Vol 6 Issue 32 by G Plus

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INSIDE

Volume 06 | Issue 32 June 1 - June 7, 2019 Price `10

Rijiju & Teli: Two NE faces in Modi 2.0 Women representation in central ministry declines from 8 to 6 PG 02

Second Modi cabinet gearing up for 2024 succession plan G Plus News @guwahatiplus

hough one of the most surprising inclusions in the second Narendra Modi ministry at the centre, the oath taking ceremony for which was held at the magnificent forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday, is S Jaishankar as the External Affairs Minister, inclusion of Amit Shah as the home minister of India replacing Rajnath Singh, points towards a carefully laid out succession plan for

country’s home minister will have to be peddled before the populace should it first require to establish such a credential and secondly, within the party, it would come handy to push forward his case when the time comes in 2024. Therefore, giving up the party president’s post should not be seen as a climbing down from the high pedestal but in effect, should be viewed as the temporary sacrifice for reaching a position adorned by only a chosen few in independent India. So far, the party has not indicated whether

Assam and northeast hasn’t got adequate representation in the Modi 2.0 government but with 24 vacancies still left to be filled up, it is early days yet. the post-Modi era in 2024. The reason for this is very simple: while as the BJP President, Shah would have lorded over so many states where the saffron party is in power besides the other ministries at the Centre, as the home minister, not only would he be confined to the corridors of the South Block on the Raisina Hills but would also have to give up the powerful party president post since BJP follows one person one position policy thereby limiting his spheres of power. This only means that Shah’s administrative capabilities as the

Shah would step down as the party president and someone else would be appointed in his place. There is also speculation that a working president would be appointed to undertake the day-today activities and Shah would continue as the symbolic head of the party. But in either scenario, Shah’s role as the party supremo would be reduced and the heavy lifting with respect to party machinery will have to be undertaken by someone else. Continued on Page 09

Sanaullah’s case exposes carelessness of Assam border police PG 05

In conversation with new MP from Nowgong, Pradyut Bordoloi PG 12, 13

Lead Story

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Rijiju & Teli: Two NE faces in Modi 2.0 Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal Pradesh and Rameswar Teli from Assam took oath as ministers in Modi’s new government on May 30. Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

iren Rijiju and Rameswar Teli are the two ministers from northeast India in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government. While Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) MP from Arunachal Pradesh Rijiju has been elevated as Minister of State (Independent Charge), a new face in the ministry, BJP’s MP from Dibrugarh, Rameswar Teli has been inducted as a Minister of State. Both Rijiju and Teli took oath in the grand oath-taking ceremony

held in the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 30. Rijiju, 48, was a Minister of State for Home Affairs in the last government. This appointment of Kiren Rijiju is seen as a huge promotion for the Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal Pradesh. In the 17th Lok Sabha elections, Rijiju successfully retained his Arunachal West seat defeating Congress candidate and two-time former chief minister Nabam Tuki by a huge margin of 1,67,132 votes. On the other hand, Teli, 48, has been appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and will be working under senior leader,

Kiren Rijiju

Rameswar Teli

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries. Teli was first elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from

Duliajan assembly constituency in 2001 and then won again in 2006. He lost in 2011. He defeated Congress heavyweight and

Women representation in central ministry declines from 8 to 6

ltogether six women ministers have found place in the new Modi government that took oath on May 30. Of these six, only three are ministers of cabinet rank — Amethi MP Smriti Irani, former defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Shiromani Akali Dal. Apart from the cabinet ministers, three women MPs — Fatehpur MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Chhattisgarh’s Saruja MP Renuka Singh Saruta and West Bengal’s Raiganj MP Debashree Chaudhuri — took oath as ministers of state. In 2014, there were eight women ministers in the Modi government. Sushma Swaraj (Minister of External Affairs), Uma Bharti (Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation), Maneka Gandhi (Minister of Women & Child Development) and Anupriya Patel (Minister of

T women contested the elections from all over the country out of which 78 were elected as MPs. This is higher than the 62-member count of 2014. In the newly elected 17th Lok Sabha, female representation is at 14.3% which is the highest since independence. Yet, only three women find themselves sworn in as cabinet ministers, making up 12% of the new cabinet.

Pratap Sarangi: The MP who lives in a hut and rides a bicycle Sixty four-year-old Pratap Chandra Sarangi is an atypical politician and is now a part of Modi 2.0 cabinet. Sarangi, fondly known as ‘Nana’, was the president of Odisha Bajrang Dal. He was the state vice president of the BJP from October 2014 to January 2015 and has also served as the joint secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Odisha. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sarangi defeated two of the richest candidates of Odisha - Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP

UP gets maximum berths in Modi 2.0 cabinet, followed by Maharashtra, Bihar

he second Narendra Modi-led government has the maximum representation of 10 faces from the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh, including Prime

State, Health & Family Welfare) are not part of the new council of ministers. The three women in the current cabinet - Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman and Harsimrat Kaur Badal - had also been a part of the previous cabinet under PM Modi. It’s however important to note that the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were a milestone for women in politics in India. A total of 724

and industrialist Rabindra Jena and Nabajyoto Patnaik, son of Odisha Congress committee president Niranjan Patnaik from Balasore Parliamentary constituency. Sarangi comfortably won against Jena by a margin of 12,000 votes in 2019 general election. However, unlike his fellow contestants, who campaigned in SUVs, Sarangi moved around in a hired auto-rickshaw. Moreover, Sarangi’s affidavit revealed that Sarangi does not own any vehicle, jewellery and

has no liabilities. He has not paid any income tax in the last five years. His declared assets both acquired and inherited are worth around Rs 5.5 lakhs. Sarangi calls himself a social worker, whose source of income includes pension and agriculture. Sarangi has opened many Ekal Vidyalayas (village school, with single school teacher till Class 3 or 5) in the interiors of Odisha. Sarangi was elected as MLA twice from Nilgiri in 2004 and 2009.

former union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar in 2014 and 2019 from Dibrugarh parliamentary seat. The sitting parliamentarian of the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat, has won the seat for the second time defeating Ghatowar by a huge margin of 3,64,566 votes. The previous Modi government had two ministers, both Ministers of State - Kiren Rijiju and Rajen Gohain - from the northeastern region, comprising eight states including Sikkim. Incumbent Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was the minister of state of the first Modi ministry until May 22, 2016 before becoming the chief minister on May 24 that year. n

where voters gave the BJP a clean sweep - followed by two each from West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The new council of ministers has representation

PM Modi with some of his new cabinet colleagues Minister Narendra Modi who represents Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. Besides Modi, the ministers representing UP are Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Sanjeev Balyan, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, VK Singh, Santosh Gangwar, Hardeep Singh Puri and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The BJP won 62 seats in the state while its ally bagged two. The Modi 2.0 government has seven representatives from Maharashtra, followed by six from Bihar. It also has three ministers each from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana - the states

from almost all the states, except Andhra Pradesh and the northeastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. After taking oath as the Prime Minister for a second time, Narendra Modi, on Thursday night, said his team “is a blend of youthful energy and administrative experience.” Congratulating those who took oath of office, Modi tweeted, “It has people who have excelled as Parliamentarians and those who have had distinguished professional careers. Together, we will work for India’s progress.”

Lead Story

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Modi 2.0 inducts 24 new faces, discards 37 outgoing ministers Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

mong the 57-member strong Council of Ministers who took oath to office and secrecy on May 30, 24 are first time ministers who will run India

along with their peers for the next five years. Prominent leaders retained in the new cabinet include Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Prakash Javadekar and Mukhtar Abbas

Naqvi. Further, some of the new faces in the Modi 2.0 government include Amit Shah, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Prahlad Joshi, Angadi Suresh Channabasappa, Rattan Lal Kataria, Rameswar Teli, Kailash Choudhary, Deboshree Choudhury, and former foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar among others.

Among 57 newly sworn-in ministers, 19 have been elected as first-time MPs in these elections. On the other hand, some of the well-known names who have been left out this time from the cabinet are former finance minister Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Suresh Prabhu, Jayant Sinha, Radha Mohan Singh and Menaka Gandhi who was the

women & child development minister in the previous government. Jayant Sinha was previously MoS for finance and civil aviation. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and former health & family welfare minister Jagat Prakash Nadda are also prominent names who have been dropped this time. n

The new cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh- Defence

Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’- Human Resource Development

Amit Shah- Home Affairs

Arjun Munda- Tribal Affairs

Nitin Jairam Gadkari- Road Transport and Highways; Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Smriti Zubin Irani- Women & Child Development; Textiles

DV Sadananda Gowda- Chemicals and Fertilizers

Dr Harsh Vardhan- Health & Family Welfare; Science & Technology; Earth Sciences

Nirmala Sitharaman- Finance; Corporate Affairs

Prakash Javadekar- Environment, Forest & Climate Change; Information & Broadcasting

Ram Vilas Paswan- Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution

Piyush Goyal- Railways; Commerce & Industry

Narendra Singh Tomar- Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare; Rural Development; Panchayati Raj

Dharmendra Pradhan- Petroleum & Natural Gas; Steel

Ravi Shankar Prasad- Minister of Law & Justice; Communications; Electronics & Information Technology Harsimrat Kaur Badal- Food Processing Industries Thaawar Chand Gehlot- Social Justice & Empowerment Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar- External Affairs

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi- Minority Affairs Pralhad Joshi- Parliamentary Affairs; Coal; Mines Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey- Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Arvind Ganpat Sawant- Heavy Industries & Public Enterprise Giriraj Singh- Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries Gajendra Singh Shekhawat- Jal Shakti

4 In The News

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Higher Secondary results: 12 rank holders make Guwahati proud Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

his year in the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) examinations, Guwahati colleges saw a substantial improvement in the number of rank holders with 12 rank holders as compared to three during the previous year. Guwahati saw maximum rank holders from the commerce stream with nine toppers from two colleges namely Guwahati Commerce College and K C Das Commerce College. Ayushi Jain of K C Das Commerce College secured the second rank, while Guwahati Commerce College’s

Students of GCC celebrating their success Neha Agarwalla, Arunabh Nath and Rahul Roy achieved the third, fourth and fifth rank, respectively.

This was followed by Hansika Chawla and Disha Jain who grabbed the seventh and eighth

positions from K C Das Commerce College. Interestingly, from the same college, Muskaan Pachisia, Jagruti Sethia and Ishika Agarwal secured the 10th rank. Further, from the science stream, two rank holders grabbed spots among the top 10 rank holders from across the state. Both the Guwahati toppers from the science stream, Saptadweep Saha (6th rank) and Jibanjyoti Kalita (8th rank) are students of Sai Vikash Junior College. Additionally, from the arts stream, Gunjan Das from Assam Jatiya Bidyalaya secured the 10th rank. This year, Guwahati saw toppers from all the three streams, while there were no rank holders from the arts stream last

year. Further, students of commerce stream trumped students from arts and science streams in Kamrup (Metro) district’s Higher Secondary results. A total of 90.68 per cent candidates of science stream from Kamrup (Metro) passed this year while the pass percentage of commerce stream stood at 90.97 per cent while the arts’ pass percentage remained the lowest at 70.25 per cent. The pass percentage for Kamrup (Metro) in all three streams this year has improved as compared to 2018. Last year, the pass per cent of science stream for the district stood at 89.61 per cent while this was 88.05 per cent and 69.91 per cent for commerce and arts stream respectively. n

Assam sees better pass percentage in all streams this year

his year the overall pass percentage of all the three streams in Higher Secondary examinations improved as compared to the previous year.

While a total of 74.68 per cent students passed the arts stream last year, this increased to 75.14 per cent this year. Similarly, 86.59 per cent candidates were successful in

the science stream in 2019 as opposed to 85.75 per cent during last year. Further, the commerce stream saw most improvement in pass percentage from 84.64 per cent

in 2018 to 87.59 per cent this year. Additionally, a total of 62 students from across the state clinched the top ten ranks from all the three streams in Higher

Secondary examinations 2019. While 18 students each from commerce and arts stream made their way into the toppers’ list, 26 candidates from science stream achieved the top positions. n

Prestigious institutes from Guwahati fail to produce toppers

tudents from prestigious institutions of Guwahati such as Cotton University, Handique Girls’ College and B Borooah College failed to produce any rank holders this time in Higher Secondary examination results. Even though the number of rank holders from the district in Higher Secondary results im-

proved substantially to 12 from last year’s three, students from prestigious institutions failed to make it to the list. In the Assam Higher Secondary Educational Council (AHSEC) results, which were on May 25, the few colleges from the city which saw students in top 10 rank from across the state included K C Das Commerce College, Guwahati

Commerce College, Sai Vikash Junior College and Assam Jatiya Bidyalaya. Last year in class 12, Cotton University produced one rank holder from the science stream who attained the 10th rank in Assam. On the other hand, this year a total of 12 rank holders emerged from all the three streams from Guwahati.

Principal of Guwahati Commerce College, Dr Homeswar Kalita informed that there are several factors behind well-known colleges not performing well. This includes the non-teaching duties which are allotted to teachers of government and provincialized colleges, he said. “Teachers are deployed in different confidential government

work like NRC duty and election time duty, which ultimately overburdens the teachers and affects the quality of education,” he added. Further, he pointed towards the low teacher-student ratio in government colleges and said that these were some practical challenges which needed to be overcome. n

Consistency is key, feel toppers

tudents who have achieved positions among the top 10 in the state feel that regular and consistent study throughout the year helps in achieving better marks in examinations. This also helps to avoid any last minute panic, they said. Ayushi Jain, second rank holder in commerce stream of KC Das Commerce College who scored 468 marks, told G Plus that she wants to become a chartered accountant and will begin preparing for the CA examinations. Sharing her advice for future class 12 students Jain said, “They should go for regular study, it’s very important so that during exam time they won’t be under pressure. Moreover, students should be in constant con-

tact with their teachers as they can help and motivate you.” She added that apart from studies, she enjoys dancing in her leisure and has been trained in contemporary dance. Neha Agarwalla from Guwahati Commerce College (GCC), who achieved the third rank, told G Plus that she paid attention to every day lectures in college and also took tuitions. She added that part from studying regularly; she increased her study time to 7-8 hours per day during examination time. Interestingly, her elder brother, too, had achieved the third rank in higher Secondary examinations and had also secured 271 rank in UPSC examinations last year. “My parents motivated me and

Toppers from KC Das Commerce College pose for a photo looking at my brother’s academic success, I felt motivated to do well

too. I credit my parents, principal, teachers and family for my success,”

said Neha. Further, fifth rank holder in commerce, Rahul Roy of GCC mentioned that he mostly depended on self-made notes from the beginning of the academic session. Talking about his future plans, Roy shared that he will pursue a B Com degree with major in accountancy. “I will also prepare for competitive examinations in the government sector such as banking and SSC,” said Roy. Further, Jiban Jyoti kalita, who bagged the eighth rank in science stream from Sai Vikash Junior College informed, “I used to devote 4-5 hours daily towards preparations. All the credit goes to my teachers who have been very helpful throughout the past two years.” n

In The News

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Sanaullah’s case exposes carelessness of Assam border police G Plus News @guwahatiplus

he carelessness of Assam border police stands exposed after a Kargil War veteran and serving police officer was declared a foreigner in one of the most controversial outcomes of India’s effort to identify illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. A senior IPS officer of Assam Police, talking to G Plus under condition of anonymity said, “There must have been loopholes on the part of the border police.” The IPS officer was previously with the border department. According to him, it might be a possibility that when the ‘D’ Voters’ list was out pre-1971, the name of Mohammad Sanaullah was there. “Because he was in the army he might have not received any notice and the border police might not have done their duty sincerely,” said the officer. The officer said that it was

the duty of the border police to identify the ‘D’ Voters but in this case the Kargil war veteran got to know about his ‘D’ voter status after the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in December 2017. Barely a month ago, 57-yearold Sanaullah was appointed as an assistant sub inspector (ASI) in the Assam border police unit. Interestingly, before police personnel are hired, verification takes place and in the case of Sannaullah, police verification was done by the DIG’s office, according to the family members of Sannaullah. He got the job thereafter on April 24. The IPS officer revealed that the verification process in Assam is not perfect and the police officials involved in the verification process on field mostly do not even visit the relevant houses to verify the addresses. On May 23, the Foreigners’ Tribunal functioning in Boko in Kamrup (Rural) district, about 52 kms from Guwahati,

File photo of Mohammad Sanaullah declared Sanaullah a foreigner. He therefore essentially was categorised as someone who belonged to Bangladesh and had entered Assam illegally after March 24, 1971 – the cut-off date for citizenship in Assam as per NRC updation process. For Sannaullah, he was not

aware that his name was in the ‘D’ Voters’ list. He was informed after the first draft of NRC was published in 2017. But there are many ‘D’ Voters. Talking about ‘D’ Voters’ case, in one such case reported where the border police made a reference (filing a case against someone

doubted to be a foreigner) in 1998, the case was forwarded to the Foreigners’ Tribunal in 2016. The Foreigners’ Tribunal passed the order that the person is a foreigner in 2017 and the person filed a writ petition against the order before the Gauhati High Court in 2018. One of the grounds that the tribunal took note of in deciding Sanaullah’s citizenship status was discrepancy in age mentioned in the various documents that he had submitted to the tribunal. According to border police sources, during cross examination, Sanaullah said that he joined the army in 1978. In such an eventuality, he would then have been only 11-years-old, having been born in 1967. It didn’t match the official papers which said he joined the army in 1987. Sannaullah’s family members will challenge the Foreigner’s Tribunal’s judgement in a higher court, but for now the police needs to change the system and start working smartly. n

Foreigners absconding with help of various nexus

t is clear that a huge number of declared foreigners are untraceable. This raises the question as to why the border police did not keep a check on these declared foreigners. A senior level police officer, under condition of anonymity

said, “There are many nexuses involved in helping the foreigners to remain absconding.” He said that as soon as the foreigners’ tribunal declares someone as a foreigner, the border police are expected to restrain the free movement

of the foreigner. But it does not happen that way because the police fail to locate the foreigner in the first place. He explained that as soon as the police doubt an individual to be a foreigner, the papers are checked, and if found doubtful, a case is registered.

He said that many lawyers help the doubtful foreigners to procure documents illegally. Also, when the case is forwarded to the foreigners’ tribunal, the tribunal sends notices to the doubtful foreigner. In such instances,

the lawyers immediately ask their “clients” (doubtful foreigners) to change their addresses. Later, when the tribunal, after having sent notices repeatedly, declares the person as a foreigner, the police are unable to find them. n

6 Concern

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Plastic ban yet to be implemented in Guwahati Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

ven after close to a month having passed since the Hon’ble Governor of Assam issued an official notification for banning plastic and polythene in the state, the ban is yet to be implemented in Guwahati. A notification dated April 29 was issued by the Governor and the environment & forest department. It officially put a ban in Assam on manufacture, supply, storage, transportation, sale, carriage, distribution and use of plastic carry bags, plastic banners, buntings, flex, flags, plates, cups, spoons, cling films and plastic sheets for spreading on dining tables. The government had prohibited the use of plastic mentioning that it causes serious short and long term

environmental as well as health hazards for humans and animals. However, the various implementing authorities and government departments are unaware of the official ban or have not received the notification till now resulting in the delay of its implementation. Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) commissioner, Debeshwar Malakar, said that they are currently in the process of verifying the rules of enforcing the ban. “I have heard that an order has been issued regarding plastic ban by the government of Assam and I have already entrusted one officer to see what powers can be exercised by the GMC in this connection and the rules

regarding the same. We are considering it after clarification of the relevant roles,” informed Malakar. He added that the GMC will be organising a mass awareness campaign in June in all 31 wards of the city. “Our primary aim through these campaigns will be to persuade residents to not use plastic especially in public places, schools, colleges, offices and even in their own houses.” Additionally, the GMC has also

recruited 50 municipal police (in addition to the already existing force of 25 personnel) recently to oversee the enforcement of all the municipal laws under the municipal body. Malakar further added that in his experience, the major causes of river pollution are polythene, plastic mineral water bottles and thermocol boxes used by fish sellers. “We are also going to send a pamphlet to all the housing

complexes in Guwahati. We have already drafted one letter which will be issued in the coming weeks appealing that they should have their own solid waste management system,” said Malakar. Talking about the waste management system in Guwahati and the new apartment complexes, he informed that the GMC is mulling on modifying the rules and keeping a clause of an existing solid waste management system in the apartment complex before issuing permission. Further, the deputy commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) district was also not aware of the ban on plastic and polythene and said that he had not received or seen the notification as yet. On the other hand, a senior official of the Pollution Control Board of Assam confirmed that the notice was authentic and had been issued by the government on April 29. n

Confusion among traders regarding plastic ban

ssuing directions on imposing the ban, the state government ordered that no person including the shopkeeper, vendor, wholesaler, retailer, hawker, salesman or customer shall use plastic carry bags and other mentioned items made of plastic. The official order states, “It is observed that the plastic wastes is also causing blockage of drains, sewers and gutters apart from resulting in pollution of water bodies in urban areas as well as rural areas.” Further, the traders of Fancy Bazar, too, were unaware of the ban issued by the government. “I have not heard about any plastic ban ordered by the government. If this ban will have any impact on my sales or trading, then it is very important for me to know about it,” a trader in Fancy Bazar, Anirudh Siotia, told G Plus. Another city-based businessman informed that

the government should first consult the traders before taking any concrete steps in this direction. “We must first have all the information related to the plastic ban. Only then can we decide if this will be in our favour or not,” he said. On the other hand, the GMC commissioner said that if they are among the implementing authorities for banning plastic, A labourer sorts plastic bottles from other garbage at Boragaon | G Plus photo the municipal authorities are then we will take appropriate also impose fines, if we are going to take very strict steps for cancellation of given the powers to impose steps to ensure proper their trade licence too. But them,” said Malakar. implementation. everything will depend upon He further said, “If the “We will first issue notices the relevant laws.” traders, even after two fines, to wholesalers and retailers to He added that flooding do not stop selling polythene, stop selling it. Then we will

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which plagues the city every rainy season is primarily because of plastic bottles and polythene which chokes the drains in the city. As per a report published on the eve of World Environment Day in 2018, Guwahati generates 37,000 kgs of plastic waste every day - about 12.37 percent of the entire state’s production. According to the report, compiled coinciding with the theme of last year’s environment day, “Beat Plastic Pollution,” by a Guwahatibased NGO called Environ, Assam produces 2.99 lakh kgs of plastic waste every day. This means that the city will generate about 13,505 tonnes of plastic waste this year. This has increased almost seven times over the last 14 years from 1,825 tonnes in 2014. Due to the lack of a sewerage system in Guwahati dedicated to cater to garbage that also contains plastic, most of the plastic wastes that otherwise could be recycled, get wasted.

Concern

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Tobacco consumption in Assam 21% higher than national average Harshita Himatsingka @HHimatsingka

very year, May 31 is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) around the globe. It is a day that is observed by people to abstain from all forms of tobacco consumption and to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use, its negative health effects and second-hand smoke exposure. This year, the theme for the internationally recognized day is “Tobacco and Lung Health.” The campaign focuses on the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease, and the fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people, according to the World Health Organization. The World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) was created in 1987 by the World Health Organization (WHO). It should be noted that this day is met with both enthusiasm and resistance from governments, public health organizations, smokers, growers and the tobacco industry world over. Tobacco consumption leading factor that causes cancer In recent times, cancer in the

Kamrup urban district has been on the rise. Tobacco consumption is one of the most important risk factors for cancer. Currently, tobacco consumption in the state is at 49 percent, 21 percent higher than the national average of 28 percent. High prevalence of

tobacco consumption causes 49.1 percent of all cancers in males and 25.7 percent of all cancers in females in the Kamrup urban district. “At Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute, 56 percent of all cancers in males and 25.5 percent of all cancers in females are tobacco related. Some of the most

common forms of cancer found in this district include cancer of oesophagus, hypopharynx, lung, stomach and tongue, all of which are tobacco related cancers,” said Dr Amal Chandra Kataki, Director of Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute. According to Global Adults

Tobacco Survey, in Assam, 25.3 percent of men, 0.8 percent of women and 13.3 percent of all adults currently smoke tobacco. 50.5 percent of men and 32.5 percent of women and 41.7 percent of all adults currently use smokeless tobacco. The mean age for initiation of tobacco use has increased from 18.1 percent to 18.5

percent. Based on the Public Health Foundation of India’s data, the government of Assam spent a total of Rs 157.8 crores for treatment of tobacco related diseases in 2011 out of the total health budget of Rs 541.2 crores. “Even if the awareness of cancer exists in urban areas among youth, it’s not enough. For example, everyone knows that smoking is bad for them. But they still do it, even when they are aware of that fact. Thus, massive awareness and prevention campaigns have to be organised so that people take this seriously,

Anti Tobacco Day: Challenges, measures and way forward Introduction:

s we celebrate World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), thousands of people from around the world would have died from diseases related to tobacco use today. Every year on May 31 the WNTD campaign makes an attempt to raise awareness on the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 7 million deaths per year. If the pattern of smoking all over the globe doesn’t change, more than 8 million people a year will die from diseases related to tobacco use by 2030. Use of tobacco products in India has culminated into a major public health challenge with 275 million adults consuming different tobacco products. Although the government of India has taken various initiatives for tobacco control from time to time, effective implementation of tobacco control policies remains largely a challenge in the country.

Surrogate advertising from the tobacco industry gears towards adolescents in the developing world because they are a very vulnerable audience for the marketing campaigns. Reports say that more than 10 million in India die each year due to tobacco use, which is alarming. Coming down to the northeastern part of India, Assam has witnessed a sharp rise in tobacco consumption in the last eight years which is in contrast to the national figure. A 2018 survey conducted by GATS2 has shown a significant rise in tobacco consumption in the state taking the figures from 39.3% in the previous survey to 48.2% in 2009-10.

Health effects:

Tobacco use is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. Tobacco smoke contains more than fifty chemicals that

cause cancer. Tobacco also contains nicotine, which is a highly addictive psychoactive drug. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine causes physical and psychological dependency. Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs.

Challenges and counter measures:

India has always been in the forefront when it comes to making efforts to counter the challenges posed by tobacco use. The country has taken many initiatives for tobacco control including legislative measures, ratification of the WHO FCTC and implementation of the National Tobacco Control Programme. Yet, the prime challenge lies in the implementation of the control measures effectively through the length and breadth of the country. The state governments have to play a much greater role in the implementation of the law and programme in view of the huge burden of tobacco related diseases, deaths and dis-

ability and resulting health cost burden. Also, a greater challenge remains with educating the rural masses about the ill-effects of tobacco use. Adding to the woes, surrogate advertising from the tobacco industry gears towards adolescents in the developing world because they are a very vulnerable audience for the marketing campaigns. The government has enacted and implemented various tobacco control policies at national and sub-national level. The states have implemented the tobacco control policies and programmes with various levels of success. Education and counseling by physicians of children and adolescents have been found to be effective in decreasing tobacco use.

Conclusion:

Although, the synergistic effort put forward by the central government, state governments, civil bodies and NGOs towards achieving a tobacco-free society over the years achieved a very

look after themselves and stop indulging in such bad habits,” said Dr Kataki. n

GUEST COLUMN

Dr Bhaben Choudhury little victory, their relentless works have been successful in imbibing a sense of awareness among the common people. The laws and rules enacted in the country to curb the menace of tobacco use must also be followed. The companies promoting tobacco products on public platforms should also bar from excessive advertisement considering the harm it does to the society. However, initiatives by the civil societies and common people are pivotal in reducing prevalence of tobacco use in the country. (The author is an MBBS, MS, (ENT), PHD, FICS attached to Sanjevani Hospital, Guwahati)

8 Governance

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

7th Economic Census to begin from June, govt to use app for data collection, analysis G Plus News @guwahatiplus

he Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has partnered with Common Services Centres Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC-SPV) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology to conduct the 7 th Economic Census of India that will provide insight into all economic activities and ownership patterns of businesses across the country. For the 7th Economic Census, MoSPI has decided to use mobile phone apps for conducting the same, which will speed up the process of data collection and analysis. IT-based digital platforms will be used by the ministry for the purpose of data capture, validation, report generation and dissemination.

“The 7th Economic Census will be done using a mobile application. There will be two rounds of supervision to ensure quality of the census,” a CSC official said. Further, the upcoming Census 2019 will include geo-tagged data of business enterprises to ensure that no bogus enterprises are included in the official statistics. The move comes even as the government is facing questions over its national income numbers and growth estimates. Field officials conducting the survey will include live locations of the enterprises via their mobile phones which will help clean the database organically. The geo-tagging is expected to help weed out the shell companies and thereby improve data quality. There will be two rounds of supervision to ensure quality of the census. At the first stage, there will be a physical

check and geo-tagging of all enterprises by the officers of Common Service Centres, the access points for delivering government e-services in rural and remote areas. This would be followed by a sampling check in which government’s field officers will randomly verify the location

of the enterprise. “We have proposed to start the survey fieldwork from June 1 and the field work will be finished in 3 months only from the date of commencement and simultaneously results will be out in a phased manner. Nine lakh enumerators and 3 lakh

supervisors will be involved in performing the survey,” the official added. The Economic Census comes with massive job opportunities for the lakhs of people who shall be hired for a period of three months. The works for the census will continue for three months and for this, three lakh village level entrepreneurs (VLE), already working for CSC, will play the crucial role of supervisors, and 9 lakh enumerators will do houseto-house survey under their supervision. The enumerators will be paid as per their work and for the survey of one housing unit they will receive Rs 10. If that housing unit is happens to be commercial, the payment will be Rs 16. However, for surveying one commercial unit the payment is Rs 20. It is estimated that one person can survey about 20-25 units in a day. n

State level training exercise held in city

n the run-up to the 7th Economic Census, a statelevel training workshop of master trainers was organised by the CSC-SPV in Guwahati on May 28. The objective was to impart training to master trainers (enumerators and supervisors) engaged in the 7th Economic Census (7th EC). The participants were trained on the key concepts and definitions, processes, digital platform and application to be used for the enumeration (data capture and supervision) in the field.

Following the state-level workshop, the training will

spread across the state with district-level workshops. The

fieldwork for the 7th Economic Census will commence in June 2019 and the results of the exercise will be made available after verification and validation of the field work. A total of 15,000 supervisors and enumerators of CSC-SPV will be involved in the survey in the state. An official spokesman said that the 7th Economic Census 2019 is being conducted by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to provide disaggregated information on various operational and structural

aspects of all establishments in the country. Over 6,000 state and district level training workshops are being organized during the month of May and June 2019. Six economic censuses have been conducted in India till date. The first economic census was undertaken in 1977, the second EC was carried out in 1980, followed by the third one in 1990. The fourth edition took place in 1998, while the fifth EC was held in 2005. The sixth edition of economic census was conducted in 2013 n

Weather report for the week Guwahati

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

Partly Cloudy

Scattered T-Storms

T-Storms

Scattered T-Storms

32°24° C

30°23° C

30°24° C

31°25°C

SATURDAY AM Clouds / PM Sun

31°23°C

In The News

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Second Modi A cabinet...

RTI activist lodges FIR against ex-DGP Khagen Sharma

fROM Page 01

election of S Jaishankar, the former foreign secretary to government of India as the new foreign minister points towards continuing with the generally successful foreign policy regime of Modi between 2014-2019. A

continuing with the central decision making process. At a time when the Current Account Deficit, Fiscal Deficit, the GDP figures are less than encouraging and the international crude prices are threatening to spill over, Indian economy is standing at a crucial juncture. The economy needs infusion of cash and with low inflation and low demand, the government

n FIR has been lodged against retired Director General of Police (DGP) of Assam, Khagen Sharma, by Right to Information (RTI) activist Dulal Bora. The complaint is registered at Dispur police station in Guwahati. In his FIR dated May 27, 2019, Bora has alleged that the former DGP continues to avail government ser-

vices even after his retirement way back on November 30, 2015. Bora also alleged that Sharma is yet to vacate his government residence which is situated near the SP office in Kahilipara, Guwahati. “Khagen Sharma has been availing all the government benefits like government quarters, official vehicles, fuel, drivers and security guards, even after his retirement,”

Dulal Bora informed G Plus. He further added that Sharma’s wife, who stays in Mumbai is also availing the same benefits which includes two PSOs. Dulal Bora, in his FIR, has also alleged that Sharma has been using two generators that have been installed at his personal residence and the government quarters, four government vehicles and nine PSOs. n

career diplomat, Jaishankar has steered Modi’s foreign policy in NDA-1 at a difficult time and appointment of him as the foreign minister is a just reward besides ensuring that an important portfolio is in capable hands. As against that, the appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as the new finance minister (FM) has the biggest element of surprise in 2019. At a time when the economy is not doing well, the new FM has a task at hand and will have to hit the ground running. The latest government figures display a kind of nervousness in the job market with the urban unemployment rate at 7.8% and rural unemployment rate being 5.3% and therefore, the finance ministry will have to bring the economy out of its stupor in record time. Sitharaman was a steely defence minister and is used to tough decision making and therefore, the country expects her to take the country of the economic imbroglio soon. Overall, the new ministry is a mixture of experience and new comers and with quite of few exbureaucrats being part of it, handling administrative matters would not be a difficult task. And as in NDA-1, this time too, the PMO is expected to take crucial decisions thereby

has to tread very carefully so that we don’t fall into the post-Lehman scenario of the past. As far as Assam and the rest of the northeast is concerned, with just two inclusions, there is nothing much to cheer about regarding this cabinet. However, it is early days yet and with as many as 24 ministry posts to be filled, there could be better representation from the northeast in future. Rameswar Telli, the Dibrugarh MP has been inducted as the minister of state in the food processing industries ministry and the next few months would show whether he is cut out for the job or not. Ideally, in this ministry, rather than government doling out projects, there is always scope for encouraging private sector investment, primarily through the Public-Private-Partnership route and if the government of the day is innovative enough, we will definitely see improvement. Kiren Rijiju’s portfolio of sports & minority affairs, though with independent charge, is not attractive enough to write much about but given the abysmal sports infrastructure available in the northeast, it is time something is done about it and Rijiju will be remembered if he can do only that much. n

Janasanyog No. 33/19

Amit Shah (L) with PM Modi

10 Governance Snippets BNI Guwahati Region launches its third chapter, BNI CALIBRE

usiness Network International (BNI) is the world’s largest business networking, referral marketing organization. BNI was founded in 1985 by Dr Ivan Misner, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of BNI. BNI’s Guwahati Region is managed by Regional Director, Sidharth Garodia. Samarth Harlalka, Launch Ambassador has launched the chapter and Shailesh Bahety, Support Ambassador will support the region. BNI is present in over 74+ countries, 1035+ regions with 2,56,000+ members in 9013+ chapters worldwide. In 2019 alone, BNI members generated 11.2 million referrals resulting in over Rs 1,07,220 crores in closed business worldwide. In India, BNI is present in 76 cities, with 28,700+ members in 592+ chapters. In 2018 alone, BNI members in India passed 16,52,656 referrals resulting in over Rs 10,841 crores in closed business. BNI Guwahati Region launched its 3rd chapter - BNI CALIBRE - on 29 May, 2019 with 35 members, 70 elite visitors, members passed 178 referrals resulting in over Rs 68 lakhs in closed business. The chapter was launched in the presence of Sidharth Garodia, Regional Director, BNI Guwahati. The vision of the regional director is to have 500+ members by 2020. BNI is very happy to set its footprint in the northeast and is very excited that Guwahati’s launch would encourage other northeast tier 2/3 cities to start BNI and make a difference to the business community. The philosophy of this organization is built on the idea of “Givers Gain.” By giving business to others, you will get business in return. This is predicated on the age-old adage of “What goes around comes around.” The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional business networking and referral program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. BNI allows only one person per professional classification or specialty to join a chapter. BNI members are passionate about creating an outstanding culture that promotes collaboration and co-creation. The average seat value per member in new business terms in BNI India is Rs 43.96 lakhs per year and growing.

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Hoax calls for ambulance service, despite decline, still make for 74% of all calls Saumya Mishra @saumyamishra03

he number of prank calls or ineffective calls for emergency ambulance services in Guwahati as well as Assam has reduced, informed officials. However, the continuing

“The average response time for an emergency situation has now reduced from the earlier 2025 minutes to 14-15 minutes in Kamrup (Metro) district,” Koushik Shankar Saikia, regional director, GVK-EMRI. ineffective calls still make up for a majority of the calls received by the helpline. At present, the helpline has to deal with 74 per cent false calls, informed Koushik Shankar Saikia, regional director of GVKEMRI (Emergency Management

and Research Institute), the company which manages the 102 and 108 ambulance services in the state. Currently, the service helpline receives merely 26 per cent genuine emergency calls. “These ineffective or false calls are the ones which aren’t essential or emergency in nature. These are either prank calls, hoax, abusive calls or silent calls. As a result, the telephone lines often remain blocked for genuine callers,” added Saikia. The authorities feel that if it weren’t for these prank calls, they would be able to attend to a lot more genuine emergency cases and in turn, could save more lives. “It brings down the efficacy of the service to a great extent,” said Saikia. Dhurjoti Prasad, communications officer at GVKEMRI, said that while some people call and ask for LPG cylinder bookings or for mobile recharge, a number of men also call the helpline just to speak to the female executives. Authorities mentioned that over the past few months, they have brought in place a few control mechanisms to check the number of hoax calls received by their helplines. They said one of the steps to regulate hoax calls includes that if a false call is received by their

Representative image helpline continuously for four to five times, the particular phone number is blocked by them for the next 24 hours. “If five different call receivers at our call centre track and mark a particular phone number as not being a genuine emergency case, we then block the number for 24 hours,” said a senior GVKEMRI official. According to them, they have managed to reduce the total number of ineffective calls by adopting these measures. The authorities further added that they have also noticed

a reduction in the time to convert an emergency call into contacting the nearest available ambulance from the earlier 120 seconds to 85 seconds now. “We have trained our personnel who now use live tracking of the location of the call to ascertain their exact address. So the call centre representatives do not waste time in asking the address of the caller,” said Saikia. He added that with these filters in place, they are now able to quickly differentiate between ineffective and effective calls. n

All ambulance calls now accessible by one central number

VK-EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), which manages the 102 and 108 ambulance services in the state have merged their 102 and 108 services. Now the residents only have to dial one number 108 for all ambulance related services, informed GVK-EMRI officials on Tuesday. Earlier, 102 ambulance service was meant for shifting a patient from a lower level hospital to a higher-level treatment facility while the 108 service was being used for emergency cases. The officials also informed that the merger of 102 and 108 ambulances took place on April 1 last and the call centres of the two services have also been

25 minutes to 14-15 minutes in Kamrup (Metro) district. For this, we conducted some counselling and training of our personnel and the merger also helped to bring all The ambulances of Guwahati | G Plus photo manpower together,” said Koushik Shankar Saikia, regional merged now and they have taken director of GVK-EMRI. some steps to minimise the He added that they have been response time. trying to improvise and bring “The average response time about changes in their workings for an emergency situation has to lower the response time of now reduced from the earlier 20-

ambulance for residents. Reducing the response time has been a major impediment for officials. The emergency service authorities revealed that the response time is still high in the remote and interior areas of the state. They also appealed to the people to not wait for the last minute to call an ambulance. “We have seen in several delivery cases that family members often keep waiting for want of a normal delivery in cases of pregnancy. This is dangerous and can cause serious repercussions to the mother and can also pose a risk to her life. We would like to request and appeal to people to call the ambulance as soon as they feel the need,” informed Saikia. n

Guest Column

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Assam-preneur: We need more of them The author, in his quirky style, starts off this first of a 6-episode column on business and entrepreneurship in Assam laying emphasis on why Assamese entrepreneurs are the need of the moment.

s an Assamese boy studying outside of the state, the worst PJ of college life was that we were from USA (United States of Assam). Considering the state of commercial negligence within the region, I wonder how do we wage war against this wilful disregard of the region. Kaultilya, the crooked one, was a political realist and master strategist but he wrote on economics, or “artha”, i.e. value. Because, the brutal reality is that without value, no one is concerned about you – either an individual or a state. Economic value defines your reality. And we create this reality ourselves. For an Indian born after Independence, there has always been a relative who has bucked the trend and struck out on his own (quite gender discriminatory, our childhood memories!) and made good: the BIZZNISSMAN. THAT uncle and his flashy life, if not his easy money, has always been an interesting memory of our childhood days. For many, if not all, such childhood memories often trigger the drive towards emulation. Despite the cautionary tales and advice from most seniors (often in secure government jobs), the BIZNISSMAN’s image always

sticks to your mind – unless you are the child of the said uncle, in which case this article is

We have the BIZNISSMAN – from the corner store owner to the industrialist, everyone wants to be one and sees themselves with the rose-tinted glasses of childhood memories. The businessman is written about, fantasized about, talked about – Bloody Hell, he simply sells by being in existence! not for you. And as life goes on, the memory fades as the harsh realities of life make themselves aware and familial pressure, if not our own mind, compromises safety with a reliable income as compared to the flashy lifestyle and the inherent risks involved. We look at businessmen, most of us, and we see only the flashy lifestyle at worst or the disposable income at best and

heave a sigh. Most of us envy that ability to be your own boss and not have to answer to anyone. We, often as not, work for those very businessmen, one way or the other. This is true of a vast majority, even today. The one thing that just cannot be denied is that starting a business and even more so, sustaining one is a tremendous task; an uphill task, constantly at odds with the dominant systems and prevailing situations in the country. Going out, striking out, making a bid by yourself and none else is a case study in courage. No reliable cheque coming in every month, no compartmentalization of work hours, constant self-doubt if not society’s questions. Often as not, familial nagging, disbelief, and pessimism are part and parcel of the initial years and continue till quite a long time. If you’re the insecure sort, it can become a beast on your back that refuses to let go. Scared yet? And we still have the BIZNISSMAN – from the corner store owner to the industrialist, everyone wants to be one and sees themselves with the rosetinted glasses of childhood memories. The businessman is written about, fantasized about, talked about – Bloody Hell, he

simply sells by being in existence! In America, “the land of the brave,” the businessman is the acme of individual ability and enterprise, valued far above that of anyone else. You are defined by the chances you take to make yourself better. Possibly, a left over strain of frontierbred imperialistic genes, in this wish to make your destiny, to rule, to be the path-breaker into uncharted territory, you build the ballpark and run it as you see fit – you’re society’s role model for having made IT. You make it and everyone envies your car, your gadgets, your mansion and the peripherals. If you can contribute to the marginalized sections, well, you’ve just attained god-hood in your lifetime. And the truth? The endless hours fighting the inner demons and fighting off the world to achieve the next target, the next client, the lack of a social life – are these considered? It’s a brilliant film when those brutal years of building are compressed into a few screenshots over in seconds, with the dramatic turns of vaulting ambition and achievement crackling with impossibly elegant and dynamic dialogues. You clap and wish you were the guy on the screen. But it’s not usually that easy

– you know it which is why

GUEST COLUMN

Debashish Goswami YOU wisely don’t consider the idea of BIZNISS and the risks involved. But it’s not so….or at least does not have to be so. It does not have to be the image of the dusty streets you trudge through, carrying your products to sell and find a customer base. It does NOT have to be you stuck in your room and computer, working without end without even having the foreknowledge of success or failure. BUT, it does NOT need to be a gamble. This is a series dedicated to those brave souls who venture into being entrepreneurs and BIZNISSMEN. Because, we need more of you. The State needs more of you… .I am not done. Nor are you. n

Case against CID does not hold water as per prima facie evidence Based on a tip off, CID Assam had conducted a search at Rehabari to catch Iqbal Ali, a drug peddler. To avoid arrest, Iqbal had jumped off the 4th floor of a building. But his wife has filed a case against the CID for allegedly killing him. Nehal Jain @NehalJain96

case has been registered against Crime Investigation Department (CID) Assam in the Paltan Bazar police station, Guwahati, on Monday, May 27, accusing the department for the death of one Iqbal Ali. The case was registered by Jannat Ali Bhuyan, wife of Iqbal. The case number 150/19 has been registered under section 294/447/301/506/34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). According to CID officials, on Sunday, May 26, they were on the heels of Iqbal who was apparently running a business of narcotic substances from his flat in Rehabari.

CID office at Ulubari When the officials reached the flat and recovered drugs, Iqbal tried to escape to avoid apprehension. In order to escape, he made an abortive bid to jump on the roof of a neighboring house from the fourth floor of the building. However, while trying the stunning escape he fell on a concrete drain and received fatal

injuries. The officials immediately rushed Iqbal to the Gauhati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH) in Bhangagarh where he succumbed to the injuries. However, the family members of Iqbal have refused to accept the CID’s version and alleged that Iqbal was pushed off the edge of the building by the police and have therefore registered a case against the department. During the search, CID recovered 32 small plastic bottles containing suspected heroin and over 60 empty containers from inside the chamber of a wooden

almirah in Iqbal’s flat. They also recovered a VIVO phone and cash amounting to Rs 10,700 from a purse that belonged to Iqbal. The recovered suspected heroin, when examined, tested positive and weighed 12 grams, the market value of which is approximately Rs 2,40,000. The CID has also arrested two others, Arifur Rahman (30 y/o) and Imdadul Hussain (25 y/o), who were present in the flat to purchase heroine and recovered cash amounting to Rs 21,210 from their possession. “During interrogation, both Arifur and Imdadul gave statements that Iqbal was on drugs when CID officials conducted the raid and in order to escape, he made the jump on his own. CID officials had nothing to do with Iqbal’s death,”

Investigating Officer of the case, Senior Inspector Jayanta Das informed G Plus. “Imdadul, in his statement to the police, also said that none of Iqbal’s family members was present in the building when the incident took place,” he added. As per initial investigation, the police informed that there’s not enough evidence to suggest that the CID officials were at fault. However, the case is still under investigation. It must be noted that Iqbal was a veteran drug peddler who was involved in the illegal business of drugs since long. He was earlier arrested and forwarded in connection with Paltan Bazar PS case number 953/17 under Section 20 (b) of NDPS Act and case number 1269/18 under Section 22 (b) of NDPS Act. n

12 In Conversation

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

“Being in opposition, I cannot bring a krantikari change, but I can draw attention,” Pradyut Bordoloi, MP, Nowgong Editor of G Plus, Swapnil Bharali, caught up with new Member of Parliament from Nowgong constituency, Pradyut Bordoloi, at his residence in Guwahati. Here are the excerpts from the conversation. The video version is available on the YouTube Channel of G Plus. After being in state politics for so long, how do you see yourself in national politics?

Narendra Modi is such a great actor and has been backed by all kinds of moneybags, whose volumes and sizes have increased astronomically during his first regime.

I am trying to break new frontiers now. I had been in state politics for almost two decades. I had been an MLA four times and a minister in the former Tarun Gogoi government since 2001. This time, the party asked me to contest at a very difficult situation as you know. It had been an uphill task, but somehow I could overcome it. I offer my gratitude to my constituents.

Your win was not expected. How did you manage it?

Yes of course, Nagaon is not my place. It is my adopted constituency. In fact, the BJP wanted to create an issue that I am an outsider. Secondly, since 1985, Congress, except for a very brief period of one year in 1998, has never won the Nagaon constituency. Our late leader Nripen Goswami won from this constituency in 1998, but when mid-term elections took place in 1999, he suffered a defeat. So after 1999, BJP’s Rajen Gohain has been winning from the seat for 20 years straight. The point is, winning this constituency indeed was very difficult and challenging. Especially at a time when a party like the BJP, whose main political narrative is polarization, is in power, both at the Centre and in the state. But, I am very fortunate that I could transcend the boundaries.

What do you feel made you win?

Maybe my disarming smile which people liked and voted for me (laughs)…

For the Congress party, this entire election has been a debacle and everyone pins the blame on Rahul Gandhi… Rahul

Gandhi

not

Editor Swapnil Bharali (L) in conversation with Pradyut Bordoloi | G Plus photo responsible for this. I will tell you what has been happening. Mohammad Ali Jinnah had espoused the two nation theory before independence. This two nation theory was shot down by the Congress leadership. Jinnah attained a separate and sovereign country on the basis of religion. Even at that time, the people with Hindu agenda, especially the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS, voted for a separate country on the ground that if Muslims can get a separate country then why not the Hindus, which will be a majority in future India. But the Congress leadership said no to this and insisted that there will be no religious bigotry after India gained independence. Independent India would be a secular country. But the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS did not like it. Mahatma Gandhi was such a colossus that he could overrule this and that is why these people perceived Mahatma Gandhi to be the main obstacle and assassinated him. After that, our founding fathers like BR Ambedkar and others framed the constitution, which has become the bedrock of Indian identity. The constitution has no place for religious hegemonism. It was going on all right. BJP probably always had a hidden agenda, but it could not pursue

it because it was fragile. Its strength was not very huge. But, here comes such a big actor (PM Modi), who in 2014, if you remember, never mentioned about Hindutva. His issues were corruption, bringing black money back from Swiss banks and distributing them among the people. He promised “ache din,” employment to 2 crore people every year. He promised a whole lot of things, even the Moon. So people fell for it. The BJP somehow sold that narrative. After being in power for five years when they could not deliver, their narrative has undergone a total change. This time, what they have done is they started selling nationalism, for which they took Pakistan as a punching bag. Anything happens; they say Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan. If you criticize the policies of Modi, you would be Pakistani sympathizer. If you criticize the BJP, you would be a traitor of the country. They would hype some kind of balloon of nationalism.

I get your point. While it does not directly answer my question of Rahul Gandhi being responsible for the debacle or not, but if it

takes all of this to win the election which is the ultimate goal… I am coming to you. Actually, they (BJP) could sell and Narendra Modi being such a great actor has been backed by all kinds of moneybags, whose volumes and sizes have increased astronomically during his first regime. We had no match to that. There were unlimited funds, unlimited resources. Even the various media, pardon me for saying this, were in the pockets of Modi. All the major media houses including Arnab Goswami’s Republic, Times Now, Zee TV, India TV and all types of social media were in the pockets of Modi or the big capitalists. They were portraying the image that Modi can do no wrong. We were cornered basically. In today’s politics, I think we were touching the fundamental issues. Unlike Modi, we were not abusing him and the BJP leadership. We were touching the fundamental issues that touch the lives of the common people.

What about “chowkidar chor hain?” Can’t that be counted as abuse from the Congress?

Because he himself said “I am a chowkidar.” But, under his nose, all the big capitalists, industrialists had taken away money from the banks. The money was hard earned by common people and was deposited in the banks. And abuse… in what way? We never said derogatory things that Modi mentioned about Nehru or Rajiv Gandhi. That (chowkidar chor hain) was a correct thing. Because he declared himself as a “self-styled chowkidar.” If you are a “chowkidar” how can you allow people to steal money? We still believe that Rafael was a big scandal and I stand by this. But, the problem is, somehow we could not sell it. Probably, people will realize it in a hard way later.

Clearly some kind of introspection and going back to the drawing board is required for the Congress party over the next five years.

Obviously, we have to contemplate. But see, it was an ideological war. The tragedy today is that the two nation theory that Jinnah once successfully espoused and got away with by getting Pakistan has been repackaged and resold. After around 72 years of independence, they are still blaming Pakistan. They are still blaming Muslims and trying to sell a false pride of nationalism. They have been successful that way. Continued on Page 13

In Conversation

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019 Do you think there is a dearth of leadership in Congress in Assam? Because, no big Congress leaders, except for Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, were campaigning here and there was nothing from the state level to show that leadership is there. No, that’s not true. We had our president, Ripun Bora and Debabrata Saikia and all other leaders for the campaign. Somehow, as I said, it was a kind of narrative that Modi was selling and people were buying it. So, we had no chance.

How will you rate the Sonowal government which has just completed three years in Assam?

then his seat will be vacant and you will be given a chance to contest in elections.” So he (Chetia) jumped in. It’s all about personal agenda I tell you. BJP is very clever that way. The leadership of the assorted organizations is with the BJP now. But, by doing this, they are betraying their own people. The people will realize and all those leaders who have joined the bandwagon of BJP will become irrelevant.

Is there any realistic chance for Congress to come back to power in 2021 in Assam?

We stand a huge chance. Obviously, we have to pull up our socks. We have to reach out to the people. We have to give a very clear narrative and probably we have to do exercises of permutation and combination. We have to cobble up a new combination in Assam. Otherwise, electoral gains may not be there. Our leadership has

We have to do something. We might have to go for PPP model if we have to revive the (Nagaon) paper mill. The economic model has to be restructured. The present model may not be feasible for revival. With BJP in the state and in the centre, how would you go about improving the Nagaon constituency? There are many issues. The fundamental issues which have been neglected by the government in centre are river erosion and unemployment.

flag all these issues in a very effective and articulate manner - maybe on the floor of the Parliament or in other forums like the power corridors of Delhi or molding some public opinions. Let me give you an example. Do you know that almost four to five lakh youths from the Nagaon constituency have been employed as security guards across India? Top security agencies from Mumbai, Pune, Bangaluru routinely come to the constituency that covers three districts to recruit security guards. I will tell you why. The security agencies recruit young boys who maybe school dropouts, or class 12 pass. I was very inquisitive to find out why the largest number of youths from my present day constituency is taken away as security guards. Then one security consultant told me that they are above average. They are very obedient. If you can condition them they can be very good security guards.

Very dismal, because, in the last three years they have not been able to do anything, except give out some doles to the tea garden mazdoors three or four months ahead of the election to gain votes. They have been successful that way. They have taken some populist measures and repackaged and relabeled all our old policies and programmes. You can see the road conditions, all the industries and business places, trade and commerce are at a standstill. There is no income and employment generation in the state today.

There was a lot of protests when the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was about to be passed. But, now that people have voted for the BJP, what do you make of this contradiction?

See. We oppose CAB, because it is a very dangerous concept. All the street-smart, assorted groups were creating a chorus to protest against CAB. But the BJP government with a lot of money, promises, doles and lollipops could puncture the cohesive leadership of the anti-CAB forum. For example, Ashwini Chetia, a former member of All Assam Tai Ahom Student Union (AATASU), was in the forefront of the anti-CAB protest. When the elections came, he was given the hope that “Look, if you join BJP, you will get a ticket to contest in the elections. If BJP’s Topon Gogoi wins in the Lok Sabha elections,

Pradyut Bordoloi makes a point during the conversation | G Plus photo to study the situation and then finally we have to hit the roads.

Dou you think Rahul Gandhi would be a competent leader?

See, this time we failed or even Rahul Gandhi failed. But, don’t ignore the what Rahul Gandhi created. Modi’s position was unassailable. He is known for fakery. He is an actor and good for camera and TV. He is a megalomaniac. He is growing in the mould of Hitler.

Strong words, Mr Bordoloi…

Yes, these are strong words, but I believe in these. Modi will bulldoze others. But, he will not be able to transform the Indian society the way he has promised. So, I have given this round again to Modi, but he is bound to fall.

River erosion is a huge problem in my constituency, Nagaon. This is a constituency that probably houses large number of progressive farmers in Assam. The farmers in the area do triple cropping and are enriching Assam’s economy. Unfortunately, the farmers are in distress now. In all the riverine areas lying on the bank of Brahmaputra, say from Jagiroad to Lahorighat and beyond, erosion has taken such a huge toll that thousands of hectares of farming land have been submerged in the Brahmaputra. We have to arrest that. That’s the one fundamental issue which has been neglected. There is a huge problem of unemployment. What would be my contribution? You see, being in opposition, I cannot bring a krantikari change. We don’t have a government in Assam nor in the centre. But, I can draw attention. I can probably

Now, because of demonetization, economic depression under Modi’s regime, many of those youths have returned to Assam. But, fact remains that we have the inherent strength of skill building. If you can mobilize new initiatives to train them, they can be absorbed in any place. These things probably I can do through NGOs, through my effort to create employment.

How many MLAs are there from the Congress in the 9 assembly segments of Nagaon constituency? Only one.

So that’s further trouble for you. Yes, we lost out very badly. Out

of 9 assembly segments, only the Lahorighat constituency has an MLA from the Congress party. Despite this, people from all assembly constituencies voted for me. My vote share is almost 51%.

Serious issues of heartburn, suicides and depression have been found among people who were working in the now shut down Nagaon paper mill.

That’s why I am saying that the fundamental issues have been neglected. They were ignored systematically by the BJP government. It was busy creating polarization, division among people on the basis of religion and language. But, in that bargain, they totally forgot the fundamental problems that have afflicted our society. We have to attend to these issues.

The Nagaon paper mill can be revived?

I cannot give a sweeping statement. I don’t want to be another Modi saying it can be done. But, it can be done. I will take up (the initiative) maybe by changing the entire model or remodeling the functions of the mill. I don’t want to be one of those politicians who blame everything on BJP. But, unfortunately, both the paper mills, Nagaon and Cachar, were closed down during Modi’s regime in the last five years. That’s very unfortunate. But, they have been blissfully, I would say unaware, insensitive. There has to be sincerity. Because, all these people are in deplorable condition. We have to do something. We might have to go for PPP model if we have to revive the paper mill. The economic model has to be restructured. The present model may not be feasible for revival.

As an MP, you would require a lot of research, go through international trade agreements and see what would fit to your constituency or perhaps the state of Assam that you can bring in something and make a difference. How would you go about that?

I am told that being an MP, I have got an advantage in Lok Sabha. There is a research team. You can go and request them to do research for you. Otherwise, I will have to do research, fall back on my own friends or maybe put up a small team. I will see. n

14 G Talk E

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019 T

No orchids for HBS

ard work, in most cases, attracts rewards. Somehow, with the announcement of the names of Prime Minister Modi’s new cabinet and extended ministry and thereafter the allocation of portfolios, the lone minister from Assam (Rameswar Teli, Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries) who also happens to be just the other minister from the entire northeast have somehow left behind a sense of indignation. Yes, today I feel for Himanta Biswa Sarma (fondly HBS) and truly contend that the northeast, if not just Assam, should have been better rewarded purely because of the hard work that the HBS-led team did towards the comprehensive and sweeping victory of the NDA in this part of the country. Politicians have ambitions and there is nothing wrong in that. This has been amply reiterated by Amit Shah’s elevation from party president to union home minister in the new Modi cabinet. The elevation may also be construed as a reward for his hard work over the last several years in taking BJP to the unassailable position that it finds itself in today. But when it comes to the northeast of India over the last four years and West Bengal in the 2019 elections, Shah would not have tasted this success without the HBS magic. I recall HBS’s late night tweet from West Bengal where he was virtually ambushed by TMC workers while on the election trail for the BJP. I recall his regular visits to Tripura in his single-handed effort to topple the 25-year-old Manik Sarkar government. I recall the large number of negotiations with the various state governments of the northeast to cobble up the NEDA alliance for the NDA. And I also recall his energetic dance moves on the campaign trail - all of which whipped up a frenzy of support. It was tenacious and unpretentious hard work over just the four years that he has been with the BJP which has left all opposition including the Congress Party in tatters today. But, there are no orchids today for Himanta Biswa Sarma or his state of Assam or the region of which he is the Convenor for his party. Just two ministers in 2014 being Kiren Rijiju and

Sarbananda Sonowal (only to be replaced by Rajen Gohain when Sonowal became the chief minister) and two ministers again this time no change whatsoever. But what has changed in favour of the BJP with HBS’s work is palpable. From 7 LS seats in Assam in 2014 to 9 today for the BJP and 10 in the northeast in 2014

A reasonable expectation of his supporters was a ministerial berth in the Modi 2.0 cabinet. After all, as a minister he has been proving his mettle for the last 25 years and his contributions towards Assam from the Centre could have been unparalleled. for the NDA to 18 in 2019, cracking the TMC in Bengal and reducing it by 18 seats, HBS has done the unexpected despite the Citizenship Amendment Bill pressure on him which had brought about immense dislike for him to the point where he was termed as a traitor. So the reasonable expectation of his supporters was at least a Lok Sabha ticket for him from Tezpur or perhaps subsequently the Rajya Sabha seat which went to Kamakhya Prasad Tasa. A reasonable expectation of his supporters was a ministerial berth in the Modi 2.0 cabinet. After all, as a minister he has been proving his mettle for the last 25 years and his contributions towards Assam from the Centre could have been unparalleled. And yet today, despite all his dedication and commitment towards his work, he continues to be the finance and health minister in the government of Assam while his potential at national level politics remains untested in an environment like this. Beyond this, the lone MoS in a virtually irreverent ministry, does not justify the political giant that Himanta Biswa Sarma is nor does the move give due respect and gratitude towards his work. n Swapnil Bharali (Editor) @swapnilbharali

The paradox to be resolved

O pinion Ananya S Guha

Post Lok Sabha elections in India, 2019:

verything is over barring of course the damages done to the psyche. Some claim that power has been raised on the planks of division. Their detractors, the victors, who have got the political majority, say that victory is because of an overall mandate for development which has been successful. Despite the accusations that economic development in the country has stagnated, employment is zero and the country is fragmented into narrow domestic walls as Tagore would say, the powers that be wax eloquent about a new India on throes of a nationalistic fervour and eager to cast aside a dynastic rule. So what happened? Nothing really. A political power has come back because a strong electorate wants them back. It is as simple as that. What is not simple but complex is what people like Amartya Sen would say: that in the battle between ideas and power, the latter has won. What is power and what idea? The majority of the country’s illiterate and poverty-ridden population are not rooted in the world of ideation. They want to live for another day, subsist. For the dominant world of ideas as for the intellectuals do not exist, for them; though in their own ways they are a tolerant lot. Yet the prophylactic the teeming masses seek is better quality of living, better and cheaper education for their wards and of course healthcare. What is happening to history text books may matter to some of us, but not to them. It is them and us. At least some of us. The political pundits of course will say that opposition ranks have gone awry. As in the past this happened. So the dialectics of ruling and the opposition will continue. What will remain is India’s constant have-nots who want their lives to be better. So in this flux of changing politics they are caught in a time warp. They will call the shots. They do and do not understand political ideologies. But when these ideologies

rA foreigner in the army

fail, they fail the leaders. Look at West Bengal and how people have oscillated between leftist and rightist extremes. It is the people who matter, their wants and above all their peace and their loves. They become acerbic when there is constant playing with them. So we have come full circle. We need not wait and watch. We need not say fatuously that history repeats itself or will. As for northeast India, the mainstreaming has been achieved. Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and even Manipur have put the thumbs up symbol to the ruling party. No matter how much debate is raised about Hindutva and avowedly secular forc-

People vote for power, not ideas hoping to benefit the most from such power. This is irrespective of ideologies, even caste, community and religion. No matter how much we talk about a divided India, we now, after the 2019 elections, see a united India. es the political realm manifests in differing ways. People vote for power, not ideas hoping to benefit the most from such power. This is irrespective of ideologies, even caste, community and religion. No matter how much we talk about a divided India, we now, after the 2019 elections, see a united India. United in its stake and claims for better standards of living, and eking out more than two meals a day to live for the next. If these are met then even the bogey of rampant unemployment will be consigned to a myth. What the masses, and the poor want is the

touch stone with the government and how it can connect with them and touch their lives in a better way. In short snuff out the darkness from their tortured lives. By playing on majoritarian forces, the present incumbents of political power have ignored the minority but at the same time cleverly tagged the latter with the former. They have made it very clear that the former matters for them. They have avoided the debate on secularism and raised their own polemics of it. They are now even claiming that the minorities have voted for them as in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. This is “political love.” The grotesque irony is that many say that it is founded on discord, division and hate. It is going to take a long, long time for such a paradox to be resolved, if at all! In a strong way this mandate is certainly a mandate against an English-speaking ruling elite as Tavleen Singh has pointed out recently in an article. Well, the courier image has been used time and again to denote a legacy of a kingdom. That is fine but dictatorship of any form is certainly not welcome. What is welcome is secularism, upholding the Constitution and democracy. Many say that the time has come again for double talk and double speak. There can always be change. And the people can bring about transformational change. We have to accept the verdict as it is a people’s choice. And the people have to make it or break it. (The author, born and brought up in Shillong, is a retired Regional Director from IGNOU. Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Lecturer and Head Dept of English, St Edmund’s College Shillong) n

Letter to the Editor

It is demoralizing that even after three decades of altruistic service to the nation, the Kargil War veteran Md Sana Ullah was declared as a “foreigner” by the Foreigners’ Tribunal. This abhorrent proceeding that he dealt with befell on him although he had joined the Indian Army in 1987. He had also received a president’s certificate in 2014 when he was promoted. Post his retirement from the Army, he joined the Assam police and continued to serve the nation. He had also submitted all his legal documents to prove to the authorities that he is an Indian citizen in spite of which the tragic incident took place. About 44 people have seemingly killed themselves thus far, as their names were not included in the National Register of Citizens last year. For many the ordeal began when they were born as Muslims. Will our beliefs, doctrines and religion now be the premise of our citizenship in a secular country like India? Rifa Deka Royal Global University, Guwahati

In Focus

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

All you need to know about the oath taking ceremony of PM Modi

and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, YSR Congress party president and chief minister-designate YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi attended the ceremony. However, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, on May 29, announced that she would not attend Modi’s swearing-in ceremony citing politicisation of an “august occasion to celebrate democracy.”

he BJP parliamentary chairperson, Narendra Modi, was sworn-in as the 16th Prime Minister of India on May 30. Here are the details of this ceremonial affair:

The Venue:

The oath-taking ceremony was administered by President Ram Nath Kovind and the event took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7 pm. It should be mentioned that the ceremony traditionally takes place at Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Guests:

From political leaders to sportspersons and film stars, a record number of 8,000 guests attended the swearingin ceremony of Narendra Modi. Heads of state of 14 nations, ambassadors of various countries, public intellectuals, political activists, film stars and celebrities were present for the occasion. Heads of national and regional parties were also been invited, as were key senior politicians, according to The Economic Times. The following overseas leaders were present at the swearing-

Industrialists, sport stars and movie stars:

in ceremony: Md Abdul Hamid, President of Bangladesh, Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka, U Win Myint, President of Myanmar, the Hon. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, Rt Hon KP Sharma Oli, Prime Minister of Nepal, Dr Lotay Tshering, Prime Minister

of Bhutan and Grisada Boonrach, Special Envoy of Thailand. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina missed the ceremony for the second time as currently, she is on a three-nation foreign visit. The list of chief ministers who were invited included JD(S) leader

Industry bigwigs such as Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Ratan Tata were invited to the event. Business honchos Ajay Piramal, John Chambers and Bill Gates were also extended an invitation for the ceremony. IMF Managing Director and Chairman Christine Lagarde was also invited, according to sources. Former sprinter PT Usha, cricketers Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath,

Harbhajan Singh, badminton ace Saina Nehwal, badminton coach Pulella Gopichand and gymnast Dipa Karmakar were among the sports personalities invited to the ceremony. Several film stars, including Rajnikanth, Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar, Shahid Kapoor, Boney Kapoor, Jeetendra, Anil Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher etc were present at the ceremony.

On the menu: Rashtrapati Bhavan reportedly served high tea right after the swearing-in ceremony, followed by a light dinner for the visiting dignitaries. While the high tea included vegetarian fare ranging from samosas to Rajbhog and lemon tarts, the dinner included both vegetarian and nonvegetarian spreads. The President’s kitchen staff took into consideration that many visiting dignitaries were from countries to India’s east whose cuisines are usually not very rich or heavy and the timing of the event would have made it a rather late meal for them as compared to their local timings. The signature ‘Dal Raisina’ was the highlight of the dinner. The cooking of this speciality took 48 hours and the process to prepare it started on Tuesday night, May 28.

The city’s streets are plagued by unruly construction work leading to regular and massive traffic snarls on a daily basis. Guwahatians react! Jitupan Talukdar

Have been seeing this all over Guwahati, be it the main roads or the by-lanes. Another problem is that the debris is scattered all over the road which makes it dangerous for the two-wheelers. As the tires of two-wheelers are small therefore it creates a lot of problem to ride them. This is seriously not done. Proper action should be taken. Roads are to drive or ride and not for dumping all these debris and creating nuisance.

Pratik Dey

Nothing new, this is happening everywhere. In Kalapahar, Bhaskar Nagar businessmen are doing business by dumping all their materials on the road. GMC should take strict decision and action against these people. This is seriously not done. Who has given them the right to dump all these materials on the roads? The roads are for public and are not private property. I hope the ministers look into the matter as soon as possible.

Anurag Chakraborty

Thank god that G Plus has raised this issue on social media. Otherwise I have not seen any media house writing about this. Maybe because people of our city are very much satisfied with the work of the present government and don’t want to see the problems actually happening in our city. GS Road is a place where you can’t even think of going due to traffic jam starting from early morning hours to late night. I just simply don’t understand why these works can’t be done at night. Why create problems for the public? Why is there no proper planning and execution? And the scenario is the same in other parts of the city. First these contractors will take money and do some shoddy work and after a year the departments come up with another damage repairing initiative.

Pushpak Singhal

Why is everyone taking it in a wrong way? At least the workers of GMC are working hard. The roads of Sarania hill were a complete mess and now they have started repairing the roads. In a busy area they hardly get the night hours to finish the work. And it’s a big stretch. It’s not possible to complete the entire stretch in a day. Please have some patience. People have problems with everything. First they complain that roads are bad and now when they trying to repair it, people again have problems. Development will come with patience. And also we public should learn to cooperate if we want Guwahati to be a smart city in future.

Amit Bhattacharjee

That’s it? You should see the traffic in Bhangagarh or Lachit Nagar which takes more than 30 minutes to reach a particular destination. No one cares I feel. For what are they making the divider? While returning from office in evening time, one should see the traffic jam all over GS Road. It’s so exhausting. And what are the traffic police doing? Literally nothing. Smart city is nothing a silly initiative. No proper planning.

Dhiman Deka

The issue is that Guwahati is marching rapidly towards becoming a chaotic, unorganized and undisciplined city and is getting filled up with idiots, reckless drivers and fraudsters everywhere and we the indigenous citizens are slowly losing our identity as Guwahatians. I don’t have much to write as everyone can see what is actually happening in our city.

16 Feature

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Pressure all the way: White Coat Hypertension Harshita Himatsingka @HHimatsingka

as it ever happened to you? You’re feeling fine throughout the day, but then you have to visit the doctor for a consultation and all of a sudden you’re anxious? Don’t worry; you’re not the only one as there is a legitimate medical reason that defines this condition: white coat hypertension or white coat syndrome. The term for the same was coined by Thomas Pickering. It is a syndrome wherein people exhibit a blood pressure level above the normal range in a clin-

White coat syndrome is a syndrome wherein people exhibit a blood pressure level above the normal range in a clinical setting, although their blood pressure levels read fine in other normal settings. This phenomenon occurs due to anxiety that one faces during a visit to the doctor. ical setting, although their blood pressure levels read fine in other normal settings. This phenomenon occurs due to anxiety that one faces during a visit to the doctor. According to reports in a med-

ical journal, a patient’s daytime ambulatory blood pressure (which is defined as less than 130/80 mm Hg) is used as reference as it measures ordinary levels of daily stress. In an interesting turn of events, similar to this con-

dition, there is another condition called “masked hypertension” where a patient’s blood pressure is above the normal range during daily living but shows in the normal range when visiting a doctor or physician. “At first, neither I nor my family doctor knew that I was suffering from white coat hypertension. I had been to a number of doctors since then and every time, my blood pressure would be soaring high. However, when asked about symptoms in regard to high blood pressure, I had none of them. Then recently, a senior doctor told me about this condition. Following that, he checked my blood pressure three times and it was normal,

usually during the third try. I was also made to monitor my blood pressure for a day, which revealed normal pressure,” said a resident from Guwahati.

Defining Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a condition when the force of blood against the walls of the arteries in the body is higher than the normal rush, according to a report by Medical News Today. Based on the report, normal blood pressure levels can be found to be 120/80 millimetres of mercury (mmHg). For a person to have hypertension, they would have to have a blood pressure reading of 140/90 mmHg or more. Some doctors believe that white coat hypertension syndrome is a precursor to actual hypertension that is present in individuals with this condition. People affected by this are more likely to suffer from illnesses and diseases caused by blood pressure and also suffer from cardiovascular issues. “A lot of people, even some young adults, suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure because of the lifestyle people generally follow today. Our lifestyle has become so sedentary, we barely move and our eating habits have also been affected, again in turn because of our busy lifestyles. White coat hypertension occurs mainly because of anxiety or nervousness when visiting a doctor,” said a respected city doctor in Guwahati.

Treatment:

Given the tricky nature of this syndrome, treating it can be difficult most times since it’s difficult for doctors to get an accurate reading of blood pressure to determine if someone has hypertension, according to the report by Medical News Today. To diagnose and treat this symptom, doctors have to take multiple readings of an individual’s blood pressure. The patients may have to measure their blood pressure everyday using a home blood pressure monitor or an ambulatory blood pressure monitor (a device that is worn for a day or two) as proper diagnosis in such cases is crucial. After ascertaining the syndrome, doctors might prescribe medicines to treat high blood pressure symptoms. However, if prescribed medicines after being misdiagnosed, it could lead to a host of problems such as hypotension, which is caused when a person’s blood pressure drops below the normal range, which, by itself, is a dangerous condition to have.

Prevention:

Like it’s always said, prevention is better than cure. Thus, managing symptoms will go a long way

since suffering from high blood pressure or hypertension is not equivalent to living a healthy lifestyle. One can try and practice some relaxation techniques, like breathing exercises or meditation, that may help people calm

down before going to the doctor’s office. They may ask to be moved to a quieter room or place as the doctor’s office can be an intimidating place to be in. Thus, it can be important to manage white coat hypertension as the main complication related to this condition is hypertension itself, which causes a host of different illnesses and diseases. “I am so glad that this condition was identified so that now I can take the required precautions as my family and I were all panicking, which certainly did not help the condition. Since it is a common phenomenon, but not a commonly known syndrome, it is important for people to be aware about it,” said the Gwahatian. n

Guwahati boy seeks to highlight Assamese culture through his tattoo practice Srijit Banerjee @SrijitBanerjee

he tradition of inscribing tattoos is quite common among the tribes of the northeast - be it the Apatani and Singhpo tribes of Arunachal Pradesh or the Konyaks of Nagaland. But in Assam, tattooing, while being sometimes considered as taboo or as socially unacceptable, took time in gaining popularity. And to keep this momentum going, one young man, Bhagyaraj Baruah, popularly known as Akash, is making a unique attempt so that tattoos gain more popularity. Akash runs a tattoo studio in Panjabari area at Guwahati named “Xclusive Tattoos.” He focuses on tattoos based on Assamese culture and traditions. “Assamese cultural tattoos are my way of contributing towards the state,” said Akash. Akash said that he is trying to introduce a particular style of tat-

tooing in the state to make it more popular among the people and to change their mindset. He added, “Assam is rich in cultural heritage, so why not use those stories and mythologies in tattoos?” It all started in 2015, when Bhagyaraj Baruah aka Akash began working on Assamese script tattoos after he received a request from a client to do a tattoo of a rhino. That’s how he began working on these types of tattoos. “One particular guy asked me if I can tattoo a rhino on him and it was a really strange request for me because people usually ask for Chinese, American and Japanese designs. It was different which I really liked and after that I got a rhino tattoo for myself as well because it represents my state. Soon it struck me that we have so much to draw inspiration from. Say the Gamocha, Gohona, Lachit Borphukan, Sukapha, Bir Chilarai, we have so much to draw inspiration from these things. So why not use them in modern style of tattoo?” said Baruah.

Bhagyaraj was initially a painter; he drew inspiration from his late grandfather Sonit Kunwar Gajen Baruah who was an eminent artist and a cultural icon of the state. He said, “It was very unfortunate that I never met him. But while I was growing up, I was surrounded by his paintings and artworks in all rooms of our house and I drew inspiration from those for the first few years of my life.” “As I gradually began working on the tattoos, I started getting good responses from people. They began accepting this new style of tattooing and I was getting requests for these tattoos, which gives me hope of a better future for the art,” said Baruah. Baruah believes that bringing culture into an art form like tattooing will slowly change the mindset of the people in the state and remove any stigma that might continue to be around it. “I am a painter and I still paint. But 90 percent of the time I am tattooing because I love it. Some people have this thought that people with tat-

toos are social evils. That’s wrong. A guy who is in a suit might be involved in anti-social activity and a guy with a tattoo might be doing some great social work. If you have a tattoo and you are a bad

person, not having one doesn’t make you a saint either. So, that is mindset and the stigma that I want to change in the current society through this kind of cultural tattooing,” said Baruah. n

Trotter

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Video of restaurant employee’s bath in kitchen sink goes viral

man in Florida has lost his job after a video surfaced showing him bathing in the kitchen of a restaurant he worked at. The man, an employee of the American fast food restaurant chain Wendy’s, was filmed taking a bath in an industrial sink at the franchise’s Milton location. The video has gone massively viral online, collecting over a million views on Facebook and disgusting many patrons of the popular chain. The viral video shows the employee stepping into a sink of soapy water wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. Other employees

are heard laughing and cheering him on. Once inside, he proceeds to wash his armpits and comment on how warm the water is. After the video was shared online last week, it did not take long for it to go viral. So far, it has collected more than 1 million views and thousands of outraged

comments. “How stupid can people be?” questioned one commenter. “They all should be fired,” said another. The owners of the Wendy’s in Milton provided a statement about the incident. They termed the incident “unacceptable” and said: “We are taking this incident seriously and it is obviously totally unacceptable. This was a prank by a person who no longer works at this restaurant and who clearly did not use good judgment. We are taking this opportunity to reinforce our very strict quality procedures with our restaurant team.” (Source: ndtv)

Special gift for differently-abled delivery man brightens up Twitter

witter was all smiles after a differently-abled delivery executive for Zomato received an electric vehicle as a gift from the food delivery platform. Ramu Sahu from Bewar, Rajasthan, had gone viral on the internet earlier this month after a video of him using a handpowered tricycle to deliver food was shared widely online. After the video went viral, many called on Zomato to gift Sahu an electric vehicle, while others praised his resilience and willpower. On 28th May, the founder

and CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, announced that the company had gifted Sahu an electric vehicle to make his job easier. “Our delivery partner Ramu Sahu has gracefully accepted the electric vehicle that we were keen on him having,” wrote Goyal on Twitter, sharing pictures of Sahu on his new red vehicle. Sahu’s will to work had been widely praised online after a video of him using a tricycle on the job received lakhs of views.

Meanwhile, Zomato’s empowering gesture was praised by Twitter too. Zomato had earlier faced flak online after a video of a delivery executive eating a customer’s meal had caused massive outrage. (Source: hindustantimes)

Louisiana teen accepted into 139 colleges, awarded $8.7 million in scholarships

ost parents and guidance counsellors advise high school seniors to apply to more than one college — to have at least one “backup school.” Well, Normandie Cormier of Lafayette had more than 100 backups. She applied to schools through the Common App and the Common Black College App, which allows students to apply one time and have their information sent to hundreds of schools rather than apply 100 times. Cormier, 18, was accepted into 139 colleges across the country. She has two big binders filled with her acceptance letters in page protectors. The books sit among letters from the White House, schools and organizations like Burger King, GE and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation about awards and scholarships — $8.7 million in all. Her family’s kitchen table is

covered, as are her two graduation caps. The binders were her mom’s idea, even before she got one letter. Single mother Chantelle Gary has been intent on inspiring her children to dream big, work hard and believe. She wears a T-shirt that sums it up — “God. Goals. Grind.” “Sometimes you have to speak it into existence,” Gary said. “Be careful what you ask for.” Gary home-schooled her daughter for several years. Then the teen decided she wanted to try Early College Academy for high school.

The school, on the campus of South Louisiana Community College, offers an accelerated program in which students take two years of high school and two years of college courses. So on May 9, Cormier graduated twice, first in her burgundy cap and gown to receive her diploma from the academy and then in navy blue to receive an associate degree in general studies from SLCC. If that wasn’t enough, she’s an entrepreneur, tutoring kids and adults in her home and online, visiting a local nursing home, shadowing doctors as a hospital intern during the summer and mentoring girls about STEM education. Her mom home-schools about 12 kids in addition to her son, Payton. They’re always working, learning and volunteering, putting their business profits back into the community, Gary said. (Source: usatoday)

Bizarre #JCBKiKhudayi memes take over social media

f you’re active on social media, you may have noticed a strange hashtag that is trending. The hashtag - #JCBKiKhudayi has people sharing pictures of excavators and memes based on it. Bizarre, right? You’re not alone in thinking that. Literally translated to ‘JCB’s digging’, the #JCBKiKhudayi memes apparently began when Twitter users noticed videos of JCB excavators had collected millions of views on YouTube. Now these memes have taken on a life of their own on the microblogging website. The #JCBKiKhudayi memes have even been curated into their own Twitter Moment. While some used the hashtag to comment on the “joblessness” of

people watching JCB videos and making memes on them, others just jumped at the opportunity to create hilarious jokes. JC Bamford Excavators from UK, universally known as JCB, are the most wellknown excavators in India. In fact, the word JCB has now become synonymous with excavators. The #JCBKiKhudayi memes have prompted JCB to issue a statement on Twitter, thanking Indians for the love! (Source: indiatimes)

Brazilian bodybuilder risks his life by injecting himself with oil

Brazilian bodybuilder is risking his life by injecting oil into his biceps but continues to boost them to 23 inches. Valdir Segato, in his early 50s, has been using synthol injections for years despite risking strokes and infections to produce hulking biceps, pectorals and back muscles. Segato, from Sao Paulo, is inspired by the physiques of Arnold Schwarzenegger and fictional characters like The Hulk and is proud to be known locally as “the monster” on the street. Three years ago he was warned he faced amputation, but nerve damage and muscle disfigurement are at the minor scale of lethal health risks he faces. Segato, a construction worker, said in 2016, “They call me Hulk, Schwarzenegger and He-Man all the time and I like that. I’ve doubled my biceps but I still want to be bigger.” Today he proudly posts images and videos to social media, calling himself “Valdir Synthol” on Instagram. As a youth he was an emaciated skinny drug addict and lost so much weight he was known as “Skinny Dog.” According to Europe PubMed Central: “The side effects of synthol are manifold and they can also cause a damage of nerves, oil embolic of the pulmonary,

occlusion of the pulmonary artery, myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke and infectious complications.” The injections comprise 85 percent oil - often sesame oil is used - 7.5 percent lidocain, a painkiller, and 7.5 percent alcohol, used to sterilise the concoction. In addition, the results are purely cosmetic and do not make Segato any stronger. Three years ago he was warned that his continued use could result in amputation. His friend Fernando Carvalho da Silva, had said back then, “The oil thing is stupidity. He thinks it’s good and I’m a friend so I stay quiet, but deep down I want to tell him to stop but he doesn’t want to. He’s happy like that.” It’s the risk he takes - he wants to look good and wants to be famous. Segato had said at the time, “The doctors tell me to stop it, the advice they give me is to stop using. But it’s my decision to use it because I want to, because I like to.” (Source: dailymail)

18 Review

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Starring: Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance Director: Michael Dougherty

Cinepolis, Christian Basti 09435025808

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters (English)

Aladdin, (English) 3D 03:00 PM

PM Narendra Modi 08:15 PM

09:20 AM, 12:15 PM, 12:40 PM, 03:15 PM, 06:05 PM, 09:00 PM

Movie Review

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters 06:25 PM

India’s Most Wanted 12:25 PM

PM Narendra Modi 12:05 PM, 08:40 PM John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum (English) 09:15 AM, 03:00 PM De De Pyaar De 09:30 AM, 06:05 PM, 09:00 PM Aladdin, 3D

Godzilla II: King of the Monsters

ixty-five years and 35 films. That’s not bad for a giant that started out as a man in a rubber suit in 1954. But now that we are into the 35th, it is time to repeat, ‘Please, let the godzilla go’. Particularly as the central premise of Godzilla II is posing this question, repeatedly, that given how we have treated the planet, who deserves this Earth more: them or us? Now that we are officially into the Anthopocene epoch, to reflect how the Earth has been shaped by human activity, Hollywood blockbusters too have been popping up this question with rising frequency. Here, the top

villain is an “eco-terrorist”, Jonah (Dance), seeking to wreak mayhem “to restore the Earth’s balance”. The idea, to cut a long story short, is to unleash the giants — who have been “contained” at sites across the world, by secretive governments — in the hope that they will kill enough people for the survivors to live happily ever after. The thought isn’t original, but in all honestly, you can’t say you have seen this movie before. It’s imagination gone wild, in kinds, numbers, types, scales of giants, who clash everywhere from Mexico to Antarctica, and from underwater (in an Atlantistype city, but “way, way older”) to up in the air. All of it is bathed in

this uniform, dull grey that makes things hard to decipher, and harder to care for. The ensemble of well-known actors are caught in an even weirder human story, particularly the family of Mark (Chandler), Emma (Farmiga) and daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things). The last time round, in 2014, the parents had lost a son to a godzilla attack. And here they are, in the midst of it all again, with “bisonar” control devices, “oxygen destroyers”, Earth extinction theories, and luck that should have run out long ago. Review inputs taken from The Indian Express. n

Grande Cines, Paltan Bazar 09854017771

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters (English) 10:15 AM, 12:45 PM, 03:15 PM Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters 06:00 PM

PM Narendra Modi 12:30 PM, 05:30 PM, 08:45 PM Aladdin 03:00 PM

De De Pyaar De

05:50 PM

08:15 PM

Aladdin (English), 3D 09:50 AM, 03:35 PM, 09:20 PM NGK (Tamil)

PVR Cinemas, Dona Planet

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Anuradha Cineplex, Noonmati 0361 2656968

Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters (English) 12:15 PM

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Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters

12:00 PM

05:30 PM

02:55 PM

PM Narendra Modi

Redmi Note 7S Review

edmi has been Xiaomi’s budget series for a long time now. It is also one of the most popular smartphone series in the country. In order to stay ahead of the competition, Xiaomi has consistently been launching new smartphones in the Redmi series. The Chinese smartphone maker has introduced yet another smartphone in this series, dubbed the Redmi Note 7S for Rs. 11,499. Design and Specifications: The Redmi Note 7S looks exactly the same as the Redmi Note 7 as well as the Redmi Note 7 Pro. Like its siblings, the Redmi Note 7S has a glass sandwich design with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 at the front and the back. This helps give the phone a premium look and feel which isn’t very common at this price point. While the glossy back looks premium, it is a fingerprint magnet and picks up grease very easily.

All three models sport big displays with tiny notches, and Xiaomi’s name for this is “Dot Notch”. The frame is still made out of plastic and the button placement is identical. We found the power button easy to reach, while the volume buttons were a bit too high in comparison. All buttons have good tactile feedback. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top along with an IR emitter and secondary microphone. The IR emitter is a nifty feature and lets you control appliances using the Mi Remote app that comes preinstalled. At the bottom, this phone has a USB Type-C port along with two grilles on either side, of

which only the right one houses a loudspeaker. On the left, the Redmi Note 7S has a hybrid dual-SIM tray, so you’ll either be able to use two Nano-SIMs or one SIM along with a microSD card. A hybrid dualSIM slot is a little disappointing, considering that a dedicated microSD card slot is standard in some competing devices. Specifications and Software: The borders around the 6.3-inch display are noticeable, especially at the bottom and around the camera notch. The display itself sports a full-HD+ (1080x2340 pixels) resolution and has a maximum brightness of 450nits which is good enough when using this phone outdoors. The display has good viewing angles and colour reproduction. There are different display modes to choose from, and you can also adjust the colour temperature to suit your liking.

The Redmi Note 7S is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, which it shares with the Redmi Note 7. Xiaomi offers the Redmi Note 7S in two variants, one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage priced at Rs. 10,999, and

the higher-end one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage variant priced at Rs. 12,999. The Redmi Note 7S variants command a Rs. 1,000 premium over their equivalent Redmi Note 7 variants. Connectivity options on the Redmi Note 7S include dual-band WiFi 8022.11ac, Bluetooth, four satellite navigation systems, and dual 4G VoLTE. Verdict: The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7S and Note 7 are nearly identical when it comes to their hardware with the main difference being their rear camera modules. If you don’t really care about camera performance, the Redmi Note 7 offers the same experience at lower prices. Review inputs taken from NDTV Gadget. n

Fiction

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

The Case of the Impounded Tea Truck

he annual Pujas were a time of great festivities at the tea gardens. We had already celebrated the Durga Puja festival in our garden property near the Manas Sanctuary. Now it was the Kali Puja festival time and this Puja would be conducted at our other garden in Gohpur. My elder brother and family were visiting the estate to attend this annual function. This also coincided with the annual bonus payments which had been disbursed and the entire workforce was in a festive mood. The

and we all heaved a sigh of relief when the last batch of green leaves got processed. After attending the Puja for a while we watched the drive-in movie in the garden football field after which I made my mandatory last check in the factory and retired for the night. Next morning, around five, I was woken up by the bungalow chowkidar. He informed that some policemen had come to the factory and were waiting for me. I quickly got ready and went to the factory where one central excise officer and a few police from

The author with the Kanaklata painting drawn by Abhoy Dowerah garden would be closed for two days and the workers’ committee had arranged for screening three nights of consecutive cinema shows. In those days, there used to be the touring cinema shows held once a month and two firms from Tezpur and Bishwanath Charali provided this service. All gardens celebrated either the Durga Puja or the Kali Puja and during this time it was difficult to conduct the tea manufacturing as the factory workers would be absent not wanting to miss the first night’s double show. So most gardens adopted measures like sending the factory workers to see a movie later in the movie hall in Charali or pay some incentive money. But consuming liquor which would flow like water in these festival days created last minute problems

the local thana were busy checking the tea despatch papers. Last evening we had sent a tea truck to the Guwahati tea auction centre and apparently the truck was not carrying some important excise papers which came to light when the vehicle was stopped near the town of Jamuguri by an officer called Chatterjee. He had sent the truck to the police station there and had come to the garden hoping to make a big case; in fact, we found out later from the newspaper that he had already inserted a news item in the papers that a truck of our garden was apprehended carrying teas avoiding the paying of excise duty. On scrutiny, I found that our trusted and most faithful excise clerk, who was also one of the authorised signatories to sign the tea despatch papers,

Excise Commissioner Abhoy Dowerah and I made a couple of visits to martyr Kanaklata’s house to meet her sisters who were alive then. He used to make them pose for him while he sketched their face profiles from different angles to get an idea for drawing Kanaklata as correctly as possible. forgot to tear off the papers from the excise payment book and give to the truck driver. The pressures of the Puja and movie must have caused him to overlook this simple but important point. I showed the written but untorn leaves in the book to the officer but he was unmoved and made the police write an FIR of the case but I insisted that they also mention that by mistake the papers were not handed over and there was no mala fide intention on our part. The local police knew our credentials but could not convince Mr Chatterjee to drop the case. As soon as they left I comforted the distraught staff member and told him to get ready as I planned to go immediately to Tezpur to meet the excise commissioner there to explain the matter to him. I was lucky to meet the commissioner, Mr Abhoy Dowerah, as they were also actually closed for the Kali Puja holidays but he was there with a skeleton staff to attend to any emergency. I explained our matter to him as lucidly as I could and he gave me a very patient hearing. It was crucial for us that he did not close down the factory tea despatches for this mistake of the staff concerned and he seemed convinced that it was indeed a genuine human error. Just then I noticed a nice drawing of a woman on his table which he had made and he was in fact studying the same when I had entered his room. I casually enquired about the drawing and he told me that he was a painter and the Assam government had asked him to make a painting of Kanaklata Barua, a famous young woman

Ranjan Kumar Choudhury ranjanchou@hotmail.com

freedom fighter from the village of Barangabari near our garden. As luck would have it, I was an oil painter and our common interest in art led to a discussion on the subject. I had quite a few of my finished portraits at my garden bungalow and he told me that he would be visiting me in the garden in a day or two and to expect him for lunch. I further requested him to kindly unload our teas in a tea garden godown of his choice and not in the godown of the private trading shop at Jamuguri where Chatterjee was planning to; I knew that this shop owner was indulging in buying stolen garden teas. I was sure that our teas would get pilfered. In fact, Dowerah told me later that the department was suspecting that the two were in a nexus in this business of selling stolen teas and Chatterjee was always on the lookout for any opportunity just as in our case. He very kindly agreed to my request and instructed his junior to see that our tea truck was unloaded in the Sessa tea factory near Tezpur. As planned he came to our garden and checked our books and found that the case was indeed one of human error and did not impose any embargo on making further tea despatches but as the case was registered he would have to go though the procedure and would have to keep the teas in custody till settlement of the case. From this visit onwards we became quite close due to our common love for painting and he requisitioned my help in his job of getting the correct picture of Kanaklata as the government was planning to erect and install a statue to honour this famous young martyr at Gohpur town. A second statue was also to be

who had gone to raise the Indian flag in Gohpur on 20th September 1942 she was shot dead in the police firing. She was only around 17 years old at that time. So from that time Dowerah would always stay with me on his visits to our area and we made a couple of visits to Kanaklata’s house to meet her sisters who were alive then. He used to make them pose for him while he sketched their face profiles from different angles to get an idea for drawing Kanaklata as correctly as possible. We spent long evenings and early mornings drawing her face, and her figure with the Tricolour till it became a labour of love for me. An old photo of this painting is shown here for ready reference. In the meantime, after three months, the case of the impounded tea truck was resolved in our favour and a fine of Rs 300/- was imposed for our mistake. I went to the Sessa tea factory and took delivery of the teas after paying a small amount for the storage of the teas. The best thing about this was that these teas got sold in the late season in the month of February for which we realised much better prices than we would have under normal circumstances. After all this trouble I was indeed very happy at having made a good friend in Mr Abhoy Dowerah and it was a great sense of achievement for me when the statue finally got erected based on the portrait made in my bungalow. However, there was a delay in the actual construction of the statue and Mr Dowerah had been transferred during this period. I too left our garden to be based at Guwahati in 1981 when it was finally put up at the designated sites. The case of the impounded tea truck

erected near the highway in front of her village. Kanaklata had joined the Quit India movement and while leading a group of the Mrityu Bahini

will be forever etched in my mind as it threw up a lot of twists and turns that I experienced in life. n

20 Fun Jayashree Bose

4th June will be a great day to schedule important meetings & share your ideas with seniors. On 3rd June, you will be emotionally hurt by your colleagues or superiors. On 2nd June, you could have a fall out with a superior, someone at work or extended family. Avoid drinking with workmates, seniors or extended family on 5th June. June 3rd, 4th, 6th & 7th will be great days for you to connect with seniors & share ideas with them; you could host important meetings on these dates. Avoid hosting any important meetings on 5th June. You will feel emotionally hurt on 2nd June, could be your extended family or workmates.

5th & 7th June will be great days to build a rapport with seniors & people at work, & host important meetings. On 2nd June, avoid any get together with your workmates or extended family. Lay low on 3rd June, as you are bound to have disagreement with people at work or there could be changes in your work place. 4th & 5th June will be great days to share ideas with your seniors & build a relationship with them; host important meetings on these dates. On 6th June, be careful of your words & actions, you could have issues at work with your seniors or clients. On 3rd & 6th June, be careful of what you say, avoid promising anything.

Certified Feng Shui, Chinese astrology, date selection consultant & author, jbose@jayashreebose.com

Sudoku

Host a Sunday brunch or get together either with extended family workmates. Use June 6th & 7th to host your meetings, share ideas with superiors & network with business associates. Avoid hosting any meetings on 4th June as you are bound to have disagreements. On 1st June, you will feel others are ungrateful, especially your seniors or parents.

3rd, 4th, 5th June will be excellent days for you to schedule important meetings. Your seniors will be receptive to your ideas, you could promote yourself on social media, reach out to others & grow your network. On 2nd June, try to keep a low profile, it will be a slow day. Avoid hosting any meetings especially with your seniors on 7th June as you are bound to have disagreements.

5 9 5 7 6 1 8 4 5 8 6 3 9 7 1 7 9 4 6 3 3 5 4 2 5 3 6 9 1 2 7 Daily Sudoku: Thu 30-May-2019

4 3

7 7 3 9

9 5 7 2 4 6 5 2 8 5 7 5 9 6 7 4 2 3 5 9 very hard 4 5 3 1

These predictions are based on the month of birth and are about an individual’s work environment, parents and extended family.

Daily Sudoku: Wed 22-May-2019

3rd, 6th & 7th June will be great days to share your ideas with seniors or simply just connect with them. You could schedule important meetings on these dates. Be careful of your words & actions on 2nd June, as you could create your own problems. 1st & 2nd June will be slow days.

2nd & 7th June will be great days to build a rapport with seniors & people at work, host important meetings on this day. Go out for a Sunday brunch or coffee on 2nd June; just connect with your parents or superiors. 3rd June will be a slow day for you. Avoid promising anything on 6th June, as you will have problems.

If you want to go for a short holiday, then this is the perfect week to do so. It will be an uneventful week & things will just not move the way you want. If you are unable to take off for the week, then avoid doing anything important that might affect your career growth. 4th June will be a slow day for you.

On 6th June, be careful while dealing with your parents or superiors, as they might hurt you emotionally. 5th June will be a slow day for you. This is just not your week but don’t worry next week will be better.

Host a Sunday get together for your work mates or extended family. Be careful of what you promise on 3rd June, as you will have to uphold it. On 5th June, you could be emotionally hurt by someone at work or your extended family, avoid trusting others with your secrets. 6th May will be a slow day for you.

2nd & 3rd June are ideal days to mingle with seniors, people at work & build your work network. Host a brunch/evening coffee, invite seniors or just catch up with your parents on 2nd June. Avoid hosting any meetings on 1st June, things will not go according to plan. On 4th June, you could feel hurt by words & actions of someone at work or extended family.

Dilbert By Scott Adams

Quarks, elementary particles of matter

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

curio-city

Identify this fighter aircraft, the most produced fighter aircraft in history.

White Christmas

Which national newspaper was founded by Ayurvedic doctor, P Varadurujulu Naidu in Chennai in 1932?

The Barak River

adjective verb [foh-ment] [nak-erd]

Which Jaipur-based female 10-metre air rifle shooter recently won the gold medal at the ISSF World Cup held in Delhi?

foment knackered

Apurvi Chandela

It is known as Vourei in Manipur. Near its source, it receives a lot of streams, including the Gumti, Howrah, Kagni, Senai Buri, Hari Mangal, Kakrai, Kurulia, Balujhuri, Shonaichhari and Durduria. What are we talking about?

Indian Express

easy

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

Word of the week

Which song was written by Irving Berlin at the La Quinta Resort, Hollywood in December 1940 that was made famous by Bing Crosby and is the highest selling single of all time?

Messerschmitt Bf109, the backbone of the Luftwaffe in

2 8 4 5 3 6 7 9 1 Daily Sudoku: Wed 22-May-2019

George Zweig had named them “Aces,” what did Murray Gell Mann name them?

9 last 3 5week 7 8solution 2 6 1 4 2 1 8 5 4 6 7 9 3 9 4 1 6 5 7 3 8 2 7 6 4 3 1 9 5 8 2 5 7 2 1 8 3 6 4 9 4 5 2 1 6 8 3 7 9 8 6 3 9 4 2 1 5 7 6 7 1 9 5 3 2 4 8 7 2 9 4 6 8 5 1 3 3 8 9 2 7 4 1 6 5 3 5 6 7 9 1 4 2 8 8 2 6 4 3 1 9 5 7 4 1 8 3 2 5 9 7 6 5 4 3 6 9 7 8 2 1 6 9 7 8 1 4 2 3 5 1 9 7 8 2 5 4 3 6 1 Sudoku: 3 Thu 5 30-May-2019 2 7 9 8 6 very4hard Daily

http://www.dailysudoku.com/

World War 2

curio-city

easy

to instigate British Slang. or foster (discord, exhausted; rebellion, very tired etc.).

Crossword Across

Down

1 Loosely woven cloth from Scotland (6,5) 9 Impromptu (9) 10 Animal (with nine nine tails?) (3) 11 Himalayan country (5) 13 Excellent — shining bright? (7) 14 On ship (6) 15 Purist (6) 18 Arctic deer — a Rio cub (anag) (7) 20 Best possible (5) 21 See 23 22 Fling (9) 24 Fifth book of the Bible

Horoscope of the week

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

2 Fit (3) 3 Person whose speech is not well organised (7) 4 Married partner (6) 5 In which position? (5) 6 Acquit — clear (9) 7 Entertainment area with coin-operated machines (5,6) 8 Narrator (11) 12 TV show (9) 16 Issue (7) 17 Male domestic servant (6) 19 Bathroom basin (5) 23, 21 UK resident who the tax man accepts as having their "true" home elsewhere (abbr) (3-3)

Last week’s solution

Lifestyle

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Vaastu and the significance of a nameplate Hemanta Kumar Sarmah Engineer, Businessman, Advanced Pranic Healer and Su Jok Acupressure specialist.

nameplate or door plate is primarily used to identify a house. It can be fixed on the main door, gate or on the pillar of the main gate. People also put names or addresses on a letter box. For some, the nameplate can also serve as a décor element, which reflects the home owner’s style sensibilities. They come in various styles, such as modern, abstract and inscribed with religious symbols. The material of the nameplate will depend on the suitability of the metal in the aforesaid direction. For example, a metal nameplate is recommended if the door is in the north or west direction. Use a wooden nameplate if the door is in the south or east direction. It is also good to decorate a home’s entrance with pictures or statues of Lord Ganesha or auspicious signs such as Om, or the Swastika or even some shlokas or religious words. A well decorat-

ed nameplate brings name and fame, besides attracting positive energy.

Following are some rules that you should keep in mind when selecting a nameplate: Always have a nameplate on the main door or the adjoining wall depending on the availability of space which attracts prosperity, opportunities and well-being. Ensure that the nameplate is large enough to write one’s name or surname, the house number and it is legible from at least a foot or two away.

Old and worn out nameplates should be replaced immediately. If the name wears off, it signifies the state of the owner.

n any Indian festival, having desserts is an important part of the festivities. So, we bring you the recipe of an all-time favourite dessert, Phirni.

Ingredients:

Milk: 1 litre Condensed milk: Half Can Sugar: 100 grams or as required Cashews nuts: 7-8 Almonds: 8-10 Pistachios: 8-10. Rose (dry): 1 tbsp Rose petal: One Silver Waraq: 1-3 Saffron: 7-8 Cardamom powder: 1 tsp Rose water: 1 tbsp Rice powder: 3-4 tbsp

It is inauspicious to have black ants on the nameplate. If you have a wooden nameplate, use pest control to ward off insects.

The nameplate should not be directly in front of the staircase or lift. This adheres to the Vaastu principle that the main door should not be in front of a staircase or lift which causes a block. So, it implies that there should not be any cleaning object like a broom or a dustbin near the nameplate.

Metallic names are fixed on wooden nameplates in many cases. If any letter falls off, it is a bad omen. It should be repaired immediately. It is believed to be auspicious to tip the person who makes the nameplate. If the name is written on a letter box, make sure that no birds, insects or animals build their nest there.

The colour of the nameplate should be according to the zodiac sign of the owner.

The design chosen for the nameplate should match the main door.

Ideally, the nameplate should be fixed on the left hand side of the main door.

The main door, as well as the nameplate, should be well-lit.

It should be placed at more than half of the height of the main door.

Do not make designs of birds or animals on the nameplate.

The nameplate should be fixed firmly so that it does not move.

The name should be always legible and clearly written.

It is believed to be lucky to have circular, triangular or irregular

There should not be any hole on the nameplate.

Keep the nameplate stylish but simple. Do not clutter it with too many designs, engravings and idols of deities. Ensure that the nameplate is

Iss Eid, kuch meetha ho jai Shimu Dutta

More than one nameplate is not desirable. If required, then the nameplate on top should be smaller than the one below.

regularly cleaned and is dustfree.

powder in the boiling milk, stir constantly to avoid lumps. Add sugar and stir again. Reduce flame and add the condensed milk and dry fruits.

Hindus believe that after fixing a new nameplate, the lady of the house should touch it for good luck as she is supposed to be a form of Goddess Lakshmi.

shaped nameplates.

Whenever any ritual is performed in the household, the holy water should be sprinkled on the nameplate.

You could hear a heartbeat The stream was a lullaby Heard before the day it died

Remove from heat. Cool and put it in the refrigerator.

Hilly streams have stories told

Garnish with saffron strands, silver waraq, or leaves, dry petals or rose petals and some pistas.

Craggy corners, mountains old... The last song was heard today, The sky was dark, and was gray, If asked, it would tell us why That it chose today to die... The moment love failed to see Waiting; a flower and me

Method:

The moment the stream dried up,

Take the rice powder in a bowl, add a few drops of milk.

Only tears now fill my cup...

Boil the milk

Now, add the rice

Arunav Barua

22 Buzz

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

City school wins Teaching Excellence Award

oyal Global School was awarded the “Teaching Excellence Award” by International School Awards 2019 on 25 May 2019. The award was given away by Dr Attaullah Wahidyar, senior advisor, ministry of education, Afghanistan and Dr Deepak Vohra, special advisor to the Prime Minister of Lesotho and GuineaBissau and director of Chitkara University. This was the third edition of the International School Awards. Over 500 schools, 1000+ educators and 100+ Education Startups across the globe were present at the event. The program celebrated and rewarded the schools’ contributions by introducing premium educational institutions and reformists from all across the globe under

one roof. The event was also a platform where educationists, government ministry, schools, industry influencers and educational companies got to connect. There were more

he Eco Club of Don Bosco School, Panbazar organized an interschool event, “Ecofest 2019” on May 25. The event was organized to highlight the importance of spreading awareness on various environmental issues and motivating the youth of Guwahati to join hands

the Northeast Chapter of the UN Council, Dr Ashwini Sharma, spoke of the importance of working hard and making the world a better place. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Forces, AM Singh was the chief guest for the evening. A short seminar was also conducted by Padma Shri Awardee, Jadav Payeng,

and work together for the betterment of the world’s environmental state. Some of the campaigns that were a part of this event included the #BYOB, “Bring Your Own Bottles,” which sought to refuse the use of plastic bottles during the event. The guest of honor, Head of

also known as the Forest Man of India. The event featured various competitions that included doodle art competition, photography competition, quiz competition and battle of the bands. During the closing ceremony, Faculty High School was awarded the “Best School” award. n

than 40 highly influential speakers and experts from the domains of politics, bureaucracy, corporate sector, art, media, entertainment and entrepreneurship that were invited to participate. n

City school students take part in “Green Hub Festival” in Tezpur

tudents from Sanskriti the Gurukul participated in the “Green Hub Festival,” in Tezpur on May 16. This is an annual festival organized by the Green Hub, the first youth and community fellowship and video documentation centre for recording the environment, wildlife and people’s biodiversity in northeast India. A group of 25 students from classes 10 to 12 of the department of environmental science attended the event. It was a three-day event which included film screenings, interactions with experts, presentations and discussions, students’ activities and 360-degree virtual reality exhibition. This year, students from Sanskriti were invited to present the work done by the school in the field of conservation of environment and community involvement. The students presented a PowerPoint Presentation, followed by a recitation and Nukkad Natak that was a part of their recent Citizen Science and Community Involvement Programme, “A Call for Vultures.” n

DBS celebrates “Ecofest 2019” to spread awareness on environment

Guwahati students part of international strike against impact of global warming

wo students from Guwahati, Bidisha Ghoshal and Mriganka Das, have initiated to

activists and people from different walks of life participated in the strike. “Everyone who showed up to

take part in the global strike against the impact of global warming. On May 24, 2019, a global strike was called for by 16-yearold climate activist from Sweden, Greta Thunberg, to protest against climate change inaction. The strike took place in 1,623 places, in 119 countries around the world. The city duo’s strike was also part of this major global movement. Several students, budding

be part of this event in Guwahati is not only conscious about the environment, but is also working hard to abolish the impact of global warming from this planet,” said Ghoshal. The duo has pledged to continue this strike every Friday. n

Entertainment

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

Assamese playwright Rajdweep Assam filmmakers win wins ‘Best Play of the Year’ award ‘Best Film Award’ in Hungary

rominent playwright and lyricist from Assam, Rajdweep, has been conferred with the 2018-19 “Best Play of the Year” award for his play, Bondookor Kobita by the All Assam Sahitya Sanmilan. This play was written for Hengool Theatre, the prominent mobile theatre group, and is dedicated to the memory of Prashanta Hazarika and Ila Kakati, two of Assamese culture’s prominent figures. It features powerful content and dialogues. It is a love story in the backdrop of the insurgency problem in Assam. The play was also awarded the

F “Best Drama” award. Earlier, Rajdweep had written lyrics for Assamese and Bollywood movies such as Jagga Jasoos, A

Rupam Sarmah who is US-based. He is also a musician, singer and songwriter and originally hails from Jorhat, Assam.

conservationist based in Kaziranga, who dedicated his life towards the

from Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The e ight minute 32 second short documentary is about the life and work of Manoj Gogoi, a

rescue and rehabilitation of snakes and birds in particular. The short documentary has been screened in many prestigious film festivals prior to this.

Death in the Gunj etc. He was also honoured by Bollywood superstar, Aamir Khan for his screenplay, Ishqology.

Rupam Sarmah’s movie wins 3 Telly Awards in the US US-based Assamese filmmaker’s movie, One Little Finge r has won three awards at the 40th Telly Awards 2019, which is the world’s largest honour for video and television content across all screens. The film won the award for “Best Use of Music (Gold),” “Best Direction (Bronze)” and “Best Public Interest/Awareness (Bronze).” Speaking at an event, Sabrina Dridje, Managing Director of the Telly Awards said, “This movie is pushing the boundaries for video and television innovation and creativity at a time when the industry is rapidly changing. This award is a tribute to the talent and vision of its creators and a celebration of the diversity of work being made today for all screens.” The film is a narrative feature which brought awareness about disability and human rights, and promoted inclusion and diversity. The filmmaker in question is

ilmmakers from Assam, Dhritiman Kakati and Raktim Hazarika’s short documentary, The Man who Speaks Nature have won the “Best Film Award” at the 5th International Nature Film Festival, Godollo. The film festival was held from May 23 to May 27 at Godollo, a town located about 30 kilometres

Rima Das’ Bulbul Can Sing to feature in BIFF 2019

ima Das’ film Bulbul Can Sing is all set to screen at the Birmingham Indian Film Festival 2019 in the England on June 27. The film has already been screened at various film festivals across the world and has also won many awards. In a tweet to the organisers of the festival, Das wrote on Twitter, “I had a wonderful time screening #VillageRockstars here last year and interacting with

people. It’s my pleasure to be back.” The Birmingham Indian Film Festival 2019 will be held from 20th June to 1st July in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

24 Catching Up

G PLUS | June 1 - June 7, 2019

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