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ASSENG/2015/64205

Vol. 1

Is this the end of National Herald Case?

Issue 200

Dibrugarh, Friday, December 25, 2015

Price -

5.00

Pages- 12

Lights, Camera Plagiarism!

Rs. 1.4 lakh crore cess money lies idle

Odd-even formula: Kejriwal, ministers not exempted

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Page 10

Page 6

Page 8

12 flagship programmes have benefitted Assam Govt. launches people of Arunachal Pradesh Food Security Act The Arunachal Pradesh Government has claimed that 12 of its state flagship programmes (SFPs) that have been launched since 2013-14, have provided significant benefits to the people of the region.

The state government said that the most popular of these SPFs has been the Chief Minister's Universal Health Insurance Scheme (CMUHIS), which was launched in 2014-15, as a creative initiative of Chief Minister Nabam Tuki.

G o v e r n m e n t sources,speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Chief

ET CAPSULES National Consumers Day Observed Golaghat, Dec 24: National Consumers Day was observed in Golaghat today under the aegis of Golaghat District Administration and Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs . An open session was held at the office of the Deputy Commissioner where ADC Sonaram Khanikar presided over the meeting. In the open session, the ADC said that every single person is a consumer and as a consumer each and every one should be conscious and aware of their rights. In the beginning of the session, a speech on the motive of observation of National Consumers Day was given by the Deputy Director of Food and Civil Supplies Harendra Nath Doley. In the meeting, retail and wholesale businessmen from Golaghat and Dergaon were present.(Correspondent)

Minister Tuki has always been very keen to provide cashless medical treatment to the people of his state.

Under the CMUHIS, people can access cash medical treatment in any of the 79 empanelled hospitals i.e. 17 government hospitals and 62 priivate hospitals across the country through a smart card issued by the New India Assurance Company Ltd (NIIC).

Government sources further revealed that out of a total 2,61,614 households (2011 voters’ list), 2,23,716 were enrolled during 2013-14 and 7,284 households claimed Rs 16,79,64,172 during the period, of which about Rs.15 crore has been paid.

State Health Director

CMUHIS, THE MOST POPULAR OF THE SPFs 79 empanelled hospitals across the country

48,5330 enrolled so far CMUHIS Smart Card Dr.Moji Jini informed adding that the data for 2014-15 is under compilation and the functional response of the empanelled hospitals is under review.

The Government of Arunachal Pradesh has an-

Rs. 16,79,64,172 claimed nounced plans to enroll the rest 37,853 households during this year by engaging more than 100 field teams and increasing the entitlement from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.3 lakh by allocating Rs.30 crore in the 201516 budget.

ET Bureau Itanagar, Dec 24

The president of People’s Party of Arunachal City Unit, PPA Yangbiu Takik tender resignation from the post stating that the political party is mislead-

ing and not following the party ideology since he is taken over the incumbency of president.

“It is pertinent to mentioned that since the Khafa Bengia took over as the president of the party sanctity of the party is being lowered down day after day by virtue of running the

party in self style nature without due consultation with its members and not following its principle,” added Takik.

Further alleged that it is because of present president that 5 MLAs of regional PPA party compelled to merge into congress party last time and had

MERRY CHRISTMAS

e 0 r n e e e ll -

Annual day to be celebrated

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Golaghat, Dec 24: One of the leading CBSE schools of Golaghat, Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar School is going to mark its Annual School Day tomorrow with a daylong programme . The principal Subhashish Rajkhowa and Director Apurba Borgohain has asked the people to attend the occasion and make it a grand success.(Correspondent)

The decision was taken to honour the overwhelming responses, including the appreciation from President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Contd. on Page 3

been runs the party as per his wishes without upholding the sanctity of the party.

“As long as present president of PPA remain in the party with self interest leadership nobody will like to be membership of the party in the state,” lamented Takik.

ULFA leader Chetia released ANI Guwahati, Dec. 24

Tinsukia, Dec 24: Tinsukia police in a midnight raid arrested three persons and recovered three cows from a vehicle. The action, in the wee hours of Thursday, came following complaint of cows being stolen and smuggled. The three arrested, have been identified as Sirazul Ali, Abdul Latif and Faruq Ali all belonging from Dibrugarh. A case has been registered under section 379 of the IPC at Bordubi police station. (Correspondent)

Golaghat, Dec 24: Reliance junior College organized parting social farewell for Higher secondary second year students. In the program a meeting was held which was presided by Dr T.N Hazarika and other dignitaries included Toru Lata Gogoi , Mr Debojit Dutta, Upen Pathak and Priyanka Das Saikia . The Guests were felicitated by Phoolam Gamocha . In the program the prizes for Sports Cultural and literary events were presented to the students.

Hemanta Saikia , Lakhyajit Dworah gave their valuable speech . Among students Prostuti Das and Trishanu spoke few words about their memories. (Correspondent)

Won Skoch Order-ofMerit Award for being among top 12 health projects in India

Assam government today launched the Food Security Act. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi while launching the programme at Goroimari in Kamrup District today said that a total of 2.40 crore people will be benefited from the scheme.

The government said that 60 percent population from the towns and 84 percent of the people living in villages will be benefited from the scheme.

According to the Act, every eligible person will get five kilograms of rice every month at the cost of three rupees per kilogram.

No more Hunger!

Every eligible person to get 5 kilogram of rice every month at a cost of Rs. 3/kg

2.40 crore people to be benefited

CM launches the Food Security Act

60% from towns and 84% from villages

Declare all educational institutions in PPA city unit’s President alleges Khafa Bengia of lowering down the party sanctity the State ‘tobacco-free’ by end of this year. -- Principal Secretary, Education with his self interested leadership

Cattle thieves arrested

College farewell held

Got appreciation from President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi

ANI Guwahati, Dec.24

Girls engaged in decorating the idol of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ on the eve of Christmas Day at Dibrugarh Catholic Church. Pic- UB Photos See page 12 - special Christmas Edition

Assam to lose over Rs 7,000 crore in the 2015-16 fiscal year A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Dec 24

The Assam government today said it will receive over Rs 7,000 crore less during 2015-16 due to delinking of schemes and change in funding pattern by the Centre.

The state has a total debt of around Rs 25,000 crore. "In the 2015-16 Budget, the Centre delinked 12 schemes worth Rs 4,052 crore.

Besides, change in funding pattern will cost us an additional Rs 2,992 crore. So, the total loss to the state exchequer will be Rs 7,044 crore in this fiscal", Assam Commissioner and Secretary (Finance) Ravi Kota said.

The Centre has cited increase in tax devaluation to 42 per cent from the earlier 32 per cent as reason for this deduction, he added. "However, a poor state like Assam

cannot spend the additional devaluation fund for schemes as it has a huge nonPlan burden. Removing the Special Category Status has further affected us," Kota said. He explained that the state's total requirement for salaries and pensions is around Rs 25,000 crore annually, while its internal resources can generate Rs 10,000-11,000 crore. Rs 14,000-15,000 crore will come from the Centre as devaluation of tax component.

"Therefore, it will be very difficult for us to keep the momentum of development going if we do not get additional funds or the earlier funding pattern is not restored," Kota said, adding the state will also lose over Rs 400 crore tax revenue due to cut in petrol and diesel rates.

Talking about the debt burden, he said the state currently has a total borrowing

of around Rs 25,000 crore, most of which is long-term in nature. "The state has ceiling of Rs 6,000 crore debt that it can raise every year.

Earlier, we were not exhausting this amount. But due to fund cut from the Centre, last fiscal and this fiscal too, we will raise this entire amount as debt. Despite that, Assam has one of the lowest per capita debt in India", Kota said.

To meet the challenge, the state government has appointed the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) to study different options to increase Assam's revenue generation, which is growing at a CAGR of 4.25 per cent for the last 15 years.

NIPFP is likely to submit its report for revenue generation in short-term by March next year, while the one for longterm purposes will be completed around June-July, he added.

United Liberation Front for Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia, who was recently repatriated from Bangladesh on the basis of a bilateral extradition arrangement, was today released from Guwahati Central Jail.

The Guwahati Sessions court had yesterday granted him bail.

Chetia had reportedly sought forgiveness for the past mistakes of the Assam-based militant outfit, and added that he is all in favour of having peace talks with the Indian Government.

The ULFA general secretary was earlier sent to five days custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Earlier, on November 17, Chetia was brought to Guwahati by the CBI on a transit remand and produced before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate amid tight security.

Chetia was charged with illegally entering Bangladesh

The State Education Department issues reminder to ISs and DEEOs A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Dec 24

The Assam Education Department has issued a strict reminder to the all Inspectors of Schools (ISs) and District Elementary Education Officers (DEEOs) to direct the defaulting schools under their jurisdiction to comply with the prescribed criteria for attaining tobacco free educational institution status. The reminder was issued by Principal Secretary, Education PK Borthakur in respect of the earlier order (Memo No. PMS (S) 146/2011/170 dated 19th May, 2015) issued by the department to declare all educational institutions in the State tobacco free by end of this year. The reminder clearly mentions that all ISs and DEEOs are to obtain self declaration from each of the principal and headmaster containing the following- certifying that sign board reading “No Smoking Area” exist in the schools,

no tobacco is consumed within the premises of the school by students, staff and teachers, certifying that there is no sale of tobacco inside the premises and within the jurisdiction of 100 yards radius of the school.

The reminder further directed the ISs and DEEOs to obtain the undertaking on the above three points from each of the educational institutions falling under the jurisdiction of the respective ISs and DEEOs and submit a report to the Principal Secretary, Education’s office at the earliest. Most of the educational institutions in Assam have already fullfiled the prescribed criteria towards attaining the tobacco free status but many institutions mostly in the interior parts of the State are yet to comply with the norms set to them by Education Department. The Assam Government also constituted two committees one at the district level and one at the state level to look after the activities of the educational institutions in respect of achieving the target of the

tobacco free institution.

“In the recent review meeting we have instructed all the heads of the defaulting institutions to submit the self declaration forms before Christmas. Many of our schools have already submitted the self declarations. We hope before the yearend we will be able to send all the reports to the Principal Secretary’s office,” said NC Boro, Inspector of Schools, Kamrup.

Similarly educational institutions in the districts of Golaghat, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Kamrup (Metro), Dibrugarh, Darrang, Bongaigaon, Hailakandi and others are also in the process of compiling the self declaration of reports received from the institutions which will be very soon send to the Education Department along with District Declaration Report.

Golaghat IS informs that they have till date more than 70 per cent of schools in the district have achieved tobacco free status.

ULFA (I) linkman apprehended, search operation on ET Correspondent Doomdooma / Tinsukia, Dec 14.

Police arrested a linkman of the banned outfit from Rupai Siding under Doomdooma police station in Tinsukia district on Thursday. The youth has been identified as Kajendra Moran alias Kulasing Asom.

Tinsukia superintendent of police Mugdha Jyoti Mahanto told the correspondent that

Kajendra was working under the instructions of Arundoy Dahotia. Sitting in Myanmar, Dahotia tasked him with extortion and recruitment activities.

According to police sources he was collecting money from the people to recruiting youths in the organization .He had joined the organization in 1997 and had surrendered later but after sometime he again started working for it. The police registered a case no. 599/15 and

started a search operation.

It is noteworthy that a massive collection is continue in the name of ULFA (I) in the district and recruitment of new members is going on too which seems to be a severe headache for police .The police and army had started a massive search operation against ULFA (I) in the district .Sources said the banned outfit has been planning for some big incident in Tinsukia in coming days.

Constable killed by agitated mob; tension prevails ULFA Leader Anup Chetia

ET Correspondent, Tezpur, Dec 24

using a forged passport, possession of illegal foreign currency from 16 different countries and illegal possession of arms. He was also wanted by the Assam Police for various cases, including killing, kidnapping and extortion.

Chetia, who has been in Bangladesh since his arrest by the country's police in 1997, was handed over to India on November 11 following which he was arrested by the CBI in Delhi.

Tension prevailed in Biswanath Chariali area of Sonitpur district after murder of a police personal on duty at Baghmari village by an agitated mob last night. According to police, a team of police personals went to Baghmari village to nab a thief last night from Gingia police station. However, the local people attacked the police team and freed the cul-

prit. The mob even hackled one police personnel to death.

The deceased police personal is reportedly identified as constable Khagen Hazarika. The public also damaged the vehicle of the police team.

In the morning, the people of greater Biswanath Charilai area along with members of AASU, AJYCP blocked the NH 15 near Baghmari to register a strong protest against the incident. Later the road

blockade was lifted after negotiation with Biswanath sub-division administration.

The local people of Biswanath chariali demanded quick apprehension of the culprits involved in the murder of the police personal within 24 hours.

Some of the local people informed that in protest against the incident there will be a 12 hour Biswanath subdivision bandh on December 26 if the police administration fail to nab the culprits.

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ANI Itanagar, Dec. 24

PAGE 2

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

Arunachal Governor for an efficient, peoplefriendly, open and accountable administration ET Bureau Itanagar, Dec 24:The Governor of Arunachal Pradesh Shri JP Rajkhowa has extended warm greetings to the people of the State on the special occasion of Good Governance Day, which commemorates the birth anniversary of renowned scholar and educationist of India Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He wished that the celebra-

tion of the Day will make the people aware about the government commitment for providing a fair, transparent, and accountable administration in the country and also to those people in the Government, of their duties and responsibilities towards Good Governance, in the service of the Nation.

In his message, the Governor said that today, the country needs a transformation in the processes

of the governance in order to provide an efficient, people-friendly, open and accountable administration in the country.

The Governor underscored that the processes and functioning have to be standardized to make it highly effective and accountable governance, while implementing the good and effective policies to complete a mission of ‘good governance’. It needs to be

promoted for the welfare and betterment of the common citizens in the country. He expressed hope that the celebration will make government officials aware of their work as public servants, internal processes and the need to work with full commitment. It will enhance the growth and development in the country through good governance and bring citizens closer to the government to make

them active participants in the process.

On this occasion, on behalf of my beloved people of the State, I extend our heartiest Birthday Greetings and Best Wishes to Shri Vajpayeeji and wish him good health and long life to guide us for better and prosperous Arunachal Pradesh. We also pay our homage to the great nation builder Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Governor added in his message.

West Siang celebrates Arunachal Chief Secretary urges National Consumers Day Add. Secretary PNG to address state ET Bureau Itanagar, Dec 24:The National Consumers Day was organized by West Siang Legal Metrology and Consumers Affairs in collaboration with Paktu Ao Youth Welfare Association at the office premises of Consumer Court today.

The Assistant Controller of Legal Metrology Shri J.K. Lobom highlighted various provisions under Consumers Protection Act 1986.

He stressed on various Redressal Cells, penalties, standard weight and measures do and donts that are helpful for the consumers.

Shri Reli Loyi, President PAYWA also stressed on giving such awareness programme in the villages to educate the innocent masses.

The Resource Persons Shri Yirto Laye and Shri Pinge Angu from Airlines Tourism and Hospitality Management, Baki Kamgo, B. Tech NERIST, Miss Dopi Kato and Miss Liza Loyi presented practical demonstrations on standard weight & measures like Agmark, FPO, BIS hallmark, packaged commodities, adulteration on petroleum products etc.

concerns in NE Vision Document ET Bureau Itanager, December 24: In a meeting held recently with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to discuss the NE Vision Document, Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi expressed his concern over the massive deforestation in the high altitude areas for heating purpose and opined that Vision Document to address the need for heating requirement in high altitude as the rejuvenation of forest in high altitude is considered very difficult. While mentioning about the Army, Paramilitary and BRO as the major consumer of wood for the heating require-

ment in high altitude areas, CS suggested for arrangement of fuel in bulk which they can buy it for heating purpose. He also requested for sponsoring a research study on use of biomass for the heating purpose in NER. The CS mentioned that for defense projects within 100 kms from border, a special dispensation has been given for EC/FC and a special dispensation has been given for the linear project.

He called for detailed studies related to it and asked the oil and gas sector to demand for similar dispensation. Informing about the upgradation of marketing terminal at Gumto in

Arunachal Pradesh which is in pipeline, the IOC requested for its inclusion as project under the vision document as low hanging fruit. The Additional Secretary PNG urged to address the concerns of Arunachal CS in vision document. He further suggested to place the issue of Arunachal CS before the committee under Sikkim MP regarding requirement of LPG in high altitude areas. The CS was also explained about the NRL proposal for bio-ethanol from bamboo by the Additional Secretary, the team from NRL was asked to brief the Chief Secretary for his keenness on the project.

DHSK College to organise CATC Camp

6,55,296 voters gear up to exercise their voting franchise

ET Correspondent Dibrugarh, Dec 24: CATC camp will be organize at DHSK College from January 2, 2016.

The camp will be organize by DHSK College under the aegis of Group Commanding Office and 10 Assam Battalion NCC, Dibrugarh. Six hundred participants from Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivsagar and Arunachal Pradesh will participate in the camp.

ET Correspondent Sonepat, Dec 24: Out of 1188 polling booths for the elections of the panchayati raj institutions in the district, 204 polling booths has been declared as hyper sensitive and 186 as sensitive. As many as 6,55,296 voters including 3,59,793 male and 2,95,503 female will exercise their franchise in these elections. According to Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Election Officer, Rajiv Rattan, in the three phase polling exercise,

Seminar on Cancer ET Correspondent Golaghat, Dec 24: To create awareness and to prevent the dreaded Cancer disease a seminar will going to be organized at Furkating College in Golaghat on December 27.

The seminar will organized by Golaghat District Congress Committee in association with Golaghat District Truck Owners Association.

The topic of the discussion is "Cancer doesn't mean death, one can get rid of any disease with strong will power, come Let's together we can make a healthy and creative society ".

North East Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Guwahati Dr Gitartha Raimedhi and B Baruah Cancer Research Institute, Guwahati Dr Pankaj Deka will be the distinguished guests in the seminar. A documentary entitled" Sambhavna" produced by Tech Aid Foundation and R B Music Production will also be unveiled at the seminar.

Participants will be imparted training on leadership, personality development, arms training, elocution and cultural activities. On December 22, Colonel A.S. Ghumne Commanding Officer of 10 Assam Battalion, Dibrugarh will come for an inspection to supervise all ongoing preparations to organize the camp. DHSK College Boys’ Hostel has been newly renovated to pro-

vide lodging facilities to the participants joining the camp. Dr Sashi Kanta Saikia, Principal of DHSK College, has given the assurance that all facilities will be provided for the sake of convenience of the participants. It may be mentioned that full preparations are being made for the upcoming Inter College Youth Festival to be held from January 21 to 23, 2016.

polling will take place on January 10 for the panches and sarpanches of gram panchayats and members of block samitis and zila parishad in the villages of Sonepat, Kharkhoda and Murthal development blocks. Similarly, polling in the villages under Gohana and Kathura development block will take place on January 17 and polling exercises in the villages under Gannaur, Murlana and Rai development block will be completed on January 24.

Over 22,000 families left out from National Food Security Act in Darrang.

Mayukh Goswami Mangaldai, Dec 24: More than 22,000 households of eight different Gaon Panchayats in Darrang district will be left out entitling the benefits under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) which has been formally launched in the state on Thursday. According to sources in Darrang Food , Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department the district under the provision of the Act has a to-

tal target 1,55,526 families , however due to the intervention of the Guwahati High Court, initially list of 25,545 targeted beneficiary families under nine GPs could not finalized. In the meantime in case of Ojagaon GP under Pub Mangaldai Development Block which has total target of 3197 families the Court has reportedly reviewed its earlier decision and directed Deputy Commissioner to ensure removal of the

alleged anomalies and prepare a correct final list, resulting inclusion of that GP. However as the petitions against other eight GPs all under Dalgaon LAC have still been pending in the court a total of 22,348 families are to be left out from the process of providing rice or food grains at subsidized rate under the provision of the Act, the source added. The district administration will start the process of distribu-

tion from December 27 next after its scheduled ceremonial distribution function in District Library auditorium here on that date. It may be mentioned here that petitions were filed in the High Court challenging the selection of the beneficiaries with allegation of anomalies, nepotism and political influence in the selection process thereby including the list of rich families with political back while depriving the genuine applicants.

Jashn-e-Milad-Un-Nabi in Dibrugarh

BAL SWACHHTA MISSION RALLY IN TINSUKIA

Women take part at the rally of Bal Swachhta Mission by Social Welfare Department, Tinsukia. Pic- UB Photos

ASTRO FOR YOU You are an imaginative and enterprising person, and today you may taste success. You are ambitious but warns you not to take on more work than you can handle. You are positive about your capabilities, so work sincerely and have faith in God. Money matters are likely to take up most of your time, this day. You will have quite a time handling the difficulties and complexities they pose. You may not find an easy way out of your financial problems and will find it hard to take firm decisions. Your experience and expertise plus your great way of dealing with people will eventually enable you to make correct and profitable investments.

You will feel physical and mental excitement and emotions today. You may take part in some competition and will seek to improve your self-esteem by performing physically in it. Your intellectual capacity will be on display in the work that you do.

Today is a day for taking things slowly, especially on the business front. This applies the most to the stockbrokers and also others who invest in stocks or shares on the side. Stars are not so bright today and haste will only worsen the matters. People involved in speculation, chance games and shifty markets may feel frustrated. The manufacturers must not launch a new product today, and rather wait for a better period.

It may be that the best daffodils bloom early in the morning, but good ideas can come any time of the day. So spruce up your management skills, as you shall need them to help organise and cash in on the multitude of ideas that will bombard you today. Remember, a good idea can change your life, just the way a good poem can help you win a wife! So, if it is some love that you are fishing for, then express yourself without inhibitions today.

Today you may understand the utter uselessness of your dogged efforts and feel extremely anxious about success eluding you constantly. However, do not lose hope, but re-energise your mind, give a boost to your curiosity and pay attention to long-term goals.

You must not take stress about small issues or matters. To avoid tension and to gain mental peace it is advised you perform yoga or meditation. There will be pressure put on you regarding certain matters at the work-front. You should take decisions regarding critical matters only after carefully weighing the pros and cons.

A taxing and demanding day may be at hand today. Things might baffle you so much that you might lose your ability to think clearly. The battle is not lost because your power of resilience will be the silver lining. Address one problem at a time and take the slow and steady path.

You rule your heart today. You are likely to become an expert in reading people’s mind. Everything is fair in love and war, is what you believe! Win over your sweetheart and set out on a journey toward destination unknown.

It has become difficult for you to bear the heavy weight of responsibilities on your shoulders. But, be prepared for some more; the weight is about to get heavier as more responsibilities are going to be added. You will no longer enjoy the work, and it will bring down your efficiency level to an extent. Also, your kind hearted nature will come to the fore as you will lend a helping hand to those in need.

You do have a way with words and today, you may succeed with your gift of the gab! But your confused feelings may come in the way of your triumphant achievement. Also, sentiments may lead to a disastrous outcome.

Your energy and enthusiasm will know no bounds today, as everything seems to fall into place, seemingly on its own. You will blaze a new trail at the workplace. Certain tough calls may leave you off-balance momentarily, but you will come out of it with flying colours. For those who are in artistic professions, fame could come knocking on your door.

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

25-12-15 (FRIDAY)

People of Muslim community take out a rally on the occasion of Jashn-e-Milad-Un-Nabi at Dibrugarh.

Pic - UB Photos

5-35 A.M-Bhaktigeeti 6-15 A.M-Gandhi Prarthana 6-30 A.M-Bidyarthir Anusthan (Students' Broadcast) 6-50 A.M-Zikir 7-15 A.M-Aajir Dinto (Morning Information Service) 7-30 A.M-Geetanjali (Assamese Modern Song) 8-35 A.M-Surar Panchoi(Composite Programme of Assamese Film Songs) 9-05 A.M- Antara (Composite Programme of Hindi Film Songs) 12-05 P.M-Live Phone-In Surar Satsori 2-30 P.M-Western Music Programme 3-45 P.M-Programme in Miju Mishimi 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 7-15 P.M-Chah Shramikar Aasor-Feature-"Shubho Bordin" 8-00 P.M-Sponsored Programme-"Brahmaputra Swasthya Sewa" (Sponsored

by Brahmaputra Diagnostics and Hospitals Pvt. Ltd.) 9-30 P.M-North East Collage 10-00 P.M-Classical Music Sd-/H.O.P

PAGE 3

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

Compensation granted 12 flagship programmes have benefitted people of Arunachal Pradesh for rape victim ET Correspondent Sonepat, Dec 24: Under Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme 2013, Chief Judicial Magistratecum-Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Harshali Chodhary today ordered for payment of compensation of Rs 1.50 lakh to a rape victim for her rehabilitation. The court also directed that the

compensation amount be deposited in fixed deposit in the scheme fetching maximum interest with any nationalized bank for a period of five years and no loan shall be advanced against fixed deposit while monthly interest be deposited with the bank in the account of the victim.

As the victim has passed 8th class, the court issued

directions to the District Education Officer and concerned Block Education Officer to get the victim enrolled in the government school from the coming academic session.

The case for compensation was recommended by Gagan Geet Kaur, Additional Sessions Judge, Special Court after convicting the accused.

New Deputy Commissioner takes over ET Correspondent Tezpur, Dec 24: Laia Madduri, IAS took charge of her duties as the new Deputy Commissioner of Sonitpur District today.

The IAS officer interacted with all the office staffs including the ADCs at a brief function held at the DC Conference Hall and urged cooperation in all works in the days to come.

On the otherhand, outgoing DC, expressed his gratitude to all for extending their helping hand in executing every official work during his tenure.

Outgoing DC, Lalit Gogoi(right) with the new DC of Sonitpur district Laya Madduri at Tezpur DC office .

Pic- UB Photos

WILL THIS KILLING EVER STOP?

Carcass of the rhino killed by poacher and taken away its horn at Bagori Range in Kaziranga on Wednesday . Pic- UB Photos

Contd. from Page 1

and for winning Skoch Order-of-Merit Award for being among top 12 health projects in India in September last.

The agriculture and horticulture sectors got a new fillip from the maiden three-day Krishi Expo and Kishan Mela-2012 at IG Park here attended by over 25,000 visitors belonging to all sections of the society, including over 10,000 farmers from all over the state with CM Tuki announcing to attach topmost priority in 2012-13 budget to tap the vast potential of this Himalayan state.

The foodgrains’ production rose from 3.34 MT in 2010-11 to 3.62 lakh in in 2012-13, 3.895 MT in 2013-14 that won the state national Krishi Karman Award for second consecutive years amounting to Rs one crore each. The GoAP had launched the State Krishi Karman Award by adding Rs 25 to Rs two crore to award and encourage the progressive

farmers. Soon the state turned into country’s highest kiwi producer (4,956 MT- 2014-15) and second producer of large size cardamom (6,010 MT - 2014-15), which are sold in south India at double the rate.

The Chief Minister’s A g r i c u l t u r e Mechanisation Programme (CMAMP) to aid the farming community in purchasing costly farm machineries with Rs.2.5 crore, Rs.5.13 crore, Rs.1.63 crore and Rs.10 crore in 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively served as another booster for the agri-horti sectors.

In all, 100 tractors, 300 power tillers, 700 pumping sets and 600 paddy dehusking machines have been distributed, benefiting 1700 farmers till date.

The CM’s Skill Development Scheme (CMSDS) and the CM’s Livelihood Mission School (CMLMS) have also had visible impact.

The CMSDS launched a three-day with job melacum skill development interview rally in 2013 here

New species of fish discovered in Arunachal ET Bureau Itanagar, Dec 24: A new species of glyptosternine catfish, christened Exostoma Tenuicaudata has been discovered by scientists of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).

This is only one of nine species under the Exostoma genus found in the world and second discovery of the genus in over a century, ZSI scientists said.

A team of ZSI scientists caught the fish from Siang river in Upper Siang district here recently and the report of the discovery was published in 'Zootaxa', a New Zealand-based science journal.

Glyptosternines are highly specialised sisorid catfishes with greatly depressed body profiles, enlarged, horizontally extended paired fins, modified for adhesion, typically inhabiting torrential waters in rocky mountain streams and rivers, the report stated.

Genus 'Exostoma' is differ-

ent from other glyptosternines in having a continuous post-labial groove in the lower jaw, gill openings do not extend on to venter, teeth in upper and lower jaws are homodont and oar-shaped and flattened distally.

It has tooth patches in upper jaw separated, not produced posteriorly at sides, 10-11 (10-12 herein) branched pectoral fin rays, dilator opercula and levator opercula are isolated, anterior end of sternohyoideus is broad and its width is almost equal to that of this muscle in axilla of pectoral fin.

The adductor pelvicalis superficialis partially contacts with its antimere in the midline, the report added.

"Arunachal's rich biodiversity has not been explored yet," ZSI officerin-charge Bikramjit Sinha who led the team said while advocating its complete documentation.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) welcomes MoEF &CC steps to curb pollution ET Correspondent Guwahati, Dec 24: The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has welcomed the steps taken by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to tighten the pollution norms for coal-based power sector, which is one of the most polluting sectors of the Indian industry in India. On Tuesday, the MoEF&CC announced it had published the notification in the Government of India gazette to tighten norms for emissions of particulate matter (PM), SO2, NOx and mercury and cut water use by coal-based thermal power plants.

India currently has no standards for SO2, NOx and mercury emissions from this sector. The only standards that exist are for PM, which are quite lax compared with the global norms. “The new regulations are a positive first step. However, strengthening our regulatory sys-

tems is critical to ensuring that these standards are strictly enforced. Effective implementation of advanced pollution monitoring technologies such as Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) and online reporting is vital,” said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE. He added what is urgently needed is additional compliance staff and skill-building in pollution control boards.

“Compliance and enforcement can be made more effective by using new market-based tools such as incentives to cut pollution, emissions trading and steeper financial penalties for violations,” said Priyavrat Bhati, Director, Sustainable Industrialization.

Earlier this year, CSE had released its environmental rating of the coalbased thermal power sector under its Green Rating Project. Forty seven plants – totaling more than half of the nation’s capacity – were

rated. The findings showed that the sector ranked poorly on all the parameters. The CSE rating report titled ‘Heat on Power’ had recommended tightening of pollution standards and water use. Of the total pollution from the industrial sector, coal-based power industry accounts for approximately 60 per cent of particulate emissions, 45-50 per cent of SO2 emissions, 30 per cent of NOx emissions and more than 80 per cent of mercury emissions. A reduction of these emissions from coal-based power plants will therefore go a long way in alleviating the health impacts of industrial air pollution, says a CSE analysis.

The power plants that are commissioned after January, 2016 will have to conform to a norm of 30 milligram per normal cubic metre (mg/Nm3) for PM and 100 mg/Nm3 for both SO2 and NOx; mercury norms have

been set at 0.03 mg/ Nm3.The new standards are expected to cut particulate emissions from plants commissioned after 2017 by 25 per cent; SO2 emissions by 90 per cent; NOx emissions by 70 per cent and mercury emissions by 75 per cent compared with existing state-of-the-art plants.

For an existing industryaverage plant, the emissions cut will also be significant. For instance, the PM norm for an average Indian power plant is 150 mg/Nm3. Under the new standards, existing plants will need to meet PM standards between 50-100 mg/Nm3. The impact will be even more pronounced for SO2, NOx and mercury emissions since these did not have norms. The notification requires that plants that are established between 2003 and 2016, subsequent to the liberalization of the power sector, will need to meet slightly looser standards. Plants older than 2003 will need

to meet relatively relaxed norms. “We believe lower standards for old units are acceptable given both technical hurdles and economic costs of installing pollution control equipment at these units,” said Bhati.

CSE analysis says the new norms will require all existing cooling tower-based plants to restrict water consumption to 3.5 cubic metre per watt hour (m3/ MWh). Plants which will be set up after January 2017 have to achieve 2.5 m3/MWh. Also, all existing water-guzzling once-through-cooling (OTC) system plants will need to be replaced with cooling tower-based systems. This can have a remarkable reduction in freshwater withdrawal by thermal power plants – cumulatively, freshwater withdrawal could decrease from around 22 billion cubic metre in 2012 to around 4.5 billion cubic metre in 2017, an 80 per cent dip.

and an allocation of Rs.2.1 crore, Rs.3 crore, Rs. 65 lakh and Rs. 10.6 crore in 2012-13, 201314, 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively aimed at skilling 6308 youth to make them employable.

The CMLMS at Nampong, initiated by former minister late Setong Sena and run by National Youth Project with H P Biswas and Pradeep Kumar as president and vice president, with allocation of Rs.30 lakh and Rs.50 lakh in 2014-15 and 2015-16 produced two batches of 44 and 100 youth, who are now self-employed, particularly in agri-horti and animal husbandry sector.

The Chief Minister’s Paryatan Vikash Yojana with Rs.3.10 crore, Rs.5 crore and Rs.5 crore in 2012-13 7, 2013-14 benefitted 100 and 161 beneficiaries of 17 districts while the scheme was allocated Rs.5 crore in 2015-16 also to cover ‘humanr se rojgar tak’.

The Chief Minister’s award for excellence in

quality education - Best School Award - one in each district @ Rs. 1 lakh each to be spent on skill based learning materials; best principal and best headmaster @ Rs.50,000 each; two best male teachers and two best female teachers @ Rs.50, 000 each; Vidya for encouraging unmarried girls of ClVI for continuing education by offering a fixed deposit of Rs.5,000 to be encashed after completing class-XII that benefitted 4,800 in 2014; providing sanitary napkins for better hygiene of girls’ students, benefitting approximately 82,419 girls; CM’s talent award with an allocation of Rs 10 crore to award CBSE toppers free laptops that benefitted 2,286 GoAP school students.

The chief minister’s disability pension @ Rs.1,000 pm with Rs.50 lakh, Rs.45 lakh and Rs.48.12 lakh and Rs.one crore in 2012-13, 201314, 2014-15 and 2015-16 benefitting 922 persons in 17 districts and Capital Complex; CM’s Grants Loin Loom Scheme with

Rs.2 crore, Rs.2 crore, Rs.2 crore and Rs.5 crore in 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 to help local weavers benefitted 6,424 selected handloom weavers.

The other SFPs included CM’s Mission Mode Project aimed at encouraging tea and rubber crops plantation with Rs.500 lakh for tea growers and Rs.10 crore for rubber growers earmarked for 2013-14; CM’s Trophy of Football and Volleyball with Rs.43.68 lakh, Rs.3.5 crore and Rs 4 crore in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 to promote players (men and women) at block, district and state level; Rs.5 crore in 201516 for tree plantation in urban areas, district HQs and Capital Complex; Rs.2 crore in 2015-16 for digging bore wells in less rainfall areas in Tirap, Changlang and Longding; Rs.2 crore in 2015-16 special schemes to augment revenue collection by plugging pilferages; Mukhya Mantri Seema Vikash Yojana with Rs.2 crore in 2015-16 to expand state transport service.

Person killed by militants ET Correspondent, Tezpur, Dec 24: A sensational situation prevailed in Thelamara- No1-Barpukhuri area under Thelamara PS in Sonitpur District following the incident of a person being killed in Imphal yesterday by militants. His bullet ridden body reached his home this afternoon around 1.30 pm. According to the police, the per-

son identified as Dimbeswar Boro was working in a bakery known as “Babi Ladoo Bakery” located in the ‘Kanjabai’ area in Imphal as security supervisor. Father of the deceased Kanu Boro informed that he was demanded extortion money of Rs. 1 lac by the militants which could not be fulfilled by him resulting in him embracing an un-

timely death in the hand of the militants. He leaves behind his wife and four sons. Meanwhile, in a joint press note, local Thelamara unit and ABSU, Sonitpur district vehemently condemned the brutal killing of the innocent person and demanded both the Assam and Manipur government to take initiative to apprehend the culprits involved in the incident.

NABARD's training for woman empowerment in Nalbari district ET Correspondent, Nalbari,Dec 24: In order to to empower the women community with the entrepreneurship development in Nalbari district the NABARD has taken an initiative to train up about various self employment avenues.In Balilecha MV School the NABARD organized an eighteen day training on making incense sticks in collaboration with Bishnujyoti Janakalyan Samiti from December 19.A total of 30 women took part in the training which is being held under the NABARD's mi-

cro entrepreneurship dev e l o p m e n t programme.The training programme was inaugurated by Bhagawan Sarma,lead bank manager of Nalbari district where Debajyoti Biswas,district development manager of NABARD took part as guest.The NABARD will help the women to establish micro unit of incense making at their areas.On the other hand a 13 day training among 30 women is being also held at Bangaon village in Nalbari district on the scientific poultry,dairy and goattery.The train-

ing started on December 17 is being organized by Swaraj Welfare Society,Bongaon in the support of NABARD.The training was inaugurated by Paresh Ch Haloi,branch manager Assam Gramin Vikash Bank,Bangaon branch where the district development manager NABARD Debajyoti Biswas attended as guest.In the training Dr Samar T a l u k d a r , D r M a n a b e n d r a Das,progressive farmer Prasanta Sarma taking part as resource personnel.

Assam Governor conveys his greetings on the occasion of Christmas A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Dec 24: The Governor of Assam and Nagaland, P. B. Acharya has conveyed his heartiest greetings to the people on the occasion of the greatest festival of the Christian community, Christmas.

In his message he has wished a happy and merry Christmas to the Christian community.

In his message he stated that Christmas or Christmas Day (Meaning ‘Christ's Mass’) is

an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or Nativity Fast and is prolonged by the Octave of Christmas and further by the season of Christmastide. Christmas Day is celebrated

culturally by a large number of non-Christian people, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season. Today, Christmas is a time for family and friends to get together and exchange gifts. The Governor has appealed to all to spread the message of peace and brotherhood amongst mankind through the merriment and rejoicing of the great festival of Christmas.

PAGE 4

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

India decks up for Christmas Chennai/Guwahati/ Ranchi, Dec. 24 (ANI): People across India are singing carols, organising functions and plays to celebrate Christmas, which falls on Friday.

For instance, a shopping mall in Chennai came up with a "North Pole Mountain Village" theme' to mark Christmas.

A four layered snowy mountain has been built depicting the mythical habitat of Santa Claus.

The village has miniatures of huts, a bridge, train, reindeer and Santa Claus covered in snow.

However, for some residents of Chennai, the Christmas spirit will be missing because they have been rendered homeless by the recent floods.

"We may not celebrate Christmas, but, I think there is a lot of hope that tomorrow will be better as it is said again and again.

I think in the floods what has won in Chennai is humanity," said south Indian actress, Suhasini Maniratnam.

In Ranchi, Jharkhand, Christmas-related dance and plays are being held in church. A local rock band also performed at a church.

Markets have been

New Delhi, Dec 24: Narendra Modi while campaigning in 2014 Lok Sabha elections had vowed to work relentlessly for the nation. It

seems he is leaving no stone unturned to live up to people's expectations after he was voted to power. According to reports, a reply to an RTI

query has revealed that PM Narendra Modi has not taken a single day off after taking charge as PM on May 26, 2014. Also, the Prime Minister's Office

(PMO) replying the RTI query has revealed the PM Modi's official working hours too. "PM Modi is on duty all the time," the PMO's reply said.

Delhi Govt. has lowered level of political discourse: Arun Jaitley

Man looks on a display of Christ at Guwahati

flooded with decorative items and statues of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary.

Guwahati in Assamis playing host to a Christmas carnival of rock band performances and fashion shows, said All Guwahati Christian Youth Association secretary Suresh Joseph.

I n Tr i p u r a c a p i t a l Agartala, markets had all the elements associ-

ated with Christmas, including decorations, gift items and cakes.

Some people dressed like Santa and stood outside the shops to welcome and wish customers.

The Christmas market is currently open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m each day in the state.

Markets and churches in Mumbai were glitter-

ing with Christmas-related decorations and items.

Christmas is celebrated across the world on December 25 and Christians form less than three percent of India's more than one billion strong population.

Christmas is marked by carols, cakes, candles, fern trees and an exchange of gifts.

'Rich' ITUC needs to do more for unskilled labourers New Delhi, Dec. 24 : Indian trade union bodies and leaders have once again called on the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to pay more attention to improving the conditions of workers and unskilled labourers. Highlighting this need, the vice president of the Asia-Pacific unit of ITUC, G. Sanjeeva Reddy, recently maintained that ITUC could certainly take more initiatives to ensure better working conditions for crores of unskilled workers in India. Speaking in the wake of the recent demise of veteran trade unionist P.T. Rajan in Ranchi, Jharkhand, Reddy said that “the 70-year-old trade union leader was a good man and his passing away is sad. We were part of various organisational mechanics and were involved in many discussions on the welfare of workers.” Rajan, who was the district secretary of the

PM Modi works 24x7, has not taken a single day off after taking charge, reveals RTI

Kozhikode unit of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), leaves a huge dent in the spirit of righteous unionism. A vocal leader for the rights of workers, Reddy had earlier maintained that global union leaders lacked the requisite ambition to elevate workers’ rights. He said, “I have spoken with ITUC general secretary, Sharan Burrow, on multiple occasions and requested her to intervene and work pro-actively for Indian workers… but we don’t know what’s happening. “What can I say about their lifestyle? As affiliates, I have personally paid 18 lakhs annually as fees, but we don’t know where most of it goes” Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh general secretary, Virjesh Upadhyay, the largest trade union body in India, has little faith in global bodies like the ITUC. He pointed out: “They may have hidden interests.

They are disconnected

with workers on the ground, and live lavish lives.” According to evidences provided by reliable sources, ITUC general secretary, Sharan Burrow, leads quite a fanciful life and is known to indulge in rich practices. She leads an expensive and globe trotting lifestyle.

The International Labour Organisation, based in Geneva, is the UN specialised agency for the workplace, which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights, but the ILO appears to be lacking in its moral duty to ensure that the representatives of trade union bodies across the world align with even the lowest-paid worker. There is a need for ITUC to show measurable solidarity with underprivileged workers in nations like India, Nepal and Bangladesh etc.

The Indian Government is already investigating the role of ITUC in leading

labour strikes against the establishment. "ITUC and its affiliates are accusing India and its government of poor compliance with international labour standards, especially with regard to child labour. Most such strikes are a politically-motivated agenda against the ruling government," a dossier prepared by the government has said. INDECONT, a Kathmandu-based trade union body in Nepal, recently filed an official complaint with ILO office in Kathmandu, highlighting the ITUC’s inability to do anything concrete for its workers, who are still recovering from the trauma of the April earthquake. Sri Lankan minister Seneviratne and International corporate attorney Das Gupta, a specialist operating in the Middle East, have also been critical of ITUC’s operating procedures, and called for it to act responsibly. (ANI)

ANI New Delhi, Dec. 24 : With mudslinging between Aam Aadmi Party and the Centre escalating over the alleged Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) scam, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a Facebook post on Thursday said 'the level of public discourse was being lowered by the Delhi Government and its supporters'.

Hitting out at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for using 'vulgar' language against

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jaitley said, "People in positions are expected to act with restraint. They cannot be outlandish. Vulgarity is not a right available to them."

"What about the statements made by the Honourable Delhi Chief Minster about Prime Minister and others, both inside and outside Delhi Assembly? If any functionary of the Government of India were to use such language, it would witness a nationwide outrage," he added.

In an apparent reference to suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad, the Finance Minister said that some months ago a few members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made statements which were not appreciated even by the Party.

"The Party President cautioned them and advised them to refrain from making such statements. The result of the caution are visible," he added.

BJP MP Kirti Azad, law-

maker and former Test cricketer, was suspended by his party the BJP for publicly targeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with allegations of corruption in Delhi's cricket body DDCA. In a one-line statement, the BJP said Mr Azad has been suspended for "anti-party activities."

Azad has been served a 24 line suspension order by the BJP. The lawmaker has been charged with anti party activities.

Sheena Bora was strangled to death, confirms AIIMS medical report Mumbai, Dec 24: An evidence that can be a crucial lead for the investigating agencies in Sheena Bora murder case, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has confirmed she died due to strangulation, a report claimed on Thursday. According to reports, in the final report submitted to CBI by

experts from AIIMS' board of forensic medicines, 'strangulation' has been reportedly cited as the cause of Sheena's death. “The cause of death has been confirmed as strangulation by the board,” a hospital source was quoted as saying.

The remains of Sheena Bora were handed over to the AIIMS forensic de-

partment by the CBI in October to conduct autopsy. The team headed

by Dr Sudhir Gupta has ruled out head injury as the cause of her death as there was no head fracture. The team has also ruled out the possibility of firearm injury, claims the source. As per initial reports in the case, Sheena Bora

was allegedly killed in a car and her body was burnt and dumped in the forest to destroy all evidences. Her mother Indrani Mukerjea, Indrani's ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna, driver Shyamvar Rai and media honcho Peter Mukerjea are in pol i c e custody.(Agencies)

Govt has been successful in reducing influence of ISIS among youth: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar New Delhi, Dec 24: Even as the government is looking for ways to reduce the influence of Islamic State among Indian youth, ?Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday that Centre had achieved con-

siderable success as far as the terror outfit was concerned. "We are trying to reduce the numbers (of youths getting attracted towards the ideology of the IS) and we have achieved success in it,” Parrikar said when

asked about influence of the ISIS on the Indian youth. On a query related to alleged involvement of army personnel in a suspected espionage case involving Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, he said “we had to tighten the security (in-

telligence) which we have already done”. He was talking to reporters after inaugurating the first cablestayed bridge on Ravi river at Basholi in Kathua district situated on DuneraBasholi-Bhadharwah road.(Agencies)

ROAD BLOCKED AT JORHAT

Inbound tourism may register up to 10 percent jump this Christmas-New Year season: ASSOCHAM New Delhi, Dec 24 (ANI): According to a survey just-concluded by apex industry body ASSOCHAM, Inbound tourism is likely to register an increase of up to 10 per cent during this Christmas-New Year holiday season as travelers plan to refrain from going overseas in wake of recent terror attacks in most sought after global tourist destinations of Bangkok and Paris.

"Tourist hotspots in northern, central India and in majority of the coastal belt are expected to see influx of about 15 lakh domestic and foreign tourists as they find it both cheap and safe," ASSOCHAM. "Tourism, which is the mainstay of the economy in Andaman and Nicobar, and in states like Goa, Himachal Pradesh,

Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh together with the states in the north-east are likely to do brisk business and attract tourists in large numbers," said D.S. Rawat.

"Though terrorist attacks can occur anywhere, but certain latest cases are likely to significantly impact outbound tourism in a negative way and this trend is expected to revive the domestic tourism sector which has been facing a lull due to growing inflation, rising airfares, high hotel room rates, fluctuations in the value of rupee against foreign currencies and other related factors," said Rawat.

"It is also likely to boost foreign exchange earnings," he added.

The ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation had interacted with about 500 travel enthusiasts (working professionals) in the age group of about 25 to 60 years in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune in past four weeks.

Majority of these respondents (about 60 percent) said they have planned to go on a vacation this yearend.

Over half of these said they plan to visit northern tourist destinations of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and others as certain parts of southern India have recently been hit by unprec-

edented rains, highlighted the ASSOCHAM survey.

Of the remaining, many said they plan to visit Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Port-blair and other locations for their vacations.

Only handful (8-10 percent) respondents said they plan to go abroad for vacations to Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Singapore and other such affordable and 'safe' destinations.

Representatives of the ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation had also spoken to various tour operators in said cities, many of whom informed they are receiving tourist bookings in good numbers for aforementioned states and hope to rake in big moolah during this end-of-the-year holiday season. (ANI)

Activists of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) and Jatiya Mahila Parishad, Nimati unit holding road blockade programme in support of their various demands in Jorhat . Pic -- UB Photos

Govt scraps minimum export price on onions to boost exports New Delhi, Dec 24: The government on Thursday scraped the minimum export price (MEP) on onions, a move that is expected to encourage out-bound shipments of the commodity. "All varieties of onions... can be exported without any MEP," Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification. MEP is the rate

below which no trader is allowed to export. The rise in MEP restricts exports and improves domestic supply. In August, the government had hiked onion MEP to USD 700 per tonne, from USD 425, as prices at both wholesale and retail levels skyrocketed on lower output due to unseasonal rains. Also earlier this month, the

government had slashed the minimum export price (MEP) on onions to USD 400 per tonne from USD 700 to encourage outbound shipments of the commodity. The Maharashtra government had recently asked the Centre to scrap the minimum export price for onions to help boost overseas shipments after wholesale prices of the

bulb went down to the Rs 10 per kg level. According to the National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF) data, wholesale prices are ruling at Rs 10-14 per kg at Asia's biggest wholesale market for onion at Lasalgaon in Maharashtra, much lower than its peak of Rs 57 per kg in August.(Agencies)

Joyous people celebrate Christmas Eve in Mizoram

Christmas celebration in Mizoram

Aizawl, Dec 24:Preparations for celebrations of Christmas reached its climax on the Christmas eve on Thursday in the Christian-dominated north eastern state of Mizoram.The yuletide shopping spree also reached its height with a large number of villagers coming to the state capital for buying new clothes, cakes and home decors.Prayers and worship services would be held in the churches on Thursday

night to be followed by 'Krismas lenkhawm' or church members singing Christmas songs upto midnight or even till the morning.Almost all the streets in Aizawl were decorated with lights and people were seen thronging the streets with family members and friends taking pictures all the way.The state governmnet has arranged additional power for Christmas celebrations.

(Agencies)

Film Forum Manipur protest against monetary demands made by militants Manipur, Dec 24: Cinemas in Manipur remained closed for few days in protest against the 'extortion' bids by three banned underground organizations. Though the filmrelated activities have resumed, the Film Forum Manipur has condemned the frequent monetary demands by Underground Outfits Actors, directors and producers recently staged a sit-in at Keishampat to show

their anger. Later, they held a meeting and discussed the issue.

The armed groups have asked to pay an amount of not less than Rs 2 Lakhs annually. Film Forum Manipur has appealed to the militants to withdraw their demand. The Manipuri film industry has been facing a financial crisis since the banning of Hindi films that forced several halls to shut down. (Agencies)

PAGE 5

REGION

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

'Mamata model only model' Kolkata, Dec 24 : State minister for housing and youth affairs Aroop Biswas on Wednesday said that there is no such thing as the 'Siliguri model' and that a 'khichri model' and the 'Ho Jo Bo Ro Lo model' are ruling the roost here. "There is only this biggest modelthe Mamata model in Siliguri," he claimed.

"There is the khichri model, the Ho Jo Bo Ro Lo model. What is Siliguri model? Only imposing taxes on people and doing no work for development the taxes have been hiked. All are united to remain in power only. There has been no development, no drains, no roads, while there is this drinking water prob-

lem. A model is to go forward with the people, imposing taxes on the people is no model. The Mamata model is the biggest model, this is the only model in Siliguri," said Biswas while speaking during the opening ceremony of the 'West Bengal State Handicrafts Expo 2015-16' here. The Left Front won both the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) and the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad (SMP) elections, while it had supported the Congress in elections of borough chairmen in the SMC in July. Siliguri mayor Asok Bhattacharya had called it 'floor coordination' to keep Trinamul at bay. He had said they would

Aroop Biswas adopt such 'democratic tactics' with secular forces to defeat the Trinamul Congress. The term 'Siliguri model' emerged when the Left Front supported Congress in 2009 during the elections for the post of the mayor and chairman of the SMC. The 'model'

later became popular during the SMP polls too, where there was an unofficial understanding between the Left and the Congress. However, Left Front leaders have been claiming that there was no such model. "The present board in the SMC is not doing any develop-

ment work. The mutation fees have been increased arbitrarily. The Trinamul will continue its movement," Biswas said later.

Asked to comment, Bhattacharya said Trinamul Congress should accept the fact that people had defeated them in two consecutive elections (SMC and SMP). "They will be ousted from the state in the next Assembly polls," he said.Meanwhile, the minister of state for micro, small & medium enterprises and animal resources development department, Swapan Debnath, said the state government had focused on the uplift of artisans associated with the handicrafts industry.

"The state government has introduced old age pension for artisans. A total of 5.5 lakh artisans have been given identity cards. There will be export awareness camps, and products worth Rs.3, 75, 00000 were sold in the last fair (West Bengal State Handicrafts Expo) in Siliguri. This year we have set a target of Rs.5 crore," Debnath said. The fair was inaugurated on Wednesday and will continue till 10 January.

Biswas later visited the youth hostels at the Kanchanjungha Stadium and Dabgram. The minister expressed his dissatisfaction after watching the condition of the hostel rooms at the stadium.

(Agencies)

Police step up vigil for safe Christmas Ambulance made to Kolkata ,Dec 24:As the mercury dips bringing in the chill and the air fills up with the aroma of cakes, the city is all decked up for a Christmas weekend.

And, for the safety of thousands of revellers, Kolkata Police is leaving no stone unturned .Security in and around Park Street as well as the sensitive areas in the city has been tightened with additional police postings, a senior officer of the force told media.Police have divided the Park Street area into five zones with each zone coming under the surveillance of an officer of the deputy commissioner rank, he said."There will be 11 watch towers as well as 15 police assistance booths to keep a vigil. In fact, shops

and showrooms on the Park Street will remain closed from 4 PM on Friday," the officer said.Over 500 police personnel - both men and women - would be posted at the Park Street area.Besides, there would be plainclothes policemen posted outside food-joints and the chain of restaurants in that area. Three Radio Flying Squads (RFS), including one solely comprising women police, would be present there.Besides, Additional Heavy Radio Flying Squads and Quick Response Teams would also be on duty along Park Street. Lalbazar would keep a watch on the activities in the less than two-km long stretch of Park Street and elsewhere in the city

via CCTVs.Around 50 new CCTVs would be installed in the area and the footages would be conserved for future reference, he said. "We have gone through CCTV footages of the crowd behaviour during Christmas in Park Street as well as in the city."We have studied the details on crowd movement at different time of the day and the type of crimes happening and as per inputs, we have made our security arrangements for December 24 and 25 and on December 31, the officer said."Police pickets will be posted at 80 different points in the city, which will be used to check vehicles," he said.Policemen would also be deployed outside

churches and plainclothes policemen at crowded places including shopping malls and clubs.Restaurants and food outlets have been asked to inform the police about celebrity visits and not to cross maximum footfall. Movement of traffic on Park Street and some of its adjacent roads will be restricted from December 24 evening."Park Street will remain closed for all type of vehicular traffic between 4PM to 10PM on Friday.

Vehicular traffic may also be regulated at and around the Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial, Birla Planetarium, Alipore Zoo, Kali temple at Kalighat and Millennium Park," the officer added. (Agencies)

wait for Mamata Banerjee's convoy Kolkata, Dec.24: An ambulance carrying a heart victim was held by the policemen waiting for the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's convoy on an expressway to Kolkata on Wednesday morning, and was not allowed to go even when the patient's kin pleaded with folded hands. The West Bengal Ch i e f Minister was scheduled to return from Digha in East Midnapore and police was not sure if she

would fly back or come by road. But she eventually took a helicopter. According to reports, Meherjan Begum, the heart patient, lay gasping for breath for 20 minutes while her relative prayed she would cling on to life until they reached SSKM Hospital in Kolkata, a 20-minute drive away. The senior officers, after learning about her plight, let the ambulance to go.

(ANI)

ANI West Bengal, Dec. 24 : Panic gripped West Bengal's Midnapore District after a herd of eight elephants ravaged a village for two days.

Several huts collapsed as the jumbos strayed into the village and started running amok.

Many crops were damaged, said the villagers.

"Eight elephant came and broke the wall of my hut with their trunks. We w e r e sleeping at that time," said a vill a g e r, Gobinda Chalak. Forest de-

p a r t m e n t o ff i c i a l s were informed about the extent of the damage. "A girl broke her leg and the jumbos destroyed our crops. Several houses were damaged," said another v i l l a g e r, S u k h r a m Chalak. Villagers said forest official tranquilised the elephants to bring the situation under control.

Attacks by elephants have been frequent in West Bengal state causing serious injuries and deaths to villagers living near forests.

Nitish seeks ban on 15 year-old diesel Jumbos go on vehicles in Bihar rampage in West Bengal 4 persons killed, 15 injured in accident

Kohima, Dec 24:At least four persons, including a woman were killed and 15 others were injured when a bus plunged into a gorge in Phek district of Nagaland on Wednesday.The accident occurred when the bus with a total of 19 persons rolled about 30 feet below the road, some kilometres before reaching Phek town.While three persons died on the spot, one succumbed to injuries on way to hospital,

the police said.The driver was among those killed.Of the 15 injured, six were critically injured when the community bus in which they were travelling from Ketsapo village to Phek town met with the accident.Three of the injured were airlifted to Kohima in a chopper.Six injured persons are undergoing treatment in different hospitals in the state capital.

(Agencies)

Patna, Dec 24 : Expressing concern over the alarming level of air pollution in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed concerned officials for banning 15year-old diesel vehicles in the state capital among other measures to improve the situation .Presiding over a review meeting of the Environment and Forest Department last evening, he also directed officials to launch an awareness campaign among vehicle owners and drivers about the growing air pollution in order to elicit their cooperation against unnecessary blaring of hooters, sirens and horns.Among the other measures, the Chief Minister said a ban should be imposed on burning plastic and other solid waste materials

within the confines of Patna Municipal Corporation.With building materials being the prime cause of air pollution, he said that construction works must be carried out by covering the structure. Trucks and tractors supplying building materials, sand in particular, must have the same covered during transportation so that its particles do not pollute the air.Identifying brick kiln units located around embankment of the river Ganga in the state capital as another source of air pollution, the Chief Minister said that the Bihar Pollution Control Board (BPCB) should be delegated with powers to initiate against the brick kiln units that violate environment laws.The Chief Minister stressed on plantation of

Nitish Kumar trees, poplar in particular, to check the rising air pollution and directed the Environment and Forest department officials to set up a market at Hajipur Bazar Samiti for marketing poplar plants.To encourage farmers to be a partner in tree plantation

drive to improve forest coverage in Bihar, he issued directions to give them an incentive of Rs 10 each for first two years and Rs 15 in the third year for protection and care of saplings being planted on largescale in Bihar. (Agencies)

Nagaland official has cheaper connectivity solution for Northeast

South Shillong legislator Sanbor Shullai leading a Christmas carol participated by children from the constituency held in Shillong on 23-12-15. Pix

by UB Photos

Kohima, Dec 24:The Modi government is set to spend Rs.7,000 crore (nearly $1 billion) on laying a fibre optic network in the northeastern states to improve internet connectivity, but a senior government official from Nagaland has devised a solution that may not only cut costs by 75 percent but also be more effective. The official, KD Vizo, Nagaland's commissioner and IT secretary, has suggested an alternative technology - a High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) - that can be operated from an unmanned airship or a balloon. This alternative comes at an estimated cost of Rs.1, 750 crore, about 25 percent of the Rs.7,000 crore budget

earmarked for the northeast out of the Rs.72,778 crore project under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN).NOFN has the ambitious objective of providing 200,000 gram panchayats with internet connectivity. The project is intended to enable the government provide e-services and e-applications nationally. A special purpose vehicle Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) has been created as a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the Companies Act for executing the project."Underground optical fibre, laid in the hilly terrain of the northeastern states, with time has become defunct following landslides and soil erosion, a common phenom-

enon in the area because of the loose mountainous soil," Vizo said. Vizo was recently in Delhi to participate as a resource-person in a conclave themed "Connectivity Challenges in Northeast - Way Forward'. He emphasised that the region has already missed the first industrial revolution, but should not miss the second one, which is all about IT.The northeastern region is entitled to a 90:10 share under the NOFN project, which is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)."The operating altitude of this system is normally between 17 km and 22 km from the ground because in most regions of the world this represents a layer of relatively mild wind and less turbu-

lence. It can function as an unmanned airship or balloon and it requires only electrical power to keep it and its payload functional," Vizo explained.Since HAPS operates at much lower altitudes than satellites, it is possible to cover a small region like the northeastern part of India much more effectively than with a satellite. Lower altitude also means much lower link budget (hence lower power consumption) and smaller round trip delays compared to satellites, he added."It is a common phenomenon to see underground optical fibre hanging on trees along national and state highways in the region.

In such a situation only a mixture of wireless, satellite and OFC Network can be effective," Vizo

said.Explaining the advantages of HAPS, Vizo said: "Unlike a satellite, which once launched, does not allow for full maintenance, in case of HAPS, it can undergo full maintenance.

The cost of HAPS is only about a fourth of a normal geosynchronous Equatorial orbit (GEO) satellite."Vizo also urged the government to earmark a small budget under the USOF for installing of at least two such systems to cover the northeastern region with wireless broadband. "If the northeast is to be developed in terms of IT, then greater focus should be on wireless and satellite technologies as these can be installed faster and are more suitable for the difficult terrain in the region," Vizo said. (Agencies)

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

PAGE 6

Odd-even formula: Kejriwal, ministers not exempted New Delhi, Dec 24: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that he along with his ministers will follow the odd-even formula that comes into force in Delhi for a period of 15 days starting January 1. Presenting the blueprint of the initiative to be implemented between January 1 and 15 to curb rising pollution levels in the national capital, Kejriwal said a fine of Rs.2,000 will be imposed on violators. "My ministers and I will be follow-

ing the rule as well," Kejriwal said at a media conference here. However, the president, vicepresident, prime minister, governors of states, Lt. governor of Delhi, chief justice of India, speakers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, union ministers, opposition leaders in lower and upper houses, chief ministers of states, judges of the Supreme Court and the high court and the Lokayukta will be exempted. Emergency vehicles like ambulances, police vans, fire

CM Kejriwal pays tribute to Head constable died in Karkardooma court firing New Delhi, Dec. 24: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi on Thursday paid last tribute to Delhi PoliceHead constable Ram Kumar who was killed yesterday Karkardooma court firing. The mortal remains of the deceased were kept in caskets draped in the national flag as the dignitaries paid tributes by laying wreaths over them, one by one. Kumar was killed when four

armed assailants opened fire inside a courtroom at Karkardooma Court Complex in east Delhi on Wednesday. The incident occurred around 11.15 a.m. when a criminal, having more than 100 cases against him, was being produced at courtroom number 73. Those present in the courtroom, including the judge, had to run for cover as the assailants fired indiscriminately. A case of murder and attempt to murder has been registered at Farsh Bazar police station. Several teams have been formed to investigate and catch the culprits behind the daring attack. (ANI)

Trust Jaitley's integrity, not competence: Digvijay Singh

Congress leader Digvijay Singh

New Delhi, Dec. 24: Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday said that he trusts Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's integrity, but doubts his competence. "I have always said that we trust his integrity but I do not trust his competence. If he cannot stop irregularities in DDCA, can he stop it in the Finance Ministry? My objection is on his capability," Singh told the media here. "I am happy that at least margdarshak meeting is taking place. We will see the outcome of the meeting. We will wait to see whether Narendra Modi and Amit Shah agrees to the decision on Jaitley," he added. Singh further said it puts a question mark on Jaitley's

ability if he does not get know the irregularities in the DDCA. He took a jibe at the BJP asking if that is going to be the fate of all those who raise the issue of corruption."Is this going to be the fate of all those in the BJP who raise issue of corruption? First Ram Jethmalani and now Kirti. Next Shatrughan Sinha?" Singh said. The BJP on Wednesday suspended its MP from Darbhanga, Kirti Azad, for what it called 'antiparty activities'. The cricketer-turned-politician has been raising the issue of rampant corruption in the DDCA including the period when Arun Jaitley, was the president of the cricket body. Azad was reportedly persuaded by the BJP chief Amit Shah to not go ahead with his much-publicised expose on Sunday, when he released a video of a DDCA AGM held in 2012, where he was seen accusing Jaitley of forging documents. (ANI)

Three Kerala men beaten by Saudi employer Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 24: Three men from Kerala have sent a video to their family of their Saudi employer brutally beating them.

All three, B Vimal Kumar, Abhilash Gopi and Byju Babu are natives of Haripad town in north Kerala. In the footage the Saudi man is clearly visible beating the three with a wooden plank. According to reports, the three were promised

of jobs by an agent.

The trio came in touch with agent through a police officer. The Police have registered a case and the cop in question has been suspended. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has promised action and tweeted: "We reported this to Saudi Police. We are in touch with Indian workers. They will be back in India within a week."(Agencies)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal brigades as well as vehicles belonging to embassies and high commissions bearing 'CD' num-

bers too won't have to follow the rule. Kejriwal also said that twowheeler riders, women

and physically challenged drivers and those having a medical emergency would also be exempted.

"Women (drivers) or women with kids below 12 years will be exempted along with twowheeler riders and those having a medical emergency on their way to a hospital," Kejriwal said.

Meanwhile, parking attendants in the city have been told to not allow odd number cars on even dates and vice-versa, the Delhi CM added. Seeking support of Delhiites

for making the campaign a success, Kejriwal said it has to be a "people's movement" and it can't be forced. He highlighted that the campaign can never go on forever and will be introduced only if the pollution levels rise. "It's not a continuous programme. May be after a few months we will introduce it again if pollution levels rise," he said.

Kejriwal said the restriction will be from 8 am to 8 pm, except Sundays.

(Agencies)

US plans raids to deport families who surged across border Washington, Dec 24: The US Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to theUnited States since the start of last year, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing people familiar with the operation, the Post said the nationwide campaign to deport the illegal immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could

start as soon as early January. It would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, the newspaper said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, the Post reported. The operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, the newspaper

said. The Post said the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The number of people targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater, the newspaper said. DHS did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment. Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, The Post reported. The pressure for deportations has

Jayalalithaa pays homage at MGR Memorial in Chennai

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa Chennai, Dec.24: Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalithaa on Thursday paid floral tributes to her political mentor and party founder MG Ramachandran at his memorial on Marina on the occasion of his 28th death anniversary.

Jayalalithaa arrived at the MGR memorial and paid

floral tributes to the late leader. Later, AIADMK functionaries including state ministers took pledges and also hailed the achievements of the government headed by Jayalalithaa. Finance and PWD Minister O Panneerselvam read out the pledges and others repeated them. After taking the pledges, the cadre observed silence as a mark of respect for the late leader (ANI)

mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers, according to the Post. Immigration advocates expressed concern about the plan. "It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics," Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Post.(Agencies) Honolulu, Dec 24: the Islamic State, the President Barack Obama majority of whom are said on Wednesday that Muslim. Republican he and his wife Michelle presidential candidate are praying for perse- Senator Ted Cruz has cuted Christians as the proposed allowing only give interim stay on AAP world prepares to cel- Christian refugees into Christmas. the United States, a suggovernment's plan to im- ebrate Obama noted that the Is- gestion the White House pose the odd-even numhas derided. Cruz has lamic State's occupation ber plate formula for plyargued that Christian of some areas will mean ing of private vehicles from January 1. A bench Christians there will have refugees do not threaten of Chief Justice G Rohini to keep their beliefs and U.S. national security in and Justice Jayant Nath celebrations quiet. "In the same way the Musdeclined the request made some areas of the Middle lims do. As the Obamas by one of the five petition- East where church bells prepare to celebrate ers that the court should at have rung for centuries on Christmas on Friday in least grant a stay on the Christmas Day, this year Hawaii, the president implementation of the they will be silent," said in the statement that government's idea till Janu- Obama said in a state- he and his wife Michelle ary 6, which has been fixed ment released by the are "ever-mindful" that as the next date of hearing White House. "This si- "many of our fellow Chrison the PILs. January 1, lence bears tragic witness tians do not enjoy do not 2016, the odd and even car to the brutal atrocities enjoy that right" to celnumber formula will be ap- committed against these ebrate openly. Obama said plied in Delhi on a trial ba- communities by ISIL," he they "hold especially close sis for 15 days with an aim said, referring to the ac- to our hearts and minds to curb pollution in the na- ronym used for the Is- those who have been lamic State which con- driven from their ancient tional capital. (ANI) trols territories in Syria homelands by unspeakand Iraq. Obama has able violence and persecubeen criticized by Repub- tion." He quoted a Christlicans in Congress and on mas carol: "The Wrong the presidential campaign shall fail, The Right prevail, provided by Education trail for being too soft on With peace on earth, goodU S A refugees who are fleeing will to men."(Agencies) (educationusa.state.gov).

Education USA's centers throughout India and its website can assist students in choosing the most appropriate school for their course of study and personal situation," said U.S. Embassy. It said that as information becomes available, it will provide updates to potential travelers. "We will continue President Barack Obama-Michelle Obama to strongly support educational study and exchange programs for Indian and US students, as these programs have Brussels, Dec 24: The had telephoned Hasna been a hallmark of our Belgian authorities have Aitboulachen, the cousin bilateral relationship for charged a ninth person in of ringleader Abdelhamid decades," The Embassy connection with last Abaaoud, several times added. (ANI) month`s deadly Paris at- after the November 13 tacks, the prosecutor's attacks and before a pooffice said Thursday. A lice raid five days later in they both spokesman said the sus- which pect, who was not named died.(Agencies) row over irregularities in the DDCA and allegations of corruptions against him by the Delhi Government. The Patiala House court has set January 5, 2016 at 2 p.m. as the next date of hearing for the criminal defamation case filed by Jaitley. Noted Sukma , Dec.24: At least state police in Chintalnar criminal lawyer Ram 70 Naxals, including 15 area of Sukma. Two Jethmalani will represent women on Thursday sur- Maoists, including a Delhi Chief Minister Arvind rendered in insurgency woman, had yesterday Kejriwal in the defamation hitSukma District of surrendered in the insurlawsuits filed by the Fi- Chhattisgarh. The Naxals gency-hit Bastar district nance Minister. (ANI) surrendered before the of the state. (ANI)

Obama, Michelle pray for persecuted Christians

Small sacrifice, huge benefits: Delhi Health Minister on odd-even formula New Delhi, Dec, 24: Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Thursday said that the modalities for the implementation of the odd-even number formula will be a big success and claimed that a small sacrifice can lead to huge benefits. "First off, I would like to say that it is going to be a very big success. People will come to know that if they sacrifice a bit there are going to be huge benefit for them. The whole exercise if for our family, for our children and for ourselves. It has nothing to do with the government. It is everyone's duty to get the pollution

Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain under control," Jain told here. "People should be scared of the pollution here. It is like a smoke chamber. I am going to do carpooling with Arvind ji.

There are many factors and there is need to focus on these factors," he

added. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Saturday said that the government would discontinue the move after 10 to 15 days if people faced problems However, the Delhi high court on Wednesday refused to

US closely monitoring denial of entry for Indian students in varsities

Educational ties between the U.S. and India are strong and growing rapidly

New Delhi, Dec. 24: In a press release issued today, the Embassy of the United States of America said the U.S. Government is closely monitoring the situation arising out of the denial of entry of Indian students to colleges in America, and cooperating with the relevant Indian authorities on the issue. In its state-

ment, the embassy said educational ties between the U.S. and India are strong and growing rapidly. During academic year 2014-15, the number of Indian students studying in the United States increased by nearly 30 percent from the previous year to more than 130,000 - the highest number on record. The Embassy, the statement said, is aware of reports that some students bound for two California schools were denied entry by Customs and Border Protection. "We regret the impact this may have had on certain students and their families. We

are following this situation closely and have been in regular communication with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Government of India. Facts are still being collected," said the U.S. Embassy The U.S Embassy stated that the travelers with a visa can be denied entry if the immigration officer finds reason to question the legitimacy of their travel documents or finds that the traveler cannot adequately answer questions about the purpose of his or her travel to the United States."We also remind students considering studying in the United States of the free services

Paris attacks: Ninth persons held in Belgium

BJP should ask for SC monitored investigation on DDCA issue: Congress New Delhi, Dec. 24: The Congress Party on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should approach the Supreme Court on the issue of its suspended MP Kirti Azad alleging that lots of companies were given crores of rupees by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and that it should ask for an apex court-monitored probe.

"If Mr.Azad and his band

of merrymen are serious, then the appropriate things for them to do would be to approach the Supreme Court and ask for a Supreme Court-monitored investigation, because, given the influence of the people involved, nothing less than a Supreme Courtmonitored investigation is going to unearth the truth," Congress leader Manish Tewari told here. The BJP suspended Darbhanga MP

Kirti Azad on Wednesday.

The party issued a terse letter in the evening stating, "For anti-party activities, Shri Kirti Azad, MP, Darbhanga, is with immediate effect suspended from the party." Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has filed criminal defamation case and also filed civil defamation suit in Delhi High Court of Rs. 10 crores against Kejriwal and other AAP leaders, amid a raging

70 Naxals, including 15 women, surrender in Chhattisgarh

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

PAGE 7

NEIGHBOURS

Myanmar migrants found guilty of killing British backpackers China builds 3rd largest Thailand, Dec 24: A Thai court today sentenced two Myanmar migrants to death for murdering two British backpackers found bludgeoned on a resort island last year, a gruesome crime that focused global attention on tourist safety and police conduct in the country.The court ruled there was sufficient evidence to convict Win Zaw Htun andZaw Lin, both 22, of killing David Miller, 24, and raping then murdering Hannah Witheridege, 23, last year on the island of Koh Tao. Andy Hall, an activist working with the defense team, said the two were found guilty on all counts.

They face the death penalty but are expected to appeal. Miller and Witheridge's battered bodies were found Sept.

15, 2014, on the rocky

shores of Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand known for its white sand beaches and scuba diving. Autopsies showed that the young backpackers, who met on the island while staying at the same hotel, suffered severe head wounds and that Witheridge had been raped.The killings tarnished the image of Thailand's tourism industry, which was already struggling to recover after the army staged a coup just months earlier in May 2014 and then imposed martial law.From the start, the case raised questions about police competence.

Investigators faced a variety of criticism, starting with their failure to secure the crime scene, and then for releasing several names and pictures of suspects who turned out

Bangladesh to sign $12.65bn Rooppur deal with Russia Dhaka, Dec 24:Bangladesh and Russia are expected to sign a general contract this month for the construction and commissioning of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna, at a cost of $12.65 billion.The cabinet purchase committee yesterday approved the $12.65 billion contract with Russia to build the 2,400MW nuclear power plant. The approval came at a meeting of the cabinet body, with Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair."We hope that the Atomic Energy Commission of Bangladesh on behalf of Bangladesh and Atomostroyexport on behalf of Russia will finalise the deal this month," Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday. Yeafesh said Russia would provide 90% of the funds on credit at an interest rate of Libor plus 1.75%.

Bangladesh will have to

pay back the loan in 28 years with a 10-year grace period.On December 15, the government finalised the amount for the biggest-ever investment project in the country's history by inking an initial agreement with Russia.Earlier, an inter-governmental agreement for the provision of a $500 million Russian loan to finance engineering design, site development and personnel training was signed in January 2013.On November 2, 2011, Bangladesh and Russia signed an agreement for the installation of nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna.Of the two-unit power plant with 1,200MW capacity each, the first unit is expected to begin operating by 2021 and the second unit by 2022. `The Rooppur nuclear power plant will be constructed using two VVER-1200 nuclear reactors that have a 60-year lifespan. (Agencies)

Pakistan recalls diplomat from Dhaka over extremist link Karachi, Dec.24: A Pakistani diplomat to Bangladesh was recalled from Dhaka after she was named for allegedly financing a suspected extremist on trial for espionage. As per a senior official at the Bangladeshi foreign ministry, the female second secretary of the high commission was sent back to Islamabad yesterday afternoon, two days after Dhaka informally asked for her departure.The diplomat, who has previously been named in press reports as Farina Arshad, was recalled after Idris Sheikh, a suspected member of the banned Jamayetul

Mujahideen Bangladesh, told a Dhaka court about his ties to Arshad, saying he received funds of 30,000 taka (USD 380).

According to local reports, Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has said that action would be taken by the Bangladeshi Government if the allegations against her were proved.As per a senior official at the Bangladeshi foreign ministry, the female second secretary of the high commission was sent back to Islamabad yesterday afternoon, two days after Dhaka informally asked for her departure. (Agencies)

Pak official recalled from Bangladesh over extremist link

Myanmar migrants Win Zaw Htun, right, and Zaw Lin, left, to be innocent. After Britain's Foreign Office expressed concern to Thai authorities about the way the investigation was conducted, British police were allowed to observe the case assembled by their Thai counterparts.Under intense pressure to solve the case, police carried out DNA tests on more than 200 people on Koh Tao. The two migrants

were arrested about two weeks after the murders.

Police said the pair had confessed to the killings and that DNA samples linked them to the crimes.

Both men later retracted their confessions, saying they had been coerced by the police. Police have denied the accusations.One of the defendants, Win Zaw Htun, testified that he was tortured, beaten and

threatened so he would confess. He told the court that police handcuffed him naked, took pictures of him, "kicked him in the back, punched him, slapped him, threatened to tie him to a rock and drop him in the sea," according to defense lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat.Zaw Lin, the other defendant, testified that he was blindfolded, beaten on his chest and told he would be killed if he didn't admit to the charges, Nakhon said, adding, "He also said he was constantly suffocated by a plastic bag that was put over his head until he passed out."The case hinged on DNA evidence that police and prosecutors say link the suspects to the crime but the defense says is flawed.

The defense says that

the DNA found on a garden hoe police say was the murder weapon does not belong to the defendants. An expert witness testified that the hoe contained DNA from two males, but not the suspects."The prosecution case is marked by an absence of significant evidence needed to prove the guilt of the accused for crimes they are charged with," the defense team said in a statement released this week .About 2.5 million people from Myanmar work in Thailand, most as domestic servants or in low-skilled manual jobs such as construction, fisheries or the garment sector. Migrants are often abused and mistreated without the safeguard of rights held

by Thai citizens.

(Agencies)

Suicide belt, grenades, explosives found at Mirpur JMB den Dhaka, Dec 24: Police, RAB and SWAT, in a joint drive, have busted a den of banned Islami militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) at a building in Dhaka's Mirpur. Police recovered grenades, explosives and firearms from the flat. A suicide belt was also found on the spot.Seven people, including three JMB members have been detained in the drive at the house. The detainees could not be identified immediately.The JMB men charged a grenade targeting the law enforcers during the drive.

However, none was injured in the incident.The journalists and the general public was asked to stay away from the building as the bomb disposal unit

was working to dispose the bombs.Meanwhile, the law enforcers evacuated the other flats in the building.Bomb Disposal Unit ADC Sanowar Hossain said 16 grenades were found at the JMB den."If we dispose the 16 improvised explosive device (IED) grenades here the building would have been blown off. So we are disposing these in an open space which is 100 metres away from the building," he added.Five of the grenades were disposed as of 2:30pm.Three of the detainees were held from one flat while the others from another. They had rented the flats four months ago with the identity of students."Members of police, RAB and SWAT cordoned off a building in

Law enforcers cordon off a building at Mirpur and bust a JMB den Mirpur 1 early Thursday and detained them with explosives from the 5th floor.DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam said: "We detained a JMB member on Wednesday and on the basis of the information given by him we con-

ducted the drive and held seven people. Of the detainees three are key members of JMB while the identity of four others is yet to be confirmed."The drive is still under way, Monirul added. (Agencies)

Roadmap for Afghan talks to be discussed next month: Aziz Islamabad, Dec 24:Ways and means about resumption of Afghan peace talks will be discussed next month by the representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said yesterday. "Representatives of the four countries will meet in the first week of January to discuss a roadmap for resumption of reconciliation process between the Afghan government and Taliban," Aziz told reporters at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad.Scheduled talks between the Afghan government and Taliban collapsed in July after the news about the death of Taliban chief Mullah Omer. This followed a marked increase in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, including their possession of northern Kunduz province.Yet, the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan, hosted

by Pakistan early this month, led to a deal among the participants about resumption of the

Sartaj Aziz stalled peace process as soon as possible. Answering a question about the agenda of the visit of Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to Kabul this week, Sartaj Aziz said he would discuss wide-ranging issues, including the reconciliation process, with Afghan leaders.

"General Raheel Sharif will discuss military-tomilitary cooperation, intelligence sharing, border management and reconciliation process," Aziz elaborated, adding it would be a useful visit during which other issues, including prospects and difficulties regarding the Afghan reconciliation process, could be discussed. Com-

menting on the 34-nation coalition against terrorism, Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan supported its political objectives against terrorism and had joined the Saudi initiative on voluntary basis."This alliance is not compulsory, but voluntary, and all countries, including Pakistan, would take a decision in accordance with their own policies.Our decision would also be in accordance with our national policy," he said.Pakistan's announcement to participate in the Saudi-led military coalition sparked political bickering in the country, especially when he was grilled in the Senate a few days ago for not taking the parliament on board ahead of Islamabad's announcement to join the new coalition to combat terrorism.The Foreign Office spokesperson last week said Pakistan like other international efforts supports the 34-nation Islamic military alliance as per its policy as well as in line with the OIC and UN resolutions.When asked why the parliament was

not taken into confidence, Sartaj Aziz said the Parliament had already settled the policy guidelines on counter-terrorism."As long as we work within those guidelines, no further approval is necessary," he said, adding the parliament would be consulted if ever some major decisions were to be taken.He said the situation would be clearer in next few days when broader bilateral consultations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will be held about the 34-nations coalition."We cannot prescribe who should do what," Aziz said when sought his comments on the participation of Iran and Syria in the proposed coalition.About Pakistan's relations with the United States, he said though the Pak-US relations had experienced a dip during 2011-12 and also resulted in suspension of strategic dialogue, however, at present, both were cooperating in economic and strategic areas.He said Pakistan's relations with Russia were also growing at satisfactory pace.

(Agencies)

Beijing tightens security as embassies warn of threats Beijing ,Dec 24: Beijing police tightened security around a bar and shopping area popular with foreigners on Thursday as embassies issued warnings for their citizens to be on guard against possible threats against Westerners.The American, British, French and other embassies said they had

received information of possible threats against Westerners in the Sanlitun area on or around Christmas Day, and urged their citizens to be vigilant.Embassy spokespeople contacted said they had no more information to share.Dozens of police, some with rifles, were standing on guard in the

area, which has many big-name brand stores and some embassies.

Roads leading into the embassy area were closed to traffic.Beijing police also announced Thursday that they had issued a yellow security alert to ensure safety during the Christmas period.According to Beijing's security regu-

lations, the alert is the lowest on a three-tier security warning scale for large stores or shopping and entertainment areas and is issued in case of receiving threats or finding susp e c t e d explosives.Police commonly issue a yellow alert during holiday periods. (Agencies)

hydropower station on Yangtze River

Beijing, Dec 24:China today started construction of its third largest hydropower station on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, a project estimated to cost more than 100 billion yuan (USD 15.4 billion). The Wudongde project, located upstream from three other hydropower stations on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze, is the world's 7th largest in operation or under construction, said Lu Chun, chairman of the China Three Gorges Corpora-

tion. The project has a designed capacity of 10.2 gigawatts and will be able to generate 38.9 billion kwh of electricity per year after its 12 generating units start operation, Lu said, adding the first unit is expected to start operating in 2020. The project, which was approved by the State Council on December 16, is estimated to cost more than 100 billion yuan (USD 15.4 billion), Lu said. The project's construction will require more than 16,000 workers in the next few years. (Agencies)

Catholic leader bans Xmas trees in churches Colombo, Dec 24:The leader of Sri Lanka's Catholics urged priests yesterday not to put up Christmas trees in their churches over the festive period, saying they had no religious significance.

Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, was quoted in a statement as telling clergymen to "try to avoid putting up Christmas trees inside the churches". "These do not belong to the sacred significance of Christmas but are more connected

to social and family celebrations. They have also become symbols of Christmas in malls and public squares," the cardinal added. Sri Lanka is a mainly Buddhist country but around 1.2mn of its overall population of 21mn people are Catholics. December 25 is a national holiday in Sri Lanka and shops and streets are often lavishly decked out with Christmas decorations and lights in the build-up.

(Agencies)

More Chinese cities issue their 1st red alerts for heavy smog after 2 in Beijing this month Beijing, Dec 24: More Chinese cities are issuing their first red alerts for pollution in response to forecasts of heavy smog, after the capital, Beijing, issued two this month following criticism for not releasing them earlier.Shandong province in eastern China issued alerts in four cities after warning that the density of particulate matter in the air would exceed high levels for more than 24 hours. The Shandong environmental protection bureau said the alerts started Thursday morning and that kindergarten, primary and middle schools should close and construction of buildings and roads, and demolition work, should stop.China's air pollution is notorious after three decades of breakneck economic growth. In recent years, the government has said it is trying to address the problem as citizens have become increasingly aware of the dangers.Meteorological

authorities in Hebei, a province which neighbors Beijing and is regarded as China's most polluted, issued its first red alert for smog on Tuesday. Cities in Hebei took response measures. Xingtai and Handan instigated traffic control measures to take half the vehicles off the road on a given day, according to Hebei's environmental protection bureau.The first red alert in the port city of Tianjin, which is also close to Beijing, ended today morning after three days.Beijing issued its first two red alerts in December under a four-tier warning system that has been in place for two years. It had earlier experienced more hazardous levels of pollution, but environmental authorities said that their forecasting model must predict three or more days of smog at p a r t i c u l a r levels on the city's air quality index.

(Agencies)

50 Chinese Cities Issue Heavy Smog Alert

Ex-MP's motorcade attacked in Comilla Dhaka, Dec 24:The motorcade of former MP Col (retd) Anwarul Azim has been attacked during municipality polls campaign in favour of a BNPbacked candidate in Comilla's Laksham area.Five persons, including Azim's secretary and driver, were injured in the attack."A group led by upazila Chhatra League President Shihab Khan

and Swecchasebak League Secretary Jahangir Ahmed attacked the motorcade when we were returning after election campaign around 10am Thursday," Anwarul Azim said.

Laksham police station OC Monowar Hossain Chowdhury said police rushed in the spot and brought the situation under control. (Agencies)

PAGE 8

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

Crowd Funding Is this the end of National Herald Case?

Gandhis move out freely The summoning and subsequent bail of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president, Rahul Gandhi and three others in the National Herald Case on December 19 laid to rest the earlier news of Gandhis' opting to go to jail. The Gandhis along with AICC treasurer Motilal Vohra, Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey were released by the trial court, which dismissed the charges as not being of serious magnitude and citing lack of evidence. It was after the Delhi High Court rejected the Gandhis' plea challenging the trial court summons issued against them in the case. The trial court had summoned them and others after a criminal complaint was filed by BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, levelling charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of funds by them in taking charge of the National Herald newspaper that lies defunct now.

With the bail, the political bickering and accusations have already begun with the Gandhis' and its party accusing the Modi-led government of vendetta and sabotage. The case started long ago in 1940 when Associate Journals Ltd was set up by the Indian National Congress, that also constituted National Herald newspaper.

In 1942 the newspaper has to shut down due to the Quit India Movement however, and was reopened three years later. Later in 2008, some financial difficulties force the newspaper to shut shop. Exactly, three years later, Young Indian is set up which has Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in its board of members with 38% stakes. In January 2012 Subramaniam Swamy, an Indian politician from the state of Tamil Nadu and who was also an economist and a former cabinet minister files a petition in court alleging irregularities. But in the middle of this year the case was shut down citing lack of substantive evidence, reports of ED' plan to close the case emerge. The court had examined four complainant witnesses - Swamy, R Venkatesh, practising chartered accountant, Gulab Chand, an official from the Office of the Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi and Haryana, and J Gopikrishnan, journalist with The Pioneer - during the pre-summoning stage. The pre-summoning evidence was closed and arguments were heard on the point of summoning of those named in the complaint. On June 26, 2014, the court summoned Sonia, Rahul, Vora, Fernandes, Dubey and Pitroda.

The High Court dismisses pleas filed by the Congress president and vice-president, instead asks them to appear before court on December 19. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi appear before the court and plead not guilty. The court grants them bail, and the proceedings get over in less than three minutes. The duo along with the other accused has been asked to reappear before the court on February 20.

Human-Elephant Conflict Elephants and their habitat also pay the price India is home to nearly half the estimated number of wild Asian elephants across the world. Out of 10,000 Asian elephants found in the country, the northeastern region boasts half this number, with 50 per cent found in Assam. Disturbingly, the pachyderm population is dwindling in the region. According to the elephant census in 2012, there were a total of 5,620 elephants in the State.

The major factor for tuskers losing their natural habitat is the expansion of human settlement, which resulted in large-scale destruction of forest cover in the state.The 'India State of Forest Report 2013' revealed that 627 sq km of forest cover has decreased in the northeastern states from 2011 to 2013 and Assam has lost 2 sq km of forest cover from 2011 to 2013. However, the country has witnessed an increase of 5,871 sq km of forest cover from 2011 to 2013. Whereas experts said the main focus should be on protecting their habitats and securing their corridors.

Also in the year 2013,with nine elephants killed in the last four months in Assam's Udalguri district, the human-elephant conflict has taken a serious turn. Nineteen persons were also killed as elephant herds destroyed standing crops and dwelling houses. Official statistics reveal that of 19,892 hectares of reserved forest area in Udalguri district, over 5,100 hectares has been either under encroachment or cleared of forests, causing rapid loss of elephant habitat and blocking of corridors. In Rowta reserved forest, 2,342 hectares out of 7,739 hectares has been encroached or destroyed. Likewise, of 7,090 hectares in Khalingduar reserved forest, over 1,365 hectares has been encroached upon. According to official figures, 50 wild tuskers and 78 humans were killed due to man-animal conflict in Udalgiri district between 2005 and June 2015. In Sonitpur district, 146 wild elephants died and 245 humans were killed by elephants, mainly in tea estate areas.

From 2001 to 2014, 225 wild elephants were killed by poaching, poisoning, electrocution and speeding trains, according to official figures, adding, around 733 humans were killed by wild jumbos in the state in between 2003 to 2014.

Wildlife and forest officials said the current situation is so grave that even domesticated elephants are straying into human settlements in search of food.

Elephants and their habitat also pay the price of conflict; while forty to fifty are killed a year while cropraiding, forests are destroyed in the belief that it will prevent them from using the area. Discontented local farmers will frequently aid poachers in killing problem wildlife. Many elephants are caught in the pincer grip of habitat loss/fragmentation and retaliation caused by increasing conflict. Subsistence farmers and those with small holdings are the least able to withstand the risks posed by human-elephant conflict, and in some extreme cases they have even been forced to abandon their farms. Conflict with elephants can further marginalise an already impoverished people while driving these large herbivores to take greater risks, thus jeopardising the lives of both animals and humans.

Unless timely, effective mitigation measures intervene, the conservation of elephants is in question throughout most of their range, in India

@-Dr. Kumud Goswami Crowd funding is a novel mode for funding a variety of new ventures, allowing individual/institutional fund providers to contribute funds with variety of objectives like earning profit, for arranging some cultural events or implementing some social projects etc. Such fund drive may provide some direct future benefits to the contributor of funds or it may for the benefit of a social institution or may be for common benefit of the society. The benefit to the fund contributors depends up on the objective of the project.

Crowd funding projects can range greatly in both goal and magnitude, from small artistic projects to entrepreneurs seeking hundreds of thousands of rupees as seed capital as an alternative to traditional venture capital investment. It is more of an informal form of financing a project but it may be proved as most successful and effective mode of financing some social welfare related projects. The prime advantage of these projects is that it can engage a large group of people from diverse fields but with a common motive to help others to get self help in due course of time. Another feather is added to this funding is that the cost of fund mobilization is minimum although a huge size of population may take part in this drive. Crowd funding is a collective effort by people who are connected through a network and pool their money together, usually via the internet or other modern banking facilities.

The concept of Crowd Funding is not of recent origin, it has been there from the time immortal in different nomenclature. This was there in most informal way in the old days but now it has got new momentum because of development of the information tech-

nology all over the globe. Crowd funding is a process of mobilizing funds from the general public to support a business idea or to develop some philanthropic activity targeting a particular community or the society at large.

In case of developing a business idea the targeted people may be those who are near and dear to the initiator i.e. a close group or may be people with homogeneity at present or in the near past e.g. alumni of an educational institution. Any fund mobilisation drive at the initiative of such institution or may be at the initiative of the alumnae for the benefit of the institute is normally supported by the alumni. In our state, alumnae of some educational institutions are taking initiative to do some good to their own institutions that contributed to their life in the immediate

ing an idea and getting acceptance and raising funds for the same much easier and faster, thanks to the development of IT. It may be for the benefit of the contributors or may be for the societal need. For example, we can cite the fund driving exercise

The operation of crowd funding is initiated by the initiator by identifying the project to be undertaken at the very outset. Then they are to select the crowd funding platform (CFP) which can be fitted to the project under consideration. At this stage, the project under consideration is also evaluated by the prospective fund providers and they may ask for some modifications before giving acceptance for funding the project. This story telling step should be understandable and convincing for the fund provider.

Taking update about the response of the crowd the initiator should be ready to accept fund from the contributors. past.

Crowd funding is a mechanism that directly connects people with money to the people who need the same so it can be considered as a formal financial vehicle to ensure flow of resources from one end to another. The modern day crowd funding is a modified, internet model of the same old concept.

The Web has made the entire process of float-

run by the British rock group Marillion who could raise $60,000 from its fans to fund its North American tour.

The Artist Share was the first US-based company to establish the crowd funding website in 2001.

In Assam, we have one NGO named Karunadhara, Guwahati is mobilizing funds and provide the same to the poor and needy who are suffering from severe

deceases. Successfulness of this kind of crowd funding drives depends upon many things; mention may be made about reputation of the institution say educational institution, the administrative machinery of the institution, ability and integrity of the person taking the responsibility of the entire project, need and importance of the proposed project etc. If it is a profit making project it depends upon the economic viability of the project and the people behind the project among many others.

The birth of crowd funding has come through in two models.

In model one, the fund providers donate via a collaborative goal based process for the benefit of an institution or may be for the entire society.

This particular model could mobilize largest amount of funds per campaign based on the need and importance of the project. The other model of crowd funding is not donation based and reward based rather it is contributory to get something in the future. This is a recent model and it is cause based for every such drive. The business initiator sell ownership stake online in the form of equity or debts. The fund provid-

ers become owners or shareholders to get return unlike the donation model. Crowd funding draws inspiration from the concept of micro-finance with its own unique category of fund raising, facilitated by a growing number of internet sites devoted to the topic. This funding is an application of crowd sourcing.

Wikipedia is one of the best known examples of a crowd sourcing model.

The operation of crowd funding is initiated by the initiator by identifying the project to be undertaken at the very outset. Then they are to select the crowd funding platform (CFP) which can be fitted to the project under consideration. At this stage, the project under consideration is also evaluated by the prospective fund providers and they may ask for some modifications before giving acceptance for funding the project.

This story telling step should be understandable and convincing for the fund provider. Taking update about the response of the crowd the initiator should be ready to accept fund from the contributors. If the flow of fund is adequate enough then the project can be finally accepted for its implementation.

Based on the magnitude

of success of the project, the management can proceed to give reward to the crowd (fund providers) through the CPF. Some state run institutions, those who are facing shortage of funds can capitalize this concept of crowd funding for their upliftment by participation of some stakeholders who have already been benefited from them e.g. schools, colleges and universities can involve their past students who have been well placed. Such institutions must come forward with a clear vision and open mind to take some mega projects and can use the platform of past students scattered all over the globe.

Very few educational institutions from Assam have initiated this process but the apparent outcomes are not very encouraging. Money so mobilized by them is utilized for holding meetings and cultural events.

It is to be noted that once we utilize this concept of crowd funding and failed to show the desired result then it would be more dangerous for any future plan irrespective of its social importance.

Dr. Kumud Goswami, Professor, Department of Commerce. Dibrugarh University.

Email:goswamikumudchan@yahooc.oi.n.

Pseudo - Secularism Sir, It is often experienced that Indian Politics are polarized from religious issues. The 'Grand-Alliance' like the one in Bihar is in the offing. Congress-AGPAIUDF are all set to form the alliance. Although the picture is nebulous now, with the passage of time, real picture will come to the fore. Outwardly, all these parties forming the would-be alliance are maintaining a safe distance. As far as congress and AIUDF are concerned, these two parties maintain a clandestine affair, maintaining their hallmark of a Pseudo-Secularism. But Badruddin Ajmal, the Chief of the AIUDF declares that whichever party forming the alliance can garner more seats in the assembly the Chief-minister's Chair belongs to the leader of the party. This measure is in contrast to what had been seen in Bihar. Despite not being able to win more seats in the last Bihar assembly election than those of Lalu Prasad's RJD, Nitish Kumar of JDU was elected leader of the House. But in Assam, one cannot jump at any conclusion right now. But by the indication shown by Badaruddin Ajmal, if we presume that the said alliance wins the Assam election and if Mr. Ajmal's party could win more seats than

other partners than Badaruddin Ajaml is all set to adorn the seat of the Chief-minister of Assam. What more testimony is required to establish how secular the congress is?

Yours etc.

Ashok Bordoloi Dibrugarh

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, Dibrugarh-786003 (Assam) Ph: 0373-2328944 Web : editor.easterntoday@gmail.com

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DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

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Christmas Remind Us Christmas is celebrated

by Christians as the birth anniversary of Lord Jesus Christ. There is no proper or direct record of this festival in the scripture.

As per their conviction people observe Christmas in diverse ways.

Some commemorate it in space; others in ocean; remaining on the land.

Some celebrate as a family, church, others by inviting friends even from other faith. Some churches organize carol in the open air or as house to house proclamation.

There is no date directly mentioned of Christ's birth. So, according to influence from historical interpretation, some observe it in 25th December, others in 6th January, and some 24th June. The United State welcome Christmas season in 20th November, whereas, Nagaland on 30th November with lighting and crackers. In United Kingdom, they beautifully decorate the street and grant Christmas holiday from 15th to 31st December. Many people from far & wide visit the place to see its decoration. No matter how they celebrate, it carries same meaning and essence.

Whenever churches are celebrating Christmas, we are together joining with the rest of the world and celebrate Lord Jesus Christ's birthday. Like all celebrations, Christmas conveys a special message. It reminds us: To Maintain Virginity Luke 1: 27 and Matthew 1: 25 both verses tells us that, -Mary and Joseph were holy before God. They were without fault and defamation. God searched upright character who were worthy to bear Jesus on earth and found it in young engaged couple (Is. 7: 14).

The Son of God would not have been born, if they been unholy (Heb. 13: 4). What does virginity in Christian context talk about? Our triune God is male gender whereas Church is de-

scribed as female. For this reason at the Pentecost day Holy Spirit came to engaged us with Jesus (Acts 2: 1-3). Therefore receiving the baptism of Holy Spirit we are engage with Christ. For that reason Bible talks about m a r r i a g e Yumri supper. He demanded us that apart from the God of Bible we should not worship any other god or goddess.

When a person seeks other god and goddess, He described it as prostitute. That is a major sin.

It is a violation of first & second commandment (Ex. 20: 3-5). In human context too, it is the desire of every human being to marry a virgin person. Also after being married they expect their spouse should remain blameless.

History proved that apart from marital in faithfulness; whatever the problem arose, it was solved. So even today it can be possible. Ironically, marital unfaithfulness requires time to heal and in many cases it results in broken family or relation. Only divine intervention can avert this problem. In the same way, God do not focus on our weakness, tiredness and other problems. He thinks in His time they will transform in the light of scripture.

But when a person begins to seek and worship other god and goddess it crosses the limit and God will not tolerate these sins. So Christmas remind us to maintain virginity before God. To Take Risk It was awesome news for Virgin Mary to conceive a child without physical relation (Lk 1: 34). It neither happened in the past nor will be in the future.

It was unfathomable and mind-blowing work. According to Hebrew law, harlots were burned alive or stoned to death. Thus, it was a risky task for young Mary, to carry it out. Yet, she simply obeyed the Lord's in-

struction. She magnified God with a devotional song for the glorious responsibility assigned to her (Lk 1: 46-55). If Mary had not co-operated with the Lord's Instruction, our Savior would not have been born on Taipodia this earth.

As a result, we would not have been saved. In the same fashion, the divine work may seem full of risk, but, Christmas reminds us to co-operate the with Lord's Command. Take step of faith where you require only God to bail you out. God has only one Son who is a missionary. God sent His Son on this earth for missionary work, -that is, to save soul (Jn 3: 16).

Thus, for Christians, we have only one mission, i.e. to save soul. Someone followed Christ's footprint, prayed and preached, therefore, we came to the saving knowledge of Christ. In the same manner, without our preaching, how will the non-Christians hear the Good News? So, being a disciple, it is an obligation of Christians to preach the Good News to fellow human kind. We are not saved by our preaching, but, we are saved to preach. In other words, Christians are born to preach. As a Christian, preaching is our utmost responsibility.

It reminds us to completely submit in His will.

Giving donation in the church, living an upright life is not sufficient. We must preach the Gospel.

While, He was on this earth, Jesus, too provided the needs of needy and healed the sick, yet, He preached. We cannot dichotomize social service from Gospel. However, social gospel is not enough. Christmas reminds us that being as His followers, we are commissioned and commanded to take risk and preach Good News to the heathen (Mat. 28: 19).

Importance of Unborn

Baby Mary and Joseph jointly took care of the baby in the womb. If Mary and Joseph might have done Medical Termination of Pregnancy, then, Jesus might not have been born on this earth. Today, we hear news of rampant abortion. There are abortion clinics in many nations' metropolitan cities.

Thousands of abortion murders take place every day. In other words, 20% of pregnancy deaths are from abortion. It means thousand of unwanted children are killed in the womb. Usually there are five methods to abort: First, Vacuum Suction: a technique to push or sucks out living embryo from mother's womb which is less then twelve weeks old. Second method is called Prostaglandin. In this method, through injection, prostaglandin chemical is administered to block the passage of oxygen and other food nutrition which is required by the baby. Then, baby is detached from the womb and passes out as tiny dead body. In Salt Poison method, mixed salt and glucose are let in the womb to drown the baby.

In Curettage method conceived baby of more twelve weeks, is sliced into tiny pieces in the womb. In Hysterectomy, four months old baby in womb are removed by cutting open the mother's stomach and baby dies after few hours. It must be remembered those parents may not have planned them, but, God surely had -planned for those babies. No baby in the womb is unplanned

by God. Shocking news across the globe is that, today's best food of Japanese is new born baby. In addition to that horrible acts, to keep their health fit, especially to keep their skin look young; in star hotels some customers drink the soup made from babies who are around three months old.

We must know that -un-

born baby also have life and that they do no harm to us. Why should we kill those holy ones? Moreover, we have no right to take someone's life as the Bible is cent percent against MTP. If a mother can take her own baby's life, then nothing will bother her to take others lives. So, Christmas reminds us to take care for the unborn baby.

Do Not Divorce Matthew 1: 19 says when, Joseph learned that Mary had conceived, being, a just man; he made a plan in mind to secretly divorce her. He did not want to expose her character, for he knew that character assassination or judging others is sin. Meanwhile, Angel Gabriel came to him and acted as mediator to urge him to not divorce, but, to take her as wife. Though it was hard for Joseph to accept a pregnant lady as wife, he humbly accepted divine instruction. Had Joseph divorced Mary as mentioned earlier, she would have been burnt alive or stoned to death as per Jews law. For Christians, we have only: One God, one Lord, One Baptism, One Bible, One Life, One Spouse, and One marriage. However, divorced people are rampant in the society including among faith community. Whatever the situation may be; in health and in sickness; rich and poor, Christian must be faithful to the marital covenant. Marriage is not for eternity but, for lifelong (Mat. 22: 30). Thus, marriage should be carried out in biblical norms with full consciousness. External pressure and emotional attachment should be avoided. Lobby or mediators should also remember that they should not try to manipulate the situation. Wrong choice of partner may cause problem in the future.

Thus, man must seek his own rib and woman must identify from whose rib she was created. Other's

Lights, Camera… Plagiarism!

Soumya Venugopal Ctrl V + Ctrl C. No this article does not aim at teaching you how to copy and paste. This is how exactly a script is written in Bollywood. Apart from so many songs, that are being copied or inspired (which sounds more respectful), Bollywood, often borrows film concepts from Hollywood, that too without any concern. We can't even see any credit being given to the makers of the original. It will be presented as if it was the director's brain child, born out of discussion in hotel rooms with assistant directors. We don't have dearth of new, creative talents here. Rather, we have lazy, intelligent filmmakers, who are ready to Indianize an alien concept.

From the legal view, though our Indian laws are not very stringent towards plagiarism, laws in other countries severely punish copy cats.

Every filmmaker here is so happy that no non-Indian knew about the plagiarism going around here. But globalization of Indian films came, both as a boon and bane.

It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Sure it is. And Indian filmmakers have been taking this slightly too far!

Bollywood has a tradition of remaking Hollywood blockbusters - and of spicing up even the grittiest thrillers with big song and dance numbers and wet sari scenes.

Plagiarism in Bollywood is

nothing new. Right from the olden days to the current genre of Kaminey, plagiarized themes have been the norm of Bollywood. But the alarming thing about the new genre is the amount of plagiarized material that is being exposed to the public through the screen.

There have been many instances when a Bollywood movie is literally copied scene to scene from a Hollywood movie, and the result… the Hollywood producers sue the Indian film makers for obscene amounts of money! Would it get any more shameful than that? Guess not.

The international arena started absorbing candyfloss Indian films and it's obvious that it would've come as a shock to them to see the level of breach of copyright happening in Indian Cinema. To trace back, the first Bollywood film to be sued by a Hollywood company is Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai. US studio 20th Century Fox had filed a case, claiming that the film's original was their My Cousin Vinny. But there was no follow up to that story and only god knows what had happened behind the screen. Few other recent films which were 'inspired' from Hollywood are Hey Babyy - from Three Men and a Baby, Sarkar from The Godfather, Partner - from Hitch, Derailed - Train, Salaam Namaste - from Nine Months, Raaz - fromÂ

What Lies Beneath, God Tussi Great Ho - from Bruce Almighty. Behold, this list has only very few films and there are more out there and it comes as a great surprise that these films are not sued.

The audiences today need something new. Something fresh. But the problem is that Bollywood has no tradition of producing original scripts.

Plagiarism today is a major issue in the creative world.

It's not enough to crib that we lack original scripts, but there is a serious need of rectifying this problem. No doubt today Hollywood is suddenly looking at Bollywood minutely but the industry needs to accept the fact that it seems to be undergoing some major originality crunch. We have a very strong creative culture and a very solid state of literary works. There is no need of "Indianising" the Hollywood flicks.

We as an audience need to be more aware, involved.

We need to be encouraging originality and discouraging plagiarism.

It should be the story/script writer's responsibility to keep the list of references from where they borrowed or drew inspirations. Once the script is ready, the studio or the involved production house should make sure that they communicate with the referenced source and solve the legal issues beforehand. But then one can see that it's easy to get involved in the legal battle where the involved parties have different interpretation

of inspiration. Guess that's too much work on the part of production houses and that may be the reason why they ignore it in India.

How do Hollywood and other European film industry tackle this issue? Those who have exposure to it are encouraged to share it.

When Censor Board reviews the film for rating, they should be provided with the list of references from where the creators have gained inspiration and the Board should make a decision on the originality aspect of the issue along with the rating. Just a thought! This of course requires very well-versed Censor Board members.

Probably those who are involved in the process should be honest and these issues wouldn't even arise.

The film fraternity (those who are involved and who have the power and ability to call the shots) should get together and address the issue.

Why don't we see many people from film industry criticizing this practice?

Maybe somebody should

ask Anurag Basu if he was aware of the fact that some of the tunes that Pritam used were copied from somewhere? Does it bother him now? In his next movie will he instruct Pritam (or whoever he entrusts as a music director) for original tunes or at least make an effort to make sure that the original source is credited and if adequate rewarded?

I am not intimately aware of the intricacies of the legal issues in the film industry.

It may turn out that it's very complex and rigid and some of the suggestions may not work at all. That's fine.

With more and more exposure the audience today is ready to watch a movie on anything under the sun. The onus is on the directors and the creative heads of the team to think out of the box and create original ideas, rather than faultily interpreting the fundamental rights.

On a happy note, Indian cinema is no longer considered as just another cinema industry and it is clear that the world is watching and giving our films some respect and attention now.

More reason to be original!

rib may create problem after wedding. So, choosing a right partner from a right place is important.

It should be done in marriageable age. Four different Christian leaders testified that when marriageable approach to get their life partner: one of them went to a Prayer Center; another enrolled in a Bible College; the third went to a Christian Crusade; and the last one from his home, submitted in prayer the description of lady he needed. All of them got their ribs and now, they are living an exemplary family life in the society. So, Christmas reminds: -marriage mediators to act on divine direction to avoid blame in future and un-married people to marry with God's given spouse.

Also, for married couple, it reminds to renew marital covenant, whatever, the depth of pain, to live as a family, -say no to divorce (Mat. 19: 6).

To Adopt A Child Joseph knew Jesus was not his legal heir. In other words, Jesus, was not his issue or not born from having physical relation with Mary. After the birth of Jesus; Joseph and Mary had four sons and two daughters. But Joseph cared for Jesus not less than his own child.

If Joseph might have not taken care of Jesus like his children, Jesus might

have been killed by Herod, the Great or may have died during childhood. The essence of this wonderful story reminds us to adopt a child. It tells us to treat well all the maidservants and menservants of our house. If God had not sent them to your house, they might have not been with you.

It is God who sent them to your house to be taken care of. It means that they are loved by God and that you have full responsibility to nurture their spirituality. So, they can prepare themselves for eternity to be with the Lord in the -heavenly abode.

Even, those who are in the responsible government office have an obligation to reflect Christian character by treating well their sub-ordinate. On the judgment day, everyone have to produce an account to God as to how we dealt with them.

Then, God will not question: -how many people served us while we were on this earth. Rather, for sure He will ask how many people we served like a servant. He will not question how much money we earned or wealth we stored. But, definitely, He will ask from our personal resource, the amount we spent toward the welfare of the poor and needy.

Moreover, there will be no second class citizen-

ship in heaven. In the celestial city, there will be no terrestrial border between rich and poor or literate and illiterate. Everyone will be equal and there will be no difference in status. So those who maintain barrier between owners and slaves on this earth shall have problem in that glorious city. Hence, those people may not be allowed to cross the pearly gate.

However, having servants in the house and office is not a sin, but, right dealing with them is the most important.

Christmas reminds us to adopt child and take care of the workers who are working with us.

Conclusion In the light of above study, the true celebration of Christmas reminds us to: be faithful to God till the last breath, work with God though it may seem risks in our eyes, like any human being unborn child too are equal and important before God. Say no to divorce no matter how hard it is for us to live under single roof. Finally, it encourages caring for those who are working in our house. In human, prospective, it will be hard to fulfill those expectations so in reality it is impossible. However, it can be absolutely possible, only if we allow a birthday boy- Jesus to be settled in our heart.

Why Is 'Feminism' A Bad Word For Priyanka, Sonam, Parineeti And Others In Bollywood?

Movies are one of the Kapoor on being asked if strongest mediums of con- she was a feminist versations. As a young un- promptly said that she was dergraduate in the United a feminist, although she States, watching Hindi liked to wear her bra.

Priyanka movies was Chopra not only a Shiva Sharma went on a way to get a taste of back home but similar stride of insinuatsomething I would some- ing the bra-burning stetimes use as a way of reotype when asked if her showcasing my culture to show was a feminist show. my international friends. She even said that the With coming of new age show did not have menmovies, it is deeply satis- hating women. This is fying to be enamored by problematic. powerful women charac- Firstly, because it propaters in our industry. The gates the myth of brajourney of Rani in burning. The bra-burning 'Queen', the virile charac- trope was established at ter of Vidya Bagchi in the Miss America protest.

'Kahani', or a Veera in The feminist protest, orga'Highway', Meera in nized by New York Radi'NH10?, Piku in 'Piku'; cal Women, included tossthey were characters that ing a collection of symshowcased a strong sense bolic feminine products of the changing, although into a trash can on the Atsluggishly, face of Hindi lantic City boardwalk. No cinema. It is of course not bras were burnt. to imply that India did not Secondly, the feminist have movies with strong movement has gone central characters. How- through various transforever, with this new wave mations. In fact, there are of movies, these strong different points of views female characters are be- held by different femicoming household names. nists' movements. For exThese fine female actors, ample, a liberal feminist accentuating these strong focusing on public insticharacters, became role tutions for gender inmodels for many. I started equality might have a diflooking up to these lead- ferent approach than, for ing ladies with a new- instance, a psycho-anafound awe and respect, lytical feminist. and therefore, it is person- However, if assuming ally hurtful when some of that there are feminists these women make irre- who hate men, and these sponsible comments public figures are holding about feminism. Emma them representatives of Watson in her UN speech feminism; it is a huge eloquently summarized problem. It is generalizathe existing stigma and tion in its ugliest form, why it is so harmful to our and it is disheartening. society. In the recent Jio What is most problemMAMI interview, Sonam atic, I think, is that there

is no conversation about it!

Nobody asks Priyanka Chopra why did you insinuate men-hating when asked about feminism.

There is no prolific dialogue happening around it. Not only are these women professional actors, but sometimes also bastions of mass movements.

Parineeti Chopra recently was named the brand ambassador of a feminist movement, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Andolan.

She said that she is often mistaken to be a feminist, but she is not. In the same sentence, she added that she is against gender inequality. That seems contradictory, paradoxical, and honestly baffling.

Why are we not engaging in a conversation? Why are we not asking Parineeti that heading a feminist campaign, why is she not a feminist?

What is the problem according to her with the word? Of course, there is a stigma attached to the word and we are not talking about it, and these women are enforcing stereotypes by making erroneous statements.

These should be points of conversations leading ways towards conducive understanding, rather than something that just goes unnoticed. There are too many questions, and no answers because we do not have a mainstream dialogue about connotations of feminism.

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

BUSINESS

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Rs. 1.4 lakh crore cess money lies idle Natco, Celgene New Delhi, Dec 24: More than Rs. 1.4 lakh crore of funds collected by the government under various cesses for purposes as varied as higher education, road development and the welfare of construction workers are lying unutilised, shows an analysis. Despite these unutilised funds, the government has shown that it is still keen on cesses. It has already levied a 0.5 per cent Swachh Bharat cess and is proposing a 2 per cent regional connectivity cess in aviation and increasing the cess on sugar production. At a time when students are protesting the discontinuation of the non-National Eligibility Test fellowship, the CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, has found that a whopping Rs. 64,288 crore collected during 2006-15 under the Secondary and Higher Education Cess (SHEC) is

lying unutilised. The SHEC is levied on all tax payers at the rate of 1 per cent. "Neither a fund was designated to deposit the proceeds of SHEC thereto nor schemes identified on which the cess proceeds were to be spent‌ Thus, the possibility of the diversion of funds for purposes not mandated under the Finance Act cannot be ruled out," says the CAG report. Over the years, the government has levied a number of cesses for spreading education, the welfare of workers, road development and research and development. The nature of a cess is such that if the money is not used for the designated purpose, it will remain dormant. "As a normal process, the cesses are allowed for a specific purpose. For example, the education cess can only be used for education. Using the funds in other areas would amount to misuse,"

50% zoom on debut of Dr Lal Path-Lab's shares

Images for representational purposes only.

Mumbai, Dec 24: Shares of diagnostic chain Dr Lal Path-Labs listed with a hefty premium and ended recently with a sharp gain of 50% against the issue price of Rs 550. After list-

ing at Rs 717, up 30% over the issue price, shares of the company later ended at Rs 824, a steep rise of nearly 50% on the BSE. During the day, it had zoomed 53% to Rs 842.

On the NSE too, the stock rallied 50% to Rs 825 at close. "Newly listed Dr Lal PathLabs remained in limelight today after it listed on the bourses with handsome gains", said Achin Goel, head, Wealth Management & Financial Planning, Bonanza Portfolio. Volume wise, 49.69 lakh shares of the company changed hands on the BSE and over 2 crore shares were traded on the NSE. The company's market valuation stands at Rs 6,811 crore. (Agencies)

TRAI asks RCom to submit details about 'Free Basics' Mumbai, Dec 24: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday sent a reminder to Reliance Communications (RCom) to submit details about its proposed Facebook Free Basics service, as the operator had failed to meet an earlier commitment to share details with the regulator by December 9. "Response of RCL (Reliance Communication Ltd.) on this issue is still awaited, which may be expedited," the regulator said in the letter. This follows the regulator's instructions earlier this month that the launch of the service should be kept in abeyance till it considers all the details. The mobile services provider had intimated the authority on November 23 that it is offering Facebook's Free Basics services "free of cost as of now" for its GSM and

ing Net Neutrality principles and favouring Facebook's own services over its rivals.

On December 7, RCom replied to the regulator and said that the service was being held in "abeyance. It may be kindly noted that the communication from TRAI does not give us any reason for the service being held in abeyance." Further, RCom had committed that the detailed terms and conditions will be submitted to TRAI for examination by December 9, 2015. "Request you to kindly have the issue resolved at the earliest so that our subscribers are not inconvenienced in anyway. The service has been introduced with the view to facilitate and encourage data usage in line with the stated goal of the Government of India of 'Broadband for all' and 'Digital India." However, since no response was

said Sachin Menon, chief operating officer-tax, KPMG. At a time when cash flow is a necessity, unutilised funds lying locked away in such a manner would have a huge detrimental impact on finances, Mr. Menon said.

The CAG report finds that more than Rs. 39,000 crore, or 60 per cent, of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund's resources between 2002-03 and 2014-15, raised through a levy of up to 5 per cent of the revenue of all telecom service providers, is lying unutilised. The amount collected has not even been transferred to the USO Fund. Additionally, answers given in Parliament by Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in April 2015 show that "as per information received from the State governments, Rs. 2,859.86 crore, that is 17.63 per cent, has been

settle case

UNUTILISED FUNDS More than Rs. 1.4 lakh crore of funds collected by the government under various cesses for purposes as varied as higher education, road development and the welfare of construction workers are lying unutilised.

At a time when students are protesting the discontinuation of the non-National Eligibility Test fellowship, the CAG report, tabled in Parliament has found that a whopping Rs. 64,288 crore collected during 2006-15 under the Secondary and Higher Education Cess (SHEC) is lying unutilised.

As per information received from the State governments, Rs. 2,859.86 crore, that is 17.63 per cent, has been spent for the welfare of the construction workers out of the total cess amounting to Rs. 16,214.51 crore collected till December 31, 2014.

The SHEC is levied on all tax payers at the rate of 1 per cent.

The CAG report finds that more than Rs. 39,000 crore, or 60 per cent, of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund's resources between 200203 and 2014-15, raised through a levy of up to 5 per cent of the revenue of all telecom service providers, is lying unutilised.

The Primary Education Cess netted Rs.1,54,818 crore from 2004-05 to 2014-15. Of this, Rs. 13,298 crore is lying dormant.

spent for the welfare of the construction workers out of the total cess amounting to Rs. 16,214.51 crore collected till December 31, 2014". In other words, around Rs. 13,300 crore is lying

unutilised. The Primary Education Cess netted Rs.1,54,818 crore from 2004-05 to 2014-15. Of this, Rs. 13,298 crore is lying dormant. The National Clean Energy Fund, the Research & Develop-

ment Cess Fund, the Central Road Fund, the Income Tax Welfare Fund, the Customs & Central Excise Welfare Fund and several dormant funds have Rs. 14,500 crore lying unused. (Agencies)

Over 8% growth to be witnessed by India this fiscal: Panagariya Jaipur, Dec 24: Buoyed by the improved second quarter GDP numbers, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Wednesday said the economy will grow over 8 percent this fiscal. In the first half of the current fiscal, the GDP growth stood at around 7.2 percent and is expected to cross the 8 percent-mark in 2015-16, Panagariya said. Helped by a pick-up in manufacturing, the country's GDP witnessed a growth of 7.4 percent in July-September, to become the fastest growing major economy.

The Indian economy grew at an average 8.3 percent rate during the 2003-14 period, and in 2014-15, the growth was 7.3 percent, he said while addressing the students at Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) here. The Niti Aayog Vice

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman, Arvind Panagariya.

Source: images.indianexpress.com

Chairman further said that only four countries Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and China have a growth rate in the range of 8 to 10 percent.

Panagariya also stressed on the need to have an improved growth rate in sectors such as agriculture and services. On overall economic growth in the country, he cited the role of five critical factors

such as growth of merchandise exports, improved manufacturing and services sectors, shifting of workers from agriculture to industries and services, better wages for eliminating abject poverty and rapid urbanisation.

Terming the Niti Aayog's role as a facilitator, Panagariya said the dissolution of the Planning Commission and the for-

mation of Niti Aayog yielded good results, and its policies are in the right direction. On the agriculture sector, he said, "According to the 2011-12 data, the share of agriculture in employment is 49 percent while that in the GDP is 15 percent." "The best agriculture has done over a ten-year period is 4.7 percent during 1980s, and both industries and services have been growing faster (8 to 10 percent) in the last decade," he said.

"Therefore, the share of agriculture will only decline in the future, and no fast growing economy has ever been able to reverse the trend," Panagariya added. India needs to create a large number of jobs in industry and services to absorb agriculture workers who wish to migrate to other sectors, he added.

(Agencies)

MoboMoney unveiled by TechM to cash in on digital payments market New Delhi, Dec 24: IT major Tech Mahindra recently launched a new service 'MoboMoney' to cash in on the burgeoning digital payments ecosystem in India. Tech Mahindra, which received a payment bank licence from RBI earlier this year, aims to get about 1 million merchants including kirana shop owners on board.

"Enabling digital payments in a country largely driven by cash presents a huge socio?economic opportunity to bring a positive change in the country's financial system... "...We have embarked on a journey to enable 1 million points of acceptance for MoboMoney over the next five years," Tech Mahindra Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Head of Growth Factories

Jagdish Mitra told reporters. MoboMoney is a prepaid wallet, issued in the form of an NFC (NearField Communication) contactless tag. It can be used to 'Tap n Pay' on a network of NFC-enabled merchant point-of-sale device. Consumers can load their wallet by paying cash at the merchants as well as using their credit/debit cards and Internet banking. The money loaded to make over the counter payments, recharges, bill payments, as well as online purchases.

"Usage of cash is a huge drain on the Indian economy due to sheer cost of cash management logistics and risk associated with it. Key reasons for high level of cash spending have been lack of digital payment ecosystem, forcing people to

withdraw cash. That is a problem that we want to address," Mitra said. According to reports, the total cost of storing, transporting and processing cash is about Rs 22,000 crore annually. The company has run a pilot in Delhi-NCR comprising over 500 merchants. "In the next one year, we will expand to the six large metros and neighbouring areas," Mitra added. Tech Mahindra, head-consumer businesses, Vivek Chandok said the company is targeting 90 percent of the economy that transacts on cash instead of the 10 percent which has access to the banking network. Tech Mahindra has partnered with banks like Kotak and ICICI for the service, Mitra said. In the last few months, a number of com-

Images for representational purposes only. panies have launched their mobile wallets including Alibaba-backed Paytm (that claims to have over 100 million users) and Mobikwik (25 million users). Recently, Tech Mahindra's smaller rival, Nucleus Software had launched a similar but offline cash solution 'PaySe' to allow users to use digital currency. (Agencies)

Images for representational purposes only.

Orleans, Dec 24: Natco, along with its U.S. partner Allergan and Celgene have decided to settle their litigation pertaining to generic Lenalidomide, a drug indicated in the treatment of multiple myeloma. The New Jersey-based Celgene Corporation has agreed to provide it the licence to the patents required to manufacture and sell an unlimited quantity of generic Lenalidomide in the U.S. beginning January 31, 2026, according to a filing by the Hyderabadbased Natco Pharma on the BSE. This apart, Natco will receive a volume-limited licence to sell generic Lenalidomide in the U.S. commencing March 2022, it said. The volume limit is expected to be a mid-single-digit percentage of the total Lenalidomide capsules dispensed in the U.S. during the first full year of

entry. It is expected to increase gradually every 12 months until March 2025 but not expected to exceed one-third of the total Lenalidomide capsules dispensed in the U.S. in the final year of the volume-limited license. "The parties will file consent judgments with the US District Court for the District of New Jersey that enjoin Natco from marketing generic Lenalidomide before the expiration of the patentsin-suit, except as provided for in the settlement," according to a statement from Celgene. Revlimid had recorded sales of almost $3.4 billion in the U.S. market for the year ended September 2015.

Natco's ability to market lenalidomide in the U.S. will be contingent on its obtaining approval of an Abbreviated New Drug Application. (Agencies)

Viteos Group to be bought

by Wipro for $130 mn Bengaluru, Dec 24: India's third largest IT exporter, Wipro, said it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the U.S.-based Viteos Group, a business process provider, for a purchase consideration of $130 million.

Through this acquisition, Wipro, which provides business process services to global investment banks, believes it can increase its capabilities for the sector. Presently, the company specialises in platform-led transformation and utility-based offerings in reconciliation, KYC, settlements, middle-office, asset servicing, syndicated loans and reference data solutions. Viteos' solutions will add similar capabilities on the buy-side of the business for the company, according to Wipro. "The IT services industry is moving to a business provider 'as-a-service' (BPaaS) model, and the future of BPS is going to be BPaaS," said Shaji Farooq, President and Chief Executive, Finance Solutions, Wipro Ltd. "Our strategy is to invest in industry vertical platforms which will provide platform-based services

to our clients in transaction and outcome-based pricing models. Viteos will further our strategy in the capital markets domain," he said. Viteos founded in 2003 is headquartered in New Jersey.

The Viteos Group provides customized straightthrough-processing services and integrates posttrade operations across every asset class, currency, border or structure for the alternative investment management industry in the United States, Europe and Asia. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and will be completed in the quarter ending March 31, 2016. Post the deal closure, Viteos will continue to operate in its name. "Considering the company's strong brand recognition with alternative managers it will continue to operate under the Viteos name. The management team at Viteos will stay in place and drive Viteos' platform-led outsourcing services into the larger asset management industry where Wipro's sizable presence offers support," according to the statement.

(Agencies)

Three-pronged strategy for PC growth aimed by Lenovo Images for representational purposes only. post paid subscribers. The received by TRAI, the reguregulators had, in its reply lator issued another letter on December 1, however, to the operator seeking pointed out that the opera- details of service. When tor had not submitted the contacted, a Reliance "terms and conditions and spokesperson confirmed other details" of the service. that "As directed by It had asked Reliance Com- TRAI, the commercial munication to put the ser- launch of Freebasics has vice on hold till "the author- been kept in abeyance, till ity considered all the details they consider all details and a specific approval is and convey a specific apconveyed." RCom and proval." Meanwhile, comFacebook have partnered to menting on the issue, offer access to certain ap- Facebook said, "We are plications and websites to committed to Free Basics users without any data and to working with Relicharges in India. However, ance and the relevant authe service, previously thorities to help people in called Internet.org, has been India get connected." widely criticised for violat- (Agencies)

Bengaluru, Dec 24: Lenovo, the world's biggest maker of personal computers, is embarking on a threepronged plan to boost its market share in personal computer (PC) segment in India over the next few years. It is sharpening the focus on three specific areas and they include small and medium businesses, government sector and first time buyers. This strategy is to increase the market share of the company from the present 20-21 per cent to 30 per cent. "This is not only our India target, but also on a global level," said Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director & CEO, Lenovo India. "We believe that India will have far more small and medium businesses than what it has now as the

Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director & CEO, Lenovo India. Source: www.indiaretailing.com

entrepreneurship culture is taking off. Many of these new businesses are going to be in knowledge sectors and they will require IT as a backbone. Also, the traditional businesses houses will start deploying IT hardware in a big way. So, this will be one of our key growth areas," he added.

The company expects this segment's contribution to

grow from about 15 per cent now to 25 per cent two years. The other area Lenovo intends to focus is the government sector. "Of course, money flow will have longer duration in this business. We will watch this space carefully. If the business is not at ridiculous level, we will continue to focus," said Mr Agarwal.

Thirdly, Lenovo bets big on first time buyers' segment.

Of late, the company has come out with several initiatives to expand the personal computer market.

"We have never done it before. Earlier, we were only fulfilling the demand. But over the past few months, we have been running a number of campaigns and programmes to attract first buyers and also trying to

make PC purchase easier for them," he said. In the immediate term, it plans to reach out to additional smaller cities to set up exclusive stores. Though the growth of PCs is falling, Lenovo has held the view that present PC growth will be better in the future.

India's PC penetration has stagnated at about 10 per cent as against 40-50 per cent in other markets. "For a country that has a history of giving more importance to education, the penetration is very low. We believe that PCs will grow at a much faster pace in the coming years as education level improves and smartphone penetration grows.

Smartphone is the introduction of IT world to the families," he said. (Agencies)

Images for representational purposes only.

4G service roll out by Idea in southern markets

Images for representational purposes only.

Kochi, Dec 24: Idea Cellular, the third largest telco by customer base, on Wednesday caught up with its larger rivals to enter the 4G space by announcing services in the five southern states, and

also announced content tie-ups with digital companies to help increase the data usage under it. The company launched services in the fourth-generation LTE technology covering 75 towns in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, which encompass four telecom circles. Idea's rivals like Airtel and Vodafone have already launched 4G services in select circles.

(Agencies)

Hazlewood admits `thriving` on extra responsibility ANI Melbourne: Australian pace spearhead Josh Hazlewood has said that he is thriving on the extra responsibility placed on his shoulder in the ongoing series against West Indies after the absence of Mitchell Starc due to an ankle injury. The 24-yearold Hazlewood, who bagged 51 Test wickets in 2015, admitted that he was jubilant with the opportunity to lead the bowling unit in the Windies tour. Reflecting on his successful year, Hazlewood said that he was extremely happy with his performance and insisted that he had become very consistent again.

Hazlewood, who had recently been named as the ICC's Emerging Cricketer of the Year, affirmed that he was quite thrilled to receive the award, adding that he hopes his achievement would lead him towards something better.

Earlier, West Indies had suffered an innings and 212-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Test in Hobart.

With the defeat, the Caribbean side are currently trailing 0-1 in the three-match series and will play their second match on the Boxing Day in Melbourne followed by the third Test in Sydney.

DIBRUGARH, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25

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Oil India FC enter Final Syed Kirmani to be honoured with CK Sports Reporter Dibrugarh, Dec 24: Oil India Football Club, Duliajan defeated Kakching Popular Sports Club, Manipur 2-0 in the first semifinal of the fourth Swargadeo Sarbananda Singh Invitation Prize-money Football Championship organised by All-Assam Muttock Yuba Chatra Sanmilan Central Com-

mittee at Janamukh Rajiv Gandhi Sports Stadium in Tinsukia district. Oil India FC opened their account in the 10th minute through Nobin Rabha. Nobin collected a pass of Mandila Rongmei from the right flank before putting it in the back of the net. After conceding, KPSC tried to come back by playing some attacking football

but all in vain. Minto Boro of Oil India FC made it 2-0 in the 17th minute. Oil India FC maintained their aggressive strategy and gave few chances to the players of KPSC to score against them. Tomorrow in the second semifinal, City Police Guwahati will lock horns with Tinsukia Railway Divisional Sports Club.

PCB insists tainted Amir fully rehabilitated ANI Karachi: Disgraced pace bowler Mohammad Amir has completed his rehabilitation and deserves another chance at international cricket, according to the Pakistan Cricket Board. Earlier, the 23-year-old was included in the 26-member national fitness camp in Lahore for the upcoming limited-overs series against New Zealand, which could pave the way for his return to the national squad. PCB stated that Amir had admitted his guilt from the first day and had sought forgiveness from his country and his fans. The country's cricket board further insisted that the left-hander had cooperated with multiple investigations and said that Amir was 19 years old when he was indicted.

Steyn admits struggling Proteas need `good guidance` ANI Johannesburg: South African pace spearhead Dale Steyn has admitted that his side have been struggling at the moment, insisting that they need 'good guidance' in order to be back on track ahead of their Test series against England. The 32year-old admitted that

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"For me training is going really well. Fitness-wise, tennis-wise I feel in great nick of the moment. I am really looking forward to Olympics."

Leander Paes

against India, confirmed that he would be available for all four Tests.

The right-arm bowler insisted that he was one of the fittest player of his team, adding that he would try to be at his menacing best in the forthcoming series.

South Africa, which recently suffered a humili-

Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award

ANI Mumbai: Former Indian wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani on Thursday was nominated for the Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015. The Col. C.K. Nayudu Awards Committee met at Cricket Centre, BCCI headquarters in Mumbai and has unanimously nominated Kirmani for the prestigious award. The committee consists of BCCI President Shashank Manohar, Hon. Secretary Anurag Thakur and N Ram (Chairman of

Syed Kirmani Kasturi & Sons Limited and Publisher of 'The Hindu'). The BCCI celebrates the birth cente-

Bianchi's father vows legal action against FIA over son's death

Mohammad Amir PCB added that he came from a rural underprivileged background and both the International Cricket Council and the British justice system were lenient towards Amir because of his remorse and cooperative conduct. Left-hander Amir displayed impressive form in domestic matches as well as in the Bangladesh Premier League after

ending his five-year ban for spot-fixing three months ago. Considered as one of the most promising talents, Amir had taken 51 wickets in 14 Tests and 25 in 15 one-day internationals before he was handed a five-year ban for bowling deliberate no-balls by pre-arrangement during the fourth test against England at Lord's in 2010.

ANI Melbourne: The father of late Formula One racer Jules Bianchi has insisted that he is determined to take legal action against the International Automobile Federation (FIA), saying that those responsible for his son's death 'must pay'.

Bianchi passed away in July after succumbing to brain injuries sustained in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix last year. He had been in coma since crashing his Marussia car into a recovery vehicle in wet conditions at Suzuka. The development came after the

FIA's report essentially blamed the Frenchman for driving too fast.

Bianchi's father Philippe revealed that the conclusions had shocked him and questioned the people conducting the investigation for being the same people who were being investigated.

The death of Bianchi triggered a wave of sympathy for the family of the Formula One driver as many fellow drivers attended a moving funeral in his hometown of Nice. His car number 17 was subsequently retired from the sport in his honour.

McCullum committed to be at `absolute top` before retirement ANI Wellington: New Zealand retiring skipper Brendon McCullum has insisted that he is committed to remain at the top of his game in the upcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka. The 34-year-old swashbuckling opener said that his side had got a bumper calendar with Sri Lanka, adding that he would try to make maximum contribution towards his side in the forthcoming series.

Earlier, McCullum had announced that he would retire from all forms of

international cricket in February next year.

McCullum, who recently bagged the ICC Spirit of Cricket award, will play his 100th Test against Australia in Wellington from February 12 and will retire after the second and final Test of that series, in Christchurch from February 20. Meanwhile, New Zealand, who clinched the twomatch Test series 2-0 against Sri Lanka, will now play in the fivematch ODI series, starting from Saturday at the Hagley Oval.

nary of Col. Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu, the country's first Test captain, by instituting an an-

nual Lifetime Achievement Award, to honour individuals for their unparalleled contribution to Indian cricket, on and off the field. The Award comprises a trophy, citation and cheque for Rs. 25 lakhs. Named as the best keeper in the 1983 World Cup, Kirmani shared an unbeaten 126 run- partnership with Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe as the Indian captain went on to register one of India's greatest wins at Tunbridge Wells. The Indian government had awarded him the Padma Shri in 1982.

James Anderson ruled out of first Test with calf strain

James Anderson of England ANI Johannesburg: England pace spearhead James Anderson has been ruled out of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa in Durban with a calf strain on Thursday. The 33-yearold right hander underwent a scan on his tight right calf muscle on Tuesday and the ECB's medical team subse-

quently confirmed the strain. Anderson, the England's leading Test wicket-taker, bowled only for five overs before being rested during his side's first warm-up match, which his side won by an innings and 91 runs against South Africa A. England will play a fourmatch Test series against South Africa starting from 26 December.

Chandila, Hiken appear before BCCI on IPL fixing

New Zealand’s retiring skipper Brendon McCullum

ANI Mumbai: The BCCI Disciplinary Committee held a meeting on Thursday to discuss about the IPL match fixing scandal. Ajit Chandila and Hiken

them. The Committee also decided to issue a notice to former Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf to respond to the charges against him.

The Disciplinary Committee, which consists

Malinga ruled out of New Zealand tour with knee injury Captain Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn look on during South Africa training session.

his side had been trying hard to fill the void left by great players like Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith. Steyn, who recovered from a groin injury sustained during the opening Test

ating 0-3 defeat in the recently concluded series against India, will aim to bounce back when they will take on England in the four-match series, starting from Saturday in Durban.

ANI Colombo: Sri Lanka's premium fast bowler Lasith Malinga has been ruled out of the tour of New Zealand on Thursday with a knee injury.

The 32-year-old, who has taken 291 wickets in 191 ODIs, has failed to recover from the injury he sustained against the West Indies last month. Malinga is the latest to have been ruled out of the tour

after Sri Lanka lost Test spearhead Dhammika Prasad during a warm-up game in Queenstown earlier this month. New Zealand batting coach Craig McMillan said that Malinga has been Sri Lanka's key fast bowler for a number of years and described his absence as a big loss for the tourists. Meanwhile, Malinga, who was scheduled to lead his side in two tourending T20 internationals that followed the five-match ODI series, has been replaced by all-rounder Thisara Perera.

BCCI logo Shah appeared before the Committee in person and the duo have been given time till January 4 to file a written response to the fixing charges against

of BCCI President Shashank Manohar, Niranjan Shah and Jyotiraditya Scindia, will now meet on January 5 to announce their final decision.

Hiddink admits beleaguered Chelsea `not easy` to fix Holder backs Windies to `turnaround` away losing streak

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ANI London: Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink has admitted that it was ' not easy' to fix problems that the defending champions are facing this season. The 69-year-old was brought back for a second spell as manager until the end of the season after Jose Mourinho was sacked from his position last week. Chelsea have lost

nine out of their last 17 Premier League games, which left them just three points above the relegation zone. Reflecting on Chelsea's alarming slump, Hiddink said that it was frightening for everyone in the club and called on his players to 'look in the mirror' and ask if they're up to the task of restoring the club to its former glory.

Chelsea, however claimed a convincing 3-1 win over

Chelsea interim manager Guus Hiddink

Sunderland last Saturday and will next play against Watford under the guidance of Hiddink on Saturday.

ANI Melbourne: West Indies skipper Jason Holder believes that his side are 'just one good performance from turning things around' despite their humiliating defeat in the opening Test against Australia in Hobart. West Indies, which are currently ranked eighth in Tests, won their last five-day format series in Australia

in 1992. As the tourists are preparing to bounce back in the Boxing Day Test, the 24-year-old bowler urged his side to remain upbeat for the upcoming matches. The miserable defeat in the opening Test triggered widespread criticism from former greats on the current plight of the islanders' stand in the international cricket. Describing Windies as a `young`

The West Indies team and management pose for a team photograph at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

team, Holder called on his side to become a bit more disciplined than they were in the first Test. The right-hander further admitted that his side were extremely inexperienced, adding that they needed some more time to fully apply themselves at the international level. West Indies are currently trailing 01 in the three-match series.

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“Christmas gift suggestions: to your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity.

To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.” Oren Arnold

Christmas on a platter It's one thing to drag out and dust the long nylon Christmas tree, find the figurines of the holy family and hastily put together a manger with straw borrowed from the local fruitwalla. The real anxiety is food and what they're going to put on the table.

This is generally the time

when great adjustments and compromises are made. Feuding families put aside their differences, strictly temporarily, to borrow Aunt Jenny's recipe for plum pudding in exchange for the right measure of ingredients for Uncle Alex's Country Captain Chicken. Ancient cook-

books and even more ancient aunts are dusted and brought to life and frog-marched into the kitchens, like characters from Toy Story, to create Christmas magic in kitchens.

So here's what you're going to find in various kitchens during Christmas with apologies to vegetarians and people who thought turkey turned up at Christmas.

Nagaland's Yuletide cheer The meats are wellsmoked, the fairy lights at the square have erected a vision, and the last of the tourists from the nearby Kisama village are trickling back after the Hornbill Festival has ended. If you are a nature lover, Christmas in Nagaland is for you.

It will work better if you can axe some tough wood for the evening bonfire.

Nagaland is a community of over 20 tribes.

And each tribe brings to the table its own special flavour. The Semas are big on axhone, a fermented soya bean paste.

Bamboo shoot is a favourite with the Lothas and Aos love their anishi, a soya bean paste.

Expect a lot of meats in a Naga Christmas spread, most of it boiled or roasted. A typical Naga feast is made up of rice, a meat curry, chutneys and boiled vegetables. Karen Yepthomi of Delhi's Dzükou Tribal Kitchen says that her memory of a Christmas spread is of several pork dishes.

Usually, a pig is slaughtered on a traditional bamboo stilts using traditional knives. Smoked meats are prepared in advance by hanging the meat on a wall and smoked for over twothree weeks.

"The pig's head, intestines, trotters and everything else will end up as different dishes. There's pork curry, pork ribs, pork with anishi, with axhone, raja mircha (hottest chilli in the world), bamboo shoot and yam leaves, etc. There's also several types of chutney - roasted tomato chutney, raja mircha chutney, dry fish chutney, apart from boiled vegetables," says Yepthomi. "Bonfires in evenings are a must. It is almost an unspoken rule to start the fire in the court-

yard in the evenings." Crab chilli sauce, too, is a preferred side dish. Apart from that, dried pork is a popular delicacy, so are roasted intestines. "We usually wash it down with

rice beer, or beer. People also prefer black tea without sugar," says Yepthomi.

To bring in the holiday season, Yepthomi has several pre-Christmas celebrations at Dzükou.

So, for the next Christmas, junk the beaten road, and follow the winding way to the hills. amrita.madhukalya@dnaindia.net, @visually_kei Courtesy: dnaindia.in

5 gift ideas that will save your bills Creative alternatives to traditional Christmas trees this festive season The festive season is here and as we gear up for celebrating Christmas and new years, we cannot help but fear the huge hole in our wallets that come from shopping for gifts.

Giving gifts has been one of the best part of the vacation from a very young age, but as we grow older and start giving gifts, we really appreciate the whole idea and the hard work that goes into it.

However there are always a few ways to work smart rather than hard, "Do it yourself" (DIY) is the latest trends and with the easy access given by technology, it really helps bring out some very cool gifts at a very low price.

Here are some DIY gift ideas for this Christmas season.

1. Coasters Having entered the adult life, we realize the real

use and value of coasters that we often ignored.

While they make for very useful gifts they are also very easy to make. Depending on the type, shape and style of the coaster that you wish to make it can all be done under Rs. 100. One of the best ways to make square shaped coasters is to get some square tiles and paint any festive art or simply stick a photo over it.

2. Mugs / glasses We all love our coffee or tea mugs and beer glasses.

We can easily transform the simple clear and cheap mugs and glasses with cool deigns that will stay for a long time. The process literally involves drawing or sketching out our designs with permanent markers or acrylic pain and then heating them up so that they stay put.

Adding adhesive spray over them also helps in-

crease their life span.

3. Bowls from the scratch Fancy bowls as key holders or simply as a accessory is the new trend in home décor. However it often comes at a heavy price. Now imagine making a fancy bowl out of plastic leaves and a normal glass bowl. This inexpensive idea gives excellent results and will surely impress your loved ones.

4. Calendar Since the year is coming to an end, a table calendar will make for an excellent gift. However imagine if you could add a personalized touch for every month next year.

DIY calenders are pretty basic where the days are printed off and cut out, however you can add you own touch either with photographs of a memory that your loved one cherishes in every month.

Are you bored of having getting out the same old Christmas tree and decorating it with the same old ornaments every year?

We list five simple alternatives that you could use this year...

Stacked-Books Christmas Tree Love reading? Then express it by making a tree out of your books. You can even place a star on top of your stacked-books tree and set up lights like you would do with a regular Christmas tree. If you have a bookshelf, you could pile up your books in the shape of a tree on the shelves.

Chalkboard Tree If you've got a chalkboard at home, all you need to do is hang it on the wall and draw a Christmas tree on it. Simple! You can

also use coloured chalk to draw the decorations on the tree or even stick actual decorations to the chalkboard with tape.

Christmas Cards Tree Instead of throwing away all your Christmas cards from years gone by, use them to make a tree! Just stick them on the wall in the shape of the tree. Feel free to make use of negative space and differentsized cards in any way you choose.

String Lights Outline Everyone has a set of string lights that they place around their trees. So ditch the tree and just use the lights and attach them to the wall in the outline of a tree. It'll look really pretty when it's all lit up!

Impressionistic Christmas Tree Let your imagination run

wild with this one. Use anything - from pine cones and berries, to baubles and reindeer hangings - and place them in the shape of

a tree on the wall. If you have a big enough 'tree', you can even place your presents under it like you would an actual Christmas tree.

Decorating Ideas for the Christmas tree There isn't really a 'right' or 'wrong' way to put up a Christmas tree at home.

You can decorate it the way you like. Here are a few tips.

-Ensure that your Christmas tree has green foliage no matter whether it is real or artificial. Make sure you trim and arrange the branches the way you like them. Cut those branches that hamper its symmetrical look.

-Lush green trees are always in demand. How-

ever, if you cannot have one, an artificial one can fulfill your purpose. Make sure you water it regularly so that it looks fresh and green throughout the festive time.

-You should choose the light very carefully. You should also check that the lights are in right condition and working properly.

Check if the entire circuit is working properly before you start your decorations.

-Once you are done with

the lighting, you should choose the colour scheme and compile your own set.

Add the large-sized decorations at the bottom and reduce the size as you go upwards. Hang baubles, stars and droplets at the ends of the branches and hang the treasured ones at the top.

-Do not hang the ornaments only on the branch tips. Try placing them all around. But ensure you don't go overboard with props.

-You can give your Christmas tree a personal touch by crafting decorative items on your own. Place wrapped presents at the base of the tree.

Yummylicious Cake Last-minute Christmas cake Ingredients 1¼-1½kg mixed fruit 250g butter 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup water ½-1 cup brandy, rum or whisky 1-1½ tablespoons treacle 1-1½ tablespoons marmalade 5 or 6 eggs, slightly beaten 1¾ cups plain flour 1/3 cup self-raising flour ½-1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon each: ground cinnamon, nutmeg (or allspice) and mixed spice Method 1. Heat oven to 150°C. Line a 22cm cake tin with 3 layers of baking paper.

2. Place fruit, butter, brown sugar, water and brandy, rum or whisky in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to cool to room temperature.

3. Add treacle, marmalade and eggs to pan and mix well.

4. Sift dry ingredients together then stir into fruit mixture.

5. Spread in prepared tin and bake for 2½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Cover with foil and leave to cool in the tin.

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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

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