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ASSENG/2015/64205

Vol. 1

Issue 298

Dibrugarh, Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Local people of Diyun clarifies to AAPSU and Galo Welfare Society that Chakmas and Hajongs are peaceful

The meeting with the AAPSU led by its president Kamta Lapung , chaired by Diyun newly elected EAC Tagam Mibang resolved to let the law take its own course and to propagate unity and co-operation to achieve harmonious co-existence of thirteen diverse communities residing at Diyun circle.

A Staff Reporter Diyun, Apr 4

In the wake of the recent Diyun’s incident, All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) and Galo Welfare Society visited Diyun on 2nd March to hold peace and coordination meeting with the people of Diyun comprising social and public leaders from thirteen diverse communities residing there. In two separate meetings, first with the AAPSU and then with the Galo Welfare Society, the local people, especially leaders from Singpho, Khampti and Deori communities have clarified that the Chakma, being the largest tribe of Diyun as communities and Hajong are peaceful and had no role at the Diyun incident happened on 29th March last, contrary to the media reports published in different papers. They said that the violence, which highlighted the Chakmas and Hajongs in bad light, was instigated by few anti- social elements as individuals and not as a community or tribe. “We have been living together since decades in harmony but it is always because of few anti-so-

ET CAPSULES

Body recovered Kokrajhar, Apr 4: A body identified as Jadav Kisku, 45, was recovered from Pakriguri village under Salakati police outpost this morning in Kokrajhar.

It was suspected that Kisku was severely beaten to death by unidentified miscreants late last night in the area, police said.

Meanwhile, unknown miscreants torched a hut, bound to open an election sub committee office at Kaliphukri last night under Kokrajhar PS. (Correspondent)

Weapons recovered

by BSF in Dhubri

cmyk

Rangia Apr 4: Border Security Force troops of Guwahati Frontier, deployed in Dhubri, today afternoon, in a joint operation with Kokrajhar police three country made guns were recovered, from Tipkai forest area.

On specific information of BSF intelligence wing, Sector HQ Dhubri, about cached weapons in the forest area of Sishtijhora, near police out post Tipkai under PS-Bogribari, Distt Kokrajhar, BSF troops led

by Sh Ajay Pant, DC along with police led by OC SI Biswajit Deka of PS Bagribari, launched a search ops in the area from 02:50 pm, today. After a thorough search of the area, for almost three hours, the ops party recovered three (03) country made guns, which were buried in the ground, deep inside the forest. These guns were seized and are being deposited with PS Bogribari.

The recovery of these weapons on the day of first phase of Assam Assembly Elections in Upper Assam and Barak Valley and in the run up to the second phase, in Lower Assam, on 11th April is of significance. This successful ops has instilled a sense of security and safety in populace residing in the area.

cials elements that Diyun has to earn a bad reputation, said R.C. Deori, an ex-ZPM from Diyun.

The meeting with the AAPSU led by its president Kamta Lapung , chaired by Diyun newly elected EAC Tagam Mibang resolved to let

incident.

All the stakeholders during the meeting pledged to contribute and cooperate fully to maintain peace and order in the area and to restrain the issue from unnecessary flare up.

Meanwhile, the local ad-

Peace prevails at Diyun the law take its own course and to propagate unity and co-operation to achieve harmonious co-existence of thirteen diverse communities residing at Diyun circle. Kamta Lapung, while saying that he was misinformed about the Chakmas and Hajongs sought a high level investigation of various cases registered as a fall out of the incident. He further said that he is convinced that the Chakmas and Hajongs are indeed peaceful contrary to what the Medias painted. “I will press the government for compensation for the victims of the police firing, he concluded.

The meeting unequivocally condemned all sorts of criminal and violent activities that took place during the day of the

ministration thanked the public of the circle for their co-operation and proactive role in bringing peace and order in the township.

The meeting was attended

by Bordumsa ADC S Miji, SDPO John Pada, along with public leaders such as Smti.

Printi Singpho, ZPM Diyun, Smti. Provawati Deori, Anchal Chairperson Diyun, Lajala Singpho, TNN Innao, RC Deori and office bearers from Chakma National Council of India, CCRCHAP, APCSU, CWS, HWS, PRI members and GBs. AAPSU Finance Secretary Suraj Tayam and Vigilance vice chairman Jango Halai, AdiSU general secretary (Apex), Buteng Tayeng were also present.

The meeting between the

Galo Welfare Society, the apex and the most powerful organisation of all the Galos of Arunachal Pradesh and the general public of Diyun unanimously resolved to demand immediate high level enquiry to punish the instigators who have brought bad name to Diyun and Arunachal Pradesh at large. The meeting also passed a resolution that they were convinced that the name and dignity of Chakma community was maligned because of few anti-social elements.

The meeting also decided to maintain peace and harmony not only among the tribes of Diyun but also among the major tribes of Arunachal Pradesh such as Galo, Nishi, adis, etc.

The Galo Welfare Society was represented by its president, Dr. M. Boje and its General Secretary, Dr. Minge Loyi.

Meanwhile again on yesterday, the local administration of Diyun administrative circle chaired by the EAC, Tagam Mibang convened a peace and coordination meeting. Community leaders, PRI members, GBs, police and heads of departments attended the meeting. The meeting stressed on maintaining peace and tranquility in Diyun Circle in spite having challenges.

The meeting also appealed to stop various posts and comments surfacing in social media which was proving to be detrimental to the maintenance of law and order. Misinformation and wild allegations have been trending in various social media forums which are making matters complicated. The law enforcing agencies in particular have therefore appealed for stopping such posts or comments in the social media.

On the ground there is complete law and order without any untoward happenings reported post the tension which gripped Diyun on 29 March last.

AP Govt to release salary, wages, pension, stipend and OE within April A Staff Reporter Itanagar, Apr 4 Chief Minister, Kalikho Pul, true to his commitment has given approval for fund to be released to every department within April 2016.

The fund provision for salary, wages, pension including salary, wages under Grants-inAid in respect of Centrally

Sponsored Schemes and delinked CSS schemes and stipend to the respective departments (as made in Budget Estimate 2016-17) will be released to all the departments within April 2016. This he has done, so as to enable the department to draw the above on monthly basis regularly.

For the smooth functioning

of the govt machineries, CM also directed to release fund for OE and OE (POL) for three months within this April out of provision of BE 2016-17. Total fund of Rs 4550.00 lakhs for 3 (three) months are being released within April, out of which Rs 3220.00 lakhs are worked out to be for OE and Rs 1330. 00 lakhs for OE(POL).

While DC replies, ABSU (E) intensifies their appeal to CS to follow guidelines Maksam Tayeng Pasighat, Apr 4

The standoff between authorities concern executing the MCH Wing Project, General Hospital Pasighat and All Bogong Students’ Union (E) in regard to non following of guidelines as alleged by union in the construction of MCH Wing Project and AYUSH boundary wall, is likely to intensify more as the union came up with more documentary evidences after DC replied to their allegation on 31st March last.

The DC Pasighat, Isha Khosla in a letter to Chief Secretary on 31st March last had slammed the letter written

by ABSU (E) to CS on 28th March last drawing her interference on the said project as baseless with malicious accusation. The DC in her reply had said that, the execution of the

project in question by PWD was unanimously decided in a governing body meeting of District Health Society on 10th September 2014 which was chaired by the then DC Pasighat Ms Nidhi Srivastava.

And the RTI filed by President, ABSU (E) Lungkang Ering in EAC (Judicial) was wrong and if he had filed the same in right department of DMO/DRCHO, he would have got all the information, quoted DC in the letter.

Meanwhile, responding to the reply of DC Pasighat over the issue, the union has again drawn the attention of Chief Secretary today by substantiating with documents and pleads for immediate intervention to let the work be carried out adhering with guidelines after cancelling the present system. In the letter, Lungkang Ering, President, ABSU (E) said that, the basic guidelines

of NRHM was violated as departmental execution of project is taken up only as last resort after exploring other feasibility like inviting tender with three competitive biddings etc.

The union said that, if the work is being carried out departmentally, then the 10% contractor share which is prepared in the estimate will go to engineer of the department which is a kind of corruption. “And when departmentally carried out, why are the needs of engaging so many private firms for the projects? As per RTI reports revealed recently, as many as seven (7) firms in the MCH Wing project were used by the department for drawing bills which includes firms like Shri Kaling Dai, Pasighat, M/s Eastern Engineers & Fabricators, M/s Oishy Enterprise, Contd. on Page 3

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UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE! HAPPY TO VOTE

New and young voters return after cast their valuable votes at a polling booth of assembly election at Opodeuri Village in Jorhat. Pic - UB Photos

Assam Election: 78.06 per cent polling in first phase A Staff Reporter/PTI Guwahati, Apr 4

Assam saw a high turnout of 78.06 per cent of its 95, 11,732 electorate in the first phase of the assembly polls held in 65 constituencies amidst tight security today.

The polling ended at 5 pm and there was no untoward incident reported from anywhere, EC sources sad.

Voting was conducted in 2,190 polling stations spread across upper Assam, two hill districts, northern bank of Brahmaputra and Barak Valley to determine the political destiny of 539 contestants, including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and union minister and BJP chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal.

People queued up before the polling booths since morning where CCTV cameras were put up and web-casting facilities provided to ensure free and fair election.

Many polling booths wore a festive look as they were decorated with festoons and buntings of various colours and balloons. Some booths were decorated with earthen urns with smiling faces painted on them to urge voters to participate in the democratic process.

ency for the first time experienced the Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system.

Nearly 100 EVMs were reported to have malfunctioned in some polling stations and were speedily replaced for voting to continue uninterrupted, officials said.

With over 48,000 persons manning the polling booths, 'intense' security measures were in place in the state and the Indo-Bangla border along Barak Valley's Karimganj district was sealed.

Altogether 535 companies of central security forces and state police were on duty in the 65 constituencies.

Besides Gogoi and Sonowal, Atul Bora, the working president of Asom Gana Parishad, which has allied with BJP, Speaker Pranab Gogoi, former union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar were in the fray for today's election.

There were model polling centres, including all women stations with facilities like rest room, wheel chair for physically challenged and aged besides medical teams.

BJP MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, who is pitched against the chief minister, was another prominent contestant.

Sensing a wave of change with a massive voting percentage, a buoyant BJP leadership said that it will make a clean sweep in this first phase, and will sweep most areas in the north bank, upper Assam and parts of Barak valley. According to the BJP leadership it is a clear indication of a change, and said that it shows people have voted for the BJP.

Voters of Tezpur constitu-

Contd. on Page 3

Ulfa holds themselves from participating in Indian democracy process, does not cast vote Rishu Kalantri.

Tinsukia, Apr 4

United Liberation Front of Assam on Monday kept itself at an arms distant from participating in the first phase of assembly elections 2016.

Talking to Eastern Today correspondent ULFA founder and general secretary Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia, who was extradited from Bangladesh in the month of November last year, said, "It has been decided that the "ULFA" will not participate in the election process as long as the prevailing conflict situation is not resolved." f the conflict is resolved to

our satisfaction and even within the parameters of Indian Constitution, we will definitely show respect for the Indian democracy, added Chetia and said thay the decision was taken by ULFA's highest body prior to lok sabha election 2014.

Responding to a question, Anup Chetia said, he did excercised his franchisee before he along with few others formed ULFA and went underground. However, he haven't checked whether his name appears in the electoral list today or not, though it should appear as he is an Assamese, he added in a firm tone.

Contd. on Page 3

Dibrugarh records the highest turnout A Staff Reporter Dibrugarh, Apr. 4

People from all section participated in voting rights at Dibrugarh with great enthusiasm, seeking for change. Especially the young generation voters, who are in queue in large numbers since morning to cast their votes.

Indrajit Das, a first time voter, resident of Sitaram Road, Dibrugarh said that “He wants change from the government because of inflation, corruption, unemployment problem”. He also added that he hoped that the projects which have been progressing at a sluggish pace can be completed earlier as both projects can bring development as well as employment opportunities for the young generations.

Chief Ministerial candidate, Sarbananda Sonowal too casted his vote at Sahitya Sabha Bhawan in Dibrugarh.

The Voter percentage has raised in Dibrugarh district compare to the previous years. In Dibrugarh constituency there are total 7 LACs and this time the voter percentage have raised in all the LAC’s. Dibrugarh- 81.85 % Moran- 84.13 %, Naharkatia84.79 %, Chabua-85 %, Lahowal- 86.28 %, Duliajan82.01 %, Tingkhong- 85.2 % said to the record turnout of voting.

Jibon Jyoti Deka, a senior citi-

POLL TURNOUTS Dibrugarh -

81.85 %

Moran

-

84.13 %

Naharkatia -

84.79 %

Chabua

-

85 %

Lahowal

-

86.28 %

Duliajan

-

82.01 %

Tingkhong -

85.2 %

zen of Khalihamari said, “I am sure that this time change will happen in Assam politics,’’. He added that the people were fed up with the corruption, nepotism and the issues that are plaguing the society since ages.

On the other hand, immediate after the record turnout in the 1st phase of election, the BJP's projected CM candidate and State President Sarbananda Sonowal convened a press meet at his Dibrugarh residence, where he said, "The record turnout has proved that people really want a change”. He also thanked the people of Assam heartily who came out today to vote in large numbers.

"Our mission-84 will surely become successful and BJP will form the government with single party majority" said Sonowal to the reporter at his residence in Dibrugarh. He further added that their party will be the largest party in the 1st phase of election to win with maximum seats.

Blast on Poll day kills two, injures dozens at Goalpara While there was a lot for people in Assam to cheer for after the state’s electorate recorded a record high polling of over 78 percent in the state in the first phase of the election, a IED blast in the lower Assam district of Goalpara shook the state.

firmed the blast said that two have died, 3 policemen and 20 others have been injured in the blast. The injured are being taken to a government hospital, Gogoi said. Gogoi also said that ULFA (Independent) is behind this blast, and said that this blast has been carried out on instructions from hardcore ULFA (I) leader Drishtee Rajkhows.

The IED blast took place in the evening near a police station in Dhudhnoi. Interestingly Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was in Goalpara on Monday addressing a rally ahead of the elections.

Goalpara SP Nitul Gogoi con-

Police officials also hinted that the state government will take more strict measures ahead of the second phase of the election which will take place on April 11. Police officials said that the explosive was placed inside a dustbin.

A Staff Reporter Guwahati, Mar 4

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Page 12

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

PAGE 2 ASTRO FOR YOU Aries One more hectic day! Today you will be busy trying to figure out solutions to your problems, both at home and office. Your superiors give you some leeway and it will be quite a consolation. Experienced people will give you highly esteemed advise.

Taurus You will manage to achieve all short-term goals that you had set today and your focus will now shift to setting long-term ones. Work pressure will continue but you will make it a point to find some time to renew your leisure activities. Family and friends will also figure in your scheme of things.

Gemini You will spend your time figuring out other people and their motivations today. You will probably spend time discussing issues of security and finance with your family members today. You will gain love and appreciation from people owing to your caring nature.

Cancer Today, you and your soul mate will be rolling in the hay; there will be little time or inclination to do anything else. In fact, you will show such single-minded devotion to the act of rolling as if the future of the world lies in the haystack. Your mind can think of nothing more, and nothing less. The best part is your resilience and your ability to spring back into action when everybody else thinks you are down and out. The best thing for today is to deal with one issue at a time.

Leo Maybe it is the weather, or just one of those days, but today, you are extremely prone to wild mood swings. You must remember that nothing is permanent, except change. So go with the flow and do not get caught in the undercurrent of the changes that are taking place all around you. Take it as a warning that works to your advantage. All the worrying and sorting out done, do not forget to sit back and relax— you deserve it more than anybody.

Virgo Today, your ingenuity will breed ideas like rabbits. You have the healer’s hands, and so shall you make right many a wrong. You shall be most understanding, and reading people’s mind will do wonders for you and your beloved.

Libra Put up that ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door today. That’s because the tingle in your bones to want to stick to your preferred subject matter. This will help you achieve good progress in your research. Also, expect to be hit by a wave of nostalgia, as loving memories from the past sweeten your heart. Keep your eyes open, for, you are likely to find someone special with whom you will share your innermost feelings.

Scorpio You will possibly plan to launch a new product today. But put off the launch if you want to supersede certain unscrupulous elements. But after a waiting game, you may go ahead with your plan with much fanfare.

Sagittarius Dark and gloomy shall be your temperament for most part of the day today. But the afternoon may just see the skies clearing. The apparent mood change; will mainly be because of good news from abroad and business profits from your partner.

Capricorn You will want to expand the horizon of your business. But, you will be confused about the path to take for the expansion. You want to reach to the sky, but such a dilemma will keep you in a double mind. Listen to what your heart says, as it will guide you to the right direction.

Aquarius The monotony of your routine will get little bit of colour with the help of your wit and humour. Your jovial nature will lighten the burden of work from the shoulders of one all.

People love to be in your company and that is the reason why you are on the top of every guest list.

Pisces You are unlikely to be your calm and lucid self today. You will likely catch yourself worrying unnecessarily and putting in more efforts than required at work. However, some leisure time will come your way in the evening wherein you will regain your usual perspective.

Polling in KA may surpass 84%

80 percent above poll percentage in Tezpur

Sushanta Roy Diphu Apr 4: Voting for the 4 assembly seat of the Karbi Anglong autonomous district begin in a depressing state as continuous drizzle lowered the expected turnout in maximum places of this vast district which is sparsely populated but gigantic in geographically.

As the time dragged on voters began to pour like torrent ignoring heavy to medium intensity of rain, around 12.30 PM overall poll proportion surpass 45%; when maximum polling stations of rural areas wrapped up it was around 83% (5.30 PM).

Election Officers of Diphu, Howraghat, Bokajan and Baithalangso are yet to reach a final assessment as some polling booths are receiving vote till filing of this report.

ET Correspondent Tezpur, Apr 4: The election for the five LACs under the Tezpur Election District namely 71 N0- Dhekiajuli, 72 No- Barchala, 73 No- Tezpur, 74 No- Rangapara and 75 NoSootea LACs held today in the first phase of Assembly Election 2016 passed off peacefully with a record of 80 percent above poll percentage. Election office sources here informed that poll percentage in 71 No- Dhekiajuli LAC was 83.22 Pc, in 72 No- Barchala LAC 85.5 Pc, in 73-NoTezpur LAC 81.77, in 74- NORangapara LAC 81 pc and in Sootea LAC 80 pc poll percentage recorded.

During the day no any major incident was reported. However, sources said that in 105 No- Polling Station of Ward No-5 in Dhekiajuli LAC some congress workers forced the voters to vote for their candidate leading into a chaotic situation in the polling station which was later brought under control under the initiative of concerned officer. On the otherhand, in 32 No- Gormara LP School polling station in Dhekiajuli LAC due to the EVM defect the poll process had to be halted for few hours which was resumed later with the replacement of the defected EVM.

Police firing at Garmari, Morigaon, Woman rescued as mob attack on suspicion of witch ET Correspondent Morigaon, Apr 4: A woman named Sukleswari Bangthai (50) was brutally tortured by some villagers on the suspicion of witch at around 11:30 a.m. today at Garmari village under Morigaon Police Station. According to Jayanta Bora, Executive Magistrate, Morigaon, the superstitious people assembled in the house of Sukleswari with an aim to kill her as if she was a witch. Receiving the information, Police and Security Forces rushed to the spot. The mob attacked the Police party pelting stones.

To rescue the woman, Police resorted to lathi charge and opened tear gas cells and finally opened fire to disperse the mob. The OC, Morigaon Police Station Prakash Hazarika was injured in the mob attack. He was admitted to Morigaon Civil Hospital.

The rescued woman was also admitted in Morigaon Civil Hospital.

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 5-4-16 (TUESDAY) 6-10 A.M-Swasthya Charcha 6-15 A.M-Classical Music (Flute Recital) 6-50 A.M-Tokari Geet 7-15 A.M-Aajir Dinto (Morning Information Service) 7-30 A.M-Geetanjali 8-35 A.M-Surar Panchoi (Composite Programme of Assamese Film Songs) 9-05 A.M-Antara (Composite Programme of Hindi Film Songs) 12-30 P.M-Geetimanjari 1-10 P.M- Troops Programme 2-00 P.M-Sponsored Programme-"Jaga Grahak Jaagaa" 2-30 P.M-Western Music Programme 3-45 P.M-Programme in Mizumishimi 4-05 P.M-Programme in Khamti 4-25 P.M-Programme in Wancho 5-00 P.M-Programme in Idu 5-20 P.M-Programme in Tangsa 5-40 P.M-Programme in Nocte 6-15 P.M-Party Political Broadcast 7-15 P.M-Party Political Broadcast 8-05 P.M-Party Political Broadcast 9-30 P.M- Party Political Broadcast 10-00 P.M-Classical Music Sd-/H.O.P

Female voters show ink marked finger after cast valuable vote at a polling booth of assembly election at Opodeuri Village in Jorhat. Pic - UB Photos

Female voters with Voter ID card queuing for their turn to cast vote intensified at Diphu town Basic. School polling station of assemble election at Diphu. Pic - UB Photos

From numbers of personal interviews with voters of different community it appears that sway could be in BJP’s favour as almost 8 voters out of 10 favored the saf-

fron party while small percentage spoke about voting for Congress and regional party HSDC which is contesting as independent. Till filing of this report information

about any untoward incident has come from any corner of the district, possibility of re-poll in any polling station has been ruled out by the authorities right now.

On poll day; Sonowal pitches for Majuli’s development Majuli, April. 4 : Sarbananda Sonowal, the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for Assam, on Monday pitched for the development and growth of Majuli Island, often referred to as Assam’s spiritual nerve centre because of its numerous satras or Vaishnav monasteries.

“Majuli is a unique place in Assam, but the people here face a lot of problems like the lack of communication and infrastructure and are deprived of modern day growth. So, in the near future, we have to take all possible measures to make Majuli grow, develop, and also make it visible on the map of the world,” Sonowal told the reporters here.

The Majuli Assembly constituency is a 540 square kilometres island in the River Brahmaputra. The constituency has an electorate of 1.14 lakh, of whom 43,000 belong to the

sue in Majuli is the lack of communication. It takes more than an hour for a ferry to reach the island from Neamati Ghat, which is located on Apart from the lack of in- the southern bank of the frastructure, the main is- Brahmaputra. (ANI) Mishing Tribe.

Majuli was never a VIP constituency until now. It is now in focus because of Sonowal.

Tea voters in Doomdooma prefer to stick to Congress even as BJP has been able to make strong inroads Manoj Kumar Ojha Doomdooma, Apr 4: It is 6 am morning and a group of youth are dancing with zeal and zest over a political parody : "Chal to guiya re vote deyak lel, hath ker chihna me". (Friends! let us proceed to caste our vote for Congress) This correspondent is at 125 no Doomdooma Constituency, booth no. 40 of Beesakopie. Tufan Tanti, 28, a service man in Britannia Biscuit Agency speaks, “The Congress has done everything for us".

This correspondent finds that there is no electricity in his village. Roads are in a dilapidated state.

When asked will there be any change this time, Subhash Tanti, 31, straight answer is,"We are supporting Durga Bhumij (Congress candidate), he is from our own caste, therefore, it will be easy for us to share our problems with him frankly. Surely, the issue of caste and creed still looms large upon the electorate in the tea belt.

Bhumij, a former Congress MLA is up against Dilip Moran of the BJP who is currently the MLA from Doomdooma.

together,"We gave vote to our man (Durga Bhumij). He is our leader and belongs to our community." It is 9 morning.

The cloud has gone. The temperature is growing hotter. The correspondent is in a tribal village where,"Budhiari", 80, is ready to go to polling station. She says, our forefathers have been casting their vote to "the hand".

I will do the same.

"Caste playing a major role is not a new issue in politics", another person said. The scenario was almost the same in a few other tea gardens visited by this correspondent.

However, a few changing trends among the voters were also witnessed where the voters had opted for a change. A master stroke by the Congress strategists in the constituency this time was they were able to stop division of votes among the tea voters through 'political consensus' which definitely will be an edge for the Congress in the constituency.

This was not the case in 2011 when Dilip Moran

managed to take advantage of the division of Congress votes between 3 strong candidates Rupesh Gowala (Cong), Dileswar Tanti (NCP) and Durga Bhumij (Ind).

At polling booth 76 Beesakopie Labour Club nearly three kilometers west from here Sheela Tanti, 34, a tea worker, is standing at a halt after casting her vote with dozens of other women.

"We want BJP. We want a positive change. The Congress ruled 15 years in Assam but did not give us a single facility”, she said. We want to give a chance to BJP and see their development work

which they have promised. If not satisfied we will not hesitate to show them the door next time, she added. Standing beside her Fulmoni Roy, a widow, a temporary tea worker says, "I don't get widow pension. My house has been damaged due to hailstorm which occurred recently. The govt did not come forward to help me. I hope this govt should go, there should be a change." On the way the correspondent meets two elderly women returning to home after casting their vote - Fulo Tanti and Malti Bhuyan, both are widow and looking sick p r o n o u n c e d

Budhiari's grandson, Sukra Dhanowar, 25, a mechanic and her wife just returned after casting their vote. He says,"I want to see Dada (Congress candidate) as MLA. He has assured to make roads of my village. He has also promised us to give help in communities work. The Congress govt gave cycle and laptop to students. It will do better this time."

Sukra's friend Kalicharan Gowala, 26, a driver, and Jerol Phul, 30, driver and a follower of Jesus says together, “We support BJP, Modi govt has cut off the prices of petrol, diesel and necessary commodities. Congress has served for a long period here now BJP should get a chance. "

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

PAGE 3

Chief Minister Kalikho Pul visits Donyi Polo Government College Aalo, Apr, 4 : In his maiden district visit as head of the state, Chief Minister Kalikho Pul today landed at Aalo helipad, where he was accorded a rousing welcome by the cheering crowd dressed in their traditional Galo attire.

Earlier on en-route to Aalo flying over Yomgo River, the chief minister accompanied by RWD Minister Kumari Waii took an aerial survey of the Likabali-Aalo Trans Arunachal highway.

Continuing with the aerial survey, the chief minister also took a round inspection of the Aalo Township and over Donyi Polo Government College (DPGC), Kamki, 25 km away from the township.

Soon after landing, the chief minister visited the DPGC College, where he the college faculty warmly received him. Avoiding any formalities, Pul preferred for surprise inspection of the college compound and its facilities. Regretting any inconveniences, he remarked that it is his wish to make surprise visits, since it gave him the accurate picture of the conditions prevailing.

The chief minister inspected the administrative building of the college. Finding the college faculty room without proper water facilities in toilet rooms, he instructed the PHED officials for immediate repair. He visited the college library and inquired on the number of books and newspapers being subscribed. On any shortage for books and newspapers, the chief min-

Tinsukia recorded 80.34 poll percentage Spl Correspondent.

Tinsukia, Apr 4. Along with the rest of the 65 assembly cinstituencies in the State, assembly polls were held today in Tinsukia district with the poll percentage being 80.34 percent in Tinsukia LAC, while the percentages in Doomdooma and Digboi LAC's were 83.55 and 82.38 respectively.

Deputy commissioner of Tinsukia Puru Gupta said, Polling was stalled in few polling booths after some EVM went bad, however, polling resumed shortly after the EVM's were replaced.

He confirmed, no repolling has been ordered in any polling booth in the 3 LAC's of Tinsukia district.

According to a source postal ballot was around 200 votes.

Hence, the final polling figures won't see a major change.

ister requested the library authority for a proposal to meet the shortages.

The chief minister also inspected the college classrooms, where he was informed of the overcrowded rooms. Each classroom accommodated 80 students in a room for 40. Taking note of shortages of classrooms, the chief minister requested the authority for a proposal.

Continuing with the inspection, the chief minister visited the college hostels. He inspected the college girls hostel, and inspected the room and the kitchen facility. The hostel was overcrowded and the building was in dilapidated condition. In his inspection of boys hostel, the toilet rooms were found to be in pitiable condition. Concerned with the broken-down condition of the hostel facilities, the chief minister requested the concerned officials to take remedial measures assuring all support from the government.

Earlier on way to hostel, the chief minister in his goodwill gesture visited the college canteen where he interacted with the staff. He advised the college authority to debar sale of any alcohol in college vicinity. Also he discouraged the use of kutcha roofing to prevent fire accident.

Walking round the college campus the chief minister assured to provide funds for repair of campus road with cement concrete one. Also he assured to fulfill the long felt demand for a boundary wall and streetlights for the

campus. While addressing the huge gathering in the premises of Donyi Polo Govt College at Kamki, Chief Minister, Kalikho Pul called upon the people to cooperate with the govt. in implementation of various developmental programmes. Highlighting the priority sectors of the govt., Pul said that govt will mainly focus on principal public sector services like education, health, power and roads besides policing and investment sectors.

Reiterating his point that present govt is people’s govt, the govt is committed to work for the welfare of the public and said that the public money will be utilized properly in the interest of public. Since, there is limited resources, it need to be prioritized, Pul said and appealed the people not to lobbying for individualistic schemes rather to support the govt in its endeavor for all round development of the state.

Emphasizing road connectivity as one of the govt’s priority sector, Pul said that carpeting for internal roads of the administrative centres viz., district headquarter, ADC headquarter, EAC & CO headquarters will be completed within this financial year. After that linking of administrative centres would be taken up to improved the road connectivity. He said that funds under state govt, NEC and Centre would be synchronized properly to achieve the prioritized goals.

He informed the students

about various welfare measures initiated by the govt. which are regular monthly released of stipend in enhanced rate, separate fund for excursion tour for 3rd year students, posting of specialized teachers for music, games & sports and craft to all the higher secondary schools and colleges. He further said that music and games & sports equipments shall also be provided and also assured to provide text books in time. He also said important newspapers, journals and megazines for the college library would be made available.

He also said that there is no dearth of talents in the state and our students can also compete in UPSC Exam etc. but because of financial constraint many poor students can not compete in the exam. So to encourage them, the govt has enhanced incentives to the Prelims qualifier to Rs 2 Lakhs and to the mains qualifier to Rs 3 lakhs. He also stress that the govt is planning to develop all the college uniformly with administrative block, auditorium hall, kitchen with proper dining hall with water supply and playground. He said there should be separate toilets and washrooms for boys and girls and the compound should be maintained clean and hygiene. Govt is also planning to ensure regular supply of water and power to all the schools and colleges, Pul added.

He lauded the leaders of the area for providing huge land for the Kamki govt college

when there is shortage of land everywhere and said the area should be utilized properly and opined to develop another institution in the college area in future.

He asked the deputy commissioner and heads of the department to frequently visit the schools, colleges and hospitals in order to ensure that these institutions get regular basic services like water and power supply. He also asked DC and SP to check that no liquor is sold in the college compound. He asked all the HoDs of the district to prepare an inventory of their departmental assets, man power and infrastructures so that the govt can make realistic plan for implementation.

Replying to a memorandum submitted by the principal of DPGC, Kamki, the chief minister assured to provide a vehicle for the college principal, for posting of sufficient subject teachers and also for carpeting of the college internal roads. He exhorted the students to study hard, to keep themselves away from unwanted politics and to take part in the social activities for the welfare of the society.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by Kumar Waii, Minister of RWD, Agriculture and Labour & Employment, Tumke Bagra, Deputy Speaker, Arunachal Legislative Assembly, Jarkar Gamlin, MLA Aalo East Assembly Constituency, Nyamar Karbak, MLA Liromoba, Pige Ligu, DC, Mari Riba, SP among others.

Voters of New Generation cast vote for change ET Correspondent Lakhimpur; Apr 4: The poll of Assam State Assembly Election-2016 concluded in Lakhimpur and Dhemaji District peacefully today. Parallel to it, the activities related to Assembly Election in both districts came to an end for the next five years. It is to be noted that the first phase poll of the Election was conducted in the four LACs of Lakhimpur, viz-No.109 Bihpuriya LAC, No. 110 Nowboicha LAC, No. 111 Lakhimpur LAC, No. 112 Dhakuakhona LAC and two LACs of Dhemaji District which are No. 113 Dhemaji LAC and No. 114 Jonai LAC. Though a few anomalies regarding the election took place in some Polling Stations, the overall electioneering process was conducted successfully in both the districts. A total of 83.67% voters out of 6,47,408 cast their vote in Lakhimpur district. 82.15% in Bihpuriya out of 1,31,105 voters, 84.16% in Nowboicha out of 1,82,185 voters, 87.6% in Lakhimpur out of 1,59,836 voters and 81.83% in Dhakuakhona out of 1,74,282 voters expressed mandate in the district. These figure might increase in final update, a government official said. In Bihpuriya LAC, the contest was confined between Debananda Hajarika of AGP-BJP-BPF Alliance and existing MLA Bhupen Kumar Borah. On the other

shows the real picture of the Developmentof Nazira. It may be mentioned that 4 Nos Pooling stations for 8 Nos wards of Nazira town are situated in these schools and senior citizens are facing a lot of problems for this deplorable condition of this road.

A Staff Reporter Itanagar, Apr 4: The All India Tribal Students Association, Assam (AITSAA) today condemned the brutal murder of Zilla Taku on the night of March 23 last.

The students association in a press statement today at Guwahati issued by its president Byabang Noah Dui demanded

that the law enforcement agencies nab and penalize the persons responsible with befitting punishment at the earliest.

Further, the AITSAA extended its deepest sympathy and condolences to the bereaved family.

AITSAA president Dui also demanded that Assam Police thor-

oughly investigate the death of the youth and bring the culprits to justice at the earliest and requested the Assam Government to extend ex-gratia to his family.

The mutilated body of 24-year-old Zilla Taku was found under mysterious circumstances in Guwahati on March 23 last.

Over 75% poll turn out in six LACs under Jorhat district Bijoy Handique Jorhat, Apr 4: With a unique voting pattern that was witnessed since early before 5 a.m. most of the rural and urban polling stations throughout the district of Jorhat in 6 Legislative constituencies as in 97-Dergaon- 75%, 98Jorhat- 73%, 99-Majuli76%, 100-Titabor- 76%, 101-Mariani– 77% and 102-Teok -76% till filing this report.

Right from early hours before 5 a.m. women voters were witness to have the front position in making queue in most of the polling stations along with young female voters as the district needs to record

number of female turn out then the males.

Moreover in some of the rural polling station likeLichubari, Bolia Gohain, Bongal Pukhuri, Dhekiajuli, Seleng, Hemlai, Dholi, Charaipani, Bibijan, Kakojan, Amguri, Borsola women voters were witness with much long queue right from the morning hours till the lunch period at 1 p.m.

While from 3 p.m. onwards mostly in the river island of Majuli Gormur, Rangapara the poll percentage sprang up which had kept the security guards and poll officials

busy but the pattern against which party that could be judge earlier elections was not at all clear for any political party or expert to predict about the real wave during the first phase of election that was held in 6 Assembly Constituencies which includes Majuli and Titabor from where two chief ministerial candidate from BJP party and Congress party are contesting that includes from BJP Sarbananda Sonowal and from 99-Majuli (ST) LAC and Tarun Gogoi who is contesting for 100 Titabor LAC with a congress ticket for the fourth consecutive term.

While DC replies, ABSU (E) intensifies their appeal to CS to follow guidelines Contd. from Page 1

Pasighat, M/s Ambo Hardware, Pasighat, M/s O. M. Trading Agency, Pasighat, M/s M.M. Enterprise, Pasighat and as many as fifteen firms were used in the AYUSH boundary wall construction by picking and choosing selective firms thereby depriving other deserving firms which would have participated had tender been floated properly”,

added Ering. So far DC’s terming my filling RTI in wrong department of judicial branch is concern, it was her office’s wrong as I had filed the RTI to PIO DC Office who should have forwarded it to the concern department for the right information, rather issuing non availability of executive order.

At the end, the union appeals CS to cross verify the facts and let the work be directed to go as per existing

government guidelines by inviting tender thereby giving equal chance to all.

Ering adds that, their correction and complaint letter to authority concern to check high profile possible corruption here at Pasighat ought not to be treated as malicious intention as we don’t get pleasure in doing so either, except getting bullied and ridiculed by corrupt officers and leaders who finds us unconvincing even by lucrative offers.

Ulfa holds themselves from participating in Indian democracy process, does not cast vote Contd. from Page 1

Police personnel try to disperse supporters of two groups as disagreement arose at a polling booth at Phuloni in Majuli. Pic - UB Photos hand, Mamun Imdadul Haque Choudhury and Sanjay Raj Subba of Congress were in contest in Nowboicha LAC where 11 candidates were in the fray.

Similarly, the contest in Lakhimpur LAC took place between incumbent MLA Utpal Dutta, the candidate of AGP-BJP-BPF Alliance and Dr. Joy Prakash Das of Congress. However, independent candidate Ghana Burhagohain, who is dissident of Congress rendered massive challenge to both of them. A total of 14 candidates were in battle field in this LAC. In Dhakuakhona LAC where there were seven candidates were in battle field, the sole contest was confined

between Naba Kumar Doley of AGP-BJP-BPF Alliance and Ex-Minister Bharat Chandra Narah of Congress.

Naba Doley claimed that he will win the seat by a margin of twenty thousand vote while Bharat Narah was seen something stressed today. A total of 12,000 new voters in the LAC cast their vote for the change with enthusiasm.

On the other hand the overall polling percent tage in Dhemaji District is 80. Out of them 80.98% cast their vote in No.113 Dhemaji LAC and 79% in No.114 Jonai LAC. Pradan Baruah of AGP-BJP-BPF Alliance is posing a huge challenge to existing MLA Sumitra Patir of Congress. Dissident of

BJP, independent candidate Sailen Sonowal emerged to be the factor in the electoral result in the LAC. On the other hand, the contest in the Jonai LAC took place between Suchil Pegu of Congress and Ex-MLA Bhuban Pegu of Sanmilita Gana Shakti, Asom. It is known that the possibility of winning the seat more in favour of Bhuban Pegu than the candidate of Congress. It is note worthy that most of the voters were in favour of change in government. From this point the possibility of winning the seat is in the side of the candidates of Alliance, the division of vote due to dissidence may cause harm to them.

Deplorable condition of the Takou Ali shows the real development of Nazira S.K Hassan Nazira, Apr 4 : People of Nazira constituency said to us that the deplorable condition of the historic Takou Ali of Nazira,which is situated in front of the Main gate of ONGC,Assam Assetand Nazira boys and girls HS schools and 2 Nos LP schools

All India Tribal Students Association, Assam condemns murder of Zilla Taku

Born in 1956, Anup Chetia was one of the founder member of the than banned outfit ULFA. Since than he had gone underground before he was arrested in Bangladesh in

1997.

ULFA had in earlier elections in the state played a covert role in extending support support to certain political parties and candidates but had made it clear before Lok Sabha polls 2014 that it would in no way be in-

volved and ask its cadre to stay away from the entire process. It is for the first time the ULFA had formally declared ceasefire at the highest level, after 32 years of insurgency since its formation in 1979, to push forward the formal talks with the government.

Assam Election: 78.06 per cent polling in first phase Contd. from Page 1

The polling was the lowest in the Sarupathar constituency in the Golaghat district, and in most the percentage crossed 80 percent.

“We are coming to power, and this polling percentage has showed it,” said BJP leader Bijon Mahajan.

BJP leaders also said that this will also act as a catalyst, and will ensure that the voting percent on the second phase crosses over 80 percent.

Meanwhile, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today expressed confidence that the Congress will get the required simple majority to form the government, and will win convincingly.

Gogoi, who case his vote today at Jorhat in the morning at around 9 am, immediately left for campaigning

for the second phase constituencies after casting his vote.

Talking to reporters after casting his vote, Gogoi said, "People want change for the better and not change for the worse. We are 100 percent confident that people will vote for us. We brought change; we proved it and people can see it. I also want change. Who wants to remain static? We (Congress) achieved change for the better, while AGP also achieved change but for the worse. Everyone knows what the situation (15 years ago) was when AGP was in power when they failed....There was no development then, no employment," he said.

"People can also see how much (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi fulfilled his poll promises. He is los-

ing his popularity in whole of India and even in his Gujarat, Bihar and other states," he alleged.

He added that the BJP indulge in negative propaganda and they do not want change for the better. "I am not fighting against the Centre but want to instead cooperate. My fight is only against injustice," he said.

Asked how many seats he expected the Congress to win, a confident Gogoi said, "Upper Assam is our stronghold and we will do even better this time in Lower Assam".

On being asked if he is open to an alliance with the AIUDF if he doesn’t get the required majority, Gogoi said that there is no question of this at all. “We will not need anyone’ support,” said Gogoi.

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

Assam Election: Polls Day

PAGE 4

BJP candidate Ishwar Prassana Bordoloi Triangular turf likely between BJP, bashed with black and blue at Jorhat Congress and HSDC candidate in Bokajan

Bijoy Handique Jorhat, Apr 4: According to source, in early wee hours at around 2.30 a.m. this morning Ishwar Prassana Bordoloi the media cell I/C of Jorhat district BJP committee, was bashed with black and blue by suspected congress goons in Jankhana Gaon, under the western part of Jorhat district along with five other BJP workers who went in the village after getting information that

a group of congress party went in the village to distribute money of worth Rs 1000 to each voter from the village JanKhana Gaon.

After arrival of BJP workers in Jankhana gaon, suddenly a section of villagers surrounded their vehicle on which they were travelling and caught Ishwar Prassana Bordoloi and after that he was asked to come out from the vehicle and tied both his

hand and bashed him with black and blue. Source said that he was he sustained injuries and for further recovery he was hospitalized in Jorhat Medical College Hospital.

Ishwar Prassana Bordoloi who was earlier in congress has skid to BJP after the death of former congress leader Bijoy Krishna Handique who was his favourite and a kind of god

father for him. The BJP MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, BJP district president Kamakhya Mohan Das, BJP candidate Hitendra Nath Goswami, District Minority Morcha president Parvez Mahendi and state BJP secretary Santonu Pujari deeply condemn the act of such gundaraaj and said that it would not be tolerated in such a prestigious and educated constituency like Jorhat.

Teok’s first phase election ended successfully

It is mention worthy that the Modi wave has influenced upon a major portion of urban voters which were earlier at the Congress/HSDC camp.

There are 6 candidates at fray in Bokajan LAC with a total poll strength of 129384 voters.

While interacting with a cross section of voters today, it has been felt that a community based polarisation is prevailing upon the voters in the rural areas. Politics have never been an easy affair in this hill district where ethnic demands are meshed with anxiety over land and livelihood. The fear of being swamped by outsiders and language chauvinism cannot be ruled out. The Congress candidate Klengdun Ingti and HSDC candidate Jagat Sing Ingti represents the indigeneous Karbi Community which forms majority with

ET Correspondent Teok, April 4: The first phase election held today was successfully ended at Teok MLA constituency under Jorhat district where total 11 candidates contested for the seat.

The vote casting percent was approximately 80 percent, which was generally exceptional. Total voters that have casted their votes in Teok constituency were 117037. The main fight will be between AGP-BJP candidate Renupoma Rajkhuwa and Congress candidate Pallabi Gogoi Saikia.

Alternately rest of 9 independent candidate also took an important role at Teok constituency. There was a long voter’s line at the various election centers from morning to evening at Teok.

ET Correspondent Bokajan, Apr 4: With 71% casting, the poll scene at 17 Bokajan LA constituency foretells a triangular fight between Congress, BJP and HSDC. Though the Congress is trying all possible means to retain the 17 Bokajan LAC, a strong wind of change seems prevailing amongst the voters in this segment.

Female voters with Voter ID card queuing for their turn to cast vote intensified at Bokajhan Bagan L. P. School polling station of assemble election at Bokajhan. Pic- UB Photos around 52449 voters. The BJP candidate Dr Numal Momin who was of late holding the post of Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Guwahati Medical College; represents the Garo Community with a sparse vote strength of 2211 voters. However, the general people's inclination towards a wind of change may collectively push Dr Momin's victory.

Another deciding factor in

Bokajan LAC are the tea tribe voters. Considered as the traditional vote bank of Congress, the community constitute the second major vote strength of around 21524 voters. AASAA Karbi Anglong district committee and other frontal adivasi organisations seeks for a change in the government set up and extended support to the saffron brigade keeping aside the issues of 'Subsidised Ration' and Tribal status which

was promised to them before the Lok Sabha elections 2014.

If we look back at the Lok Sabha elections 2014 based on the Autonomous Constituencies in Bokajan LAC, there exists a fair possibility of Dr Momin's win. Approximately, around 37860 votes were casted in favor of BJP while 34709 votes casted for congress which gives a clear indications of the prevailing wind of change in the segment.

"Large voters turn out in in first phase indicates First phase of election ends successfully at Margherita wave in favour of us" Himanta in Kalaigaon.

ET Correspondent Margherita, April 4: The First Phase of Assembly Election at 124 No Margherita LAC ended successfully t. Total 6 Candidates are in fray where high voltage contest took place between former Minister cum Congress Party Candidate Pradyut Bordoloi and BJP Candidate Bhaskar Sharma.

There are total 1,61,498

Voters cast their valuable votes at a polling booth of assembly election at Jorhat Pic - Nakib Ahmed

voters with 191 Polling Stations. Today about 80.51% votes were casted at 124 No Margherita LAC said sources from Margherita administration.

Voters cast their valuable votes at a polling booth of assembly election at Tinsukia. Pic - Arjun Mishra

On the other hand polling station of Tirap Colliery today witnessed 96% voter turnout which is said to be the highest vote casted under 124 No Margherita LAC.

Assam assembly polls in Bodoland ET Correspondent Kokrajhar, Apr 4: Peoples from all walks of life have been come out and stranded in queue to the polling centres to cast their votes since early morning on the first phase of Assam assembly election in three constituencies in Udalguri district on Monday.

Around 80 percent poll was cast in the three constituencies of Udalguri district on the first phase poll.

Altogether 26 candidates are in fray to the contest in the three constituencies, included 64-Panery LAC, 69Udalguri LAC and 70Mazbat LAC in lower Assam’s Udalguri district along with other 62 constituencies of the assembly

election. Sitting MLA and BPF candidate for Panery constituency Kamali Basumatary cast her vote at Nagasuba centre today early morning. Nine candidates are in fray in 64-Panery LAC, included Kamali

Basumatary(BPF), Durga Das Boro(INC), Swarnalata Chaliha(SUCI), Nandaram Boro(UPP),Dinanath Das(Independent),Prabhat Das Panika(Independent), Bikan Chandra Deka (Independent) and Mahesh

Observers reviews poll preparedness in Kamrup ET Correspondent Rangia, April 4: The General Observer for 48 Boko (SC) LAC, DK Mishra, General Observer for 49 Chaygaon and 50 Palasbari LAC, R Jain, General Observer for 55 Hajo LAC Rajendra Ratnoo and Expenditure Observer for the 4 LACs of Kamrup Election District, N Balram in presence of police Observer for Kamrup Election District, Gautam Cheema today reviewed the poll preparedness of the Kamrup Election District.

The review meeting was held at the Conference Hall of IIT Guest House today which was attended by the DC cum District Election Officer of Kamrup, Vinod Seshan and Superintendent of Police of Kamrup and South Kamrup Districts and along with other senior officials.

On law and order point of view,

the Observers took stock of the Security Management Plan for election. They thoroughly discussed on the issues like deployment of armed forces and security personnel, prevailing situation in interstate check points, security of polling stations, polling personnel and strong room besides security measures taken for contesting candidates etc.

While discussing regarding poll preparedness, the observers stressed upon the distribution of the Photo Voters’ Slip through the Booth Level Officers within the stipulated timeframe given by ECI. The Observers also took detailed stock of various aspects, such as: issue of postal ballot papers, basic minimum facilities, standard voting compartments, facilities provided in the Model Polling Stations and all women run Polling Stations and special measures taken facilitating

the differently-abled, visually challenged, lactating women and elderly voters etc. The arrangements that is to be made for the 48 hours before the poll enforcement was also discussed at length in the review meeting.

The Observers also reviewed the mechanism for enforcement of Model Code of Conduct. DEO of Kamrup Election District apprised them about the functioning of the Flying Squads, Static Surveillance teams, Excise Teams etc. in the Election District.

The Observers expressed their satisfaction over the preparation taken by the Kamrup Election District for the ensuing Assembly Election in the district and also instructed to take all possible measures for holding the election free, fair and peaceful on April 11 next.

Chandra Sarma (Independent). In 69-Udalguri LAC, six candidates are in fray, included Jamansingh Brahma(INC),Rihan Daimary (BPF),Anjali Prabha Daimary (Independent), Dilip Kumar Boro(UPP),Bipul Narzary (Independent) and Santash Madahi((Independent).

Eleven candidates are in fray in 70-Mazbat LAC-Charan Boro(BPF),Teharu Gour (AIUDF),Raphael Kujur (INC),Baldev Chouhan (LJP), Abul Quasim (Independent), Girish Chandra (Independent), Manaj Kumar Tamuli (Independent), Rabindra Basumatary (UPP),Lal Soren (Independent), Sunil Sarkar (Independent) and Swapnalata Chaliha.

ET Correspondent Mangaldai, Apr 4: "In the first phase of poll on Monday , there is large turn out of voters and when we could see voters in long queue talking media that they are casting votes for a total change . This indicates the wave is in favour of us."

Said Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma while addressing a huge election rally for Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) candidate at Kalaigaon on Monday afternoon.

"The alliance of BJP with BPF and AGP is not only a political alliance, but it is an effort to create the 'Bor Asom' (greater Assam) of our dream taking the active cooperation of all the ethnic groups of the state as the Congress rule has already divided the people of the state into various groups only to fulfill their interest and we will never make any compromise on safeguarding our land, nation and our base" added the star campaigner in the BPF organized rally at Kalaigaon college field. Landing separately by two private choppers Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma and BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary said that the people of Assam have decided to join the wave of change initiated by Narendra Modi led BJP government only for the all round development and welfare of the state.

Today's election rally attended by several thousands of people from different walks of life has been termed as of much significance for the BPF candidate Maheswar Boro in the constituency.

"Capturing forty seats in the first phase and equal no in the second phase of election , it is

Youth’s opinion about congress rule in Golaghat ET Correspondent Golaghat, April 4: Rajeev Karmakar (26) a voter of Khumtai LAC said to this correspondent that, the change is essential and this time BJP will make the way to the same. The Congress was not able to fulfil the aspiration of the people as they just made false promise of giving ST status, but still they have not given the same.

Where another youth, Deepak Saikia (20) of Golaghat LAC said that he does not want any sort of change and is happy for the development where Congress government has made

in Golaghat. He said that the things which have changed in front of his eyes can never be forgotten.

Where on the other hand Jadumoni Saikia (20) from Khumtai LAC Jadumani said that, the change is essential and then some new ways will emerge out and the young people like him will get opportunity.

Whereas Pompy Dutta (22) Khumtai LAC said that she is happy with the present government as there is peace everywhere and the government has done a lot for the people which cannot be denied.

Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma while addressing a huge election rally for Bodoland Peoples Front candidate at Kalaigaon on Monday

sure that the BJP-BPF-AGP alliance will form the next government and first priority of the government will be to provide employment opportunity to 26 lakhs of unemployed youths of the state, providing drinking water facility to every citizen and to expedite the pace of the development activities. We shall provide rice at Rs. Two per kilogram by home delivery to every family, we shall provide scooty at free of cost to every college going girl students, we shall arrange for free education for girls students and students from poorer section in college and university level and we shall provide Rs. 5 lakhs each to every self help group of the state" committed Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma while termed Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi as a traitor for betraying BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary and said that there

will be a strong position of Mohilary in their new government.

Later talking to media persons Dr. Sarma said that he had great respect for his political mentor Hiteswar Saikia and that is the reason why Dr. Sarma did not take part in the election campaign in Nazira constituency where the son of Hiteswar Saikia has contested as the Congress candidate.

Earlier BTC Chief Hagrama Mohilary in his speech criticized the Delhi based news channel "Times Now" for their exit poll and a section of intellectuals who appealed people against the BJP and its alliance and said that the news channel and such so called intellectuals have no idea on the scenario of the Assam.

"The people of the state want a change and this election will bid farewell to the Congress for good" added Mohilary. He also criticized the AIUDF of gradually loosing their base and felt pity for the AGP candidate in the constituency terming his candidature very weak. The rally of which atmosphere turned electrifying at the arrival of Himanta and young boys and girls start dancing with the local prominent singer Mithu Boro rendering the popular song titled "Maghai bole dholar maat….Bagroomba he bagroomba" The rally conducted by Executive Member of BTC Jagadish Sarkar was also addressed by Parliamentarian Biswajjit Daimary, BPF Candidate Maheswar Boro and President of Udalguri district committee of BJP Keshab Chandra Barua among others.

Fresh voters seeks development and employment from this election Sorif Mohommod Sivasagar, April 4: Fresh voters of Sivasagar this time seeking development and employment from the candidates as a primary concern. Interacting with this correspondent most of fresh voters said that, they have voted on the basis of the candidates and not on basis of parties.

In the election rally of Modi, announced that, if BJP will form government in Assam then he will give Scotty to the students. On this issue of proposed Narendra Modi's Scotty scheme, a female fresh voter Lipika Konwar of Sivasagar girl's college said “It might be a lollipop from election if Modi implement the propose of 'Scotty' scheme.

Another fresh voter, Pranami Sharma of same college said – “proposed Scotty scheme is a total election based proposal of BJP and not going to be implemented even after election”.

Voters cast their valuable votes at a polling booth of assembly election at Sivasagar. Pic - Sorif Mohommod She also said that, she has voted in favour of a party, who can reduce the price hike of essential commodities, as middle class families deeply suffers in it.

Another fresh voter, Dipjyoti Siring of Betbari under Sivasagar constituency said af-

ter voting that, he has voted in view of development and peace in Assam not instead of any lollipop from political parties. Like above, most of the newcomers said that they have voted for a peaceful and communal free Assam. There are large number of fresh voters in Sivasagar.

REGION

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

Meluri has rich potential as trade and industrial hub

Meluri sub-division under Phek Kohima, April 4: Nagaland Minister for School Education and SCERT, Yitachu on Sunday said Meluri sub-division under Phek district is the richest land of the state.

Asking people of Naga community to extend support to the government to explore the region's potential he said, "We occupy a very strategic location and it is high time we ponder on how to help other Nagas."

As Meluri's elected representative, Yitachu said the area has the potential to make Nagaland selfsufficient in power-gen-

eration and that people of the area should be willing to support the development of power-generation for industrial growth. He also added that it the region has huge deposits of minerals and limestone.

Further, the Minister expressed that once the international trade route between India and Myanmar was opened through Avakhung village of the sub-division, it would open the region for trade with South East Asia, making Meluri strategically placed for both commercial activities and industrialization.

(Agencies)

Nagaland CM calls for public support to end crisis

Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang Phek, April 4: Nagaland chief minister T R Zeliang has appealed to the people of the state to come together and work for an early solution to the protracted Naga political problem that he said had been a tumbling block for the overall development of the state for the past few decades.

Addressing a gathering at Meluri in Phek district at event to mark the upgrading of Meluri Town Adhoc Committee into a full-fledged town committee on Sunday, the CM said the need of the hour was to solve the political problem to ensure that the people can reap the benefits of good governance and all-round development.

"As of now, we have nine factions of rebel groups.

If we don't find a solution fast, in a few years more such groups may crop up and that will only compound the problems," he said.

"Ever since I came to power in the state in May 2014, my government has strived and worked out an opposition-less arrangement. Earlier, when there was opposition in the government, we could not agree on various issues and the assembly had witnessed some members walking out of the House to lodge their protests. But now, all legislators have come together under the NPF-led

DAN government and we have agreed on various issues, including early solution to the Naga political problem," the CM said.

"My government has also formed a Parliamentary Working Committee (PWC) that has legislators from all Naga tribes.

The PWC members had met the PM, HM, interlocutor and leaders of the rebel groups on various occasions. We have been assured that all sections of the society would be taken into confidence to work out an honourable solution that is acceptable to all. We have also been told that all stakeholders would be taken on board while finalizing the Naga Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015, between the NSCN (IM) and the interlocutor in New Delhi in the presence of the PM," he said.

"I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the people to also come forward and air their views, participate in the peace process so that our common political destiny can be decided that is acceptable to all of us. We should not be silent at this juncture, nor should we create hurdles to those parties working out a solution - we should actively participate and support any move that will bring permanent peace in our land," the CM added.

(Agencies)

PAGE 5

General amnesty demand delaying disbandment Shillong, April 4: The demand of United Achik Liberation Army (UALA) commander in chief Norrok X Momin, alias Singbirth N Marak for general amnesty has become the stumbling block for early disbandment of the cadres.

Earlier, dates in February and March were fixed for the disbanding ceremony and the new date is yet to be finalized.

Sources said on Sunday that during last week's meeting with Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi and police officials in Tura, Norrok, who attended the meet for the first time, insisted for general amnesty for the crimes committed in the past.

However, the state government had made it clear that heinous crimes will be followed up and others will be withdrawn with the approval of the courts.

It was on December 18 last year that the Agreed Text of Settlement was signed between the state government and UALA in Tura.

As per the agreement, while the state government will examine the status of all the criminal cases involving leaders and cadres who will be subjected to due process of law with regard to FIRs filed against them, non- heinous cases may be withdrawn with the approval of the competent courts.

General amnesty demand delaying disbandment It was after breaking away from ANVC-B that Norrok had formed the UALA in February 2013.

Norrok was the action commander when he was with ANVC-B before forming UALA. Later in October the same year Novembirth

Marak, the former selfstyled general secretary of GNLA, joined UALA as its chairman.

Besides the cadre strength of 70 including those recruited from Goalpara , the UALA also has many weapons in its possession, mostly taken away from ANVC-B.

Earlier, the UALA was involved in the killing of seven people, six from Rabha tribe in Goalpara on November 3, 2013 prior to the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council elections. Nine persons were injured in the incident.

As per police reports, UALA was also allegedly involved in Garo-Rabha conflicts in the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) area of Goalpara and the neighboring Kamrup (Rural) district.

UALA had opposed inclusion of Garos in Assam in the RHAC. Another crime was the killing of two jail officials allegedly by the outfit.

The district administration

NERCORMP work in Chandel on standstill over NSCN(IM) interference in NGO disqualification Imphal, April 4: Various non-governmental developmental works under the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project, NERCORMP, for Upland Areas Chandel District, a project of the North Eastern Council, NEC, M-DoNer, Government of India, is under jeopardy following interference by a local leader of the NSCN(IM), according to a reliable information received from New Delhi by Imphal Free Press.

These projects, with regards to the Chandel district, are implemented under the Chandel District Community Resource Management Society.

Trouble began when a Chandel based NGO, Manipur Border Area Development Society, MBADS, was struck off from the list of partners empanelled with the

NERCORMP for carrying out various projects, on the charge of inappropriate use of the funds allocated from the projects awarded to it.

A letter from the director finance of the N E R C O R M P , Dhrubajyoti Nath, dated December 23, 2015, written to the project manager NERCORM, Chandel District, clearly states this intent that the managing director of the NERCORMP approved the "non-extension of partnership with Manipur Border Area Development Society, MBADS" and that "all dues to or from the NGO, if any, may be cleared before termination of contract."

The matter however did not end there, for one Hb Rungkhel Anal, kilonser NSCN (IM) of Hnaringkhu village Chandel, intervened on behalf of the NGO in question.

It is however not clear if

the NSCN (IM) as an organisation supports Bb Rungkhel Anal's intervention or whether the latter was throwing in his weight behind the NGO on his individual capacity.

The NSCN (IM) kilonser has since been issuing threats of dire consequences to the functionaries of the local unit of the NERCORMP, asking them to write a clarification letter to their headquarters to have the revocation of the partnership with the NGO nullified.

The NERCORMP Chandel project manager, Santala E. Ronglo, and project technical officer Dr. Sh. Willson Monsang were summoned to the kilonser's residence and were conveyed this message in person.

A letter apprising the situation to the NERCORMP managing director, Shillong, by the NERCORMP Chandel,

project manager also include a note written on February 7, 2016, by the kilonser, telling the project manager to "release MBADS Staff pay from Nov (half) till Jan 2016 and clarification letter to regional office (Xerox copy) written by you must reach to our office within this week.

The game to terminate my NGO is played/designed by you alone."

The complaint further said the kilonser is unwilling to listen to the pleas that the decision was taken by the NERCORMP headquarters and the Chandel office can do little about it.

Instead, there have been routine threats issued to the office, it further said.

The NERCORMP headquarter was unmoved by the Chandel units appeal, and instead only asked the state government for security cover of its officials on the field in Chandel.

Responding to a direction from the district commissioner Chandel, the Chandel SP only said they would be able to provide area security cover and not dedicated security to all officials of the NERCORMP Chandel because of shortage of manpower.

This being the case, the NERCORMP project manager for Chandel has tendered her resignation from the project to the managing director NERCORMP, Shillong, asking the organisation to relieve her of her responsibility by April 1, 2016.

An acceptance letter from the NERCORMP headquarters in Shillong however has not been forthcoming. Observers said if the situation is not taken stock of and remedial measures not taken, an ugly ethnic situation may emerge in the Chandel district.

(Agencies)

BJP says Meghalaya CM on weak ground, lacks confidence of MLAs Shillong, April 4: BJP today came down heavily on Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma claiming the ruling party did not enjoy the confidence of its own MLAs and appointed aggrieved MLAs as parliamentary secretaries, to accord them rank, status and perks of a cabinet minister apart from the 12 others in the cabinet.

The Congress-led coalition here would collapse under its own 'contradictions' and 'internal conflicts', BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said and predicted there will be no return of the Congress in 2018 due to its 'non-per-

formance and lack of development'.

"The very fact that the government has to appoint 18 parliamentary secretaries in addition to the 12 ministers shows that out of 30, how much confidence they (Congress) have in their own MLAs...," Kohli told reporters here.

The chief minister 'revealed how weak' his political position is by 'discovering the need' to appoint 18 parliamentary secretaries (one having resigned recently) and proved things were not in 'good condition' within his party, Kohli said.

The BJP spokesperson

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma further referred to the legal aspect in the appointment case and how it was done.

Political analysts said the ruling Congress had been appointing "disgruntled" MLAs as parliamentary

secretaries and given them the rank, status and perks as that of a cabinet minister following the Constitution (91st Amendment) Act 2003 which directs that the total number of ministers in a state shall not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of MLAs or not less than 12.

The BJP leader added, "This is a government that is stuck within its own contradictions ... and irrespective of what the government does for its survival it has washed its hand off development and work for the people."

(Agencies)

Tripura embarrassed after centre cuts mandays under MGNREGA Agartala, Apr 4: Despite the Northeastern states of Tripura has set an example in the country by creating maximum mandays under the national flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for the five consecutive years, the Union Ministry for Rural Development (MoRD) on its sudden

MGNREGA

drive has slashed down 1,92,36000 man days under the MGNREGA scheme for the Financial Year (FY) of 2016-17 which has left the state faced serious embarrassment.

In a letter to the state government on March 10, it was said that the state Tripura had records of more than 83 days work under MGNREGS but in last financial year till March 10, Tripura had

completed only 36.4 percent works.

"It is suggested to ensure the compliance as per rule in order to improve the work completion rate," mentioned the letter. However, the slash of mandays here in Tripura would cause serious hamper to the ongoing works and the works which remained pending so far, said the official. (Agencies)

and police had in the past pointed out that Norrok, who was then with ANVC-B, was the mastermind behind the attack on Williamnagar jail in February, 2013 resutling in the death of two jail officials Assistant Jailer, Neil Warjri and Warder, Sarai Singh Thabah.

They were dragged out and shot dead in cold blood, but the ANVC-B had denied the charges.

Police had also initially suspected the role of GNLA behind the crime.

However, the magisterial probe into the incident did not name any militant outfit as responsible for the Williamnagar jail attack, but wanted the police to further investigate into the matter. (Agencies)

Two hand grenades found at fuel station Imphal, April 4: One Chinese-made hand grenade planted by unidentified persons was found at a fuel-station complex at Khangabok in Thoubal district, while another hand grenade was discovered at Kwakeithel, a police officer said.

Manipur Police sent a bomb squad to retrieve the explosive device which was successfully detonated at a safe distance, the officer said.

Meanwhile, locals organised a sit-in protest condemning the act of planting the bomb in a public area and urged the group responsible to own up.

In another incident, a hand grenade was discovered at the residence of an engineer at Kwakeithel area early this morning.

Police said the medium-intensity grenade was safely brought out at a paddy field and detonated two hours later. (Agencies)

Army tightlipped over NGH killing findings Shillong, April 4: The Army is tightlipped over the findings of the inquiry report into the killing of two civilians in North Garo Hills even four months after the incident.

It was on November 25 last that a school teacher , Alphius M Momin (35) and Sweetbirth D Marak (30), a vendor who sold P form challans at Dainadubi check gate, were shot dead by the Army in a case of mistaken identity at Rajasimla when they were travelling on a motorcycle at around 8:40 pm.

The Army admitted the mistake and ordered an inquiry, the findings of which, however is pending for the last four months.

When contacted on a few occasions, Lieutenant Colonel Suneet Newton, Public Relation Officer (Defence), Guwahati avoided any direct reply stating that he had to cross check the matter.

Soon after the incident, the families of the two civilians shot dead by army personnel had filed FIRs with North Garo Hills Police seeking action against the perpetrators of the 'cold blooded murder'.

The North Garo Hills district administration had also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the matter.

The incident took place near Konchikol, 2 km from Kharkutta Bazar, where the army personnel from the Gurkha Regiment, deployed at Rangjuli town in neighbouring Assam, had reportedly been conducting an operation inside North Garo Hills to flush out suspected Garo militants. (Agencies)

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

PAGE 6

Mehbooba is first woman CM of JK, BJP gets more Cabinet berths Jammu and Kashmir, April 4: Jammu and Kashmir got its first woman chief minister today in PDP President Mehbooba Mufti who was sworn-in here along with 22 ministers, with an increased strength for BJP in the Cabinet.

56-year-old Mehbooba took the oath of office and secrecy in Urdu followed

by BJP's Nirmal Singh, who will again be the Deputy Chief Minister in the new PDP-BJP government formed three months after the state was put under Governor's rule following the demise of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Governor N N Vohra also administered the oath to 21 other Ministers. BJP's share increased this time in the Cabinet from six to eight berths and three Ministers of State (MoS) while PDP has nine Cabinet Ministers instead of 11 last time.

Mehbooba's party has got three MoS berths, same as the last time.

In the last government, BJP had a total of 11 ministers -- six in Cabinet, three MoS and two with independent charge.

Sajjad Gani Lone, son of late separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone, remained in the Cabinet in

the BJP quota.

PDP has dropped Altaf Bukhari and Javed Mustafa from the ministry.

Former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar, Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Jitendra Singh were among the host of VIPs present at the function held at Raj Bhavan.

However, PDP MP Tariq Hamid Karra and Congress boycotted the ceremony.

BJP promoted Chering Dorje and Abdul Gani Kohli as Cabinet ministers. They were Ministers of State with independent charge in the Sayeed-led government.

The saffron party has Prakash Kumar and Shyam Lal Chowdhury among the new faces in the cabinet. BJP leader Sukhnandan was dropped from the list of Ministers besides Minister of State Pawan Gupta, an independent MLA from Udhampur, who has been replaced by Ajay Nanda.

Law Minister in the Sayeed's ministry, Basharat Bukhari of PDP, took oath in Kashmiri again this year.

Mehbooba assuming office as 13th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir is a landmark event in the history of the state and the

Mehbooba country. She is the first woman to head the state and the second Muslim woman to become the Chief Minister of any state in India.

Syeda Anwara Taimur was the first Muslim woman CM in Assam in 1980 and continued to hold the chair till June 30, 1981.

The new government has also retained two woman ministers from the earlier coalition--- Priya Seth (BJP) and Asiya Nakash (PDP).

Apart from Nirmal Singh, who will lead the BJP flock in the coalition, Chandra Prakash, Bali Bhagat, Lal Singh, Dorje, Abdul Gani Kolhi, Ajay Handa, Sunil Kumar Sharma are also a part of

the new government.

From the PDP's side, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Abdul Rehman Veeri Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, Haseeb Drabu, Syed Naeem Akhtar Andrabi and Zahoor Ahmad Mir were sworn in as ministers.

The cermony had ministers taking oath in different languages. While Mehbooba and Nirmal Singh stuck to Urdu and Hindi respectively, Bukhari took his oath in Kashmiri.

BJP's Lal Singh took oath in Punjabi while Dorje chose English.

The two parties came together last year with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed heading the government for 10

months till his death on January 7.

Mehbooba, who is presently a member of Lok Sabha, will have to resign from her parliamentary seat and will get six months to secure membership of one of the two houses of the state legislature.

The PDP-BJP coalition has 56 MLAs in the 87member Assembly.

The PDP has 27 members while BJP has 25. Peoples' Conference has two MLAs while two other independents are supporting the coalition.

The revival of the PDPBJP coalition government in the state -- after three months of stalemate -- became possible after several rounds of hectic negotiations between the two parties and apparent intervention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Following Sayeed's death, Governor's Rule was imposed in the state as the PDP and the BJP did not stake fresh claim for government formation in the state.

Initially, the two parties maintained that Mehbooba was not in a position to take over the reins of the state as she was mourning her father's death.

However, after the mourning period was over, the PDP said it was looking for

assurances and confidence building measures from the Centre on implementation of Agenda of Alliance -- common minimum programme of the two parties -- before forming the new government.

Hopes of ending the deadlock were raised when BJP general secretary Ram Madhav arrived in Srinagar in a chartered plane to meet Mehbooba Mufti late in the evening on February 17 but nothing came out of the hourlong meeting.

The next high level contact between the two parties came on March 19 when Mehbooba met BJP president Amit Shah.

Again the two parties failed to resolve the issues, forcing the BJP to publicly admit for the first time that no headway could be made on government formation.

In fact, several PDP leaders went to extent of saying the prospects of an alliance with the BJP were all but over.

H o w e v e r, to everyone's surprise, the PDP president went to meet the Prime Minister three days later and decks were cleared for the formation of the government.(PTI)

BJP expels state Mahila Morcha chief

BJP Lucknow, Apr 4 : BJP state Mahila Morcha chief Madhu Mishra was today expelled from the party for six years over a controversial statement made by her in Aligarh recently.

Taking strong note of her remarks, State BJP president Laxmi Kant Bajpai today expelled her from the party for a period of

six years, party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said in a statement issued here.

"Making use of the constitution, remember these people who are ruling over you used to once polish your boots.

This happened because we were divided," Madhu had recently said.(PTI)

West Bengal Assembly polls: EC issues notification for 5th phase

Jaitley pitches for Saudi King apprises Modi on counterinterest rate cut terrorism coalition ahead of RBI policy Riyadh, Apr 4 : King ential country in the Gulf

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley New Delhi, Apr 4 : A day ahead of Reserve Bank meet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday pitched for easier monetary policy, arguing that high interest rates can make the economy sluggish "The government has stuck to fiscal deficit commitments and inflation has been under control. Therefore, I do hope that this movement will continue in order to make our economy more competitive with more competitive interest rates," he said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Annual session Reserve Bank will hold its first bi-monthly monetary policy review for 2016-17 on Tuesday The finance minister also stressed that the debate on crucial economic issues, like interest rates, should move in the right direction in India, which is a "large and noisy democracy" "Take for instance responsible political groups taking a position to support high interest rates for something which is absolutely capable of making us a sluggish economy," Jaitley said The finance minister said there are a number of challenges in a large and noisy democracy and the most important for institutions like government and industry is to make sure that

the debate on issues moves in the right direction This will "enable Indian society as the world's largest democracy and an aspirational democracy to add maturity to that debate", he said As regards retired persons who depend on interest income, he said their issues could be addressed by pension funds, which offer best returns Jaitley said national pension scheme is providing attractive returns, adding "people will have to look at these products" In the long run, deposit and lending rates should come down in order to make the economy more competitive, he said, adding the direction of the debate has to be mature "The movement in last one year, as far as the interest rates have been concerned, has been downwards," Jaitley said The government has stuck to fiscal deficit consolidation path, pegging the deficit for the current financial year at 3.5 per cent of GDP. In 2015-16, the fiscal deficit will remain below the budgeted targeted of 3.9 per cent As far as inflation is concerned, while Wholesale Price Index (WPI) has been in negative zone for past 16 months, Consumer Price Index (CPI) is hovering in the range of 5-6 per cent.(PTI)

Salman Bin Abdulaziz AlSaud apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Saudi Arabia's initiative in bringing together 34 Muslim countries to form a powerful Islamic military coalition to combat the scourge of terrorism as the two leaders resolved to enhance counter- terror cooperation In the talks at the at the AlYamamah Palace?here Sunday, the King also appreciated India's interest in the Gulf as well as its keenness in supporting its stability of the countries in the region The King briefed the Prime Minister about Saudi Arabia's initiative to form a coalition to contain terrorism, Saudi officials said Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a country known as spiritual home of Islam, has recently formed a major coalition of 34 Muslim nations to fight terror, particularly the ISIS The formation of the coalition comes amid criticism that Arab countries are not doing enough to

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud contain rise of ISIS in the region The coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen Other members are Saudi Arabia's five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as Jordan, Nigeria, Egypt, Chad, Mali, Malaysia, Morocco, Senegal, Somalia and Tunisia Saudi Arabia's regional rival, Iran, is not part of

the coalition. Iraq and Syria whose forces are battling the Islamic State terror group are also not in the coalition India and Saudi Arabia,?a major ally of Pakistan, also decided to ramp up their counter-terrorism cooperation and asked all states to dismantle terror infrastructures where they exist while rejecting use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy The strong views by Saudi Arabia, known as spiritual home of Islam and one of the most influ-

region, is seen as?an unprecedented political endorsement of New Delhi's concerns about terrorism, extremism and radicalisation The two countries also signed an agreement in sharing intelligence related to money laundering and terror financing "We also stress the importance of continued cooperation and coordination with the government of your country in the field of counter-terrorism," the Saudi Foreign Ministry quoted the King as saying He further said, "We are confident that our discussions will enhance our relationship and cooperation in various fields in order to achieve the strategic partnership between our two countries to serve the common interests." ?

Besides extensive deliberations on combating terrorism, the talks focused on ways to expand strategic cooperation in a range of areas such as trade and investment, particularly in the oil sector.(PTI)

Election Commission of India Kolkata, April 4: Election Commission today issued notification for the fifth phase of West Bengal Assembly polls.

Polling to the 53 constituencies in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas and Hooghly in the penultimate phase of the six-phase long elections will be held on April 30.

The last date for filing nominations is April 11, while scrutiny will be held on April 12 and the candidates can withdraw from the electoral race till April 16.

Heavyweights like Chief Minister and Trinamool

Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, her ministers Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee and Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee will file their nominations in this phase.

Former CPI(M) leader Abdur Razzak Molla has also been fielded by Trinamool Congress from Bhangar seat who will join the fray in this phase.

Star candidates include actress Debashree Roy, singer Indranil Sen and footballer Syed Rahman Nabi.

If no law, would have beheaded lakhs who don’t say Bharat Mata Ki Jai: Ramdev

Last surviving Plains Indian war chief dies at 102 in US

President Obama with Medicine Crow Washington, April 4: President Barack Obama had honored Medicine Crow with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2009.

"Joe was a Crow War Chief, veteran, elder, historian, author, and educator," Bullock said in a

statement announcing his death.

"His legacy will forever serve as an inspiration for all Native Americans and all Montanans."

Medicine Crow studied anthropology in college, and for three decades worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He later

became the official historian of Montana's Crow Tribe.

Medicine Crow put aside his graduate studies when the United States entered World War II and he volunteered for military service.

As an army scout in Europe he completed the four tasks needed to become a Crow War Chief: he led raids behind enemy lines, he entered an enemy camp and stole horses, he disarmed an enemy, and he touched an enemy without killing him.

"I never got a scratch," he told the Billings Gazette decades later.

His grandfather, Medicine Crow, was a warrior and scout during the 19th century Plains and Indian wars.

"My grandfather trained me to be a warrior," Joe Medicine Crow told the Indian Country Today website in 2013. "The Crow people were socalled, 'warlike.' We were a very militaristic people."

Joe Medicine Crow "was a soldier and a scholar, but above all was a fierce advocate for Native American families," said Senator Jon Tester, who nominated him for the Medal of Freedom.

Crow Tribe chairman Darren Old Coyote described him as "a true American hero."

"He was my everything," his son Ronald Medicine Crow told the Gazette. "I don't think I will be able to fill his boots because he was able to accomplish so much in his history." (Agencies)

Yoga guru, Baba Ramdev Rohtak, April 4: Referring to Muslims who refuse to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday said if the country didn’t have laws, “hum toh lakhon ki gardan kaat sakte hain (we would have decapitated lakhs)”. He also said “if any religion says that do not honour the motherland, such a religion is also not in the interest of this country”.

Speaking at a Sadbhavna rally organised by the RSS in Rohtak — attended among others by Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Devvrat — Ramdev said: “Koi

aadmi topi pehan kar ke khada ho jaata hai, bolta Bharat Mata ki Jai nahi bolunga, chahe meri gardan kaat do. Arey is desh mein kanoon hai, nahi toh teri ek ki kya, hum toh lakhon ki gardan kaat sakte hain. Lekin hum is desh ke kanoon ka samman karte hain. Koi aise khada ho ke bol de, isliye in hurdangiyon ke honsle buland ho jaate hain. Hum is desh ke kanoon aur samvidhan ka samman karte hain, nahi toh koi Bharat Mata ka apmaan kare, ek nahi, hum hazaron lakhon ke sheesh kalam karne ka samarth rakhte hain”.

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

PAGE 7

NEIGHBOURS

Myanmar's Suu Kyi drops ministries, takes on spokeswoman role Yangon, April 4: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi has dropped plans to run two major ministries but will act as spokeswoman for the country's new president, a ruling party official said Monday.

Banned from becoming president by a junta-era constitution, Suu Kyi has cemented control over the country's first civilian-led government in decades by taking on a string of senior roles in the new administration.

She has vowed to rule "above" the president, picking school friend and close aide Htin Kyaw for

the role.

Lawmakers from her National League for Democracy party are also pressing for a special "state counsellor" position for the Nobel laureate, an appointment that would allow her to liaise between the presidency and parliament.

Last week the NLD said she would take on four cabinet posts -- foreign, energy, education and the ministerial position in the president's office.

But during a parliamentary session on Monday, the NLD put forward two new names for the energy and education portfolios,

Aung San Suu Kyi according to NLD spokesman Win Htein.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be the spokesperson

for the president," he added, without elaborating on the rejig.

The move will free up the

70-year-old's already busy day-to-day responsibilities while reinforcing control over her proxy president Htin Kyaw.

Hopes are growing that the newly sworn-in government can accelerate the country's economic and political rejuvenation after nearly half a century of military repression.

Suu Kyi's party won a huge mandate at last November's elections.

But the constitution effectively bans her from the top post as it rules out anyone with foreign-born children or spouses from becoming president.

Suu Kyi married and had two sons with a British national.

The military also retains control of the key home, defence and border affairs ministries, while 25 percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for unelected soldiers.

The military has already balked at the NLD's plans to make Suu Kyi a "state counsellor" with army MPs in parliament last week saying the move bypasses the constitution.

The proposal is likely to sail through the NLDdominated legislature.

(Agencies)

At least 55 Chinese President Xi's family implicated in Panama Papers scandal killed in flash floods in northern Pakistan Islamabad, April 4: Flash floods triggered by heavy rain in Pakistan have killed at least 55 people and rescuers were trying on Monday to help thousands of survivors including some cut off by a landslide in a mountain valley, officials said.

The weather system that brought the unusually heavy rain was expected to move northeast, towards northern India, although more isolated storms were expected in northern Pakistan, the Meteorological Department said.

Yousuf Zia, a disaster management official in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said nearly 150 homes had been destroyed and tents and blankets were being distributed to the homeless.

"There are 30 people stranded by a landslide in the Kohistan Valley where we have sent a helicopter to rescue them," Zia said.

Forty-seven people were killed and 37 injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Zia said, while eight people were killed in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials there said.

Landslides caused widespread damage to roads and communication infrastructure in the Pakistani side of Kashmir, they said.

One of the worst-affected districts was the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad, where 121 mm (4.76 inches) of rain fell on Sunday, the Meteorological Department said.

Beijing, April 4: The families of some of China's top communist brass -- including President Xi Jinping -- used offshore tax havens to conceal their fortunes, a treasure trove of leaked documents has revealed.

At least eight current or former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the ruling Communist Party's most powerful body, have been implicated, highlighting the hot-button issue of wealth among China's ruling elite.

The eight are among 140 political figures around the world alleged to have links to offshore accounts, after an investigation into the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca.

One of the people named in the leaks is Xi's brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, who set up two British Virgin Islands

companies in 2009 when his famous relation was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee but not yet president.

Xi has been dogged by foreign media reports of great family wealth. The claims are ignored by mainstream Chinese outlets, and their publication on the Internet in China is suppressed.

In 2012 the Bloomberg news agency published investigations into the vast wealth said to have been amassed by Xi's family, revealing that Deng and his wife had accumulated several hundred million dollars in company shares and property assets.

Since becoming president that same year, Xi has staked his reputation on pushing for transparency by initiating a vast anti-graft campaign to clean the party's ranks of corruption and to reassert his authority.

The daughter of former

Chinese President Xi Jinping premier Li Peng -- who was in power from 1987 to 1998 --- was also identified in the documents.

They revealed that Li Xiaolin, the former vice president of state-run power company China Power Investment Corporation, was the beneficiary of a Liechtenstein foundation controlling a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands during the period when her father was in office.

A granddaughter of Jia Qinglin, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Li Xiaolin was also the sole shareholder in several offshore companies, through which she discretely controlled companies within China.

The so-called "Panama Papers" were obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media

worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Chinese media remained silent on the revelations about the country's elite.

But while the the ICIJ's website is officially blocked in the country, users of the micro-blog Weibo who had managed to see the findings began discussing them online.

"My confidence in socialism has suddenly collapsed," quipped one user, before the post was promptly removed.

The revelations come two years after an ICIJ investigation identified nearly 22,000 offshore clients from mainland China and Hong Kong, including relatives of former president Hu Jintao, former premier Li Peng and late leader Deng Xiaoping, the man credited with opening up China's economy in the 1980s.

Pakistan PM's family hits back after Panama Papers leak Islamabad, April 4: The family of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was defiant on Monday, defending their ownership of offshore companies after they were named in the Panama Papers, one of the biggest leaks in history.

The leak, comprising 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, shows how some of the world's most powerful people have secreted away their money in offshore jurisdictions.

Among those named are three of Sharif's four children -- Maryam, who has been tipped to be his political successor; Hasan and Hussain, with the records showing they owned London real estate through offshore companies administrated by the firm.

"Nawaz Sharif does not own any company but having companies in the name of his children also raises questions," Umar Cheema of the independent Center for Investigative Reporting

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan (CIRP) told AFP. The CIRP is partnered with the Investigative Consortium of Independent Journalists (ICIJ), which spent months poring over the documents ahead of Sunday's online release.

"There are more than 200 Pakistanis which our report has identified, and they include lawyers, lawmakers and some people from the

judiciary," he said.

Opposition leader Imran Khan issued a swift call for action against Sharif after the release.

"Our stance vindicated again as Sharif's wealth stashed abroad exposed," he tweeted, adding the country's accountability watchdog, tax authorities and election commission "must take action".

But Sharif's son Hussain

told the country's largest private broadcaster Geo that his family had done "nothing wrong".

"Those apartments are ours and those offshore companies are also ours," he said in comments aired by the channel Monday.

"There is nothing wrong with it and I have never concealed them, nor do I need to do that.

"It is according to British law and laws of other countries that it is a legal way to avoid unnecessary tax via offshore companies."

He left Pakistan in 1992, he added, and therefore is not resident, adding Pakistani tax law "says that if you are not staying in Pakistan for more than 138 days, then you are not required to declare your assets".

Regarding Khan's call for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate, he said "we voluntarily present ourselves before it or any other judicial and investigative institution in Pakistan".

And he issued one final dig at Khan, calling on him to provide "proof that the Prime Minister has not declared his assets".

"If he is successful in that then we are ready to accept our fault and undergo punishment," he said.

Nawaz Sharif's office has not yet responded to requests for comment by AFP. Ali Nadir, a financial analyst, said the use of offshore companies was in many cases legitimate.

But, he added: "I believe political and business leaders will be hard pressed to take the privacy defence given the worldwide move towards a better track of money, tax evasion, laundering and corruption.

"This may also start more locally focused probes as there are likely to be disclosure issues."

The Panama Papers have whipped a storm of controversy over off-shore wealth, ensnaring political leaders, sports figures and underworld members across the globe in a snowballing scandal.

Colombian navy seizes more than one tonne of cocaine Colombo, April 4: The Colombian navy on Sunday said it had seized more than one tonne of cocaine and a semi-submersible "narco sub" in operations on the country's Pacific coastline.

At the Natural Sanquianga Park, a re-

serve in southwestern Colombia, navy personnel discovered and destroyed "a semi-submersible designed like a torpedo" able to carry two tonnes of cocaine, the navy said in a statement.

The navy said that it has destroyed or seized

Colombian navy seizes cocaine

91 illegal semi-submersible "narco subs" since 1993. This is the first one destroyed in 2016.

Near the craft troops found an underground storage site hidden among the bushes with packs of cocaine stuffed in large plastic

bags weighing 652 kilos (1,437 pounds), the statement read.

Investigators said that a drug trafficking network was stockpiling the cocaine to eventually ship it aboard the torpedo craft to Central America.

In a separate operation in the Bocagrande re-

gion of Narino, troops found packs of cocaine weighing a total of 402 kilos inside two boats.

The navy said that the seizures prevented the drug traffickers from earning some 32 million dollars in sales if the cocaine had reached international markets.

Vietnam seizes Chinese vessel for intruding in its waters

Vietnam coast guard seizes Chinese vessel for intruding in its waters

Beijing, April 4: Vietnam's coast guard in a rare move has seized a Chinese vessel for allegedly intruding in its waters, state media reported on Monday.

The newspaper Thanh Nien said that the vessel has been towed to the northern port city of Hai Phong, and that the ship, its captain and two sailors, all Chinese, are under the supervision of Vietnamese authorities.

The vessel, disguised as a fishing boat, was carrying 100,000 liters of diesel oil and was intercepted by Vietnamese coast guard near Bach Long Vi island in the Gulf of Tonkin on Thursday, it said.

The captain told authorities the fuel was to be sold to Chinese fishing boats operating in the area, it said.

Hai Phong coast guard officails declined to comment on Monday.

The newspaper said that in the last two weeks of March the coast guard had chased 110 Chinese fishing boats out of Vietnamese waters.

Vietnam's coast guard

often warns and chases Chinese fishing boats out of its waters but rarely seizes them.

Vietnamese fishermen complain they are harassed, attacked and have had their catches confiscated by Chinese authorities while they fishing in the South China Sea. Vietnam is locked in a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, which is rich in resources and occupies one of the world busiest sea lanes.

Vietnam, China and Taiwan have competing claims over the Paracel islands which are occupied by China, while the three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have claimed parts or all of the Spratly islands.

Chinese growing territorial assertiveness in the region including recent massive land reclamation of reefs and atolls in the Spratlys and its increased military actions in the two island chains have raised concerns among neighbors and the United States.

Rains, floods kills 57 in northwest Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir

Rains, floods kills 57 in northwest Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir

Islamabad, April 4: At least 57 people were killed and 27 others injured as flash floods triggered by torrential rains swept away houses across northwest Pakistan and Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK), officials said on Monday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was worst-hit in the downpour that began last night and caused flash floods in several districts, a Pakistani national disaster management official said.

Shangla district was most affected where 14 people were killed while 12 people died in Kohistan and eight in Swat, the official said.

At least eight people, including five children, were killed in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir and

Gilgit Baltistan regions where land slides buried houses.

Several houses were badly damaged and some bridges were swept away by flash floods in different parts of the province.

The rain also caused losses to orchards and other standing crops.

There were reports that land sliding has damaged Karakorum Highway between Gilgit and Chilas, blocking the vital land link with China.

All the educational institutions have been ordered to close down in the rain-hit areas.

President Mamnoon Hussain has expressed grief over the loss of lives and property in the torrential rains and directed the authorities concerned to take all measures to help the affected people.

PAGE 8

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

Media and the Poll-Bound State Road accidents Road traffic accidents are amenable to remedial action With more than one death and four injuries every minute, India has the dubious distinction of reporting highest number of road fatalities in the world and the government says the prime reason is "drivers' fault".

"During the year 2009, there were around Photo: previews.123rf 490,000 road accidents, which resulted in the deaths of 125,660 people and injured more than five hundred thousand persons in India. Driver's fault is the prime reason for most of the accidents occurring in India. The official number of deaths increased in 2010 to 130,000. The proportion of injuries to deaths remained unchanged at 4:1. Deaths in road accidents in the country are the highest despite the fact that its population is much less than neighbouring China and more vehicles ply on US roads than India. Road traffic injuries were the ninth leading cause of deaths in 2004 and at the current rates, the ministry said, it would be the fifth leading cause of death overtaking diabetes and HIV/AIDS by 2030. On top of that, more than 52 per cent of road victims are in the age group of 25-65 years. Pedestrians, bicycle and two wheelers account for around 39 per cent of the fatalities.

While developed countries through well planned road safety have succeeded in bringing down their accident rates, on the other hand India's accident rate and fatalities are showing an increasing trend which is a matter of concern. Over 1,37,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2013 alone, that is more than the number of people killed in all our wars put together.

Drunken driving is one of the leading causes of road fatalities. One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute and 16 die on Indian roads every hour. 1214 road crashes occur every day in India.

Two wheelers account for 25% of total road crash deaths. 20 children under the age of 14 die every day due to road crashes in the country. 377 people die every day, equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every day. Two people die every hour in Uttar Pradesh State with maximum number of road crash deaths.

Tamil Nadu is the state with the maximum number of road crash injuries.

Road accidents are a human tragedy. They involve high human suffering and monetary costs in terms of untimely deaths, injuries and loss of potential income.

Although we have undertaken many initiatives and are implementing various road safety improvement program the overall situation as revealed by data is far from satisfactory. Many a countries have curbed the menace of road accidents by adopting a multipronged approach to road safety that encompasses broad range of measures, such as, traffic management, design and quality of road infrastructure, application of intelligent transport system, safer vehicles, law enforcement, effective and quick accident response and care etc. The Government alone cannot tackle road safety problems. There is a need for active involvement of all stake- holders to promote policy reform and implementation of road safety measures.

Organ trafficking A bitter reality of todays' society Shocked but not surprised. That might be the best way to sum up India's reaction to the revelation this week that a black market organ transplant ring had been harvesting kidneys from poor Indian laborers, sometimes against their wishes, and using them in foreigners desperate for transplants. Many cases of organ trafficking have come into light recently- involving foreigners from as far away as the U.S. and U.K flying in for transplants, Indians are sadly all too familiar with organ rackets. In 2007, police in southern India uncovered an illegal kidney trade involving fishermen whose jobs had been destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami. A massive transplant ring in Punjab was also uncovered in 2003. Police there believe at least 30 of the donors, who as in this latest case were poor, illiterate workers promised riches for their organs and bused in to be operated on, died, despite promises that they would receive excellent postoperation medical care and that they had nothing to worry about. India's illegal organ trade is driven in part by the incredible imbalance between supply and demand for legal organs. The Indian government banned the sale of kidneys for commercial gain in 1994; lawbreakers can be jailed for up to five years. But legal organ donations remain rare in India. The Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN), a Chennai-based non-government group that promotes legal organ donation, puts donation rates in India at well under 1 per million, compared to rates of more than 20 per million in places such as Spain, the U.S. and France. The Indian government has encouraged more people to donate, and a few years ago began a campaign to increase the rate of cornea donations to try to fix the country's huge problems with blindness. But despite some success - the high-profile cricketer Anil Kumble and Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai both promised to donate their eyes when they die a 2003 study in the Indian Journal of Opthamology found that illiteracy and rural residence (read poverty) meant that only half of those persons interviewed "had knowledge of eye donation, 20% knew about corneal transplantation and only 4.34% of them knew when to donate their eyes." Despite laws banning the sale of organs, the illegal trade is driven by an increased demand for kidneys which have in turn been fuelled by a rise in diabetes worldwide. According to a WHO report in 2007, the underground organ market is still resurgent in India, with around 2,000 Indians selling a kidney every year.

Organ trafficking is an illegal, yet thriving trade around the globe. Social stigma and threats from traffickers keep many victims from coming forward. Its high time that we all take a step against it.

Assembly elections in Assam all of us, tend to assume that had just began and we take a our responses to them are almomentary lapse to analyze ways rational, judicious and the role of media in shaping measured. But, to the conthe political conscience in the trary, our responses are sponperipheral state. By media taneous and often emotional. we mean the news media The life would have been here. We as human beings much better if we had only shape our judgments based writers or journalists. But, on the information we ac- the fact that we have a whole quire from the bounty of range of terminologies beknowledge available in hind every news report abunnamely, d a n c e Uddipta Ranjan Boruah p r o around ducu s . ers, Each one of us on this Earth editors, comptrollers, focus is stuck to a particular time groups, advertisers etc. proband place, armed with spe- ably is enough to raise an cific and particular set of eyebrow to the assertion that knowledge about the world. media is neutral. Debbie It is practically impossible Lisle delineates, "all media for us to have a first-hand ac- information comes from cess to all events that occur somewhere and is trying to around us. In such circum- advance someone's agenda". stances, we need an entity to Noam Chomsky and Edward gather, refine and bring to us S. Herman in their seminal the information that we con- work, 'Manufacturing Consider relevant. This particu- sent' claimed, "among their lar entity that we are talking other functions, the media of is media. Neil Postman ar- serve, and propagandize on gues, "We couldn't know behalf of, the powerful socianything in the world with- etal interests that control and out different forms of media finance them." To that extent to convey information". This therefore the words like couarticle is an attempt to ana- rageous, true, unbiased et al. lyze how media shapes our seem to be misnomers when political judgments. The role associated with media. of media in democracy is in- Media and Assam dispensable. Some see it as The news media in Assam the 'watchdog', while there like most other states in Inare others who consider it not dia is mostly dominated by more than the 'mouthpiece' of regional media houses. The the dominant class. No mat- circulation of national and ter which of the above two international news media is propositions we wish to considerably very limited. stand with but the fact re- Leaving aside the Guwahati mains that none of us today based middle class and aspircan stand outside media and ants of various competitive claim that they do not affect examinations the readers of our political judgments. mainstream national news While receiving the media papers are few. The most one representations most, if not can expect of is a range of

English newspapers printed in Kolkata. The limited circulation to a great extent accrues to the cost factor. The numbers keep reducing as one move towards the peripheries of the peripheral state. By the time one reaches may be Kakopothar in the eastern frontier, asking for a copy of the Indian Express might make one an alien. As

tial sections. The use of words such as courageous, true, unbiased, etc. therefore seem to be a mockery.

It would be wrong to claim that the 'watchdog' role of media is completely absent.

Criticizing politicians and political parties is an everyday affair and as a result audience presumes that the media actually is the 'watch-

Image for representational purpose (Photo: blog.lewispr.) a result the audience is destined to stay within the clutches of the regional media (regional here does not mean only Assamese media but include other languages including English). When talking of regional media in Assam it requires no mention about who actually own them and what they actually produce and reproduce. It is also clear to the masses how the news channels with the highest TRPs produce and present news. In that regard, the claims of Lisle, Chomsky and Herman as outlined above gain even more legitimacy. It is disturbing to realize that the news media to a great extent has been reduced to a 'mouthpiece' of the influen-

dog' that keeps a check on the government activities.

But the truth between the lines is that while the media are able to critique politicians and political parties, they actually fail to challenge the foundations and structures of the political power itself. They provide superficial critiques of particular parties and policies but never actually go far enough to question the foundations of the system itself.

The audience is preoccupied at the superficial level to such an extent that foundational questions are ignored. They fail to ask for instance that in an egalitarian society how come so many families live in poverty while there are some

who hold so much wealth. As a result, media sustains and reproduces the hierarchical social structure and becomes a tool of persuasion advocating that the existing structure serves all sections at best.

The media in the state has cocooned the audience within the same old issues of development, new trains, Bangladeshi migrants, defection by political leaders, electoral coalitions and the like.

The audience is so much preoccupied with these age old signature debates that they do not bother about whole range of other factors. Such indifference has resulted in lack of bargaining power vis-Ă -vis the democracy. We do not for instance realize that if every individual has a vote which is supposed to be equally valuable in a democracy why the fruits of the same democracy are not equally available for all. A good population of us is so much contended with the free mosquito nets and blankets distributed prior to the polls that we never ask why after more than 6 decades of poverty alleviation schemes, poverty still remains a fact. We are carried away by the projects assuring flyovers but forget about the water-logging-streets in the capital on which we perhaps will not be able to walk if it unfortunately rains on the polling day. We do not bother about deals that New Delhi signs at the WTO summits and how such events influence our daily lives across prices of cereals to non NET scholarships.

We do not bother about why the amount of precipitation is fast reducing and the ex-

tent of summer temperature is fast rising. We are still indifferent that after more than 6 decades of independence our kids still rush to mainland India for quality education. We are so much overwhelmed with the promise of newer medical and engineering colleges but seldom do we analyze the state of already existing institutes. The premiere Cotton College with a huge bunch of super glamorous alumni and meritorious faculty and students after more than a century since establishment could not figure into top 3 Indian educational institutes.

We fail to indulge with all such questions because the popular discourse still cocoons us within the same old issues of migration, development schemes, new trains and road projects. We still look up to government schemes as favor bestowed by political leaders in political rallies and fail to understand that in a "Socialist", "Democratic" "Republic" which India claims to be one - such schemes are not favor but responsibility of the government. This polling season let us move beyond the traditional fodder that our media brings to our plate every morning. Let us question not merely the stuff that makes up the news of the day but also let us indulge with the process by which the stuff is produced and brought to us. Let us analyze not what we are provided with and rather demand of the knowledge which we are debarred of by the media.

Courtesy:nezine

A Path Forward on Indian NSG Membership Momentum for India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group seems to have stalled.

Momentum for India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 48-nation group that sets guidelines for global nuclear exports, seems to have stalled.

In 2010, the Obama Administration announced its intention to support India's Lauryn "full membership" in the nuclear export control regimes, and Washington now claims that India is "ready" for NSG membership. Yet, critics continue to question Delhi's commitment to nonproliferation.

The failure of the United States and India to convince skeptics that the country should be admitted on the strength of its nonproliferation actions to date may become evident at the June 2016 NSG Plenary. The months remaining before this meeting provide the Obama Administration a final opportunity to make progress toward the goal of securing India's NSG membership. To do so, it needs a new plan.

To build support in the NSG, which operates by consensus, India will need to take additional steps to demonstrate its commitment to nonproliferation. Because Delhi will be understandably reluctant, U.S. officials must persuade the Modi Administration that it is necessary to take such steps, as well as

convince other NSG members that, in doing so, India merits membership. This will not be an easy task.

Whether India belongs in the NSG is an unresolved question left over from the 2005 U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, h i c h Williams wended decades-long sanctions imposed after India's nuclear test. In addition to strategic and economic rationales, Bush administration officials characterized the deal as a way to incentivize India to adopt responsible standards and practices. On the basis of India's actions, in 2008, the U.S. pressured NSG members to pass an exemption from the guidelines to allow India to participate in civil nuclear commerce.

On the surface, India appears to have fulfilled the commitments it agreed to in exchange for the deal that ended the nuclear trade prohibition. It officially implemented a separation plan, which placed 14 civilian nuclear power reactors under IAEA safeguards, leaving 8 military reactors outside of safeguards. It has sustained its unilateral halt on testing nuclear explosives. And in June 2014, India ratified a protocol that expanded the IAEA's access to its nuclear sites.

However, the manner in

which India carried out these obligations raised questions about how Delhi might behave if admitted to the NSG. For example, India's separation plan essentially created an additional category - reactors that are connected to the electrical grid but are declared part of the military program - that is at odds with the practices of other states with nuclear weapons.

Further, India's Additional Protocol lacks standard provisions regarding information sharing, even as compared to the protocols adopted by other nucleararmed states. Similarly, in its negotiations with the U.S. and other suppliers of nuclear fuel and technology, India refused to accept standard international procedures for tracking imported uranium throughout the fuel cycle.

And finally, its nuclear liability law (though not explicitly addressed as one of the NSG requirements for India) contains provisions that differ substantially from the Convention on Supplementary Compensation, to which India acceded in February of this year. Given these perceived deficiencies in Indian behavior, certain Western European states (and many nonproliferation experts) argue that India does not yet share mainstream views about a range of international nuclear commitments and

thus would actively dilute the NSG's commitment to nonproliferation and seek to weaken the group's ties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if it became a member.

Given the mixed bag that is India's nuclear policy since 2005, do U.S. claims that India is "ready" for NSG membership stand up?

The answer is, not yet.

Prior to the 2008 NSG exemption, some American lawmakers and Western European NSG members called for India to adopt stronger nonproliferation policies.

These included signing and ratifying the CTBT, facilitating negotiations on the FMCT, and adopting stronger safeguards. Still, the Bush administration chose not to condition its support for India's NSG exemption on such commitments. The Obama administration has effectively continued this policy by unconditionally supporting India's membership.

India's actions and commitments in 2008 were sufficient to secure an exemption to the NSG's guidelines, but in 2016, they are insufficient to merit membership. Significantly, India does not meet one of the major factors for membership - being a party to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The U.S. has argued that despite its status outside the

NPT, India is sufficiently likeminded regarding nonproliferation to merit membership.

Some skeptics, such as Switzerland, might be amenable to this argument if India demonstrated support for nonproliferation through concrete actions. Others, such as Austria, Ireland or New Zealand,may remain opposed on principle unless India joins the NPT, which is extremely unlikely as this would require Delhi to disarm. More broadly, NSG members internally dispute whether the Group should include all countries that engage in the trade of nuclear or dualuse goods, or, only states that share a common commitment to upholding nonproliferation principles and standards.

Unlike in 2008, when pressure from Bush administration officials was the key to securing a consensus vote on India's NSG waiver, U.S. President Barack Obama has not undertaken a similar campaign to secure Indian membership. The task of achieving consensus today is more daunting than in 2008, due to some members' negative perceptions about India's performance since then and their unfavorable memories of U.S. pressure. Yet, while the current policy of unconditional support perhaps satisfies Delhi, it does not address skeptics' arguments that India will water down the nonproliferation regime and stands no chance of securing Indian

Startling Revelation

AIUDF Chief Badaruddin Ajmal (Photo: thehindu)

Sir, The Press conference addressed by Mehdi Alam Borah brought to the fore many facts hitherto hidden under the carpet. The much hyped issue of alliance between the AIUDF Chief Badaruddin Ajmal and Tarun Gogoi of the congress kept veiled so far by these two leaders, at last came to light and it also transpired that if congress can win the election, Badaruddin Ajmal would be the Deputy Chief-minister. By their superb acting, these two politicians mesmerized the people keeping them in the dark about their secret alliance, this is no mean an achievement! At a time, when there is an abiding apprehension among all the indigenous people that the day is not far, they would be outnumbered on their own

soil by the migrants, in the 'Vision Document 2016' of AIUDF, its main focus is on 'D' voters, compounding the apprehension. It sounds like scratching an old sore and make it bleed again. The Nellie episode being incorporated in the vision document 2016 puts the AIUDF in poor light. Let all the people of Assam live a dignified and tension free life maintaining perfect communal - harmony instead of dancing to the tune of the politicians with vested interest. We fail to understand, why such sensitive issues should surface only on election time.

Yours etc.

Ashok Bordoloi Dibrugarh

membership.

To increase the likelihood of consensus on Indian membership while strengthening the nonproliferation regime in the process, the Obama administration should now consider an alternative approach. This should involve presenting the country with nonproliferation commitments that would address perceived deficiencies and bring India's nuclear policies and practices closer in line with other declared Nuclear Weapons States. The primary U.S. objective would therefore not be to create new universal requirements. For India, agreeing to nonproliferation-minded commitments and addressing deficiencies in its current practices could be a way to prove its active support for the objectives of the NPT, without joining it.

As an important global partner for the United States and a leader in Asia, India's half-inhalf-out nuclear status should not remain permanently unresolved. The months ahead of the June 2016 NSG Plenary provide a likely final opportunity for President Obama to make progress on Indian membership and to develop, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nonproliferation commitments that might improve India's image as a responsible nuclear power. Courtesy:The diplomat

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

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

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DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

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Why Should I Restrict Myself To One 'Culture' When My Heart Belongs To So Many Cities?

Writing this article at 21 herself doesn't know feels like penning a what her heart says. She chapter of my autobiog- hasn't yet found the raphy, or chalking out a place which gives her mental map of my nu- that sense of belonging, merous thoughts. This which she can talk about article comes from a girl with pride, that culture w h o which has her Deepika Srivastava she can roots in don and Lucknow, was born in walk around with pride.

Delhi, has lived in She is an active particiGurgaon, Ahmedabad pant and an active and Bengaluru and as- dancer during Navratri pires to take up her first in Ahmedabad; she job in Kolkata. Kolkata danced till she broke her seems the obvious bone during Ganesh choice. The Lokmanya Chaturthi in Bengaluru; Tilak route must be com- she just can't stop enjoypleted. ing the parathas at The girl is left numb 'Parathe wali gali' when asked the most inPurani Dilli; Lucknowi basic question: "Where chikankari kurtas have do you hail from, flooded her wardrobe; tumhaari mitti kaunsi and she just can't wait hai?" She shies away to blow the shell in from saying Lucknow Kolkata. Despite loving as she has hardly been and respecting all these there though it is her an- equally, she doesn't cestral place. Delhi - know which to call her Nayi Dilli - is a city own. Will she ever formed by migrants, and know? it is difficult to originally This is perhaps the story hail from there. Most of of the many service the time she gets away class people who have with Delhi, but that's not embraced the booming what her heart says. She cosmopolitan culture

with open arms. And it does creep into our everyday life, sub-consciously and super-consciously. After all, we migrate and become a part of the culture of that place. Even if we don't, our social life ensures it happens. We dance, we play merry, come back in the night and then the lights are out. Have we embraced that culture or simply accepted it for societal reasons? What does it mean to embrace, and what does it mean to accept? We accept the numerous acquaintances in our daily life, but do we embrace them all?

The dictionary says that to embrace is to hug, or accept with an open heart. Most of the nonGujaratis in Gujarat and many across the world have embraced Garba and Dandiya. But, is it a part of their culture?

How do they make it a part of their culture? Do they want to make it a part of their culture? If

Image for representational purpose (Photo: cdn.youthkiawaaz.)

so, what is culture?

The word culture comes across as a paradox. On one hand, it is associated with art, literature, music - things which seem accessible only to the elite. On the other hand, it is a part of one's daily life - phrases like work culture, consumer culture, beer culture have been doing the rounds since one can remember. It is pristine

yet utilitarian, exclusive yet inclusive, evolving yet constant, understood yet misunderstood; amid all of this, clearly a paradox, a paradox whose death, whose non-existence would make us all totalitarian beasts, the paradox which makes us human.

Since the advent of the information age, there have been numerous discussions, numerous de-

Why 1000s Of Innocent People Continue To Die Everyday In Turkey And Syria For the layman, the situa- by exterminating the ISIS in Ankara. The attacks tion in Turkey might seem and protecting the oil mines were allegedly carried out to be a political disarray, for the United States thus by the Syrian Kurds though but it is somewhat more becoming an ally of the they never took responsicomplicated than that. Tur- Western Super Power. bility for the incident. Folkey boasts a rich history However, this is not what lowing this Russia banned and is one of the most de- the Turks perceive. In- tourism and imposed sancveloped nations of West stead, they see the PKK as tions on economic dealings Asia, but of late war is a looming threat approach- with Turkey leading to a brewing within its perim- ing to take over their terri- downward spiral for the eters. Syria has been at war tory. With Turkey fighting Turkish economy. Moresince 2013 but now with the PKK, continuous shell- over, this time, Turkey can the pro and ing, and be said to be on its own, anti-Assad ground war with even NATO refusing Sayoni Biswas forces and is a harsh re- to help in case the war esthe rise of the ality for the calates or Moscow attacks extremist Islamic State country currently.

Ankara. The way Putin has (ISIS), violence and civil- Meanwhile, Turkey is un- intervened in the Syrian ian strife are at an all time der pressure from the Eu- crisis can be said to be high. The issue, therefore, ropean Union to stem the "geopolitical buccaneering" is a humanitarian one. flow of the refugees. The (something quite similar to With the rising refugee cri- complexity of the situation what he did in Georgia and sis spilling into Europe, is such that while Turkey Crimea.)

Turkey serves as the cen- is supporting the rebels to At the end of the day, one tral connecting land for the bring down the Syrian wants peace and free elecmigrating millions. The president, Russia, on the tions in the region. America economy has deteriorated, and Russia has now imposed sanctions on Turkey.

But how did Russia get involved in this situation all of a sudden?

We know that the USA has been a part of the program for the annihilation of ISIS. So how are the super powers co-operating and acting in this situation? The UN Security Council is now being called upon to look issues concerning major humanitarian crisis.

Turkey sharing a common REUTERS/Sertac Kayar border with Syria is at the receiving end of crossfire other hand, stands by and the world want the end from four major factions - Bashar-Al-Assad and his of groups like ISIS and Al USA, Russia, The Euro- troupes. In fact, Russia Nusra Front. If this happean Union and NATO. has even joined hands with pens, one might even witThe question of the hour the Syrian Kurds to get ness Bashar-Al-Assad conis: how to deal with the per- even with Turkey. tinue through the transitional sistent refugee problem, But Why And How Did period. But Putin's plans restore peace and save the Russia Get Involved In might have to wait as gradually sinking economy. This War? Erdogan is equally ruthless One must analyse the roles In November 2015, Tur- and choleric. If the two preof the different power key shot down a Russian mieres settle their differgroups to see what the warplane, further adding ences by goodwill, then present state of politics is to its woes by angering peace might be restored to Putin. State premieres the region. in the region.

We have to understand the Erdogan and Putin, of Tur- How Is The United States situation in Turkey with key and Russia respec- Involved In This Matter? respect to Syria, since the tively, might have shared Initially, Turkey was reluctwo share a common bor- a cordial relation before, tant to help America launch der and are exposed to ci- but this incident turned the an attack against Syria, thus vilian strife and war among relationship sour almost mutually reaching an undervarious pro and anti-Assad instantly. Putin wanted standing with the USA to factions on a continuing Erdogan to repent create an ISIS-Kurdish free basis. Turkey is petrified of publically and apologise for zone on the Turkish border. the Syrian Kurds or the this incident, but that did However when Turkey atKurdish fighters (also not happen. tacked Syria intending to known as the PKK or While such high voltage take on the ISIS, the PKK YGB). Though earlier drama unfolded with Rus- (Kurdistan Workers Party) termed as a terrorist orga- sia, two deadly twin blasts got involved. Being the nization, the Kurdish fight- had wrecked inhuman greatest allies of America, ers changed their stance to havoc killing more than 100 PKK has a huge stake in become 'freedom fighters' and injuring many others controlling the Islamic state

and, unfortunately, the United States did not take Turkey's attack on their allies kindly.

Sharif Nashashibi's article in Aljazeera says that Kurds might be both the pawns and kings in this war. They have both territorial gain and weaponry access. At the same time, they enjoy the support of the super powers. While so far the Syrian Kurds had been fighting the Islamic State, now they are making territorial advances towards Turkey. This situation has understandably angered Turkey causing tensions between them and the USA. There is a clash of interests that could lead to a significant conflict in the days to come.

What About NATO And Other European Countries?

The situation is complex.

NATO has to make sure that it stands behind its member states while avoiding any conflict with Russia. Turkey can ask for help from NATO invoking clauses 4 and 5, but NATO has made it clear that it does not want to get involved in this matter. Turkish and Russian forces have been fighting on the Turkish-Syrian border for quite some time now, and the situation seems volatile.

Meanwhile, Turkey is still negotiating on the idea of sending ground troops to Syria to cut off the Syrian Kurds completely, but according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, this would be like giving Putin an open invitation to join the war and bring their forces to the fore.

In a way, Putin is attempting to host a hybrid war whereby he will be able to destabilise NATO as an organization which has no power over its member states. Putin is trying to divide further Europe by supporting the Syrian refugee crisis and trying to escalate refugee problems in Turkey. While Germany needs cooperation to handle the refugee crisis along with Turkey, it is, on the one hand, failing to give any assurance to Ankara. It's a situation of jeopardy.

In Conclusion

The situation in Syria and Turkey is quite vulnerable. While Turkey is continuing to attack Syrian Kurds, Russia is also planning to take concrete steps to launch shelling on Turkey despite the peace deal between USA and Russia. Turkey meanwhile continues to shell the Syrian territory. The UN Security Council is not being summoned to protect the Syrian civilians. But as reports from Azaz confirm (the ground zero in Syria's civil war a border town) the shelling hasn't stopped. Turkey is also not happy with the USA's role in this region. According to Turkey, USA has only enabled Russia. So Turkey is unhappy with the USA and the Russian role.

Meanwhile, from a humanitarian point of view, the civil war has escalated. The number of killings has increased with the given time. People are living in acute misery and poverty. The United Nations Security Council should look into this matter and impose some sanctions on all the warring nations. Provisions for a peace accord between the states are necessary so that these killings can stop. The recent attack in Ankara which has killed around 30 people and injured more than 150 people, speaks of the great divide between the Kurds and the Turkey government. In the meanwhile, Turkey is demanding financial aid from NATO, since it has already spent 10 billion dollars on solving the refugee crisis.

Erdogan's authoritarian rule is also not going down well with the people since the rights of free media has been curtailed. The United States and NATO are somewhat overlooking this step that has been taken by Erdogan and are being criticised by the local Turkish media for doing nothing.

The world is now looking at these countries with bated breath to see how far the warring factions go and how soon peace can be restored to this region. Courtesy: Youthkiawaaz

bates about how the current generation is losing their culture; how culture is gradually waning, yet, how profound the influences of one's culture are. It is worth wondering how something as intangible as culture can wane, or how something as constantly evolving as culture can be lost, or how something as subjective as culture can remain

uninfluenced.

Embracing cultures these two words have frankly had me boggled.

At the surface level, it sounds quite simple, but as the shovel digs deeper the coarser gravel is unearthed. We all have indeed embraced other cultures on some level in this global age, but still have a long way to go. While we talk about embracing other cultures, it is far more important to understand and embrace our own.

Culture and identity are synonymous. It is important to stand tall in the crowd. So what if one is a migrant? He too can have, or develop his own culture. Not staying connected to one's roots due to inevitable circumstances doesn't mean that culture is lost, it means that the culture has travelled, it has undertaken a new journey, it has evolved.

Culture is like DNA, unique for all. Each individual evolves differently and so does his/her cul-

ture. This holds even more significance today when every other person is tagged among the diaspora. Some of the diasporas are looking to form their own community within the larger cross-cultural community, to protect their identity, to protect their culture; the cultural affinity arising from a common place of belonging. It seems the more probable and accepted way to go. It gives immense comfort, but it would be more comforting to wear your own culture, your own identity like that sacred black thread and be an integral part in the cross-communion, where all cultures, all peoples evolve together.

The nature of culture is to evolve, just like people. Our motherland has truly embraced all cultures equally, it is high-time we did too.

And that girl who doesn't know which culture to call her own, which place to call her own, she could just say, "Hi, I am Deepika, I am an Indian."

Courtesy:Youthkiawaaz

Abuse In A Relationship Is Not A 'Personal Matter', And Here's Why We Need To Speak Up "He beats her every day choose to suffer in silence After tolerating it for a year, even though her frail body in cases of domestic vio- she finally confessed to her cannot take it. She cries lence because the society friends. She was comand their own families pletely heartbroken. The to sleep every night."

"What a disgusting man. stop them from taking a ones who stepped up for And why is the woman so stand or because they are her were chided by that guy. weak? Why is she putting scared to let go of the 'sta- And the rest simply disbility' of married life. missed it as a personal matup with this abuse?"

"She is in a pitiable state. Many are stopped by their ter.

She is in no position to own emotional vulnerabil- I ask you all, how can we ity. I treat it as a regular confronspeak f o r Snigdha Priyadarshini a l - tation? Is violence in a relaw a y s tionship to be looked upon herthought as a personal matter? And self."

"That is just sad. Wish it was the institution of why do we refrain from someone had taught him marriage that made people voicing ourselves? Do you suffering from abuse un- really think anyone chooses a lesson."

"We have to do something able to speak up or walk it or voluntarily signs up for it? about it. Should we all out. confront him? Should we But I see this girl, with I had a friend who was in report him to the police?" mental scars even deeper an abusive relationship for "Stay out of it. It is their than her physical ones. a few months. Luckily she personal matter. We Yes, the abuse is both managed to walk away should not be interfering physical and mental and from it. But she was a she has suffered for far wreck even after it. in this."

When we talk about instances of abuse, or violence in relationships, we talk as if they're distant events. We will speak about it, debate on it and demand laws. But when the time comes to act, we tell ourselves that it is none of our business.

When a confession of abuse is made, the person goes through a lot of emotional turmoil and needs a great deal of courage to do so. And when we dismiss Image for representational purpose (Photo: it as a 'personal matter', thoughtcatalog.files.wordpress) we push that person back into that hell to fight alone. too long. And now that she Don't you think actions like Abuse isn't something un- finally disclosed it to the this should be dealt with heard of; sometimes it ones close to her, she is even more severely because happens in our own still in a dilemma and the most trusted person household, sometimes in blames herself. And even chose to become the the neighbourhood, some- though she has been in a abuser? times with a distant friend. relationship (not a matri- Why does the law fail to But it isn't uncommon monial relationship), she protect the survivors in even when we choose to finds it impossible to walk such cases and, on the conignore it. We keep think- out because she has been trary, blames them for it? ing that it cannot hit so manipulated and condi- And we sit here and call close to home. And when tioned to believe that she abuse a personal matter and it does, we either suffer needs that guy and what- dismiss it till someone close or choose to look the ever he does is right. to us is subjected to abuse.

That guy slaps her anytime Anyone can be a victim of other way.

A few days back, I got to he wants to and vents his abuse irrespective of their know that a girl who I see frustrations on her. Over sex. It is about time we every day and occasion- time, she has learnt to ac- started reinforcing the idea ally talk to, has been suf- cept it. He humiliates her of consent in society infering in an abusive rela- in the public and does not stead of 'victim shaming'. tionship for over a year. allow her to mix with other It is about time we realised That girl is an acquain- guys likely due to his own that it is never the fault of tance of a close friend of insecurities. The last time the individual that suffers mine. And when I got to she tried to walk away, he abuse and that abuse is know the horrid details of brainwashed her into think- never a 'personal matter'. It the relationship, I was ut- ing that she is to be blamed is about time we raised our for all that he did and all that voice. terly shocked.

Courtesy: I know how some women he continues to do to her. youthkiawaaz

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

BUSINESS

PAGE 10

USD 3 billion poured in stock markets by FPI $10 million to be New Delhi, Apr 4: Overseas investors have pumped in over Rs 21,000 crore (over USD 3 billion) into Indian equity markets in March, after pulling out massive funds in the preceding four months. However, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 1,476 crore in the debt markets during the period under review.

Market experts attributed the huge inflows to continued hopes that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would bring down

DoT again pushes back deadline on network gear testing by April 2017 New Delhi, Apr 4: The Department of Telecom has once again extended compliance of the clause mandating testing of network equipment by one year to April 1, 2017. "Approval of the authority on extension of requirement of security certification of telecom equipment only from authorised and certified agencies/labs within India has been received for 12 months from April 1, 2016, to April 1, 2017," DoT said in a letter to telecom service providers.

To allay fears of cyber espionage, DoT in 2011 had amended licence which made telecom operators install only those equipment in their network that are safe and certified by international reputed agencies until March 31, 2013. Earlier, DoT set April 1, 2013 as the cut-off from when mandatory certificate was required from authorised and certified agencies within India. But failure to set up a lab that could test security in high-end equipment led to DoT extending the date by three years to April 1, 2016. According to sources, the issue of setting up a full-fledged testing lab has not yet been resolved, hence the extension. (Agencies)

M K Surana appointed in as the new CMD of Hindustan Petroleum Bengaluru, Apr 4: M K Surana has taken over as the new Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, the nation's second largest state oil refining and marketing company. Government appointed him as the head of HPCL on retirement of Nishi Vasudeva on March 31, a company press statement said here.

Prior to this appointment, Surana was Chief Executive Officer of Prize Petroleum Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary and upstream arm of HPCL, since September 2012. Surana is a mechanical engineer, with a Master's degree in Financial Management. "He has a wide exposure in the Oil and Gas Industry spanning over 33 years, handling various responsibilities including business leadership positions. He has been closely involved in strategy formulation, business process re-engineering, major projects implementation, refinery operations, corporation wide ERP implementation and acquisition & management of upstream assets," the statement added. (Agencies)

the monetary policy rate at its first policy meet of 2016-17 on April 5. Additionally, a lower retail inflation at 5.18 per cent in February provides more room for RBI to act, they added. According to the data available with depositories, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) invested Rs 21,143 crore in equities last month, while they withdrew Rs 1,476 crore in the debt markets, leading to a net inflow of Rs 19,667 crore (USD 2.93 billion). FPIs have

POURING IN Overseas investors have pumped in over Rs 21,000 crore (over USD 3 billion) into Indian equity markets in March, after pulling out massive funds in the preceding four months.

However, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 1,476 crore in the debt markets during the period under review.

turned net buyers of equities in March after

According to the data available with depositories, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) invested Rs 21,143 crore in equities last month, while they withdrew Rs 1,476 crore in the debt markets, leading to a net inflow of Rs 19,667 crore (USD 2.93 billion).

FPIs have turned net buyers of equities in March after pulling out a massive Rs 41,661 crore from the market in the previous four months (November to February).

Additionally, a lower retail inflation at 5.18 per cent in February provides more room for RBI to act.

Overall, in 2015-16, FPIs have pulled out Rs 14,171 crore from equities and another Rs 4,004 crore debt taking the total to Rs 18,175 crore.

pulling out a massive Rs 41,661 crore from the

market in the previous four months (November

to February). Overall, in 2015-16, FPIs have pulled out Rs 14,171 crore from equities and another Rs 4,004 crore debt taking the total to Rs 18,175 crore. This was the first outflow of overseas funds from Indian capital markets in seven years. Capital inflows by FPIs are often referred to as hot money due to their unpredictability, although the funds continue to remain one of the key drivers of the stock market.

(Agencies)

India's first cash giving app 'CASHe' launched ANI New Delhi, Apr 4: Tslc Pte Ltd., a fin-tech company promoted by serial entrepreneur and private equity investor V. Raman Kumar, today announced the launch of its all new mobile-only lending platform - CASHe, providing users a personalized experience to borrow cash anytime, anywhere within minutes. CASHe is Raman Kumar's most ambitious tech venture that redefines credit in a smart, social world. CASHe was launched in Mumbai at a glittering ceremony today with Bollywood's rising star Arjun Kapoor unveiling the product. He was joined by CASHe's eminent Board of Advisors comprising Dr. Rakesh Mohan, Former Deputy Governor of RBI and Director IMF, Suhel Seth, well known marketing

Image for representational purpose.

(Photo:indianews) guru and media personality and Yezdi Lashkari, tech thought leader. "CASHe is the ideal platform for consumers to take control of their short term finances", said V Raman Kumar, Chairman of TSLC PTE LTD. "Today's young professionals have different aspirations and needs not very well addressed by the present banking system.

We are simplifying their borrowing experience

with CASHe. With this new smart phone platform we will be providing immediate cash loans based on their social profile, merit and earning potential using our proprietary algorithms and machine learning. All loans through CASHe will be disbursed

by OneCapitall Ltd. An RBI - registered NBFC," he stated. CASHe uses sophisticated proprietary technology that mines the

borrowers' social network and requests basic documentation to arrive at a "Social Loan Quotient" (SLQ) and a loan eligibility amount. Using multiple unique data points to arrive at a distinct credit profile for the customer, CASHe will transform traditional credit measurements, providing financial inclusion to underserved young professionals who are kept out by traditional credit rating and banking systems. By providing basic information on a smart phone, professionals can avail of - within minutes a convenient 15-day loan for a one-time processing fee with no other hidden costs, no painful paper work and no human interaction. CASHe's target clients are young professionals between 20-35 years old. Upon confirming eligibility, these employed

individuals can avail of a loan of up to 40 percent of their monthly income instantaneously at a rate of interest on par with credit cards. Film star, Arjun Kapoor stated, "Today's generation believes in instant gratification. If I have to speak on behalf of the generation I represent then I'd say our fundamental belief in life is to work hard but party harder and at most instances we run out of resources to cater to our fast paced lifestyles. Saving money is more important to my parent's generation than it is to my generation.

CASHe will be the go-to app to raise immediate and efficient money.

CASHe is a great way to ensure financial independence and responsibility at the same time. I am delighted to be associated with CASHe".

Drought-hit AP tobacco growers worried by stoppage in output Ongole, Apr 4: Tobacco growers in drought-prone Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh state are a worried lot as cigarette manufacturers have stopped production to protest against the larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. The development is likely to lead to a market correction in the coming weeks, fears a group of growers coming under the Ongole II auction platform, which is pressing for market intervention by the Union and State governments. The governments should come up with a comprehensive policy, keeping in view the interests of all stakeholders, including growers, according to the growers.

The growers pleaded with the Centre to allow foreign players to directly take part in the auctions and invite foreign direct investment (FDI) into the sector to turn India into a definite market. The Centre should review its decision and reduce the pictorial warning to 50 per cent as recommended by the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation, considering the fact that about 45.7 million people, including farmers, farm labourers, and workers were dependent on the tobacco sector, they said. The larger pictorial warning would only encourage smuggling of cigarettes further into the country, particularly when illegal cigarettes ac-

Former Tobacco Board member M. Bangarababu.

(Photo: thehindu) counted for one-fifth of the total industry in the country. "The present situation is not at all encouraging for the growers, whose hopes of bright grade tobacco touching Rs.160 per kg during the next one week

fading," said former Tobacco Board member M. Bangarababu. "Growers are ready to quit tobacco farming if the Centre announces compensation for dismantling tobacco barns," said SR Congress farmers' wing district

president M. Subba Reddy. Farmers should get least Rs. 25 per kg on an average to breakeven this year, said V. Prasad, Farmers' Association president in Ongole II auction platform. The farmers would be forced to take to the warpath if the governments remained indifferent to their concerns, he said. Farmers in the district were able to sell 11.50 million kg of the total estimated production of 67.20 million kg at an average price of Rs. 136.08 per kg. While exporters adopted a waitand-watch approach, manufacturers bought bright grade tobacco for a price up to Rs.130 per kg, Tobacco Board sources said.

Pre-seed funding received by highway tech start-up

G Sabarinathan, faculty member at IIMB. (Photo: indiatransportportal) Gurgaon, Apr 4: Highway Delite, a tech startup focused on highways, has received an undis-

closed amount of preseed funding from the N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial

Learning- the incubation unit of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. The firm helps travellers find hotels and restaurants while travelling on highway via an app. It also assists them during emergency situations such as accidents, vehicle breakdown and if they require healthcare services. The app which is available on Google's Android platform also provides insights about specific accident zones.

"They (highway delite) are addressing an opportunity in the travel discovery and delivery space which no one else is addressing," said G

Sabarinathan, faculty member at IIMB. "Travelling the highways to gather information and rating critical services available there requires lot of hard work."

Founded last year by Rajesh G, a former engineer at German auto supplier Bosch, 'highway delite' has taken a challenging task of verifying the services available on highways. It aims to cover about 2.25 lakh kms. Mr. Rajesh said there are increasing number of road accidents on highways and incidents of travellers being harassed.

"Our approach is to verify highway services and

provide safe and hygienic options to travellers," he said. Mr. Rajesh realised the problem during a consulting job with rating agency ICRA, which made him travel into the deep pockets of India.

"During these trips I almost always ended up having bad stomach or terrible nights in unknown hotels," said Mr. Rajesh.

"Further I have made road trips with my family and first hand experienced the problems of finding hygienic washroom and decent food," he said. More than 800 million people travel on National and State highways. (Agencies)

raised by Photo Concierge

Photo Concierge co-founder, Shefalii Dadabhoy.

(Photo: paulwriter) Pune, Apr 4: Photo Concierge, a digital marketplace is planning to raise $10 million by the yearend to meet its expansion plans. The Bengalurubased start-up firm is also planning to add one million contributions through 1,000 contributors. Currently, it has more than 500 contributors and one lakh media contributions under 50 different categories. Photo Concierge was co-founded by Shefalii Dadabhoy, along with three others in February, 2016 with an initial funding of $1.5 million. Started as one-stop shop for any image requirement, Photo Concierge offers you the chance of creating content and showcasing it to the global buyers for monetising it. It can be images, videos or vectors. "Whether you are a professional, amateur or selfie photographer, just take a snap and post it on the digital marketplace.

Chances are that it might fetch a good price from an unknown buyer," Ms. Shefalii said. Photo Con-

cierge has a unique feature called 'Request' wherein brand, company or individual buyer can specify their exact media requirement, budget and timeframe. Shefalii said: "When we started sourcing for images, we could not get the right type of image within our budget.

Immediately, we hit upon the idea of floating a digital platform wherein one can share precious, rare or prestigious pictures with others for a special rate. Besides, offering photos, videos and vectors, we conduct photo contest and blog." Photo Concierge is a global company that showcases the creativity of artists from across the world. It offers 75 per cent of the sale proceeds to the contributor. "By offering customisation to stock photography, we bring something new to the exciting and growing world of visual media. We strongly believe that the contributors should get the best value for their creations." (Agencies)

Revised estimate target of Rs 7.04 lakh beaten by indirect tax mop-up

Image for representational purpose. (Photo: barwal) New Delhi, Apr 4: Total indirect tax collection has surpassed the revised estimate target of Rs 7.04 lakh crore for 2015-16, a senior finance ministry official said. "The final figures are still not known.

But our indirect taxes revised estimate collection target was 7.04 lakh crore and tentatively provisional indirect tax collection figure is 7.09 lakh crore," Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) chairman Najib Shah told reporters here. "We have achieved targets on each of the indirect tax levies - customs, excise and service tax," Shah added.

The CBEC chairman further said the draft model law on Goods and Services Tax (GST) is getting finalised and it will be put

on public domain very soon. "GST has nothing to do with financial year...GST draft law is getting finalised. It will be put on public domain soon," Shah said. The GST Bill, India's biggest indirect tax reform since independence, seeks to replace a slew of central and state levies, transforming the nation of 1.3 billion people into a customs union. After it is approved by the Rajya Sabha, the legislation needs to be ratified by half of the 29 states so as to roll out GST possibly by October 1. Recently, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that he will reach out to the Congress again to persuade it to support the legislation.

(Agencies)

SURPASSING ESTIMATION Total indirect tax collection has surpassed the revised estimate target of Rs 7.04 lakh crore for 2015-16.

Indirect taxes revised estimate collection target was 7.04 lakh crore and tentatively provisional indirect tax collection figure is 7.09 lakh crore.

DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

Features

PAGE 11

HEALTH & LIFESTYLE Tasty Recipes from Sikkimese Kitchen Sikkim, the landlocked ion, slices of a radish, few north eastern state in In- dry red chillies, salt, oil, dia has several types of at- red chili powder and gintractions for tourists. You ger paste. cannot have enough of ex- Heat oil in a pan and stir ploring the beauty of Hi- fry the sliced onions in it. malayan Then add the range. Then Arnab Ghosh whole red the flora and chilies along fauna in Sikkim is also en- with ginger paste. Fry this thralling. Apart from the on low heat for a few more natural wealth and cultural minutes. Then pour in attractions in Sikkim is sliced radish into the mixalso amazing. You may ture and keep on frying. become fond of the cui- Finally, pour in the pork sine of the hilly state too. pieces. Add red chili powHeavily inspired by Nepal der and fry for some minand Tibet, the cuisine of utes. Add a cup of water Sikkim is a delight to ex- and cover with a lid. You plore. may also transfer the conBelow listed are a few tent into a pressure cooker. yummy and enticing reci- Cook until the meat is unpes of Sikkim. der. Serve hot with boiled Phangshapa rice.

This is a spicy pork dish Sidra Ko Chutney popular in Sikkim which This is another Nepalese has origins in Nepalese origin food that can be cuisine. It is lightly fla- served with main dishes. vored and the combination It is made with a regional of Pork and Radish makes dry fish called sidra. You it tantalizing to your taste will need 5 to 6 sidra, an buds. You will require 500 onion, red and green chilgrams of pork, sliced on- ies and salt.

Mouth-watering Sikkimese dishes (Photo: nelive ) At first, you will need to chop the onion nicely.

Then char the dry fish and chilies on flame. Then mash them well with sliced onion, salt and hot ground red chilly. Serve it with rice and other dishes.

Til ko Alu This dish goes really well

with steaming rice. You will need ingredients like 2 potatoes, sliced green chilies, a sliced onion, sesame seeds, oil and salt.

At first, you will need to dry roast the sesame seeds on a pan. Then grind it into a fine powder. De-peel the potatoes

and soak them in water.

Then sautĂŠ fry onions and chilies in the pan.

Next, add the cut potato cubes. After simmering add a small amount of water. After potato becomes soft, add the sesame seed powder. Cook for some more time and serve hot.

Courtesy: Nelive.

Health benefits of jaggery or gur Chuck white sugar and opt for jaggery instead.

Here are some of its health benefits.

Can't give up eating sugar or something sweet? It is time to switch to a healthier option, jaggery. It is essentially unrefined sugar which is obtained from raw, concentrated sugar cane juice. It is prepared by boiling sugar cane juice till it solidifies and then put into blocks. Although gur can be made from other sources namely from date palm and the sap of coconut, the one made from sugar cane juice is the most commonly used.

According to a renowned nutritionist and obesity consultant, 'Jaggery is the closest substitute to white sugar and is healthy too. It can be used exactly like sugar as you get in powder, solid and liquid form.' Not only is gur better than white sugar which only adds

Healthy jagerry (Photo: momjunction)

empty calories to your body, it also has a few health benefits. Here's why it is good for your health. #1 Prevents constipation Jaggery helps prevent and relieve constipation by stimulating bowel movements. It activates the digestive enzymes in our body and thus helps in proper digestion of your food.

This is the reason, why most people tend to eat gur after their meals. #2 Is good for anemics

Guris also an excellent source of iron, a mineral that plays a key role in the production of haemoglobin.

Hence, adding jiggery to your food preparations or eating a small amount of jaggery can actually fulfil your daily requirement of iron. This in turn, lowers your chance of suffering from iron-deficiency anemia. #3 Cleanses the liver Want to effectively detox your body? Eat a small piece of jaggery.

It helps detoxify your liver by flushing out harmful toxins from your body. #4 Treats flu-like symptoms Cough and cold, water retention, bloating and migraine are some of the minor health problems that most of us experience on an everyday basis. However, you can fight these symptoms with the help ofgur. All you need to do is mix it with warm water and drink or add it in your tea instead of sugar to reap its benefits. #5 Reduces PMS Do you experience sudden mood swings just before your periods? If yes, eat a small piece of jaggery daily to combat these symptoms of PMS. Caused due to fluctuating levels of hormones in your body, jaggery causes the release of endorphins aka happy hormones. This in turn relaxes your body and makes you

feel good thereby preventing from premenstrual syndrome. #6 Increases immunity Our body's ability to fight infections and keep us healthy is greatly dependant on our immune system.

Jaggery is loaded with antioxidants and minerals like zinc and selenium, which help prevent free-radical damage and also boost resistance against infections.

A word of caution!

Though there aren't any notable side-effects of consuming gur, it is slightly high on the number of calories - it contains 4 kcal/gram.

Hence, people who are on a weight loss diet or are diabetic should monitor their consumption as it can lead to weight gain and fluctuations in the blood sugar levels. It is best to consult your dietician before you start eating jagerry to know how much is needed by your body.

Easy uses of leftover lemons

Extremely useful lemons (Photo: media.mnn ) One of the most-used vegetables, but ignored most of the times are lemons. They are integral part of our kitchen, but they are also easily ignored and that they are extremely useful is

something we forget at times. Here are four simple ways leftover lemons can be used to do things that are exceptionally amazing.

Sparkle stained utensils If you have utensils that

have tough stains - for instance the bottom of the cooker that gets burned due to lack of water, your brass utensils that have lost shine with time. Simply leave some lemon in boiling water and you

can get rid of the stains in your cooker. Also, simply rub lemon on your brass utensils and leave them for a while and then scrub them with your regular dish washing liquid.

Remove oil and grease from hands Do you know why finger bowls at restaurants have lukewarm water dipped with a piece of lemon to wash your hands after the end of a sumptuous meal? Because of its acidic properties that helps get rid of oil and grease. In fact, you can simply rub lemon on your nails to get clean, white nails, Revive your whites The best way to revive your whites is to soak them in lemon water for some time before washing them in your regular washing powder. In fact,

it also helps you get rid of stains from your favourite white clothes.

They help the fabric clean every possible dirt due to its acidic property and brings out its original white back.

Freshen up your home Not known or used by many, the simplest way let your home and kitchen smell nice and refreshing is by planning lemons around your house. Not just the plant, which is indeed the best thing to do since it exudes an amazing fragrance, but also by rubbing lemon in white clothes and keeping them in neglected corners and changing then every twothree days to keep your home smelling nice.

Also, you can rub lemon on your kitchen platform to get rid of any foul smell.

Paleo diet can cut your future diabetes, heart risks ANI Obese, postmenopausal women, you may want to start following a Paleolithic-type diet as a new study has found that it can help you lose weight, improve circulating fatty acid profile and lower your future risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Lead author Caroline Blomquist of the Umea University said that eating a Paleolithic-type diet without calorie restriction significantly improved the fatty acid profile associated with insulin sensitivity and it reduced abdominal adiposity and body weight in obese postmenopausal women.

She added that a Paleolithic-type diet, high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, may have long-term beneficial effects on obesity-related disorders, including reduced risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Blomquist and her colleagues conducted their 24-month intervention in 70 obese postmenopausal women with normal fast-

Paleo diet (Photo: i1.wp) ing plasma glucose levels.

The Paleolithic-type diet was based on lean meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries, with rapeseed, olive oils and avocado as additional fat sources. The diet excluded dairy products, cereals, added salt and refined fats and sugar.

At 24 months, the women eating the Paleolithictype diet reported that their intake of saturated fatty acids decreased by 19 percent; of monounsaturated fatty acids increased by 47 percent; and of polyunsaturated fatty acids increased by 71 percent. The women on the prudent control diet reported no

significant changes in their intake of fatty acids.

Specific fatty acids associated with insulin resistance were significantly lower in the women eating the Paleolithic-type foods compared with those on the prudent control diet.

"Obesity-related disorders have reached pandemic proportions with significant economic burden on a global scale. It is of vital interest to find effective methods to improve metabolic balance," Blomquist advised.

The results are presented at ENDO 2016, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, in Boston.

Eat breakfast with whey protein to beat diabetes

Breakfast with whey protien (Photo: momitforward)

ANI Now, wake up to a large breakfast containing whey protein as a recent study has found that it can help manage Type 2 diabetes.

Lead author Daniela Jakubowicz of Tel Aviv University said that a high-calorie protein breakfast, medium-sized lunch and small dinner is a proven successful strategy for weight loss, improved satiety and reduced glucose spikes

throughout the day in people with obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

However, Jakubowicz added, the benefits of high protein content at breakfast also depend on the protein source and quality.

Whey protein powder, which is a byproduct of milk during cheese production, induced greater satiety and reduction of glucose spikes after meals compared to other protein sources, such as eggs, soy

or tuna.

The team randomly assigned 48 overweight and obese participants with Type 2 diabetes who were, on average, 59 years of age, to one of three diets that contained the same number of calories.

After 12 weeks, the group on whey protein lost the most weight: 7.6 kg, compared to 6.1 kg for those on the other proteins and 3.1 kg for those in the carbohydrate group.

"The whey protein diet significantly suppresses the hunger hormone 'ghrelin.'

A whey proteindrink is easily prepared and provides the advantages of a high-protein breakfast on weight loss, reduction of hunger, glucose spikes and HbA1c," Jakubowicz said.

The study is presented at ENDO 2016, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society, in Boston.

Tips to avoid overeating Are you on a weight losing spree? But do you eat right or know how to limit your fat intake to get rid of those unwanted fats? Do you also exercise almost everyday?

Let's say you've done all these but they were of not much help.

Chances are that your food portion sizes or eating habits such as binge eating may have crept up - unless you have a medical condition that's underlying your weight problem.

Here's how to avoid overeating: " Eat only when you are hungry and not out of habit. " Learn to pay attention to your body or hunger signals and stop eating before you are stuffed or when you start to feel satisfied. " Be selective of what you eat - meaning, knowing to choose the type of foods that are beneficial to weight loss like replacing processed foods with fruits and veg-

Be selective of what you eat (Photo: blogspot) etables. " Choose small portions - this is very crucial if you are on a weight loss plan because smaller portions means you consume fewer calories. Use medium sized plates when eating at home to avoid overeating. " Take time to chew your food before swallowing.

This will slow down the pace at which you are eating while allowing you to savor the flavors of your meal.

" Spare at least 20 minutes to finish your meal remember your stomach takes close to 20 minutes to send signal to the brain that it is full. " Don't skip your breakfast as doing so can make you to eat more later on. Research suggests that people who eat more fat, protein, and carbohydrates in the morning stay satisfied and eat less over the course of the day than those who don't eat breakfast.

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DIBRUGARH, TUESDAY, APRIL 5

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Kohli named captain of World T20 XI PTI Kolkata, Apr 4 : India's batting star Virat Kohli was today named captain of the ICC World Twenty20 XI, which also featured veteran seamer Ashish Nehra.

A select group of former cricketers and commentators picked up both the men's and women's teams for all conditions on the basis of the players' performances in the World T20, which concluded here last night with West Indies winning both the titles.

Kohli was adjudged Man of the Tournament for his sublime form which made him the backbone of India's batting line-up.

He scored 273 runs with a staggering average of 136.50 and an equally astounding strike-rate of

India's batting star Virat Kohli 146.77 with three 50 plus scores.

The prolific right-hander hit 29 boundaries and five sixes in all and was second in the list of leading run-getters behind Tamim Iqbal of Bangladesh, who scored 295 runs.

Nehra handed India an early breakthrough in almost every game. He took only five wickets but was economical in all five games.

Besides two Indians, the men's team also comprised four players from runners-

up England, two from the West Indies and one each from Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand and South Africa. It also included a 12th man in Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh. The team did not feature any Pakistani player.

The women's team, meanwhile, did not have any Indian cricketer. It comprised four players from New Zealand, two players each from Australia, England and the West Indies, and one each from Pakistan and South Africa.

Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies was named skipper of the women's team.

Announcing the squads, ICC General Manager, Cricket, Geoff Allardice, who chaired the meeting, said: "The experts had

an extremely difficult task to select the men's and women's squads from around 400 cricketers who represented the 26 teams, thanks to outstanding performances by all the players at this hugely successful event.

Men's World T20 XI: Jason Roy (England), Quinton de Kock (South Africa, wicketkeeper), Vi r a t K o h l i ( I n d i a , captain), Joe Root (England), Jos Buttler (England), Shane Wa t s o n ( A u s t r a l i a ) , Andre Russell (West Indies), Mitchell Santner (New Zealand), David Willey (England), Samuel Badree (West Indies), Ashish Nehra (India), 12th man -- Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh).

Sachin takes on Windies Cricket Board post 'champions' win WT20 ANI New Delhi, Apr. 4 : Following the smashing victory by the West Indies in the World Twenty20 in the Men's, Women's and the under 19 sections, Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar call on the West Indies Cricket Board to supports its team and address their concerns.

"WI players emerged true champions overcoming challenges on & off the field. West Indian Board should support them & address their concerns," Sachin tweeted after the match.

West Indies pulled off a sensational run-chase as they thumped England by four wickets in front of an electric crowd at the Eden Gardens to become the first team to lift the World Twenty20 title twice.

Post the nail biting victory,

an emotional Darren Sammy slammed the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) branding their attitude as 'disappointing'.

"People were wondering whether we would play this tournament, we had issues with the board, Mark Nicholas called us 'players with no brain'. But all of us came together, these 15 men put adversity aside and played this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans. It was tremendous. I want to thank the coaching team, Phil Simmons," Sammy said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dwayne Bravo said that he along with some other players were being shunned from the 50 over squad by the Board and that the country's cricket is 'not in right hands'.

"If we look at the calendar, we don't have anymore T20 matches this year. We are not picked for the ODIs. There's a series that's going to happen with South Africa but we will be playing in England (Natwest Blast) whereas we should have been playing for the West Indies.

Look at the love we get over here. Even the BCCI does more for us than our board," Bravo told Star Sports post the match.

West Indies cricket has been swarmed with controversies which ranged from politics to bankruptcy and it has often affected the team's tours and series.

However, the country's performance in the WorldT20 format across all charts is bound to mark a strong difference to the state of cricket in the nation.

Samuels reignites Warne feud Djokovic overtakes Federer as Cricket fraternity rallies after World T20 triumph all-time prize money earner around crestfallen Ben Stokes

West Indies veteran batsman Marlon Samuels ANI Kolkata, April 4 : West Indies veteran batsman Marlon Samuels has launched a blistering tirade on Australian spin legend Shane Warne after his match-winning performance against England guided his side to their second World Twenty20 title.

"This is for Shane Warne," said Samuels, while accepting his Man-of-theMatch award for his unbeaten 85-run knock in the final as West Indies defeated England by thrilling four wickets to become the first side to win the coveted trophy twice.

Samuels has had a long history of strained relationship with Warne. It erupted in the second season of the Big Bash League in 2013 when the leg-spinner's throw from a close range whizzed by Samuels' face after which Samuels responded angrily by hurling his bat in the bowler's direction.

The latest attack came in the wake of Warne's comments on Samuels, who was described as 'embarrassing' and 'pretty boring' after his dismissal for eight during the high-octane semifinal clash against hosts India in Mumbai on Thursday.

"Every team I play for, Shane Warne has a problem with me," said Samuels while continuing his verbal tirade against the Australian. "I don't know what, I've never disrespected him, it seems he has a lot inside him that he needs to come out with.

I don't appreciate the way that he continues to talk about me, and the things he keeps doing. I don't know, maybe it is because my face is real and his face is not."

However, Samuels was fined 30 per cent of his match fee for using abusive and offensive language directed at Ben Stokes after Carlos Braithwaite hit the bowler for four successive sixes.

ANI Melbourne, Apr 4 : World number one Novak Djokovic has surpassed his Swiss rival Roger Federer as the highest prize money earner of all-time in the men's tennis after winning the Miami Open for a consecutive third time.

Djokovic's 6-3, 6-3 win over Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori in the Miami Open final pushed his on-court earnings to 98.2 million dollars.

Meanwhile, 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer has won 97.9 million dollars as prize money.

The Serbian also matched former world number one Andre Agassi's Miami record

World number one Novak Djokovic total of six crowns on the Florida hardcourt, news.com.au reported.

With the win, Djokovic com-

pleted the US double of Miami and Indian Wells for the third year in a row and fourth time overall.

'Road to Rio' toughest of my career so far: Shiva Thapa PTI New Delhi, Apr 4 : The only Indian boxer to have qualified for this year's Olympics so far, Shiva Thapa today said the 'Road to Rio' has been the toughest journey of his career till date even though he has shut his mind to the myriad problems that engulf the sport in the country.

The 22-year-old Assam boy, who last year became only the third Indian boxer ever to clinch a World Championship bronze, won a silver medal and more importantly an Olympic quota berth at the just-concluded Asia/Oceania Zone Qualifiers in Qian'an, China.

With this, the world No.6 in bantamweight category is set for his second successive Olympic appearance after making his debut back in 2012 as an 18-year-old. At that time, he became the youngest Indian boxer ever to have qualified for the quadrennial extrava-

ganza, winning a sensational gold medal in the qualifiers.

"This time, it's been mentally more challenging and certainly the toughest of my career. I had a point to prove, deep inside perhaps I was very angry and wanted to show what I could do," Shiva told PTI in an interview.

"That's why when I won the semifinal bout, which assured me of an Olympic spot, I let out a huge scream in the ring. It was a lot of pent up emotions which came out. I don't need to say how tough it has been for us in India because of all that has happened in the last few years and it was such a relief to qualify and beat the circumstances," he said.

India has been without a national federation for almost a year now after Boxing India was terminated following a rebellion by state units.

That termination was a continuation of the turmoil that engulfed the sport in 2012 when the erstwhile Indian Amateur Boxing Federation was dissolved owing to manipulation in elections.

As a result, Indian boxers are competing under the International Boxing Association (AIBA) flag and could even be barred by the world body from Olympics if a national federation does not take shape by May 14.

Asked if this AIBA threat plays on his mind, the former Asian champion simply breaks into laughter.

"I don't think about it and I am being honest here.

That's the best possible way to deal with it, I just shut my mind to all this. Everybody knows we boxers have gone through a lot and still managed to perform. So, it's best not to think about it too much," he said.

Sammy flays West Indies Cricket Board post World T20 triumph ANI Kolkata, Apr 4 : West Indies captain Darren Sammy has criticised his country's cricket board after the Caribbean side became the first side to lift the World Twenty20 title twice following a thrilling four-wicket win over England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

"We had lots of issues, people wondered whether we would play this tournament," said an emotional Sammy after his side pulled off a sensational chase with two balls to spare in the final.

"We felt disrespected by

our board. Mark Nicholas (the English commentator) described us as a team with no brains. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together.

"I really want to thank these 15 men, the ability to just put all those adversities aside and to come out and play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans, it's just tremendous," Sammy added.

Veteran batsman Marlon Samuels made a scintillating 85 not out and Carlos Brathwaite (34 not out) smacked four successive

West Indies captain Darren Sammy sixes in the last over to seal the deal for the Windies.

Sammy, who also guided West Indies to the World T20 glory in

2012, thanked the coaching staff and their new manager for their support.

Earlier, the Caribbean players were locked in a

pay cut dispute with their country's cricket board, which threw their participation in jeopardy prior to the World T20.

"I'm yet to hear from our own cricket board. That is very disappointing," he added.

"I'm going to celebrate with these 15 men and coaching staff. I don't know when I'm going to be playing with these guys again because we don't get selected for one-day cricket. We don't know when we're going to be playing T20," Sammy concluded.

ANI Melbourne, Apr 4 : The cricketing world has united in giving its overwhelming support to shattered England allrounder Ben Stokes, who was hit for four consecutive sixes by Carlos Brathwaite in a thrilling finale to steer West Indies to their second World Twenty20 title.

A devastated Stokes was left squatting on the ground after he failed to replicate his deathbowling heroics, displayed during clashes against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, in the highoctane finale.

England captain Eoin Morgan was the first one to console his star all-rounder.

"It is not Ben's fault. We're all in this together as we have been from the start. I can't fault anything we did with the ball and in the field, on the whole I'm very proud of my players. It is a cruel game," said Morgan after the crushing four-wicket loss at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Subsequently, former England cricketers and other international stars took to

England all-rounder Ben Stokes microblogging site Twitter to extend their support to the devastated star, news.com.au reported. "@benstokes38 is still my hero !! @englandcricket," tweeted former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.

"Just a hiccup, @benstokes38!

Happens to all great players who put their hands up under pressure! You are a STAR! Braithwaite take a bow!," said former England batsman Kevin

Pietersen.

Meanwhile, former South African opener Herschelle Gibbs said: "Part of the learning curve @benstokes38 ..you'll still go on and become a great of the game in all formats #classispermanent."

Overwhelmed by the support, a classy Stokes then thanked everyone who supported England in the tournament and also wished West Indies for winning the coveted prize.

Rosberg maintains perfect start in Bahrain Manama, Apr 4 : Nico Rosberg consolidated his lead in this year's embryonic drivers world championship in emphatic fashion on Sunday when he seized a well-judged victory for Mercedes in a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix.

Making the most of his teammate and defending champion Lewis Hamilton's misfortunes, the 30-year-old German grabbed the advantage at the start and then controlled the 57lap race.

It was his second win this season after Melbourne, his fifth in succession and the 16th of his career, enabling him to double his points tally this season to 50.

"It is just awesome for me to get another win," said Rosberg.

"A great job by the whole team.

The key, for me, was the start..."

Pole-sitter Hamilton, who had a slow start and then another Turn One collision, fought back from eighth on the opening lap to finish third, separated from his team-mate by Kimi Raikkonen.

It was the eighth time the Finn, who finished second for Ferrari, 10.2 seconds adrift of Rosberg, had claimed a podium finish at the Bahrain International Circuit.

"Not too bad," said Raikkonen.

"I had a bad start and then we did what we could. We'll take second today."

Raikkonen was left to fly the flag for Ferrari after his teammate Sebastian Vettel's Bahrain hopes ended in a cloud of smoke as his car's engine packed up on the warm-up lap.

The four-time former world champion was well placed in

Nico Rosberg third on the grid to mount a serious challenge to Mercedes on the front row.

Hamilton, who was 30 seconds behind in third, is now second in the title race with 33 points ahead of Daniel Ricciardo on 24.

The Briton, reflecting on his first lap misfortune, said: "That's twice its happened, but this had nothing to do with Melbourne.

"Two separate incidents... But equally painful. I am just thankful to finish and score some points."

Ricciardo finished fourth for Red Bull, for the second race in succession, ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who secured a fine fifth for the new American Haas team, and sixth placed Dutch teenager Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso.

Daniil Kvyat finished seventh in the second Red Bull ahead of Felipe Massa of Williams, Valtteri Bottas in the second Williams who had smashed into Hamilton, and Belgian debutant Stoffel Vandoorne who took a point in his first race with McLaren, filling in for Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton, who had broken the

track record in claiming his 51st pole, arrived at the circuit in full traditional Arab dress, attracting a swarm of cameras as the sport's powerbrokers debated the future shape of qualifying.

Their 90 minutes' meeting ended in deadlock with a variety of proposals for the future on the table, but Hamilton was in no such mood and oozed confidence ahead of the twilight race.

It began with drama and it remained dramatic as night fell - with Vettel suffering his first DNS in 159-races.

When the lights went out, Hamilton was beaten off the line by Rosberg. The champion tucked in behind him on the run to Turn One where, as he turned in, Bottas attempted to pass on the inside.Hamilton's Mercedes was damaged and half-spun in the pack, dropping down the order. It was a repeat of his misfortune in Melbourne and, again, he had to recover and fight back from eighth.

Bottas' actions appeared to be impetuous and the stewards hit him with a drivethrough penalty. Hamilton had bodywork damage, but continued.

On lap eight, Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, pulled into the McLaren garage, to retire followed

by Esteban Gutierrez of Haas.

After a series of pit stops Hamilton for a brief period lapped a second faster than the other leaders, but it was not enough to make an impact on the order. Rosberg remained in charge with Raikkonen chasing in vain.

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