21st march

facebook.com/easterntoday

@easterntoday

For business, mail at: md.easterntoday@gmail.com

cmyk

cmyk

www.eastern-today.com

ASSENG/2015/64205

ET CAPSULES

BCYA demands operation of BFCat Hollongi Itanagar, Mar 20 : The Balijan Circle Youth Association (BCYA) today drew the attention of the Commissioner of the Department of Tax & Excise, Itanagar towards the operation of the Border Facilitation Counter (BFC) at Hollongi in a makeshift building.

The association claimed that the department has rented a private building to manage the affairs of the BFC despite the availability of office building and check gate against Hollongi as on record, thereby imposing extra and unsolicited financial burden on the state exchequer.

Citing that Hollongi is strategically important in terms of transit of goods into the state, BCYA president Kuru Joram appealed to the commissioner to take stock of the situation and take necessary action at the earliest.

“It will play a major role and contribute in strengthening the state exchequer as the long awaited 4-lane Highway Project of Hollongi to Itanagar is also nearing its completion”, added Joram. (Staff Reporter)

Money Seized Again Golaghat, Mar 20: Today the Patrolling party again seized thousands of rupees. As per the information one fish dealing businessman named Riyazudin was travelling from Mariani to Nagaon in his vehicle, bearing No AS-21-C-4035 with cash worth rupees 50000 which was caught during patrolling at Amolapatty. However the person claimed that the amount was meant for business payment. However inquiry is on.

(Correspondent)

Defeated Panchayat poll candidate vents anger on voter New Delhi, Mar 20 : A resident of Rana Gaon under Gonda police station in Aligarh District of Uttar Pradesh has claimed that a Panchayat poll candidate allegedly beat him up mercilessly on March 15 for not voting for him.

A case has been registered at the Gonda police station under sections 323, 504, 336 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code.

The victim claimed that the accused, who lost the polls, beat him black and blue on March 15 as he refused to vote for him in the elections, which took place two months back.

Accused Chatrapal Singh is the younger brother of local goon Chob Singh.

According to the victim, he had worked for Chatrapal, but had not been paid; so, when the accused asked him to vote in his favour, he denied. And, when the accused came face to face with the victim on March 15 he beat in a feat of anger, the victim alleged.

Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Rural) Brajesh Kumar Singh said actions will be taken against the accused once the medicals report of the victim are received. He said the matter would be investigated accordingly. (ANI)

Vol. 1

Issue 284

Dibrugarh, Monday, March 21, 2016

Price -

BJP poised for ‘a decisive victory’ in Assam : Arun Jaitley

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is set to return to his adopted state as Congress's star campaigner in this election. The eminent economist has been represent-

A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Mar 20

Arun Jaitley I think the Congress has lowered its level of ambition and is quite content to become a tail of the alliance."

Jaitley also spoke on the situation in Uttarakhand after nine Congress legislators rebelled against Chief Minister Harish Rawat and joined hands with the BJP. "There was a deep division in the Congress in Uttarakhand and it should not be attributed to the BJP," he said.

He criticised Uttarakhand Speaker G.S. Kunjwal for his decision to pass the budget by voice vote. The two-day BJP meet will conclude on Sunday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Assam on Saturday met representatives of political parties and discussed issues related to conducting the Assembly election next month in a free and fair manner.

The representatives appraised CEO Vijayendra of several issues that might crop up during the elections and steps that needed to be taken, an official release said.

The CEO said that the election department is taking all possible steps and ensured the parties that polls will be conducted in a free and fair manner.

Vijayendra also briefed them about the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners' scheduled visit to the state next week.

The two-phase Assembly election in the state will be held on April 4 and 11.

ing the state in the Rajya Sabha for five terms since 1991. His current term will end in 2019.

"Manmohan Singh is a true representative of the state in Parliament. It was during his tenure as Prime Minister that the state's development took off. He is our star campaigner,

Models walk the ramp during a fashion show in Jorhat. Pic - UB Photos

Let your dream find a way to cherish with

IIT-JEE (Main & Advanced), AIPMT & CEE

Contd. on Page 4

A Staff Reporter Itanagar, Mar 20

Contd. on Page 3

Ahead of the Assam assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi along with election commissioners will commence a two-day visit to the state tomorrow to review the poll preparation.

The Congress released its first list of 65 candidates, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 88 candidates for the polls.

In Assam, polling for the first phase of polls will be held on April 4 in 65 seats.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on March 19, while March 21 is the last date of withdrawal of nominations.

Assam has a total of 1 crore 98 lakh voters. Boats, buses, elephants and helicopters will be pressed into service to ferry men and materials during polls.

The Election Commission has announced two-phase voting for the 14th Assam assembly elections on April 4 and 11, while the votes will be counted on May19.

The tenure of the Tarun Gogoi Government comes to an end in June.

along with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi," Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Anjan Dutta said. The dates and venues of his campaign have not been decided yet.

Barua to make a film on Arunachal within Arunachal Pradesh with Arunachali and Mumbai actors At the request of the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Shri JP Rajkhowa, internationally renowned film maker of North East, Shri Jahnu Barua is going to take up a film project for the benefit of cinema of the State. He will be coming up with some ideas in a couple of months to make a film on Arunachal within Arunachal Pradesh with Arunachali and Mumbai actors.

BEAUTY WITH TRADITION

A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Mar 20

Former PM Manmohan Singh set to return to his adopted state Assam as Congress's star campaigner A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Mar 20

Ph & Fax: 03771 248 025 - (M) 98540 44560, 94356 98632, 94011 27020

www.pragjyotika.org.in - email: contact@pragjyotika.org.in

Why Pragjyotika...

Regular 03 HRs Schooling Classes Regular 04-30 Hrs Coaching Classes One to One interaction with faculties Daily Practice Papers

Screening & Scholarship Test for Foundation Course Based on Class-10 Syllabus

Admission Procedure : Written test Based on Class-10 Syllabus - Objective type Screening & Scholarship Test Date: For SEBA: 12-03-2016 Onwards, For CBSE: 23-03-2016 Onwards.

Class Commencement : 01.04.16 Governor JP Rajkhowa with internationally renowned film maker of North East Jahnu Barua in Itanagar

Only Coaching Institute in the region run by permanent (IIT-JEE Advanced) Level Experienced Faculties

In a bid to create awareness on consumer rights, the Department of Legal Metrology and Consumer Affairs organised a mini marathon today which was flagged-off

by LM&CA Secretary Gamli Padu.

Beginning from Indira Gandhi Park, Itanagar to Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Naharlagun, some above 100 people ran for the cause.

Bonjo Kena emerged as the winner and was felicitated with a trophy,

: : : : :

40 Marks 20 Marks 20 Marks 10 Marks 10 Marks

: Students appeared / passed for Class-X Board Examination in 2016 : Direct Admission 70% or above in Class-X Board Examination 2016

Class Commencement : After 10 days from the declaration of Class-X Board Examination Result 2016

UTPAL SAIKIA PRANJAL PEGU CHINMOY KATHAR THEOPHIL INBUON IIT-JEE (Adv) 2015 IIT-JEE (Adv) 2015 IIT-JEE (Adv) 2015 IIT-JEE (Adv) 2015 AIR 344 AIR 470 AIR 224 AIR 139

Dipanjan Goswami Dipankar Acharyya Longkiri Bey NIT- Silchar GMCH IIT - Guwahati IIT

More than 100 run to create awareness on consumer rights in Itanagar

Mathematics Physics Chemistry Biology Aptitude

Course Duration : About 2 years during Class-XI & XII Eligibility

Nellie Manpoong Itanagar, Mar 20

cmyk

Fourth Nightly Schooling & Coaching Examinations.

Compulsory Study Hrs. Separate Hostels for both Boys' & Girls'

Course Duration : About 2 years during Class-XI & XII Eligibility : Students appearing or Passed for Class-X Board Examination in 2016.

More than 100 run to create awareness on consumer rights in Itanagar

Contd. on Page 3

Page 12

Pages- 12

Assam chief CEC, ECs to commence two-day visit to electoral officer meets pol party Guwahati tomorrow representatives

A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Mar 20

The BJP is poised to score "a decisive victory" in Assam and has strengthened its position in Kerala, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party hoped to improve its position "significantly" in the five states going to the polls in April-May including Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. "In Assam, our alliance (with AGP) is effective. We will score a decisive victory," Jaitley told reporters on the second day of the BJP National Exectuvie meeting. The BJP has never been a leading player in any of the five states. "In Kerala, we have strengthened our position. The politics in Kerala has changed.

"As far as West Bengal is concerned, we will try to increase our vote share," Jaitley said. "We will improve our performance significantly in the assembly polls." The political resolution was moved by union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and seconded by party general secretary Saroj Pandey. Taking a dig at the Congress, Jaitley said: "The Congress position in these states is clearly evident.

5.00

Abhinob Sonowal Guwahati IIT

Kaberi Kurmi Jirsong Phura Debasish Nath Bhaskar B Doley Liyen Permey SMCH JMCH JMCH IIT-Delhi IIT-Guwahati

Selected in Medical (CEE 2015) Best Rank : State Rank 22Debasish Phukan Total Nos of Selection in Medical : 13 nos Selected in Engineering (CEE 2015) SASHANKA SEKHAR SAIKIA IIT-JEE (Adv) 2015 Total Nos of Selection in Engineering : 39 AIR 5614

Gunadeep Teron Abhirnanyu Baruah Guwahati IIT Guwahati IIT

Mridupawan Rajkhowa GMCH

Pikul Tayung Guwahati IIT

Munmun Bora Puja Bora JMCH JMCH

Prabaldweep Khanikar Budheswar Gogoi Umang Agarwalla Daimalu Baglari Guwahati IIT IIT - Mumbai Guwahati IIT Guwahati IIT

Rima Phukan Sampriti Gogoi JMCH JMCH

Bhanupnya Baruah Amitakhya Bhuyan NIT-Suratkal NIT-Silcher

Ramanuj Ranian Saikia NIT-Silcher

Dipankar Gogoi NIT-SilcherIT

cmyk

Page 5

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 2

Campaigning gradually picking up ET Correspondent Diphu March 20: After final scrutiny of the candidates’ nomination yesterday throughout East and West Karbi Anglong autonomous area for the 2016 Assam Assembly election, candidates are fast fanning out deep inside their respective electorate. Although several independent candidates with incomprehensible background have filed their candidature it is evident that in all 4 seats i.e. Diphu, Howraghat, Bokajan and Baithalangso triangular fight will take place. In to-

tal 563603 voters will exercise their voting power on April 4; 278376 women voters and 288821 men will cast their vote in 822 polling stations.

If compared, BJP seems to be ahead in campaigning till now, tomorrow Hamenta Biswa Sharma and Hagranma Mohilary will address a series of meeting in Bodo dominated Langhing and Howraghat considered to be strong hold of Congress. Both the insightful leaders are trying to generate avalanche in Con-

gress bastions where incumbency has plagued the fortress of ruling Congress.

Congress contenders are campaigning mostly in West Karbi Anglong district branding BJP as communal force and castigating HSDC (Hills State Democratic Council) as betrayer of the statehood issue; young and dynamic Tuliram Ronghang, Chief Executive Member of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council presently leading the Congress campaigning from the front in place of senior leaders like MP Birensing Engti and

ASTRO FOR YOU Aries Today you will have to give in to your spouse's demands for improving the environment at home. In your own interest it will be advisable. to hasten the measures needed to be taken and stay focussed on them as you are the one who is guilty of neglect.

Taurus You are likely to confront a turning point in relationships today, foresees Ganesha.

Because you are in need of some compassion and support, you will feel the need to spend time with friends and relatives. Your beloved or better half may bring a change in mood by helping you shed your negative frame of mind.

Gemini You may plan to wash your car, clean your yard and arrange your wardrobe. And you don't trust the housemaid with any of the chores, because no one can clean the house better than you. Personal hygiene will also get your full attention.

Cancer It is a favourable day to engage in household activities, like gardening, cooking or even washing laundry. In the evening, work will be eclipsed by the pleasures of love.

Leo You need to curb down on your expenses. You need to moderate the risks you take on in the share market. It is a good day for financial gains though. You need to understand the value of compromise Virgo Your writing abilities will help you give vent to your emotions without hurting others. You will finish all your incomplete tasks successfully. Ganesha says that you will experience success in everything that you choose to do today.

Libra Of late, you have been very concerned about the health of one of your close friends. Take this day to lay your fears to rest by spending time with that friend.

Work can wait, as today you must prove to yourself, if not to others, that 'a friend in need is a friend indeed'.

Scorpio You may spend a lot of your time brainstorming at your desk. In the evening, however, mental exercises will be substituted for pleasure and fun with friends and family.

Sagittarius For you, appreciation and recognition for the efforts you put in may be delayed, but it's not denied. There's is no point losing heart and getting disappointed. This may only affect your work, instead, wait for a better tomorrow, Capricorn At work, you may love to play the leader, but that makes you accountable, for both the good as well as the poor performance of your subordinates. In all likelihood, you may be held responsible for the poor performance of your team members. But all said and done, you will set high standards for yourself, and a perfect example for others to follow.

Aquarius Your mood will swing by the hour today! Naturally, you leave your friends stumped. But unpredictability does not mean that you take unnecessary risk.

Pisces Just as melting ice caps on faraway mountains can swell the oceans, concerted efforts you make now will have far-reaching beneficial consequences. Do not be disheartened in the face of obstacles and keep soldiering on.

PRASAR BHARATI (India's Public Service Broadcaster) ALL INDIA RADIO : DIBRUGARH (M.W.529.1m/KHz567 F.M. 101.30 MHz) Phone No.-03732325456 E-mail -dibrugarh@air.org.in Facebook Page-All India Radio Dibrugarh Programme Highlights 21-3-16 (MONDAY) 5-35 A.M-Bhaktigeeti (Devotional Songs) 6-10 A.M-Swasthya Charcha (Health Programme) 6-30 A.M-Bidyarthir Anusthan 7-15 A.M-Aajir Dinto (Morning Information Service) 7-30 A.M-Geetanjali (Assamese Modern Songs) 8-35 A.M-Surar Panchoi (Composite Programme of Assamese Film Songs) 9-05 A.M- Antara (Composite Programme of Hindi Film Songs) 2-00 P.M-Sponsored Programme-"Jaagaa Grahak Jaagaa" 2-30 P.M-Western Music 3-45 P.M-Programme in Miju Mishmi 4-05 P.M-Programme in Khamti 4-25 P.M-Programme in Wancho 4-45 P.M-News for Arunachal Pradesh 5-00 P.M-Programme in Idu 5-20 P.M-Programme in Tangsa 5-40 P.M-Programme in Nocte 6-15 P.M-Ganya Raijor Anusthan (Rural Programme) 7-15 P.M-Yuvavani (Youth Programme) 8-00 P.M-Play 8-30 P.M-Assamese Talk-"Sonowal Kacharisakalar Baithou Puja" by Maniram Sonowal 9-30 P.M- Mandakini 10-00 P.M-Classical Music Sd-/H.O.P

Khorsing Engti. In contrast HSDC is concentrating on small meetings and door to door camping so far, among all HSDC contenders Dr. Jayanta Rongpi contesting from Diphu is addressing more voters within the constituency.

Meanwhile Administration and police have tighten its drive against use of money power by seizing cash money in several places of the district, yesterday 1.30 lakhs rupees was seized by Bakulia police from Monsing Tisso, Range Of-

ficer of Ouguri range conduting raid in his Bakulia residence, around 62 kilometer from Diphu.

Amid beefed-up security scenario of the district one Mongolsing Tokbi(45) son of Long Ang Tokbi, village headman was abducted allegedly by a group of 7 armed KPLT ( Karbi Peoples Liberation Tiger) members from village Klurudung under Bokulia police station around 8 PM yesterday. Till filing of this report police and Indian army is continuing rescue operation.

Women making assamese Gamusa in tatar hal at Sivasagar. Pic - Firuz Ahmed

Phra Sutong Peey Monastery receives more than 500 Buddhist devotees from Margherita, Digboi and Tinsukia ET Correspondent Margherita, Mar 20: A total number of 500 Buddhist Community devotees from Margherita, Digboi and Tinsukia came for pilgrimage at Phra Sutong Peey Monastery of Kaloni, Karbi Anglong which is 35 Km away from Golaghat town on Sunday. This is one of the sacred places of Buddhist Religious Community of Assam.

“Before 300 years ago during the Ahom Maan war, a Burmese Monk brought the statue of Phra Sutong Peey which was the first Buddha according to Buddhist mythology. Many visitors from America, Thailand, Australia, Myanmarn (Burma) and from many countries across the world come and visit here” said Dilip Thwmong, Curator of Phra Sutong Peey Monastery.

ET Correspondent Doomdooma, Mar 20: During a regular search a huge sum of cash amount recovered from the area which falls under Doomdooma police station.

Phra Sutong Peey Monastery Dilip Thwmong also added that, the Monastery also celebrates various festivals like Poi-Nun-Se, Poi-San-Ken, Buddha Purnima and Kathiv Chibar Dana Utsav with great enthusiasm.

While Swarup Barua, Assistant Secretary of Federation of Barua Welfare Association of Assam said that, like Buddha Gaya and other Buddhist pilgrimage Centre both Assam and Central Government should declared Phra

Sutong Peey Monastery as National Pilgrimage Centre and all necessary funds should be provided so that Monastery attracts visitors from all over the world and in a same time tourism industry will also get benefited.

Polling personnel training underway in Chirang DC briefed them about their role and responsibilities ET Correspondent Kokrajhar, Mar 20: The first phase of training to polling personnel got underway at Dhaligaon High School and Kajalgaon High School on Sunday in Chirang district. Attending the training programmes the Chirang Deputy Commissioner and District Election Officer Rupak Kumar

Mazumdar said that the training was necessary to acquaint the polling personnel with the guidelines of ECI. He also briefed them about their role and responsibilities and also gave tips to be kept in mind while discharging their duties at the time of polling. He asked, spe-

Tezpur media to boycott election related report in protest against alleged misbehavior by election officer ET Correspondent Tezpur, Mar 20 : District head quarter reporters stationed at Tezpur here have decided today boycott every election related report registering strong protest against the alleged misbehavior upon the media persons by an election officer. As alleged by the media persons here a meeting was held among the election officers (Zonal and sector officers), officials from the police department and the general observers at the district library where in the media persons were also present for collecting report regarding the programme.

It is to be mentioned here that the scribes here have been busy in

Huge amount seized at Doomdooma

sincere reporting since the very day of MCC coming into force.

Today also the scribes were present in the programme for collecting report and photographs.

However, CEO, Zila Parishad cum PD, DRDA, Sonitpur Munin Sarma who has presently been engaged as Asstt.

Returning Officer (ARO) for the forthcoming elections intentionally dragged out some of the scribes busy in collecting report and taking photographs in the programme from the library resulting in creating an awkward situation. The media persons here have now decided not to report any matter related to the election from today.

cially the presiding officers to be careful on data entry in prescribed format and not make haste in their works that may badly affect the long drawn exercise. He also briefed the procedures to use the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and functioning and about the NOTA option. He requested the polling personnel to

keep in touch on the day of poll with their concerned Zonal and Sector officers as to solve any problems quickly.

In the first phase of training, altogether 622 polling personnel, both presiding and 1st polling officers were trained by the appointed Master Trainers.

According to information, during search operations at Rupai-Siding on A.T road by police and paramilitary forces, a huge sum of rupees 11,57,500 was seized from a Tata Sumo bearing number AR17-0124. Illegal substance has also been recovered from the vehicle.

After inquiry it has been came into light that that the amount was belong to a businessman named Sanjay Verma of Arunachal Pradesh.

The accused was taking the money to Tinsukia. However, the police is deeply investigating the matter.

Listed cadre of NDFB-S arrested ET Correspondent Kokrajhar, Mar 20: Security forces yet again able to apprehend a cadre of NDFB-S from Basabil area under Gossaigaon PS today in Kokrajhar district. Based on information about the presence of the militant outfit cadres in the area, a joint team of police and army launched an operation where a listed cadre of Gossaigaon platoon of the NDFB-S was arrested along with arms. A person was identified as Sanjay Narzary of Borsabil village where a pistol and two round ammunition was recovered from him.

Photo of arrested NDFB-S cadre from Basabil in Kokrajhar on Sunday

AIUDF leader joins UPP Police takes into custody over 2100 licensed weapons in Nagaon

ET Correspondent Kokrajhar, Mar 20: With extending support to the United People's Party ahead scheduled Assam assembly election on April 11 next, Rafikul Sheik, vice president of Kokrajhar district committee of AIUDF joined in UPP in a party meeting at Fakiragram under Kokrajhar west LAC today in Kokrajhar district.

Sheik along with his party supporters joined the party in the presence of huge party supporters and extended supports to the party.

'His joined the UPP party will blow a setback to the AIUDF party', said a political analyst.

Photo of AIUDF joined the UPP in Kokrajhar

ET Correspondent Nagaon, Mar 20: With the code of conduct coming into force for the next assembly election Nagaon district police administration seized a number of arms from different parts of the district. According to police sources, out of 2687 licensed weapons in the hands of the people in the district police took into its custody 2100 number of weapons till last Tuesday and would likely be able to seize all licensed guns before the election.

In the meantime district police authorities have alerted all police stations to remain vigilant about any illegal arms trading in their respective areas. On the other hand, the district administration has taken the drive to remove banners, hoardings, and posters etc. that violate model code of conduct.

District authorities have appealed all to follow strictly model code of conduct during the election process.

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 3

908 posts of IPS officers lying vacant New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) : More than 900 Indian Police Service posts are lying vacant across the country with the highest number being in Uttar Pradesh, where 114 positions of senior police officers are yet to be filled.

There is a shortage of 908 IPS officers in the country as on January 1, 2016, out of a sanctioned strength of 4,802 personnel, Home Ministry data shows.

At present, 3,894 IPS officers are in service while 140 probationers of the 2015 batch are undergoing training.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state, has 114 IPS vacancies with the sanctioned strength being 517 while West Bengal has 88 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 347.

There are 79 vacancies in Odisha, where there are 188 IPS posts while 72 posts in Karnataka (sanctioned strength 215) are yet to be filled.

"The gap is huge considering the fact of the country's ever-increasing population. We are trying to recruit more and more officers in IPS every year," a senior Home Ministry official said.

The government's efforts to mitigate the

shortage of IPS officers by holding Limited Competitive Examination was stalled due to a number of litigations in different courts.

Mothers Vision Organizes Two Army Days Rigorous Social Service reaches out

to the people

Aalo, Mar 20: The Mothers Vision in collaboration with Urban Development & Housing and GJCMCC organized two days rigorous social service at market area and Sipu Bridge entry point of Aalo on 18 and 19th March last. Men and materials like JCB, Trucks of UD & Housing dept. were engaged to level the surfaces and ornamental flowers and plants managed by Mothersâ•™ vision were planted all around the barren areas.

Bomdila, Mar 20: The Army in Tenga Garrison has been a boon and of immense help to the local populace. In yet another drive undertaken by the Indian Army to assist the poor and needy of the local area, a two day medical camp was organized on 18 & 19 March under the aegis of Ball of Fire Division at Thrizino; the most interior administrative unit of the district.

The camp was inaugurated by Brig. Shailendra Singh and Deputy Commissioner AK Singh.

Officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police of State Police Services, Assistant Commandants of Central Paramilitary Forces and Captains and Majors of Defence Forces fulfilling certain criteria were eligible for appearing in the said examination.

The social service is aimed "A large number of court cases have been filed against Home Ministry, UPSC, Department of Personnel and Training and Ministry of Defence challenging various aspects of the scheme.

"At present, the matter is sub-judice," the official said.

Among the other states where there are a large number of vacancies of IPS officers are Maharashtra (63 vacancies, sanctioned strength 302 officers), Madhya Pradesh (56 vacancies, sanctioned strength 305), Jammu and Kashmir (56 vacancies, sanctioned strength 147) and Union Territories (50 vacancies, sanctioned strength 295).

at cleaning around the township on the eve of Golden Jubilee year of Mopin festival celebration at Aalo.

The welcome gate at entry point has also been renovated and painted by members of GJCMCC.

Mothers Vision Organizes Two Days Rigorous Social Service at Aalo

A large number of medi-

cal specialists including Gynecologist, Dental Surgeon, Physician and Eye Specialist from the Army attended the needy civilians. A total of 795 patients (Men-276, Women-287 & Children 232) were treated over a span of two days.

The medical camp provided an ideal platform to assist the patients who otherwise being from far flung areas were devoid of any proper medical care and assistance. It has also facilitated in bridging and building bonhomie between the Army and the local populace.

DIPRO

FlyDubai plane crash: search operation ends New York, Mar. 20 (ANI): A day after a FlyDubai Boeing737-800 from Dubai crashed landed in southern Russia, thesearch operation ended on Sunday and the investigators were moving on to the cause of the accident and identification of bodies, officials said.

Flight FZ981 from the United Arab Emirates crash landed killing 62 people onboard amid poor weather conditions above Rostov-on-Don airport.

Deputy Emergencies Minister Leonid Belyaev said that his ministry would focus on helping Russia's investiga-

who died in the crash were Russians, eight Ukrainians, two Indians and one Uzbekistani.

tive committee, interstate aviation committee, insurers and Boeing representatives.

"We shall also continue studying the plane's fragments to clear out reasons of the crash, will continue working on identification of the bodies, on collecting the DNA, and working with the families of the victims," news agency TASS reported him as saying, reports CNN.

The airline has said that it would provide hardship payments of $20,000 per passenger to relatives of those killed in the crash.

"Our priority is to identify and contact the families of those lost ... and provide immediate support to those affected," the airline said in a statement.

In the wake of the incident, Russia has declared Sunday a day of mourning in the Rostov administrative region, which borders the Sea of Azov and eastern Ukraine.

Forty-four of the passengers

According to reports, the family members of the victims would receive one-million rubles (about $15,000) from Moscow.

Huge amounts of cash, liquor Togadia asks PM to bring seized in poll-bound Assam legislation to build Ram temple IANS Guwahati, Mar 20: With the Assam assembly polls round the corner, the Election Commission has so far seized nearly Rs.3 crore in unaccounted money and over four lakh litres of illicit liquor from across the state, officials said on Sunday.

Monitoring teams of the poll panel recovered Rs.2,95,47,834 in cash from different parts of Assam till Saturday evening, and 4,33,417.76 litres of liquor -- both of which were allegedly meant to be distributed among voters.

Around 5.5 kg of drugs have also been seized.

Polling for the 126-seat assembly will be held in two phases on April 4 and 11.

According to the EC officials, there are 34 expenditure-sensitive constituencies and 401 expenditure sensitive pockets in Assam.

The excise department has already installed cameras in distilleries and breweries in Assam for monitoring the movement of liquor, Addi-

Karimnagar, Mar 20 (PTI) Senior VHP leader Pravin Togadia today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring in a legislation in Parliament for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

"I am confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fulfil his promise as well as his party's resolution for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya and that he will immediately prepare a Central legislation in Parliament to this effect," the VHP International working president told reporters.

File Photo of officials of excise dept conducting raids on illegal liquor dens in Sonari.

tional Chief Electoral Officer Siddharth Singh said on Sunday.

A total of 1,185 cases have already been registered over the seizure of the illegal liquor.

Siddharth Singh said the poll panel has asked the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to intensify operations against illegal arms.

So far, 86 illegal arms and 333 rounds of illegal ammunition have been seized.

Additional CEO Gaurav Bothra said 599 candidates filed their nominations for 65 constituencies, which are going to the polls in the first phase on April 4.

"However, 13 nominations were rejected due to technical problems. There are now 586 valid nominations for the 65 constituencies,"

Bothra said.

Monday is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

The EC has appointed 47 expenditure observers, 396 flying squads, 378 static surveillance teams, and 126 video surveillance teams for conduction of free and fair polls.

Besides, six air intelligence units have been set up in airports to monitor all developments.

He was here to participate in a meeting of VHP volunteers.

"Somnath temple (in Gujarat) was built on initiative of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and with the consent of Muslims apart from a court verdict and wishes of the common people and then government," the international working president of VHP said.

He said the BJP had passed a resolution and made a promise for construction of Ram temple way back in 1997.

"The BJP has majority now and I hope Prime Minister

will work for it (construction of temple)" he said.

He said VHP and the RSS are not working for strengthening Hindutva.

"Hindutva lies in hearts of all Hindus," he added.

Togadia said his organisation is working to eradicate untouchablity.

He said VHP has launched a programme to provide free medication and education to poor.

"A toll free number (18602333666) is put up.

Poor Hindus can call this

number and they will be provided with free consultation and treatment by private doctors in Hyderabad city the next day (of calling)," Togadia said.

Meanwhile, Togadia evaded a direct reply to a query on remarks made by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi wherein he refused to say "Bharat Mata ki Jai".

"We will react on it at the right time," he said.

Telangana state unit president of VHP Rama Raju and other leaders were present at the meet.

Barua to make a film on Arunachal within Arunachal Pradesh with Arunachali and Mumbai actors Contd. from Page 1

Delighted to hear from Shri Barua on the upcoming project, the Governor, who has been working to harness the potential of local youth in film sector, wished that Film be in Hindi, which will have great impact and boost the State Tourism, thereby promoting ‘Incredible Arunachal Pradesh’. The story would be based on Arunachali life, struggle, culture, social fabric etc.,

reproducing the rich and treasured cultural heritage and unique traditions of the indigenous tribes, he emphasised.

The Governor, who has visited Tawang, Ziro and Pasighat during the official engagements, pointed that the whole of Arunachal Pradesh provide perfect and exotic locations for any storyline. It will be new world for the film makers in very affordable price.

Augmentation of film sector in the State will open new avenues for employment and entrepreneurship, not only for the local artists, but also people, particularly youth engaged in transportation, hotels, restaurants and tourism. The people of the State should welcome any film project in the State, the Governor said while reminding of the underproduction film ‘Rangoon’, shot at Pasighat and its nearby places. Local hotels and facilitators are benefit-

ing from the project, he added.

It may be recalled that during the North East Film Festival at Itanagar last month, the Governor requested Shri Barua to make a film in the State involving local artists, which he opined have huge talents.

PHOTO: Shri Barua with the Governor and the First Lady at Raj Bhavan, Itanagar on 18th February 2016

More than 100 run to create awareness on consumer rights in Itanagar Contd. from Page 1

Glimpses of Khatu Shyam Mahotsava which was organized by Shyam Pariwar, Doomdooma. About 500 devotees walked on foot with flags from Doomdooma to Tinsukia. Pic - Manoj Kumar Ojha

memento and cash award of Rs 30, 000, while Bano Tanang stood at second place and was awarded with a memento, certificate and cash award of Rs 20, 000 and Hilang Kapa came in at third place to win a memento, certificate and cash prize of Rs 10, 000.

Consolation prizes were also given to Johny Mangkhya, R Yadar Laa and Dana Taha who re-

ceived certificates, mementos and cash awards of Rs 7, 000 each.

Informing that National Consumers Right Day was observed on March 15 last and continued throughout the week, Padu said that such programmes are necessary to protect the rights of all consumers. He also emphasised on more awareness among consumers as well as traders because traders are also consumers.

“Our mission is to suc-

cessfully educate consumers of their rights”, Padu said and appealed to all organisations that deal with consumers and traders to educate and arrange awareness programmes in the state.

Assistant Controller Taba Tabin said that the department has been trying to aware consumers on their rights and duties and requested everyone to practice their rights. He also informed that within a week

of the programme, the department has received 15 complaints, which will all be resolved within a very short span of time.

Tabin also called on consumers to use the helpline number 18003453601 which is open for the benefit of consumers.

DC Capital complex Sandeep Kumar Singh and Ward Councilor Kipa Takum attended as special guests during the valedictory function.

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 4 First day of training to polling and presiding officer held today ET Correspondent Dhemaji, Mar 20: First day of training to polling and presiding officer for first phase election of 114 Jonai LAC held today at Simenchapori College.

One more day of training will be conducted on 24th next at the same venue as election is scheduled to be on April 4th. Altogether 9 candidates are in fray which will be cleared only after 21st March, which is to be the last day of withdrawal.

Custom officials seize 146 tortoises at Mumbai Airport Mumbai, Mar.20 (ANI): The Custom officials on Sunday seized 146 tortoises from a mishandled baggage of a Nepal citizen at the Mumbai airport.

The incident happened when the Jet Airways staff brought one left behind baggage to officers of Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), saying that some suspicious images (shell like) had been noticed by GVK Security.

This bag was said to belong to a transit passenger, who arrived from Madagascar and flew to Kathmandu leaving this bag behind. Officers of Air Intelligence Unit examined the bag and recovered and seized 146 tortoises.

Out of the 146 tortoises, 139 were Radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) and seven were Angonoka tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora), both critically endangered tortoise species of Madagascar.

Two radiated tortoises were found dead with broken shell.

Since these were exotic species and cannot be introduced into India and because of quarantine reasons, as informed by wild life authorities, the airlines have been instructed to re-export the same to Madagascar under intimation to wildlife authorities there.

Teli withdrew his alleged communal statement, organisations demands public apology from MP Teli ET Correspondent Digboi, Mar 20: Following a sensational alleged telephonic communal statement rendered by Rameswar Teli the BJP MP on 11thMarch which made several organizations taking the street till Sunday morning at various locations across Upper Assam, the MP concerned finally withdrew the alleged and controversial statements during a meeting held at ATC conference hall in presence of media house.

The meeting convened by various agitated student body and also attended by the representatives of all the aggrieved organizations and after playing the recorded version of the conversation between Teli and Rabin Murari a tea tribe resident of Duliajan constituency, the agitated body again demanded Teli to beg public apology from the people of his constituency and Assam as a whole.

On the other hand, the MP tried to convince the house that his intention was not at

gant way of appeasing the student organizations who has been obstructing the MP to conduct political rallies and meeting in Tinsukia which might prove heavy for his Tinsukia BJP candidate Sanjay Kishan.

Sarbananda Sonowal BJP Majuli LAC candidate for upcoming assembly election addresses the gathering during an election campaigning rally at Duliajan . Pic - UB Photos

all communal and the entire episode was planned to tap his statements by a vested group in the wake of forthcoming Assembly Election and give it a pervasive form to defile his image. Suspecting a political conspiracy behind using an innocent tea tribe worker using his

mobile, Teli told that he has been enjoying sound rapport with the native of Assam and with the love and strong bond of attachment with the Assamese people, he has become their representative, as such his mindset was never communal or nor biased in any

Talking to the ET this evening, Milan Buragohain of AATASU and representatives of Brihotor Assomiya Mancha told that their agitation against Teli would be continued interrupted till he apologize publicly and admit his mistake before the people of Assam.

The student body further cautioned Mr. Teli to abstain himself from entering Tinsukia particularly on 26th next during the visit of Narendra Modi the Prime Minster of India.

form.

However, Mr. Teli who has been known for his amicable nature, withdrew his alleged controversial words to resolve the deadlock which according to the aggrieved body was not at all an apology, a simple arro-

“The party President Sarabananda Sonowal must clear his stand on the issue before the significant visit of Mr. Modi in Tinsukia on 26th next otherwise the movement would be given a different shape” said agitators.

586 candidates in fray for first phase of 2016 Assam Assembly Elections PTI Guwahati, Mar 20: The nominations of 586 candidates have been found valid for the sixty five constituencies going to the poll in the first phase of Assembly elections on April 4.

A total of 599 candidates

had filed nominations for the first phase.

"Out of this, 13 were rejected," Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Assam Gaurav Bothra told a press conference here.

The detailed list and

names of the rejected and valid candidates were still coming in from different districts and the final picture would be known by tomorrow, he said.

For the second phase of poll on April 11 involv-

ing 61 constituencies in the 126-seat Assam Assembly, 35 candidates have filed their nominations till now.

The notification for these seats was issued on March 15, while the last date for filing of nomina-

tion is March 22.

The scrutiny of these nominations will be done on March 24 and the last date for withdrawing the same is March 26.

The counting of votes in all constituencies will take place on May 19.

Election campaign gains momentum in Kokrajhar ET Correspondent Kokrajhar, Mar 20: With just few days left to the scheduled assembly election, candidates from different political parties and independent candidates are busy with their campaigning at their respective constituencies in the state.

Sitting MLA and BPF candidate for Kokrajhar east LAC Pramila Rani Brahma hold her election campaign at Bhumki village on Sunday. She said that she is contesting the election to gain more development and integration. She said that her BPF party was working for the all round development for the common masses.

She has promised to work for more integration if she was elected for another term, besides urging to vote

for the party.

UPP candidate for Kokrajhar east LAC and social activist Pratibha Brahma also hold campaigning at various places on Sunday in support of her candidature. The UPP has held election campaign at Brahmapur, Jordanpur, Sonapur where huge party supporter as well common public thronged the venue.

Brahma said that the common voters in the constituency wanting social uplift and integration, of which why she has been contesting the seat. She has claimed that her winning is sure in the election as irrespective of organization and communities are supporting the UPP party.

3 killed by herd of elephants in Bengal BARDHAMAN (WB), March 20: Three persons, including a woman, were killed by a herd of elephants in separate incidents in Bardhaman district this morning, a forest department official said.

Anandamoyee Rai and Narayan Chandra Maji, both 60-years-old were trampled to death in Nashigram village under Bhatar police station in the district when they had gone to the fields early this morning.

ter an elephant flung him by its trunk and then trampled him, DFO Ajay Kumar Das said.

At Baghasole village under Manteswar police station, Prakash Boyra (40) died af-

The pachyderms also destroyed the standing crops in various villages, he said.

Boyra, a resident of Katwa area of the district had come to the village to check his land.

A herd of five elephants reached the area from Bankura district after crossing Damodar river, the DFO said, adding forest department personnel were trying to push the jumbos back.

Freedom of expression, Barpeta is ready for evergreen Doul Festival with 3-day colourful ptogramme nationalism coexist, says BJP Juthika Das Barpeta, Mar 20 : The 3day Doul Fetival - festival of colours - will commence here from Mar. 22 for which extensive preparations are on. The people of Barpeta are very much enthusiastic for the Doul Festival which they consider to be the festival of their soul, festival of colour.

And ‘Barpeta Bordham (Barpeta satra) will soon turn into a sea of devotees during the Doul Festival.

During this festival every Barpetians forget their enmity and become united to observe this age old traditional festival, an elderly man said. On the first day on 22nd March it is ‘ Gandhajatra or Banhutsava’.

On this evening at about three o’clock after the regular Prayer ( Prasanga) of Satra, Mahaprabhu ‘ Dol Gobinda’ and ‘Kaliya Thakur’ will be taken out as per satriya tradition by the devotees with ‘Gayans-

Bayans’, ‘Khol- Taal’ etc and will be kept on a ‘sarai’ at first at ‘Mothor Chotal’.

And after then there will be ‘Adhibaas’ ( the bathing of duo ‘Gosain’ called ‘Ablated) by the ‘Rajmedhi’ of the satra.

And afterwards duo ‘Gosain’ will be taken to ‘ Tupar Chotal’ and encircled seven times around the ‘Meji’ (Made of wattles and Reed) to get warm. It is said that after the lighting of ‘Meji’, all the evil sources will also destroy and turn in to ashes. And ‘Mahaprabhu Gosain will be kept at ‘Jogmohan Griha’ after then and duo Mahaprabhu will be placed at ‘Doul Griha’ in a sacred moment at night.

Along with the’ Meji on that day there will also be the performance of ‘Atasbaji’. Along with all the traditions of Barpeta satra there will also be Satriya cultural shows during these three days programmes.

Second day on 23rd March it is ‘Bhar Doul’. The ‘Burah Satriya ‘ of Barpeta Satra will offer ‘Phakuguri’ to the duo ‘Gosains’. And afterwards all the devotees of Barpeta can offer Phakuguri and take blessings.Thousands of devotees throng to see ‘ Mahaprabhu Gosain’ during these days of Doul to take blessings.

boos. After the breaking of Bamboos Mahaprabhu Kaliya Thakur, Doul Govinda will be encircles around the Kirtan Ghar ‘ seven times. During that time at ‘ Mothor Chotal’ there will be one debate Between Laksmhi and Lord Krishna’s Party ( Here it is called ‘Bulbuloni) and after then this evergreen and colourfull Doul festival will be ended .

This day at night there will also be ‘Dhuliya Nrittya.

The Cultural show will be ornamented by the programmes of Prasanta Rajkhowa besides the programmes of local satriya artists Last Day on 24th March there will be the main attraction which is called here ‘Suweri’ or ‘Phakuwa’.On that day All the ‘Gosains’ will be taken to ‘Kalbari satra to have ‘Heketa’( Here it is called ‘Hekta Khuoa). After returning from Kalbari Satra Gosains will be prevenmted by three Bam-

On this last day the cultural show will be attracted by “ the artists of Sangeet Natak Academy, Guwahati and satriya Nritya by Lakhimi Mahanta and Michimi Mahanta, Nagaon.

Barpeta Stra Burah satriya Basistha Sarma and the secretary of Satra Managing committee Mahananda Pathak urged all the people to make this doul festival of Barpeta great success keeping peace and harmony in mind and invite all the people to come to Barpeta to enjoy this unique festival.

New Delhi, Mar 20: Amid a controversy over the recent JNU row, the BJP on Sunday said freedom of expression does not give a right to call for the country’s destruction, with the issue finding a pride of place in the political resolution adopted at its national executive meeting in New Delhi.

The issue of nationalism continued to take the centre stage in the deliberations after party chief Amit Shah set the tone in his inaugural address on Saturday saying the BJP will not tolerate any attack on the nation, with the dominant mood in the BJP being to put the Congress in a corner on the issue.

Briefing the media on the resolution, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said, “Freedom of expression

and nationalism do necessarily coexist.” The Constitution gives full freedom for expressing dissent and disagreement, but not the country’s destruction, he said.

The Union Finance Minister, a key party strategist, also targeted the Congress over its political strength, saying the main opposition party has “lowered” its stature and was “content to be a tail ender of any alliance” in States like Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

“There was a time when the country was being governed without any sense of direction. There was uncertainty and lack of purpose. Now we have a government with a determined leadership, nationalist policies and progressive governance,”

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Mr. Jaitley said.

The resolution also spoke about economically and socially inclusive policies of the government, its thrust on infrastructure development and good governance, he said.

Though issues of govern-

ment formation in Uttarakhand, where the Congress government is facing rebellion in its ranks, and Jammu and Kashmir did not come up for discussion at the meet, Mr. Jaitley said the resolution emphasised the party’s commitment to the agenda of governance in J&K.

Former PM Manmohan Singh set to return to his adopted state Assam as Congress's star campaigner Contd. from Page 1

Veterinarians providiing supportive care to the new male rhino calf admitted at Centre for Wildilfe Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), the Assam Forest Department and IFAW-WTI jointly run wildlife care centre on Saturday,19th March 2016.The animal was found alone and rescued near Donga forest camp of Bagori forest range of Kaziranga National Park on 19th March 2016. Photo:Panjit Basumatary/IFAW-WTI

Singh last visited Assam in 2014 to campaign for Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha election. In one such meeting in Mahmora in Sivasagar district, Singh, conscious of the party's impending loss, turned his election speech into a humble farewell speech.

Of the many things Assam received from the Centre during Singh's two terms at the helm of the country were the broad gauge conversion project, connecting the southern part of the state

and Tripura with the rest of India, the gas cracker project in Dibrugarh, 90:10 funding (90% by the Centre and 10% by the state) for all the northeastern states, and the four-lane highway from Nagaon to Dibrugarh, among others.

The one key issue that Singh could not resolve, however, was declaring the state's annual floods and erosion problem 'a national calamity'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his last visit to the state in February to inaugurate the Rs 10,000-crore gas cracker project at Lepetkata

in Dibrugarh district, admitted that he often inaugurates projects initiated by the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. Modi had earlier targeted Singh in Kokrajhar where he said his predecessor had left the state in the lurch despite representing it in the Rajya Sabha for so many years.

Apart from Singh, Sonia and Rahul, Congress's list of star campaigners include Ghulam Nabi Azad and Digvijaya Singh. "We are finalizing the venues and dates of campaign and we should able to get the itinerary ready in a day or two," Dutta said.

REGION

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

Sonia summons Manipur CM again cess is a must," Ibobi said, adding, "The meeting with the Congress president and the vice president over the demands of CLP members was inconclusive. The deputy chief minister and I will be leaving for Delhi on Sunday morning."

IANS Imphal, Mar 20 : Congress president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam in connection with the unflinching stand of the dissidents within the ruling Congress party.

Both of them left Imphal for New Delhi on Sunday. They are slated to meet Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

A meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) members was held late on Saturday. One dissident leader said that they merely kept on listening and never asked the chief minister what had transpired in the meeting with Sonia Gandhi.

Police raid GNLA hideout, arms recovered Agencies Tura, Mar 20: North Garo Hills police and CRPF teams raided a hideout of the GNLA at Makkre Adap in Kharkutta region on Friday night leading to a brief encounter in which the militants fled leaving behind an automatic rifle along with several incriminating documents.

Police target had been to capture wanted GNLA militant Bartius Momin who is wanted in several cases of abduction and extortion. The militant who went by the name of Wallang hails from Megam Akong village of Kharkutta and was involved in encounters with security forces as well as abduction of traders from Adokgre market.

The militant operated under the GNLA command of northern commander Pilliport Shira. Although police were unable to get the militant, they were successful in recovering his self loading rifle (SLR) which he used for several criminal activities.

Along with the SLR police also recovered 18 live rounds for the weapon along with GNLA demand notes and receipt books signed by the GNLA finance secretary, mobile phones and personal items.

Police are in the process of scrutinizing the serial number of the weapon to check whether it was snatched from security forces during ambush by the banned outfit. The SLR is a standard weapon given primarily to central paramilitary and state police force in the country. There have been previous instances when the banned GNLA had ambushed police teams and decamped with SLRs, INSAS and AK rifles.

Mizoram celebrates Palm Sunday PTI Aizawl, Mar 20 : People, irrespective of church denominations, on Sunday took out massive procession in urban areas and villages of Mizoram to celebrate Palm Sunday before Easter.

Children and adults joined the processions waving palm leaves, singing hymns and chanting verses from the Bible to commemorate the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, a few days before he was crucified.

According to the Bible, Palm Sunday was the only day when Jesus was hailed as a king during his lifetime.

Special praise and worship services were held in all local churches to commemorate the day.

Cong president Sonia Gandhi

The dissident said that Ibobi kept on speaking on how the government plans to cover 87 per cent of the people of the state by the National Food Security Act (NFSA) which will become effective from April 1.

"The government has set aside Rs.30 crore for it and cooperation of the CLP members to make it a suc-

The high command has not sent general secretary V. Narayanswamy as an observer as yet. The reported formula of the chief minister to drop two or three ministers and induct new ones was not acceptable to the dissidents whose strength is more than 25 in the CLP having 48 members.

As promised by Ibobi, they are demanding complete reshuffle of the ministry and enforcement of the one man one post policy so that

Gaikhangam is either dropped from the ministry or relieved of the party presidentship, appointment of chairmen of various corporations and undertakings.

Manipur is scheduled to go to elections in February next year. Although just a few months are left, most of the dissidents would like to become ministers with an eye to the forthcoming elections.

In the past Ibobi and his close associates never capitulated to the dissidents.

However, this time the dissidents have made it known that they may take some other steps since they cannot go empty handed to the voters.

The political change in Arunachal Pradesh is still fresh in the minds of the

high command. Besides that the Congress has been facing election defeats.

In the by-elections held late last year BJP won both the Assembly seats. Besides this party which has been without an MLA for the last 15 years could open accounts in the local body elections.

An upbeat Manipur BJP president Thounaojam Chaoba said, "In the 2017 Assembly elections the BJP shall wrest power from the Congress which has been in power for the last three terms."

A dissident leader said that they are keeping their fingers crossed till Ibobi and Gaikhangam return from their mission in Delhi.

Naga govt inflated enrollment No. to get more MDM funds: CAG 12,79,792 while the records of the School Education Department on the basis of information from District Information System for Education (DISE) and Unified DISE provided by SSA has 9,28,934 children enrolled, the CAG stated.

PTI Kohima, Mar 20 : Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found that the Nagaland government furnished inflated figures regarding enrollment of children under Mid-Day Meal to avail more funds and food grain under the Centrally sponsored scheme.

This was revealed by the CAG report on Social, Economic Revenue and General Sector for the year end March 31, 2015, which was tabled in the Assembly on Saturday.

The MDM Scheme was launched with the objective of universalising primary education by increasing enrollment, retention and attendance besides improving

Comptroller and Auditor General of India nutritional status of school children.

However, the CAG report stated that there was inadequacy in effective implementation of the scheme, efficient financial management and effective monitoring.

During 2010-15, the state

government inflated the number of children enrolled by 3,50,858 over the figures of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to avail more funds under MDM scheme, the report said.

As per the MDM Annual Work Plan and Budget of the State Government, the enrolled children stood at

The CAG observed that the department furnished inflated figures to the Government of India to avail more food grain and funds than actually required for MDM scheme.

The CAG report also alleged that against the Central release of Rs.153.05 crore for 2010-15, the state government released only 131.93 crore to the department leading to short release of Rs.21.12 crore.

Leakage of Yusuf Commission report should be probed: CM Agartala, Mar 20 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has said that the alleged leakage of the Yusuf Commission report into the assassination of former Health Minister Bimal Sinha to the media should be probed.

A local vernacular daily published the report on Friday, claiming it was made available to the newspaper and that Sinha was assassinated due to his close link with the banned insurgent outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

Sinha was shot dead by the ultras on March 31, 1998 at Kamalpur subdivision in Dhalai district.

should be an inquiry on how it was leaked," Sarkar told the assembly.

The Yusuf Commission was appointed by the Left Front government in 1998 which submitted it's report on Jan 31, 2000, but the government did not publish the report.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar

Roy Burman, raised the issue in the floor of the assembly on Friday and demanded an inquiry on how the report could be leaked before it was tabled in the assembly.

"The matter was being The leader of the oppo- handled by the law desition (Congress), Sudip partment", the Chief

Minister said in a reply, adding that he saw the headline in the newspaper but did not go through the report.

"It should be first ascertained that whether the report published in the newspaper was true and if found true there

Following a writ petition filed by an advocate in the Tripura High Court, the court recently ordered the government to publish the report immediately and the government stated in court that the report would be tabled in the budget session of the assembly.

PAGE 5

Murder case in upper shillong

Mother hands accused son over to police Agencies Shillong, Mar 20: In a rare case, the mother of an accused in a brutal rape and murder of 19-year-old girl has handed her son over to police.

The incident took place at 4½ Mile, Upper Shillong on Thursday night and the lady handed over her son to police the next day.

The girl went missing at around 7. 30 pm on Thursday after she finished cutting vegetables at her house which prompted the family to launch a manhunt and the girl was found at around midnight at the jungle close to her residence, following which she was shifted to the Civil Hospital where she was declared brought dead.

The mother of the accused is annoyed over police taking credit for arresting her son as the fact was that it was she who approached police to hand over her son, after he confessed his involvement in the crime to the mother.

The 22-year-old accused also hinted involvement of a few others to the mother in his confession.

However, after his arrest on Friday, the police circulated SMS to the media on Saturday stating that “within 24 hours police arrested Vicky Syiemlieh, for his involvement in rape and murder. He is a neighbour of the victim”. The accused was remanded to five days police custody.

The Shillong Times on Saturday visited families of both the victim and the accused at their residences at Upper Shillong.

The mother of the victim, Dlet Syiemlieh said that he found her son restless on Thursday night and he went out around 8 pm.

The mother quoting her son claimed that there were three others wearing masks at the jungle close to the house of the victim and they had asked the accused to strangulate the victim.

According to some neighbours, the accused was seen the whole day with two youths.

The mother of the victim said that on Thursday night they heard people searching for the girl who was their neighbor and at around midnight, there was a scream after the girl’s body was found.

“The next day, my son confessed to me about his involvement in the crime and I immediately rushed to Lumdiengjri police station and later met the SP. I asked the police to take my son from our house”, the mother said.

According to the mother, she informed police so that the village will not blame her. “If he is involved in the crime, we want due punishment to be given to him.

Moreover, we are poor and hence cannot afford to bail him out”, she said.

A narrow road divides the residences of both the accused and the victim at Upper Shillong.

The relatives of the victim said that police first detained her uncle the whole night at Jhalupara outpost on Thursday with no fault of his. “We divided the groups to search for the girl

SC stays Manipur MLA's disqualification order Imphal, Mar 20: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an earlier order of the Manipur high court that declared null and void the election of M Prithviraj as a legislator of the assembly.

Prithviraj won on a Congress ticket from the Moirang assembly It is likely that the report constituency in the will be tabled in the cur- 2012 assembly polls. rent session, a govern- On February 29, the ment official said.

Manipur HC had de-

clared null and void his election for submitting a fake MBA certificate from Mysore University in his election affidavit.

While staying the HC verdict, the apex court maintained that the petitioner (Prithviraj) is permitted to participate in the proceedings but not to vote and draw remuneration as a legislator. The case has been listed for final hearing on May 5.

Manipur teacher held for attempting to rape schoolgirl Imphal, Mar 20 (IANS) : An elderly teacher has been arrested on charges of molesting and attempting to rape a 15-yearold schoolgirl in Thoubal district of Manipur.

The incident happened on Friday night in the

hostel of a governmentaided school at Bishnu Naha in Thoubal district.

"On March 18 night, the accused barged into the room where some of us were preparing for the next day's examination. He told us to go to

our rooms. When I was the last person to leave the room he molested me and tried to rape," said the victim in her complaint.

"Luckily for me, one student saw what was happening and alerted others," she said.

The accused, Keisham

Ibohanbi, 61, also threatened to harm her if she informed anyone of the incident, the victim said.

under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, police said.

The accused was not a On Saturday, a Thoubal recognised teacher and district court remanded "surprisingly there is no Ibohanbi in police cus- female warden despite tody till March 22. the fact that there are He has been charged about 50 girls in the

hostel," said police.

Students' organisations and women's vigilante groups have strongly condemned the "beastly act".

At least one students group declared that the accused would never be allowed to continue working as a teacher.

and I was the one who first spotted the body which I covered with my jacket, but police finding blood marks in my jacket picked me up and forced me to confess the crime”, Pyrshan Kharrymba, the uncle of the girl said. He was released only on Friday evening.

The relatives pointed out lapses on the part of police in their process of investigation as the police personnel had not brought sniffer dog to find out evidences related to the crime.

The body had injury marks and this may be the result of the use of blunt objects, but police are yet to recover the objects used’, said the relatives who believe that more than one person were involved in the crime.

The parents of both the victim and the accused said that the girl, who has just finished her matriculation, was exceptional in her behaviour.

The family revealed the name of the victim as Shailina Kharrymba.

While the relatives of the victim pointed out that the accused committed the crime after she rejected his proposal many times, the family of the accused, however, denied this.

Tripura CM orders probe into report leak Agartala, Mar 20: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar on Friday agreed to institute an inquiry into the leakage of judicial commission report on the assassination of former health minister Bimal Sinha on March 31, 1998.

Replying to the leader of the opposition, Sudip Roy Barman, in the assembly, Sarkar expressed concern over the leakage of the report, which has been kept a secret for the last 16 years.

"I have seen media reports today referring to contents of the commission's report.

The home department is not dealing with the issue and the law department is the custodian of the report. The law minister is in the house.

I request him to conduct an inquiry into the matter," Sarkar said in the house.

After the assassination of former minister Sinha, the state government had constituted a judicial commission headed by justice M Yusuf of West Bengal.

The commission had submitted the report on January 31, 2000, but the state government is yet to publish it.

Recently, a division bench of the high court, headed by chief justice Deepak Gupta, asked the government to make the report public in the current session of assembly.

A leading vernacular daily, in its edition on Friday, published the most sensitive observation of the commission contained in the report.

"It is really disappointing that the government could not ensure the secrecy of a classified report of this nature," said Roy Barman.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 6

Attack on democracy is true face of PM Modi's BJP: Rahul Gandhi Pakistan Day to be celebrated in UN

New Delhi, Mar. 20 : Amid the see-sawing developments over the power tussle in Uttarakhand between the grand old party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi on Sunday came out guns blazing on the Centre and asserted that the blatant attempt to topple governments was the true face of the party under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Toppling elected Govts by indulging in horse

trading & blatant misuse of money & muscle, seems to be BJP's new model, after failure in Bihar. This attack on our democracy & Constitution, first in Arunachal & now Uttarakhand, is the true face of Modiji's BJP. Congress Party will fight demagoguery with democracy," The Office on Rahul Gandhi said in a series of tweet.

In a strong rebuttal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that the Sonia Gandhi-led party had 'lowered its level of

Militants gun down 13 policemen in Egypt's northern Sinai

Cairo (Egypt), Mar. 20 : At least 13 Egyptian policemen were killed by militants yesterday on a checkpoint south of northern Sinai's provincial capital of el-Arish, said Egyptian Interior Ministry.

"A mortar round was fired at the Safa checkpoint... which resulted in the martyrdom of 13 policemen," Dawn quoted the statement issued by the ministry as saying.

According to reports, a statement has been circulated on the social media that a Sinai-based Islamic State affiliate has claimed responsibility for the attack but the au-

thenticity of the statement has not been verified.

It said that a suicide bomber, identified by the nom de guerre 'Abu AlQaaqaa the Egyptian' blew up a car packed with explosives at the checkpoint.

Egyptian security forces have been targeted by the local IS affiliate in Sinai who had claimed the downing of a Russian airliner last October.

Following the attack, Russia suspended all flights to Egypt and it lost hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism revenues since. (ANI)

10 detonators recovered from suspicious bag in Ujjain hostel Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh), Mar. 20 : The Ujjain Police have recovered 10 detonators and around one kilogram of explosive material from the suspicious bag which was stashed yesterday in a hostel room in the temple city.

Divulging the details, Superintendent of Police M.S. Verma said that they had specific inputs based on which they conducted the search yesterday and found the explosives.

"We had an input that some suspicious people come and stay in this hostel. Based on that input, we conducted a check in the hostel a day before yesterday. Yesterday, when the boy did not return we opened the door of his room and found a bag containing suspicious articles. We found some explosive devices in a bag yesterday. We are ascertaining details

about the person, who was staying there," Verma told the reporters.

"We have recovered 10 detonators in different boxes. The chemical that has been found in his bag weighs approximately around one kilogram, The ATS team working with us and the checks are being conducted," he added.

He, however, ruled out the possibility that a plan was being made for a blast.

Sajid Khan, the bag's owner, had reportedly checked into Room No. 212 of Atishay Sheel Jain Hostel on Friday after showing his Aadhar card at the counter.

He left the room soon after dumping his luggage and told the manager that he was going out for lunch. When he did not return the entire day, the hostel manager got suspicious and informed the police. (ANI)

M.S. Verma

Bengal or Bihar.

"As far as Assam is concerned, we have formed an alliance and we are the leaders of that alliance.

We will score a decisive victory there as we have significantly grown there," Jaitley said.

Rahul Gandhi ambition and was quite content in becoming the

tail ender of any alliance' be it in Tamil Nadu, West

Talking about the political crisis in Uttarakhand at the present, he added that there was a deep division prevalent within the Congress in the state and that could not be attributed to the BJP in any way.

M e a n w h i l e , Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjal has issued showcause notices to the nine rebel Congress legislators, who joined the BJP leaders when they went to meet Governor KK Paul seeking the dismissal of the Harish Rawat -led government.

The Governor earlier wrote to Rawat, asking him to prove his majority on the floor of the House before March 28.

(ANI)

TRS MP Kavitha downplays Nizamabad chapel 'accident' Hyderabad, Mar. 20 : Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K. Kavitha on Sunday asserted that the incident in Nizamabad where a Christian prayer room was burnt down by miscreants seemed more like an 'accident' but assured that the state government will never let such atrocities happen on minorities.

"It was not something unwanted that happened.

It is true that a prayer hall was burnt down and investigations are underway. But until we are in Nizamabad and Telangana, we will not let such atrocities happen on minorities and will take

K. Kavitha care of them and treat them like equals," Kavitha told ANI. Reiterating like the incident looked more like an accident to her, she added that if there was a hint of

the involvement by any unwanted elements, then they would not be spared.

"Attacks on minorities will be taken seriously but this case does not look serious in nature, as in

that area, we have allotted lands to Christians, Muslims and Hindus to construct prayer halls," Kavitha said.

Earlier, a makeshift prayer hall belonging to the Christian community in Gopanpally village of Nizamabad in Telangana was burnt down by unknown people.

The Nizamabad Superintendent of Police said that the village Panchayat had objected to the construction of the prayer hall, following which unknown people burnt down the hall late at night on Friday.

The police is yet to make an arrest but a case has been registered. (ANI)

Paris attacks suspect backed out suicide bomb plan

Paris attacks suspect backed out suicide bomb plan

Paris, Mar. 20 : A day after Paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels, he told the police that he was supposed to blow himself up at the Stade de France but backed out at the last minute.

French public prosecutor, François Molins, had confirmed that Abdeslam

had been a key member of the group who carried out a series of bombings and shootings in Paris city on November 13 last year but stressed that alleged confession should be treated with care and needed to be double checked.

Abdeslam has been charged with terrorism

offences after being arrested in a raid in the Brusselssuburb of Molenbeek in Friday.

Abdeslam's lawyer said that he would fight his extradition to France but was collaborating with the Belgian investigators.

Speaking at a press conference in Paris on Saturday, Molins said that Abdeslam's claim raised questions about his presence in 18th arrondissement of Paris on the evening of the attacks, after dropping off three other jihadis at the football stadium.

Three suicide bombers blew themselves after being denied entry, while French President François Hollande was inside the stadium. " Salah Abdeslam is a key actor in the attacks in

Paris and St Denis ( Stade de France). He had a central role in the make-up of the commandos and in the logistical planning of the 13 November attacks," Guardian quoted Molins as saying.

Abdeslam's hideout came as a surprise as despite one of Europe's biggest manhunts following the Paris attacks, he returned home in Molenbeek, where his parents still live.

He has been charged with participation in terrorist murder and in the activities of a terrorist organisation.

An accomplice arrested with him, believed to be Amine Choukri, has been similarly charged.

At least 130 people were killed in the deadly Paris attack last November (ANI)

Captive British journalist resurfaces in new ISIS video New York, Mar. 20 : In the latest ISIS propaganda video, captive British journalistJohn Cantlie appeared for the first time in more than a year and he is seen mocking US President Barack Obama.

Cantlie, a war photographer, was captured in 2012 and since his captive has appeared in several videos for the terror group ridiculing America's efforts to wash off the ISIS. He points out that what has been done in northern Iraqi city of Mosul was a cheap media kiosk.

"It's been flattened by the collective might of the American war machine. One has to ask oneself why bother? Is it a ruse by the CIA to somehow undermine the Islamic State's message to the Muslims in Mosul and therefore somehow diminish their control of the city?,"

New York Post quotes him as saying in the video.

"It's because the Americans are so bankrupt of intelligence that this is all they have left to target," he continues in the nearly 3 ½minute video.

"After 20 months and $5 billion, America has successfully destroyed an Islamic state media kiosk. If this is what Obama meant when he talked about degrading and ultimately destroying ISIS, he's clearly got a long way to go yet," he says.

"And you know what's really just amazing, given the amount of money that America is spending on this war, it would go to the effort of destroying a small shack like this, in the middle of Mosul," he continues.

Cantlie last appeared in a video titled "From Inside Halab" where he addressed about education, drone

Pakistan Day to be celebrated in UN New York, Mar. 20 :Pakistan Day will for the first time be celebrated at the United Nations as a concert in the general assembly hall on March 23.

The event has been organised by the Pakistan Mission to the UN and famous Pakistani singer Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will feature in the concert.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Doctor Maleeha Lodhi, said the concert is an effort to

present the country's rich culture and image.

"Public diplomacy is the most effective way to win hearts and minds," Dawn quoted her as saying.

The concert titled 'Sufi Night: Music of Peace' is aimed to spread the message of peace and harmony.

The event comes in the wake of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's repeated urge to its envoys to actively engage in public diplomacy. (ANI)

Baby killed his sleep, he killed her New Delhi, Mar 20: A 28-year-old man bludgeoned his two and-ahalf-year-old stepdaughter to death using a rolling pin (Belan) in Seelampur area of northeast Delhion Saturday morning.

Police said the child was crying while the man was trying to sleep and this outraged him. He first punched the baby and then bludgeoned her. According to the police, the incident took place at 11am, when Nariz Sheikh was trying to sleep in the room where the child, Sauraiya, was also lying.

Sheikh's wife Firdausi Begum (26) who works as domestic help was

away at the time of incident.

"All of a sudden, the child started crying. First Sheikh tried to make her sleep again, but failed. He got frustrated and shouted at the girl after which she started crying even louder.When he didn't find his wife at home, he got upset and started hitting the child, asking her to shut up," said a senior police official.

When even this did not work, he punched the child on her chest and stomach.He grabbed a rolling pin from the kitchen and bludgeoned her, police said.

The child's elder brother, 10-year-old Rahul, ran out to raise alarm.

Brazil: Former Vale CEO Agnelli killed in plane crash London, Mar. 20 : Brazilian banker Roger Agnelli, who turned Vale into one of the world's biggest mining companies, was killed in a plane crash in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

According to the Guardian, Agnelli, his wife and two children were among seven killed when his private plane slammed into two houses, minutes after taking off from an airport in northern Sao Paulo.

Emergency services said a pilot and six passengers were killed in the crash and one person on the ground was injured.

Aviation authorities confirmed that Agnelli was the owner of the plane.

Agnelli was reportedly travelling to a wedding ceremony in Rio de Janeiro with his wife Andreia, son Joao, daughter Anna Carolina, and their two spouses.

(ANI)

ISIS propaganda video, captive British journalist John Cantlie appeared for the first time strikes and Sharia law in February 2015.

He was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. He escaped with the help the Free Syrian Army but was caught again later that year after returning back to the country.

According to reports, it is believed that Cantlier, who has worked for several publications, including The Sun-

day Times, The Sun and The Sunday Telegraph, was with US journalist James Foley, who was beheaded in August 2014.

Meanwhile, media rights watchdog 'Reporters Without Borders' has condemned the terror group for its cowardly use of a hostage for spreading propaganda.

(ANI)

Brazilian banker Roger Agnelli

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 7

NEIGHBOURS

Pak adamant to achieve gender equality to empower women at UN:Maleeha Lodhi Karachi, Mar. 20 : Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, has said Islamabad is determined to achieve gender equality and empower women as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Lodhi, who was speaking at the 'Strategies to eliminate violence against women' event organised by the Pakistan Mission to the UN during the 60th session of the Commission for the Status of Women (CSW), said Pakistan is keen to achieve all the objectives out-

Five killed, 20 injured in truck explosion in China Beijing, Mar 20: Five people were killed and twenty others injured after a truck exploded on a highway in central China's Hunan Province.

The truck suspected to be loaded with flammable and combustible materials exploded at 8:40 pm Saturday on a section of the highway linking Beijing to Hong Kong and Macao in Yueyang City, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

Two sedan cars and two trucks were ignited and another seven vehicles were damaged by the explosion, provincial traffic authorities said.

Among the injured, four are still in critical conditions.

Nepal to hold international Buddhism conference in May Kathmandu, Mar 20: Nepal is set to organise an international conference on Buddha and Buddhism in May, a media report said on Sunday.

The announcement was made on Saturday by Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ananda Prasad Pokharel who said the conference is aimed at glorifying the birth place of Buddha, Lumbini, the Himalayan Times reported.

The government is preparing for the international conference from May 19-21, and for the massive publicity of the invaluable heritage remaining in Lumbini.

The council of ministers has already formed a 501-member committee under the leadership of Minister Pokharel to make the conference a grand success.

Vice-Chairman of Lumbini Development Fund Nigrodh Siddhartha said the conference would support developing Lumbini as a spiritual centre and promote Nepal’s religious and cultural tourism.

The government has extended invitation to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, head of states of neighbouring countries and ministers for culture, high-level representatives from various countries and organisations as well as Buddhist scholars and monks.

lined by the UN in SDG 5.

While highlighting the country's achievements in this regard, the Pakistani envoy maintained that violence against women was a key concern in the country's overall agenda of gender equality and women's empowerment, reports Dawn.

"Physical violence has been described as the most shameful of all human rights violations and one of the most intractable to eliminate," Lodhi asserted.

The fifth SDG, which has

Maleeha Lodhi nine major targets, calls for, among other practices, an end to discrimination and violence against women in public

and private spheres, ending child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, recognising unpaid care

and domestic work and promoting shared responsibility within the household.

The SDGs are a set of universal goals agreed on after three years of negotiations at the UN General Assembly in September last year. They are an expansion of the Millennium Development Goals agreed on at the beginning of the new century.

The UN envoy highlighted the critical role of the media with respect to changing social attitudes, alongside education.

The panelists at the event

included the first female speaker of the Balochistan Assembly, Raheela Durrani, Secretary for Women's Development in Punjab Aman Imam and Aurat Foundation Director Rabeea Hadi.

The participants in the dialogue appreciated Pakistan's achievements and pointed out the areas where further attention was required.

The event was attended by diplomats, civil society organisations and members of delegation at the UN. (ANI)

Kidney racket:Indian Police to seek Interpol help to probe Lankan link Colombo, Mar 20 : Indian police investigators have indicated that they would seek assistance from the Interpol to probe the link into the kidney extractions carried out in Sri Lanka.

The investigators in Gujarat's Anand district have said the documents

have also confirmed that more than five persons travelled to Sri Lanka with help from 'agents' to sell their kidneys.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed

by Anand District Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar Yadav, to

probe into the kidney racket of Pandoli village has fanned across to Delhi and Mumbai to trace the timeline of the alleged organ extractions as well as 'big fish' involved in the racket.

The Sri Lankan Police recently arrested eight Indian nationals without

valid visas staying in an apartment in a suburb of Colombo, reports Lanka page.

The Anand Police are looking at seeking help from the Interpol to probe the Sri Lanka link.

More than five people from Pandoli have trav-

elled to Lanka for kidney extractions via Chennai with help of agents.

Two teams of the SIT, headed by the Petlad Deputy Superintendent of Police M R Gupta, are currently in Delhi and Mumbai to locate the network of the racket.

(ANI)

Nepal PM to leave for China on official visit Kathmandu, Mar 20 : Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is leaving for China today at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Oli is leading a 56-member delegation to Beijing.

During his visit, several agreements and MoUs are expected to be signed between the two countries, reports The Himalayan Times.

Both countries are preparing to formalise Transit and Transportation Agreement and Hilsa Bridge Construction Project besides signing a loan agreement with China EXIM bank for the construction of a regional international airport in Pokhara, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa.

The two countries are also likely to sign MoUs on Free Trade Agreement, Patent Rights and Banking Regulations, said Thapa.

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) will sign an MoU with China Banking

Regulatory Commission (CBRC), enabling both regulators to exchange supervisory information.

The construction of the Hilsa Bridge will be the third friendly bridge connecting Nepal and China after Tatopani in Sindhupalchok and Kerung in Rasuwa.

Several feasibility studies, including Kimathanka-Biratnagar road, second phase of Ring Road expansion, Kerung-Kathmandu rail and petroleum storage facilities in three locations and a mono rail for Kathmandu are also high on agenda.

This is Oli's second foreign visit after India last month since he became the Prime Minister.

PM Oli will be accompanied by his spouse Radhika Shakya, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Commerce Minister Deepak Bohara, Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel, PM's Chief Political Advisor

Bishnu Rimal, parliamentarians and senior bureaucrats.

During the visit, he will pay courtesy calls on Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang.

Oli is also scheduled to address the scholars, academics, business people and students at Renmin University on the theme 'Nepal-China Relations in the Context of Belt and Road Initiatives'.

He will also witness the signing ceremony of MoU on Granting Nepal the Status of Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai C o o p e r a t i o n Organisation (SCO).

The Prime Minister is scheduled to return on March 27 from Chengdu.

(ANI)

Internet crackdown: Mark Zuckerberg meets senior Chinese leader Beijing, Mar. 20 : Amid a crackdown by the Chinese authorities on the use of the internet, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg held a meeting with Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Liu Yunshan yesterday.

In the meeting, Liu expressed hope that Facebook should work with Chinese internet enterprises to enhance exchanges and share advanced technology and experience so as to make outcome of the internet development better benefit the people of all coun-

tries, reports Xinhua.

Zuckerberg, who is in Beijing to attend the annual meeting of the China Development Forum, expressed that he would work with Chinese peers to create a better world in cyberspace.

Liu also pressed that Cyberspace was the common space of mankind and added that it was the common responsibility for the international community to build a 'community of shared future' in cyberspace.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had last December

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with Senior Communist Party of China (CPC) leader Liu Yunshan.

called for building a community of shared future in cyberspace while addressing the Second World

Internet Conference in east China's Zhejiang Province.

Meanwhile, Beijing regu-

lates the use of internet which is heavily censored across the country and has banned western social media companies like Facebook Twitter.

Zuckerberg for long has been in a attempt to make the Facebook accessible in the country, which is considered to be the largest number of Internet users.

But China is only increasing its control over internet and its internet regulator has repeatedly warned that an untamed cyberspace would pose a risk to domestic security.

(ANI)

Three varsities along CPEC route to start functioning this year: Pak minister Islamabad, Mar. 20 : Pakistan Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal has said that three universities being established on the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan will start functioning this year.

Speaking at a seminar,

Iqbal said the universities are part of the government's efforts to produce quality human resource while focusing on infrastructural development and energy production through the CPEC, reports Dawn.

The CPEC, a trans-regional project, will benefit three billion people in the region through enhanced regional connectivity with

Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and play an instrumental role in integrating the whole region, he said.

Gwadar, which is scheduled to be completed by end of this year," added Iqbal.

"The CPEC will benefit the most backward areas of the country and this change has started to appear in the form of emerging settlements alongside a section of the western route from Quetta to

He expressed confidence that Balochistan would experience a new era of development and prosperity when missing links on the western and central routes will be completed.

The CPEC is not a project restricted to the present

Bangladesh SC asks ministers to reappear on Mar.27

government's tenure but a 15-year-long project which will be completed in 2030, he added.

"Even India has started realising the potential benefits of trade with China through the CPEC," the minister said, adding that the project is a fusion of the Pakistan Vision 2025 plan and China's One Road-One Belt initiative.

(ANI)

Bangladesh SC asks ministers to reappear on Mar.27 Dhaka, Mar.20 : Bangladesh Supreme Court has criticised two ministers for their comments about Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha in relation to the hearing of an appeal of war crimes convict Mir Quasem Ali. The Supreme Court has fixed March 27 for further hearing of the rules and asked the ministers to appear before it on that day.

The Supreme Court has said that the two ministers not only undermined the Chief Justice but also dishonoured the entire judiciary by their statements, reports The Daily Star.

The court added that the two ministers have made arrogant comments about

the Chief Justice and the judiciary.

It rejected the explanation made by Food Minister Qamrul Islam and Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq in response to its contempt of court rules as Qamrul said he made the comment out of emotion as a freedom fighter.

A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinhaaccepted the explanation from Mozammel.

The two ministers appeared before the apex court at 9:00 am in connection with the contempt of court rule issued by the court on March 8.

(ANI)

Prince Harry meets Nepal Prez in Kathmandu

UK Prince Harry Kathmandu, Mar. 20 : The visiting UK Prince Harry called on Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari at her residence in Sheetal Niwas this morning.

During the meeting, Prince Harry told President Bhandari that he was delighted to be in Nepal and was looking forward to open the Girls Summit later this week.

The Himalayan Times

reported that the UK Prince later left for Patan to meet those affected by two devastating earthquakes, which struck Nepal in April and May 2015.

Prince Harry, who arrived on a five-day official visit yesterday, wanted to learn about the efforts being made to restore buildings of historic significance and to assist disaster preparedness. (ANI)

China's new nuclear power plant installs key component Beijing, Mar 20: A key component of China's first fourth-generation nuclear energy system was installed in a plant in Shandong province on Sunday.

The pressure vessel of a high-temperature gascooled reactor (HTGR) was put in place at the Huaneng Shidao Bay nuclear power plant, Xinhua reported.

The cylindrical vessel, 25 metres high and weighing 610 tonnes, is the biggest, heaviest and most complicated pressure vessel for a nuclear reactor, according to a statement from Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Co. (HSNPC), the plant's builder and operator.

In line with the fourth-generation concept, the reactor can shut down safely in the event of an emergency without causing a

reactor core meltdown or large leak of radioactive material.

With a designed capacity of 200 MW, the reactor will start generating power by the end of 2017.

It is predicted that 91 per cent of the equipment in the plant will come from Chinese companies, said He Yunsheng, general manager of HSNPC. "The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor represents the latest technology.

It will greatly raise China's capacity in nuclear power plants and boost export," said He. China has inked memoranda of understanding with Saudi Arabia and the UAE on co-construction of HTGR nuclear power plants.

Caption: key component of China's first fourth-generation nuclear energy system was installed

PAGE 8

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

Asia's Boards: Where Are The Women?

Mid Day Meal Nagaland's scheme in shambles With the objectives of improving health and education of the poor children, India has embarked upon an ambitious scheme of providing mid day meals (MDM) in the governMid day meal logo ment and government(Photo: newsbharati) assisted primary schools. The administrative and logistical responsibilities of this scheme are enormous, and, therefore, offering food stamps or income transfer to targeted recipients is considered as an alternative But lack of proper records of the Mid Day Meal Scheme in various schools across Nagaland has become a major concern. According to a report published by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School and Education, Government of India, in most of the schools, proper record either for receiving of any articles or of any expenditure of cooking cost, either was not maintained or was found in very poor condition. The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour. Shocking revelations from a report which surfaced was apart from record keeping major loopholes observed in providing meal and payment of honorarium to the cooks and helpers. Discrepancies is running like a thread in Government Primary Schools with excuses of acute shortage of staff that can monitor the scheme effectively.

But to improve information access and delivery mechanism of public scheme in remote and backward districts of Northeast India, ACTED with the support of European Union is working its way in seven districts of the Northeast India. Whereas the regional programme coordinator said that, as a part of the ambitious project of ACTED, ten government sponsored schemes are chosen and Mid Day Meal scheme is one of them. Efforts are also being made under this project to bridge the gap between the service providers and other stakeholders so that they can access the schemes and avail their full benefit. Thus, the scheme is important in terms of its potential for substantially improving the health of the younger generation of the country as also in terms of the enormity of spending of taxpayer's money. In fact, it is also an important instrument to encourage children to attend school.

First Civilian President Myanmar elects after 50 years Myanmar elected U Htin Kyaw of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party as its new President, the first civilian to lead the country after over 50 years of military rule.. U Htin Kyaw, a 69-year-old academic and long-time aide of the Nobel laureate. U Htin Kyaw was elected with 360 votes while U Myint Swe from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who was directly assigned by the military, was elected first Vice President with 213 votes. The appointed military bloc in Parliament holds 166 seats, 25 percent of the total, while the military-backed USDP has 41 seats in the two Houses. U Henry Van Thio, an Upper House NLD member and ethnic Chin Christian, was elected second Vice President with 79 votes. The new government will be sworn-in on March 30 and will assume office from April 1.

U Htin Kyaw, a year younger than Suu Kyi, attended school with her at Dagon township's Basic Education High School Number 1. According to sources, he received a bachelor's and then a master's degree in Economics from Yangon University. In 1971, he became the first scholar to be sent abroad by the university's fledgling Computer department.

He studied at the now-defunct University of London Institute of Computer Science at the same time that Aung San Suu Kyi lived in London. She later became a student at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, while U Htin Kyaw returned to socialist-era Mynamar, ruled

by General Ne Win. Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in last year's November 8 general elections after decades of often brutal rule by Myanmar's generals.

Suu Kyi nominated U Htin Kyaw obviously to show that he is the most trusted person for her.

Myanmar is undergoing a dramatic transformation from an isolated and repressed pariah state to a rapidly opening aspiring democracy. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a thumping victory at elections in November, allowing her party to dominate Myanmar's two legislative houses. But the military remains a powerful force, and has refused to change a clause in the junta-era constitution which bars her from the presidency. The veteran activist has instead vowed to rule "above" the next leader. Her choice of Htin Kyaw is seen as a testament to her absolute faith in his loyalty.

Despite progress, Asian women are yet to crack the corporate "rice-paper ceiling." Are arbitrary quotas the answer?

Asia's major economies marked International Women's Day 2016 with relatively little fanfare, despite the demographic imperative that confronts the aging populations of China, Japan and South Korea.

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian corporate boardrooms have low gender diversity Anthony despite moves such as Japan's "Womenomics," although the bank blames societal issues rather than deliberate hiring decisions.

In its report, "Women's Leadership and Corporate Performance," the ADB noted that Western countries lead the field on female representation, particularly Scandinavian countries. In 2014, Norway's proportion of female directors stood at 40.5 percent while Finland and Sweden were both around 27 percent, with Britain's ratio standing at 21 percent and the United States with 17 percent.

In contrast, South Korea's ratio was a lowly 1.9 percent, just below Japan's 2 percent, with Singapore's proportion 8.3 percent, China 8.5 percent and Malaysia 8.6 percent. The region's best performers were Australia with 18 percent, New Zealand with almost 15 percent and Indonesia with 11.6 percent, the study showed.

The high European ratios may reflect mandatory quotas, with Britain proposing a minimum of 25 percent female directors, Germany 30 percent and Norway 40 percent. In Asia, only India and Malaysia impose mandatory quotas for gender diversity, al-

though the report notes the mixed progress on implementation.

In India, for example, while the law required all listed firms to have at least one female on the board by March 2015, "many firms complied with the law by appointing the wives of the controlling owners," and one-third ignored the requirement Fensom altogether, the report said.

On April 1, a new law in Japan will require companies with more than 300 employees to publish data on the number and positions of their female staff, as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for increased female representation.

In Australia, Australian Institute of Company Directors head Elizabeth Proust has proposed mandatory quotas for ASX 200 companies by 2018, should they have failed to reach a target for 30 percent female representation. As of last year, only 38 of the top 200 listed companies had met the voluntary target.

"With the exception of engineering, women have been coming out of universities in roughly equal numbers as men in most disciplines for more than 25 years now, so the argument there are not enough qualified women just doesn't wash," said Proust.

The benefits of female directors have been highlighted by recent research, including a 2011 report by Catalyst which found that US Fortune 500 companies with at least three female directors earned an average return on equity (ROE) 4.8 percentage points

higher than those without any women on board.

Similarly, a Credit Suisse report found that between 2005 and 2011, companies with at least some female directors outperformed those with none in share price performance, with a four percentage point higher ROE. Yet the ADB report argues against mandatory quotas in Asia, saying it "may produce little in terms of financial performance."

According to the bank, the relatively low gender diversity found in Asian boards "appears to be related to a limited supply of top-level candidates due to a lack of educational opportunities, lower wages, infant survival rates and other broad societal disadvantages suffered by women in the region."

"Addressing government policies that put women at a disadvantage in education, work and other aspects of society would be more effective at diversifying Asian boardrooms than mandating quotas," it argues.

Nevertheless, Asia's pipeline of female talent has improved, as shown by a ratio as high as 40 percent of female senior management in Indonesia and the Philippines, compared to around 20 percent in the West.

At the top though, only Australia and New Zealand had at least 10 percent of female directors holding senior leadership positions such as chief executive or chairperson. In Japan, there were no women in either position among the nation's top 100 companies, and none of the top companies in India and South Korea had female

Image for representational purpose only. (Photo: womentips)

chairpersons, the ADB report said.

The report suggests China "potentially loses economic value by the largest magnitude because of the lack of gender diversity," although it did boast the region's highest percentage of female CEOs, at 5.6 percent.

The cost to Asia for failing to rectify the gender gap in the workforce could be as high as $47 billion a year, according to the World Economic Forum. For aging economies such as Japan, the payoff could be particularly high, with Goldman Sachs research estimating a 13 percent boost to gross domestic product from increasing female employment.

According to Bloomberg, government pressure is making a difference in Japan, with the number of companies with female directors rising by 70 percent in the last fiscal year, to 392 among some 1,933 Topix index members.

However, changing attitudes may take more than government poli-

cies or quotas. According to Tokyo-based Elizabeth Masamune, achieving Abe's promised society "where women shine" will require a major shift in traditional roles.

"In fact, when you get down to it, Womenomics simply asks Japanese women to do more and more. In addition to joining the ranks of corporate warriors once reserved only for men (and playing by their rules of course), women are urged to save the national economy by having more babies to boot," she says in ANZ's Blue Notes. "'Yes, we can,' has somehow turned into 'Yes, you can,' but women are not really buying the message."

That will require men to support women's ambitions "without fear of failure" - and perhaps a change in a corporate culture that values long hours in the office to get ahead rather than time with family.

In a 2014 report, accounting group EY ar-

gued that closing the gender gap on boards required a mutually reinforcing combination of "focused public sector attention, committed private sector leadership and corporate transparency to meet growing public demand for change."

"What success looks like in any particular country will depend on political realities and cultural norms, but it's clear that the attention of public officials as well as both male and female CEOs of publicly held companies makes a difference.

And when that is combined with corporate transparency about gender diversity, investors can help by supporting progress and holding companies accountable," EY said.

Amid a sluggish global economy, aging societies and growing competitive pressures, the real question for Asia's boards might be whether they can still afford not to appoint female directors, instead of where to find them.

Courtesy: thediplomat

Plastic digester for better biogas production Biogas plants don't func- Typically, for biogas protion well when ambient duction, slurry is kept in temperatures are low and a digester made of cehence remain out of use ment. Digesters are prefor greater part of the conditioned tanks where anaeroyear, in the bic bachills for Jacquelyn Hayes teria example.

The plants are most effi- break down the slurry. cient when the tempera- The gas is then pulled ture of slurry--mixture of out of the digester and organic materials such as used in generating eleccow dung or plant waste- tricity, heating and as -is 35-40C. Scientists fuel. have found that using For the experiment, replastic helps attain the searchers from Madurai desired temperature even Kamraj University comwhen the surrounding pared the efficiency of a biogas plant using a plastemperature is low.

tic digester with a greenhouse canopy and a conventional plant using a cement digester in a hilly region in Tamil Nadu.

Plastic was chosen as the test material because it is non-corrosive, a good insulator for heat and can withstand operating temperatures and prolonged exposure to sunlight, said K Vinoth Kumar, a researcher.

Better and cost effective They found the plastic digester produced an annual average slurry tem-

perature of 26.3C, which was 3.9C higher than the conventional plant and 9.3C higher than the ambient temperature. Also, the annual average amount of gas produced by the experimental plant was 11.5 per cent more than the conventional plant. The solarassisted plastic greenhouse biogas plant design was found to be profitable as well. "The plastic biogas plant is relatively cheaper to fabricate," Kumar told Down To Earth. It low-

ered construction and maintenance costs as well, besides being long lasting. Plastic digesters come for about us $145, whereas conventional designs range from us $175-265.

Cement digesters may crack over time, which could reduce its ability to retain heat, said the paper available online since April 14 in Solar Energy's website.

Ajay Chandak, founder of prince, a volunteerbased group that promotes use of renewable

Intolerance - Pakistan Style

Image for representational purpose (Photo: internationalnewsandviews)

Sir, There had been much hullabaloo over the issue of intolerance in India. We saw many awardees returning their awards on different streams in protest against intolerance prevailing in the country. This phenomenon of intolerance is unheard of in the past in India.

The awardees' main concern and complaint is 'Hindutwa'. Their ire is specifically directed against the Government of India led by the BJP. In contrast, Pakistan has been full of instances of intolerances right from the date of its independence. A fan in Pakistan of Virat Kohli, the Indian cricketer had to face the unpleasant music. The said fan of Kohli in a show of sheering up Kohli fluttered the Indian flag on his rooftop, as a consequence, he had to suffer a term in the jail. Thereafter, came the case of Afridi, the captain of Pakistan cricket team. Afridi's fault is why he

should praise people of India. For Pakistan, Indians deserve no praise and for the so-called imprudence and audacity shown by Afridi - he faced acrimonious criticism in Pakistan that prompted him to give a clarification.

There are myriad instances of intolerances in Pakistan that include among others Persecution on the minorities.

Late Feroz Khan, the erstwhile Bollywood actor, once commented that Indian Muslims live a far better cosy life than their counterparts in Pakistan and then he faced a life ban on entry into Pakistan. Anupam Kher, another Bollywood actor commented on intolerance that the adversaries of Narendra Modi failing to find fault with him brought the issue of intolerance.

sources of energy, agrees a plastic digester will help. He suggests that using solar hot water panels to heat water that is circulated through the slurry would also be "very effective" because the temperature of the slurry is raised directly.

Kumar believes there is ample scope to employ plastic for biogas plant construction and further research will substantiate the approach.

Courtesy : Down to earth

Best Letter The best letter of the month in the Letter to the Editor section will be awarded an amount of Rs 200. So please keep writing.

Letters to the editor and articles should be sent to : The Eastern Today Chowkidingee, Near Sankardeva Hospital Mancotta Road, Dibrugarh786003 (Assam) Ph: 0373-2328944 Yours etc.

Web : Ashok Bordoloi editor.easterntoday@gmail.com Dibrugarh

p O

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

Page 9

ed

A uniform civil code is crucial to protect Muslim women from these unfair 'traditions' Many decades ago we got expand the Hindu Code Bill a Hindu Code Bill. At the to a uniform code bill. time, it was opposed Isn't it unfair that the Musstrongly by the Rashtriya lims have a personal code?

Swayamsevak Sangh, and Unfair because I think other rightMuslims are wing Hindu Indians first.

Pillai Vishnu They are Indiorganisations.

But the politians who hapcal will of the other side pen to be Muslims and not was stronger and Muslims who happen to Ambedkar and Nehru be Indians. were able to stand their ground.

The need for a uniform Now, a lot of the evil tra- code bill is not just equalditions in the name of Hin- ity in law irrespective of duism have become ex- religion. A study by an tinct like polygamy and NGO, Bharatiya Muslim many other evil patriarchal Mahila Andolan found that practices of Hinduism 92.1 percent Muslim which are rarely ever women were against the heard of anymore. We can practice of 'triple talaq', all agree that the Hindu whereby the husband can Code Bill did a lot of good divorce his wife wife by to Hinduism and the soci- saying the word 'talaq' ety at large. This is the thrice. motivation you need to The very sorry story of the break out of evil traditions Shah Bano case should in the name of God and have provided our leaders religion. This is the moti- with enough ballast to vation we need now to push for and implement

the uniform code bill. But the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi thought it would be better to appease the Muslim community for electoral gains. If he hadn't thought about the country in terms of votes, probably we wouldn't have heard of Shayara Banu who was forced to have six to seven abortions (she lost count) and then later divorced by mail with those three fateful words written in it. We wouldn't have heard of a judge divorcing his wife by the triple talaq either.

Surprisingly, triple talaq is either banned or restricted in countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan but it continues in India!

Divorce is fine, but let it happen in a court of law where the women have a chance to get what is due to them. That's why you need a uniform code bill.

Our patriarchal religions

Muslim woman wear burkhas, hijabs or naqaabs which according to Islamism is a way of protecting the female folks. (Photo: essence) shouldn't come in the way of the rights of women and gender equality. Religion shouldn't be allowed in politics, or the law and, more importantly, it shouldn't come in the way of justice.

Muslim personal law's existence should be questioned especially when it stands in opposition to Prohibition Of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) for the Muslim community. The archaic Muslim personal

law is just enforcing the tradition of not allowing young girls to have a decent shot at a good future.

Instead, it allows these girls to get married at a tender age thereby, in most cases, forces them

into a life of domesticity.

And the country loses a bright future. Do you want to keep losing?

Polygamy has been described as a human rights violation by many women's rights group across the globe on the grounds that it violates the dignity of women. The problem is that Muslim Personal Law gives cover to the practice of polygamy, where there have been cases of the wives being tortured physically and mentally and treated worse than animals in many instances.

Muslim personal law does not support family planning either. We cannot afford to have people rejecting family planning at this time and age. In the older times, 'more was merrier' but at present, overpopulation is one of the greatest challenges we face as

a country and as a civilisation. It would be unwise for us to follow rules formulated in a different time and place. It's high time that we realised that rules and laws have to be updated with changing times.

I urge the Muslim community to support the push for a uniform code bill. It isn't a threat to your religion. Support it because it would be a boon for your mother, sister, daughter and wife. Your support is important because we do not need politicians using religion to hold back a much-needed reform. Don't restrict yourself to just being vote banks for politicians. It's time you show how much smarter you are than the politicians and make them listen to you and not the other way around. Courtesy: Youth ki awaaz

Can Democracy Exist When The 'Truth' Is Why I Think We Need to Handed Down To People By Those In Power?

Embrace Feminism The question of facts, of certainty. truth, of 'reliable history' Fact-Making has been central to the By 'exposing the nonstudent activists' struggle factuality' of some of in Jawaharlal Nehru Uni- Kanhaiya's recent versity and beyond. At claims, one wonders if least since the arrest of Paranjape's aim to disJNU Students' Union qualify Kanhaiya. Does President Kanhaiya he want to discredit the Kumar on February 12, vibrant and much-needed 2016. movement Since then, Saurabh Arora t h a t the debate Kanhaiya on whose side true facts has become an effective lie has gained further spokesperson for? prominence with the air- Even if this is the case, ing ofdoctored videos. Paranjape's call to "check More recently, in his your facts" cannot simply teach-in lecture at JNU, be dismissed. He should Makarand Paranjape im- not be disqualified, as no pressed upon Kanhaiya one perhaps should be, by to check his facts. the invocation of truer Everyone in this debate facts, at least not without appears to fully under- due process. stand what a 'fact' is. As Bruno Latour has arTwo strands of this un- gued, this due process derstanding are clear to entails making public how see. evidence is collected, collated, processed and preFirst, a fact is believed to sented. Thus, what needs be a standalone entity to be made public are not that will remain true no readymade facts, but matter how many trials it rather the process is subjected to and no through which they are matter how far it travels. made.

Truth is somehow the essence of a fact.

Facts are not simply reSecond, facts are claims, vealed by the real world statements and judge- (as scientists would arments that are backed up gue), through the applicaby requisite evidence. In- tion of a 'rigorous deed, reliable history is method', but also by factual because it has moral values, political substantial archival evi- pressures, professional dence behind it. obligations, economic interests, technical equipBut, what is evidence? ment, persistent doubts Who selects and inter- and collective creativity. prets it and then presents To treat facts as neutral is to ignore the substanto the world?

It is experts who tell the tial influence of the latter. public what counts as evi- By presenting facts as dence, and how it is value-free and objective, undergirded by rigour (of- modern expert knowlten, of 'the scientific edge, and modernist idemethod'). They even set ologies such as orthodox the frameworks for de- Marxism, manage to marcating good evidence frame the underlying from bad fabrications. logic of social and natuThe public is expected to ral problems to be the simply believe in expert same or similar everyknowledge and partici- where. Taking this as pate in the implementa- given, universalist remtion of policies based on edies, in the form of modern technologies or the the experts' facts. application of strategies It is perhaps on the basis based on socialist prinof the second under- ciples, are stated to be standing of facts as but- adequate for addressing tressed by experts' evi- these problems. dence that Paranjape is able to make a case for Actual problem-solving separating the factual effects of expert knowlfrom the 'not factual', with edge have often been

Image for representational purpose (Photo: allpict) dramatic, but very rarely unproblematic or uncontroversial, as Timothy Mitchell has so clearly shown.

Thus, rather than letting statements such as 'check your facts before you speak' to silence voices that are already weaker, we need to democratise fact-making expertise. Successes for wider social justice will remain seriously limited if we fail to bring experts into the fold of democracy.

Knowing Democracy A true democracy ensures that the most marginalised sections of a society are able to raise their voices. It also requires the more powerful sections, especially those in government and other centres of 'expertise', to register these voices.

Registration means that the powerful transform how they engage with the marginalised.

Also, a democratic society continually carves and nurtures spaces in which the vulnerable and the marginal can work towards their empowerment. This is done not through the imposition of expert-driven social engineering plans but through their creative localising appropriation of those plans and through their own diverse projects and

practices.

For these goals to be materialised, democratisation of factmaking expertise is not a luxury that must be put off until India has joined the league of so-called developed nations. It is a necessary ingredient of development that is genuinely inclusive and sustainable.

To further this democratisation, I have argued that 'how facts are made' must be made public, in science and beyond by all 'experts'. This implies that each citizen is empowered to question what is made to count as reliable evidence by experts and how. And to demand the experts to reveal the uncertainty and ambiguity associated with their knowledge claims.

Thus, when a fact is presented to the wider public as true in a democracy, the raising of dissenting voices must be nurtured rather than snubbed.

Perhaps the bypassing of this dissent is one reason why experts present their descriptions in a language that few outside their own community can understand.

In order to democratise expertise, it is indeed important to make this language more accessible, to make public scrutiny and dissent possible. It

also requires that lay people are treated as knowledgeable in their own right.

Furthering social justice thus might require us to bring facts into democracy. There is no blueprint for how to go about this. Those interested in justice must publicly deliberate over how to democratise expertise, rather than assume the role of experts themselves in their struggle against power.

The deployment of truth against power may be necessary, but genuine truth is one that makes the process of its making public, instead of hiding behind the garb of expertise.

This has crucial implications for re-thinking the role of all centres of expertise in society. These include the university. It must find a new way to engage with society, rather than sustaining its legitimacy on the basis of indisputable fact-making.

Finally, if democracy and freedom are inseparable, as Kanhaiya and many other student activists have repeatedly proclaimed, then we might also need to work towards freedom from the unhindered 'rule of experts', from the tyrannies of modernist development. Courtesy:Youth ki awaaz

I was born to my parents 'perfect husband' as she 18 years after their wed- was a little plump! Well, ding, something that is not husband's are pricey, very common. They aren't they? So, he had to were extremely happy help her settle with her when I was born. My fa- husband (who came with ther had invited all his rela- a price tag). tives and friends to share I still can't forget the conhis happiness. However, to versation that I had with his surprise, a few of my one of my uncles who relatives wanted were con- Madhavi Jadhav me to get cerned for married to him, and they even dared some obnoxious guy. My to say, "Itne saalon baad uncle told me that the bhi bhagwaan ne diya toh groom's family had rekya, beti (After so many jected me (as if I cared). years all you could get was My father started blaming a girl child)." When some- me for being rude to the one narrated this story to guy. After investigating a me, I didn't hesitate to ask bit, I came to know the my father whether I was real reason for rejection. an unwanted child. He had The groom's parents were a smile on his face and worried that their son (the said, "You are my special groom) would have to child." I was blessed with take my parent's respona loving and caring father, sibility. Well, WTF! My but everyone isn't that parents have made me inlucky in India. dependent so that I can The sex ratio in India is take care of myself and 940/1000 (female/male), my family. On the positive and in each census, it side, I never met that ob-

is allowed to be on his own.

They are never taught cooking or other household chores as these are considered women's jobs.

Last month, I visited my friend PJ with my nephew and niece. I was having a conversation with his wife so PJ volunteered to make a cup of coffee for us. After we left their house my inquisitive nephew asked me, "Attu, why did PJ uncle make coffee for you, isn't it supposed to be his wife's job?" I was shocked, but then I realised that it's not his fault he is conditioned like that. I just couldn't resist and shared with him a video about why laundry is a woman's job.

According to Wikipedia, "Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, per-

Reuters/Adnan Abidi. barely seems to improve.

Thousands of girl children are killed even before they are born. The sole reason behind this is that in India a female child is considered a burden while a male child is considered an investment. The day a girl child is born her parents start worrying about her wedding. The dowry system is also a prevalent custom in India. It is among one of the reasons that Indians are averse to a girl child. One of my friend's colleagues told her that it took him four years to find a good match for his sister. He paid around 20 lakhs to get her the

noxious guy again.

Indian parents want their daughters to be perfect.

They want her to be perfect at cooking and at household chores. They want her to be an obedient wife and a good daughter in law. They don't want her to take stands or take risks. They are taught not to talk to strangers but are married to a stranger (which they call an arranged marriage)! They condition her to learn and adapt to these lessons. On the other hand, a male child is taught to take risks. He is not limited by timings or any other restrictions. He

sonal, and social rights for women." So, why do I think India needs feminism? India needs feminism because I want to be treated equally with respect to my brother. India needs feminism because household chores aren't a woman's job only. India needs feminism because daughters also love their parents like sons do. India needs feminism because parents invest more on their daughters' wedding than their education.

India needs feminism because we need more Indira Gandhis, Indra Nooyis and Chanda Kochhars.

Courtesy:Youth ki awaaz

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

BUSINESS

JNPT to obtain larger ship with 13,900 containers Mumbai, Mar 20: Dredging at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India's biggest container port, has helped the port receive larger vessels, easing the problem of congestion. Currently, the port with a draft of 14 metres (tidal) is capable of receiving ships that can carry 11,000 containers and on April 1, a ship with 13,900 containers will call on the port reflecting the greater draft capacity. Earlier, ships carrying only 8,000 containers could be received at JNPT due to

Wheelstreet.in mops up Rs. 3.3 cr.

Bengaluru, Mar 20: Wheelstreet.in, an online bike rental aggregator, has raised Rs 3.3 crore from early-stage venture capital firm Broadbean Capital Services.

Wheelstreet, which is operational in Delhi and Bengaluru, will use the money to improve its technology capabilities and expand its operations in over 15 cities, including Pune and Hyderabad.

"Wheelstreet is undeniably the first mover in this virgin space with immense potential," said Kapil Bhandari, managing director at Broadbean Capital Services.

He said India is largely a twowheeler nation and the economics and convenience of a two-wheeler is still unbeatable. "Motorcycle rental market is largely an unorganized space," said Pranay Shrivastava, the 22-year-old chief executive of Wheelstreet. He said the firm provides value for commuters and for people looking at recreational use of motorcycles The firm enables users to rent motorcycles of their choice, including highend brands such as HarleyDavidson, Kawasaki and Royal Enfield. An alumnus of Lakshmi Narain College of Technology in Bhopal, Mr.Shrivastava founded Wheelstreet along with his friends Moksha Srivastava and Mritunjay Kumar-also in their early twenties-in 2014.

Wheelstreet said it now operates with over 2,000 bikes.

The firm said it has completed over 14,000 rides in Delhi and Bengaluru generating revenue of over Rs.60 lakh per month. The average deal size goes up to Rs.8,000 per transaction. It also caters to corporate customers and rents out bikes to hyper-local delivery firms. (Agencies)

India seeks to capture 20% market share in IoT New Delhi, Mar 20: India aims to capture 20% market share in Internet of Things (IoT), an emerging sector which would be worth $300 billion by 2020, a top Nasscom official said. The IoT is driving the fourth wave of industrial revolution dramatically alerting manufacturing, energy, transportation, medical and other industrial sectors while emerging worldwide, Vice President of Nasscom (Industrial Initiative) K S Vishwanathan told reporters. As the global IoT business is expected to touch $300 billion by 2020, India aims to capture 20% market share in another five years, he said. Vishwanathan was here to launch Nasscom IoT Centre of Excellence, a joint initiative of Government of India, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) along with TCS, Intel, Amazon Web Services and FORGE Accelerator. Depending on the success of Coimbatore hub, it was proposed to launch such centres in Pune, Baroda and Hyderabad, even as a pilot project was underway in Bengaluru, he said. To a query on the pace of setting up startups in view of additional tax being levied on them, Vishwanathan said, "nearly 1,000 startups are being added every year in India, which stands third in the world in terms of numbers and will continue to grow."

(Agencies)

49% FDI in insurance under automatic route allowed by Govt

draft restrictions. Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "Don't think it is an April Fool joke. It is a fact. On April 1, 2016 JNPT will receive a ship that will carry 13,900 containers. The JNPT Chairman will announce further details in due course."

Meanwhile, JNPT and the Shipping Ministry are also working with the Maharashtra government and Railway Ministry for the early commissioning of a rail link between Manmad and Indore that will drastically bring down

container traffic movement time from the present 12 to 13 days from Mumbai to Delhi to one or two days. Besides, this project which has been announced in the Railway Budget will greatly benefit several areas of Maharashtra including Dhule. "We want the Maharashtra government to bear 50 per cent of the cost of the Rs 3,000 crore project as many areas in the state will be linked by railway and will benefit," Mr. Gadkari said. (Agencies)

JNPT EXPANSION

New Delhi, Mar 20: Bosch, a global supplier of technology and services, has sold more than 1.5 lakh units of affordable power tools manufactured at Bosch's new plant in Oragadam, Tamil Nadu.

localisation and cost optimisation without compromising on robustness, durability and quality." The new unit, which started producing eight types of power tools for artisans and tradesmen in the price range of Rs.2,000 to Rs.10,000, is part of the Make in India programme announced by the government to boost manufacturing.

user-centric and relevant for artisans and tradesmen. "Currently, we have 10 per cent market share and our aim is to touch 25 per cent in the next two to three years. "We will be increasing the after sales service centres from 250 to 400 in the coming months," Mr. Panish said. Over the next three to six months, Bosch will Image for representational purpose only (Photo: export these products to fresherjobs9) Bangladesh and Sri based on customer feed- Tier-III and Tier-IV cit- Lanka, he said. Asked back. ies. Though artisans and about the high-end prodtradesmen use 25 types ucts being manufactured Till recently, the products of tools, Bosch does not at Oragadam, he said were sold in the pre- plan to produce all of they had an import conmium price band. Bosch them. At the most, an- tent of 40 per cent which decided to price its tools other three to four prod- would be brought down 15 to 20 per cent lower ucts would be introduced in the coming years. Last than the price it charged in the coming months. year Bosch sold over one for its own imported ver- "Basically, we have cho- million tool kits and this sions in order to increase sen these products as year it plans to sell 1.3 its customer base in they are fast moving, million kits. (Agencies)

Dredging at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India's biggest container port, has helped the port receive larger vessels, easing the problem of congestion Currently, the port with a draft of 14 metres (tidal) is capable of receiving ships that can carry 11,000 containers

On April 1, a ship with 13,900 containers will call on the port reflecting the greater draft capacity.

JNPT and the Shipping Ministry are also working with the Maharashtra government and Railway Ministry for the early commissioning of a rail link.

PAGE 10

Mumbai, Mar 20: Seeking to attract more foreign investment, the government has relaxed FDI norms for the insurance sector by permitting overseas companies to buy 49 per cent stake in domestic insurers without prior approval. Currently, up to 26 per cent FDI is permitted through the automatic approval route. For FDI up to 49 per cent, the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board is required. "The foreign

Image for representational purpose only (Photo: moneycontrol)

investment proposals up to 49 per cent of the total paid up equity of the In-

dian insurance company shall be allowed on the automatic route subject to verification by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India," said a Government notification. There are 52 insurance companies operating in India, of which 24 are in the life insurance business and 28 in general insurance. During AprilDecember 2015, FDI into the country grew by 40 per cent to $ 29.44 billion.

(Agencies)

Bosch to trade affordable power tools Indian govt. eyes

Intended to be laboursaving, the tools such as electric drills and saws are targeted at artisans and tradesmen including electricians and carpenters, according to Panish P.K., Regional Sales Director, India and SAARC, Bosch Power Tools Division.

"Our aim is to sell five lakh units by December 2016," Mr. Panish said.

"We were able to bring down the prices due to mass production,

The facility, which is located close to Chennai, started humming in mid2015. It produces more than 60 specific power tools. The plant started manufacturing handheld, portable and corded marble cutters, air blowers, angle grinders, rotary hammers, rotary drills and cut-off saws

Indian delegation plans for tea export boost up

Image for representational purpose only (Photo: i.dawn. )

Kolkata, Mar 20: An Indian delegation will be visiting Egypt in a bid to perk up the country's sagging tea exports to the African country. The 12member delegation, led

by Tea Board of India Chairman, comprises trade and industry delegates. The visit , the first

since the Arab Spring turmoil, comes at a time when India's overall tea exports have registered a 10-million-kg increase in 2015 over 2014. Exports stood at 217.67 million kg against 207.40 million kg a year ago. This is the most significant rise since 2005. "Sustained promo-

tional work by the Tea Board of India alongside efforts mounted by tea industry and trade has borne fruit on export front," a senior official of apex industry body, the Indian Tea Association, told. Bulk of the increase came from South India which exported 95.2 million kgs against 87.5 million kgs. Exports from North India stood at 122.4 million kgs against 119 million kgs. However, export prices have been signed by the trend of declining tea prices and lower average realisation at Rs.187.7 per kg against Rs.195 per kg in 2014. Total export value rose marginally to Rs. 4,085 crores against Rs. 4,054 crores. The coun-

tries which helped boost tea exports from India, which faces intense competition from Kenya and Sri Lanka , are Russia, Iran and Pakistan.

Russia increased its imports to 45.7 million kgs from 38.9 million kgs while Iran imported 20.3 million kgs against 38.9 kgs in 2014.

Neighbouring Pakistan, too, increased its exports by nearly 20 per cent.

Sources said that the strategy of direct interaction with key exporters through delegations has paid dividends. Besides Iran, which is a high value market with unit price realisation here of Rs.519, delegations were also taken to Russia which is India's single-

largest market. Russia, Iran, Egypt are among the key markets identified by the government for spearheading India's tea exports. The programme called KRUCIAL includes Kazakhstan, Russia, U.S., China, Iran, Arab Republic of Egypt and Latin America. Egypt is a 80-million-kg market in which India's share has slipped to about six million kgs from about 15 million kgs a decade ago.

South India is the major exporter. The turmoil in Egypt contributed to India slipping in exports.

African exporters like Kenya have location advantages and duty preferences which India is aiming to surmount.

(Agencies)

private financing agencies

New Delhi, Mar 20: The Indian government, which is executing the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project at a total investment of $90 billion, is looking at private financing agencies for implementation of the project, according to a senior government official. Pointing out that the foreign direct investment to India went up by 40 per cent in the last two years, Alkesh K. Sharma, CEO and Managing Director, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), told the Sixth Asian Development Forum here on Friday that "the government of India is on a reform mode." In the case of the Delhi-Mumbai project, there had been challenges of planning and land acquisition, which "we have been able to overcome." A "robust instrument" of public-private partnership was in place with a legal framework for investment protection. There would be four more corridor projects Bengaluru-Mumbai ($100 billion), AmritsarKolkata ($46 billion), Chennai-Bengaluru ($35 billion) and ChennaiVisakhapatnam. In respect of the last project, the figure for investment was being worked out.

Among the ingredients of the Delhi-Mumbai project were a dedicated freight corridor (1,504 km) and 24 investment regions/industrial areas, apart from

developing "sustainable industrial cities with world-class infrastructure." The Indian government had set apart $4.5 billion for developing "base infrastructure" such as roads, water and power supply. Later, he told that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) would provide $10 billion for Delhi Mumbai and Chennai Bengaluru. In respect of the ChennaiVisakhapatnam corridor, the Indian government approved a project loan of $500 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), apart from clearing another ADB loan of $125 million to the Andhra Pradesh government. As part of the Delhi-Mumbai project, Dholera, about 70 km south of Ahmedabad, would have a greenfield airport and Alwar in Rajasthan an aerotropolis [which refers to a city to be developed around an airport].

The two facilities had been proposed as it was expected that the existing Ahmedabad and Delhi airports would reach saturation by 2021-2022.

As for the ChennaiBengaluru project, Tumkur (Karnataka); Ponneri (Tamil Nadu) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) had been identified for developing nodes. The availability of land in all the places had been assured, Mr. Sharma added.

(Agencies)

Aurobindo Pharma gets final nod 'Uber planning to purchase self-driving cars' to manufacture osteoporosis drug

Image for representational purpose only (Photo: .openingbell ) Chennai, Mar 20: Aurobindo Pharma has received final nod from the US health regulator to manufacture and market its generic Naproxen Sodium tablets used for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. "The company has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Naproxen Sodium tablets

USP, 220 mg," Aurobindo Pharma said in a BSE filing. The company expects to launch the product in the first quarter of the next fiscal, it added.

"The approved product has an estimated market size of $96 million for the twelve months ended January 2016 according to IMS," it said.

The company's drug is the generic version of Bayer Healthcare LLC's Aleve tablets, it

added. This is the 66th abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) (including 14 tentative approvals) to be approved out of the company's Unit VII formulation facility in Hyderabad.

The company has a total of 245 ANDA approvals (210 final approvals including 10 from Aurolife Pharma LLC and 35 tentative approvals) from the USFDA, it added. (Agencies)

APPROVAL FROM USFDA Aurobindo Pharma has received final nod from the US health regulator to manufacture and market its generic Naproxen Sodium tablets.

The company expects to launch the product in the first quarter of the next fiscal year.

The approved product has an estimated market size of $96 million.

The company has a total of 245 ANDA approvals from the USFDA.

New Delhi, Mar 20: Ride-hailing service Uber has sounded out car companies about placing a large order for self-driving cars, an auto industry source said.

"They wanted autonomous cars," the source, who declined to be named, said. "It seemed like they were shopping around." Loss-making Uber would make drastic savings on its biggest cost - drivers - if it were able to incorporate selfdriving cars into its fleet.

Volkswagen's Audi, Daimler's MercedesBenz, BMW and car industry suppliers Bosch and Continental are all working on technologies for autonomous or semiautonomous cars.

Germany's Manager Magazin reported that Uber had placed an order for at least one lakh Mercedes S-Class cars,

Image for representational purpose only (Photo: bellinghamwins )

citing sources at both companies.

The top-flight limousine, around one lakh of which Mercedes-Benz sold last year, does not yet have fully autonomous driving functionality. Another source familiar with the matter said no order had been placed with

Mercedes-Benz.

Daimler and Uber declined to comment. Auto industry executives are wary of doing deals with newcomers from the technology and software business who threaten to upend established business models based on manufacturing and selling cars. (Agencies)

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

Features

PAGE 11

ENVIRONMENT Meet India's Sparrow Man Conservationist Mohammed Dilawar Conservationist Mohammed Dilawar has been working relentlessly to conserve the house sparrows, whose population has been, and still is, declining alarmingly.

Pooja Patel chats with this chirpy man to know more about his journey.

Mohammed Dilawar, a name that has become synonymous with sparrow conservation, has done some phenomenal work in this field. He started sparrow conservation 10 years ago while he was teaching in a college, and the most common hurdle that he experienced in doing this kind was convincing people that it is a necessity. When he started on field, people didn't think that sparrows were Pooja of any conservation value, he says.

"I grew up in Nashik where flocks of vultures and sparrows were a common sight but their numbers were declining," says Dilawar. "Research reports released about 15 years ago indicated that the vultures were catastrophically declining and were close to extinction.

This alarmed me, and I became determined to ensure that the sparrow doesn't meet the same fate as vultures."

Since then, there's been

Mohammed Dilawar, India's Sparrow Man Conservationist (Photo: static.dnaindia )

no looking back for Dilawar. He started conservation work by conducting awareness drives and encouraging people to set up bird Patel houses. After a decade, he set up Nature Forever Society (NFS), an NGO that has been doing commendable work. The NFS team initiated intense research to collect data on sparrows. Their research highlighted two major reasons for their declining numbers - habitat loss and food scarcity.

He elucidates, "Rapid urbanisation has lead to more buildings and newer and different kind of architecture in cities and small towns. Older buildings have cavity in their

structures which is used by sparrows to nest and since newer buildings are matchbox-shaped, they don't leave any such space for the sparrows to nest in."

To understand the causes of the food scarcity for the birds, a keen observation in change in our lifestyle should be made.

Till about a few decades ago, women folk would clean grains on balconies and on verandahs, where they would discard poorquality grains. These grains were a major food source for these birds.

The second major food source for these sparrows were the stray grains that spilled on the way while transporting grains in gunny bags and

the ones that were also kept partially opened at local banya stores. But since foodgrains now come in packages or are kept in glass-fronted stores, these birds are left in the lurch. This is the scenario not only in the urban, but also in rural areas.

But there's a silver lining here. In order to conserve these little winged beings, Dilawar has rolled out several initiatives that may in the long run help the overall population of the birds. Apart from creating awareness, NFS has also introduced 'adopt a bird nest box' and 'hang a bird feeder' among various other initiatives.

These initiatives stand out because it immediately

Steady loss of butterfly species comes to notice What do the brimstone, meadow brown and small heath butterfly species have in common? All of them are rather habitat specialists, with no specific ecological demands, they tend to have modest requirements when it comes to habitats and larval host plants. They are also more resistant to nitrogen pollution than sensitive habitat specialists, which are going extinct -even in nature conservation areas.

A collaborative research study carried out by the Technical University Munich (TUM) and Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (ZSM) confirms the species loss of past decades and the modest effectiveness of nature and species conservation.

The study is based on one of the longest observation series ever carried out.

Species lists and butterfly collections from 1840 until today were evaluated.

All of the data were provided by lepidopterologists, i.e. butterfly researchers, from areas around the city of Regensburg in Bavaria.

The southern slopes along the Danube there mainly consist of rare oligotrophic grasslands and, accordingly, oligotrophic biotopes for butterflies and other insects. Around 45 hectares of land there have been designated as a conservation area since 1992.

The institutes involved in the study included beside TUM and ZSM also the

Senckenberg German Entomological Institute, and Nicolaus Copernicus University Torun, Poland.

The results of the collaborative study were published in the American journal Conservation Biology.

Habitat specialists most vulnerable "The observations carried out over a period of 200 years confirm the general trend of a decline in habitat specialist species despite the fact that these species are the target of nature conservation measures," explains Dr. Jan Christian Habel from TUM's Terrestrial Ecology Research Group. For example whereas 117 butterfly species and diurnal moths were recorded between 1840 and 1849, only 71 species were recorded between 2010 and 2013.

Moreover, the composition of the butterfly species also changed. While the region was populated by a diverse butterfly community during the past, it is now dominated by a few habitat generalists. Many habitat specialists, which require certain larval host plants and habitat structures to survive, have disappeared.

Overfertilization ousts larval host plants According to the study, high emissions of reactive nitrogen is one of the reasons of this species decline. Reactive nitrogen is generated, for example, by the combustion of the fossil fuels wood and

gives the sparrows a longterm sustainable habitat and easy access to food.

What is also interesting is that these nest boxes are made from 100 per cent recycled wood. "These boxes are couriered across the country in ecofriendly packaging. In fact, even the paint colours used on these boxes are made from natural colours and are harmless to the birds," adds Dilawar.

The idea behind the conservation activities is to keep things simple to enable the common man to get involved. Hence, NFS propagates hanging bird feeders and nest boxes in the balcony/backyard and keeping a bowl of water in the balcony during summers.

Understanding the necessity to get national and international attention to receive support for conservation for sparrows, NFS lobbied for March 20 to be declared as World Sparrow Day. "Very few people may know this - After 2010, when India observed the first World Sparrow Day, the idea has caught on in 50 countries! Something that started in a few parts of India has now become a people's movement globally," says Dilawar.

Courtesy: DNA India.

Two brand new dung beetle species discovered While carrying out a biodiversity study, a Mexican-Italian research team discovered three new dung beetle species in montane forests disturbed by livestock grazing. Mexico has been a mecca for naturalists, and its dung beetle species are among the best known in the world. This is why the discovery of new species there is noteworthy.

The present study, published in the open-access journalZooKeys, describes two of them and highlights the need to further explore the biodiversity of disturbed ecosystems.

Mexico is a country that holds a vast number of creatures and ecosystems. There is in fact a fascinating phenomenon: tropical forests that have close affinities with South America co-occurring with temperate and arid areas shared with North America. Thus, Mexico has been particularly attractive to explorers ever since the 19th century.

A group of animals that has woken up a special interest for studies in Mexico is the so-called 'dung beetles'. As their name suggests, dung beetles are insects that feed mainly on mammal faeces.

For decades, an international research team, led by Dr Gonzalo Halffter, has studied dung beetles across the world, especially in Mexico. As a consequence, the Mexican species are some of the best-known.

However, Dr Halffter and his team are not interested exclusively in dung beetles,

New dung beetle species (Photo: cdn.phys. ) but also in evolutive phenomena, the effects of landuse change, ecosystems modification by human activities, and conservation biology. Such concerns seem to be of particular importance now that the terrestrial ecosystems in Mexico have been severely destroyed and disturbed by people.

Livestock is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide, which makes the present discovery particularly impressive.

With at least 58% of the area of Mexico occupied with livestock farming, dung beetles are essential in cleaning up. While studying their diversity at conserved forests and cattle grazing sites across the mountains of Mexico, the researchers found some new species of dung beetles.

The first to discover these new dung beetles was Victor Moctezuma, a student of Dr Gonzalo's at the Instituto

de EcologĂ­a of Mexico.

"I was carrying out sampling for my Masters Degree studies, but I had no idea that new dung beetles could be found in a forest that is disturbed by human activities, such as livestock grazing and land-use change," recalls Moctezuma. "So I was really surprised when I discovered three dung beetle species." One of these species has already been published.

Apart from the two new dung beetles, formally called Onthophagus clavijeroiand Onthophagus martinpierai, the present paper also provides theories about the current distributions of these insects across the Mexican mountains and their putative evolutive relationships. As a whole, the study highlights the importance of disturbed forest for species discovery and conservation. (Agencies)

World's most toxic snakes Snakes known to produce some of the most toxic venoms swim the shallows of the western Pacific and eastern Indian oceans and sun themselves on island coasts from southwestern Japan to Indonesia, the Andaman Islands to Fiji.

But to find banded sea kraits, ask a guy in Cleveland. Or at least look up his work.

Laticauda, are closely related to cobras (found in Asia and Africa) and coral snakes (that can be found in the southern United States) and in-

protect them and their habitat, they are likely to be highly affected by global warming," Gherghel said. "That may destroy the oppor-

kraits from museum records, field surveys and scientific studies.

They included 694 occurrence records, almost

Butterfly species in danger (Photo: clickertraining. )

peat, industrial incineration processes, the cultivation of legumes, and the increasingly intensive agriculture of recent decades. Nitrogen alters the nutrient composition of plants by the airborne route and overfertilizes the very sensitive type of vegetation found in this region.

But the flora and fauna there are adapted to a lownutrient environment. The high nitrogen supply promotes the growth of plants like the dandelion, thistles, and sorrel, which oust the typical flora and, hence also, larval host plants. "These changes in the environment have a very serious impact on the habitat specialists," says the biogeographer from TUM. Nature conservation areas largely ineffective "Most conservation areas are very small and isolated and sparsely distributed in the landscape," says Habel -- "Moreover, atmospheric nitrogen does not respect the boundaries of the protected areas."

According to the study, despite climate warming, thermophilic species, which like warm and dry conditions, are also in decline. This may seem surprising to non-experts."

The vegetation is growing faster due to the nitrogen inputs. This creates more shade close to the ground, which is too much shade for heat-loving butterflies," explains Habel. Because the observations used for the study were recorded using very different methods by the scientists involved, they could only be used as records of the presence and disappearance of the recorded species. It was not possible to calculate species abundances and population densities and development in relation to abundance.

"The question that emerges here is whether the established network of fauna-flora habitat conservation areas will enable us to achieve effective nature conservation in the long term," adds Dr. Habel.

"The answer is clearly no."

Courtesy: sciencedaily.

Iulian Gherghel, who is earning a PhD in biology at Case Western Reserve University, teamed with researchers in Oklahoma and Europe to create a database of the snakes' distribution. They published a description of their work and analyses in the current issue of the journal ZooKeys.

The database is designed to help conservation efforts and guide medical researchers who want to study the venom of sea kraits, environmental researchers who want to study their ecology and tourists who want to see the animals, the authors said.

"These snakes harbor potential for research in biomedicine," Gherghel said. "The venom has proteins that may be useful in the future development of drugs for treating cancer, neurological disorders and heart disease."

Sea kraits, in the genus

Toxic snake (Photo: venomoussnake ) clude seven species that feed almost exclusively on eels.

Researchers believe that sea kraits' powerful venom developed as a result of their specialized diet.

The brightly banded snakes occupy a narrow niche in the ecosystem, which makes them vulnerable to climate change and possible models to study the phenomenon and its affects, the researchers said. The reptiles hunt in ocean water and return to land to mate and lay eggs, bask in the sun and drink fresh water.

"Without measures to

tunity to discover new drugs as well as the opportunity to enjoy these animals in the wild--at a distance."

Although kraits are considered docile and are known to shy away from humans, their venom remains a good reason to view them from afar, he explained.

Gherghel; Monica Papes, of Oklahoma State University; Francoise Brischoux, of Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de ChizĂŠ; Tiberiu Sahlean, of the University of Bucharest; and Aleandru Strugariu, of the University of Iasi; compiled information on

all of them sightings in the coastal waters, which were mapped to the finest scale possible.

The banded sea krait, L. colubrina, was the most common, sighted in 448 unique locations and found over the greatest range. The flat-tail sea krait, L. schistorhynchus, was the least common, found in only six records and over the smallest range.

Sea snakes may be seen at popular tourist destinations such as the Fiji Islands, Vanuatu, the Philippines, Indonesia and other archipelagoes in south-eastern Asia.

Courtesy: sciencedaily.

cmyk

cmyk

DIBRUGARH, MONDAY, MARCH 21

PAGE 12

Badree stifles Lankan innings, 36th PSPB inter-unit volleyball West Indies need 123 to win tournament underway at Digboi Bangalore, Mar 20 (PTI): Leg-spinner Samuel Badree tore into the rival top-order in an exceptional spell as the West Indies restricted Sri Lanka to a modest 122 for nine in a Group I match of the World Twenty20, here today.

aries was 44 balls.

Badree hit the right areas outside the off stump with amazing consistency as he gave away only 12 runs in his four overs and accounted for three Lankan batsmen after the Caribbeans opted to bowl.

Sri Lanka owed their score to Thisara Perera, who top scored for the defending champion with a 40-run knock off 29 balls. The lefthander also added 44 runs for the sixth wicket with skipper Angelo Mathews (20).

At the start, Andre Rusell bowled loose and was duly punished with Tillakaratne Dilshan (12) creaming off a six and a four in the very first over but the opener was trapped by Carlos Brathwaite at the start of the fourth over.

His spell meant that Sri Lanka had lost half the side before the 10th over. Runs were hard to come by and there was a time when the gap between two bound-

Their partnership ended when Mathews was out in a bizarre manner. He tried to duck a slow full toss from Dwayne Bravo but the ball

The TV replays showed that the ball would have missed the leg stump but the damage was done. The Lankans had more disappointment in

Tall left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn also contributed in stifling the Lankan innings as he conceded only 13 runs in his four-over quota even as he did not take a wicket.

kissed the bat and flew towards Dinesh Ramdin, who took an easy catch.

store as Dinesh Chandimal was run out when Lahiru Thirimanne sent him back.

Perera kept fighting hard and found a few boundaries towards the end before holing it up to Andre Russell off Dywane Bravo (2/21).

Badree soon scalped Thirimanne, who hit straight to point fielder Fletcher. He continued to torment the defending champions as he dismissed two batsmen in the ninth over.

He had Chamara Kapugedera stumped in the first ball and next in line was Milinda Siriwardene, who drove but managed an edge which flew to first slip Chris Gayle.

Had it not been for Perera's fighting knock, the Lanaks would have struggled to go past even 100. He was out in the penultimate ball of the innings.

For Great Khali, yoga is only for old people ANI New Delhi, Mar 20 : It seems like The Great Khali isn't afraid of the 'anti-national' tag as he has begged to differ on yoga's health benefits.

In an interview with Aaj Tak, the seven-foot oneinch World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star was quoted as saying, "Jo yoga hain, woh hain old bande ka kaam hain," in other words yoga is meant for old people.

The wrestler also pointed out that yoga does not win you Olympic medals or make great wrestlers, saying if practicing yoga won you gold medals and made

you The Great Khali, then everyone would just sit on a bed and do that.

But at the same time, he quickly clarified that he doesn't consider yoga as useless.

As expected, Twitter had much to say about Khali's declaration.

One Twitterer wrote, "Mr Khali.. Aap yoga like nahi karte.. Aapki marzi.. But Aap ko koi adhikar nahi..

Kisi ka apmaan karne ka," while another said "Yoga does not get you a Olympic Medal says Wrestler KHALI. Now

It seems like The Great Khali

it is time to label KHALI as ANTN AT I O N A L & I S I AGENT." Incidentally, during his

recent stay at the Bigg Boss House, Khali was seen doing Pranayama and even guiding his fellow housemates.

ET Correspondent Digboi, Mar 20: The 36th PSPB inter-unit volleyball tournament which was hosted by AOD Digboi and organized under the banner of Petroleum Sports promotion Board has been underway this evening with six different teams belonging to oil and Petroleum sector, fighting for the championship here at the historic jubilee playground of the Oil City Digboi in Tinsukia District.

Soon after the inauguration of the tournament by Mrityunjoy Pramanik the new Executive Director of Indian Oil Corporation, Assam Oil Division amidst significant gatherings in-

cluding the officials of Assam Volleyball Association, officials AOD Digboi, team of Managers, sports fans, the fierce battle of the maiden day tournamnet among the participants including the team Oil India Limited, ONGC, MRPL, OIL and CPCL ensued on league basis.

Addressing the gatherings, Mr. Pramanik said that Indian Oil Corporation (Assam Oil Division) has made sporting facilities available both for the employees and the people of Digboi and keenly promotes nurturing of sporting talent in the region in several ways. He added ‘organizing the 36th PSPB

PSPB inter unit volleyball tournament in digboi is a much awaited event and I must also compliment the PSPB for it is under their patronage that many budding sports persons have reached the pinnacle in their chosen discipline as national champions and have also brought laurels to the nation in several prestigious international tournaments’.

Meanwhile Kishore Dutta, officials of the AOD, Digboi told that participating teams of the tournament include Oil India Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited

(CPCL), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and IOCL (AOD).

He added ‘last year defending champion ONGC would be seen in action along with all the other teams which boast of having international level players.

Meanwhile, the field boasts of some of India’s top professionals including Lalit Kumar of ONGC, Vimal T Jacob of BPCL BS Chauhan of Oil India Limited.

The final of the tournament would be played on 23rd next.

Dhoni gushes over `hungry` Kohli post Pak rout at World T20 ANI Kolkata, Mar.20 : India's limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni is all but full of praise for batting mainstay Virat Kohli, who guided the hosts to an emphatic sixwicket win over arch-rival Pakistan in the World T20 clash at the Eden Gardens, saying that the latter is always hungry to perform and that was the main factor which sets him apart.

Kohli smashed seven boundaries and a six in his blistering unbeaten knock of 55 runs off 37 balls.

He, along with Yuvraj Singh (24), shared a valuable 61-run partnership to help India chased down the target of 119 runs with 13 balls to spare.

"I think it's the hunger to perform, that willingness to take up the challenge.

Different people look at the same thing in different

Mahendra Singh Dhoni ways. His (Kohli's) biggest plus point is that he takes everything as a challenge.

He wants to improve, wants to contribute in each and every game and that's what it's all about. He takes care of his fitness. He knows, he understands how he is supposed to bat on different wickets and

get runs. We all know once he gets a start, he always converts in into a big innings and which I think is one of the most important things for any youngster coming into the game," Dhoni told the media here.

Insisting on the importance of backing the players, the skipper said that it was nec-

essary to have faith on the entire team so that they could bounce back. He, however, did not rule out the need for improvement in the team.

"It is very important to back them or to have confidence in them that they will bounce back or they will come back stronger.

But I still feel there are areas where we can improve. In the coming two games that will be our first priority. In the first game our run rate is really down.

So it is not about innings we have to look at the run rate as well," he said.

With the win, India have gained two points in the Group B table, but are still lacking behind Pakistan in terms of run rate.

India will next face Bangladesh at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, March 23.

Tendulkar thanks Kohli for `innings, gesture` during Pak drubbing Djokovic brushes aside Nadal to

ANI New Delhi, Mar.20 : Legendry cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has extended his gratitude to Indian batting mainstay Virat Kohli for his match-winning knock during his side's six-wicket win over fierce-rival Pakistan in their World T20 clash at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Kohli paid his respect to Tendulkar as he bowed down to the master blaster after reaching his half century.

"Great Win Team India.

Thank you for the innings and gesture @imVkohli! #IndvsPak," Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.

team...#IndvsPak." Kohli, who was also declared `man of the match`, smashed seven boundaries and a six in his blistering unbeaten knock of 55 runs off 37 balls.

Sachin Tendulkar Pleased with the affection provided by the Men in Blue, the global cricket icon tweeted, "Team India re-

Saina Nehwal crashes out of Swiss Open yesterday, lost to lowerplaced Yihan Wang of China in straight games, 11-21, 19-21.

This was Yihan's 10th victory over Saina, with the ace Indian shuttler winning just 4 games against the Chinese.

Saina Nehwal ANI New Delhi, Mar. 20 : Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton tournament in Basel.

Saina, in the semi-finals

In the Men's section, unseeded HS Prannoy stormed into the final yesterday beating Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei, 12-21, 21-14, 2321.

He will play for the title today against the seventh seed German, Marc Zwiebler.

turning to the dressing room after the game, waved to me. Felt like I never left the

India registered their 11th overall win against the archrival in the World T20s and the World Cups.

With the win, India have gained two points in the Group B table, but are still lacking behind Pakistan in terms of run rate.

India will next face Bangladesh at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

reach Indian Wells final ANI Indian Wells, Mar.20 :World number one Novak Djokovic produced a flawless performance as he edged past arch-rival Rafael Nadal to reach the finals of the BNP Paribas Open for the fifth time here on Sunday.

The 28-year-old, however, had to strive hard to earn this victory as he made 29 unforced errors before eventually overcoming Nadal 7-6(5), 6-2 in a

thrilling semi-final contest that lasted for about two hours.

The pair's 48th meeting saw Djokovic rallied from an early break down before getting the better of the fifth ranked player in the subsequent tie-breaker to claim 25th victory over his Spaniard.

With the win, Djokovic has now set up summit showdown against Milos Raonic, who has been beaten by the Serbian in all five previous encounters.

Novak Djokovic

Kohli stands tall as India thrash Pak in World T20 ANI Kolkata, Mar.20 : It was once again India's premier batsman Virat Kohli who stood tall as Pakistan's India jinx continued at the World Cup with the hosts thrashing the arch-rival by six wickets in the high voltage World T20 encounter at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.

Chasing a competitive target of 119 runs, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side reached the target with seven balls to spare. India,

run partnership to put India in a comfortable position.

Pakistan's spin duo of Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi looked shallow and were nowhere in comparison to the Indian spinners on a spin haven.

who were under a lot of pressure after losing the first game to New Zealand, responded well and displayed an efficient batting display.

However, it was not an easy task as India suffered early blows and had to strive hard to register their fifth win over Pakistan in the WT20s.

Rohit Sharma fell early to Mohammad Amir, while trying to loft him over the top. Then Mohammad Sami rattled in and struck twice in one over to leave Eden Gardens in trauma and

Virat Kohli India tottering at 23/3.

However, Kohli (55*)

and Yuvraj Singh (24) shared a valuable 61-

Earlier, put in to bat, Pakistan displayed a resilient performance and put up a very decent target on a track that provided a lot of assistance to the spinners.

Malik was the top scorer with scoring

valuable 26 runs and well ably supported by Umar Akmal (22).

Kohli was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant knock.

Jubilant with the victory, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate the Men in Blue.

"Congratulations Team India for the amazing victory. #IndvsPak," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

India will next face Bangladesh at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday, March 23.

Printed, Published and Owned by NIKH KHOPI and Printed at PEE GEE(India) Ltd., C/O Asomiya Khabar Pulibor, Jorhat-785006 and Published from T.C Borah Building, 1st Floor, Next to Sankardeva Hospital, Mancotta Road, Chowkidingee Dibrugarh-786001, Assam. Email: editor.easterntoday@gmail.com. For advertisement: advt.easterntoday@gmail.com

Editorial Adviser: Subir Bhaumik

Editor: Ripunjoy Das

cmyk

cmyk

Tele : Dibrugarh, 0373-2328944, for circulation contact: 8471896580, Telephone & Fax: 0373-2328944.