GUWAHATI, July 1: Though the relation between India and Bangladesh has improved, some senior officials of the Bangladesh Government are still helping the militants taking shelter in that country and only recently the Chairman of the banned militant outfit National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) Ranjan Daimary was let off after he was picked up by Bangladesh police. Highly placed official sources said that Daimary was picked up byBangladesh police last month from near Dhaka on charges of unlawful entry into the country but he was let off after intervention of some high officials of the Bangladesh Government. Sources said that by the time the Government of India came to know about the incident, it was too late. According to information available with the Government, Sri Daimary is still in Bangladesh.

Official sources said that senior leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) including the chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, Commander-in-Chief Paresh Baruah, foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury and others are still in Bangladesh and are using Bangladeshi passports. According to information available with the Government, the ULFA chairman visited Bhutan capital Thimphu from Thailand in April by using a Bangladeshi passport. In fact, the ULFA leaders are in possession of two or three Bangladeshi passports each and the ULFA is even maintaining a communication centre in Bangladesh from where they are controlling the operations. The Government also has definite information of some of the shelter points of the ULFA in Bangladesh, sources added. Official sources said that the arrest of the ULFA general secretary by Bangladesh police on charges of unlawful entry into the country was only a face saving action by the Bangladesh Government as despite pressures from the Government of India, the ULFA general secretary was not extradited to India.

GUWAHATI, July 3: For 10-year-old Puja Chowdhury and her 93-year-old grandmother, life does not mean anything today as they are leading a life of seclusion, totally withdrawing themselves from the hum-drum of it since the past 25 days. Nor is there any sign that they will resume their normal daily chores -- Puja the sprightly girl that she was, her daily routine of school-going, playing with friends and chirping around at home, and her grandmother visiting neighbours, looking after other members of the family, visiting the naam ghar. It was 25 days ago, on June 10 that the chopped-off limbs and head of Puja's mother, Dipti Chowdhury were found inside an abandoned bag on a footpath at Bharalumukh here, in what was perhaps one of the most ghastly, cruel murder cases in recent times.

If the discovery of the limbs and the head of Dipti Chowdhury came as the biggest shock for the 10-year-old Puja and Dipti's mother, the abduction of her husband, Amitabh Chowdhury by unidentified gunmen after about two weeks of the murder, has almost brought the curtains down on their lives. Today, when this reporter visited the house of the brother of Amitabh Chowdhury, where Puja is staying, she withdrew herself to an inner room. Her crestfallen face and her silence conveyed perhaps more eloquently the tragedy that has befallen her. Her uncle said, she has stopped talking and is not interested in anything.

A similar scenario prevails at the house of Dipti's mother at Maligaon. When this reporter visited the house, the 93-year-old lady only got up from her bed, but did not utter a word, as she looked vacately at the wall. Dipti's younger brother said, she has stopped talking and doing other chores like visiting neighbours. The whole ambience in both the households is one of deep despair and shock.

SIVASAGAR, July 3: The alertness and timely action of the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner, Mr L.N. Tamuly has brought to light a major financial scam involving an amount of Rs 1.44 crore. The Sivasagar treasury officer (TO), who joined here a couple of months back, has set himself to the task of cleaning an augean stable by systemetizing the works of the Sivasagar Treasury which has been the hub of corruption of all sorts. In doing this work the Sivasagar T.O. smelt a rat when he saw a refund voucher (RV) on the strength of which a large amount had been withdrawn as compensation by a land-acquired person although since his assumption of office there had been no case of compensation paid to any person. He immediately drew the attention of the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner.

After this the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner, Mr Tamuly made an inquiry through two magistrates -- Mr Mukut Phookan and Abhijit Baruah. The preliminary inquiry made by the two magistrates revealed fraudulent withdrawal of an amount of Rs 30 lakh through six forged RVs during the last couple of months. Further inquiry revealed fraudulent withdrawal of a total amount of Rs 1.44 crore since 1988.

Following this the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner lodged an FIR in Sivasagar police station and a case (No. 147/2000) has been registered in Sivasagar police station under sections 420/468/477(A) and 409 IPC. The Sivasagar SP is personally investigating the case and so far nearly a dozen of employees of the Sivasagar branch of the SBI and the Sivasagar treasury as well as a number of outsiders have been interrogated and four persons have been arrested. The arrested persons are -- Mr Duleswar Borah, upper division assistant, Mr Dhiren Chutia, LDA and Mr Pulin Sarma, LDA of Sivasagar treasury and Mr Bhudhar Tanti, a peon of the Sivasagar branch of the SBI.

The modus operandi of this fraudulent withdrawal is that at first an amount of money was shown as deposited for payment of compensation to land owners from whom land has been acquired for various purposes by various government agencies and PSUs like the PWD, Flood Control, ONGC, GAIL etc.

After this individual land owners from whom land had been acquired are paid from the bank on presentation of RVs issued from the treasury after necessary formalities are gone through in the Government's Revenue Department. But in the present case there had been no deposit of any money for the purpose of payment of compensation and it was only manipulated in paper only. In the same way the RVs, on the strength of which the bank made payment, were also forged. The signatures of the two Additional Deputy Commissioners in charge of Revenue during the period were also reportedly forged. The forgery which has been made with meticulous care can, however, be ascertained from certain subtle discrepency between the official seals used in the forged documents and the actual official seals.

Another interesting thing is that at the time of opening of the bank accounts in the Sivasagar branch of the SBI the 22 account holders who fraudulently withdrew the entire amount of Rs 1.44 crore identified themselves one another as per banking rule an old account holder must identify a new account holder. But there is no trace about the person who identified the first account-holder. Further the passport size photos of these account holders are also missing. By all accounts these 22 persons also appear to be fictious.

GUWAHATI, July 3: Literally driven to a corner due to the thoughtless and uncontrolled human encroachment into their habitat, more and more wild animals are being forced to intrude into the populated areas of the city in search of food. Though most such intrusions go unreported or unnoticed, a few, like the one yesterday where a wayward leopard fell into a well at Jaynagar area in Maligaon, reminds us of the damage we are doing to their natural habitat.

Yesterday's incident is not the first involving leopards in the city. In fact, incidents like this are quite common. Till date several leopards had found themselves trapped in the midst of human in Guwahati and had to be rescued by Forest Department personnel. For most of the city residents such incidents are a spectacle but for wildlife experts it is a cause for worry.

It is believed that there are still about 20 to 30 leopards living in the periphery of the city, mostly in the hills and ridges. For years, the leopards have seen their habitat being taken over by the land-hungry citizens of Guwahati. Their intrusion, therefore, is only to be expected. Last year alone the forest officials had to rescue four leopards that had strayed inside the city. "The leopards encounter problems because of the population pressure," says Assam State Zoo DFO, R Bhattacharjee. It is most often the Zoo here where the rescued leopards are brought to be released after some time. Taking care of such rescued animals is not the responsibility of the Zoo but with no other alternative at hand the onus is unavoidable. In April last year even leopards cubs, barely a couple of months old, were deposited at the Zoo for care. "It is very tough to bring them up," says Bhattacharjee.

GUWAHATI, July 4: Thoroughly disgusted with the kind of "security environment" created by the authorities concerned at the district jail here, where ULFA vice chairman Pradip Gogoi had set up a fiefdom of his own, with the jail officials and staff paying regular obeisance to him, the Kamrup district administration and the City Police have finally succeeded in convincing the State Government that the deliverance lies only in transferring out Pradip Gogoi and the two ISI agents, Fasiullah Husseini and Javed Qaqar from the jail to some other jail. Accordingly, Pradip Gogoi was taken to the Silchar jail and the two NSA detenus, Fasiullah and Waqar to the Jorhat jail last night.

Heaving a deep sigh of relief, a senior official of the district administration today told The Sentinel that the authorities would now be able to pay more attention to the security set-up inside the district jailhere. Police sources said, with Pradip Gogoi and the two Pakistani nationals gone, half of their law-and-order problems in the city has also gone.

Giving an account of the environment created in the jail, sources said, this had not been done overnight, but over a period of several years since all hard-core militants, particularly of the ULFA variety, are straightaway taken to the district jail here. Secondly, a section of the newspapers have also been openly campaigning in favour of the insurgency, creating a sort of "mind set" among the jail staff that they are privileged to deal directly with the ULFA and other extremist detenus. To add to the situation, a group of hard-core supporters of the extremists among various professionals like doctors, lawyers and others, who make regular visits to the ULFA detenues, created the impression among the staff that they were not doing anything wrong by attending to the various needs, mostly illegal, of the ULFA detenus.

Sources said, the situation worsened with the arrival of Pradip Gogoi, who soon set up his fiefdom in the jail by intimidation and other means. In fact, he even succeeded in indoctrinating some of the jail staff with the ULFA's ideology of violence and secession. These staff have since been working as no more than ULFA recruits, sources said.

The situation further deteriorated with the arrival of Fasiullah and Waqar, both highly trained mujahideen guerillas. In fact, the ULFA detenus, numbering around 40, fell over each other to remain in their good books. ULFA detenus massaging Fasiullah and Waqar, who sun bathe bare bodied in the backyard of the jail, became a regular sight for all others.

Pradip Gogoi used to sit in the superintendent's office and use his telephone. Doctors of the jail, the contractors and others had made it a regular routine to first pay their obeisance to him before going about their chores, sources said, adding that this has hopefully come to an end, now that they have been shifted.

JORHAT, July 4: The people of Rongdoi Adhar Xatra, 13 km from here, apprehended two hard-core ULFA militants -- Mrigen Bora alias Akash Bora, the assistant commandant of the Dehajan unit of the banned outfit and Dwigen Talukdar alias Nripen Mahanta -- at around 6 a.m. today when they, along with another cadre of the outfit, came to collect the ransom they had demanded earlier from a homoeo doctor of the locality. Another ULFA cadre, however, managed to escape. The public also seized a revolver, a grenade and some incriminating documents from the militants, and handed them over to the police only after a thorough bash-up.

According to reports, the three ULFA militants had been demanding an amount of Rs 50,000 from the rural homoeo doctor for the last 20 days. The doctor had also been receiving threats from the outfit that if he failed to pay the demanded amount, he would be killed or abducted. One day the doctor was abducted by the ULFA cadres and taken to Burhagaon, but he managed to free himself from the abductors giving an assurance that he would pay the demanded amount on a later date. In the meantime, the doctor informed the police, the gaonburha and the villagers of the matter. The alert villagers, who had been waiting for the three ULFA cadres, apprehended them when they came to collect the amount from the doctor as per his earlier assurance. Another militant, however, managed to escape.

The two militants, became senseless when the mob bashed them up before handing them over to the police.

JORHAT, July 6: The Agricultural department in the Jorhat district has become a mute spectator to the plight of 550 families of farmers in the district who have lost the prospect of the Ahu crops over 800 bighas of land. These farmers of the district had sown Ahu seeds, known as 'Luit', that was made available to them free of cost from the Government.

This variety of Ahu rice had its harvesting prospect within 105 days as was promised. Now that, it is more than 115 days past sowing of these seeds, it did not start flowering even, the farmers have lost all prospects of yielding any crops. It is however confirmed that the distribution of the seeds were made incorrectly.

These were not the proper 'Luit' varieties. It is also not confirmed as to what variety of rice these seeds might belong to. This situation has given rise to huge confusions and the farmers are most likely to lose both the crops seasons of the Ahu and Shali hoping for a harvest of this unknown breed.

The Government has not yet initiated any process to identify the breed or for payment of compensation to these poor farmers. The district is likely to lose 250 tons of Shali crops if the farmers are to wait till harvesting of the same.

GUWAHATI, July 11: Several Hajong, Bengali and Garo refugees who had come to Assam from the erstwhile East Pakistan about 36 years ago, are today passing their lives in abject poverty and sufferings at the Bamunigaon refugee camp or "Permanent Liabilities Home" near Boko in Kamrup district. The State Government has failed to rehabilitate these refugees due to scarcity of lands.

The inmates of the camp alleged that they have not been receiving any government's aid since 1995 and some of them have already passed away due to starvation. Till 1995, the Government used to distribute cash, clothes and mattress among the inmates on monthly or yearly basis.

Altogether 351 families from the erstwhile East Pakistan had been sheltered in the refugee camp in 1964. Initially the Central Government used to look after them under the relief and rehabilitation scheme. The camp was handed over to the State Social Welfare Department in 1976 and till then the inmates are being looked after by the Directorate of Social Welfare.

About 100 refugee families had been rehabilitated in 1975. The Government had planned to settle some inmates at Hajo in Kamrup district during 1983-84 for rehabilitation. However, the people of Hajo did not allow the inmates to settle in the area.

The "Permanent Liabilities Home" where at present 151 refugee families and their 251 dependants are staying, covers a huge area of 260 bighas of land.

The Department of Social Welfare, even constructed 50 Assam-type houses within its campus. There is even an LP school and an ME school within the campus for education of the children of the inmates.

When this reporter visited the camp, several old inmates, who are now counting their days, alleged that the Government has done great injustice to them. But they are still keeping their hope alive of being rehabilitated.

However, some inmates without expecting the Government's relief have already left the camp. Sons and daughters of some inmates have assimilated themselves with the nearby local residents through marriage or other ways.

The "Permanent Liabilities Home" is now in a very pitiable state. Since many parts of the compound wall of the "Home" have been broken, antisocial elements now allegedly enter the camp and exploit some young inmates taken advantage of their poverty.

At present, there are six employees to look after the refugee camp and the State Government has not appointed any permanent superintendent for the "Permanent Liabilities Home" for many years.

A senior employee at the camp, on condition of anonymity, said that the camp and its inmates have become a real burden for them. "The Government can easily rehabilitate the inmates with a little bit of initiative. The Government can allot the land covering the camp for rehabilitation of the inmates, he suggested adding that six employees of the camp have nothing to do and are wasting their time.

The State Government has, however, recently awarded 128 old inmates of the camp with old-age pension under the Central Government's "Minimum Needs Programme." Sources said that the announcement of old-age pension due to delay in rehabilitating the inmates may further put pressure on the penniless State Government.

AGARTALA, July 11(UNI): Underground tribal guerillas killed 875 people and kidnapped 1687 others during the past seven years till April last in Tripura.

Stating this, State Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who holds the Home portfolio, told the Tripura Assembly that during this period altogether 2009 people were murdered and 2014 people were abducted by the militants or otherwise.

At least 531 cases of rape, 704 cases of arson and 658 cases of dacoity were also reported during this period, the Chief Minister said, adding that police registered 981 cases of atrocities on women in the same period.

Mr Sarkar said during the past two years outlawed militants also killed 72 security personnel, including 19 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and 14 each of CRPF and BSF jawans.

He said the estimated strength of the State's two banned militant outfits -- All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) and National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) -- was 400 and 800 respectively.

The Chief Minister also presented a list of 48 leaders of the ATTF and the NLFT in the house.

DIBRUGARH, July 11: A rebellion of sorts is waiting to happen at the Dibrugarh Jail here, with inmates facing at present inconveniences with each passing day. The prison here is presently home to 350 prisoners and more than a thousand undertrials. Of these, 52 are facing terrorism charges.

According to the jail manual, an undertrial should get 250 grams of rice whereas a prisoner is entitled to 300 grams of the cereal a day. Similarly, the inmates are entitled to 70 grams of atta a day. Though 25 litres of milk is supplied to the prison each day, none of the inmates get to drink this. The tea that is served is without sugar.

Moreover, the inmates get only half their rice quota and 70 per cent of the atta quota (in the form of chapatis. Against the weekly quota of fish, eggs and meat, this is now given once a month. Similarly, against the mandatory soap and oil to be given twice a month, these are given once in three months.

Not only on the food front, the inmates are generally not given blankets and mosquito nets, while those who fall sick are not given the requisite medical attention. It is even alleged that inmates are forced to take medicines that have passed their expiry dates.

These deficiencies have been recently brought to the notice of the District and Sessions Judge here, who then inspected the jail on June 30. The judge was reportedly told by the jail authorities that the deficiencies were chiefly due to non-availability of funds. But later the same day, the jailor here summoned the complaining inmates to his office chamber and had all the three thoroughly beaten up by the jail guards.

JORHAT, July 11: Call it what you will! Either plain unconcern, devil-could-care-no-less attitude, negligence or gross unawareness. But unscrupulous traders in Jorhat are cashing in on the gullibility of the local consumers day in and day out in the absence of any formal protest from the mute and 'ignorant' public.

The above was observed by the Assistant Controller of Legal Metrology, Sri D K Sarma, while talking to The Assam Tribune at his Choladhora office here today. Lack of public awareness is what a section of these unscrupulous traders are capitalising on, he remarked. Though inspectors of the department are armed to the teeth with statutory rules to book such offenders (read traders), not much headway has been made due to a plethora of reasons, lamented the officer. To cite an example, he claimed that hardly any consumer ever lodged a formal complaint nor sought redressal against such cases of cheating, which according to his own confession was rampant in and around Jorhat. "Use of hand-held beam scales, which is so common everywhere, is so widespread that it is almost humanly impossible to stop the practice altogether, until of course the consumers resolve to cooperate with the Legal Metrology Department to stem the rot. Only when the public decide not to take such duping lying down does it become convenient for us to spring into action. But till such time the practice of using hand-held beam scales by shopkeepers, vegetable vendors, butchers, fishmongers and even moving salesmen of assorted wares is replaced by permanently suspended beam scales which do not permit manipulation by the fingers or otherwise during the process of weighing, customers are bound to be at the receiving end indefinitely.

Citing recent instances of swooping down on such errant vendors and shopkeepers at Sivasagar on June 10, he said an amount of Rs 18,800 was realised from the former as fine. Similarly on July 7 last, Rs 39,800 was realised from unscrupulous Golaghat town traders even as a mobile court imposed spot fines. Such raids were also on the cards at other places within the Jorhat legal metrology sub-division, which includes Titabor, Mariani, Teok and even Majuli.

"However, with only three inspectors manning the entire jurisdiction, it does become technically cumbersome to mete out justice to the consumers at all times," confessed Sri Sarma. Further, given the lengthy and circuitous formalities involved in booking an errant trader in any regular judicial court, sans cooperation from the police and chief judicial magistrate, not much can be achieved, the officer said.

The psychological impact that random raids and subsequent fines create on errant trades at any particular local does persist for sometime, but the hardened among them revent back to their earlier ways as time wears out. It is at such a juncture that public awareness comes in handy by way of policing the traders and lodging formal complaints so as to activate our departmental inspectors, Sri Sarma said.

GUWAHATI, July 11: The Assam Government has failed to utilise the Central fund granted for development of fisheries in the tribal areas. During the Eighth Five Year Plan, the Central Government had alloted Rs 263.44 lakh for development of fisheries in the State but the Government could utilise only Rs 198.93 lakh. It is learnt that a huge fund alloted during Eighth Plan has remained unutilised and as a result the fishery sector has suffered a setback.

Another important fact is that the state is losing Rs 100 crore annually for importing fish from neighbouring states. Assam produces 1.5 lakh MTannually against the requirement of 2.6 lakh MT. The requirement is fulfilled by importing fish from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa.

In spite of having vast resources, the Assam Government has failed to explore the potential in the fishery sector. The poor fish production is attributed to lack of modern farming and shortage of good quality fingerlings. Moreover, most of the areas of the State are yet to be covered by modern pisciculture.

Commenting on the poor fish production of the State, All Assam Tribal Employees Association's general secretary Makhan Chandra Doley said that the fishery department has failed to develop fisheries in the tribal areas despite demands from various quarters. He further said that the department can develop beel fisheries particularly in Lower Assam but it is yet to take any step.

The general secretary also demanded the State Government for proper utilisation of Central fund meant for the development of tribal people. "A huge Central fund has been diverted which has affected the ongoing fisheries schemes in the State," he stated.

NALBARI, July 11: The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a major militant outfit of the Lower Assam operating especially in the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) areas, has intensified its extortion drive among the non-Bodos in various parts of the district. Despite stepped up security arrangements, the outfit has served notices demanding huge amount as Bodoland tax and donation. Following the declaration of ceasefire by the BLT another militant outfit of the area, the NDFB has intensified its extortion drive in Barama, Mussalpur, Tamulpur and Nikachi area of Nalbari district creating a fear psychosis among the non-Bodo people.

According to reports available here the NDFB militants had issued a few letters on June 26 signed by M Khyama of the outfit (designation is not mentioned) inviting the families to a particular place to discuss the matter of extortion. Sources revealed that the outfit served notices to about 25 families of Barama asking them to meet the members of the outfit before June 30 to fix the amount of 'donation'. The sources claimed that the persons who received notices have already contacted the outfit and fixed the amount of 'donation' or 'Bodoland tax.

GUWAHATI, JULY 12: Hanifuddin Ahmed (23) from Muktapur, near Baihata Chariali, is adamant. He simply wants to have his sister released from the gastroentrology ward of medicine department of the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). Reason: the unbearable stench.

Pradip Deka (24) from Boko echoes the same feeling. His sister Dipika was admitted in the ward 17 days back. The stench emanates from the three toilets which are seldom cleaned. As a result, the entire block suffers.

In fact, all the toilets in the hospital are in unsanitary condition. Hanifuddin said he never saw anyone clean them for the last one-week. Pradip's younger sister fell sick after staying with her sister in the unhygenic surroundings, claimed her brother.

And not without reason. Bleaching powder, a prime disinfecting ingredient, is made available in very small quantity. "Only 75 kg is provided to the sanitation staff every week for the whole hospital, when actually about 25 kg of bleaching powder is required daily," said a GMCH official. He also told The Northeast Daily that hardly a kilo of the disinfectant is distributed to a ward each week. There is also pilferage by some section of the staff, besides, he also claimed.

There is also shortage of sanitation staff as well. Though there are approximately 280 sweepers, all are not utilised for the hospital purpose as they also work for nursing hostels, student nursing hostels, boys' and girls' hostels of MBBS, post mortem unit in Panbazar, IDS at Kalapahar, etc., claimed the official. Each ward now has hardly four sweepers. If any of them goes on leave, the wards are left with still lesser number of cleaners.

And it's not just sweeper and bleaching powder shortages. Of the five wheel barrows at the hospital, only two are in a running condition.

The sewerage treatment plant (STP), which is meant to treat liquid and semi-liquid wastes of the hospital, has also been lying out of order since the last ten years. Untreated sewerage is now let out to the marshy area near the STP. This is likely to cause severe health hazard in the coming days. Besides, the incinerator has been not working for the last 20 days. And the solid garbage waste generated at the hospital is not dumped properly. "It is usually deposited at the Narakasur Hill dumping ground, but sometimes near the Gate-2 of the hospital as well," he said.

Surprisingly, the sweepers are not provided with any kind of equipment to insulate themselves while dealing with the waste. The official informed that, as a precautionary measure, the authorities keep changing the work profile of the sweepers every month.