 finalists for Red Bull Spotlight

D

eathcore band Jammers ‘Graveyard’ from Guwahati, has made it to the top 9 finalists of the Red Bull Spotlight. It is a nation-wide programme to identify and support top talents across various fields, which kicked off this year with a band hunt. Competitions were held in nine cities across the country – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Goa and Pune – with one band emerging victorious in each city.

Each of the nine finalists was sent into a studio in their city to record one song and now soon it will be determined which is the best of the lot. For one month, all nine songs will be available to listen to and vote for, and at the end of this period, one band will be adjudged the national winner. The winning band will get the opportunity to record a full-length album at a professional studio, along with a number of other benefits, including a press kit – complete with a photo shoot and album art for their newly

recorded album.

At the end of the voting period, one winning band will be selected by a panel of judges from amongst the bands with the highest number of votes. The judges for this edition of Spotlight are music journalists Amit Gurbaxani and Anurag Tagat, head of programming for OML/ NH7 Weekender Debayan Deb, artist manager at Mixtape Anu Anna George and founder-partner of subculture think-tank 4/4 Entertainment and the non-profit Control ALT Delete Nikhil Udupa.

The nine finalists are heavy metal band Illucia from Bengaluru, singer-songwriter Surya Ganjoo from Pune, Hindi progressive/ alt rock band Last Minute from Mumbai, hard/alt rock band Drone from Kolkata, rock band Sword from Hyderabad, Deathcore band Jammers Graveyard from Guwahati, blues/rock band TNT from Goa, progressive/alt rock band Khalnayak from Delhi, and hip-hop/ soul band Amogh & The Homies from Chennai.

Sangeet Sattra celebrates golden jubilee

S

angeet Sattra, the pioneer institution of the Sattriya culture, celebrated its golden jubilee from July 8 to July 10 at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Panjabari, Guwahati.

Governor of Assam, Prof Jagdish Mukhi, was also present for the celebration. Speaking on the occasion, Mukhi praised the contributions by Sangeet Sattra for its revolutionary role in the promotion of Sattriya dance and for paving the way for its recognition as the 8th classical dance form of India by bringing it out from the confines of the Sattras.

Governor Mukhi, while addressing the gathering, took a well-de-

served bow at Sangeet Sattra’s founders and said, “It is for the devout role of these personalities that Sangeet Sattra, which was set up in 1967, has come to stage and has taken Sattriya dance to its current position.” He also said that there’s a dire need for our new generations to be aware of our glorious traditions and philosophy, and Sangeet Sattra is helping fill this void in a very powerful way.

The Governor also presented awards to the eminent scholars, Dr Sunil Kothari - Kathak maestro, Munna Lal Shukla - folk musician, director Prabhat Sarma and Sattriya exponent Hari Charan Saikia.

20

Fun

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Horoscope of the week While you might be making new connections and enjoying the conversations you’re having along the way, this week could have a more changeable side. This could be due to the solar eclipse in your money zone and its connection to powerful Pluto.

Delightful Venus moves into your sector of talk and thought on Monday, so the coming days can help to smooth over any difficulties you may be having with others. It can also be a great asset for networking and marketing your goods and services with a smile.

You could be ready to indulge in a spending spree as sultry Venus moves into Virgo and your money zone on Monday. If it’s associated with getting healthier, you are certainly on the right track. In addition, positive Jupiter in your home zone turns direct on Tuesday, which means if you have any plans involving real estate, the coming weeks can be a chance to put them into action.

With delectable Venus moving into your sign on Monday, your impulse may be to reach out to others, especially those you haven’t seen in a time. This might also be an opportunity to reinvent your image so that it better expresses your identity and personality and any related changes.

Delectable Venus, your ruling planet, moves into Virgo and your spiritual sector on Monday, which could inspire you to volunteer your time. You might feel moved to assist at charity events or help someone in need. You might also be eager to connect with people on your spiritual wavelength.

With lively Mercury in your career zone, this week and coming weeks can be an opportunity to showcase your expertise and let others know what you can do. At the same time, with desirable Venus moving into your social sector on Monday, this area of your life could have extra sparkle, with romantic opportunities in the offing, too.

Your sector of goals and career comes into focus on Monday as convivial Venus moves in. Her presence here could inspire you to take stock of available resources as you push forward with your plans. This can also be a very good influence for business in general, helping to smooth the way during negotiations.

This month could be quite intense in more ways than one, particularly with chatty Mercury in a deeply emotional sector of your chart for some time to come. Its presence here could encourage you to be curious about the deeper workings of your subconscious and what this might mean for you.

You and your partner or significant other could have a lot to talk about, but this can be a good thing and may help clear the air if necessary. Lovely Venus moves into your sector of shares assets, business, and intimacy, so getting closer to your partner could rekindle the flame of passion.

Where business is concerned, the presence of diplomatic Venus here can ease the way in negotiations.

Your love life looks positively glowing this month as sultry Venus moves into Virgo and your relationship zone on Monday.

Her presence here can add sweetness to your partnership and bring romance to new bonds. In addition, expansive Jupiter turns direct in your travel and exploration zone, making this a perfect time to book a vacation or plan a travel adventure.

Lucien Laurent is credited with which record at the Football World Cup?

2

Which is the only host country of the World Cup to have not qualified for the second round?

3

Which World Cup legend remains the only goalkeeper to receive the Ballon D’or in the history of the game?

curio-city

1

5

Who holds the record for being the youngest to score at the World Cup finals? (Hint: He is also the youngest hattrick scorer amongst other records)

6

Identify this footballer, the first captain to lift the World Cup in 1930.

Dr. Soubhadra Chakrabarty This quiz has been brought to you by Brain Jam, a property of Priya Communications

Non Sequitur By Wiley Miller

8 1 1 5 4 8 4 2 7 4 5 2 9 5 8 2 3 1 2 9 6 5 71 9 7 Thu 12-Jul-20189 Daily Sudoku: 4 2

2 7 4

5

2

1 7

6

91 1

9 6

6 4 5 91 3 2 7 5

7

very hard

6

Daily Sudoku: Fri 6-Jul-2018

very hard

3 last 6 4week 5 9 solution 2 7 1 8 8 1 2 7 6 3 9 4 5 4 8 93 71 57 1 8 54 63 96 22 3 7 49 86 94 2 5 26 81 17 53 2 8 5 9 1 5 3 1 8 7 69 74 32 46 6 4 78 25 62 4 3 91 15 78 39 1 4 9 7 3 1 4 8 3 2 85 26 59 67 5 2 27 93 36 6 4 17 48 85 91 8 6 65 52 71 9 1 38 92 43 74 6 Sudoku: 7 Thu 3 12-Jul-2018 1 9 4 5 2 very8hard Daily 4 9 8 2 5 7 3 6 1 Daily Sudoku: Fri 6-Jul-2018

very hard

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

Word of the week ullage noun [uhl-ij] the amount by which the contents fall short of filling a container, as a cask or bottle.

Crossword

4

Which player holds the record for being the oldest to receive the Golden Boot at the Football World Cup?

4

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

1. He scored the first goal in the history of the tournament in 1930 2. South Africa 3. Lev Yashin of the erstwhile Soviet Union 4. Davor Suker of Croatia in 1998 was 30 years old when he scored 6 goals to become the highest scorer 5. Pele, in 1958 at the age of 17 years 239 days 6. Jose Nasazzi of Uruguay.

curio-city

Sudoku

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2018. All rights reserved. (c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2018. All rights reserved.

Luscious Venus, your guide planet, moves into Virgo and your leisure sector on Monday, encouraging you to kick back and take time out to enjoy yourself. The coming weeks can be your chance to indulge in creative activities and enjoy some romantic outings. When it comes to the exchange of ideas, this week’s solar eclipse in your communication sector could inspire you to take a stand.

(c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2018. All rights reserved. (c) Daily Sudoku Ltd 2018. All rights reserved.

There could be plenty going on around you, yet you may be conscious of a need for change. This might be focused on your home situation, as well as your personal goals or career plans. With a solar eclipse in your domestic sector this week, you could sense certain tensions building. And with potent Pluto involved in the mix, powerful emotions could come to the fore as well.

Across

Down

1 American puma (6) 4 Long dissertation (6) 8 Toxic protein from castor oil plant seeds (5) 9 Flourish (7) 10 Run-down — filthy (7) 11 Feeling of listlessness (5) 12 Clumsy (3-6) 17 Bird — name (5) 19 Gymnast (7) 21 English blue cheese (7) 22 Yield to another’s opinion (5) 23 Refrain (6) 24 Non-stick coating (6)

1 Dead body (6) 2 Lacking good manners (7) 3 Declare invalid (5) 5 Trashed (anag) — most oppressive (7) 6 Group of geese in flight (5) 7 Be absorbed (4,2) 9 Game played with rackets (9) 13 Record of a meeting’s decisions (7) 14 Cheerless (7) 15 Rubbed out (6) 16 Rehearsal (3,3) 18 Perfect happiness (5) 20 Small biting fly (5)

Last week’s solution

Lifestyle

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

The effects of sunlight

V

aastu gives extreme importance to the sun and its rays. It is considered the prime source of energy for earth. The composition of sunlight is a combination of seven basic colours, i.e. violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red in the form of white light which is visible to us. These colours have different effects on human beings and animals.

There are also invisible colours like the ultra violet has shorter wavelength and the infra red has longest wavelength. UV rays can kill several bacteria and help our bodies in producing vitamin ‘D’. The infra red rays are very potent and they can increase heat. The intensity of the sunlight is much less from the East and the North but it is maximum at the South and the West where there are more infra red rays and their reflection from the ground.

It is very beneficial to expose our bodies to the early morning sunlight while an over exposure to sunlight at midday can cause serious damage to the skin and health. Observations have shown that it is most comfortable and beneficial to expose ourselves to the morning sunlight when it is not too hot for at least 15 to 20 minutes a day.

Since UV rays can kill the germs and keep the water purified, the water source, wells etc are preferred on the East and North sides of the

house. That is why more open space is suggested at north and east to receive more morning sunlight on the plot. Vaastu recommends that there should be no obstruction, tall trees, hills or compound walls on the north and east sides of the house. Houses which do not get enough sunlight should fix skylights on the roof or arrange for mirrors to reflect sunlight to fall inside the house through reflection.

on the South and West side, and the walls should be thicker to reduce the heat.

It is advisable to have the kitchen platform on the Eastern side, so that the morning sunrays can kill the germs in the kitchen counter and keep the food from spoiling. Also, the lady of the house will face the morning sun while cooking and thus benefit from the sun rays.

It is advisable to have tall trees on the South and West,

Of The Woods Whisper me a story Of a man walking through woods His bare feet on warm earth And his ragged face in a hood.

Sing to me his thoughts The life of his green eyes The mirth of his fingers And the peace in his smile.

Mumble to me the language That he spoke to old trees The sweet embraces he left To fragrant petals in the breeze.

Tell me a story Of the man of the woods More balconies, terraces and open spaces should be there in the East and North sides, again for the same reason as above.

And there should be more windows in the North and East to allow light into the house. But there should be fewer windows

to protect the house from the direct sunlight.

Who slept under starry nights And woke up to the truth.

Hemanta Kumar Sarmah Engineer, Businessman, Advanced Pranic Healer and Su Jok Acupressure specialist.

Sanjali Dixit

Salt and its medical aspects T

he chemical composition of edible salt is sodium chloride.

It may also have other constituents, especially minerals and additives depending upon the source from which it’s made.

The common salt is spotless white and is chemically treated to remove impurities. In this process, many minerals like calcium and potassium are removed. In our country, it is supplemented with iodine which helps prevent iodine deficiency. On the other hand rock salt is pinkish because of the presence of other minerals. Some of these salts are marketed as being better and more beneficial to health than the so called White Poison. They are also more expensive. Whether these minerals have benefits can be debated but what is to be understood is that they are also Sodium Chloride in composition.

What matters most is the sodium content of the salt which is almost the same across all variants. Salt is present in our food in the invisible form and as an added salt during cooking and

21

serving. Almost 50% to 75% of the salt is derived from food and the rest as supplement. Salt adds to the taste of food and it is also an important constituent of our body. But excessive sodium intake has been linked to many diseases,

the most important of which are hypertension, renal stones, osteoporosis and obesity.

Salt has water retaining properties and it’s believed the circulating plasma volume swells in size due to excess sodium which

leads to hypertension. Diuretics are a class of drugs which can control hypertension by manipulating body water and salt. In medical disorders in which handling of body water is defective like advanced kidney and liver disease, salt restriction is an

important strategy in management.

One gram of sodium is equivalent to 2.5g of salt. The American Heart Association recommends an ideal intake of 1.5g of sodium, which would mean around 3.75g of salt. So, just a pinch of salt is enough for the day.

Salt restriction should focus on avoidance of food with high salt content, the most important of which are processed and preserved food. Salt is an excellent preservative and used generously in such food. One should also avoid use of salt for sprinkling in salads and veggies. Alternative spices can be used for the taste buds. Many of the spices have digestive and medicinal properties and should find more space in the kitchen than salt. It is believed that high salt content of our food is an important contributor to rising incidence of cardiac disease and we should adopt a salt restricted strategy as a health promoting habit. You can take my article with a pinch of salt but so should be your daily intake as well!

Dr Rakesh Periwal Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Specialist drperiwal@gmail.com

22

Buzz

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Assam State Zoo authorities start nature learning camps for school students

I

n association with the NGONorth East Wetland, the Assam State Zoo authorities have launched a nature learning camp for school students of Assam on Sundays, along with making of tracks to the forested zoo hilltop. The first camp was said to be conducted on July 1, from 6 am to 9 am. It began with a trek of seed throwing along the woods up to Zoo Peak, which also offers a lovely view of the cityscape below.

The trek and the camp were led by the North East Wetland president Alakesh Sam Kashyap and Zoo DFO Tejash Mariswami.

The student’s camp team comprised 30 schoolchildren from Silver Oak School, Dispur. “The aim of the camp – to be held on the first and third Sundays of the month – is to acquaint our children with the region’s invaluable natural heritage and inculcate in them love and respect for nature and wildlife,” NEW President, Kashyap said.

Zoo DFO, Tejash Mariswami, also briefed the students on the zoo location which was right

in the middle of the city, amid a 175-hectare sylvan setting on the Hengrabari reserved forest. He also informed the students on how zoo greenery has been acting as an oxygen chamber for the city of Guwahati.

“The response from the children has been overwhelming. The trekking has given the children a first-hand exposure to urban biodiversity and its management. We have been in touch with various school authorities of the city for bringing more students into the

camp and popularising the same,” added Kashyap.

There’s also a collaborative venture between the zoo authorities and the NGO which seeks to conserve the indigenous fishes and tortoises in a natural water-body within the zoo campus.

“It’s a five-hectare area and the water-body is now being cleaned for the purpose. We have requested the forest department to assist the aquatic species conservation project by involving the fishery department as well,” he added. n

Don Bosco School organises Mini Boscoree-2018

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ini Boscoree-2018 was held at Don Bosco School, Panbazar from July 2-6 last. This year, 179 Scouts, 251 Guides and 39 Scout Masters and Guide Captains (teachers) from 15 schools participated in the event. The theme of the event was ‘Health, Harmony and Holiness.’

Khagendra Nath Das, State Secretary of Bharat Scouts & Guides, SHQ, Assam attended the camp as chief guest and inaugurated it on July 2.

The activities at the event included pioneering projects, physical display, adventure games,

exhibition, chorus competition, peace march/rally etc.

The camp chief was AR Lazar (ALT), Divisional Commissioner of Bharat Scouts and Guides, Assam, while the chairman was Fr Sebastian Mathew, Principal of Don Bosco School (DBS). Fr Joseph Dennis Solomon, Headmaster of DBS Amkachi and Fr Saju Kariyil, Headmaster of DBS Boko, were the co-ordinators.

To mark the occasion, a grand campfire was held on the evening of July 5 where the chief guest was Rev Fr. Joseph Teron, Vice Provincial of Don Bosco Guwahati Province. n

Annual NCC training camp at city college

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he annual NCC camp of 1 Assam Bn NCC got under way at the Guwahati Commerce College (GCC) on Thursday, July 5. It was inaugurated by Brigadier Akshit Arora, Group commander NCC Group Headquarters, Guwahati and concluded on July 13.

A total of 453 NCC cadets belonging to various schools and colleges from across the state including Guwahati, Rangiya, Nalbari, Chirang and Kamrup participated in the week-long camp.

Apart from regular NCC training, cadets also underwent various social activities such as Swachh Bharat drive, education on health and hygiene and training on disaster management.

During the inaugural session, the Group Commander interacted with the participating cadets and

emphasised on their important role in nation building.

The camp was conducted under the supervision of 1 Assam Batalion NCC Commanding Officer, Colonel Shashi Bhushan and his deputy Colonel ZI Roshid.

Siddhartha Bhattacharya, minister of education (higher, secondary & elementary), Guwahati Development Department, Law & Justice also attended the camp. “The NCC annual training camp acts as refresher training for the cadets and they are also trained in basic skills of survival and emergencies.

They are taught certain skills pertaining specifically to their wing. My best wishes to all young cadets that you all achieve success so that you can set your career with excellence,” he said addressing the students and cadets. n

3 Young achievers honoured by the Stars of North East (SoNE)

GU professor elected by the Linnean Society of London

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rofessor Mohan Chandra Kalita, a senior teacher and a distinguished figure in the research area of plant biochemistry and biotechnology, ethno pharmacology and human diseases like diabetes and cancer, biofertilisers, biopesticides and microalgae bioenergy, in the Department of Biotechnology of Gauhati University, has been elected as the Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS) by the Linnean Society of London, United Kingdom. The Linnean Society of London, which was founded in 1788, is dedicated to the study of dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution and taxonomy.

Professor Kalita is also a distinguished fellow of international bodies like International Congress of Chemistry and Environment and International Society

for Conservation of Natural Resources.

The professor and author has already been granted two Indian patents and has filed for 6 other patents. He has published over 130 research papers of national and international standing. He is a dedicated member of staff

for popularization of Science & Technology among the masses in Assam and for promotion of biodiversity and environment conservation in northeast India.

He was once covered talking on the subject of ‘the affects of chemical farming’ and said that it is one of the most dangerous threats to the people which causes global warming and people should be aware about it. He further said that there are 11 types of pesticides found in an apple, which are also found in chocolates, ice creams and even in mother’s milk.

He had also appealed to the people to make good use of the indigenous fruits and vegetables that they can get their hands on and inculcate the habit of selfcultivation so as to steer clear of any pesticides and chemicals in their food. n

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hree achievers were felicitated at the ‘Star Talk Seven’ event organised at the Goat Research Station Auditorium at Byrnihat on Saturday. Anjim Sabiha, Armeen Shahneela and Salma Hussain received the “Star Role Model Award” given by the Unity Education Foundation, in Guwahati.

Armeen Shahneela is a flying officer at the Indian Air Force and her sister, Anjim Sabiha, is a research scholar at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, in New Delhi. Salma Hussain, a young-

ster from the Sontoli Village in the Kamrup District of Assam, has been selected for the Andi Leadership Institute Programme 2018 for Young Women Peace Builders.

Dr Abdus Saleque, Chief Scientist, Goat Research Station and Dr Erin Ayesha, lecturer, Karmaveer Hiteswar Saikia College Guwahati, parents of Anjim and Armeen were also felicitated at the event.

The event was organised by the Stars of North East (SoNE), a group engaged in unearthing, nurturing and showcasing talents in the society. n

Events

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

After a successful stint in modeling, anchoring, and singing, Stuti Choudhury has now ventured into the field of fashion.

A person with sheer love for art, culture and entertainment, she has now turned an entrepreneur with the launch of her boutique ‘Stu’s Closet’.

The boutique that deals with clothes made from indigenous eri and muga was inaugurated

by Minoti Borthakur, a cancer survivor and professor at Gauhati University amidst much glitz and glamour.

Curetted by Stuti herself, Stu’s Closet boasts of a stunning collection of eri and muga sarees and stoles. It also has a range of simple yet gorgeous paat mekhela sadors, western wears, mostly bohemian and chic with a collection of handpicked foot wears for the fashion lovers.

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July 14, Saturday Rage Night ft. Brahmin & The Black Army Madiza Ultra Lounge 6PM onwards July 14, Saturday Gennext Club Night ft.

DJ Rib NYX Lounge & Deck 7PM onwards July 14, Saturday Midnight Stopover ft. DJ Tejas Retro Town 6PM onwards

Stu’s Closet Opening

July 14, Saturday Big Bang Saturday Nite ft. DJ Ritzzze Dunkin Oza 7PM onwards

July 10, Tuesday Rajgarh Link Road

Event: Couturiture 2018 - An Interior Exhibition & Fashion Show Date: July 5, Thursday Venue: Pragjyotish ITA Centre, Machkhowa

July 14, Saturday Big Bollywood Night ft.

DJ Veronica Club XS 8PM onwards July 14, Saturday Electronic Bollywood Shanivar ft. Kushal Walecha The Socialite 8PM onwards July 14, Saturday In the loop ft. Blot!

Terra Mayaa 8PM onwards July 14, Saturday Qareeb-the band Live Underdoggs Sports Bar 8PM onwards

Event: Weekend Vibes Date: July 7-8 Venue: Underdoggs Sports Bar

July 15, Sunday Unplugged Night ft.

Parwaz The Socialite 8PM onwards

Event: Big Bollywood Night ft. DJ Sunny Date: July 7, Saturday Venue:Dunkin Oza

Event: Ladies Night Date: July 4, Wednesday Venue: NYX lounge & deck

July 15, Sunday The Sundowner - FIFA final screening NYX Lounge & Deck 7PM onwards

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Catching Up

G PLUS | Jul 14 - JUl 20, 2018

Most shared story of the week

Assam’s Hima Das made the entire nation proud on Thursday by becoming the 1st Indian to win a Gold in the 400 metres event of the World U-20 Championships. She achieved the brilliant feat in 51.46 seconds.

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