GUWAHATI, June 16: About 150 years back in 1853, a Christian Missionary made an observation about the people of Assam saying: "The want of an enterprising and impressive spirit is everywhere seen, and until the monotony is broken up by drawing the attention of the natives to the advantages of commerce, and the blessings which honest industry is certain to secure, little can be hoped from the Province (Assam)".

The British tea planters initially tried to engage local people in their tea estates, but the attempt failed due to the complacence and lack of enterprise among the natives of the province. This necessitated the drawing up of bonded labourers from various parts of the Indian mainland.

Almost the same scene was repeated in the oil industry of the province. Hard working people remained a searce resource in the province. Nor there was any venture, barring a handful few, on the part of the natives, to get themselves involved in trade and commerce. They were confining themselves within the shells of self-containment refusing to come out of their shells.

Faced with such a situation, Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaruah in his poem Udbodhan (an ode of consecration to the Assamese people) in his Kripabar Baruahar Obhotoni wrote in 1909: "Uth Asamiya Nushubi Aru, Kaniya Buliba Loke./ Kaniya, Soropa Buliba Lagile Mai Marijam Shoke./ Chakur Pheskuri Dhui Asamiya Unnatir Batat Lar, Nahale Pichat Pari Pachi Jabi, Bideshir Khabi Char...." (Get up ye Assamese, or, others will call you opium-addict and lethargic which will make me die of grief... Wash the discharge of your eyes and start rushing on to progress, or else, you will be lagging for behind the others, outsiders will become your masters).

No doubt, a section of the people of the State joined the process of development in course of time as the rise in the middle class mentality among them made them receptive to the beckoning of the office jobs of the Babus: the white collar jobs in the offices. This followed the transformation of many Molok Gogois into Molok Gunguins as Sahityarathi Bezbaruah portrayed in one of his short stories, and then to a lot of tension and conflicts within the State's society.

But, mostly, the popular psyche remained withdrawn to the self-composed shells of self-containment without caring to know the developments taking place around them. The consecrations of Rabindranath like "Pachim aaj khuliase dwar hetha hote sabe aane upahar" (the West has opened its doors, every one is deriving the knowledge and materials from it) could stir the spirits of the people in neighbouring Bengal long back. That is yet to be accomplished here.

The self-defeating doubt Luitak bhetiba kone (who will tame the Brahmaputra) in the face of any difficult situation or challenge is eating into the morale of the people of the State along with the self-complacence like Aakalo nai, Bharalo nai (we have no famine, hence we do not require any granary).

And hence, the State's economy remained by and large an agrarian economy of subsistence nature and there was no commerce or trade worth the name, except in few items. Despite a poor living condition, there was no motivation to earn more. The mindset of the indigenous people in the State almost remained what it was about 150 years back when the Christian Missionary made the above observation, despite there being a tremendous change in economic activities in and around the State during the period.

But, recently a suicidal tendency to earn easy bucks without going for any productive activity has been adding to the problems of the society in the State. No doubt, a realisation within the conscious section of the people is dawning that there is an urgent need for a radical attitudinal change among the people.

The Asom Prakalpa, in its vision document Assam Beyond 2000, said that the nature of this attitudinal change has to be all-embracing ranging from our day to day individual living to that of social life as a whole so that the State and its people do not lag behind in the race for prosperity and progress. Besides, our mind has to be kept open towards the global development so that new ideas and novel experiments elsewhere reach us and we do not remain in an island of ignorance.

DIBRUGARH, June 19: Just how vindictive can a premier tea company be to "teach a lesson" to an honest employee, who had the temerity to question his boss every time he detected an irregularity? Well, in this instant case, the provident fund cheque was kept concealed maliciously for three months, while the employee is yet to receive his gratuity dues, 11 months after he retired from service.

The company in question is the oldest tea company in the world: Assam Company Limited. Surendra Nath Borpatra Gohain joined the company's Thanai Tea Estate in 1963 in a clerical post and went on to become the estate's head clerk by dint of hard work and sincerity. He retired from service on July 1 last year, after serving the garden for 37 years. Ever since, it has been a constant struggle for him to get his legitimate dues. His PF dues, working out to about Rs 3.5 lakhs, was handed over to him only in February this year. Whereas, the local office here of the Assam Tea Plantation Provident Fund confirms having sent his cheque to the manager of Thanai Tea Estate in November last eyar by registered post.

Thanai Tea Estate is located about 25 kilometres from here, and as such, it is most unlikely that his PF cheque was delayed due to postal anomalies. (The cheque was issued from the ATPPF head office at Guwahati). It has been gathered that other letters from the Guwahati office of the ATPPF are received in Thanai and its adjacent tea estates (Hazelbank and Nudwa estates, for example) with 10 to 12 days of posting.

Sri Borpatra Gohain, however, is yet to receive his gratuity dues, working out to Rs 126365. He took the matter to the court of the Assistant Labour Commissioner here, who is also the district's Controlling authority under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. Here too, the senior manager of the tea estate, Baljit Singh, chose not to respond to the first three summons of the Labour Commissioner. (Ref Gratuity Case No. 1 of 2000). He finally came to the office on May 16, and the Labour Commissioner assed an order on May 26, asking Singh to make the payment within 30 days. May be just to keep Borpatra Gohain under mental tension, the payment is yet to be made, with the deadline for payment nine days away, from June 16. In his statement before the labour official, Singh said the gratuity money has not arrived from the company's head office at Calcutta. But Borpatra Gohain, who has served the company for almost four decacdes, refused to accept this plea.

When contacted, Singh told this correspondent this afternoon on the telephone that he has nothing to comment on the matter. When told that his 'no comment" may imply that he is deliberately delaying Borpatra Gohain's dues settlement, he just laughed. By the way, Borpatra Gohain is entitled to six months' TA (from January to June, 1999) amounting to Rs 1500. This amount too is being witheld for payment.

After serving a premier tea company, this is the treatment meted out to an indigenous person. Most surprisingly, his last pay drawn is bound to open up a Pandora's box of questions and which will immediately expose the tea industry's exploitation of the non-executive staff. His last pay drawn amounted to Rs 6084.24. This would not even cover the cost of most garden manager's monthly spending on beverages. And one shudders to think of the plight of the non-executive employees of lesser tea companies.

Sri Borpatra Gohain is one of those persons who generally stick to honesty. This has been vouched for by all who know him, except, ofcourse, Baljit Singh. The latter has sufficient reason to try to nail him, given an opportunity. Earlier, Borpatra Gohain committed the mistakes of pointing out the manager's faults. Like engaging triple the number of labourers than a manager or a senior manager is entitled to, at his residence. And worse of all, showing these extra labourers as persons on security deployment, while paying the wages, on company account.

GUWAHATI, June 21: The overall law and order situation in the Karbi Anglong hill district is deteriorating very fast over the past six months, forcing at least a couple of thousand non-Karbi families to shift to Nagaon District.

Official sources said that insurgent outfit United Peoples' Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) has become very active of late and launched a massive extortion drive. In the interior villages, the militants have forced the village headmen to collect money from each and every villager regularly and even the small time cultivators were not spared. Those who are not in a position to pay, were forced to leave their villages and about 2,000 families from the western Karbi Anglong have shifted to Nagaon. Sources revealed that according to information available, a number of Government servants working in the hill district are also paying money regularly to the insurgent outfit and in the last six months alone, at least 15 persons were kidnapped by the outfit.

It may be mentioned here that the Karbi National Volunteers (KNV) and the Karbi People's Front (KPF) joined hands last year to form the UPDS. The outfit now has about 300 cadres and they have sophisticated weapons and communication facilities. The outfit mostly brings weapons from Bangladesh through Meghalaya. The UPDS is maintaining links with both the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Issac-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN).

Sources said that the forces available in the district at present are not adequate to deal with the problem and the poor communication problem and the terrain also help the militants as it is impossible for the security forces to rush to interior areas. Interestingly, till date the Government has not deployed army in the district to deal with the situation.

TURA, June 21: Garo Hills, particularly East and West, is virtually sitting on a time bomb, as the dangerous RDX explosive is gradually making its way into it as can be witnessed from Saturday's explosion. On Saturday, around 9.35 am, a police vehicle carrying CRPF personnel had a miraculous escape when suspected NDFB-ANVC militants detonated a powerful device through remote control at a place called Jangrapara, on the main road to Tikrikilla town bordering Assam. While no one was injured in the blast, a crater five feet long and four and a half feet deep was created in the middle of the road. This is the second explosion to have taken place in the history of the State, with first also occurring in Garo Hills.

The first explosion of RDX took place at Borjora village in East Garo Hills on the border with Assam during the month of August last year. ULFA militants, while waiting in ambush for an Assam police vehicle that had passed through Borjora village, triggered a blast killing instead the second officer-in-charge of Mendipather police station, in East Garo Hills, along with his driver. The officer along with a group of State police personnel was passing through the road when the blast occurred. While the first explosion was done manually through the use of a long distance wire, the second explosion, on Saturday, was done through remote control as can be seen with the recovery of a sophisticated remote device.

DIBRUGARH, June 22: Racketeers of all hues have of late made Dibrugarh their base. At the end of the day, these persons make enough money to sustain a family for a year, by way of donations and extortion collected in the name of various bogus organisations and associations.

Some of these bogus organisations even have the temerity to mention the names of senior political leaders, bureaucrats and police officials as 'advisors' on their letterheads, which makes their fund collection drives that much more easier. One such organisation, which called itself the Asom Chah Janajati Samiti last year collected a huge amount of money from businessmen here and in Tinsukia, on the plea that a convention of the tea labour community will be held at a tea garden near Dibrugarh. Of course, no convention took place. The men behind this organisation even fooled the DC here, who had to return from the 'convention venue' after meeting nobody at the site. Neither did the official saw any arrangement of a convention. The DC went there to inaugurate the event, without realising the prank of a couple of tricksters.

Similarly, a group of youths recently hung a huge banner at Amolapatty Chariali here, which announced a 'conference' of a newly floated outfit which calls itself the Jatiyatabadi Jyoti Bisnu Sanmilita Sanskritik Parishad, Asom. This outfit is presently on a donation collection binge, armed with pamphlets which contains names of several leading citizens here. That most of these citizens do not even know of this association is a different matter. Moreover, this outfit has not taken any permission from the civil authorities to collect donations, which is mandatory.

Last Sunday, this outfit convened a meeting where speakers, one after the other, lambasted the organisation and announced their walking out from the outfit. This resignation spree amused observers from the Fourth Estate. The organisation is claiming that they will hold their 'State level biennial convention' at the Chowkidinghee grounds and at the district library auditorium here on July 15 and 16, but it is learnt that permission to use the two venues have not yet been applied for.

To add to the confusion, this outfit's fund raisers are claiming that Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and eight of his ministerial colleagues will attend the open session of the convention. Sources at Janata Bhawan, Dispur told this correspondent today that Chief Minister Mahanta has no engagement at Dibrugarh on July 15 and 16. The question that now arises is, why is such thuggery being allowed to continue, right under the nose of the district administration ?

GUWAHATI, June 23: Prolonged insurgency problem has severely affected the industrial climate of the State. According to official statistics, altogether 13,000 small-scale industrial (SSI) units are on the verge of collapse due to prevailing poor law-and-order situation of the State. The SSI units located at various parts of the State have become a soft target of the insurgent groups and as a result nearly 2,00,000 employees are facing hardship.

Militants belonging to the ULFA, NDFB and the BLT have started collecting funds from the units but the authorities are yet to provide proper security arrangement for them.

Talking to this reporter, the vice president of the Assam Entrepreneurs Association (AEA), Sri DK Goswami said that of the 13,000 SSI units, 8000 have become the target of the militant groups which forced the authorities to close down several units.

"We have been facing the problem since 1980, but steps are yet to be initiated to tackle the insurgency," Sri Goswami said, adding that in view of the stepped up activities of the militant groups most of the units of lower Assam have suffered a serious setback. In this context, the vice-president revealed that the association has already demanded the Central government to grant financial relief to the SSI units considering the gravity of the situation.

"We have not been able to return the bank loans and interests on borrowed capital are mounting," Sri Goswami added.

When asked what steps were initiated to revive the units, he informed AEA has apprised the Centre about the problem faced by the units.

"We are eagerly waiting for the Centre for help as hundreds of local youths are directly or indirectly involved in these units," he stated.

Replying to a question about the State Government's attitude towards the problems of the units, the vice president said that it has stopped giving supply orders despite repeated demands from various quarters."State Government is not willing to solve our problem which has become a matter of concern," he added.

AGARTALA, June 26: Ethnic violence has once again flared up in disturbed Teliamura police station area under West Tripura district this morning. Preliminary reports said at least three persons were killed and eight injured in the ethnic clash. West Tripura district administration clamped indefinite curfew in Teliamura and senior police officers, including IGP (law and order) K Saleem Ali, rushed to the spot with reinforcement. The entire area is reeling under tension.

Reports from Teliamura said, a group of heavily armed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants shot dead a non-tribal at Dhanchakma area at around 9.30 am. As the news of the killing reached Teliamura market, ethnic tension erupted. Teliamura which wirnessed a series of ethnic violence in recent past was a bubble ready to be burst and tension resulted in violence today. As it was market day in Teliamura today, there were many tribals in the market. Non-tribals attacked them with sharp weapons and killed two tribals on the spot. Six more were seriously injured in the clash. As the news of murder of two tribals reached tribal hamlets, tension mounted and many non-tribal families started fleeing from these areas fearing a backlash.

NAGAON, June 29: Though the prime object behind establishment of District Malaria Office, Nagaon was to save the lives of people from malaria, but in these days the object seems to have been diverted by some top health officials as well as employees of this office into earning black money only. It may be mentioned here that almost 30 lives were claimed by malaria and it affected over 100 people during this month only because of the negligence of the officials as well as employees of this department.

Recently, the transfer and posting of about 25 surveillance workers (SWs) of this department has rocked in the functioning of this office. On May 23, Dr H K Saikia, Joint Director of Health Services, Nagaon had transferred 15 SWs to different health centres vide order Nos. 1762-63, 1767-68, 1772-80 and ordered the SWs to report the respective places of their transfer immediately. But surprisingly, on May 31 the orders were cancelled by Dr Saikia for unknown reasons. When Dr Saikia was asked about these sudden transfer and stay orders, he replied that the orders were cancelled under the pressure of the District Malaria Employees' Association. But some employees of this office alleged that almost Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 had been collected from these SWs by an employee of this department at the time of cancellation of their transfer orders.

In an another incident, Dr Saikia had ordered to Mr Balu Nath, Head Assistant of this department to hand over the files of appointment, transfer of SWs, appointment and leave transfer of grade IV employees to Mr Ramesh Chandra Mudoi, LDA, vide order No. 4620 dated June 1, which was against the rules of office functioning. Though, in the State Government offices all the matters of appointment, transfer, leave are dealt with by the Head Assistant of the office, but in this office all such responsibilities were entrusted to an employee in the rank of LDA. Significantly, in the order copy the initial of Mr Ramesh Chandra Mudoi was found along with the signature of Dr Saikia which was a mark of offence in the office functioning, it is alleged by the employees of the department. W hen Dr Saikia was asked about this order he could not reply anything before this correspondent.

It may also be mentioned here that the post of District Malaria Officer (DMO)" has been lying vacant since last year for which no efforts has been made by the district health office to appoint a suitable person. But considering the failure of district malaria office in controlling malaria which has taken an epidemic form in the district, Mr P K Mahanta, Chief Minister of Assam had instructed Mr Biren Dutta, Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Government of Assam to appoint an officer in the said post on June 13 (published in The Sentinel on June 14) but no personal has been appointed by the Government till today.

GUWAHATI, June 30: Even though Bhutanese Foreign Minister Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, who also holds charge of the Royal Kingdom's Prime Minister -- he having been appointed the first among equals in the Bhutan Cabinet by King Jigme Singhye Wangchuk last year -- was all fire and brimstone over the Assam Government's allegation that the Royal Government of Bhutan is directly aiding and abetting the ULFA and strongly refuted the charge, Intelligence agencies have gathered enough evidence to pin down not only Mr Thinley's Ministry on the charge, but the entire Bhutan Government itself.

According to reports and evidences collected by the agencies, Brigadier V. Namgel, security in-charge and the Military Adviser to the King, actively helps the ULFA in obtaining arms and ammunition from foreign countries. A major case of such help rendered by this high official to the ULFA was on April 8, 1999 when the ULFA brought a consignment of arms from Tibet to Deothang -- the outfit's headquarters, reports said.

According to evidences, Takin Travel Services based in Thimphu, which is a Royal Government of Bhutan's official travel agency, facilitates the travel by ULFA's so-called commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah -- who travels in the guise of one Kamruzzaman Khan -- to places like Bangkok, Singapore, Dhaka, etc.

The Department of Immigration and Census under the Ministry of Home Affairs, offers all facilities to the ULFA leaders and cadres to move freely in Bhutan by issuing special permits to them and even for such purposes as "dues collection", as they have issued one such special permit to Tapan Baruah alias Nripen Gupta.

But it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the direct control of Mr Thinley, which has gone out of its way to help the ULFA in all its activities. A senior official of the Ministry, one Wangchuk Dorji, has been specifically assigned the task of helping out the top leaders of the outfit in matters of making available funds, documents etc. from abroad, arranging travels to foreign countries by faking informations, etc. -- all under cover of diplomatic immunity.

Documentary evidences suggest that Wangchuk Dorji had received Nu 40,000 from a top functionary of the outfit under the alias of one Deepak Das, for air fare, visa fee, etc., from the British High Commission in New Delhi for travel to the United Kingdom on November 22, 1999. He had earlier received Nu 68,000 from the same ULFA leader, lodged at Hotel Tadin in Thimphu on April 12, 1996 "for business purpose to buy Chinese shoes." He had also received Nu 1,18,000 for conversion to US dollars from the same ULFA leader on the same day.

While all these help may still be explained by the Royal Government of Bhutan as being nothing unusual, what Wangchuk Dorji did was the unusual -- and illegal -- step of using his power as the "Diplomatic Mail Day Incharge" to ferry dollars and other documents for the ULFA leaders in Bangkok, Dhaka etc., in diplomatic mail.

On March 7, 1996, Wangchuk Dorji, the "Diplomatic Mail Bag Incharge", wrote to one Kukonleg Gykltshen, a senior Finance Ministry official, requesting the latter to "kindly receive and send, through diplomatic pouch" a packet to be sent by a top ULFA leader, under the alias, Rana Mashud to him. He writes, "Mr Rana Mashud would like to send one packet for me. I would highly appreciate if you could receive and send through diplomatic pouch positively on Wednesday flight."

Again on July 18, 1999, another Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, Mr Pasang Wangdi, wrote to Mr Singhye Dorji of the Royal Bhutanese Consulate in Bangkok, saying that "a packet addressed to Mr Khurshid/Deepak containing some cash and documents was sent by diplomatic mail bag on Saturday, 13 July. They have been asked to contact you and collect it. Grateful if you could hand over the packet to either of them and obtain a receipt."

Mr Zade Paisleye, a senior Home Ministry official of the Royal Government was introduced to "Lebu," a top ULFA leader, by the outfit's "foreign secretary" Sasha Chowdhury in a letter on May 5, 1997 as a "special envoy to accompany and assist you to reach our destination safe and nicely." The destination, as the letter revealed, was the outfit's headquarters at Deothang.

According to Intelligence sources here, these are clinching evidences of the official involvement of the Royal Government of Bhutan in the activities of the ULFA which is continuing a violent campaign to cede Assam from India. Obviously these are hostile acts against India, sources said, adding that till the Bhutan Government stopped aiding and abetting the UFLA, the problem of terrorism in the State will continue to simmer.

All the top intransigent leaders of the ULFA -- chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, "commander-in-chief" Paresh Baruah and "Foreign Secretary" Sasha Chowdhury, besides others, and the NDFB top leaders like Mr Ranjan Daimary are always welcomed with open arms by influential people of Bangladesh which has become a "safe and respectable" sanctuary for them since the past several years. According to Intelligence sources, a section of top officials of the Bangladesh Army, paramilitary forces, the clergy and several top Opposition politicians, besides the bureaucrats and police officials regularly attend to the various needs of these leaders whenever they are in Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh has become as good as the second headquarters of the ULFA after Bhutan.

The Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka to which these leaders have free access, provides all help and facilities to them in conducting their anti-India campaign. Army Intelligence officials in India have identified the Pakistani High Commission in Dhaka as the headquarters of ISI operatives looking after Assam. The agency has wide influence in Bangladesh and had tremendously helped the Bangla officials and politicians to establish good rapport with the leaders of the ULFA, NDFB and other North-east insurgent groups. According to sources, the ISI, which had set up elaborate training camps for these insurgent outfits in Bangladesh, have not completely wound up the camps as claimed by the Government. It has only reduced their activities in arrangement with the official agencies concerned of Bangladesh.