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and others during a visit to Barpeta Satra on Sunday. – UB Photos

Spurt in infiltration of Hindus from BangladeshR DUTTA CHOUDHURY

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: A new

phenomenon of infiltration of Hin-

du people from Bangladesh has

been witnessed following the Gov-

ernment of India declaration to

give settlement to those who came

to India from the neighbouring

countries because of religious per-

secution in their own countries.

Meanwhile, there were reports

that a substantial amount of Indian

currency was brought to the dis-

tricts having international border

with Bangladesh to be deposited

in banks here following the demon-

etisation move.

Security sources told The As-

sam Tribune that according to in-

puts available, the infiltration of

Hindu people from Bangladesh

witnessed a sudden increase after

the Central Government an-

nounced that those who came to

India due to religious persecution

in their own countries would be

settled. According to available in-

puts, there is a common feeling

among the minority Hindus in

Bangladesh that they would be safe

in India if they manage to sneak in

and that feeling has given rise to

the sudden spurt in the attempts

to migrate to India.

Because of lack of any clear-cut

instruction from the government,

the police and security forces are

also facing problems in the proc-

ess of detaining the foreigners as

there have been instances of ten-

sion in some parts of the Barak Val-

ley after suspected Hindu mi-

grants were detailed. Similarly,

there is no instruction on the cas-

es pending before the tribunals set

up under the provisions of the For-

eigners’ Act.

It may be mentioned here that

the dwindling Hindu population in

Bangladesh has become a cause of

concern for India and the Govern-

ment of India has already taken up

the issue with the Government of

Bangladesh. According to the 2011

census, the Hindu population in

Bangladesh has come down to only

8.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, overall infiltration

Note ban ‘biggest scam’of 2016: Chidambaram

MUMBAI, Feb 12: Terming demonetisation as the “big-

gest scam of 2016”, former Finance Minister P Chidambar-

am has said the country is likely to grow by 6-6.5 per cent

in 2016-17, much lower than what have been predicted by

the CSO and RBI, due to the impact of note ban.

Notably, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has

predicted a growth rate of 7.1 per cent and RBI pegs it at

6.9 per cent for financial year 2016-17.

“I am sorry to make the prediction that 2016-17 will end with

growth (rate) between 6 and 6.5 per cent, a good one per cent

down from the earlier estimate and that means a hit of Rs 1.5

lakh crore on GDP. The GDP this year is Rs 150 lakh crore, so

one per cent hit is Rs 1.5 lakh crore,” Chidambaram said at a

function here today. He is in the city to campaign for the Febru-

ary 21 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls.

Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said,

“So, somebody hit an idea in his head, he decided to go on

television and announce demonetisation, and the hit is Rs

1.5 lakh crore (on GDP).” He said the growth rate in finan-

cial year 2017-18 will be same at around 6-6.5 per cent.

“2017-18 will not see a growth higher than what we

have in 2016-17 as the world economy is not benign any-

more and we have a unpredictable man sitting in the White

House,” the senior Congress leader said, adding that growth

would continue to be at the same levels in 2018-19 financial

year as well. – PTI

(See page 2)

Uncertaintyover TN

CM continuesCHENNAI, Feb 12: Support

grew today for Tamil Nadu’s

caretaker Chief Minister O

Panneerselvam, locked in a

bruising feud with AIADMK

supremo VK Sasikala for pow-

er, with five more MPs cross-

ing over to his camp.

Four Lok Sabha MPs – Jais-

ingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tu-

ticorin), Senguttuvan (Vellore),

R P Marutharaja (Perambalur)

and S Rajendran (Villupuram)

met Panneerselvam at his

Greenways residence this

morning and pledged support to

him, taking the number of MPs

backing him in the fight to 10.

Rajya Sabha MP R Laksh-

manan also switched over to

the Panneerselvam camp, pro-

voking an embattled Sasikala

to sack him as the party’s Vil-

lupuram (North) district chief.

Amid continued uncertain-

ty over her swearing-in and

struggling to keep her flock

together as desertion by the

MPs went on, Sasikala met

AIADMK MLAs housed at a

resort on Chennai’s outskirts

for the second successive day.

Before heading for the re-

sort, Sasikala told journalists

outside the Poes Garden resi-

dence of her mentor and

former Chief Minister, the late

J Jayalalithaa, it was “very dif-

ficult” to be a woman in poli-

tics. – PTI

4 ultras, 2 Army menkilled in J-K encounter

KULGAM (J-K), Feb 12: In a pre-dawn swoop, security

forces today gunned down four Hizbul Mujahideen mili-

tants in an encounter in a village in south Kashmir that also

left two army men and a civilian dead.

Three army personnel, including an officer, were injured

in the operation and airlifted to Army’s 92 base hospital in

Srinagar. Their condition was stated to be stable, a police

official said.

Director General of Police SP Vaid told PTI that security

forces have achieved a “major success” by gunning down

the four militants.

“However, it is unfortunate that two soldiers were mar-

tyred and son of the house owner got caught in the cross-

fire and succumbed to injuries,” he said.

Asked about the encounter, Minister of state Jitendra

Singh told reporters in Delhi that terrorism on Indian soil

is being sponsored by Islamabad.

“There has been a series of evidences and it is now no

longer a secret that the entire terrorism on Indian soil,

particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, is being promoted,

perpetuated and sponsored by Islamabad,” he said.

The minister lauded the forces for working under diffi-

cult circumstances.

“They (forces) are operating under most difficult cir-

cumstances and have beyond doubt proven themselves as

one of the best forces in the world,” he said. – PTI

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12:

Terming the proposed

amendment to the citizen-

ship law as ‘dangerous’, ‘anti-

national’, ‘unconstitutional’

and ‘destructive of the spirit

of India’, Justice (retd) Ra-

jindar Sachar today called

upon the Opposition in Ra-

jya Sabha to prove their ‘sec-

ular credentials’ by thwart-

ing the government’s move

to pass the Bill.

“The new law will divide

and destroy the nation. This

country has been surviving

on secularism ideals. The

Constitution provides for

equality of all. There cannot

be any discrimination on re-

ligious lines,” Justice Sachar,

who had headed the panel

which has come up with a

comparative report on the (See page 2)

BENGALURU, Feb 12:

India will boldly go to Venus

for the first time and revisit

the Red Planet very soon.

Buried and hidden in the

hundreds of pages of the new

format electronic budget

documents, is the first for-

mal acknowledgement by

the government about these

two new bold interplanetary

sojourns to Earth’s imme-

diate neighbours.

This uplifting news comes

ahead of the Indian Space

Research Organisation

(ISRO) attempting to under-

take its mega launch where

it will drop off into space not

one, two or three but a full

load of 104 satellites in space

in a single mission.

No other country has ever

tried to hit a century in a sin-

gle mission. The last world

record is held by Russia

which in 2014 rocketed 37

satellites in a single launch

using a modified interconti-

nental ballistic missile.

If all goes according to

plan, on the morning of Feb-

ruary 15, ISRO will hurl into

space using the Polar Satel-

lite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

three Indian satellites and

101 small foreign satellites.

Sabha centenarycelebration ends

PANKAJ BORTHAKUR

JOYSAGAR (Sivasagar), Feb 12: Ret-rospection on the effectiveness of sig-nificant works of the last 100 years ofthe Asam Sahitya Sabha and resolutionsfor development of language and litera-ture in State took cen-tre-stage at the opensession of the conclud-ing day agenda of thecentenary celebrationof the leading literarybody at the historic Jer-enga Pathar here today.

Presiding the open ses-

sion, Sabha’s president (in-charge) Prahlad

Chandra Tasa delivered a pragmatic speech

that categorically mentioned about the ut-

most need of retrospection on the past works

of the century-old literary organisation and

proper evaluation of their results. “We will

have to find out the areas where we could

achieve success and where we had failed,”

he said.

Tasa also admitted that the Asam Sahitya

Sabha has to do countless activities to rein-

state the popularity of the Assamese language

among various communi-

ties of the State and its

neighbouring provinces

where the Assamese was

earlier adopted as a lingua

franca.

To take Assamese liter-

ature closer to the global

readers, Tasa propagated

a scheme for publication of invaluable books

on the electronic platform (e-books) so that

readers can read them as per their choices in

any corner of the world.(See page 2)

Retrospection,resolutionsoccupycentre-stage onconcluding day

Justice Sachar flaysnew citizenship law

condition of minorities and

had recommended quota for

Muslims, said at a press con-

ference here.

He was here to attend a

seminar organised by Justice

Forum, Assam and four oth-

er organisations fighting for

rights of minorities.

“This country is not just

of Hindus. The rest are be-

ing treated as visitors. All

have equal rights here,” he

said, insisting that the cir-

cumstances in which the

Assam Accord was signed

were ‘different’.

Claiming that there has

been large-scale violation of

human rights in Assam, Jus-

tice Sachar also questioned

the functioning of Foreigners

Tribunals in the State, alleg-

ing that ‘Assamese Muslims

were being treated as

ISRO eyes Venus,plans Mars revisit

India is hoping to better

the previous world record

by a whopping two-and-a-

half times. ISRO, considered

the new kid on the block in

the multi-billion dollar world

launcher market, hopes to

set an enviable benchmark

for the spacefaring nations.

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s love affair with space

is quite evident. The govern-

ment, it seems, is rather

pleased with the Indian

space agency as Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley gave

the Department of Space a

whopping 23 per cent in-

crease in its budget. Under

the space sciences section,

the budget mentions provi-

sions “for Mars Orbiter

Mission II and Mission to Ve-

nus”.

The second mission to

Mars is tentatively slated for

in 2021-22 time-frame and

as per existing plans it may

well involve putting a robot

on the surface of the Red

Planet. While India’s first

mission to Mars undertak-

en in 2013 was a purely In-

dian mission, the French

space agency wants to col-

laborate in making the Mars

rover. – PTI

NE rockedGUWAHATI, Feb 12: An

earthquake of 4.5magnitude on the Richterscale rocked the Northeastaround 9:35 am today. Itsepicentre was located atlatitude 25.6 degree Northand longitude 90.8 degreeEast in East Garo Hills ofMeghalaya. Its depth was

10 km. – Staff Reporter

Sabha sessionJORHAT, Feb 12: The

next session of AsamSahitya Sabha will beheld at Bordumsa inTinsukia district fromFebruary 1 to 4, 2018. Itwas finalised by thecentral executive of theliterary body, said arepresentative of theSabha at Sivasagar. –Correspondent

Website hackedNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

The Ministry of HomeAffairs website washacked today, promptingauthorities, including theNational InformaticsCentre, to temporarilyblock it. Computeremergency responseteams are looking intothe incident, an officialsaid. – PTI

Ultra arrestedDERGAON, Feb 12: An

ULFA militant, SailendraAsom alias Pranjal Nathwas arrested by Golaghatpolice last night fromJelehuagaon underDergaon PS. He wasinvolved with severalextremist activities. –Correspondent

Leopard attackMANGALDAI, Feb 12:

One Dhaniram Kalita, aresident of Chengaparavillage under Pathorighatpolice outpost, sustainedserious injury when hewas attacked by a leopardat a nearby sugarcanefield around 11 am onSunday while harvestingcrop. – Correspondent

Nobel theftNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

Three persons have beenarrested in connectionwith the theft of NobelPrize replica, citation andornaments from NobelLaureate KailashSatyarthi’s house insoutheast Delhi’s Kalkajiarea. Those arrested areRajan, Sunil and Vinod, apolice officer said. – PTI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20172 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI

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Road, Guwahati. Please contact:

09774268362, 09856385603.

TL/4253/2

3 bed room flat is ready for rent

near Ganesh Mandir at

Ganeshguri. Contact : 70865-

22110, 98595-51803.

TL/P/2691/3

3 BHK flat, fully furnished, car

parking, 2 balconies, 2nd floor,

R K Tower, Rehabari, 2 min

walking distance from Dominos

Pizza, Guwahati. Contact No:

9435114706, 9435407650,

8133039087.

TL/P/8973/3

Booking Open 2/3BHK flat with

all Amenities at Radhanagar,

Sixmile @affordable Price: -

9854050009.

H&F/P/2143/11

30% completed, booking 3 BHK

flat @3,900 per sq.ft. backside

of Sankardev Academy,

Motoria, Mazid Lane, Dispur.

Contact : 98640-97777.

H&F/P/2721/3

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For sale 4 BHK flat 90%

complete at Harabala path, G.S.

Road. 98643-39287, 98540-

37513.

H&F/P/2666/2

Senotita Girls Hostel near

Downtown, GNRC Hospital

cloae to G. S. Road, Bus Stop,

Auto Stand Dispur Ghy-6.

Ph: 9954056301.

Hostel/P/2745/7

Deluxe furnished single/double

seats for boys men with

attached L/B at Zooroad.

9854086966.

PG/P/8903/8

Maa PG for Boys, Zoo Road,

Jonali Bus Stop Ph. 98640-

34142, 98542-51560.

PG/P/2884/2

PG for Boys at Chandmari and

Guwahati Club roadside area, Ph.

96789-32009.

PG/P/8820/11

Dr. Niten Barman, Associate

Professor of Govt. Ayurvedic

College, Jalukbari has been

awarded Ph.D. degree by Gauhati

University for his thesis entitled

“A Clinical Evaluation of

Shwasahar Mahakashaya in the

management of Tamak Shwasa

(Bronchial Asthma)”. He carried

out his research work under the

supervision of Prof. (Dr.) Bishnu

Prasad Sarma of Govt. Ayurvedic

College, Jalukbari. He is the elder

son of Sri Maheswar Barman &

Mrs. Anju Barman of Vill-

Ponarkaunia of Nalbari district

and husband of Mrs. Pranjyoti

Gohain.

Achieve/P/3048/1

Ms. Minakshi Das has been

awarded Doctor of Philosophy

(Ph.D) degree by Indian Institute

of Technology Guwahati (IITG)

for her thesis entitled “An

Exploration of Subjectivity in the

Phenomenology of Edmund

Husserl: from Epistemic Subject

to Ethical Person”. The research

work was carried out under the

guidance of Professor Archana

Barua, Department of Humanities

and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahti.

She is the only daughter of Mr.

Jiten Das and Late Hira Das of

Shastrinagar, Goalpara and wife

of Mr. Pradip Karmakar.

Achieve/P/3051/1

Land & building 1 katha for sale

at Basbari Jorhat & land 3 bigha

at Pokamora, Kamargaon,

Jorhat. # 8399023499.

L&P/P/9036/3

1½ katha myadi land at

Nazirakhat Opp. Rajdhani Public

School, near NIA HQ, 4½ bigha

myadi hill land near Highway

btn Sonpaur - Khetri for

immediate sale. Mb.

9954243159.

L&P/P/3052/1

R.D. Packers & Carriers.

Speciality house hold goods. For

all over India. 9435346000,

9706290723.

P&M/P/8493/30

Rhino Packers, Sixmile, Ghy-22.

M: 9864469464, Local Shifting

M: 9401822253 (All India).

Packing Cargo Households goods.

P&M/P/8901/7

National Packers & Movers,

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9864060927, 9954200989.

P&M/4212/17

Adhunik Packers & Movers, An

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0361-2510232,94017-85901,

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ramesh.agarwal2010@ yahoo.

com.

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We provide Yoga classes at

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9706098613, 8472049583.

Yoga/P/2718/8

Laptop repair @ Rs. 400/- and

parts A.K. Laptop Repairing, Ph.

9508070669, 0361-2730104.

Laptop Repairing/P/8297/30

CD/Acco/P/2989/2

Contact for Income Tax, VAT,

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Ph. : 94358-48033, 97071 63092.

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Available Home Care trained

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9401325778, 9864274857.

Nursing/P/2709/2

Industrial land with shed for sale

2100 to 98000 sq.ft. Industrial

shed/Warehouse. Godown at

Khanapara, Beltola, Lokhra,

Amingaon, Changsari, Mirza.

9435403986.

Godown/P/9031/8

3200 SQ. FT GODOWN FOR

RENT WITH PARKING AT

JYOTIKUCHI, LOKHRA

MAIN ROAD (OPP.

GYANJYOTI SCHOOL). PH:

7002403330.

Godown/P/8760/8

I Shri Kanu Balier Singh,

residing at Rly Qtr. No. 113/A,

Old Colony, Bongaigaon, PO,

P.S. & Dist. Bongaigaon, Assam

changed my name to Kanhu

Baliar Singh, S/o Late Kanduri

Baliar Singh vide affidavit dated

23.11.2016 sworn before

Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class,

Bongaigaon.

PN/P/3043/1

I Shri Darika Sha, residing at Rly

Qtr. No. 113/B, Old Colony,

Bongaigaon, PO, PS & Dist.

Bongaigaon, Assam changed my

name to Dwarika Sah, S/o Late

Ram Rup Sah vide affidavit

dated 26.12.2016 sworn before

Judicial Magistrate, 1st class,

Bongaigaon.

PN/P/3044/1

NATIONAL INSTITUTE

OF PHARMACEUTICAL

EDUCATION AND

RESEARCH

(Under Ministry of

Chemicals and

Fertilizers, Government

of India)

Guwahati-32

No. NIPER/GHY/2016-17

Dated: 6th Feb 2016

Corrigendum

This refers to the NIT No.

NIPER-01/2017 dated

20.01.2017 for supply and

installations of the following

items:

1) Multi Mode Reader

In this connection, it may

be noted that excise duty

payable for the item will be

borne by NIPER- Guwahati.

Further, it is also hereby

informed that last date of

submissions of bids for

above item has been

extended upto 21st Feb,

2017 and technical bids will

be opened on 22nd Feb,

2017 at 11 am in presence

of bidders. No separate

invitation will be sent to

bidders.

Registrar

CD/TN/Corri/4265/1

CD/In Memo/4264/1

(Contd from page 1)

from Bangladesh has come down

because of increase of deploy-

ment of BSF personnel and eco-

nomic development in the neigh-

bouring areas of Bangladesh.

There was a time when people

from Bangladesh even came to

Karimganj almost every day to

work as rickshaw-pullers and

daily wage earners. But after the

development of areas like Syl-

het and Maulvibazaar, such peo-

ple need not cross over in search

of work. But some people are

still coming over to settle down

in India, sources added.

The sources admitted that

due to the terrain, it is almost

impossible to completely seal

the international border. In the

Barak Valley, around 75 km of

the international border is riv-

erine and as there is no physi-

cal barrier in the riverine area,

it is almost impossible to com-

pletely check infiltration of for-

eigners. In the dry season,

some parts of the Kushiyara

river, which is the internation-

al border, can be crossed on foot.

Moreover, as boats of both the

countries ply on the river, one

can easily hop from one boat to

another to enter India. A few

groups of touts are still active

in the area to help the foreign-

ers to cross over.

The sources said that there

were also reports that Indian

currency notes are used in ille-

gal activities even across the

international border and it is

suspected that a substantial

amount of money was brought

into India after the demoneti-

sation move to be deposited in

banks here. All the districts

having international border

with Bangladesh were alerted

after an input of transfer of Rs 8

crore in one consignment, but

the input could not be verified.

Sabha ...(Contd from page 1)

Without mentioning any spe-

cific guidelines or rules of the

Sabha, Tasa also advocated fine

tuning of some norms of the lit-

erary body to revitalise vernac-

ular language and literature in

the northeastern region, where

Sahitya Sabha offices were set

up in undivided Assam.

The Asam Sahitya Sabha

adopted 15 resolutions in the

open session on the concluding

day of the centenary event to

promote use of the mother

tongue in schools, government

offices, and to popularise the

language and literature of dif-

ferent indigenous communities.

The Sabha has also decided

to open new vernacular schools

in different areas of the State

under the name of Asam Sahi-

tya Sabha Vidyalaya. It will also

set up an academic body called

Matribhasa Vidyalaya Samannay

Mancha for preparation of school

curriculum. The Sabha is also

planning to award devoted

teachers of government and pri-

vate vernacular medium schools

of the State for excellence.

In another resolution, the

Sabha decided to start an elec-

tronic satellite channel to pro-

mote the indigenous language,

literature, culture and tradi-

tions of the region. The Sabha

will request the State and Cen-

tral governments to bear the

initial expenditure.

Former Sabha president

Imran Shah, eminent littera-

teurs Ashish Kumar Baidya of

Tripura and Dr Chandra Kan-

ta Patil of Maharashtra were

present in the open session.

A Sahitya Akademi-spon-

sored seminar was also held.

Justice ...(Contd from page 1)

runaway persons.’

“The father is accepted as

an Indian citizen, while his son

is declared a foreigner. How

long will you penalise minor-

ities? They are Assamese first

and Hindu or Muslim later.

This arbitrariness is not ac-

ceptable,” the 93-year-old

former Chief Justice of Delhi

High Court said.

Supreme Court lawyer and

vice president of People’s Union

for Civil Liberties Sanjay Parikh

said the procedure (of detection

of illegal migrants) should be in

accordance with principles of nat-

ural justice. “There should be

substantial material evidence.

Here you are giving ex parte

judgements... there is no value

of witnesses. It is sheer violation

of constitutional and human

rights,” he said.

Alleging that the problem

has escalated due to the pol-

icies of the present regime

at the Centre, Parikh was also

skeptical of the system of

appointment of FT members

and said the initial onus

should be on the Govern-

ment to prove if anyone is a

foreigner.

“The procedure should not

cause harassment to anyone.

You have to be fair with the

person,” he said, adding that

the condition of the detention

camps was very bad and the

inmates were living a life

worse than animals.

General secretary of Justice

Forum, Assam, Matiur Rah-

man said the citizenship issue

in the State was no longer a

religious issue but is all about

human rights.

The organisers also plan to

approach the NHRC and Unit-

ed Nations on the issue.

Spurt in ...

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 3

NATIONAL

PITHORAGARH, Feb 12:

Asserting that he will not rest

till those who looted the coun-

try paid back, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi today asked

the voters in Uttarakhand to

give exemplary punishment in

the polls to people who ruined

their future.

He launched a frontal attack

on Congress for “insulting” the

armed forces by questioning

the surgical strikes, “sleeping”

over OROP for 40 years and

for “indulging” in corruption.

“The time for those who

looted the country for 70 years

has come to an end. I promise

that those who looted the coun-

PM asks voters to punish the ‘looters’try will have to pay back now.

Neither will I rest nor will I

let the looters rest in peace

till this task is complete. It is

time everyone gives an ac-

count now,” Modi told his last

poll rally in Pithoragarh ahead

of the February 15 election.

He exhorted the people to

vote out the “tainted” Con-

gress government that sullied

‘devbhoomi’s’ image turning it

into a “lootbhoomi” and “ru-

ined” the state due to its lack of

vision to tap its full potential.

He also hit out at Congress

accusing it of opposing

Uttarakhand’s creation and

said it has now aligned with SP

the government of which in

Uttar Pradesh then commit-

ted atrocities on people agitat-

ing for the state’s formation.

Modi asked the people to

take a pledge to hand down ex-

emplary punishment in the

polls to those who played with

their future so that no future

government dares to do so.

Describing Uttarakhand as

a land of the brave soldiers,

he attacked Congress for ques-

tioning the veracity of the sur-

gical strikes, which, he said,

“insulted the armed forces

and the valour of those who

made supreme sacrifice for

the country”.

“It is a misfortune of our

country that some parties and

leaders raise questions about

our armed forces and the val-

our of those who laid down

their lives for the country. No

one should ever question their

bravery,” he said.

Terming the cross-LoC

strikes as a “big incident” in

military history which various

security agencies across the

world are studying, he said

when Indian soldiers carried out

the operation and demolished

terrorist camps without losing

a single life, Congress posed

several questions including how

no one was killed in the attack.

“Does it behove Congress

to do this. Is this not an insult

to the armed forces? Is this not

an insult to the valour of our

brave soldiers? You do politics

and attack Modi as much as you

can, but don’t ever raise doubts

about our military and the sol-

diers’ bravery,” he said.

Attacking Congress for

“sleeping over” the one-rank

one- pension (OROP) issue for

40 long years, Modi said, “Did

they not insult the armed

forces by ignoring the sol-

diers’ claims for so long.

Earlier, addressing a rally at

GITI Maidan in Shrinagar,

Modi said Congress had no vi-

sion for growth although the

state had great potential in

tourism and allied sectors.

“It is three months since de-

monetisation happened but they

are still abusing me. Don’t you

think I should make those who

have looted this country ruth-

lessly by taking away the poor’s

share and exploited the middle-

class for 70 years pay back.

Charging Rawat with hav-

ing been caught on camera ne-

gotiating a monetary deal to

buy back support of disgrun-

tled MLAs, Modi said he

should be “ashamed” of turn-

ing “devbhoomi” into

“lootbhoomi”. – PTI

PANJIM, Feb 12: An ag-

gressive approach to control

rising cancer cases, making af-

fordable treatment available in

different cities, inculcating

healthy lifestyle practices are

some of the suggestions made

by the experts to tackle the

menace of this disease.

Several experts from India and

abroad aired their views on ways

to tackle cancer at a discussion

on ‘What are we doing about can-

cer?’ organised by Difficult Dia-

logue Summit in Goa today.

“The union government has

set a goal to reduce cancer

cases by 15 per cent in 2020

and 30 per cent by 2030. Both

the goals are too little and too

late. There should be more

aggressive approach towards

controlling the disease,” said

Sneh Bhargava, a veteran ra-

diologist, who was part of the

discussions today.

“As much as Rs 1.4 lakh

crore are going into cancer

treatment in the country at

national level from patients as

well as from the govern-

ments,” she said.

Anshu Prakash, who was

earlier joint secretary in union

health ministry said there are

40 lakh cases of cancer patients

at any point of time in the coun-

Expert views ontackling cancer

try. The number of fresh de-

tection is getting added by 15

lakh every year and 6.5 lakh

person die every year due to

cancer, said Prakash.

“Of the total detections, one

third of cases are preventable

and another one third are treat-

able,” said the former official of

health ministry. Of the total can-

cer detections in the country, 30

per cent are directly linked to

tobacco use, Prakash said.

Prakash was recently pro-

moted as additional secretary

and financial adviser to union

ministry of rural development.

Vini Mahajan, principal sec-

retary to Punjab government

said, “Punjab had earned no-

toriety as capital of cancer

some 7-9 years back and it was

being blamed on use of pesti-

cides and insecticides for agri-

culture. In reality, cancer cases

are related to food habits and

health practices. Now the can-

cer prevalence is in control but

lot of work is still to be done.”

Jayant Vaidya, a London

based breast cancer specialist

said, “Over diagnosis is one of

the challenges in preventive

diagnosis. There are many tu-

mours in the body that have

no impact but people treat

them out of anxiety.” – PTI

None has right to judgeothers’ patriotism: RSS

BHOPAL, Feb 12: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said that

no one has the right to judge others’ patriotism. “Doosre ki

bhakti naapne ka adhikar kisi ko nahin hai, mujhe bhi nahin hai

(No one has the right to measure anybody’s patriotism. I too

don’t have the right),” Bhagwat said here.

“Even if you think that you are running the show in the

country, you cannot measure anybody’s patriotism, or after

evaluating it come out with a judgment on it that if this is the

kind of ‘bhakti’ (devotion) you have, then it is patriotism, oth-

erwise it isn’t,” Bhagwat said. He was unveiling the book ‘Bharat

ki Khoj Me Mere Paanch Saal’ authored by journalist Vijay

Monohar Tiwari.

Earlier, addressing the Hindu Sammelan in Betul district

three days ago, the RSS Chief had said, “Whoever lives in

Hindustan and has respect for its traditions, are all Hindus.

Muslims may have different way of performing prayers, but

their nationality is Hindu.” “All Hindus are accountable for

Hindustan,” he had added. – PTI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 20174 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI INTERNATIONAL

Members of the Swiss aerobatic team Patrouille Swiss fly in formation over the men’s Alpine Skiing World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland on Saturday. – UNI

Artistes perform during the 133rd Carnival parade, the first major event since the city was attackedduring Bastille Day celebrations last year in Nice, France on Saturday. – UNI

Francois Fillon (2ndL), former French Prime Minister, member of The Republicans political partyand 2017 presidential candidate of the French Centre-Right, tastes fruit during a visit to the Akuo solarenergy farm in Etang-Sale as he campaigns on the French Indian Ocean island of the Reunion onSaturday. – UNI

LONDON, Feb 12: Astronomers are testing anidea developed by Albert Einstein about a centuryago to resolve a longstanding puzzle over what isdriving the accelerated expansion of the universe.Researchers have long sought to determinehow the universe’s accelerated expansionis being driven. Calculations in a newstudy by researchers at the Univer-sity of Edinburgh in the UK couldhelp to explain whether dark ener-gy – as required by Einstein’s theo-ry of general relativity – or a revisedtheory of gravity are responsible.Einstein’s theory, which describesgravity as distortions of space and time,included a mathematical element knownas a Cosmological Constant.Einstein originally introduced it to explain a stat-ic universe, but discarded his mathematical factoras a blunder after it was discovered that our uni-verse is expanding.Research carried out two decades ago, however,showed that this expansion is accelerating, whichsuggests that Einstein’s Constant may still have apart to play in accounting for dark energy.

LONDON, Feb 12: A giant ptero-saur – a toothless flying reptile with a10 metre wingspan – may have beenthe dominant predator in ancient Ro-mania that terrorised dinosaurs andother prehistoric animals, new re-search suggests.Palaeontologists examined the crea-ture’s unusual gigantic neck vertebrafossils and believe it was a formidablecarnivore of Cretaceous-age Transyl-vania.It provides the first evidence of large

WW-II bombdefused after 75,000people evacuatedin GreeceTHESSALONIKI, Feb 12:Authorities in the northernGreek city of Thessaloniki evac-uated an estimated 75,000 peo-ple today so army experts coulddefuse a 227-kilogramme un-exploded World War-II bombfound under a gas station.The evacuation started at 7am (local time). Police wenthouse-to-house ringing bellsand knocking on doors to re-mind people living within a 1.9-kilometer radius, mostly in thewestern suburb of Kordelio, toleave their homes.Bomb disposal experts start-ed work at 11.30 am (localtime), 90 minutes later thanplanned, but defused the bombin only 30 minutes, CentralMacedonia Governor Aposto-los Tzizikostas announced. Thebomb was now going to be tak-en to an army firing range.“The first phase of the bombdisposal has been a total suc-cess,” Tzizikostas announced.“There remains its removalfrom the site. Residents will stillnot be allowed in their homes,because the removal and trans-port contains dangers.”Many people left the area intheir cars, but some werebused to schools and sportshalls elsewhere in the city.“We heard on TV that, if thebomb explodes, it will be likea strong earthquake,” a wor-ried Michalis Papanos, 71, toldThe Associated Press as heand his wife, Yiannoula, head-ed out of their home.Alexander Bogdani and hiswife, Anna Bokonozi, left on foot,pushing a stroller with their tod-dler daughter. “They havewarned us... We are afraid forthe child,” Bogdani said.The city’s main bus stationwas shut down, trains in thearea were halted and churchescanceled their Sunday servic-es. – APMass culling ofdogs in Chinaafter womendies of rabies BEIJING, Feb 12: Over240 dogs have been culled inChina’s southwesternSichuan province after awoman died from a caninebite, according to mediareports.The slaughter started onThursday, a day after it wasconfirmed that a women diedfrom rabies, authorities ofXiuwen town said.Law enforcement officersin gloves beat the dogs todeath with long poles.The animals’ bodies weretransported to disposal site bygovernment staff wearing facemasks, Hong Kong-basedSouth China Sea quoted localmedia reports as saying.The woman, a dentist, wasbitten by her own pet Huskyin July and died in January.She refused to go tohospital because the dog hadbeen vaccinated.She also feared thetreatment might affect herpregnancy.The township governmentsaid three people have diedfrom rabies in the past eightyears. Because about 20 percent of vaccinated dogs can stillcarry the rabies virus, officialsdecided to cull the entirecanine population within 3kilometre of the town.Some animal rightsexperts voiced concern tothe indiscriminative cull.The incident prompteddiscussions on China’s socialmedia, the report said. – PTI

Hijab-clab womanracially abused

in NZMELBOURNE, Feb 12: A Hi-jab-clad Muslim woman and herfriends in New Zealand were tar-gets of foul-mouthed racist com-ments at a rest stop with a wom-an yelling expletives and throw-ing beer cans at them.Mehpara Khan, 28, a commu-nications consultant, and her fourfriends were returning to Auck-land from a road trip when theystopped in Huntly to use the bath-room and were abused by a wom-an walking by.Khan has posted a video onTwitter that shows another wom-an flinging cans of what appears tobe alcohol at her and yelling ex-pletive-laden abuse.“All of a sudden this womancomes out of the bathroom andstarts swearing at us and tellingus that we don’t belong there andthat we are Muslim b......, thatneed to F-off, basically,” Khan wasquoted as saying by Nea ZealandHerald.“She then threw a beer can atme and two at my two friends.I’m covered in beer – I feel dis-gusting,” Khan wrote.“We weren’t doing anything,we didn’t actually even initiallyrealise she was talking to us,” shesaid.“Once she threw in the line ofMuslim b-words that’s when werealised she was yelling at us,”she said.“At this point I decided to startfilming her.”The 27-year-old woman whocarried out the attack is shown inthe recording ordering Khan andher friends to get back.A police spokesman said theywere “aware” of the video and aformal complaint had been laid.“Police are assessing the infor-mation,” the spokesman saidIslamic Women’s Council’sspokeswoman Anjum Rahman saidshe was appalled, but not entirelysurprised, by the abuse. – PTI

US raids targetundocumented migrants

WASHINGTON, Feb 12: USauthorities arrested hundreds ofundocumented migrants thisweek in the first large-scale raidsunder President Donald Trump,triggering panic in immigrantcommunities nationwide.The federal Immigration andCustoms Enforcement agencyrounded up undocumented indi-viduals living in Atlanta, Austin,Chicago, Los Angeles, New Yorkand other cities two weeks afterTrump signed an executive orderthat broadened which undocu-mented immigrants would be tar-geted for deportation.According to ICE, however, theoperations were “routine.”“The focus of these operationsis no different than the routine,targeted arrests carried out byICE’s Fugitive Operations Teamson a daily basis,” said agencyspokeswoman Jennifer Elzea.

David Marin, head of ICE’s re-moval operations in Los Angeles,told reporters that approximate-ly 160 people had been arrestedin the California metropolis.Some 75 per cent of them hadprior felony convictions, he said,adding that some people had beennabbed solely because they wereundocumented.

By Friday night, 37 undocu-mented immigrants had alreadybeen expelled to Mexico.In a January 25 decree, Trumpprioritised the deportation of un-documented males who had beenconvicted of or “charged with anycriminal offense,” including mis-demeanours.The order was a move to makegood on his campaign pledge tocrack down on America’s undoc-umented population, estimated at11 million people.Marin said the operations wereplanned prior to Trump’s swear-ing-in and were comparable topast actions. He rebuffed reportsabout ICE checkpoints and ran-dom sweeps, calling them “dan-gerous and irresponsible.”“Reports like that create panic,and they put communities and lawenforcement personnel in unnec-essary danger,” Marlin said. – AFP

DHAKA, Feb 12: BangladeshPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina’sson Sajeeb Wazed Joy on Satur-day said those who raised allega-tions of graft in the ambitious Pad-ma bridge project should apolo-gise to the government after aCanadian court debunked graftallegations in the case.Joy took to Facebook to lashout at those raising the allega-tions, bdnews24.com reported.Joy, who is also the Prime Min-ister’s ICT adviser, blamed theWorld Bank for raising a contro-versy over graft and bribery inthe $2.9-billion Padma Bridgeproject. “The evidence was fab-ricated by the World Bank. I had

seen the evidence myself duringthe whole episode.”“It was quite clearly made upas there were no concrete de-tails, just one anonymous sourcewho was never revealed, evento the Canadian court.” said Joy.“The World Bank came up withthis plot against my mother,Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’sgovernment in an attempt to dis-credit her.”Hasina has maintained that thePadma bridge graft-bribery alle-gations were aimed at undermin-ing the image of her governmentand that some Bangladeshis werealso involved with it.She has alleged that Nobel

Laureate Mohammed Yunus hadtried to influence then US secre-tary of state to cut off World Bankfunding for the Padma Bridge.Joy hit out at ‘a section of ourcivil society’ who had joined theWorld Bank in raising the stinkover alleged graft. “They draggedthe reputation of several highlyrespected, qualified and hardwork-ing people through the mud...” hewrote, according to bdnews24.His comments came after twoformer top executives of engineer-ing giant SNC-Lavalin and a Bang-ladeshi-Canadian businessmanwere acquitted in an internationalbribery case linked to the construc-tion of Padma bridge. – IANS

B’desh PM’s son demands apologyover Padma bridge graft charges

BEIRUT, Feb 12: Turkishtroops and their Syrian rebel al-lies have entered the ISIS-heldtown of Al-Bab in northern Syria,as government forces moved clos-er to the jihadist bastion, a moni-tor said.Turkish state-run Anadolu newsagency quoted military sources assaying one Turkish soldier waskilled and another wounded inclashes with ISIS in Al-Bab.Turkish forces and allied insur-gents have for weeks pressed anoperation codenamed EuphratesShield to drive the jihadists fromthe flashpoint town.The Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said Turkish forc-es and allied militias entered Al-Bab from the west and then tookfull control of its western sub-urbs after fierce clashes with thejihadists.The fighting coincided with“Turkish shelling and intensive airstrikes” on Al-Bab, the Britain-based monitor said.It said at least six civilians werekilled by Turkish artillery fire and

air strikes.Al-Bab is the jihadist group’slast stronghold in the northernprovince of Aleppo and is also be-ing targeted by regime forces.While Turkish-led forces havebeen advancing from the north,east and west, Syrian governmenttroops are attacking from thesouth. On Monday, Syrian troopssevered a road leading into thetown from the south and by Fridaythey were just 1.5 kilometres fromthe southern outskirts of Al-Bab.Turkey began an unprecedent-ed campaign inside Syria in Au-gust, targeting both IS and Kurd-ish militia. After initial rapidprogress, the campaign has beenmired since December in thedeadly fight for Al-Bab. Turkey’sDogan news agency says 66 Turk-ish soldiers have been killed in thecampaign since it started, mostlyin IS attacks. – AFPAnd on Thursday, three Turk-ish soldiers were killed when aRussian air strike accidentally hittheir position in an attack target-ing IS in Al-Bab. – AFP

Turkish troops, Syria rebelsenter ISIS-held townWithout dark energy, the acceleration implies afailure of Einstein’s theory of gravity across thelargest distances in our universe.Scientists have discovered that the puzzle couldbe resolved by determining the speed of grav-ity in the cosmos from a study of gravita-tional waves - space-time ripples prop-agating through the universe. The re-searchers’ calculations show that ifgravitational waves are found to trav-el at the speed of light, this wouldrule out alternative gravity theories,with no dark energy, in support ofEinstein’s Cosmological Constant.If however, their speed differs fromthat of light, then Einstein’s theory mustbe revised.Such an experiment could be carried out by theLaser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observa-tory (LIGO) in the US, whose twin detectors, 2000miles apart, directly detected gravitational wavesfor the first time in 2015.Experiments at the facilities planned for this yearcould resolve the question in time for the 100thanniversary of Einstein’s Constant. –PTI

Mystery behind Einstein’s theorymay soon be over

Giant flying reptile terrorised dinosaurs in ancient Romania

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. predatory animals in the region at thattime, researchers said.Researchers from the Universityof Portsmouth and University of South-ampton in the UK examined severalfossilised remains of the creature,known as Hatzegopteryx, which be-longs to the flying reptile group Azh-darchidae.Usually this species’ tubular neckbones give them extremely long necks,over 2.5 metres in length in the larg-est species.

However, the researchers suggestHatzegopteryx had a considerablyshorter and stronger neck, and withlarger muscle masses. Other remainsof Hatzegopteryx include a jaw jointindicative of a half-metre wide skulland reinforced limb bones.Mark Witton, from Portsmouth,suggests that the proportions andstructural reinforcement of all theseelements are unlike those of any oth-er azhdarchid species and would havemade Hatzegopteryx a powerful and

dominant predator.“The difference in structural prop-erties between giant azhdarchid neckbones is remarkable - they are in dif-ferent biomechanical leagues, withHatzegopteryx many times strongerthan anything else on record,” Wittonsaid. “This, along with our calculationsof neck length and muscle mass, sug-gests giant azhdarchids may have beenradically different in appearance andbehaviour.“The large, reinforced skeleton and

muscle power would have made it aformidable predator of other animalswhen stalking ancient prairies andwoodlands. It may have even been ca-pable of attacking animals too large orvigorous for other flying reptiles, eventhe other giants,” he said.Witton said that Hatzegopteryxlived in a peculiar island ecosystemwhere many of the dinosaurs weredwarfed or belonged to relict lineagesextinct in the rest of the Cretaceousworld. – PTI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 5

CITY

LOCAL FORECAST :

Mainly clear sky. Fog/mist is very likely to oc-cur in the morning. Mini-mum temperature ismost likely to be 12°C onMonday, 13th Feb' 2017.

TEMPERATURE:

Max 28.4° C

Min 11.5° C

WEATHER

GUWAHATI

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12 : State

Finance Minister Himanta

Biswa Sarma’ s announcement

to safeguard the basic rights of

Govt bid to safeguard rightsof elderly parents lauded

the elderly parents of Assam

in respect of their maintenance

by their children and succes-

sors has been welcomed by the

Guwahati Senior Citizens’ As-

sociation.

The president of the asso-

ciation DN Chakravarty in a

statement issued today

thanked the Finance Minister

and expressed the hope that

all the elderly parents who

have been deprived so far of

their legitimate rights of main-

tenance would be able to get

their subsistence support from

the Government’s decision if

properly and resolutely imple-

mented.

Meanwhile, DN Chakravarty,

also a senior most journalist,

has requested the State Gov-

ernment and the universities

of the State to approach the

UNESCO to include Bihu and

Sattriya dance in its ‘intangible

cultural heritage list’.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit lighting the inaugural lamp at the ‘Burn Care Day-2017’ organised by the Burn Care Foundation,

at the District Library in Guwahati, on Sunday. – UB Photos

Hindu Spiritual &Service Fair ends

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The

three-day Hindu Spiritual and

Service Fair which was held at

the AEI Field at Chandmari

here concluded today.

The focus area of the event,

a one of its kind event in the

region, was to inculcate the

spirit of service to mankind

through the Hindu way of life.

Governor of Assam Banwa-

rilal Purohit attended the con-

cluding function today.

Today’s programme started

with worshipping of the par-

ents, the nucleus of the family,

followed by a quiz competition

on Indian culture and Hindu

philosophy. The Satradhikar of

Auniati Satra, Dr Pitambar Dev

Goswami also attended the

programme, a statement said.

PRANJAL BHUYAN

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The

Railway Protection Force

(RPF) under Maligaon-

headquartered Northeast

Frontier Railway (NFR) has

managed to increase its

success rate with regard to

recovery of contrabands

with a total of 134 such cases

detected during 2016.

Official sources said that

various contraband goods

like ganja, phensedyl, liquor

and cigarettes were

recovered on 134 occasions

during last year as against

only 70 such cases in 2015,

registering a year-on-year

growth of over 91 per cent

success rate in operations to

RPF’s recovery rate of contraband goods goes upseize such items.

The value of the contra-

band items recovered in

2016 was Rs 3.63 crore

compared to Rs 2.62 crore

in 2015. This was a growth

of over 36 per cent.

In addition, 68 persons

were arrested for their

alleged involvement in

shipping of contraband

items, which is a big jump

from 24 arrests made by

RPF in the NFR zone during

2015.

“There has been a

substantial increase in

detection, recovery and

arrests,” said an official.

RPF also detected 41

cases of illegal carrying of

forest products at various

places under the NFR zone

during 2016.

The recovered items

were worth almost Rs 25

lakh. Altogether, 5 arrests

were made in connection

with illegal transportation of

forest products by the RPF.

“The detection and

recovery made in this

regard increased by 32.25

per cent and over 398 per

cent respectively in 2016 as

compared to 2015,” the

official said.

During the year, RPF of

NFR also recovered

explosives, including four

power gel 801 explosives,

four coils of red, blue,

yellow and green-coloured

wires measuring about 12

feet each, 35 packets of

detonators, 74 packets of

gelatine sticks and 31 coils

of fuse wire.

Besides, it also recovered

20 live rounds of ammuni-

tion of INSAS rifle, ten

rounds of 9 mm pistol

bullets, three rounds of AK-

47 ammunition, five rounds

of 7.62 mm pistol bullets and

one pistol.

A total of nine persons

were arrested for carrying

the recovered explosives,

arms and ammunitions.

NFR Public Relations

Officer (PRO) Nripen

Bhattacharya said that for

the interest of rail users,

RPF security helpline No.

182 has been introduced and

made active in all security

control rooms of the

divisions for providing quick

assistance to passengers in

need.

“Presently, 13 lines of

help line No. 182 are

operational to receive

grievances of passengers,

including three each in

Katihar, Lumding and

Alipurduar divisions, and

two each in Rangiya and

Tinsukia divisions. Quick

Reaction Teams (QRT) has

been constituted at some

important railway stations

for attending to the callers

in need and to take neces-

sary steps,” he said.

Congress party workers observe a minute’s silence against ‘anti-people policies’ of the Modi

Government at the Jana Bedona Panchayat at Silpukhuri in Guwahati, on Sunday. – UB Photos

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: On

the occasion of the 28th anni-

versary celebration of the

city-based Down Town Hos-

pital, the 25th Down Town

Public Oration will be held at

4 pm on February 15 at ITA

Machkhowa here.

The oration will be deliv-

ered by Dr Rakesh Yadav, pro-

fessor and senior consultant,

Department of Cardiology of

AIIMS, New Delhi on the

subject, ‘How to prevent

heart diseases by lifestyle

modification.’

Hari Shankar Brahma,

former Chief Election Com-

AIIMS doctor to deliver lecturemissioner of India, will inau-

gurate the oration, said a state-

ment.

The Down Town ‘Award for

Excellence in Medicine 2017’

will be conferred on Padma

Shri award winner and noted

physician and transplant sur-

geon Dr Sarbeswar Sahariah.

The award carries a citation,

a gold medal and a cheque for

Rs 1 lakh.

The Prof Jogesh Mahanta

Memorial Award will be giv-

en to Dr Rajnish Duara, sen-

ior cardio vascular surgeon

from Siliguri, and the Dr

Pratul Goswami Memorial

Award will be given to Dr

Manabendra Nayak, senior

consultant of the Department

of Medicine of Down Town

Hospital.

The statement added that

coinciding with the 28th anni-

versary celebrations, the hos-

pital is also organising the

‘Down Town Health Mela’

from 10 am to 4 pm on Febru-

ary 13 at the Lakshidhar Bora

Kshetra near Dighalipukhuri.

People can avail free con-

sultation by a team of doctors

of different specialities.

Investigations like blood

pressure check, random blood

sugar test, lipid profile, neu-

ropathy, ECG and BMD test

will be provided free of cost

at the camp.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The

newly formed United Feder-

ation of Doctors for Early Di-

agnosis and Prevention of

Diseases in India (UFODI), a

public charitable trust, organ-

ised its first health awareness

camp at Ankur Seminary,

Beltola here on Saturday.

“The programme was all

Health awareness generatedabout spreading awareness

and orientation regarding

daily health and hygiene

maintenance of self. In this

world of rapid materialistic

development, it becomes

very important that self-hy-

giene care is not overlooked,”

a press note said.

Since schoolchildren are

not specifically taught self

health and hygiene mainte-

nance, so awareness pro-

grammes like this are aimed

at filling up that gap of knowl-

edge, the press note said.

People were oriented

about basic hygiene practic-

es such as correct brushing

technique, correct hand

washing technique, lifestyle

habits, civic etiquettes, etc.

The organisation aims at

creating widespread aware-

ness among the masses about

the need to maintain a

healthy lifestyle.

“In future, we aim to con-

tinue with this endeavour to

include more institutions

and people so that the up-

coming generation is fully

aware about self-hygiene

practices,” UFODI chairman

Dr Rathangapani Chattopad-

hyay said.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The 31th Annual Congress of Assam

Academy of Mathematics was held at the Pragjyotish College

auditorium today.

The session started with a minute’s silence in honour and

memory of Late Jyoti Prasad Medhi, eminent statistician and

mathematician, who also played an important and encouraging

advisory role for the Academy.

It was followed by felicitation of Anusuya Hazarika, retired teach-

er of TC Girls’ HS and MP School for her contribution towards

mathematics education. Later, Professor Bhaba Kumar Sarma

from the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technol-

ogy, Guwahati discussed the topic ‘Teaching, Learning of Mathe-

matics at Undergraduate Level – a Pedagogical View Point’ while

paying rich tribute to the recently-deceased doyen of statistics.

He also recounted his experience in getting involved in various

national bodies working for mathematics education. He expressed

satisfaction that the introduction of Madhava Mathematics Com-

petition for undergraduate level under the aegis of TIFR from this

year by AAM, coordinated by him, evoked good response.

The Hari Prasad Saikia prize money award for securing high-

est mark in BA/BSc final examination with mathematics (ma-

jor) was also awarded to Parthapratim Saha of Darrang College

under the Gauhati University and Kaushik Dihingia of JB Col-

lege, Jorhat under Dibrugarh University.

Five best students from those appearing in Madhava Mathe-

matics Competition were presented citations of appreciation.

Dr Prabin Das, president of AAM, addressed the gathering with

an appeal to get more involved with wholehearted effort to ex-

pand the mathematics base of the students and the teachers.

Annual meet ofAssam Academy ofMathematics held

6 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017

MESSAGE FOR TODAY

To learn who rules over you, simply find out

who you are not allowed to criticize.

– VOLTAIRE

n budget making, when you

have the numbers, the politi-

cal will and the sagacity cou-

pled with leadership to get

your way through, the government

of the day must dare to go for the

sky. Why must the government of

the day get explosive, is that how

long will the people wait for the ba-

sics and what more than that, do the

people expect. All the people of As-

sam want from the Government are

good roads to their homes, 24x7

power supply, free education for

those who can’t afford, a good, af-

fordable and easily available medical

support, drinking water, clean livable

villages and towns and, above all,

conditions for earning a decent liv-

ing and employment. The people

have waited for this for the last 70

years since Independence and how

long more? The budget in the cur-

rent year does not have the answer

as there is no plan as yet to break up

the journey, year by year, till the goal

is achieved. So till when the wait,

remains a shot in the dark!

The approach to any budget mak-

ing can be in two ways – limiting the

expenditure to the money available

in hand and dividing it based on pri-

orities, or trying to be a daring en-

trepreneur and plan expenditure

depending on the resources you can

hope to raise by saving, borrowing

or taxing. In Assam, budget making

follows the second path, but later falls

back into the first approach or even

lower by curtailment of projected

expenditure to a level of nearly half

of what was originally thought of,

when the expected resources don’t

materialize. Again the difficulty for

the budget maker is that no depart-

ment plans its budget in a manner it

Articles (within 1000-1100 words) and

Letters to the Editor for publication in

the editorial page may be sent to the

email ID: editor@assamtribune.com.

Lettersto the

EDITOR

Musings on the Assam Budget

Augmentation of rural economy

BTAD developmentThe formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council

(BTC) which administers the four districts of Kokrajhar,

Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri collectively called

Bodoland Territorial Administrative Districts (BTAD)

has completed 14 years. It was precisely with the ob-

jective of granting administrative autonomy and expe-

diting the development process of the backward area

that the BTC was formed, fulfilling a long-standing de-

mand of the Bodos. However, the kind of development

that one would have expected in the BTAD areas has

fallen short of the desired. The State Government on its

part has been undertaking an occasional initiative for

assisting the development process in BTAD but it needs

to do more. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal an-

nounced several projects on the BTC’s 14th anniver-

sary and it should be ensured that those are implemented

without any hassle. The BTC authorities would also do

well to initiate measures for tapping the potential of-

fered by the area, especially in terms of tourism. Much

of the BTAD area shares its international boundary with

Bhutan and the hilly Indo-Bhutan border terrain offers

immense scope for tourism promotion. The entire bor-

der area characterized by undulating terrain, meander-

ing rivers, and forests with wildlife, can emerge as a

tourist paradise if pursued with some vision. This, in

fact, can turn out to be the biggest asset of the BTAD

that can be utilized for generating large-scale self-em-

ployment and triggering a development process that is

sustainable and non-polluting. Unfortunately, the BTC

authorities seem to be totally unmindful of this huge

potential which is being subjected to ruthless exploita-

tion and all sorts of illegalities – as testified to by the

growing deforestation along the border. The area

abounds in fast-flowing rivers and generating

hydropower through small and micro dams is another

viable activity which can be sufficient to meet the power

needs of the BTAD region without damaging the envi-

ronment. Infrastructure-wise, a lot needs to be done in

BTAD as it lacks all-weather surface connectivity in

many places.

Last but not the least, to have the development proc-

ess firmly placed, it is highly imperative that we let peace

and the rule of law prevail. Regrettably, the overall situa-

tion in BTAD areas is characterized by a cult of violence

and fratricidal killings. Also palpable is the tension be-

tween the Bodos and non-Bodos in many areas. The

progress that the creation of the BTAD was supposed to

usher in will remain a mirage unless there is an end to

the prevailing gun culture. It is not just militants but all

sorts of antisocial elements that are thriving in the vio-

lence-marred atmosphere in the BTAD. Civil society, too,

needs to raise its voice collectively and build mass opin-

ion against the disturbing trends. Outfits like the NDFB

would do well to realize that in the long run, it risks total

alienation by continuing with acts of extortion, violence

and intimidation, and the best option for it lies in coming to

a negotiated settlement with the Government.

Crimes against womenOf late there has been a spurt in crimes against women

in the State. While most of the incidents are seldom re-

ported and conveniently brushed under the carpet, some

has of course been highlighted in the media. The alleged

incident of molestation involving two students of a pre-

mier educational institute of Guwahati and the eve-teas-

ing cases in Jorhat have once again brought to the fore

the issue of crimes against women. They are not just

one-off incidents in the State. In 2007, a woman from the

tea garden community, Lakshmi Orang, was disrobed by

several youths while she was participating in a protest

march which turned violent in Guwahati. The GS Road

incident at Christian Basti area of Guwahati, which made

national headlines when a girl was molested by a mob, put

the State in a poor light. A survey conducted among

women belonging to different age groups and socio-eco-

nomic backgrounds in Guwahati a couple of years back

brought to the open several aspects regarding women

safety in the city. That not much hue and cry regarding

acts of violence and abuse against women has been made

is because of the fact that only 8.6% of the victims of

sexual harassment and assault lodged formal complaints

with the law-enforcing authorities. On the other hand,

26.9% of women did not take any action in such incidents

fearing retaliation from the perpetrators. The fact that

women do not feel safe in the city becomes evident from

the fact that 58.8% women avoid going out alone after

dark. It in turn reflects that the security measures which

are in place in the city are not enough to boost the confi-

dence of the women and a lot needs to be done. If the

women do not feel safe in the urban areas of the State,

the condition of women in the rural and interior areas can

well be imagined. The authorities should take the correc-

tive steps ensuring safety and security of women.

Though crime knows no gender, crime against women in

this part of the country was once almost unthinkable. The

women folk of the region are held in high esteem and re-

spected unlike in the rest of the country. But now the records

depict an entirely different picture. It is time the law-enforc-

ing authorities coordinate their activities to tackle the crimes

against women. There is also a need of an awareness cam-

paign on a consistent basis to make the women conscious of

the several laws that have been enacted to uphold their

rights. Women police stations have also been set up to en-

able them to file their complaints promptly. On its part, the

society too as a whole should ensure that the rights of the

women are upheld and respected.

can actually spend. All departments

follow the rule of asking for a cannon

to get a gun. The requirement of

funds to really change the face of the

State is so high that making it avail-

able is a virtual impossibility or a pipe

dream. Funds, even if well spent, will

not mean a drastic change, but a be-

ginning will be made.

The problems in Assam are of so

primary nature that it does not al-

low for much play of ide-

ology. Whatever be the

political party in power,

the issues that have to be

tackled are of basic nature.

If it has to follow the

Gujarat model, the State

Government has to pro-

vide for basic roads, elec-

tricity, drinking water,

health and education. It has

also to create conditions

for full employment of the

youth, which can only

come through reduction of

people engaged in agricul-

ture to less than 10% of

the population, engage

30% in industries and the

rest in services. This is the stand-

ard indicator of a developed State,

which no Indian State qualifies for.

So trying to be the best State in

economic terms is only a compara-

tive indicator and not a complete

one in itself.

Coming to the budget allocations

this year, the provision of Rs 1 crore

per revenue village can mean that a

kutcha road be improved, but not to

a black-topped one, a few tube wells

but not enough for a piped water

scheme, a few solar panels but not a

24x7 power supply, a classroom but

not a new school building. It may al-

low for a few latrines or a few small

one-room houses, a community hall

or a common facility centre for handi-

craft or handlooms, a small club house

or a small play field, etc. These may

not mean much per se, but if re-

peated over the years, it may mean

a perceivable change. Our public rep-

resentatives have pegged their de-

velopment benchmarks so low, that

achieving such small things is

tomtommed as great achievements.

The Congress Government was in

power for 15 years and they thought

that they had taken the State to com-

manding heights, only to realize that

the voter did not think so. This

sword also hangs over the present

Government, although as of date

they are assured of at least another

term of governance.

From the looks of it, the earliest

goal that the welfare State will

achieve is primary education for all,

though going by the surveys on qual-

ity of education, the achievements of

minimum standards will take another

10 to 15 years. Free secondary and

higher education for those who can’t

afford, to be provided by the State,

will take another 25 years. Health

for all in providing one doctor, a GNM

nurse, etc., in every village will take

another 25 years and to reach the

WHO standards, another 30 years.

The setting up of more medical and

paramedical institutions in the budget

is a positive development, which in-

dicates that the Government is

aware of the needs.

Similarly, to provide paved roads

to the last point in every village will

perhaps take another 40

years. The challenge all

along for the Government

would be providing funds

for the infrastructure cre-

ated, as many of them lan-

guish after some time for

lack of periodic mainte-

nance or for the simple

reason of not having ad-

equate funds to run the

show. Providing power to

each home may become

easy if power is available

from Arunachal Pradesh.

Buying power from the

national grid has never

been very economical and

affordable to the people of

the State. But should the Govern-

ment desire, solar panels to provide

minimum power to each household

would be possible. This would tick

as completed, providing power to

each house in the State. Consider-

ing the costs and long gestation pe-

riod of power plants, full power to

each household is at least 15 years

away, provided the State takes up a

plan for it and arranges resources

for it. Nothing seems to have been

done in this regard, seeing the sheer

size of the funds required.

The world is growing through a

phase of urbanization and the ur-

ban population of the world ex-

ceeded the rural in 2010. The ur-

ban planning sector is much more

complicated than planning in the

rural areas. Urban areas need wa-

ter supply, sewerage, transport

network, slum development, pub-

lic areas for recreation, waste dis-

posal, parking, etc. The list is end-

less and fund requirements mind-

boggling. But it is an inevitability

and has to be addressed with a long-

term view. This area is very unat-

tended in the budget, except for

completion of some small projects,

ongoing or planned earlier.

Guwahati is not Assam and the

planned development of other

towns will have to be thought of

also. Water supply to all towns and

villages seems to be the easiest

achievable welfare goal, but as pub-

lic have made their own arrange-

ments, by and large, governments

have not accorded priority to it.

Perhaps the one area that has

been not given the importance it

deserves is creating employment

opportunities in the State. There

is over-engagement of the popula-

tion in agriculture and there are no

remunerative prices to invite in-

vestment in the primary sector. In

the industrial sector also, invest-

ment has been sluggish, with hardly

an annual infusion of Rs 2000 crore

on an average. Tea is past its prime

and the oil sector in its last days, if

no new sources are found. The

services sector like banking, trans-

portation, tourism is growing

slowly. Unemployment and under-

employment are rife. This situa-

tion allows for terrorist move-

ments to fester, which again affects

development in a vicious circle.

The circle has to be broken to let

the State economy take off.

Sir, – Apropos the editorial

‘Rural economy’ (AT, Feb 8), I

would like to say that an effective

and sincere endeavour towards

identification of requisite param-

eters which regulate the augmen-

tation of agricultural growth in

Assam is necessary. The enhance-

ment of agricultural development,

more specifically boosting of crop

production with the adoption of

scientific way of cultivation

primarily depends upon seven

inputs – seed, nutrient, irrigation,

plant protection material (pesti-

cides, etc.), capital (crop finance),

farm machinery and equipment

and scientific knowledge of

cultivation. Crop cultivation being

completely a season-bound

process which cannot depend on

rain solely, an assured irrigation

system can help in reaping up of

satisfactory crop harvest. An

assured irrigation system is only

the single regulating factor for

adoption of triple cropping in a

particular crop land.

It is distressing that different

related departments perform

The provision of Rs 1 crore per

revenue village can mean that

a kutcha road be improved,

but not to a black-topped one,

a few tube wells but not

enough for a piped water

scheme, a few solar panels but

not a 24x7 power supply, a

classroom but not a new

school building.

I Swapnanil Barua

Settling Hindu Bangladeshis in Assamronically, the BJP-led Central

Government has not done an-

ything for the solution of the

various problems faced by As-

sam, in spite of its assurance given

to the people of Assam seemingly to

capture votes before the last parlia-

mentary election. Instead, it has been

trying to impose some other new

problems in addition to the earlier

ones. For examples, while firm steps

have been taken for the completion

of the Lower Subansiri hydroelec-

tric power project at the geo-eco-

logically sensitive area against the

stiff protest of the people’s organiza-

tions and local experts, no steps have

been taken to solve the flood and

erosion problem and the agricultur-

al problems by providing irrigation

and other infrastructural facilities. In-

stead of solving the long-standing

problem of Bangladeshi infiltration,

the present Government seems to

be determined to accord citizenship

to the illegal Bangladeshi Hindus and

to settle them in Assam.

Where have gone the assurances

given in the election manifesto, As-

sam Vision Document and in the elec-

tion campaign of the BJP before the

Assembly election? The Central

Government has passed an ordinance

to provide settlement to about 20

lakh Hindu Bangladeshis, a step that

will reduce the number of Assamese-

speaking people in Assam. Will not

such a step lead to the danger of los-

ing the language, literature and cul-

ture of the indigenous people?

It is now amply clear that the

BJP-led Government like the ear-

lier Congress Government does

not have any interest to solve the

pernicious problems of Assam, in-

cluding the infiltration issue. It only

knows to mesmerize the people

by astounding utterances of the

leaders before the elections, just

to capture votes. Now Narendra

Modi has been trying the distract

the minds of the people from the

burning issues to demonetization

as if it would create a corruption-

free society resulting in the good

days in the lives of the people.

According to the ordinance

mentioned above, the Govern-

ment has planned to settle all the

non-Muslim religious minorities

coming to India up to December

31, 2014 being tortured in Paki-

stan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh

without passports and visas and

accord them citizenship in a phased

manner. Among these religious

minority groups belonging to Hin-

dus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Per-

sis and Buddhists, the number of

Hindus and Sikhs would be large.

If the Sikhs coming from Pakistan

and Afghanistan are settled in Pun-

jab and Haryana, then there would

be no problem of linguistic popula-

tion structure of these two States.

Hence, there would be no objection

from the people of these two States

too. There would also be no objec-

tion from any State if the insignifi-

cant number of Christians, Jains, Per-

sis and Buddhists are settled as they

cannot harm the language and cul-

ture of any host State. But Assam by

no means can bear the burden of ac-

cepting the Hindus coming from

Bangladesh. The clear logic behind

it is that the number of Assamese-

speaking people is only 49.44% as

per 2011 Census in Assam. If the

Hindu Bangladeshis are settled in As-

sam, then the Assamese language

shall not remain as the state lan-

guage since by no means the Hindu

Bangladeshis would accept Assa-

mese and shall not mingle with the

Assamese socio-cultural milieu. In

that case, will not the Assamese-

speaking indigenous people be con-

verted into a minority group in their

century-old homeland?

The most unfortunate fact is that

the BJP-led Union Government in

collusion with the Assam Govern-

ment has been conspiring to impose

the burden of the illegal Bangladeshi

Hindus on the weak indigenous

groups of people of Assam without

any field study of the most sensi-

tive population structure of Assam.

Such an intriguing move, perhaps

aimed at carrying out the Hindutva

agenda of the RSS, shall destroy the

socio-cultural fabric of the Assamese

nationality based on Assamese lan-

guage and culture along with other

groups of indigenous people. Be-

sides, it shall thwart the historic As-

sam Accord according to which, all

the illegal Bangladeshis irrespective

of religious communities who en-

tered Assam after March 25, 1971,

shall be detected and deported to

Bangladesh. According to the Con-

stitution also, the illegal foreigners

cannot be discriminated on the ba-

sis of religion.

The Union Home Minister

placed a Bill on the ordinance in the

Lower House of Parliament on July

19, 2016 in order to give it a legal

status so that all the non-Muslim

refugees (foreigners) coming from

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghani-

stan can be accorded Indian citizen-

ship. But because of the strong pro-

test from the Opposition leaders,

the NDA Government not being

able to pass the Bill sent it to a joint

select committee of Parliament con-

stituted by 20 members of Lok Sab-

Dr Manmohan Das

Iha and 10 members of Rajya Sabha

under the chairmanship of Dr

Satyapal Singh. The JPC was direct-

ed to submit its report before the

last winter session after proper

scrutiny and discussion with all the

stakeholders. Though the commit-

tee discussed the matter with al-

most all the State governments and

some little known organizations

from the Bengali-speaking Barak

Valley, it did not call many impor-

tant organizations and leaders of the

Opposition parties of the Brah-

maputra Valley. As the report could

not be submitted in the winter ses-

sion of Parliament, it was assured

that the different organizations and

leaders of Opposition parties of As-

sam would be called for their opin-

ion on this crucial issue at least be-

fore the Budget Session so that

their views also could be incorpo-

rated. The Budget Session started

from January 31 last, but there

seems to be no communication

from the JPC.

In such a situation, there would

be no alternative than to fight the

issue by launching a widespread ag-

itation similar to the Assam Agita-

tion and simultaneously appealing

to the Supreme Court for repeal

of the unconstitutional Act on the

basis of the said ordinance if passed

by Parliament.

their respective activities

independently, which in most

cases creates an unsatisfactory

situation regarding agricultural

development in the State. It

warrants the creation of a

situation for various agriculture-

related departments to render

activities in a coordinated manner

for the overall development of

agriculture. The other important

factor towards the development

of agriculture is the direct

effective communication among

the personnel concerned of the

Agricultural as well as allied

departments regarding the

transfer of modern technology to

the doorstep of the farmers at

proper time. Fruitful strategies

must be evolved to cater to the

needs of the farmers’ interest in

this regards. Yours etc.,

BHUPEN DUTTA, Bidyapur,

Nalbari.

Balanced budget...Sir, – Kudos to the Finance

Minister of Assam for bringing

out such a wonderful budget. Your

editorial ‘Balanced Budget’ (AT,

Feb 8) also rightly appreciated the

same. The budget gainfully

included all sectors of develop-

ment including Health, Education,

Agriculture, Infrastructure and

Rural Development. The concepts

in the current budget like the

establishment of more medical

colleges, construction of a world-

class children hospital in

Guwahati, upgrade of the present

government cancer hospital in

Guwahati, recruiting 10,000 more

TET teachers and making

education fully free from lower

primary to postgraduate level are

very much laudable and make this

budget really unique.

Lastly, it is often seen that there

occurs a lot of hurdles in imple-

menting schemes envisaged by

the Government like corruption,

mismanagement, lethargy and the

overall delay. If the current budget

is fully implemented, then we can

expect a new era of development

ushering in Assam in the near

future. Yours etc., SADIQ

HUSSAIN LASKAR, Guwahati.

...not so balancedSir, – The State Budget 2017-

18 has been placed as a full-

fledged budget, but it is not full-

fledged for all the communities of

Assam. As we have seen, the

budget this year neither reflects

the problem of rising population

nor is able to allocate money to

control the same. It is known to

all that almost one-third of

Assam’s population belongs to

the minority communities, yet

this so-called ‘resurgent’ budget

has been unable to take up their

issues. According to this budget,

except allocating eight women’s

colleges in the minority-domi-

nated areas, no other schemes

have been made. This Govern-

ment has neglected the agri-

based Darrang district from

where a large amount of vegeta-

bles are being exported to the

different parts our country. The

Finance Minister didn’t consider

allocating funds for any scheme

under the Char Development

Department too. Yours etc.,

ALIMUDDIN AHMED,

Kharupetia.

Inexplicable disparitySir, – I would like to draw the

attention of all concerned to the

huge disparity that exists in the

prices of petroleum products in

the North-eastern States from the

rest of the country. It is quite

inexplicable and unfortunate that

the prices of all essential petro-

leum products, be it petrol, diesel

or LPG cylinder, must be the

highest in the North-east includ-

ing Assam which is a major

contributor of petroleum. For

instance, the current February

2017 price (after an increase of Rs

66 throughout India) of an LPG

cylinder in Guwahati is Rs 732 and

Rs 454 for unsubsidized and

subsidized respectively, whereas

the same stands at Rs 651 and Rs

434 in Delhi or Rs 672 and Rs

436.50 in Kolkata. The prices of

unsubsidized LPG cylinders in the

inner places of the North-east

States are even higher. For

instance, it costs Rs 803.50 in

Silchar which is Rs 171 costlier

than what it is in Delhi.

The prices of petrol and diesel

also tell the same story of

significantly higher price in the

North-eastern States. I would like

to appeal to the Government of

Assam to look into the matter and

do the needful at the earliest.

Yours etc., ABHINJAN BARUA,

Silchar.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 7

CITY

SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: Find-

ing itself weighed down by ha-

bitual prank callers, Assam Po-

lice is now trying to fight its

way out of the menace!

And to get rid of the nui-

sance, its emergency service

‘Dial 100’ has already ‘blocked’

over 400 telephone numbers

of such prank callers in the last

one year or so.

The step, Assam Police

sources said, was necessary to

improve the average response

time, which has been affected

by such ‘non-emergency’ calls.

The average response time of

Dial 100 has increased to 10.16

minutes in 2016 from 9.44

minutes in 2015.

“These blocked numbers

belong to habitual pranksters,

who despite being politely ex-

plained the importance of such

Telephone numbers of over400 prank callers blocked

emergency numbers continue

to cause the pain in the neck,”

an Assam Police official told

The Assam Tribune.

The official opined that the

Dial 100 system had to take a

serious toll due to such calls,

which directly affects delivery

of emergency service to those

in distress.

“Those in instant need of

emergency service cannot break

through as the lines are clogged

by such prank callers. This has

turned out to be a real head-

ache,” sources said, adding, “We

still do not know if such callers

can be prosecuted for disrupt-

ing emergency service. How-

ever, if things get worse, we

would not hesitate to even ex-

plore that possibility as well.

Some countries have done that.”

“The 400-odd numbers

were blocked between Octo-

ber, 2015 and December,

2016. And once any number is

blocked, Dial 100 could never

be accessed by that number

again,” he pointed out.

Dial 100 set up at Guwahati

last year received 10, 11,104

calls compared to 7, 37,158

calls in the preceding year. In

the year 2014, it had received

5, 94,690 calls. However, most

of these calls are ‘ineffective

and non-emergency’ and are

dialed out of ignorance, most-

ly by children.

Sources in the Health De-

partment too informed that

even Dial 108 service (ambu-

lance) is facing serious load of

non-emergency calls.

“You can hardly do anything

if the call is done out of igno-

rance or mistake. However,

the problem begins when it is

done deliberately time and

again,” a Health Department

official opined.

Director of the Department of Neurosurgery, GNRC Hospitals, Dr Navanil Barua along with other dignitaries releasing a CD on

the occasion of World Marriage Day, at Guwahati Press Club on Sunday. – UB Photos

National awardsto city schoolSTAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: City-

based NPS International

School has received two

coveted national-level

awards.

The school bagged the

‘Best Emerging School of

the Year-National’ in the 7th

National Awards on Excel-

lence in Education during the

Indian Education Awards

2017 held in New Delhi on

Saturday evening.

Apart from this, NPS

International School,

Guwahati has also been rated

amongst the top schools of

India at the 4th School

Leadership Summit, 2017 of

Digital Learning in the

national capital. Both the

awards were handed over to

the school authorities at

separate functions in New

Delhi, a press release stated.

Apart from NPS, some of

the prominent schools of the

country which were awarded

during the 4th School

Leadership Summit, 2017

include DPS, Agra; GD

Goenka Public School; St

Peter's School; Ryan

International School; Amity

International School;

Millenium School, etc.

58th UrsMubarakon Feb 26

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The

58th Urs Mubarak (holy

function) of Hazrat Zahir

Aulia Khowajgan will be held

at the Ulubari Dargah Sharif

near the ASEB complex

here on February 26, a press

release received here stated.

As per the programme

that has been chalked out,

Quran-Tilawat, Milad Sharif

(jalsa) will be held from 11

am to 1 pm on the backside

of the Dargah Sharif.

On the other hand, Ziyarat,

Fateha, Qul-Dorud for Zarin

will be held inside the Mazar

Sharif from 8 am to 8 pm,

the release added.

Concern over rising crimegraph against women

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: Re-

acting sharply to the growing

incidence of crime against

women, especially against

school and college-going girls

during the last two decades in

the State, and especially to the

incidents at Jorhat where col-

lege girls have been frequent-

ly harassed and molested by

ruffians, and also the shock-

ing incident which occurred at

IIT-G recently, senior journal-

ist and president of the Gu-

wahati Senior Citizens’ Asso-

ciation (GSCA) DN Chakra-

vartty appealed to the 2.5 mil-

lion elderly citizens, parents,

guardians and teachers to be

more vigilant and cautious

about the distressing situa-

tion in which 20,000 crimes

against women are being re-

corded every year.

Criticising the laxity of the

police throughout the State,

Chakravartty stressed the

need for more meaningful and

practical ways by police in or-

der to “bring to book the

rowdy and misguided youths

of the State who are becom-

ing a shame to society.”

He said that in most of the

incidents which occur, the

miscreants are not from the

poor and illiterate families,

but by and large youths from

well-to-do families, especial-

ly the nouveau riche families.

He appealed to the elder sec-

tions of society to act vigilant-

ly to control such incidents

and to educate the parents,

teachers and guardians about

their responsibilities.

Bollywood playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan performing during the three-day ‘Consensio: The

Festival of Dreams’ of the Royal Group of Institutions, in Guwahati on Saturday. – UB Photos

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: A State

and regional-level workshop ti-

tled ‘Electronic Government

Payments and Receipts (EPR)

in Government’ was held here

recently.

Nitin Khare, Secretary to

the State Government for In-

formation Technology (IT)

Department, inaugurated the

first regional workshop organ-

ised by the National e-Govern-

ance Division (NeGD), Minis-

try of Electronics and Informa-

tion Technology (MeitY), Gov-

ernment of India in collabora-

tion with the Centre for Digit-

al Financial Inclusion (CDFI)

at the Institute For Financial

Management and Research

(IFMR).

The State-level workshop

was the first in the series of

‘Regional-level Awareness and

Consultative Workshops’ to be

organised on EPR in Govern-

ment.

Besides Khare, Roy Math-

ew, Deputy Director of CDFI

and Dr Rajesh Sharma, Direc-

tor of NeGD attended the in-

augural session.

Khare, in his inaugural ad-

dress stressed the need for

creating the required infra-

structure to enable citizens to

access services on the EPR

platform.

“We are working on

strengthening the capacity of

the State to ensure digital pay-

ment systems work seamless-

ly,” he said. He added that a

beginning had been made

through capacity building

workshops, and that the need

was to put an implementation

framework to achieve the de-

fined objectives.

Mathew, in his opening ad-

dress, urged all the citizen in-

terfacing departments to get

on board on the EPR platform.

“The private sector has al-

ready done its bit; it is time

for State governments to uti-

lise this moment as an oppor-

tunity to offer electronic pay-

ments and receipts. Interop-

erability, ease of usage and cost

of deployment should be fo-

cused on, as we design and of-

fer digital products,” he said.

The inaugural session was

followed by a panel discussion

on Central-level initiatives of

EPR, moderated by Kamal

Jain, Senior General Manager

of NeGD. The panel com-

prised Chittaranjan Sawaijam,

technology consultant of

NeGD PMU, Ministry of Elec-

tronics and Information Tech-

nology (MeitY); Rajesh Pras-

ad, head of Product Manage-

ment, NPCI and Nirmal Patt-

nayak, Assistant General Man-

ager of RBI.

Panelists from MeitY in-

formed the participants that

the PayOnline, which is an on-

line platform, is in the process

of being rolled out by MeitY

to enable States to onboard

their services on digital pay-

ment systems.

The NPCI representative

said that there is a need for

better understanding of the

digital payment ecosystem by

State-level stakeholders since

the onus of spearheading the

digital payment services lie

with them in the States.

Following the first panel dis-

cussion, a presentation was

made by Jay Verdhan Tiwari,

Scientist C of the Indian Com-

puter Emergency Response

Team (CERT-IN) under Mei-

tY on security guidelines on

Government payments and

receipts.

Two more panel discussions

were conducted on the topics:

‘Initiatives from Payment Ag-

gregators’ and ‘State-Level

Initiatives for Electronic Pay-

ments & Receipts’.

The workshop aimed at

bringing all the stakeholders in

Government payments and re-

ceipts ecosystem in Assam and

other North Eastern States on

a common level of awareness

about various solutions.

Besides Assam, representa-

tives and officials from the oth-

er North Eastern States, in-

cluding Arunachal Pradesh,

Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram,

Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura

took part in the workshop.

The workshop series was

planned after the success of the

National-Level Awareness

Workshop on EPR in New

Delhi on December 20 last or-

ganised by MeitY with support

from CDFI. MeitY has intro-

duced several initiatives at the

national level for immediate

adoption of electronic modes

of payments and receipts.

Workshop on electronic Govtpayments and receipts held

LakshahiraDas’s birthday

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: Re-

nowned singer, lyricist, poet

and academician Dr Lakshahira

Das will turn 85 tomorrow.

Dr Das, who has written a

number of novels, books on

poetry and education, started

singing in the All India Radio,

Guwahati since its establish-

ment in the year 1946.

Arguably the seniormost

singer of AIR in Assam today,

Dr Das’ songs of the 60’s and

70’s of various films like

Lachin Borphukan, Sarapat

etc. and children’s songs are

very popular among the mu-

sic lovers.

She also sang with Dr Bhu-

pen Hazarika the famous song

Kumal Kumal Duti in the 60’s.

Her family members, close

relatives, friends and singers

will celebrate her birthday

tomorrow.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The number of female

students exceeded the total number of male

students in both the High School Leaving Cer-

tificate (HSLC) and Assam High Madrassa

(AHM) examinations this year.

Of the total 3,80,665 appearing for the HSLC

examination this year, 1,92,402 girl students

Debatecompetition

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: As in

previous years, a State-level

debate competition will be

held this year as part of ‘Pyro-

kinesis’, the annual cultural

festival of the Assam Engi-

neering College here.

The debate competition

on the subject ‘Demonetisa-

tion will strengthen the In-

dian economy’, will take

place on February 17 from

10 am onwards.

Female students exceedmales in HSLC, AHM exams

outnumber the 1,88,263 boys appearing for the

examination.

In case of AHM examination as well, a total

of 5,729 female students are appearing in the

exam against 4,818 male students. The total

number of candidates appearing for the AHM

examination this year is 10,547.

The HSLC and AHM examinations to be

conducted by the Board of Secondary Educa-

tion (SEBA), Assam would commence from

February 17.

A total of 3,91,212 students are appearing in

the HSLC and AHM examinations this year, of

which 1,93,081 are male and 1,98,131 are fe-

male candidates.

The examination would be held in 855 cen-

tres across the State to be supervised by 40

zones. For HSLC examination, Nagaon will have

the highest number of 26,063 candidates this

year, and Dima Hasao district will have the

lowest 3,023 candidates, said a SEBA source.

On the other hand, in case of AHM examina-

tion, Dhubri has the highest number of 1,990

students sitting for the examination, whereas

in Udalguri only seven candidates would ap-

pear in the AHM examination.

DN Chakravartty stressed the need for

more meaningful and practical ways by

police in order to “bring to book the

rowdy and misguided youths of the State

who are becoming a shame to society”.

8 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017STATE

It was indeed a sad

moment when Jyo-

ti Prasad Medhi,

the finest mathe-

matician North

East India has ever

produced, and a

man who continued

to read, write and

talk mathematics till the age of 93, passed

away silently on February 3, 2017.

Why is Jyoti Prasad Medhi so revered

by those who know him, although strik-

ingly unknown to the common Assa-

mese? It is, because he was ‘Vidyadada-

tivinayam’ (Wisdom begets humility)

personified. As for his academic contri-

butions, his textbooks Stochastic Mod-

els in Queueing Theory and Stochastic

Processes are classics, followed world-

wide. Several of his much-referred re-

search papers generated countless

number of PhDs across the world, and

yet he did not have an iota of air in him.

He preferred to work in and from his

own land, silently and for his entire life.

Jyoti Medhi penetrates deep in your

heart with his knowledge, warmth and

humility once you meet and talk to him.

He was an Institution in his own way.

He never cared much that people did

not know him in his home State. Not

that he never tried to. He never re-

fused anyone, he loved talking to any-

one whom he came across. One fine

evening in 2005, when I was discuss-

ing some issues of reaching out to the

students at his residence, he took out

his book written in Assamese, Ek dui,

jog biyog and handed it over to me. It

was really a pleasant surprise to me.

Unbelievable! Such a fantastic book

exists in Assamese, introducing Dis-

crete Mathematics so lucidly, with ex-

amples and riddles, that any high school

Remembering Jyoti Prasad Medhistudent can enjoy and understand, and

even elders would find it interesting.

He informed me that not many copies

were sold out, more than 200 copies

were still lying in his house. Knowing

about the book from me, my friend

Dhiraj Goswami, came forward to pop-

ularise the book. Had Medhi sir re-

ceived some good response from the

readers, he would surely have contrib-

uted more to the young students. Any-

way, we are still a long way to under-

stand that mathematics develops the

mental faculties of a child, and that this

can be interesting and enjoyable as

well. We do not have a culture of en-

couraging our kids to read a book in

Mathematics other than a textbook.

Above all, mathematicians (and scien-

tists, in general) rarely are celebrities,

unless one gets a Nobel, a Fields med-

al or a Bharat Ratna!

My department at IIT Guwahati was

bestowed with Prof Jyoti Medhi’s wis-

dom from its very inception, and he had

been at our side whenever we were in

need of it. We felt honoured when we

proposed DSc Honoris Causa for Prof

Medhi that was conferred on him by IIT

Guwahati in the Sixteenth Convocation

of IIT Guwahati in July 2014, for his ex-

traordinary academic contributions. The

department’s recent decision to consti-

tute an annual lecture titled ‘Jyoti Medhi

Memorial Lecture’ is only a humble ef-

fort to display our regards for him and to

keep him near to our heart.

– Bhaba Sarma

(II)

It came as a shock to me when my

dear friend Rumjhum called to inform

me that her father Prof Jyoti Prasad

Medhi (Medhi Uncle to me) had passed

away aged 93.

An internationally acclaimed statisti-

cian, Prof Medhi is regarded as one of

the renowned modern statisticians in the

world. One of the five famous books au-

thored by him – Stochastic Processes –

has been accepted as a text book by al-

most all the universities of the world.

Details of his achievements are well

known.

I had the good fortune of knowing Prof

Medhi since the mid-1980s. Being a fre-

quent visitor to Rumjhum’s house in

Silpukhuri, Guwahati. I would almost

always find him sitting in the living room

or out on the verandah, absorbed in a

book or reading the newspaper. He

would always greet me with a smile and

ask about my progress in studies. I grad-

ually came to realise how fortunate I

was to know the renowned scholar from

such close quarters. His greatness lay

in the fact that he was so very simple in

his way of life and so humble that I nev-

er had to think twice before requesting

him to explain something I had found

difficult to understand in class. He made

it sound so simple and interesting that

things would immediately become crys-

tal clear.

The last time I met him (in November

last year), he looked at me with his char-

acteristic smile, gave me a firm hand-

shake and thanked me for visiting him.

Little did I know that it would be the last

time I would meet him.

I think there is one way someone can

live on, and it is through those you leave

behind. I see Prof Medhi in his children

and sweet loving Aunty, who even in her

hour of grief remembered to offer me a

cup of tea.

On the day of his adyashraddha today,

we pray to the Almighty to grant eternal

peace to the departed soul.

– Anuradha Barua

CORRESPONDENT

NALBARI, Feb 12: The prestigious

Mohan Bhaira Memorial Award for 2017

was presented to renowned nagara

naam artiste Ramcharan Bharali in a

function held at Nalbari Natya Mandir on

Saturday evening. Sangeet Natak

Akademi award winning artiste Jatindra

Nath Goswami formally presented the

Mohan Bhaira Award consisting of cash

of Rs 10,000, a memento, a citation, seleng

sador, phulam japi, sarai among others.

The chief adviser to the AASU, Dr

Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya also

attended the award giving ceremony

which was presided over by Himan

Barman, president of the Nalbari district

unit of the AASU. Dr Bhattacharya said

that the dhol, nagara and Bihu should be

included in the textbooks of educational

institutions by the Government. He

further added that the Government

should take up plans to commercially

produce the folk musical instruments to

ensure their availability so that the new

generation is attracted.

Giving away the award, Nrityacharya

Goswami said that the Government

should take steps to recognise the artistes

who are silently involved in the promo-

tion of folk culture. Earlier, Bharali and

the guests of the award giving ceremony

were brought to the Nalbari Natya

Mandir in a cultural procession from the

PWD inspection bungalow.

The Nalbari district unit of the AASU

and the Nalbari district unit of the Assam

Unnati Sabha have been presenting the

award since 2009 to a popular folk artist

of the State. It may be mentioned here

that artist Ramcharan Bharali who was

born in Kumarikata village in Nalbari dis-

trict has been promoting the nagara

naam, a popular performing art of lower

Assam. He formed his nagara naam

party in 1964 and till now has produced

85 audio cassettes and 30 video CDs.

Besides, he has written six books of

nagara naam. As a recognition of his

contributions, Bharali is getting the Silpi

Pension from the State Government.The

Assam Natya Sanmilani also conferred

on him the ‘Nagara Surya’ title in 2002.

Mohan Bhaira Awardpresented to Ramcharan Bharali

OBITUARY

Prateema BoraCORRESPONDENT

NORTH LAKHIMPUR,

Feb 12: Prateema Bora, moth-

er of ex-Bihpuria MLA Bhu-

pen Bora, died at her

Nowboicha residence follow-

ing a stroke. She was 71.

She was associated with

various women’s organisa-

tions and the local naamghar.

She leaves behind her hus-

band, three sons and a daugh-

ter and a host of grandchildren.

Her death has been widely

mourned at Nowboicha.

Debidas NeogCORRESPONDENT

MANGALDAI, Feb 12: De-

bidas Neog, retired HoD of

Mangaldai College’s Philoso-

phy Department, a literary

pensioner, a classical musician

and dramatist died on Friday

night at his Salalpara residence

here due to old- age ailments.

He was 87.

He was known for his ver-

satility in literary works, es-

pecially in the field of satirical

and detective literary works.

His death was widely

mourned.

Manik Ch SaikiaCORRESPONDENT

DERGAON, Feb 12: Manik

Ch. Saikia, retired Principal of

Mangaldai Govt Higher Sec-

ondary School as well as a res-

ident of Dhekial Maliagaon in

Golaghat district died on Fri-

day due to old age ailments.

He was 85.

Born in 1932 at Maliagaon

Dhekial, he started his career

as Supply Sub-Inspector at

Tura in Meghalaya and then

joined as Asstt. Co-operative

officer at Hojai. But finally he

cleared Assam Public Service

Examination and joined as an

Assistant Teacher at Diphu

Govt. High School in 1962.

After that he was transferred

to Haflong Govt High school

and finally retired as the Prin-

cipal of Mangaldai Govt High-

er Secondary School in 1994.

He leaves behind his wife,

two sons, a daughter along

with a host of relatives.

Chief Secretary visitsState’s cleanest village

CORRESPONDENT

GOALPARA, Feb 12: Chief

Secretary of Assam, Vinod

Kumar Pipersenia, Commi-

sioner, Tourism and Education

RK Jain, Secretary, Public

Health (Sanitation), Dr Sid-

harth Singh accompanied by

the Deputy Commisioner JVN

Subramanyam visited Assam’s

cleanest village Rangchapara,

around 17 km from the dis-

trict headquarter on Friday.

Addressing a public meet-

ing organised on the occasion

at the Rangchapara LP School

field, Pipersenia lauded the ef-

forts of the villagers, especial-

ly, the village management

committee headed by head-

man Robertjhon Momin since

2002 for keeping their village

beautiful and clean by taking

up adequate community mo-

bilisation, becoming open def-

ecation free (ODF) village and

by promoting awareness on

cleanliness under the Swachh

Bharat Mission (G).

Commisioner, Tourism and

Education RK Jain in his speech

stressed on inculcating good

values and habits for the vil-

lage to realise its potential as

an important tourist spot in

the district.

The Secretary, Public

Health (Sanitaion) praised the

efforts of the villagers for hav-

ing all the attributes and crite-

ria for a clean village and to

keep up their efforts so that it

becomes an example and a way

of life for all other villages in

the district.

The Deputy Commissioner

JVN subramanyam in his

speech praised the efforts of

the villagers as well as all the

departments for their efforts

for getting all the accolades as

the clenaest village of the

State. He also said that he will

transform the village into a

cashless one.

It may be mentioned here

that Ranchapara came into the

limelight recently after the

Garo village was adjudged the

cleanest village in the State, an

award instituted by the State

Government and the PHED.

CORRESPONDENT

MANGALDAI, Feb 12:

Chief Secretary VK Piperse-

nia has laid stress on the all-

round development of the vil-

lages of the State for which he

urged the village people to co-

operate in the implementation

of the newly-introduced rural

development scheme ‘Chief

Minister’s Sampurna Gramon-

nayan Yojana’. He addressed a

public meeting on Saturday at

Dagiapara under Dipila Gaon

Panchayat under Sipajhar LAC

while visiting the village rec-

ognised as cleanest among the

565 villages of Darrang district.

Congratulating the people of

the village for achieving this

Stress laid on all-rounddevelopment of villages

feat, the Chief Secretary said ,

“Now your responsibility has

doubled and you must work so

that your village could be rec-

ognised not only as the clean-

est village but also as the best

all round village in the entire

country. You make your village

as the first village in imple-

mentation of the Chief Minis-

ter's Sampurna Gramaonnay-

an Yojana and bring develop-

ment in every field including

agriculture, irrigation, commu-

nication , education etc.”

The meeting anchored by

Bidyut Bikash Bhagawati,

ADC, Darrang was also at-

tended by Deputy Commis-

sioner, Darrang Ashok Kr Bar-

man, Superintendent of Police,

Sreejith Thiraviam, MLA of

Sipajhar Binanda Kr Saikia

among others. A retired local

teacher, Lakshi Kalita gave a

brief account of the historical

background of the village while

Samak Rai Kalita, president of

Dipila GP explained how the

village was recognised as the

most clean village by the Gov-

ernment this year. A local

youth leader Arupjyoti Kalita

also spoke on the occasion. The

Chief Secretary who was also

accompanied by his spouse on

way to Dagiapara visited the

historical Pathorughat Peas-

ants' Martyrs memorial and

Khatara Satra where they

were felicitated by many local

public organizations.

CORRESPONDENT

HAILAKANDI, Feb 12: The

Hailakandi district administration

has taken various steps to en-

hance the Bakijai dues through-

out the district.

Deputy Commissioner Moloy

Bora has asked the certificate of-

ficers to make a sustained drive

to realise the outstanding Bakijai

dues. In a directive to all certifi-

cate officers, Deputy Commis-

sioner Bora said all out efforts

have to be made for recovery of

outstanding Bakijai dues amount-

ing to Rs 11,63,20,347.55 against

a total 34,534 pending cases. A

minimum Rs 5 lakh has been fixed

as target for realisation of reve-

nue. A certificate of honour will

be given to the best performer.

Meanwhile, the district admin-

istration has drawn up a compre-

hensive action plan for gearing

up of Bakijai collection. It has giv-

en clear cut directions to certifi-

cate officers to hold camps and

Circle Officers to furnish FIRs to

CDs for speedy recovery of rev-

enue. It has directed the OCs to

ensure no outbreak of violence

during the recovery drive.

Agriculture census opera-

tion: A day-long training session

for selected officials to assist and

coordinate the agriculture cen-

sus operation was held in

Hailakandi district on Tuesday.

Inaugurating the training ses-

sion, Deputy Commissioner

Moloy Bora said the district-lev-

el census as part of the 10th Ag-

riculture Census is of paramount

importance in framing of policies,

fixing priorities and strategy for

achieving fixed targets in agri-

culture sector at the national level.

Bora said the census is a gi-

gantic statistical operation and the

information collected through it

is quite significant for the policy

makers, planners, administra-

tors, researchers and academi-

cians. “The census is a massive

exercise that will be carried out

in different phases and diverse

periods and utmost care has to

be taken to provide accurate in-

puts,” said Bora.

The Deputy Commissioner

urged the officials to pitch in their

efforts to prepare a comprehen-

sive database and updated record

on the total area of agriculture

land, types of crops cultivated and

details of farmers across the dis-

trict.

The training imparted to the

selected officials included collec-

tion of data regarding number of

agricultural operational holders

in the district, land utilisation,

tenancy status and irrigation fa-

cilities available etc.

The census was launched in

different parts of the country on

February 3 and the final report

would be published in 2018, offi-

cials said.

According to the official, agri-

culture census in India is conduct-

ed at five yearly intervals for col-

lection of information about struc-

tural aspects of agricultural hold-

ings in the country.

The basic statistical unit for

data collection is ‘Operational

Holding’. Agriculture census

data is collected in three phases.

Detailed data is collected on sam-

ple basis from 20 per cent villag-

es covering characteristics such

as tenancy, land use, irrigation,

cropping pattern, dispersal of

holding and on pattern of use of

inputs.

Additional Deputy Commis-

sioner, Amalendu Roy and sen-

ior officials of different depart-

ments were present on the oc-

casion.

Hailakandi district admingears up for Bakijai drive

Mohan Bhaira Award being presented to Ramcharan Bharali at Nalbari on Saturday. – Photo Nalbari Correspondent

New KarimganjDC takes over

CORRESPONDENT

BADARPUR, Feb 12: The

new Deputy Commissioner of

Karimganj, Pradeep Kumar

Talukdar who took over charge

on Monday, has promised

greater development of the

district. He promised this

while he addressing his first

press conference at Karimganj

on Tuesday afternoon.

Talukdar earnestly appealed

to all to extend their helping

hands to the district adminis-

tration, for the all-round de-

velopment of the district.

From Health service to village

development, education sys-

tem, the worn-out condition of

the various roads, there are

many problems in the entire

district, which will have to be

removed, he said.

CORRESPONDENT

NORTH LAKHIMPUR,

Feb 12: North Lakhimpur will

become the second town in the

country after Bihar’s Sasaram

to have a unique electric pow-

er supply system to beat the

load shedding and reduce en-

ergy consumption. This is due

to an innovative mission called

Project UDC which aims at

providing DC power supply to

households in smaller towns

and villages across the country.

Developed by IIT-Madras and

supported by the Ministry of

Power, Govt. of India, Project

UDC is being implemented in

North Lakhimpur by the As-

sam Power Distribution Com-

pany Ltd.

This innovative solution

N Lakhimpur to haveDC power service

Second town after Bihar’s Sasaram

aims to provide an additional

DC power line with every

home in the town in which the

consumer can directly connect

more energy efficient DC ap-

pliances compared to AC ap-

pliances. This DC line contin-

ues to operate even during

load shedding. This means dur-

ing load shedding, AC line will

be cut-off but DC line will be

on. This new DC power line

can support 2-3 DC lights, 1-2

DC fans, TV, mobile phone

chargers, laptop chargers etc.

The existing AC line of the

consumers will continue to

function as it does currently.

However, from the meter, two

power lines will emerge – one

existing AC line and second a

new DC line. The project also

aims at a reduced power tariff

for the customers as DC lines

reduce 50% of the energy than

the AC lines.

Project UDC will also make

the use of solar rooftop panels

effective as this system uses

DC lines. The project will be

completed by March this year

in North Lakhimpur and it is

carried out by Cygni Energy,

Hyderabad. It will cover 10,000

consumers in North Lakhim-

pur in which an LED bulb, one

LED tube light, one fan and

one charger for mobile phones

and computer laptops will be

provided freely at the time of

installation of DC lines with a

separate meter. Initially, the

project will cover consumers

under the load of 4 KW of the

civil feeder and No. 2 feeder

of the town.

NationalLok Adalat at

SilcharCORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR, Feb 12: The

National Lok Adalat organised

by the District Legal Services

Authority (DLSA) Cachar

drew good response on Sat-

urday.

According to N Goswami,

secretary of DLSA, proceed-

ings of the cases were held in

14 booths spread across the

Court campus. “Out of the 974

pre-litigation cases of various

banks, 128 cases have been

settled with an amount of Rs

58, 3,552. There were as many

as 1200 pending cases and 525

such cases have been disposed

of. Further, out of 141 MACT

cases, 111 cases were dis-

posed with Rs 60, 43,800 as

the settlement amount.

Moreoever, 12 out of 53 cases

of cheque bounce were dis-

posed of as well. The amount

settled in this respect is Rs 31,

51, 884,” Goswami informed.

Preparations being made for the 44th Lakhimpur Ali Aye Ligang celebrations at the Lakhimpur Govt HS field at Lakhimpur,

on Saturday. – UB Photos

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CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR, Feb 12: The

golden jubilee celebration and

49th session of the All Bodo

Students’ Union (ABSU) got

under way from today at Jang-

krithai Fwthar in Kokrajhar.

The president of the All

Assam Students’ Union

(AASU) Dipankar Nath while

inaugurating the golden jubi-

lee celebration said the AASU

and ABSU have been main-

taining good relationship since

90s for the common issues of

the State. He praised the

ABSU for playing vital role for

building a strong Bodo socie-

ty. He also said the Bodos have

reached in such stage because

of the hard work of the ABSU.

Nath said the failure of the

State Government to distrib-

ute the Bodo medium text

books in time was very unfor-

tunate and great injustice. “We

supported the ABSU’s deci-

sion to block the distribution

of text books of other medi-

ums until the books of Bodo

medium are not distributed”,

and added that everybody

should think equality for all in-

digenous people of the State.

He said –“From this Jangkrith-

ai Fwthar, I warn the Govern-

ment of Assam that the AASU

and ABSU will launch joint

movement against the failure

of the State Education depart-

ment to distribute text books

in time”. He said forty days

have passed but it is very un-

fortunate that the text books

of Bodo medium have not

reached.

The AASU president said

the AASU and ABSU were

concern on the issues related

to the indigenous communities

of the State and the student

union has been keeping close

eyes on the correct NRC, de-

tection of foreigners and com-

plete sealing of India-Bangla-

desh border. He said the AASU

never believe in the comments

of intellectuals who have lack

of practical knowledge about

the geographical and territori-

al boundary. He also said the

AASU will not compromise on

the integrity and territory. He

also warned the organisations

who called bandh during the

golden jubilee celebration of

the ABSU and said the organi-

sations should respect its inter-

est respectively.

The president of the ABSU

Promod Boro and AASU pres-

ident Dipankar Nath formally

inaugurated the golden jubilee

celebrations.

The leader of Vidharva

movement and former advo-

cate general of Maharastra,

Shreehari Aney attended the

function as chief guest. The

golden jubilee celebration on

Sunday was also addressed by

senior journalists Samudra

Gupta Kashyap, Adip Phukan,

Paragmoni Aditya and Maini

Mahanta. NDFB (P) chairman

Dhiren Boro, ex-MP Sansuma

Khunggur Bwiswmuthiary,

former Rajya Sabha, MP, UG

Brahma and chairman of Mis-

ing Autonomous Council Par-

amananda Chayengia and oth-

ers also attended the meeting.

ABSU golden jubilee getsunder way at Jangkrithai Fwthar

BJP dist officeinauguratedCORRESPONDENT

BARPETA, Feb 12: The

permanent office of the

Barpeta district committee

of Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) was inaugurated today.

Chief Minister Sarbanan-

da Sonowal inaugurated the

office built on Mania Road

at Metuakuchi in the town.

Earlier in the morning

on his arrival Sonowal

visited Barpeta Satra and

offered prayer there. He

also attended the open

meeting of All Assam

Lawyers’ Association in the

auditorium of Barpeta

District Library, interacted

with the party office

bearers in Barpetaroad

Press Club, addressed the

open meeting of Barpeta

Satra Sakha Satra Samaj at

Barpetaroad and inaugurat-

ed a multi purpose commu-

nity hall at Bhalukadoba

near Sarbhog.

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, Feb 12: The

results of the BA, BSc and

BCom first, third and fifth se-

mester examinations, 2016

held in November-December,

2016 under Dibrugarh Univer-

sity will be declared on Febru-

ary 14 at 11 am, a release in-

formed.

All the principals of colleges

have been asked to collect the

marksheets from designated

colleges. The colleges of

Sivasagar and Charaideo dis-

tricts can collect marksheets

from Sibsagar Commerce Col-

lege, Sibsagar, colleges of

Jorhat and Majuli district can

collect marksheets from DCB

Girls’ College, Jorhat, colleg-

Dibrugarh Universityresults tomorrow

es of Golaghat district can col-

lect marksheets from DR Col-

lege, Golaghat, colleges of La-

khimpur district from Lakhim-

pur Girls’ College, Lakhimpur,

colleges of Dhemaji district

from Dhemaji College, Dhe-

maji, colleges of Tinsukia dis-

trict from Tinsukia College,

Tinsukia and colleges of Dibru-

garh district from DHSK Col-

lege, Dibrugarh.

Talk on career opportuni-

ties: A talk-cum-interactive

programme on ‘career oppor-

tunities in media industry’ was

organised by the Student Sup-

port and Progression Sub-Com-

mittee of the Internal Quality

Assurance Cell, MDKG Col-

lege here on Saturday.

Monjib Mochahari, an assist-

ant professor from the Centre

for Studies in Journalism and

Mass Communication, Dibru-

garh University was the re-

source person. The objective

of the programme was to give

quality exposure to students

about the dynamics of media

industry and its scope in

Northeast India.

Monjib, who has diverse

experiences of working in

media industry spoke about

the emerging trends in media

industry. He primarily focused

his lecture on the need for

quality training and creativity

in order to tap the enormous

scope in the media sector. He

also stressed on the need for

more investment in media sec-

tor being a growing industry.

Shops guttedCORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR, Feb 12:

Atleast four shops including

cloth stores and grocery

outlet have been gutted

after a massive fire broke

out at Janiganj area, the

main financial hub of

Silchar on

Saturday midnight.

According to sources, the

fire broke out near Bhuiya-

goddi, one of the prime

areas in Janiganj.

Fire fighters with as

many as seven fire engines

from ONGC and defense

services rushed to the spot

and after a rigorous battle

for almost an hour the fire

was brought under con-

trol.

Meanwhile, even as the

cause behind the outbreak

of fire is not yet ascer-

tained, many are speculat-

ing that this could be a case

of land dispute. Police,

however is investing the

case.

HSDC observes3rd foundation

dayCORRESPONDENT

DIPHU, Feb 12: The

third foundation day of the

Hill State Democratic

Council (HSDC) was

celebrated by the party at

its central committee office

here on Saturday. On the

occasion, a party meeting

was held where HSDC

convenor and former CEM,

Karbi Anglong Autonomous

Council (KAAC) Jotson Bey

chaired the meeting.

In the meeting, the

present political situation

in the district was dis-

cussed and several

proposals were adopted to

strengthen the party at the

grass root levels to fight

against the BJP in the

coming KAAC election.

Besides, resolutions were

adopted to condemn the

BJP for extending the term

of the Karbi Anglong

Autonomous Council.

The HSDC also con-

demned the BJP ruled

KAAC’s move to allot 500

bighas of land to the

Patanjali Group. Earlier in

the morning, the party flag

was hoisted by HSDC

convener and former MLA

Holiram Terang and

homage paid to the

departed leaders by former

KAAC CEM and convener

Jotson Bey.

The party also observed

the day in all the 26 MAC

constituencies in the

district.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: The

stage is being set for the 43rd

edition of Karbi Youth Festi-

val, billed as the oldest ethnic

festival of the region, that be-

gins at Taralangso near Diphu

in Karbi Anglong district from

February 15 next.

The five-day programme is

being organised by the Karbi

Cultural Society.

“Our endeavour is to bring

the diverse cultures and tribes

of Karbi Anglong and its neigh-

bouring places on one platform

and showcase the unity in di-

versity. The motto of the fes-

tival is to preserve the culture,

promote cleanliness and speed

up development,” Diphu MLA

Sum Ronghang, who is also the

president of the reception

committee, said here on Sat-

urday.

The annual festival, being

organised since 1974, will be

held at an 800-bigha plot at

Taralangso, about five km from

Diphu.

Ronghang further said for

the first time the Chief Minis-

43rd Karbi YouthFestival from Feb 15

ter will be attending the fest

on February 16.

He informed that cultural

troupes from 26 zones will

participate in the pro-

grammes and competitions.

Local produce and ethnic food

will also be exhibited on the

occasion.

“Due to various reasons, the

festival had somehow lost its

relevance. But this time, we

all have united, irrespective of

political affiliations and we will

make it a grand affair,” the leg-

islator said.

For the last 25 years, the

festival is being held at the

same venue.

“We are planning to set up

an ethnic village on the site.

From my MLA fund I have

sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for a

museum there which will be

inaugurated on February 16.

Two amphitheatres have been

already built and two more are

coming up,” he said.

Chief Minister Sonowal is

expected to lay the foundation

stone for a science city and

planetarium at the site during

his visit to the festival.

CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA, Feb 12:

Rich tributes were paid to

eminent writer and journalist

Nirod Choudhury on his death

anniversary here recently.

On this occasion a special

programme was organised

here by Doomdooma Sakha

Sahitya Sabha (DSSS) at its

office premises. The pro-

gramme started with lightning

of lamp in front of the portrait

of Nirod Choudhury by his

childhood friend and veteran

trade union leader Niren Baru-

ah. Later, a meeting was held

under the presidentship of

DSSS president Arjun Baru-

ah which was addressed by

Niren Baruah, Dwijen Sharma

and others.

The speakers highlighted

various aspects of late Choud-

hury’s life and work. The

meeting expressed strong re-

sentment as neither the State

Government nor Asam Sahit-

ya Sabha gave due recognition

to the eminent writer and jour-

nalist. The meeting urged both

Nirod Choudhury rememberedthe government and Sabha to

take up some programmes in

his memory. The entire pro-

gramme was anchored by

DSSS assistant secretary Ku-

ladhar Barman and it was at-

tended by a large number of

people.

Parents orientation pro-

gramme held: A parents ori-

entation programme was held

at Don Bosco School, Doom-

dooma on Thursday. The pro-

gramme was facilitated by Dr

Reshmi Sen Sharma from

Kolkata.

The programme which was

held in two sessions focused

on four relevant areas of in-

terest – positive changes

brought by the child to be ap-

preciated, to build up a strong

bond among the spouses, to

create and allot free space for

the child to grow instead of a

mechanical way of life and fi-

nally to promote a sound

healthy life style for a brighter

tomorrow.

Fr Hans Igness, the head-

master, in his speech thanked

the parents for taking their

time off and said that the ob-

jective of the programme was

to reinforce the fact that par-

ents are most important part-

ner and stakeholders in the

education of the students.

Annual sports meet

ends: The closing ceremony

of the annual sports meet, 2017

of Learners’ High School, was

held on Friday. Colonel

Avneesh Singh, Commanding

Officer of the 7th Battalion of

Madras Regiment of Indian

Army stationed at Rupai Sid-

ing near here attended the

ceremony as chief guest. In his

address, Col Singh urged the

students to build themselves

as good citizens so that they

can participate in the nation

building processes in future.

President of the managing

committee of the school, Arjun

Baruah also addressed the stu-

dents. Earlier, the principal of

the school, Varghese Panjikaran

delivered the welcome address.

The chief guest, Col Avneesh

Singh gave away the prizes to

the winners of the various

events of annual sports meet.

CORRESPONDENT

HAILAKANDI, Feb 12:

Prohibition Week on alcohol

and drug abuse was observed

in Hailakandi district as part of

the death anniversary of Fa-

ther of the Nation, Mahatma

Gandhi.

A meeting was held at

Monacherra High School to

generate awareness among

people about the ill effects of

addiction to dissuade them

from consuming liquor and

drugs.

Speaking on the occasion,

Superintendent of Police,

Pranab Jyoti Goswami said

drugs are a menace posing a

grave threat to society and

awareness is the key to wean

the youths away from all forms

of addiction.

Expressing happiness that

Prohibition Week observed in Hailakandithe prohibition week has start-

ed off from a high school in the

presence of a large number of

students, Goswami said, “The

youths are easily lured to ad-

diction and the ever increas-

ing incidents of crime we wit-

ness today are attributed to

drugs and alcohol. It is, there-

fore, a step in the right direc-

tion that the week-long aware-

ness campaign begins in a high

school in the presence of a

large number of students.”

Goswami also advocated for

counseling for those habituat-

ed to drugs and alcohol in de-

addiction centers, besides le-

gal and medical help.

The SP said cases of drugs

abuse in Hailakandi district are

comparatively less compared

to other parts of the State.

However, he asked everyone

to keep be on guard and to re-

port any instances of drugs

abuse to the concerned author-

ities.

Advising the youths to

shun all forms of addiction,

Goswami said, “We all have

to work in unison to make the

society free from psychotrop-

ic substances and spurious

liquor.”

Additional Deputy Commis-

sioner, Amalendu Roy said

drugs and alcohol are social

evils and must be shunned for

peaceful and healthy living.

Roy urged the youths, espe-

cially the school students to

spread the message of ‘say no

to drugs and alcohol’ in their

homes and neighbourhoods to

free society at large from the

menace. The senior official

appreciated the slew of initia-

tives taken by Superintendent

Excise and his team to wean

away scores of tea garden

workers from illicit liquor. Roy

underscored the need to or-

ganise more awareness pro-

grammes at schools, colleges,

tea gardens and gaon panchay-

at level.

Class VI student, Mehak

Mazumder, while highlight-

ing on drugs abuse and ill ef-

fects of alcohol, said they not

only take a heavy toll on

health but also pollute the

environment. “Say no to

drugs and alcohol. Say yes to

healthy living,” said Mehak

drawing loud cheers.

Presiding over the meeting,

principal, Hailakandi Public HS

School, Sirajul Islam Maz-

arbhuiya exhorted upon the

students to stay away from

drugs and alcohol menace. He

asked them to take up cudgels

against all forms of addiction

and to begin the battle right

from their doorsteps.

Aenakhal GP president,

Choudhury Charan Gaur,

DIPRO, Hailakandi, Sabir

Nishat, Planning Officer, AH

Laskar, retired teacher, RP

Pandey, among others, spoke

on the occasion.

Excise Superintendent, M

Amarendra Nath spelled out

the various programmes lined

up to create awareness about

ills of addiction.

Organised by the District

Excise Office and Anti Drug

and Prohibition Committee,

the meeting was also attend-

ed by members and former

members of District Anti Drug

and Prohibition Committee,

representatives of PRIs,

NGOs, women organisations

and Nehru Yuva Kendra San-

gathan.

Children taking part in an art competition in Silchar on Sunday.

– UB Photos

Dr Nagen Saikia addressing the open meeting of 7th biennial conference of Assam State Senior Citizens’ Sanmilan in Dibrugarh on Sunday. – UB Photos

NORTH EAST10 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017

Forecast for North Eastern

States : Weather is most likely

to remain dry over Arunachal

Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya,

Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram &

Tripura. No large change in

minimum temperatures at most

places over the region during

next 48 hrs.

Warning: Nil

Temperatures :

Max (°C) Min (°C)

Dibrugarh 26.9 9.9

Tezpur N/A 14.1

Silchar 30.8 13.8

Dhubri 25.7 15.0

Jorhat 26.1 10.2

N Lakhimpur 27.8 10.1

Shillong N/A 6.1

Imphal 26.6 7.0

Itanagar 27.8 10.6

Aizawl N/A 9.3

Agartala 30.2 15.4

Kohima N/A N/A

Pasighat 26.4 15.5

Cherrapunjee 21.6 9.9

WEATHER

NORTHEAST

Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurating a departmental store in presence of Union Minister of State for

Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju at Naharlagun on Sunday. – UB Photos

CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR, Feb 12: Arunachal

Pradesh Chief Minister Pema

Khandu today said that the State

Government will soon sort out the

problems in the implementation of

the stalled 2000 MW Subansiri

Lower Hydroelectric Power Project

at Gerukamukh along Assam-Aru-

nachal border.

Khandu made this assurance after

inspecting the dam site, to a group of

NHPC officials in a meeting at Dol-

lungmukh today. The Chief Minister

Khandu assures to revive Subansiri dam projectsaid he will have talks with his As-

sam counterpart Sarbananda Sonow-

al and Union Power Minister Piyush

Goyal for an early solution.

Work at the project site came to a

grinding halt since December 2011

following protests by anti-dam

groups on downstream concerns.

“Finding a solution to the Suban-

siri Lower Dam is highly important

as the State Government is daily

losing to the tune of Rs 1.20 crore,

an amount that could have been ac-

crued from the 12 per cent free pow-

er share,” said Khandu. He stressed

that all the concerns and matters that

are proving as stumbling block to

the project, need urgent attention.

“NHPC’s Subansiri Lower Dam

is of importance not only at the local

level, but to the State and the coun-

try,” said the Chief Minister. He said

had the dam been commissioned on

time, the State could have reaped

the benefits in terms of employ-

ment, contractual works and tour-

ism promotion.

Khandu even stressed that no Chief

Minister in Arunachal can take the

State ahead, if hydropower potential

of the State is not optimally used.

Executive Director of Subansiri

Lower HEP Project, Rakesh ex-

plained to the visiting CM and his

team about the project status and its

implementation. The project was

forced to suspend its construction ac-

tivities in December 2011, follow-

ing protests from dome of the stake-

holders and pressure groups. The

project with its initial cost estimated

at Rs 6,285 crore began its construc-

tion in 2005. However, due to the

delay, the revised cost has jumped to

Rs 17,435 crore as of today.

The NHPC official informed that

till date 55 per cent of works have

been completed and the construc-

tion works are at standstill with only

routine preservation and mainte-

nance works being carried out.

Because of stoppage of construc-

tion activities, he informed that the

company is losing Rs 10 crore eve-

ry day, being incurred in mainte-

nance works and other activities. Till

date, the project has incurred Rs

9,000 crore as expenditure, added

the official.

Earlier, the Chief Minister and his

team visited the water intake site,

followed by a 1.5 km drive inside the

surge tunnel. The team made a brief

halt inside the tunnel where the

NHPC officials briefed them about

the layout of the eight surge tunnels.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna

Mein, Industries Minister Tapang

Taloh, Health Minister Jomde Kena,

PHE Minister Bamang Felix, Par-

liamentary Secretary for Transport

and Supply Likha Saaya, and MLAs

Tamar Murtem and Tage Taki ac-

companied the Chief Minister dur-

ing the visit.

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Expen-

sive and sleek snow scooters, usu-

ally found at ice-capped tourist spots

for adventure sport lovers, have for

the first time been inducted for pa-

trol by ITBP troops along the Sino-

Indian frontier.

Five of these powerful scooters,

procured from a US-based firm,

have been deployed at high-altitude

border locations of Indo-Tibetan

Border Police (ITBP) in Sikkim,

Ladakh and Uttarakhand to moni-

tor the Chinese PLA deployment

ITBP troops get snow scooters to patrol Chinese border

CORRESPONDENT

DIMAPUR, Feb 12: Four

NPF legislators have ap-

pealed to former Chief Min-

ister and sitting Lok Sabha MP

Neiphiu Rio to return to the

State and reunite the party,

salvage the ongoing situation

and further strengthen their

relationship with NDA Gov-

ernment in Delhi for the

greater interest of peace and

development in Nagaland.

Stating this in a letter to NPF

president Dr Shürhozelie

Liezietsu, the four MLAs said

they made the appeal to Rio

since the situation in Nagaland

has gone out of control while

describing him as the tallest

and most acceptable leader of

the Nagas.

They further reminded the

president that the need of the

hour was for the government

to listen to the voice of the peo-

ple and to respond in a positive

manner so that peace, order

and administration could be re-

stored as early as possible.

The four NPF legislators

also urged the NPF president

4 NPF MLAs urge Rio tosalvage Nagaland situation

to revoke the suspension of

Rio and former Minister and

sitting MLA Imkong L Imchen

from the party. The two had

been suspended for alleged

anti-party activities by the NPF

president on the recommen-

dation of the NPF Disciplinary

Action Committee (DAC)

early last year.

“This will pave the way for

party unity and reconciliation

at the most crucial time,” they

stated.

The four legislators - Noke

Wangnao, CM Chang, Namri

Nchang and Er. Kropol Vitsu -

pointed out that the situation

in Nagaland had turned into a

serious crisis with mass-based

civil societies and tribal organ-

isations totally opposed to the

leadership of the DAN Gov-

ernment as a result of the ur-

ban local body elections.

Terming it as an unprece-

dented situation that was nev-

er before witnessed, the MLAs

said the State Government

machinery had been totally

shutdown and the arms of the

government not been function-

ing for the past nine days.

on the other side.

Officials said the modern scoot-

ers, all costing around a crore ru-

pees, can seat two personnel (driv-

er and pillion rider) with their rifle

and ammunition in tow and can ne-

gotiate a 45 degree slope on the hills

and are supported by chaincase belts

to help the 278 kg machine glide

smooth and cut through the ice.

The force, as part of bolstering

its capabilities to effectively secure

the 3,488 km border, had last year

procured over six dozen SUVs and

sent them to far-flung border areas

for patrol and transport.

This is the first time that such

scooters, used for tourist purpos-

es in the upper reaches of Jammu

and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh

and by defence forces for training,

have been procured and inducted

for operational roles by Indian Se-

curity forces.

“These snow scooters have

been procured as part of the mod-

ernisation of the force to better

equip the personnel on ground in

rendering their duties in the hard

areas they serve. These will act

as force multipliers,” ITBP

spokesperson Deputy Comman-

dant Vivek K Pandey said.

The black and white scooters,

325 mm in length, are powered

by hydraulic brakes for effective

ground control and its carbureted

ignition system can hold over 41

litres of fuel in one go and are one

of the most modern variants of

such patrol vehicles produced in

the world and used by global secu-

rity forces who have icy terrains

to guard.

The ITBP has sent these five

vehicles to its mountain training

and skiing institute in Uttara-

khand’s Auli where a select con-

tingent of troops are being trained

in its operations after which they

will be sent to locations in Ladakh

and Uttarakhand (2 each) and one

to a border post above 16,000 feet

in Sikkim.

Officials said the performance of

these scooters will be analysed

over few months and once found

okay, more of such snow-terrain

vehicles will be procured for ITBP,

primarily tasked to secure the Chi-

nese frontier.

“The idea is to enhance the mo-

bility of the troops in areas deep

into the border locations and at

high-altitudes. Once they are found

to be useful, important locations on

this border will be provided a clus-

ter of these scooters for an entire

patrol party to travel,” they said.

Last year, undertaking a maiden

initiative, the force had purchased

and deployed expensive SUVs,

usually found zipping across roads

in urban locations, at its high-alti-

tude border posts along the Sino-

India border to transport troopers.

The 80,000 personnel strong

force is tasked with guarding the

3,488 km Sino-India border. Its

posts are in some of the harshest

areas at this border with locations

ranging from 9,000 ft to 18,000 ft

where mercury often plunges to

minus 20-30 degree Celsius. – PTI

Cab drivers attending the first Driver’s Day observed in Shillong on Sunday. – UB Photos

CORRESPONDENT

DIMAPUR, Feb 12: Main-

taining a steadfast stance in de-

manding the resignation of Na-

galand Chief Minister TR Ze-

liang from his post, Joint Coor-

dination Committee (JCC) and

Nagaland Tribes Action Com-

mittee (NTAC), Kohima have

called for a total indefinite bandh

in Nagaland from 6 am to 6 pm

daily beginning tomorrow.

NTAC, in a release, today as-

serted that the bandh will be

peaceful and non-violent. It said

activities of all educational insti-

tutions, including Nagaland Board

of Secondary Education and

SCERT, have been exempted

from the purview of the bandh.

Indefinite bandh beginsin Nagaland today

After the NTAC and JCC

deadline to Zeliang to step

down from his post ended on

January 10 following the death

of three persons in police firing

on January 31, the two organi-

sations announced to intensify

their agitation for his removal

with total restriction on move-

ment of even pedestrians. The

functioning of government of-

fices and movement of govern-

ment vehicles that remained

paralysed since February 1 will

continue, they informed.

Air and rail services will be

allowed to function normally

but restriction on movement

of passengers during the bandh

period will remain.

In Kohima, those exempted

from the purview of the bandh

are press/media and newspa-

per hawkers, paramilitary, ad-

ministration on duty, medical,

North/South police station and

students appearing exams and

teachers on exam duty.

The JCC and NTAC ap-

pealed to the volunteers not

to vandalise properties or har-

ass those exempted from the

bandh. It also directed volun-

teers not to use alcohol while

enforcing the bandh.

The government offices in

the State remained non-func-

tional since January 28 after the

State Government refused to

postpone the urban local body

elections as demanded by apex

Naga tribe organisations.

Discouragebandh duringexams: ENSF

CORRESPONDENT

DIMAPUR, Feb 12: In view

of the upcoming HSLC and

HSSLC exams, the Eastern

Naga Students Federation

(ENSF) has appealed that vio-

lence and bandh which distract

and divert students’ mind

should be outrightly discour-

aged at this juncture.

ENSF vice president Z

Throngshe Yimchunger and

finance secretary Lumtsase

Sangtam, in a statement, to-

day said the forthcoming

HSLC and HSSLC examina-

tions should be held without

any disturbances. The Feder-

ation said it made the appeal

while understanding the

present Naga imbroglio and

also equally considering the

career of students at hand.

“We cannot expect the stu-

dents to perform well in their

exams in the midst of such so-

cial unrest,” it stated. Accord-

ingly, the ENSF has directed

all it federating units to cau-

tiously strive in protecting the

welfare of the student commu-

nity within its influence.

The Naga Students’ Fed-

eration (NSF) has also ap-

pealed to all sections of the

Nagas to ensure smooth func-

tioning of the educational in-

stitutions and also facilitate

hassle-free passage to the

students appearing for their

examinations commencing

from February 14.

The ENSF also wanted

that the Nagaland Baptist

Church Council (NBCC)

should continue to strive in

restoring peace and harmo-

ny. “We look upon restora-

tion of peace through NBCC

intervention in the spirit of

forgiveness,” it said.

Mizoram CSSHindi teachersto go on strikeCORRESPONDENT

AIZAWL, Feb 12: Hindi

teachers employed under

Centrally sponsored scheme

(CSS) in Mizoram have decid-

ed to stage an indefinite pen-

down strike from Monday.

CSS Hindi teachers in Mi-

zoram said in a press state-

ment today that they have been

unpaid for ten months and they

could not work any longer

without salaries. The pen-

down strike would continue

until the State Government

pays their salaries, they said.

There are 1,305 Hindi

teachers employed under CSS

in Mizoram. State School Ed-

ucation Minister H Rohluna

said that the Hindi teachers did

not receive salaries since

April. He said that the salaries

could not be paid as the Union

Ministry of Human Resourc-

es Development could not give

sanction on time.

Teachers employed under the

Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha

Abhiyan (RMSA) and teachers

under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

(SSA) too have not been paid

for more than five months.

CORRESPONDENT

IMPHAL, Feb 12: The Con-

gress Legislature Party (CLP)

has urged the Central Gov-

ernment to declare the UNC

unlawful for its alleged illegal,

anti-national and anti-people

activities.

Manipur Chief Minister

Okram Ibobi Singh who is the

leader of CLP chaired the

CLP meeting on Saturday

which discussed the issue of

indefinite economic blockade

which entered the 105th day

on Sunday.

The CLP unanimously

passed a resolution urging the

Central Government to de-

clare the UNC as an unlawful

organisation for calling the in-

definite blockade on the Na-

tional Highways, banning con-

struction and developmental

Manipur CLP urges Centreto declare UNC unlawful

activities of national and State

projects, according to official

sources here.

“This has affected the social

harmony in the State and

caused unbearable hardships to

the people of Manipur by de-

nying their right to live,” the

resolution said.

Later, the Chief Minister

forwarded the decision of the

CLP to Prime Minister

Narendra Modi urging him

“to take necessary steps to

declare the UNC as unlawful

organisation.”

Kh Joykisan of Manipur

Pradesh Congress Committee

also appealed to all political

parties in Manipur to support

the CLP resolution. He also

appealed to BJP State unit to

urge the Central Government

to declare UNC as an unlawful

organisation.

Zoom Air to startoperations in NEDURGAPUR/NEW DELHI,

Feb 12: Taking wings, Zoom

Air today flew its inaugural

flight from the national capital

and will start commercial op-

erations from February 15.

The CRJ 200 LR plane land-

ed at Kazi Nazrul Islam Air-

port, Durgapur, at 1.39 pm,

where it was accorded the tra-

ditional water canon salute.

Zoom Air has became the

12th operational domestic

carrier. The airline would

start commercial services

from February 15 with a flight

to Durgapur via Kolkata from

New Delhi.

Zoom Air’s entry is expect-

ed to intensify competition in the

domestic aviation market, which

is seeing over 20 per cent

growth over the last two years.

Zoom Air plans to expand

route network to destinations

such as Shillong, Aizawl,

Pasighat, Zero (in Arunachal

Pradesh), Tirupati, Vijaywada,

Mumbai, Allahabad, Gora-

khpur, Indore and Bhopal, with

a likely daily operations. – PTI

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG, Feb 12: Andrea

Tariang, who essayed a strong

character in the critically ac-

claimed Bollywood movie Pink,

says it has disturbed her to hear

about growing sexual attacks

upon women and children.

Speaking to The Assam Trib-

une here recently, Andrea said,

the trends these days are dis-

turbing as some men quickly

form opinions about a woman

by the way she looks or dress-

es. “We are living in 2017 and

still some people form opinions

about a woman only by the way

she looks or dresses,” she said.

Stating that it is important that

the public mindset change with

time, Andrea added, men must

stop seeing women as an ob-

ject. “Certain men see women

as an object and not as a human

being and therefore so many

crimes against women are hap-

pening,” the actress said.

Supporting the women’s

‘Pink’ actress disturbed byattacks on women, children

rally in the case involving the

sexual assault of a minor, she

said, it is “heartbreaking” to

hear about such cases. She fur-

ther pointed to the attacks on

women during New Year’s

celebration in Bengaluru.

“It is the same everywhere.

Women and children are not

safe. There must be a change

in the mindset more than any-

thing for these crimes to stop,”

she said. Andrea, who now lives

in Mumbai for her professional

work, said, she feels unsafe to

walk alone in the streets now.

“Whether it is in Mumbai or

in Shillong I somehow feel un-

safe to walk alone unless accom-

panied by a male friend. By the

look of it, Mumbai feels safer as

there is lots of life in the night,

but in the end all places feel un-

safe for a woman,” she stated.

She said that the Govern-

ment must frame stronger

punishment against sex-of-

fenders and the option of “cas-

tration,” should be examined.

Nat’l DewormingDay observed

IMPHAl, Feb 12: National

Deworming Day was ob-

served at Anganwadi Centre,

Shamushang, Naoremthong

near here on Friday. The func-

tion was jointly organised by

Manipur Directorates of

Health Services, Social Wel-

fare and Education (S) under

the aegis of Union Ministry of

Health and Family Welfare.

Children in the age group of

one-two years are to be ad-

ministered half a tablet of Al-

bendazole 400 mg free of cost

to control worm infections

while children above two-19

years are given one full tablet

during the day.

In Manipur, around 12 lakh

children and teenagers in the

age group of one-19 years are

targeted under the pro-

gramme this year through

4,000 schools and 11,500 An-

ganwadi centres. The Nation-

al Deworming Day launched

here last year has so far

achieved 90 per cent of the tar-

get. – Correspondent

Manipur MPrefutes Conrad’s

allegations onblockade

CORRESPONDENT

IMPHAL, Feb 12: Manipur

Lok Sabha MP Dr Th Meinya

Singh on Saturday categorically

said that he had been urging both

Union Government and United

Naga Council (UNC) to end the

blockade while participating in

the Winter session of Parliament

in November last year.

Reacting to the allegation by

National People’s Party (NPP)

president Conrad A Sangma

during an election campaign

meeting that no debate takes

place in Parliament on the eco-

nomic blockade in Manipur, Dr

Meinya in a press statement

here clarified that he had urged

UNC to immediately call off the

indefinite economic blockade.

Stating that the economic

blockade is “a crime against

humanity,” the MP in the

statement said, “Also I urged

the Union Government to

immediately intervene and

help the State Government to

mitigate the situation before

it is too late.”

Besides reiterating the de-

mand for the establishment of

a dedicated National Highways

Protection Security Force to

regulate 24x7 smooth flow of

passenger and goods vehicles

on the highways during the

discussion on the Motion of

Thanks on the President’s

Address on February 9, he in-

formed that he had also made

an appeal to Centre to inter-

vene in the situation during the

discussion on Union budget.

Conard Sangma in a meet-

ing here had alleged that Par-

liament hardly discusses issues

and public sufferings of North

East and Manipur blockade in

particular.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 11BUSINESS & ECONOMY

CAPSULE

NSE chief packageNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

Leading stock exchangeNSE has proposed a paypackage of Rs 8 crore perannum for its new chiefVikram Limaye and willseek approval of itsshareholders on March 7for his appointment andremuneration package. Atan extraordinary generalmeeting of shareholders,the National StockExchange will seek theirapproval for Limaye’sappointment as MD andCEO for five years. – PTI

Life insuranceNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

The new businesspremium of life insurancecompanies grew by 27.8per cent to Rs 13,138.10crore in January, com-pared with the year-agomonth. The new business,or the first-year premiumof life insurance compa-nies, stood at Rs10,283.89 crore inJanuary 2016. State-owned LIC, the country’slargest life insurer,contributed Rs 8,724.59crore or 66.4 per cent tothe total premiumgenerated during themonth, showed data fromInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority ofIndia (Irdai). – PTI

ONGC dealNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

ONGC’s $2.475 billionpurchase of VideoconGroup’s 10 per cent stakein a giant Mozambique gasfield has come under theOil Ministry’s scannerfollowing allegations thatthe PSU may haveoverpaid about $200million, charges that thecompany vehementlydenied. – PTI

Reliance MFMUMBAI, Feb 12:

Beating demonetisationblues, financial servicesmajor Reliance Capital sawits mutual fund businessregister 25 per cent surgein Assets Under Manage-ment to Rs 1.95 lakh crorein the third quarter of thecurrent fiscal and said it ison track to list homefinance unit by April.Reliance Mutual Fund alsoregistered an 8 per centgrowth in profit to Rs 151crore with a 10 per centincrease in the totalnumber of SIPs (Systemat-ic Investment Plans) duringthe October-Decemberquarter of 2016-17. – PTI

PTC IndiaNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

State-owned power tradingsolutions company PTCIndia today reported a 9.07per cent decline in net profitat Rs 42.57 crore for thequarter ended December31, 2016. The companyhad posted a net profit ofRs 46.82 crore for thecorresponding quarter ofthe previous fiscal. – PTI

IFCI NPA targetNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Hit

hard by rising bad loans,country’s oldest financialinstitution IFCI has set anambitious recovery targetof Rs 600 crore for thecurrent quarter as part ofthe exercise to strengthenits balancesheet. In thefirst 9 months of thecurrent fiscal, the state-owned term lendermobilised about Rs 400crore out of Rs 1,000crore set for the entirefiscal. – PTI

Coca-ColaLUCKNOW, Feb 12:

Amid proposal to imposehigher taxes on aerateddrinks in the upcomingGST, beverages majorCoca-Cola India says it willbe beneficial for the sectorif the governmentdifferentiates productswithin new indirect taxregime based on sugar/calorie content to promotepublic health. The Atlanta-headquartered beveragesgiant said differentiated taxstructure will be anopportunity for it to expandits products range in thecountry.

ICAI presidentNEW DELHI, Feb 12: The

Institute of Chartered Ac-countants of India (ICAI) to-day elected Nilesh ShivjiVikamsey as president andNaveen N D Gupta as vice-president. They have beenelected for the year 2017-18, ICAI said in a release.Vikamsey, who served asvice president, has been amember of the ICAI since1985. – PTI

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: StateTransport Minister ChandraMohan Patowary launched the‘online dealer point vehicleregistration system’ at a func-tion held at Betkuchi here to-day. The programme was or-ganised by the Department ofTransport, Government ofAssam, National InformaticsCentre (NIC) and North EastAutomobile Dealers’ Associa-tion (NEADA).

The launch of the online deal-er point vehicle registrationsystem is another significantstep of the Department ofTransport to facilitate and em-power the citizens of Assamthrough the application ofstate-of-the-art informationand communication technolo-gy, in keeping with the visionof Digital India.

Speaking on the occasion,

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The govern-ment has sought detailed business datafrom the industry, mainly the IT com-panies, so that it can effectively take uptheir concerns over the US visa issuewith the new American administration.

The issues related with visa was dis-cussed during a meeting chaired byCommerce and Industry Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman last week.

It was suggested that the industry bodylike Nasscom should collate the data andassess the likely impact of the proposedchanges in the visa regime by the US.

“The government needs solid datato take up the industry concerns with

Govt seeks data from industryAmerica,” sources said.

An industry source too stated that theyhave been advised to share the data “asin how much business will be impacteddue to the new American visa policy”.

Sitharaman on February 9 held de-tailed discussions withtop government offi-cials and industry rep-resentatives on the proposed tighten-ing of the US visa regime and its im-pact on the domestic IT sector.

Secretaries from the Ministries ofExternal Affairs, Finance, Telecommu-nication, Electronics and IT, Com-merce as well as DIPP, besides repre-

sentatives of industry chambers andNasscom, were present.

The proposed overhaul of popular H-1B visa regime by US President Don-ald Trump has raised concerns amongIndian IT firms, as any changes in the

visa regime may resultin higher operationalcosts and shortage of

skilled workers for the $110-billion In-dian outsourcing industry.

Indian IT sector, which contributes9.3 per cent to the country’s GDP, isone of the largest private sector em-ployers of 3.7 million people.

The US accounts for nearly 62 per

cent of the exports, while EU is thesecond largest market for the IndianIT services exporters contributingapproximately 28 per cent.

Recently, a US legislation (LofgrenBill) has been introduced that propos-es doubling of the minimum wages ofH-1B visa holders to $130,000. Thecurrent H-1B minimum wage of$60,000 was fixed in 1989 and has sinceremained unchanged.

Such protectionist stance by the UScould also spell more trouble for ITfirms that are already facing strongheadwinds from currency fluctuationand cautious client spending. – PTI

US visa issue

Online dealer point vehicleregistration system launched

State Transport Minister Chandramohan Patowary lighting the ceremonial lamp at the inaugural programme of online

dealer point vehicle registration system at Gargya Toyota in Guwahati on Sunday. – UB Photos

Patowary hoped that the intro-duction of the new online reg-istration system will benefitthe government, dealers, cus-tomers, et al. He said that thesystem will reduce movementof physical files and will accordbetter monitoring at all levels,both in the Transport Depart-ment and at the dealerships.

The Department of Trans-port in association with NIChas already implemented theapplication in five selecteddealerships under DTO Kam-rup (Metro). The Ministeradded that all dealers in Gu-wahati city and across Assamwill be brought under this on-line dealer point registrationsystem by March and July,2017 respectively. Patowarylater distributed 11 PoS ma-chines to officers of TransportDepartment for conductingcashless transactions in theiroffices concerned.

The online dealer point ve-hicle registration system is aweb-based application devel-oped by NIC to enable vehiclebuyers to have their vehiclesregistered from the dealer lo-cation itself without having tovisit the District Transport Of-fice. All required payments forthe registration process aremade online through SBI’sonline payment gateway SBIePay. The registration numberof the vehicle is assigned at thedealer location out of a list ofsystem-generated numbers.The buyer gets an authorisedreceipt and disclaimer with theregistration mark at the deal-ership itself. However, theregistration process is com-pleted only after due onlineapproval by the DTO con-cerned.

Once the dealer registersthe vehicle and assigns it aregistration mark, the data is

made available for online ac-cess by the DTO concerned.The DTO verifies the recordand approves it if everythingis found to be in order. Re-quired documents are sent ina physical file from the dealer-ship to the DTO concerned sothat the DTO is able to verifythem physically. Once theDTO approves the record,required digital data is madeavailable for access and down-load by the High Security Reg-istration Plate (HSRP) fitmentfirm and the agency that is re-sponsible for printing of theregistration certificate insmartcard form. The HSRPcan be fitted either at the DTOor sent to the dealership andfitted there itself so that thebuyer does not have to moveout of the dealership. Thesmartcard RC is collected bythe dealer and handed over tothe buyer at the dealership.

Sales growth to continue in 2017: LamborghiniNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Stating

that a stable import policy has helpedin the sales of exclusive super sportscars in India, Lamborghini expectsthe category to clock double-digitgrowth this year.

The Italian luxury carmaker, whichhad earlier this month launched Hu-racan Spyder convertible with rear-wheel drive in India priced at Rs 3.45crore, has also lined up two moreproduct launches for this year, includ-ing the new Avendator.

It is gearing up to cash in on theemergence of a new breed of cus-tomers – first generation entrepre-neurs; those from tier II and III cit-ies and women buyers.

“I expect that in 2017, the seg-

ment should continue with the dou-ble-digit growth that it had lastyear,” Lamborghini India Head Shar-ad Agarwal told PTI.

He said since 2011 the exclusivesuper sports car segment, whichincludes those with import price ofRs 2.25 crore upwards such as Mer-cedes AMG GTS, Audi R8 and Fer-rari was declining.

In 2015, the segment saw a mar-ginal growth which was followed“up by a good double-digit growth”last year, with industry estimateputting the total number of cars soldto around 70 units.

Explaining reasons behind thegrowth, Agarwal said: “A lot of ithas to do with the stability in poli-

cies because between 2011 and 2015there were lot of changes in theimport duties and structures, whichwere always creating disruptions inthe market.”

“Now things are stabilised. Oncethings get stabilised, the marketstarts growing. It is more about con-sistency and stability.”

Commenting about the compa-

ny’s sales last year, he said: “We hada healthy double-digit growth in2016. The segment in India is stillevolving and what is important forus is the trend.”

There were more first genera-

tion entrepreneurs buying Lam-borghini cars. Also, more peoplefrom tier II and III cities also boughtthese cars, Agarwal said.

“We also had the first womanbuyer of a Lamborghini in India in2016 and post that we sold more towomen in this country,” he added.

On how the emergence of new

set of buyers has helped, Agarwalsaid: “In previous years if sales werecoming from these segments, sayaround 12-15 per cent, it is nowmoving to 20-25 per cent. This seg-ment is growing much faster, pri-marily the growth is coming from

these segments.”These are trends which define

how the segment will grow in fu-ture, he added.

With the overall economy and sen-timent upbeat in India, Agarwal saidthe conversion cycles of potential cus-tomers are becoming shorter. – PTI

Super sports cars

BSNL aims tocomplete NE telecomproject by Dec 2018

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: State-run BSNL is expecting tocomplete its portion of mobile network roll-out project,funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF),in the North-east by 2018-end.

“The project was approved in September 2014 but itcame to BSNL in April 2016. BSNL is expecting to placeexecution order in April after which roll-out of the projectwill start in July and should be completed by December2018,” a source told PTI.

The project is part of the Comprehensive Telecom De-velopment Plan for the North-Eastern Region (NER) whichwas approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2014 butis yet to be rolled out.

The project proposal entails an estimated expenditure ofRs 5,336.18 crore which is to be funded from the UniversalService Obligation Fund (USOF).

The project envisages providing 2G mobile coverage inidentified uncovered areas and seamless mobile coveragealong National Highways in the North-east region. Underthis project, 8,621 villages out of the 9,190 unconnectedvillages are to be covered by 6,673 towers.

The project has been divided into two parts. The areaswith tough terrain, which includes two districts of Assamand Arunanchal Pradesh, have been given to state-run tele-com firm BSNL for installing about 2,100 mobile towersand the rest was kept for private telecom operators.

Bharat Broadband Network opened tender for installingabout 4,500 towers under the project after two years in2016 but received no bids.

“BSNL received bids from five companies but has notbeen able to finalise it because of external influences whichare delaying the project. There have been multiple exchang-es of letters between the Department of Telecom and BSNLin this regard,” an industry source said. – PTI

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: As ITgiant Infosys remains embroiledin differences between its found-ers and the top management,markets regulator SEBI is keep-ing a “close watch” on all the de-velopments with a “special fo-cus” to ensure that minority in-vestors’ interest is safeguarded.

Infosys has become the lat-est major corporate to attractregulatory attention for allegedcorporate governance lapsesbeing played out in public af-ter Tatas, United Spirits andRicoh India, among others.

“SEBI is keeping a closewatch on the developments atInfosys and has asked stock

SEBI monitoring Infosys developmentsexchanges to seek clarifica-tions on various media reportsrelating to the company, itsfounders and top managementteam,” a senior official said.

“It is a worrying trend thatissues relating to corporate gov-ernance and intra-corporate dis-putes and differences are beingplayed out in the open andthrough unconfirmed media re-ports at a number of corporatesthat have enjoyed bellwether -like status in their sectors.

“We have been keeping aclose watch on developmentsrelating to all such companieswith a primary focus to ensurethat the minority shareholders’

interest is not hurt, while weare also conscious about the in-terest of institutional inves-tors,” he said.

The official further said:“These are among the compa-nies that have always been con-sidered to be professionally runand have always attracted sig-nificant interest from foreign in-vestors as well and there areconcerns that such negative de-velopments may impact India’sposition as a favoured invest-ment destination.”

The regulator, he added, isin touch with the stock ex-changes to examine the re-sponses submitted by Infosys

to the clarificatory notices is-sued to it and would seek de-tails directly from the compa-ny if required thereafter.

SEBI will also take into accountthe views of proxy advisoryfirms and various institutionalinvestors to understand the is-sue and before making any di-rect intervention in the matter.

While Infosys and its topmanagement led by CEOVishal Sikka have presented abrave face saying all was wellwith the company, there havebeen reports that the found-ers of the IT giant are not hap-py with the current leadershipteam. – PTI

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Bu-oyed by response from insti-tutional investors from theMiddle-East, Canada and theUS, NHAI plans to come outwith bids for monetisation of10 out of 75 public-funded na-tional highway projects in thefirst phase.

The move follows the gov-ernment’s decision in Augustlast year authorising the Na-tional Highways Authority ofIndia (NHAI) to monetise pub-lic-funded highway projects inthe country.

“Bids are likely to be out byApril inviting tenders for mon-etisation of at least 10 projectson toll operate transfer(TOT),” a senior NHAI offi-cial told PTI.

The official said 10 suchprojects out of a basket of 75have been identified for mon-etisation and several inves-tors, including Canadian Pen-sion Fund, Abu Dhabi Invest-ment Fund and those from theUS, Europe and Singapore,have shown keen interest inbuying them.

“Investors are keen on ourprojects and we are going to bidout the same,” the official said.

NHAI to float bidsfor monetising 10projects by April

Road Transport and High-ways Minister Nitin Gadkarihas earlier told PTI that mon-etisation of public-funded high-way projects could result infunds in the range of Rs 80,000to Rs 1 lakh crore initially.

Ever since the government’snod for monetisation, NHAIhas been conducting trafficstudies related to such projects,the revenue streams availableand their overall viability.

The Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs on August 3last year had authorised NHAIto monetise the public-fundedhighway projects for mobilis-ing funds.

Close to 75 operational NHprojects completed under pub-lic funding have been prelimi-narily identified for potentialmonetisation using the toll op-erate transfer (TOT) Model.

The corpus generated fromproceeds of such project mon-etisation could be utilised by thegovernment to meet its fundrequirements regarding futuredevelopment and operation andmaintenance of highways in thecountry and could address de-velopment of highways in un-viable geographies. – PTI

MUMBAI, Feb 12: At a timewhen cyber threats are on therise for banks for increasingcashless transactions and ef-fects of demonetisation, insur-ers see rise in demand for cy-ber insurance and cyber liabil-ity insurance, in particular.

This is despite the fact thatthe industry base for cyber in-surance is currently as low asRs 60 crore.

There are various cyber in-surance covers available in thecountry, but it is the cyber lia-bility insurance which is in

Banks rush to buy cybersecurity cover

maximum demand for thebanks, say insurers.

Non-life insurers that pro-vide cyber insurance cover in-clude New India, National,ICICI Lombard, Tata AIG,HDFC Ergo and Bajaj Allianz.

Country’s largest lenderState Bank of India (SBI),which fell victim to cyberfrauds some time back, is nowconsidering insurance to pro-tect its 30 crore customers.

“We have always seen max-imum security in all our ITsystems. We are now consid-

ering to avail cyber insurancecovers for our customers,”SBI managing director RajnishKumar told PTI here.

Recently, in one of the big-gest ever breaches of finan-cial data in the country, cus-tomers of 3.2 million debitcards belonging to differentbanks were hit by cyber fraudswhere their ATM detailswere compromised.

The worst-hit card-issuingbanks in the episode includedSBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank,YES Bank and Axis Bank. – PTI

Thailandwoos IndianinvestmentNEW DELHI, Feb 12:

Seeking investment from In-dia in areas like automation,smart electronics and bio-tech, Thailand Board of In-vestment has said that thecountry provides tax holi-days and an investor-friend-ly environment.

“Indian businesses can con-tribute to our growth furtherin various ways. No matter bigor small, even start-ups can beour partners. There is a widerange from trading, manufac-turing and other high value-added services. However, theyhave to come with technologyand be environment-friendly,”the board’s Director and Con-sul (Investment) KanokpornChotipal told PTI.

She said Indian business canalso participate in sectors likeaerospace, automation andmedical devices.

“Apart from that, India canalso be our partner in pharma-ceuticals, biotechnology and IT/ITeS,” she said, adding, Indiancompanies can explore busi-ness opportunities in severalsectors in Thailand. – PTI

Rs 133 cr awardedunder digital

payment schemeNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Over

8 lakh people have beenawarded a total of Rs 133 crorein the last 50 days under theNiti Aayog’s scheme to pro-mote digital payments.

“It’s 50 days of our #Dig-iDhanMelas and over 8 lakhpeople have won Rs 133 crorealready! 50 more days to go,”Niti Aayog said in a tweet.

The government on De-cember 25 had launched twoschemes – Lucky Grahak Yo-jana and Digi-Dhan VyaparYojana – to give boost to dig-ital transaction. The schemeswould remain open till April14. – PTI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 201712 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI NATIONAL

No. SE/BII/CS/34/Pt/2016-17/

PRESS NOTICE

Earlier Bid invitation Reference Memo No. SE/BIIICS/34/Pt/2016-17/890-900, dt. 17.01.2017

The Superintending Engineer, P.W.D, Guwahati Building Circle-II, Chandmari, Guwahati-3 on behalf of the Governor of Assam re-invites

bids for the following works having experience of similar nature of work from APWD registered Class-I (A, B, C) & Class-II contractors. Details

of the bids may be seen at e-procurement portal website: www.assamtenders.gov.in and also in the office of the undersigned during office

hours. The bidders must be enrolled in www.assamtenders.gov.in for participating in the bidding process.

Sl. Name of Project Approx. Value of Bid Security Bid Security Drawn Time of Cost of Bid

No. Work in favour of Completion Document

1 Fitting fixing paver tiles at Rs. 24,77,580.00 Rs. 49,552.00 for EE, PWD, Guwahati 3 (three) Rs. 1,000.00

the entrance of District & General Category Building Division-I, months

Session Judge Kamrup & Fancy Bazar,

(Metro), Establishment Rs. 24,776.00 for Guwahati-1

and modernizing the water reserved category

drainage system as a step

towards ‘Modernizing the

Court Infrastructure”.

2 Roof Changing (Providing Rs. 21,12,490.00 Rs. 42,250.00 for EE, PWD, Guwahati 3 (three) Rs. 1,000.00

Dynaroof or the Assam type General Category Building Division-I, months

building within the campus & Fancy Bazar,

of District & Session Judge Rs. 21,125.00 for Guwahati-1

Court Complex Kamrup reserved category

(Metro) including necessary

portion wood work and ceiling.

Note:- 1. The Bidder who submitted bids earlier, if willing to participate in the tendering process should submit fresh bids once again. The earlier

bid documents submitted by the bidders are requested to take back the same on application.

2. Any modification of tender may be seen in the P.W.D. portal www.assamtenders.gov.in.

Sd/- Superintending Engineer, P.W.D

Guwahati Building Circle-II. Chandmari, Guwahati-3.Janasanyog/4637/16

G/4637/1

No. KRRD/T-1/ARMF/2016 – 17/20

Date- 06.02.2017

RE - PRESS NOTICE INVITING

TENDER

Executive Engineer PWD,

Karimganj Rural Road Division on

behalf of Governor of Assam

invites re - bid for “Maintenance &

Repairing of roads for the works

under Assam Road Maintenance

Fund(PBMC) for the Financial year

2016-17 for 3(Three) years

duration of 2 Nos. packages of

Karimganj Districts of Assam

amounting to Rs.44.95

Lakh(Approx). Details may be

obtained from the office of the

undersigned from 16.02.2017 to

18.02.2017 during office hours.

Sd/- Executive Engineer, PWD

Karimganj Rural Roads

Division.Janasanyog/1991/16

G/3562/1

Minor rescuedKOTA, Feb 12: A 11-year-old girl

from Assam, who was allegedly forced

into domestic work, was rescued by

police and members of the Child

Welfare Committee (CWC) from a

house in RK Puram area here, an

official said today. – PTI

MHA website hackedNEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Ministry

of Home Affairs website was hacked,

prompting authorities to temporarily

block it, an official said. – PTI

Swamy on Guv’s roleCHENNAI, Feb 12: A day after

calling on Tamil Nadu Governor Ch

Vidyasagar Rao, BJP leader

Subramanian Swamy said the former

has to decide on the issue of govern-

ment formation by tomorrow else a

court case “can be filed charging

abatement of horse trading”. – PTI

PM for ‘tour details’NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi has asked his ministerial

colleagues to give details of tours, if any,

undertaken by them during the last

three months, an exercise aimed at

ascertaining whether they promoted

demonetisation and other initiatives,

sources said. – PTI

Sleek snow scootersNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Expensive and

sleek snow scooters, usually found at

ice-capped tourist spots for adventure

sport lovers, have for the first time been

inducted for patrol by ITBP troops along

the Sino-Indian frontier. – PTI

Atomic reactorsNEW DELHI, Feb 12: The govern-

ment has decided that all future foreign

atomic reactors in India will have a

capacity to generate 1200 MW and

above, in a bid to augment nuclear

power generation. – PTI

Jamaica assuranceNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Jamaica has

assured India that special care would

be taken to safeguard the lives of

Indian nationals in the country, after

an Indian youth was shot dead in a

case of suspected armed robbery in

Kingston. – PTI

Agri reforms panelHYDERABAD, Feb 12: A committee

formed by the Centre to double farmers’

income by 2022 is considering major

reforms in the agriculture sector like

adopting a profit-centric approach,

aiming at higher productivity and

reducing cost of cultivation. – PTI

Quota in promotionsNEW DELHI, Feb 12: In order to

provide reservation in promotions, the

states must first determine whether the

criteria of ‘inadequacy of representation’,

‘backwardness’ and ‘overall efficiency’ are

fulfilled, the Supreme Court has said. – PTI

Fabindia threatenedNEW DELHI, Feb 12: Khadi India has

threatened to sue Fabindia, a chain of

ethnic wear retail outlets, for allegedly

indulging in “unfair trade practice” by

using and selling its cotton products

under its registered brand name

“Khadi”. – PTI

CAPSULE

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Election

Commission wants students to learn

from the secondary school level how

to become responsible voters.

In a bid to educate 15 to 17-year-

old ‘future voters’, who would enrol

as voters when they turn 18, the

Election Commission has asked the

Union HRD Ministry to introduce

‘electoral literacy’ in the curriculum

at the secondary school level.

And till the time the subject

becomes part of the curriculum, the

Commission has asked the HRD

Ministry to ask the NCERT to bring

out a booklet on elections and

EC pitches for inclusion of ‘electoral literacy’ in schoolselectoral process “that may be

included in the list of supplementary

reading material for schools at

appropriate level”.

Last July, Chief Election Commis-

sioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi had written

to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar

requesting him to include ‘electoral

literacy’ in the curriculum.

“It is felt that introducing electoral

literacy curriculum in a systematic

manner will go a long way in

strengthening electoral literacy.

Therefore, EC proposes that the

same may be included in the curricula

and as co-curricular in schools at

secondary level and if required even

at higher levels,” Zaidi wrote to

Javadekar.

In August, Javadekar responded

saying the poll panel’s request was

examined in consultation with

NCERT which prepares the National

School Curriculum Framework for

the country.

“The current textbook materials of

the NCERT are based on National

Curriculum Framework, 2005. The

suggestion of the Election Commis-

sion will be taken into account when

NCERT takes up next revision of the

curriculum. I would like to inform you

that at present the ministry is engaged

in the process of preparation of a New

Education Policy,” Javadekar said.

He also said existing Political

Science textbooks prepared by the

NCERT have many details about the

electoral process.

Not willing to wait, Zaidi has now

written again to the Union minister

requesting him that as an interim

measure, the NCERT can be asked

by the government to come out

with a booklet on election and

electoral process.

The CEC also informed the

minister that several democracies

across the world have electoral

literacy as part of their school

curricula.

The poll panel launched a unique

programme this January called

‘interactive school engagement’

under which close to 5,000 electoral

registration officers, district election

officers and the Chief Electoral

Officers visited one school to interact

with the students of Class IX to XII,

in the age- group of 15-17 years, took

question-answers, shared creative

contents, distributed badges and

administered pledges.

In India, over 62 million persons

fall in the age group of 15 to 17 years

and have been described as ‘future

voters’ by the Election Commission.

“Every year, 20 million persons out

of the future voters turn 18 to become

first time voters. Future voters have

generally not been in the focus of the

Commission. Now, under Systematic

Voter Education Programme, the

Commission will lay special focus on

this group in the year 2017 and

onward. We hope that the first time

and future voters will get encouraged

to be part of electoral process,” Zaidi

had said at the National Voters Day on

January 25. – PTI

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Po-

litical outfit Swaraj India today

accused the Centre, the Delhi

government and the MCDs of

having “failed” in the govern-

ance of the national capital.

It alleged that the Centre,

the AAP government and the

three BJP-ruled Municipal

Corporations of Delhi have

failed in providing security to

women, permanent job to

teachers and garbage removal,

respectively.

In a rally at Ram Lila Maidan

here, the party pointed out

the “failures” of the three lay-

ers of governance in Delhi on

the concluding day of its

month long ‘Jawab do, Hisab

do’ campaign.

“Our door-to-door survey

results, under the ‘Jawab do,

Centre, AAP, MCDs slammedfor ‘failing to govern’ Delhi

Hisab do’ campaign, shows

that citizens of Delhi are dis-

appointed with all three levels

of the governance,” Swaraj

India’s national president

Yogendra Yadav said.

Party leader Prashant

Bhushan said the people have

sought accountability of the

government as it was on the

basis of their votes that they

came to power.

“The AAP did not fulfil the

promises it made to the peo-

ple of Delhi. Be it the promise

of a corruption-free govern-

ment, ending the VIP culture,

bringing in a strong Lokpal, full

statehood to Delhi or be it

making Delhi safe for women

or proving permanent job for

teachers, the Delhi govern-

ment has failed on fronts,”

Bhushan alleged.

The party also passed a “no

confidence motion” against the

Centre, the state government

and the MCDs during its cam-

paign in which citizens de-

manded accountability from

the government.

In the “no confidence mo-

tion” against the BJP-led cen-

tral government, they de-

manded safe and secure envi-

ronment and full statehood for

Delhi besides non interference

in matters of local administra-

tion through the Lt Governor.

In the second “no confi-

dence motion”, it was de-

manded that the AAP-led

Delhi government either

sought confidence of the peo-

ple of the capital through a ref-

erendum or resigned. – PTI

HYDERABAD, Feb 12: The Dalai

Lama feels that instead of building

walls like the US President Donald

Trump, nations should engage in dia-

logue to resolve differences and form

a ‘Union’ for peaceful co-existence.

He also said that all countries should

develop the ‘spirit’ of the European

Union (EU) in joining together.

“I am one of the admirers of Euro-

pean Union. I often express that EU

spirit eventually should develop in

African Union. Eventually Latin

America, I think, should develop one

Union. Also sometimes I feel, the new

President of America (Donald

Trump), you see, create a wall and I

feel Mexico should be a part of United

States, I feel,” he said.

Delivering a talk on ‘Ethics, Values

Dalai favours demilitarised ‘Union of World’and Wellbeing’ here, the Tibetan Bud-

dhist spiritual leader said, “Latin

America some Union, eventually Asia.

Two giants of Asia—China and India,

and then Japan, Bangladesh eventu-

ally create some Union. Eventually,

we should create Union of World and

demilitarise the world.

“In order to achieve demilitarised

world, we must make effort to create

spirit of dialogue, it is practical way.

The best method is dialogue, when-

ever some different interest or dif-

ferent view happen, through dialogue

and talk we can resolve,” he said

stressing on the need to make the 21st

century as the century of dialogue.

He further said that India is an ex-

ample to rest of the world given its

rich tradition where all major religions

live together with mutual respect

“though occasionally some problems

(happen), that is understandable.”

He said the Indian psychology, when

compared with modern psychology, is

highly developed, adding, modern psy-

chology looks like KG level when

compared to Indian psychology.”

Though he felt that now modern India

is too much westernised, he said “Now

the time has come, young Indians should

pay more attention to thousands of years

of ancient Indian knowledge.”

“Mentally, emotionally, physically

we are same human beings. Second-

ary-level there are differences, differ-

ent nationality, different race, differ-

ent family background, that’s second-

ary, (which is) not important,” he said.

He said it is really ‘unthinkable’ and

‘sad’ that religious faith itself is caus-

ing divisions and killings.

“We cannot ignore these things and

cannot remain indifferent. That is im-

moral. We have to think (of) well-be-

ing of all suffering people. We should

be ready to help each other with sense

of oneness of humanity,” he said.

Pointing out that things were chang-

ing, particularly among younger gen-

eration with a sense of concern for

others’ well- being and against vio-

lence, he said we must develop de-

termination to bring peace.

Earlier, Dalai Lama, Andhra

Pradesh and Telangana Governor ESL

Narasimhan, among others, took part

in the ground-breaking ceremony of

the Dalai Lama Centre for Ethics and

Transformative Values here. – PTI

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Soon

one may have to shell out more

to avail treatment at the pre-

mier All India Institute of Medi-

cal Sciences (AIIMS).

The Finance Ministry has

asked the medical institute to

undertake a review and revise

its user charges which have

not been revised since the last

20 years. Deputy Director V

Srinivas said AIIMS has been

presenting demands for addi-

tional allocation amounting to

Rs 300 crores, in the non-plan

expenditures which are of re-

curring nature including sala-

ries, consumables, mainte-

nance and establishment ex-

penditure every year.

“The Ministry of Finance has

observed that there is large de-

viation between the budget esti-

Centre asks AIIMS toreview user charges

mates and the revised estimates.

Finance Ministry has, therefore,

advised AIIMS to undertake a

review of its user charges. They

have not been revised since

1996,” Srinivas said.

The Director, AIIMS re-

cently had convened a meeting

in which the feasibility of the

revision of user charges was

discussed. AIIMS currently

generates Rs 101 crores from

user charges which include

OPD charges, diagnostic tests

in various departments, radiol-

ogy charges, in-patient care and

room rentals.

Some faculty members op-

posed the move given that the

AIIMS has a mandate for health

equity and services are offered

to the poorest of the poor and

said that revision of charges

should not be carried out.

“AIIMS is currently exam-

ining the proposal,” Srinivas

added.

In 2010, AIIMS had initiated

a study to determine user

charges for various services.

According to sources, the

proposal to make AIIMS run

on a revenue generation model

had been proposed in 2005 and

2010 but was later rejected due

to opposition by doctors and

Members of Parliament.

In 2015, in its proposal to the

standing finance committee,

the administration had pro-

posed a hike of nearly 20-30 per

cent on its charges for various

tests and procedures.

The cost of many routine

tests at AIIMS is Rs 10 or Rs

25. – PTI

SITAPUR (UP), Feb 12: Claiming

that it was a ‘clean sweep’ for BSP in

the first phase of Uttar Pradesh As-

sembly elections, Mayawati today said

she will prove the pollsters wrong as

she did in 2007 when they predicted

her defeat.

Attacking Samajwadi Party, the BSP

supremo assured the voters that she

would rid the state of ‘prevailing jun-

gle raj’ by putting criminals behind

bars and urged Muslims not to waste

their votes on SP.

“The first phase of UP polls was en-

couraging for BSP. It was a clean sweep

for our party. It’s a positive signal that

we are going to form government in the

state,” she told an election rally here.

On SP-Congress alliance, she said,

“It is political opportunism as Con-

gress joined hands with a government

which works on BJP’s guidelines.”

“Samajwadi government only gave

lawlessness and corruption with over

500 riots,” she claimed, adding voters

of SP are divided in two factions now.

“Shivpal Yadav will damage SP be-

cause he was insulted by Mulayam

Singh for his affection for son

Akhilesh,” Mayawati said and appealed

to minority voters not to support SP.

On BJP, Mayawati claimed demon-

etisation was a painful decision for 90

per cent farmers, workers and the

poor and Modi favoured only the capi-

talists and the rich.

She charged the Prime Minister

with working under RSS directives.

She dubbed as ‘fake’ the surveys and

opinion polls that said BSP will not

come to power and said that they will

be proved wrong as in 2007, when her

party got majority.

“Employment will be given to

youths instead of laptops and phones,”

she said, asking the minority voters

to help BSP get majority in the elec-

tions. – PTI

Pollsters will be provedwrong again: Mayawati

BADAUN (UP), Feb 12: The down-

fall of those who had ‘befooled’ the peo-

ple promising “achche din” has started,

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav today said, at-

tacking the Prime Minister, and asked

him as to when will he do “kaam ki baat”.

“He (PM) says the SP did a lot of

‘karnama’ (misdeeds). He says ‘man

ki baat’ on TV and radio, I want to ask

him as to when will he do ‘kaam ki

baat’ (talk of something worthwhile),”

Yadav said at an election rally here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had

yesterday attacked Akhilesh saying,

“Akhileshji says ‘kaam bolta hai’, (but)

even a child here knows that it is your

karnama (misdeed) which is speaking

for you.” Referring to the infamous

Badaun rape case of two sisters,

Akhilesh asks Modito do kaam ki baat

Akhilesh said leaders of all parties

reached there and the matter was even

raised in the UN, but a CBI probe gave

a clean chit to the state and ‘the con-

spiracy to defame’ was exposed.

“The downfall of those who had

befooled people promising ‘acchey din’

has started. After 2017, they will be

wiped out in 2019 also. They (BJP)

should tell as to what have they done

for people,” he said.

Claiming that SP was ahead of rivals

in the first phase, Akhilesh said the

trend will continue and the alliance will

get majority. “We could have got ma-

jority alone, but after alliance with Con-

gress we will comfortably win over

300 seats,” Akhilesh said, asking peo-

ple to vote for party candidates. – PTI

One held forrape; anotherfor filming act

PALGHAR (Maha), Feb 12:

A tempo driver was arrested

for abducting and raping a

woman, while his accomplice

for videographing the act, po-

lice said today. The 22-year-

old victim was kidnapped on

January 5 while she ventured

out in Boisar for shopping and

was taken in a tempo by the

main accused and his friend to

a secluded place. The driver

then raped her, while the other

accused videographed the act,

police said.

The driver then started har-

assing her by making sexual

demands and also blackmailed

her that he will circulate her

video on social media and send

it to her husband and relatives.

Fed up with constant threats,

the victim consumed acid on

February 6, following which

she revealed about the inci-

dent to her family. The two

accused, who were held yes-

terday, were booked under

various sections of the Indian

Penal Code, police said.– PTI

Tourists at the Azhimala beach near Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. – UNI

Tibetan Spiritual leader Dalai Lama laying the foundation stone for the South Asian Hub of

Dalai Lama Centre for Ethics and Transformative Values in Hyderabad on Sunday. – UNI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 13LEISURE & LIFESTYLE

LOCKHORNS

THE PHANTOM ® By Lee Falk

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

BLONDIE

Given below are four jumbled words. Solvethe jumbles to make proper words and movethem to the respective squares below. Selectthe letters in the shaded squares and jumblethem to get the answer for the given quip.

JUMBLED WORDSHEALTH CAPSULES®

by Bron Smith

SOLUTION TO TRIBUNE CROSSWORD – 5902

Health Capsules is not intendedto be of a diagnostic nature.

CROSSWORD - 5902Know your DAYBy JACQUELINE BIGAR

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Monday, Feb. 13, 2017:

This year you will work through an innate resistance to do certain

things. This struggle easily could stem from your early years, and you

might not be aware of the source. Ask questions, and you’ll get answers.

If you are single, you open up to new possibilities. As a result, someone

you meet could really make your heart flutter. If you are attached, the two

of you open up to a different yet more accepting way of caring together.

Travel and in-laws could play a significant role in this process. LIBRA likes

your style.

The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-

Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

HHH You might feel as if you have a lot on your plate. Dive right in

and get as much done as possible. Don’t think in terms of how much

you have to do; instead, be relieved as you cross off each to-do item. Late

afternoon draws others toward you. Tonight: Go along with a friend’s idea.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

HHHH Tap into your ingenuity, and you’ll accomplish much more

than you originally thought possible. Some of you might decide to

use today for personal matters. Obligations head your way later in the after-

noon. Schedule a massage very soon. Tonight: Make it an early night.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

HHH You might not want to share what is on your mind. Working behind

the scenes is not normal for you, but you appreciate the comfort of

being at home. By late afternoon, you could be tangled up in a personal matter

involving a loved one. Tonight: Act as if there were no tomorrow.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

HHHH Return calls before you schedule any meetings. You might

want to set aside some extra time for a discussion or a brainstorm-

ing session. You will need to learn what someone else is considering before

making a decision. Tonight: At home. Put up your feet and relax.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

HHHH Make sure your finances are under control before you leap

into action. You could find all sorts of different solutions to a problem

once you walk away from negativity and others’ judgments. Schedule meetings,

or just visit with a friend or two. Tonight: Let it all hang out.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

HHH You could wake up feeling out of sorts. A personal issue seems

to be weighing you down, and it might put a negative haze over what

would be an otherwise productive day. Try to let go of the issue if you can. Be

more present in other areas of your life. Tonight: Treat yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

HHH Even if you feel out of sorts in the morning, you’ll feel a lot

better as the day goes on. The Moon in your sign at the end of the

day signifies that you have an empowered few days ahead of you. You will be

spontaneous during this time, unless you decide otherwise. Tonight: All smiles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

HHHH Use the daylight hours to the max. Don’t feel intimi-

dated by anyone. You are on a winning path, and it will be

difficult for others to get in your way. You know what you want, but do

your best not to exclude the possibility of something better. Tonight:

Get some extra R and R.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

HHH A situation might feel like a burden for a good part of the day.

You willingly step up to the plate and let others know where you are

coming from. Success will have a way of justifying the negativity that you feel

regarding this matter. Tonight: Do whatever makes you happy.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

HHHHH You see a way past a problem that no one else does.

Your ability to detach and empathize with others can make all

the difference. You might have an underlying fear that keeps emerging.

Take a walk, or have a discussion with a trusted friend about this issue.

Tonight: In the spotlight.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

HHHHH One-on-one relating is highlighted, especially with key is-

sues, from money to more personal matters. You’ll bottom-line a situa-

tion and decide just how much flex you want to have. Later in the day, detach and

take another look at this same situation. Tonight: Follow the music.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

HHHH Others take the lead. You’ll get into the swing of things and

know how and when to say, “No, thank you.” Open up to new possi-

bilities, as there seems to be less on your plate than you originally had

anticipated. Postpone a discussion till later in the day. Tonight: Go with the flow.

H H H

Thought for the day

Money makes the man.– ARISTODEMUS

SOLUTION

I spend shockingly little time thinkingabout____-_____ stuff. – Trey Parker (4-5)

Words: Weary, Torah, scroll, walled.

Answer: I spend shockingly little timethinking about real-world stuff. – Trey Parker

Across

1 ___ City :

Bangalore

(6)

5 Indian Air

Force, in

short ? (3)

8 An epoch or

an era (4)

9 Stead (4)

10 Change for

better (6)

11 The bases

of statues

(9)

13 Decoy (4)

15 Ranbir

Kapoor

starrer

“Wake Up

____” (3)

16 Being

affected

with rabies;

mad; furious

(5)

17 Wistful

Across: Garden, 5 Iaf, 8 Aeon, 9 Lieu, 10 Reform, 11 Pedestals,

13 Lure, 15 Sid, 16 Rabid, 17 Ohgee, 20 Sec, 22 Oak, 23 Sadhu, 24

Kirov, 26 Baa, 27 Kate, 28 Naturally, 31 Evokes, 32 Ming, 33 Ecce,

34 Eel, 35 Tsuris.

Down: 1 Gurgle, 2 Referred, 3 Earp, 4 Nemesis, 5 Ineed, 6

Flat, 7 Belleek, 12 Did, 14 Each, 18 Hook, 19 Gavaskar, 20

Satanic, 21 Dialect, 24 Kal, 25 Tenses, 26 Babel, 29 Urge, 30

Yves.

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17:30 Jaana Na Dil Se Door

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20:00 Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil

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21:30 Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai

22:00 Ishqbaaaz

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23:00 Ye Hai Mohabbatein

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12:00 Ek Shringaar – Swabhimaan

12:30 Kasam13:00 Shakti–Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki13:30 Udann14:00 Dil Se Dil Tak

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16:00 Kingdom of Big Cats

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18:00 Ten Deadliest Snakes

19:00 Lodging with Lions

20:00 Mahasangram

21:00 Wild Frank In India

22:00 Kingdom of Big Cats

23:00 Wildest India

14:00 Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man’s Chest

17:00 Baby’s Day Out19:00 Tom Yum Goong21:00 The Lion King23:00 Legion

14:02 17 Again

15:41 The Terminator

17:22 Hot Tub Time Machine

18:53 American Sniper

21:00 Due Date

22:32 Elysium

15:00 Movie

18:00 Movie

21:00 Movie

13:20 Ip Man 3

15:09 Hercules

16:50 Kung Fu Panda

18:22 Harry Potter and the

Prisoner of Azkaban

21:00 Mission: Impossible -

Rogue Nation

23:29 Saving Private Ryan

13:22 Baaghi

16:46 High-Kick Girl!

18:22 2-Headed Shark Attack

20:00 Gupt: The Hidden Truth

23:02 Age of Dinosaurs

13:15 Tere Naam

16:10 Kismat

19:00 Singham

22:05 Virasat Ki Jung

16:30 Bangladesh Tour of India 2017

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STAR GOLD

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07:00 Breakfast Live08:00 Live at 809:00 Good morning Assam10:00 Assamese news11:30 Kotha Barta (R)12:00 Mid Day Live13:00 Assamese Telefilm14:30 Afternoon Prime17:30 Guwahati Bisesh18:00 Guwahati Live18:30 Breaking @ 6:3019:00 Assamesse Prime Time20:00 Discussion Show21:00 Super Prime Time22:00 Live at 1022:30 Noixo Guwahati

23:00 Noixo Batori

1430 Anuradha1930 Borola Kai (R)2000 Pita Putra2030 Abelir Ramdhenu2100 Oi Khapla2130 Bharaghar2200 Borola Kai2230 Abelir Ramdhenu (R)

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08:30 Kamrupee Lokogeet08:30 Prog. on Right to Education08:50 Batori15:00 Vigyan Prasar (Epi-20)15:30 Aparajita (Epi-5)16:05 Ardha Akash16:30 Swachh Bharat16:35 Geetmala17:00 Nimishote Batori17:02 Sambhawana, 201617:30 Krishi Darshan17:50 Assembly Review18:00 Tezaswini (Epi-37)18:30 Batori18:45 NE News

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12:00 Barca TV : Ath Club vs. FCB

ZEE STUDIO

13:15 30 Days of Night

exclamation

(5)

20 Dry especially

for wines (3)

22 A tough, hard

wood (3)

23 Hindu holy

man (5)

24 Russian ballet

company (5)

26 Bleat of a

sheep or a

lamb (3)

27 Catherine’s

pet name ? (4)

28 Inherently (9)

31 Calls out;

draws out or

brings forth (6)

32 Dynasty in

China (4)

33 Behold, to

Pilate (4)

34 Long fish (3)

35 Trouble or woe

- “stir us”

anagram ? (6)

Down

1 Contented

baby’s sound

(6)

2 Alluded to,

brought up or

pointed out (8)

3 Lawman

Wyatt (4)

4 Retribution (7)

5 “All __” (1967

Temptations

hit) (5)

6 Featureless (4)

7 Irish porcelain

(7)

12 Part of verb

to do (3)

14 ____ other :

one another ?

(4)

18 Risky stroke

by the

batsman (4)

19 Ex-Indian

opening

batsman and

captain - a

legend (8)

20 Diabolical (7)

21 Tongue,

speech or

jargon ? (7)

24 RK’s ___ Aaj

Aur ___ (3)

25 Forms of

verbs (6)

26 Biblical tower

(5)

29 Instigate or

induce (4)

30 Painter

Tanguy (4)

HBO

15:09 Hercules

STAR MOVIES

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Death Too Soon

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13:00 Zindagi Ki Mahek

13:30 Woh Apna Sa

14:00 Kaala Teeka

14:30 Kumkum Bhagya

15:00 Zindagi Ki Mahek

15:30 Ek Tha Raja Ek Thi Rani

16:00 Sanyukt

16:30 Kaala Teeka

17:00 Jamai Raja

17:30 Woh Apna Sa

18:00 Zindagi Ki Mahek

18:30 Ajee Sunte Ho

19:00 Kaala Teeka

19:30 Sanyukt

20:00 Zindagi Ki Mahek

20:30 Jamai Raja

21:00 Kumkum Bhagya

22:00 Woh Apna Sa

22:30 Zindagi Ki Mahek

23:00 Kumkum Bhagya

Roses, cards and gifts are too clichéd

presents for Valentine’s Day, so people

should now discuss boundaries regard

ing social media with their significant

other, says a researcher.

The study conducted at Kansas State Univer-

sity noted that without a discussion, each person

in the relationship might have a different view of

what is and is not acceptable.

“Social media can enhance romantic relation-

ships when it’s used to stay in touch throughout

the day or honour your partner’s achievements,

but there are pitfalls to avoid that could damage

the relationship,” said Joyce Baptist, Associate

Professor at Kansas State University.

The study involved nearly 7,000 couples who

use social media, and Baptist found that the more

accepting couples are of “boundary crossing,” or

communicating with someone they perceive as

physically attractive, the more harmful it is to

their relationship.

“A crossing is when a partner brushes a prover-

bial guard rail, possibly by having platonic but fre-

quent contact with another individual he or she

finds attractive. Boundary violation, on the other

hand, may be emotional or physical infidelity,” Bap-

tist said, suggesting that couples should discuss

when a crossed boundary becomes a violation.

He said that it was an important conversation

for couples to have as a preventative measure.

“Although they may say ‘I trust you and it’s

OK,’ they are not happy about it. They eventually

perceive that their significant other is spending

too much time connecting with others on social

media rather than paying attention to their own

partner,” Baptist added.

Not paying enough attention to your partner

and frequently crossing the boundaries can de-

crease relationship satisfaction and levels of care

that people receive from their significant other.

Since every relationship has ups and downs and

that may tempt a person to confide in a former sig-

nificant other during lower points of a relationship.

“Keeping lines of communication open with

former significant others can become a slippery

slope. When you come across an old flame or

another attractive person on social media, the

question to ask is: Will communicating with this

other person enhance my relationship or harm

it?” Baptist said.

It is always tempting to recount the moments

you have shared with your previous significant

other but reigniting an old flame can destroy your

current relationship.

“My best advice is that if you are serious about

your relationship, cut off those (old) ties,” Baptist

suggested in press statement that appeared on

website of Kansas State University. – IANS

Davis with Sunny.

Couples should

discuss social

media

‘boundaries’

to save their

relationships,

suggests a study

Relationship rules

14 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017INTERNATIONAL

Venetians row during the masquerade parade on the Grand Canal during the carnival in Venice, Italy on Sunday. – UNIQueen’s TwitterLONDON, Feb 12: Buckingham Palace isoffering a 30,000 pounds annual package for ajob to run Queen Elizabeth’s personal Twitteraccount, having 2.77 million followers.A job advertisement has been placed on theQueen’s official website seeking a new ‘digitalcommunications officer’ to join a “fast-paced”and “dynamic” team.The full-time role will involve managingthe Queen’s Twitter account and letting theworld know about her work and the RoyalFamily’s public role. Tasks will includewriting posts on the Queen’s social mediaaccounts including Facebook and YouTube aswell as documenting state visits, awardceremonies and Royal engagements, The Sunnewspaper reported. – PTIPhD in chocolate!LONDON, Feb 12: A UK university isoffering a 15,000 pounds-per-year grant for theperfect course for chocoholics - a PhD inchocolate.The University of the West of England isoffering the grant to study the genetic factorsthat influence the flavour of the UK’sfavourite treat. The successful candidate willstudy how the fermentation of cacao beansleads to specific flavour profiles, according tothe prospectus. The three-year position hasbeen created in response to demand from thechocolate industry for more forensic knowl-edge of different cocoa strains, The Mirrorreported. – PTI

Around theWORLD

SEOUL, Feb 12: North Korea fired a bal-listic missile today in an apparent provoca-tion to test the response from new US Pres-ident Donald Trump, the South Korean de-fence ministry said.The missile, launchedaround 7:55 am (local time)from Banghyon air base inthe western province ofNorth Pyongan Province,flew east towards the Seaof Japan (East Sea), it said.The missile flew about500 kilometres before fall-ing into the sea, a defenceministry spokesman said,adding the exact type ofmissile had yet to be iden-tified.“It is believed that today’s missilelaunch ... Is aimed at drawing global atten-tion to the North by boasting its nuclearand missile capabilities,” the ministry saidin a statement.“It is also believed that it was an armed

provocation to test the response from thenew US administration under PresidentTrump,” it added.Yonhap news agency said the South Ko-rean military suspected theNorth might have beentesting a intermediate-range Musudan missile.Last October North Koreatest-fired Musudan mis-siles twice from the sameairbase.On a visit to Seoul earli-er this month, new US De-fense Secretary JamesMattis warned Pyongyangthat any nuclear attackwould be met with an “ef-fective and overwhelming”response.“Any attack on the United States or ourallies will be defeated and any use of nuclearweapons would be met with a response thatwould be effective and overwhelming,”Mattis said. – AFP

N Korea fires ballistic missilein ‘challenge to Trump’

WASHINGTON, Feb 12: Pres-ident Donald Trump today assuredAmerica’s full support to Japan af-ter North Korea test fired a bal-listic missile in an apparent act ofprovocation.“I just want everybody to un-derstand and fully know that theUnited States of America standsbehind Japan, it’s great ally, 100per cent,” Trump said in a briefstatement during a joint newsconference with Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe. He did notelaborate on the issue.His comments came after Abedenounced the North Korea’smissile launch - the first afterTrump became the President - ata hastily organised joint briefingat Mar-a-Lago, Florida.“North Korea’s most recentmissile launch is absolutely intoler-able,” Abe told reporters. “North

Korea must fully comply with therelevant UN Security Council res-olutions.” The joint news confer-ence lasted for less than three min-utes. The two leaders were talkingto reporters after spending the dayat a golf course and discussing US-Asia engagement.“During the summit meeting thatI had with President Trump, he as-sured me that the US will always[be with] Japan 100 per cent, and todemonstrate his determination aswell as commitment, he is here withme at this joint press conference,”said Abe, who spoke via a translator.In a statement, the US StrategicCommand said it detected a NorthKorean launch of a medium- or in-termediate-range ballistic missile.It occurred near the northwesterncity of Kusong and the missile wastracked over North Korea and intothe Sea of Japan. – PTI

US 100 pc behindJapan: Trump

n N Korea missile launch

BERLIN, Feb 12: Billed asGermany’s “anti-Trump”, centre-left former foreign ministerFrank-Walter Steinmeier is set tobe elected today as the new cere-monial head of state.The 61-year-old,who regularly polls asGermany’s most pop-ular politician, will rep-resent the EU’s topeconomy abroad andact as a kind of moralarbiter for the nation.His Social Demo-crats (SPD) hope theappointment willboost their fortunes just as theircandidate Martin Schulz, theformer European parliamentpresident, readies to challengeChancellor Angela Merkel in Sep-tember elections.Steinmeier is expected to re-ceive a large majority of votes af-ter Merkel’s conservatives, lack-

Taraji P Henson poses with the award forOutstanding Actress in a Motion Picture forHidden Figures backstage at the 48th NAACPImage Awards in Pasadena, California onSaturday. – UNI

ing a strong candidate of their own,agreed to back him to replace in-cumbent Joachim Gauck, 77, aformer pastor from ex-communistEast Germany.The vote will beheld in Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstagbuilding by a 1,260-strong special Feder-al Assembly, made upof national lawmakersand electors sent fromGermany’s 16 states -among them deputiesbut also artists, writ-ers, musicians and na-tional football coach JoachimLoew.With his snowy white hair,round glasses and dimpled smile,Steinmeier is one of Germany’sbest-known politicians, havingtwice served as top diplomat un-der Merkel for a total of sevenyears. – AFP

Steinmeier set to benew German Prez

11 killed, 3injured inB’desh crashDHAKA, Feb 12: At least11 people were killed andthree others injured today ina collision between a bus anda van in central Bangladesh.The bus collided with thevan this morning in Narsing-di district, killing 11 passen-gers of the van, the DailyS-tar quoted the officer-in-charge of Belabo Police Sta-tion as saying.The injured were taken toa nearby hospital, he said.The mishap happened twodays after 13 people werecharred to death and 20 oth-ers injured in a head-on colli-sion between a bus and a vanhauling gas cylinders in Farid-pur district.Hundreds of people die inroad accidents in Bangladeshevery year. Bad roads and rashdriving cause most of the ac-cidents. – PTI

Suu Kyi urgesMyanmar armedethnic groups tosign ceasefire

PANGLONG, Feb 12: Myanmarleader Aung San Suu Kyi todaycalled on all armed ethnic groups tosign a nationwide ceasefire.She spoke during Union Day cel-ebrations in Panglong, the sameplace where her father, independ-ence hero General Aung San, signeda peace deal with ethnic groups in1947. Suu Kyi and her NationalLeague for Democracy party prom-ised peace would be their top pri-ority despite conflicts between eth-nic groups and the military.In recent months, critics haveslammed Suu Kyi for not speak-ing out against military airstrikesand human rights abuses in ethnicareas. Skirmishes, particularly inthe north where Kachin insur-gents are fighting the army, havedisplaced more than 100,000 ci-vilians since 2011 alone. – AP

WASHINGTON, Feb 12: Hoping toget some long-stem red roses this Val-entine’s Day? You could be disappoint-ed, as a new survey sug-gests that romantic part-ners may go for lesstraditional andmore colourfularrangementsthis year.A study of con-sumer searchtrends across top flo-ral e-commerce sitesin the US and found‘rose’ searches com-prised nearly 20 per centof the total site searches butinterest in red roses haswaned, favouring an array ofless traditional colours.To understand shifts inconsumer behaviour, asoftware company SLISystems in New Zea-

Red roses may be passe this Valentine’s Dayland, analysed more than 1.2 million e-commerce site searches on leading flo-ral websites taking place be-tween Jan 6 and Feb 6 - themonth leading up toValentine’s Day.SLI also comparedrose-colour-specificsearch data during Feb1-8 to a similar re-search study conduct-ed in 2015.“SLI is seeing a col-ourful trend in Valentine’sDay rose giving. When welooked at e-commerce searchdata among the top five rose col-ours in early February 2015compared with early February2017, we found interest in themost traditionally roman-tic colour ‘red’ declined40 per cent,” said ChrisBrubaker, CMO SLI Sys-tems. “In 2015, pink was

the second-most popular colour, and nowit’s not even in the top five,” said Brubak-er. Red roses comprised of just 28 percent of searches – a 45 per cent declinefrom 2015 – closely followed by white(21 per cent). Blue, rainbow and purpleroses were the other sought after roses.Roses remain the favourite, compris-ing of 60 per cent of searches among thetop five most popular flower types - morethan three times the searches of runnerup flower types: lilies (18 per cent), tulips(8 per cent), orchids (7 per cent) and sun-flowers (7 per cent).According to an annual Valentine’s Daysurvey by the US National Retail Feder-ation (NRF) consumers will spend an av-erage USD 136.57 this Valentine’s, downfrom last year’s record-high USD 146.84.They are expected to spend USD 2billion on flowers (35 per cent), USD 4.3billion on jewelry (given by 19 per cent ofshoppers), and USD 3.8 billion on anevening out (37 per cent), among otherthings. – PTI

Giraffes stand on a road in Mugui Conservancy, Kenya on Sunday. – UNI

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATI 15SPORTS

Originating from Japan, ‘su

do ku’ is a mind game and a

puzzle that can be solved

with proper reasoning and

logic. Fill the grid with digits

in such a manner that every

row, every column and every

3 x 3 box accommodates the

digi ts 1 to 9 without

repeating any.

Solution of last problem

SU DO KU

MADRID, Feb 12: RealMadrid maintained the onepoint lead over Barcelona atthe top of La Liga as CristianoRonaldo was on target in ahard fought 3-1 win at rockbottom Osasuna.Earlier, Barca’s front three ofLionel Messi, Luis Suarez andNeymar all struck in a 6-0thrashing of Alaves.Madrid also have two gamesin hand on their title rivals.However, both games wereovershadowed by horrible inju-ries as Barca’s Aleix Vidal suf-fered a dislocated right anklethat will keep him out for fivemonths and Osasuna’s TanoBonnin a double leg fracture.“There is no such a difference(between the sides). It is true itwas the leader against last in thetable, but you have to play thegames and the opponents al-ways make it difficult againstMadrid,” said Real boss Zined-ine Zidane.“We have to suffer, but in theend we got what we came for.”The game at El Sadar wasonly 15 minutes old when Bon-nin came off worse in an innoc-uous looking challenge withIsco to the visible shock of play-

Madrid remain top as Barca’s ‘MSN’ hit sixers on both sides.Osasuna had started on thefront foot, but suffered a furtherblow nine minutes later whenKarim Benzema’s through ballfound Ronaldo and the WorldPlayer of the Year’s drive from anarrow angle had too much pow-er for Salvatore Sirigu.The hosts responded in stylejust after the half hour markwhen Sergio Leon broke into anocean of space behind the Ma-drid defence before producing acool chip over Keylor Navas tolevel. Navas then made brilliantsaves from Emmanuel Riviereand Leon either side of half-timeto keep Madrid on level terms.And eventually their extraquality shone through when Iscolatched onto a loose ball insidethe area and slotted into the farcorner just after the hour mark.Madrid should have gone onto win by a more comfortablemargin as Sirigu made a fine savefrom Ronaldo before the Portu-guese and Lucas Vazquez hadstrong claims for a penaltywaived away.However, Vazquez made thepoints safe with a measured dinkover Sirigu in the final minute ofstoppage time.

Barca’s success was alsosoured by violent clashes be-tween fans outside the groundbefore kick-off which left onesupporter in hospital with seri-ous head injuries.Both sides later releasedstatements condemning theviolence.“I go away with very goodfeelings from the football per-spective, for the result and theway we achieved it,” said Barcaboss Luis Enrique.“But I am upset by Aleix’sinjury, the way it came about andwhat it means for him.”Barca confirmed Vidal under-went surgery on Saturday nightthat will keep him out for therest of the season.On the field, Enrique rotatedhis squad once more with sixchanges from Tuesday’s 1-1draw with Atletico Madrid thatsecured their place in a fourthconsecutive Cup final.However, despite a trip toParis Saint-Germain upcomingon Tuesday, Messi, Suarez andNeymar were all included andran riot.The visitors had goalkeeperMarc-Andre ter Stegen to thankfor not going behind early on

with a brilliant one-on-one savefrom Theo Hernandez.There was no doubt overthe outcome once Barca wentin front thanks to a fine teammove finished off by Suarezfrom close range eight min-utes before half-time.A goalkeeping error fromFernando Pachecho allowedBarca to double their lead threeminutes later as he punched aloose ball off Suarez’s head andthe ball rebounded for Neymarto tap into an empty net.The champions hit top formafter the break with four furthergoals in eight minutes.Messi drilled his 34th goal ofthe season low past Pacheco justbefore the hour mark.The Argentine was thenplayed in by Suarez, but the lasttouch came off Alaves defenderAlexis to make it 4-0.Ivan Rakitic blasted home thefifth from Suarez’s cut-back be-fore the Uruguayan rounded offthe rout himself after Pachecohad parried Neymar’s initial ef-fort. Elsewhere, Athletic Bilbaomoved up to seventh with a 2-1win over Deportivo la Coruna,whilst Betis and Valencia playedout a 0-0 draw. – AFPBarcelona’s Lionel Messi (C) celebrates with teammates Luis Suarez and Neymar (L) after scoring a goal against Alaves duringthe La Liga match at the Mendizorroza stadium in Vitoria, on Saturday.

LONDON, Feb 12: Liverpoolroared back into the mix for a top-four finish with a 2-0 victory overTottenham Hotspur on Saturdaythat opened the door for Chelsea tostrengthen their vice-like hold onthe Premier League title race.Two goals from Sadio Mane in avibrant first half scuppered second-placed Tottenham’s hopes of cuttingChelsea’s lead to six points and theBlues will go 12 points clear with13 matches left if they win atBurnley on Sunday.While Chelsea look unstoppable,the real battle is below them whereonly two points separate Tottenhamand sixth-placed Manchester United.Arsenal put two Premier Leaguedefeats – and days of uncertainty aboutmanager Arsene Wenger – behindthem to beat Hull City 2-0 and moveabove Manchester City into third.United stayed sixth after beatingWatford 2-0 - a victory that meant theybecome the first club to reach 2,000points in the Premier League since it

Liverpool halt Spurs run; Arsenal, United winbegan in 1992.Fifth-placed Manchester City playBournemouth on Monday when vic-tory would leapfrog theminto second.At the other end of thetable, the bottom three alllost with 20th-placed Sun-derland thrashed 4-0 athome by Southampton,for whom new strikerManolo Gabbiadini scoredtwice, and 19th- placedCrystal Palace goingdown 1-0 at Stoke City.Liverpool were with-out a league win in 2017and had been knockedout of both domestic cupsduring a recent slump,but rediscovered theirverve to outplay a lack-lustre Tottenham sidewhose nine-game un-beaten league run cameto shuddering halt.Senegalese Mane,

whose absence on African Nations Cupduty coincided with Liverpool’s slump,scored in the 16th and 18th minutesand could have doubled his total.Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp wasdelighted as his side moved into fourthplace, a point behind thetwo north London clubsand ahead of ManchesterCity on goal difference.“Today the pressurewas on us but we dealtwith it,” Klopp said.“We had a really badperiod. We are stillaround, not with Chel-sea but with the rest.”Alexis Sanchez scoredboth goals for Arsenal atthe Emirates, althoughhis first in the 34th minuteowed much to luck as theball went into the net viahis hand.“The referee apolo-gised to us after halftimeand said it was a handball,”Hull defender AndrewRobertson said.The Chilean’s second

also came via a goalline handball,this time from Hull’s Sam Clucas instoppage time, which led to a pen-alty and sending-off. Sanchez’sspot-kick took his tally to 17 goalsin 25 league games, including fouragainst Hull.At Old Trafford, Manchester Unit-ed looked unrecognisable from the sidewho spluttered through the earlymonths of the season and extendedtheir unbeaten league run to 16 games.Juan Mata put them ahead beforeAnthony Martial doubled their leadafter the break.“Sixteen games unbeaten is anamazing record,” United manager JoseMourinho said.Southampton are getting an in-stant return on the 14 millionpounds ($17.5 million) they paidNapoli for Italy striker Gabbiadinion transfer deadline day.His brace against Sunderland, in-cluding a brilliant turn and shot,means he has now scored three intwo games. – AgenciesLiverpool’s Sadio Mane (L) celebrates scoring the second goal withPhilippe Coutinho during the English Premier League matchagainst Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, on Saturday.

DUBAI, Feb 12: Aware of the range ofchallenges India will offer during Austral-ia’s upcoming four-match Test tour, fastbowler Mitchell Starc says he hopes toextract swing, both conventional and re-verse, from the SG balls in spin-friendlyconditions.India use the SG balls in Tests on theirhome soil, preferring them over the Kooka-burra ball, which feature in most other Testnations including Australia. And, one of hismajor focuses during Australia’s pre-tourcamp here has been getting the feel for adifferent ball in his hands.“It’s been a while since I have been overthere to play red-ball cricket, it’s been fouryears,” Starc said after Australia’s intra-squad practice match at the ICC GlobalCricket Academy here.“It’s a different ball (there in India), sothere are different challenges there to tryand get it reversing and to see if it swingswhen it’s brand new,” said the left-armpace spearhead.There has been some debate about howto use Starc and fellow quick Josh Hazle-wood in India for the Test series beginningon February 23 in Pune.But, the 27-year-old Starc says he ex-

Starc hopes to ‘swing’ with SG ball in Indiapects captain Steve Smith to use him inshort, sharp spells in a bid to maximisehis potency against India’s batsmen,though the duration of his bowling stintsmay be affected by the effectiveness ofAustralia’s slow bowlers.

“I guess it depends on the spinners, ifthey’re taking wickets or not. It’s obviouslyup to Smithy. It’s probably a bit different tohow we are used back home.“It will depend on how the ball is react-ing, whether it’s swinging conventionally orreverse. I’m sure there’ll be times whenwe will be called upon to bowl a few extra

overs in a spell but probably a lot of shortspells as well,” said Starc.Starc’s first experience of Test cricket inIndia in 2013 could hardly have been morechallenging. After going wicketless in thefirst Test in Chennai, he was dropped forthe second match.He earned a recall in the wake of the‘Homework-gate’ incident, which saw fourplayers ruled out for disciplinary reasons bythen-coach Mickey Arthur for the third Testin Mohali from which he took two wickets.Starc missed the final game through inju-ry as Australia slumped to a 4-0 series de-feat, finishing with a return of two wicketsat 100 for the series.Despite his poor series in India in 2013,Starc has done an excellent job in Sri Lankain Australia’s Test tour there last year thoughthey lost the series 3-0.With 24 victims at 15.16 in Sri Lanka,Starc eclipsed Dennis Lillee’s record (23scalps against England in the 1979-80 homeAshes) for the most wickets taken by an Aus-tralian quick in a three-Test series.The left-armer also eclipsed Sir RichardHadlee’s mark of 23 wickets against Sri Lan-ka in 1984 for the most prolific three-Testseries by a visiting paceman in Asia. – PTI

LONDON, Feb 12: ArseneWenger insists he is not pre-paring to end his long reignat Arsenal despite IanWright’s claim that the Gun-ners boss is on the way out.Wenger’s future had beenquestioned in the wake ofdefeats against Watford andChelsea that effectivelykilled off their PremierLeague title hopes.Wenger’s side returned towinning ways as AlexisSanchez’s double secured a2-0 home victory over Hullon Saturday.But after the game theFrenchman was quizzed on hisfuture, with his current con-tract expiring at the end of theseason and a minority of fansturning on the manager forrecent results.Former Arsenal striker Ian

Arsene Wenger plays downtalk of Arsenal exitWright had fanned the flames byclaiming on Friday that the 67-year-old had told him he was“coming to the end” of his timeafter 20 years at the helm.

“I was with the boss last night,and if I’m going to be totally hon-est, I get the impression thatthat’s it,” Wright told BBC Ra-dio 5 live.“He actually mentioned when

we were talking that he’s com-ing to the end. I’ve never heardhim say that.”Yet Wenger countered by say-ing any tiredness stems from hiscommitment to the job and thatWright must have misunder-stood any conversation.Asked whether he had givenWright the impression he wasleaving, Wenger replied: “No,no. Mark (Gonnella, Arsenalcommunications director) waswith me as well on Thursday.“It was questions and an-swers. I could be tired becauseI get up early in the morning andI finish late at night, so I am tired,yes. But I didn’t give any indi-cation about my future.“There were many peoplethere. We (he and Wright) had alittle dinner before but it was notthe two of us. There were fouror five.” – AFP

HOUSTON, Feb 12: Aquick-thinking golfer in theUS hit life-saving ‘shots’ withhis putter when he used theclub to save himself from theclutches of a 10-foot alligator.Tony Aarts, a resident ofNorth Fort Myers, Florida,used his Cleveland Golfputter to subdue the alligatorthat attacked him and caughthim by the ankle as he was ap-proaching the fourth hole atMagnolia Landing Golf andCountry Club.“As I was walking about 5to 6 feet away from the waterI heard a splash, and as soonas I heard that splash I knewit was an alligator, and he gotme,” Aarts was quoted as say-ing by WINK News.The alligator had grabbedAarts by his right ankle andhe rolled into the nearby wa-

Golfer escapes alligator’sjaws using putterter hazard as they struggled.“I remember having a clubin my hand, and as soon as hehad me in the water up to mywaist, I started hitting himover the head,” Aarts said.The alligator did not give upeasily and soon the water wasup to Aarts’ chest.“He was looking at me withhis big eyes, and I kept hittinghim. And I’m thinking I’m get-ting deeper and deeper, and Ithought you’re not gonna getme,” he was quoted as saying.However, Aarts then wentfor the reptile’s eye socketwith his club which finallysaved him.“I started hitting him in theeye socket. I hit him threetimes and he let go of my foot,so I crawled back out and bythat time the guys werethere,” he said. – PTI

NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Com-parisons of her dual role with acertain Manny Pacquiao onlyevoke laughter from MC MaryKom but the five-time worldchampion says being an activeboxer and a Parliamentarian atthe same time is no laughingmatter as the twin jobs are ex-hausting and exhilarating inequal measure.In an interview with PTI to-day, the London Olympicsbronze-medallist, the first andonly Indian woman boxer tohave achieved the feat, spoke ofher struggles to manage timeduring the just-concluded Budg-et Session of the Parliament, al-beit jovially.“I joined the national camp afortnight ago and soon theBudget Session also started

Mary Kom juggles ringand Parliament(from January 31). So I wouldgo for training at 7 in the morn-ing to the IG Stadium, rushback to change and head

straight to the Parliament be-cause I didn’t want my attend-ance to suffer,” Mary Kom says.“It was like racing againsttime and after hard training, you

tend to feel very exhausted too.But then most of the times, theproceedings in the Parliamentare so lively that there is no riskof being caught asleep. There isnever a dull moment,” she addswith a burst of laughter.“But on a more seriousnote, I wish the day could beof 48 hours.”The 34-year-old, who isfive-time World champion be-sides having a coveted AsianGames gold medal as well,was nominated to the RajyaSabha last year.Speaking of her first love,which is boxing, Mary Kom hasnot competed since last year’sWorld Championships in Maywhere she could not qualify forwhat would have been her sec-ond Olympic appearance. – PTI

My dream foran Olympicmedal is verymuch alive: JituNEW DELHI, Feb 12:Months after his inexplicablemeltdown at the OlympicGames, ace pistol shooter JituRai says he is capable of not re-peating history at the world’sbiggest spectacle, provided heis part of the next edition in To-kyo 2020.Rai had been tipped for amedal at Rio and was one of In-dia’s biggest prospects in theprecision sport, but the scriptunfolded in a manner thatshocked the shooting fraterni-ty and left the unassuming 29-year-old numb.The Rio failure is now be-hind, as he looks ahead to theseason with renewed interestafter being bestowed with the‘Champion of Champions’ ti-tle for pistol in 2016 by the In-ternational Shooting SportFederation.“Rio was one bad outing, badluck. But that is history now andlike always, I am trying to workhard so that I can bring homemore medals,” Jitu told PTI.A silver-medallist at theWorld Championships, goldmedal winner at the AsianGames and the Common-wealth Games and winner ofmany a medals at the ISSFWorld Cups, Jitu said hisdream of bagging an Olympicmedal is very much alive.“This was my first Olympicsand I went there with a lot ofhopes. Things did not turn outthe way I would have liked butthen I can’t do anything aboutthe past now.“I went to Rio well prepared(after winning a record seveninternational medals in one cal-endar year). The Sports Minis-try, NRAI, my employers andSAI all did their best so you can’tsay that there was no effort. Itjust didn’t click for me in Riothat day. – PTI

MUMBAI, Feb 12: Indiadiscards, Gautam Gambhirand Shikhar Dhawan struckbreezy half centuries againsta listless South Zone bowl-ing attack to power NorthZone to a thumping eight-wicket victory with eightballs to spare in the Mush-taq Ali T20 Inter Zonalleague match here today.In the first match of theday, hosts West recoveredfrom a poor start of 61 for 5– after being asked to takefirst strike by rivals Central– to make 160 for 8 whichwas overhauled by Centralwith six wickets and ten ballsto spare.Dhawan made a quick-fire50 in 38 balls, helped by a sixand six fours, while his Del-hi teammate Gautam Gamb-hir slammed a 51-ball 81, en-

hanced with 12 fours, as thetwo left-handers forged a103-run opening stand atnearly ten an over to helpNorth easily overtakeSouth’s 175 for 5 on an easy-paced Wankhede Stadiumtrack.One-down Rishabh Pant,also a left hander, hit a 19-ball 33 with 3 sixes and onefour to take North to 176 for2 in 18.4 overs in the com-pany of the promoted AmitPacchara.

Gambhir, Dhawan powerNorth past South

Brief scores: West Zone 160for 8 (A Tare 40, D Hooda 49 notout; A Choudhary 3/47, A Mishra2/28) lost to Central Zone 165 for4 (Harpreet Singh 62, M Rawat 30not out; Ishwar Chaudhary 2/20) by6 wickets.

South Zone 173 for 5 (M Agarw-al 32, R Bhui 50, V Shankar 34 notout; A Nehra 2/35, M Dagar 2/31) lostto North Zone 176 for 2 (S Dhawan50, G Gambhir 81, R Pant 33 not out)by 8 wickets. – PTI

16 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE, GUWAHATISPORTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017

Printed and published by Ganesh Ch. Das on behalf of Assam Tribune Pvt. Ltd. at the Tribune Press, Tribune Buildings, P.O.- Assam Tribune, M.R.D. Road, Chandmari, Guwahati-781003. Tel. 0361-2660102 (EPABX), 0361-2661360, 0361-2668807 (News Desk), FAX 0361-2666396. E-mail: advt@assamtribune.com; news@assamtribune.com; atribunenews@gmail.com. Editor: Prafulla Govinda Baruah

HYDERABAD, Feb 12: A

dominant India remained in

pursuit of a comprehensive

victory after Bangladesh fin-

ished the penultimate day at a

precarious 103 for three, chas-

ing a mammoth target of 459

in the one-off Test here.

Rather than looking at the im-

probable task of scoring the re-

maining 356 runs, the visitors will

try to stay afloat for minimum 90

overs on the fifth and final day

and save the game.

Despite the benign nature of

the track, India’s bowling attack

has firepower to get the remain-

ing seven wickets.

Ajinkya Rahane’s sharp one-

handed catch off Ravindra Jadeja

to dismiss a well-set Soumya

Sarkar (42) put India in the driv-

er’s seat after the visitors looked

comfortable during the post-tea

session as they started their sec-

ond innings.

Sarkar, along with Mominul

Haque (27), had added 60 runs

for the second wicket before the

lanky left-hander poked at a Jade-

ja delivery that didn’t turn much.

The resultant edge was dipping

down but Rahane showed fan-

tastic reflexes to pull off a one-

handed catch.

With the momentum broken,

Ashwin then had Mominul de-

ceived by the drift. The batsman

pushed at a delivery, which

turned a shade away to take the

leading edge and present Rahane

India inch closer to anotherbig win against Bangladesh

with another catch, leaving Bang-

ladesh reeling at 75 for three.

Ashwin (2/34 in 16 overs), who

completed the fastest 250 Test

wickets, gave a better account of

himself in the second innings by

getting the turn and the drift.

Being given the new ball helped

him get some bounce off the

pitch as well.

The pitch is still not offering a

great deal of turn to the spin-

ners, and had no hand in the wick-

ets that Bangladesh lost in the

second innings.

Seasoned Shakib Al Hasan (21

batting), along with Mahmudul-

lah Riyadh (9 batting) and Mush-

fiqur Rahim, will need to bring

their ‘A’ game to the fore in or-

der to save the game.

In the post-lunch session,

Cheteshwar Pujara scored a

quickfire half-century as India

declared their second innings at

159 for four at the stroke of tea,

leaving Bangladesh with a daunt-

ing target.

Pujara smashed 54 off 58

balls while skipper Virat Koh-

li contributed 38 off only 40 de-

liveries after having bowled

out Bangladesh for 388 in their

first innings.

A cushion of 299 was good

enough for the hosts to go for

the jugular even though open-

ers Murali Vijay (7) and KL

Rahul (10) were dismissed in

quick succession by Taskin

Ahmed (2/43).

But Pujara and Kohli upped

the ante with an aim to have a

go at Bangladesh on the fourth

day itself.

During their 67-run part-

nership, Pujara, surprisingly,

was the aggressor even as

Kohli scored at a quick pace.

Using Taskin’s pace to his

advantage, Pujara hooked him

behind the square for a six.

Kohli was not one to be

left behind as he lofted Shak-

ib effortlessly for a six over

long-on.

Pujara drove left-arm spin-

ner Taijul Islam through cov-

ers and another glorious shot

followed through same region

off Taskin. A firm push through

mid-on was a treat to watch.

Kohli also got a boundary

with a cover drive off Taskin

and the fifty partnership was

achieved at run-a-ball.

Just when Kohli was about

to shift gears, a poor shot led

to his downfall with Mah-

mudullah Riyadh taking a smart

catch at short mid-wicket off

Shakib Al Hasan’s bowling. He

hit two fours and a six.

Rahane, having regained

confidence after his first in-

nings 82, followed the team

diktat and hit 25 off 31 balls

with a couple of boundaries and

a six off Mehedi Hasan Miraz.

He was bowled trying to hit

Shakib out of the park. – PTI

SCORECARDIndia 1st innings: 687/6 declBangladesh 1st innings: (Overnight 322 for 6) Tamim Iqbal run out 24,Soumya Sarkar c Saha b Yadav 15, Mominul Haque lbw b Yadav 12,Mahmudullah lbw b Sharma 28, Shakib Al Hasan c Yadav b Ashwin 82,Mushfiqur Rahim c Saha b Ashwin 127, Sabbir Rahman lbw b Jadeja 16,Mehedi Hasan Miraz b Kumar 51, Taijul Islam c Saha b Yadav 10, TaskinAhmed c Rahane b Jadeja 8, Kamrul Islam Rabbi not out 0. Extras: (LB-15) 15. Total: (All out in 127.5 overs) 388. Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-44,3-64, 4-109, 5-216, 6-235, 7-322, 8-339, 9-378. Bowling: BhuvneshwarKumar 21-7-52-1, Ishant Sharma 20-5-69-1, R Ashwin 28.5-7-98-2,Umesh Yadav 25-6-84-3, Ravindra Jadeja 33-8-70-2.India 2nd innings: Murali Vijay c Mushfiqur b Taskin Ahmed 7, LokeshRahul c Mushfiqur b Taskin Ahmed 10, Cheteshwar Pujara not out 54,Virat Kohli c Mahmudullah b Shakib 38, Ajinkya Rahane b Shakib 28,Ravindra Jadeja not out 16. Extras: (LB-5 W-1) 6. Total: (For 4 wktsin 29 overs) 159 decl. Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-23, 3-90, 4-128.Bowling: Taijul Islam 6-1-29-0, Taskin Ahmed 7-0-43-2, Shakib AlHasan 9-0-50-2, Mehedi Hasan Miraz 7-0-32-0.Bangladesh 2nd innings (target: 459 runs): Tamim Iqbal c Kohli bAshwin 3, Soumya Sarkar c Rahane b Jadeja 42, Mominul Haque cRahane b Ashwin 27, Mahmudullah not out 9, Shakib Al Hasan not out21. Extras: (NB 1) 1. Total: (3 wickets; 35 overs) 103. Fall of wick-ets: 1-11, 2-71, 3-75. Bowling: B Kumar 5-2-14-0, R Ashwin 16-6-34-2, I Sharma 3-0-19-0, U Yadav 3-0-9-0, R Jadeja 8-2-27-1.

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: Guwa-

hati were dominating the pro-

ceedings with some fine display

at the ongoing TG Baruah Me-

morial 6th Youth and 8th Un-

der-21 State Karate Champion-

ship at the Deshbhakta Tarun

Ram Phookan Indoor Stadium

in the RG Baruah Sports Com-

plex here today.

Some of the matches were

still going on while filing this

report.

Earlier, Surajit Govinda Baru-

ah, Director, Assam Tribune

Group of Publications and Rita

Baruah, daughter in law of late

TG Baruah gave away the priz-

es of the completed events.

Among others present during

the prize distribution ceremony

was Bhuban Lahkar, working

president, United Karate-do

Association, Assam (UKAA).RESULTS - Cadet male individual

kata: 1st Jyotirshman Kashyap (Ghy),2nd Dhananjay Boro (Ghy), 3rdDhritiman Saikia (Jor) and DikshitPriyam Parasar (Ghy).

Cadet female individual kata: 1stEnjeebee Chakma (Ghy), 2nd RonaDevi (Ghy), 3rd Murshana Gogoi (Ghy)and Spondita Roy (Ghy).

Cadet male individual kumite 57kg: 1st Divyangshu Changkakoti (Ghy),2nd Mintu Saikia (Dhemaji), 3rd NilutpalTaye (Tinsukia) and Samrat Das(Dhemaji).

Cadet male individual kumite 63kg: 1st Dhritiman Saikia (Jorhat), 2ndPriyanuj Dutta (Ghy).

Cadet male individual kumite 70kg: 1st Pratyush Alok Baruah (Jorhat),2nd Kunal Kashyap (Ghy), 3rd PriyankuGogoi (Jorhat) and Kunal Kr Dutta(Tinsukia).

Cadet female individual kumite40 kg: 1st Sriti Sarkar (Ghy), 2nd FarminBegum (Ghy).

Cadet female 47 kg: 1st BhanupriyaRai (Dib), 2nd Nitsha Haloi (Ghy), 3rdRimpi Konwar (Dib).

Cadet female 54 kg: 1st EnjebeeChakma (Ghy), 2nd Murshana Gogoi(Ghy), 3rd Nandita Ghosh (Dib).

Cadet female kumite +54 kg: 1stEmon Gogoi (Jor), 2nd Rona Devi (Ghy),3rd Mumpi Rajbongshi (Ghy) andKritisha Deka (Ghy).

Junior (16-17 yrs) male individualkata: 1st Bikash Rahang (Ghy), 2ndSiddharth Barooah (Ghy), 3rd NishadAli, and Aswini Teron.

Junior (16-17 yrs) female

individual kata: 1st ShivangeeChangkakoti (Ghy), 2nd Janki Devi(Ghy), 3rd Babita Rai (Ghy).

Junior (16-17 yrs) male kumite– 50 kg: 1st Sumit Kumar Singh (Ghy),2nd Pronobjyoti Gogoi (Charaideo), 3rdSuhail Sinha (Ghy) and Bikash Rahang(Ghy).

Junior (16-17 yrs) male kumite– 55 kg: 1st Aswini Teron (Ghy), 2ndAnjan Daring (Titabor), 3rd BharatNarzary (Chirang) and Pallab Das(Dhemaji).

Junior (16-17 yrs) male kumite– 68 kg: 1st Nishad Ali (Barpeta), 2ndSankar Payeng (Jorhat), 3rd AmitabhMedhi (Ghy).

Junior male kumite – 76 kg: 1st

Dhrubajyoti Talukdar (Ghy), 2nd ManashDey (Ghy), 3rd Utpal Das (Jorhat) andSiddharth Barooah (Ghy).

Junior female kumite – 48 kg: 1stJanki Devi (Ghy), 2nd Priti Debnath(Ghy), 3rd Sarada Goyari (Chirang) andShivangee Changkakoti (Ghy).

Junior female kumite +48 kg: 1stChandni Jain (Ghy), 2nd Sanjita Brahma(Chirang), 3rd Babita Rai (Ghy).

U-21 male individual kata: 1st TarunKonwar (Charaideo), 2nd SashankaSukla Boidya (Dib), 3rd Nayan Boro(Ghy) and Sonu Kumar Sharma (Ghy).

U-21 female individual kata: 1stBhagyasri Saikia (Kokrajhar), 2ndGargi Kalita (Jorhat), 3rd JyotismitaGogoi (Jorhat) and DipanjaliBaishnab (Dib).

U-21 male kumite: 1st Kalyan Kalita(Ghy), 2nd Shivam Basani (Cachar),3rd Rajeeb Kr Malik (Cachar).

U-21 male kumite – 84 kg: 1stNayamani Deka (Bongaigaon), 2ndRupam Kr Borah (Jorhat).

U-21 female kumite – 50 kg: 1stDipika Rajuwar (Dibru), 2nd Neha Sahu(Dibru), 3rd Kriti Sinha (Ghy).

U-21 female kumite – 68 kg: 1stDipanjali Baishnab (Dibru), 2ndJyotishmita Gogoi (Jorhat), 3rd GargiKalita (Jorhat). – Sports Reporter

Guwahati dominate at TG Baruahmemorial karate championship

Surajit Govinda Baruah, Director, Assam Tribune Group ofPublications giving away the certificate to a medal winner duringthe prize distribution ceremony of the TG Baruah MemorialState Karate Championship at Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookan

Indoor Stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: As-

sam State Electricity Board

Sports Club (ASEB SC) and

Titan Club won their respec-

tive matches in the Servo 24th

Guwahati Challenge Trophy

All Assam Prize Money Crick-

et Tournament at Judges’ Field

here today.

In the first match, ASEB SC

trounced TACC by eight wick-

ets while in the second match,

Titan Club thrashed Bishnujyoti

Suruj Sangha by nine wickets.Brief Scores: TACC 99 in 19.4

overs (Sahil Ahmed 29, Vivir Das17, Pankaj Kr Sahani 11; DeepjyotiBorah 3/8, Bijoy Barman 3/16, Pran-to P Patro 3/22). ASEB SC 100 for 2in 11 overs (Porag Thakuria 51 notout, Pranto P Patro 28, SankumanMahanta 14 not out, Raja Pandey 1/10, Dhruvraaj Borah 1/48).

Bishnujyoti Suruj Sangha 109/9in 20 overs (Kushal Das 19 n.o,Akash Karmakar 19, Nabajit Narzary15, P Hazarika 3/24, Kaushik Das 2/22, Bedanta Pandey 2/24). Titan Club112 for 1 in 11.2 overs (Anil Bas-

Guwahati Challenge cricketfore 76 n.o, Niraj Yadav 15, Wasir

Ahmed 12 n.o, Bibek Poudel 1/33).

Today’s matches: SG Club vs

Chandmari Sports Club; Ma-

haveer Cricket Club vs Eleven

Star Club. – Sports Reporter

Ankurjyoti inBud cricket final

GUWAHATI, Feb 12: An-

kurjyoti Club stormed into the

final of the 15th Bud Challenge

Cricket Tournament for the

Jugal Kishore Newatia Memo-

rial Trophy defeating Bud

Cricket Club by eight wickets

at the Mangaldai stadium to-

day. Ankurjyoti Club will face

City Cricket Club in the final

on February 15.

Electing to bat, Bud Cricket

Club were bundled out for a

paltry 67 runs in 28.3 overs.

In reply, Ankurjyoti Club eased

past the target losing two wick-

ets in 15.5 overs.

Utpal Gayari of Ankuryoti

Club was adjudged the man of

the match for his fine show

with the ball.Brief scores: Bud CC 67 in 28.3

overs (Roshan Basfore 23, SamikDas 16; Utpal Gayari 4/18, L KishanSingha 3/18, Abir Chakraborty 2/11).Ankuryoti Club 72/ 2 in 15.5 overs(Asif Wasimul Haque 33 n.o, RauKalita 22 n.o, Ikramul Ali 16; Prasan-ta Sonowal 1/23). – Sports Reporter