By A City Correspondent GUWAHATI, June 29 – The proposed move of the Government to hand over three urban electrical distribution circle to franchisees which has already been opposed by the employees of the ASEB came in for strong criticism on Sunday from prominent citizens including Dr Hiren Gohain and political parties. Leaders and intellectuals participating in a citizens convention organized by the National Co-ordination Committee of Electricity Employees and Engineers, Assam branch unanimously voiced their resentment against the move of the Government to hand over the Guwahati, Tinsukia and Silchar urban electrical distribution circle to franchisees. Terming it as a conspiracy to hand over ASEB’s selected profit-earning urban electrical distribution circles, the citizens called upon the Government to revise its stand.It may be mentioned here that the proposed urban electrical distribution circles have been contributing more than 50 per cent of total revenue to the ASEB coffers. At present the Guwahati circle has been collecting more than Rs 25 crore and the Tinsukia and Silchar circles have been collecting around Rs 15 crore per month.The proposed move has also been opposed by the Association of Engineers, ASEB, which has maintained that the move was not at all need-based.Convenor of the co-ordination committee Dipak Kumar Saha informed that the issue would be now placed before the public. “So far we have been opposing the proposed move, now we have decided to place the matter before the public,” said Saha.The convention adopted the resolution to form a working group that will study the adverse impact of privatisation and prepare a comprehensive report on it. “We have also decided to intensify our opposition to the move,” said Saha adding that the next step would be submission of memorandum to the Governor. Public meetings would be held across the State to get a verdict on the proposed move.On earlier occasions, the co-ordination committee had submitted memorandum to the Chief Minister and staged demonstration at the ASEB’s head quarters. source: assam tribune
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Exposing corrupt journalists of our time
Corruption in journalism often makes news in Indian media. The creator of news also emerges as a matter of reporting in many parts of the country. The alienated Northeast too never ignored the trend. In fact, soon after the arrest of an Assamese scribe for his involvement in a bribery case with a seasoned politician, the issue comes to the center stage of Assam media.While it was appalling news for the people of Assam, as one of its active state ministers was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials few weeks back in New Delhi with the charges of offering bribe to an officer (to get rid of a murder case), more shocking news waited for the media persons. The investigation agency also picked up the scribe accusing himto get involved in the episode. The arrest of Mukul Pathak, who was associated with an Assamese daily along with the then Education minister Ripun Bora (third prey was a Delhi-based businessman, Ramesh Maheswari), made huge media headlines for many days in Assam. The immediate reaction of the people in general and media persons in particular was that Mukul got nothing but his dues. Meanwhile wild allegations were poured against the young scribe that he managed hundred thousand bucks with his unethical understanding and activities with the minister. Few journalists came out with more serious versions that Mukul destroyed the image of Assam media to the greatest extent. Those journalists even tried to create an atmosphere that after Mukul's arrest, everything became so crystal clear and the Assam media emerged as a place for holy cows only.So there were hot debates and discussions about the punishments that could be pronounced to Mukul, who was then serving the term for judicial custody at Tihar jail. If the CBI can arrest him for his involvement in episode of bribing one of its officers with Rs 10,00,000 in cash by the minister, why not the journalists' body could condemn and expel him from the community-many journalists raised voices. There was however little voice in support of Mukul to explain his point of views. It was a general understanding that if Mukul was arrested by the CBI (which can never do wrong!), he must have been a criminal. And hence there were no point discussing his version of self defense and even not to wait for the final verdict of the court regarding the episode.But a journalists' meeting at Guwahati Press Club on June 22 changed the face of anger against Mukul. Organized by the Journalists' Action Committee, Assam and the representative of National Federation of Newspaper Employees, the meeting insisted on providing space for Mukul to clarify his stand at the earliest. Presided over by a journalist Keshab Kalita, the meeting also decided to send a delegation of journalists to New Delhi to meet Mukul and pick up his explanation on the incident. The delegation was supposed to meet the concerned CBI officials as well.Various speakers in the meeting were unanimous in asserting that Mukul could never be 'the only and the last tainted reporter', working in Assam for various media. It was observed that a section of journalists tried to establish it with their comments soon after the incident. Hence they urged the editors to keep a vigil on the working journalists of the respective media houses."If Mukul is proved to be involved in the episode, for which he was arrested by the CBI, the journalists' body would support appropriate actions against the reporter. He will also be expelled from the journalists' body," said in a resolution of the meeting.In another resolution, the meeting demanded the minimum salary and other economic facilities to the working journalists of Assam. Speakers including Prakash Mahanta (a senior journalist and the secretary of Journalists Action Committee, Assam), Sabita Lahkar (editor of an Assamese monthly, Ajori), Mukul Kalita and Naresh Kalita (both are Guwahati based senior journalists) expressed resentment at the disappointing condition of the working journalists of the state, where over 60% of them were compelled to work without a proper appointment letter, salary structure, leave and other relevant facilities, which are recommended by various laws including the Indian Labour Act. The meeting was also addressed by Pankaj Dutta, Neetumoni Saikia, Samir Sandilya, Nayanjyoti Bhuyan (all are reporters associated with vernacular media) etc."This is very unfortunate that media persons in Assam have to work with a salary starting with even Rs. 2000 with absolutely no job security. Many times, the journalists (including the editors) are used by the proprietors of media groups for their business (other than media) interest. So in such a chaotic situation, we can hardly expect a fair journalism in the state," commented a Guwahati based senior citizen, Dimbeswar Talukder. He however added that it was not only the local and less paid scribes, who were engaged with some corrupt means, but a section of established journalists (belonged to news agencies and metro dailies) with adequate financial security too continued indulging with such kind of activities.His comment was supported by a city based scribe, Haren Kalita, arguing that there were many journalists, who pursued unethical means for personal benefits, of course, in a different way. "Why are you making so much noise against the poor reporter (Mukul Pathak)? Do not you know that many so-called senior and responsible journalists were equally involved in corrupt practices? I know that they do it in a more polished manner. So nobody find it worth bothering," he commented.Devashish Bhattacharjee, another city based reporter raised a vital point, "Take an example. We have a number journalist cum documentary film makers (employed with professional media houses) in the city, who works for the Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India). There may be nothing wrong to produce documentaries for Doordarshan, but when one does it on some government departments, it might turn sour. Suppose, one proposes for productions related to the state forest department and take all possible advantages (conveyance to lodging in forest guest houses) from the department while on shooting, is not it a wring way? Because the producers had already received (or will receive) the money against all relevant expenditures from Prasar Bharati, then why he should go begging the unethical support from the department? Will he be able to raise voice (to file news) against the department in future in a credible way?"Bhattacharjee wrapped up with a final say, "Was not exactly it a cause, why many journalists in Assam ignored the public resentment against the state forest department during the last few months for its failure to protect the endangered one horn rhinos in various national preserves? One can go for record that those journalists remained silent while the conscious people of the state came to the streets condemning the state forest minister for his negligence in duties, but they were too quick to report when the minister or the forest officials made some statements (though many times those were proved useless). Is not it a matter of corruption in different shape and sizes? Source: assamtimes.org
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Singer Debojit Saha : Stage set for global talent hunt
- Singer prepares to host Zee Bangla’s revamped music reality show
IDOL CHAT
Voice of India Debojit Saha is excited about hosting a music reality show in its new avatar and performing on another television show...
The past few days have been very hectic for me, mainly because of my commitments to two different TV shows.
First one first. The highly popular Bengali music reality show on Zee Bangla is returning after a brief gap, albeit on a much larger scale.
As the host, I am really excited about the revamped show which will be beamed as Biswa Shera (the world’s best) and has contestants from all over the world.
So far, the show had contestants from different corners of the country and this in itself was a big experience from me.
I always enjoyed the job of hosting the show, which brought in some really good talents.
I feel my job will only get tougher now with contestants coming in from all over the world.
Some of the young NRIs are more attached to their roots than us, which makes them better ambassadors of our culture.
I remember watching a young US-based girl, Mouli, who had rocked another musical reality show. A real talent, she came as a surprise in the show.
I am sure the revamped Zee Bangla show will be a real challenge, both for me and the (presumably) talented youngsters who will be vying for glory.
I am told the show will have contestants from Bangladesh, South Africa, Canada, Singapore and Kuwait, among others.
The shooting for the show will start from June 20 and the first episode will be aired on June 30.
Such shows require a lot of preparation and I am totally engrossed in it at the moment. I am quite excited about the new show and I hope you all will like it too.
Besides, I am also concentrating on my own performance in the Star Plus reality show Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar, which is now moving towards a crescendo.
With your support, I have found a place among the last eight and the real challenge lies ahead.
The other seven contestants are all very good singers and extremely talented.
I will give my best to make the Northeast proud again. Source: Telegraph India
Saturday, June 7, 2008
How Many Ripuns?
How Many Ripuns? It will not do for disgraced former Asom Education Minister Ripun Bora to blame others, including some from his own party, for the turn of events that took him to New Delhi to bribe a CBI officer. It will not do for Bora to talk about conspiracies against him — at least not now even if one is to assume for a moment that some of his rivals were hatching a plot against him. This cannot justify what Bora is now known for. The fact is that he is a suspect in the Daniel Topno murder case, that the then young tea tribe leader Topno was a challenge to Bora’s rising political stars, and that last Tuesday Bora did try to bury the case for ever by bribing an officer of the country’s premier investigative agency. The fact is that Bora, by attempting to silence the CBI’s investigating officer with the lure of his lucre, was simply pointing to his own past, beginning September 2000 when Daniel Topno was killed by ‘unidentified men’. The ghost of that past is now back, despite Bora’s best efforts of the time to chase it away.To add to what we said in this column yesterday, a case being investigated by the CBI ought to have acted on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s conscience when he was choosing his cabinet in 2006 to begin his second stint at Dispur. Surely the Gohpur MLA, who carried the taint of being a suspect in a murder case which the CBI had already started to investigate at that point of time, could not have been a ministerial choice for a government promising transparency and a society free of crime and corruption. However, that was what Mr Tarun Gogoi chose to ignore. Even otherwise, what was there to exclusively qualify Ripun Bora to be the Education Minister of the State? That there was someone who showed the promise of being capable of humiliating the likes of former Gauhati University Vice-Chancellor Amarjyoti Choudhury? The crux of the matter is that, thanks to the kind of politics that has plagued the land of the Mahatma, a person against whom the CBI was investigating in a murder case was given the responsibility of looking after the educational affairs of the State. Would the Chief Minister now admit that blunder, even though it is too late to make any course correction? An answer is in order.Having said this, we wonder how many Ripuns could be freely flourishing all about us and how many such souls, who otherwise pose as saviours of the society, are yet to come and would be allowed to wield power and authority. One wonders how long this society will endure such fraud in the name of ‘development’. What is of course clear is that the voters are forced to mandate candidates with criminal background — proven or alleged — because as ordinary citizens they have no option but to be resigned to their fate knowing it pretty well that money and muscle power is all that counts for one to be a lawmaker only to prove himself to be an excellent lawbreaker too. If Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is reading this, he should sit up and give a thought to the damaging effect of criminalization of politics and politicization of crime in this State of ours on the generations to come. However, if he remains indifferent to the reality, he will prove himself to be yet another leader who has preferred expediency and short-term gains to meaningful politics and governance. This is not any advice, just a suggestion to fall on ears that are not deaf or have gone deaf due to choice.
Not Just the Ripuns
The arrest of Guwahati-based journalist Mukul Pathak for being an associate of Ripun Bora should not come as a surprise. We have long held that not all journalists are saints. The question could be a bit more harsh: How many journalists are really what they pose as? Or, how many of them are not really saleable? What is disturbing is not the fact of a journalist being at the service of a tainted minister for pecuniary gains, but the frequency with which such incidents should come to light. This is something that the journalistic fraternity would do well to introspect on and spruce itself for the people to trust the community and respect the profession of journalism. Indeed, as prices rise and the glamour quotient strikes one and all, many among the journalists too would have temptations to look for avenues to make quick money, quite like those in other professions. But then, the journalists will forfeit their right to speak for the people, their right to report or comment and analyse, their right to expose the evil, their right to preach in newspaper columns and television shows. We must remember that if politicians have journalists on their pay rolls, it is because the journalists have allowed themselves to be sold — paid as they are for not publishing things or for publishing what their real masters want. It is time to identify the Mukuls, not just the Ripuns. Sentinel Assam Editorial
Asom bandh, chakka bandh on June 9
By our Staff ReporterGUWAHATI, June 6:
The Asom Gana Parishad has called a 12-hour Asom bandh from 5 am on June 9 in protest against hike in prices of oil and LPG. The party took the decision at a meeting in the AGPLP office at Dispur today. Meanwhile, the All India Road Transport Workers’ Federation, Assam State Committee, has also called a Statewide Chakka bandh on June 9 on the same issue.
Congress tea cell demands capital punishment for Bora
By our Staff ReporterGUWAHATI, June 6:
The fate of Asom’s sacked Education Minister Ripun Bora seems to be have become more grim as the tea cell of his own party, the Congress, has sought “capital punishment” for Bora for his alleged involvement in the murder of tea tribe leader Daniel Topno.“Bora himself exposed his involvement in the murder of Daniel Topno by trying to bribe the CBI and he should not be spared for indulging in the two crimes. We want capital punishment for Bora,” said Congress Tea Cell chairman Bhagirath Karan, while talking to The Sentinel today. It may be mentioned here that Topno was the president of the Gohpur unit of ATTSA.The bold stance of the Congress tea cell comes at a time when the entire Opposition is up in arms against the Congress-led State Government. The Congress Tea Cell is apprehending a serious backlash in the party’s poll prospects in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election as several tea tribes organizations, including a couple of students’ bodies, have taken to the streets on the issue.At least five Lok Sabha constituencies in the State — Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Kaliabor, Dibrugarh and Tezpur — are largely dominated by tea tribe communities and considered to be Congress strongholds. The Gohpur Assembly Constituency represented by Ripun Bora, where Daniel Topno was his rival candidate in the 2001 election, falls under Tezpur Parliamentary Constituency.Karan said the AGP and the BJP, however, have no moral right to make a hue and cry over the issue as the Opposition parties are only interested in gaining political mileage from the issue. “Topno was murdered on September 27, 2007 when the AGP Government was in power. Despite repeated demands made by the tea tribe organizations, including ATTSA, the AGP Government did not do anything to book the culprits and guilty officials,” he said. The AGP Government of that time did not even think it necessary to provide financial assistance to the poor family of the deceased tea tribe leader despite the fact that former Asom Assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum hailed from the same constituency, he said.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Biennial meet
Biennial meetFrom A Correspondent NILAMBAZAR, June 6 – The biennial meet of the Karimganj District Primary Shikshak Sammelani was held at Nilambazar HS School recently. The day-long programme began with flag-hoisting by A Jabbar, president of the Sammelani. The new committee was formed for 2008-09. A Jabbar was elected president, Ajoy Das as secretary and Kanta Prashad Goala was elected vice president.Banibrata Das (North Karimganj), AK Choudhury (South Karimganj), Ashim Chakrabarty (Badarpur), NA Choudhury (Karimganj town) was elected as State executives. Two other state executives A Salam (PKD) and M Rahman (RK Nagar) were also selected.The open session was chaired by Ramendu Chakrabarty. Prof Dr Janmajit attended as a chief guest.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Asom Govt allots 250 bighas, Rs 5 crore to start Assam Fishery University
Asom Govt allots 250 bighas, Rs 5 crore to start Assam Fishery University
From our CorrespondentNAGAON, June 3: Asom Government have undertaken a project to establish the Assam Fishery University at Nagaon for which the Government has already allotted 250 bighas of land under Kachamari Mauza about 2 km from the Nagaon town.In the meantime the State Government has sanctioned Rs 5 crore for the Fishery University and out of that amount Rs one crore has been released for starting the construction works, so that the university may come up shortly, said Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain in a press meet held at the Nagaon Tourist lodge recently where Nagaon DC Dr J Balazi was also present.The Minister said that the Fishery College which is currently situated at Raha would be shifted to proposed Assam Fishery University campus which is to be constructed about 2 km from here under Kachamari Mauza.The Minister further said that at present the requirement of fish in Nagaon district is 24000 MT and it produces only 18700 MTIn view of the decision of the State Government to establish the Assam Fishery University at Kachamari Mauza the people of Nagaon including senior citizens, educationists lauded the very decision taken by the Government.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
CBI arrests Ripun on bribery charge
By A Staff Reporter GUWAHATI, June 3 –
The Congress-led Assam Government today received a serious jolt as the Education Minister Ripun Bora was arrested in New Delhi while trying to offer bribe to an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). One journalist of a local vernacular daily and a businessman who tried to act as middlemen were also arrested in connection with the case.A criminal case, 120-B r/w Section 12 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 has been registered against the Minister.CBI sources said that the Education Minister tried to bribe DSP A D Gupta of the Special Crime Cell of the Bureau, who is the investigation officer of the case relating to murder of a political leader Daniel Topno in Dhekiajuli in September 2000. The case was handed over to the CBI following allegations of a political conspiracy and the Bureau was on the verge of zeroing in on the culprits involved in the murder. Sources said that the CBI questioned the prime accused Pulin Phukan at least eight times in the months of April and May including twice in Delhi in connection with the case and he was known to be close to Bhola Bora, the brother of Ripun Bora. It is believed that Ripun Bora panicked after the frequent interrogations of a close associate of his brother and tried to bribe the investigation officer.Sources said that the Education Minister, accompanied by a journalist Mukul Pathak, went to meet the investigation officer of the Topno murder case in a guesthouse of the CBI in the Sundar Nagar area of Delhi. CBI sources claimed that the Minister tried to offer a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to the investigating officer and he was detained on the spot and later arrested on charges of trying to bribe a Government servant. The journalist accompanying the Minister managed to escape during the commotion and caught an Indian Airlines Flight to Guwahati. But the CBI headquarters intimated its Guwahati office immediately and Pathak was arrested in the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi airport immediately after his arrival by the officers of the Bureau. He was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate here for obtaining transit remand. Pathak was sent to Delhi this evening, sources said.Sources said that Ripun Bora and Mukul Pathak are likely to be produced in the Special CBI Court at Patiala House tomorrow.Interestingly Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is also in New Delhi today and he could not be contacted for his comments on the arrest of the Education Minister. However, the Chief Minister’s press adviser Deba Bora said that according to Gogoi, the law would take its own course.It may be mentioned here that Ripun Bora was an Assam Civil Service officer before quitting service to join politics.
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