NEW DELHI, June 16: After launching a 24-hour Kashmiri television channel in a bid to counter anti-India propaganda by Pakistan, the government has stepped up efforts to expand the coverage of Doordarshan and AIR in the insurgency-hit Northeast. Immediately after inaugurating the Kashmiri channel, Kashir, on June 8, information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley recently visited Guwahati, Shillong and Imphal to assess the progress in the region, for which Doordarshan had earmarked nearly Rs 33 crore in the last financial year. Doordarshan is now busy installing 15 transmitters (including one high-power transmitter) for the expansion of DD1 coverage and five transmitters (including four HPT) for the expansion of DD2 coverage, in the Northeast region and Sikkim. It is also replacing DD1 HPTs at Guwahati, Silchar and Agartala with new transmitters and constructing a television studio at Gangtok. Besides allocating Rs 33 crore, Doordarshan has projected a Rs 13-crore comprehensive plan to the Planning Commission for developing a special software for the region. The ministry, according to sources, is also contemplating a 24-hour channel on the lines of Kashir, and if all goes well, this could be launched by October 2. Compared to Doordarshan, the penetration of All-India Radio is higher. With 24 stations in the seven states (four in Arunachal Pradesh, eight in Assam, one in Manipur, three in Meghalaya, two each in Mizoram and Nagaland, three in Tripura and one in Sikkim), the AIR is already accessible to 97 per cent of the population in the Northeast and 95 per cent in Sikkim. The aim now is to enhance the quality of the transmission by replacing old transmitters and to start FM channels. FM transmitters with stereo playback facilities are being provided in Guwahati, Shillong, Imphal, Agartala and Aizawl. In Guwahati, the setup is ready for commissioning. Besides, uplinking facilities are being provided at Kohima, Imphal, Agartala and Aizawl during the current plan. Guwahati, Shillong and Itanagar already have these facilities. (Correspondent; The Hindustan Times; New Delhi; June 17, 2000)

GUWAHATI, June 16: Hemraj Rava, son of Assam's legendary cultural icon Kalaguru Bishnu Rava, on Wednesday castigated the state government for failing to protect and preserve the his father's literary and musical legacy. This has come on the eve of state-sponsored Bishnu Rava Divas, observed annually by the state cultural directorate to commemorate the memory of great singer, actor, writer and politician. Hemraj Rava alleged that the government has done virtually nothing to keep alive the legacy of Kalaguru and added that his father's songs and dances are now being threatened by plagiarists. He, however, has not cited any such instances. He felt that the state government and its cultural directorate should have been engaged in this monumental task, considering the fact that Bishnu Rava's influence on Assam's cultural heritage is precious. Obviously discouraged with state's response, he said that this has forced his family -despite resource crunch - to take up the task of publishing the books on Kalaguru. Regretting the attitude of the government he said that his aged and ailing mother has travelled throughout the state to push sale of these books. The family is now planning to release a music cassette entitled Langa of Bishnu Rava's songs translated and sung in Bengali on June 20, as a part of their drive to carry the maestro's legacy across the state's border. Most of the contributions of the maestro in the field of music and arts have not been preserved for the future. In fact, because of Bishnu Rava, who was decorated with the award of "Kalaguru" by the state government, his birthplace Tezpur is also known as the cultural capital of Assam. Regretting the state government's poor response to the cultural heritage, Hemraj Rava would also seek support of the organisations and institutions working for preserving the cultural heritages in the country. He wants to spread his works across the international boundary of the country. The state government observes June 20 as Bishnu Rava Divas every year. (Correspondent; The Hindustan Times; New Delhi; June 17, 2000)

AIZAWL, June 18: In the dark of the night, a mixed group of nude high school students huddle together in a circle inside a cemetery, holding hands and chanting invocations to Satan. In the centre of the circle is placed the skull of a monkey with the inscription 'nataS si doG' which in reverse reads 'God is Satan'. The 'worshippers' soon fall into a trance and one after another slash their wrists in a ritual offering of blood to the Fallen Angel. The geometric progression in popularity of devil worship has set alarm bells ringing causing concern among confused parents and teachers, unable to make out whether their young are indulging in drug abuse or worse, superintendent of police, Aizawl, Zorammawaia told PTI. In the deeply religious Christian society, the youthful indulgence in witchcraft has confounded even the powerful Presbyterian Church. A four-member Aizawl Theological College faculty authorised by the Presbyterian Church Synod enquired into the latest craze for Satan worship and submitted a seven-page report recently. A copy of the report was also submitted by Church elder, Lalliansawta to Zorammawia. Zorammawia said the Church Elder had requested the police to look into devil worship as it was "a social menace and could lead to many social evils." The SP said, "The matter will be looked into". Boys and girls interviewed by the four-member team were told that they sought Satan's powers to influence others, be it to earn large sums of money; to achieve success in examinations, or merely to instil fear and awe and earn respect among their peers and elders, the report said. Illicit, even unnatural sex, incest and intake of psychotropic drugs is mandatory during Black Mass, it said. Significantly, it said, these boys and girls belong to "good Christian families who regularly go to church and attend devotional meeting in their residences." During devotional meetings at their homes, the boys and girls worship Lucifer. The report quoted them as saying, "We sit silently in a corner and don't participate in the proceedings". (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 19, 2000)

ITANAGAR, June 19: Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are the only two states in the Northeast where forest cover has increased, Arunachal chief minister Mukut Mithi said today quoting the latest (1999) assessment of the Forest Survey of India, reports PTI. Increase in forest cover in Arunachal Pradesh was 245 sq km in comparison to 1977, Mithi said pointing out that it would have been impossible to have periodical assessment of forest cover in a rugged terrain like Arunachal if there had been no remote sensing facility. Mithi was inaugurating a five-day 'Master Resource Persons Training Programme on Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System," organised by Arunachal Pradesh remote sensing application centre here. Mithi expressed satisfaction at the completion of waste land mapping of the state, integrated mission for sustainable development in East Siang district and environmental impact assessment of Kameng hydro-electrical power project by the State Remote Sensing Application Centre. He also expressed his satisfaction at the completion of the topographical survey of Siyom and Kamla hydro-electric power projects by National Hydro-electric Power Corporation in a record time. In his presidential address, Arunachal Pradesh minister for science and technology S Ngemu emphasised the need of exposure for local scientists and planners for better management of the natural resources of the state. At least 100 participants from Arunachal Pradesh and other Northeastern states attended the programme. (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 20, 2000)

JORHAT, June 21: The countdown began over three decades ago - 1975 to be precise. But then, no one at the helm of affairs took notice, that is. Today, when a mere two metres of land is what remains of erosion-hit Neamatighat, prior to being totally wiped out forever from the land map of Assam, have the political masters at Dispur woken up and the subject generated some noise in the corridors of power. Strangely enough, the current year has recorded the lowest level of erosion at Neamatighat in a long time, with just over 20 metres, while figures from 1989 to 1999 are 520, 470, 190, 60, 75, 45, 40, 60, 60, 100 and 90 metres respectively. Come another wave of floods and with the existing last two metres of land being gobbled up by the Brahmaputra, the entire thrust of the river will be on the Bor Ali embankment. It is just a question of time when this reality turns into a nightmare. In fact, the alarm bells have already started ringing. The ferry ghat too will then have to be shifted to the Bor Ali, a road with a historical significance. Numerous families residing by the mighty Red River and compelled to frequently change home and hearth overnight owing to the unpredictable pace of erosion, claim that the river has been changing course and heading southwards, i.e., towards the very heart of Jorhat city. From 1986 to 1993, over 1,200 hectares of land under Jorhat east circle and over 800 hectares in the west circle have been engulfed by the Brahmaputra and over 750 families rehabilitated from 1986 to 1997, as per official records. From Jhanjimukh to Neamati and within a decade from 1980, Gayanbari, Gohaingaon, Puroni Gohaingaon, Joritol, Charigaon Chapori, Dainigaon, Kinaichuk, Kokila, Namkokila, Bhitorkokila, Neamatikhuti Gaon, Kumargaon, Kumarbhetia Gaon Moriagaon, Bahadurchuk, Goriabhoga, Mussalman Gaon, Makoikhuti and Milan Nagar have been swallowed up by the Brahmaputra. Further, one higher secondary school, four primary schools and six namghars were also lost for ever. To put it differently, over four square kilometres around Neamati have been lost during the last 12 years. With its constant pounding in its bid to flow south wards, the only male river according to Hindu cosmology, has carved out new channels and created several sand bars in its wake. Aiming to check the massive erosion, a Rs 31.62 crore Hatisal Neamati-Dainigaon protection proposal was submitted before the state government way back in 1989. Even as a state-level technical advisory panel along with Central Water Commission (CWC) experts verified the scheme's techno-economic viability and suggested a model study owing to its high cost, hydrographic survey on a 20-km reach of the Brahmaputra was undertaken from 1991 to 1994. As the survey report was in due course submitted to SB Kulkarni, then joint director, Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, it was subsequently returned with several recommendations to help check erosion. Based on the above, a Rs. 31.89 crore scheme was approved by the central technical advisory committee and cleared by the CWC in September, 1995. It received investment clearance from the Planning Commission on February 7, 1996, while the state government's administrative approval came on August 14, 1996. Technical clearance from the Assam flood control department was received in November, 1996, with scheme's worth being reduced to Rs 31.77 crore. Even as the project was executed in a phased manner from March 1996, with 85 per cent of the earth work having been completed till date, and though the Centre had allotted an excess of Rs 1 crore over and above the annual Plan funds during 1996 for the project, the greatest hindrance came when the scheme was placed under the state Plan. Owing to sloth and lackadaisical attitude of the powers that be, work on the project progressed on a piece-meal basis while the state government adjusted funds for the project under the revenue deposit head. Though Rs 96 lakh has till now been released, contractors are by and large reluctant to work on the project as funds are released only in drops and trickles. A high-level technical committee reviewed the progress of work during the later part of 1998 and following its report a state-level technical advisory panel again suggested a model test last year, results of which are still awaited. Meanwhile, continuous erosion has been wreaking havoc in the area, while only a two-metre stretch of PWD road separates reality from nightmare. Experts in the field suggest massive afforestation in the upstream areas in order to prolong water travel time and harp on retention reservoirs to reduce the thrust downstream. The highly braided nature of the Brahmaputra has led to its unpredictability, leading to many channels being active all at once. The name flood control department too is a misnomer, say people in the know, who reason that there is nothing to do with flood control other than water management. As of now, the only significant factor is that the project under review has lately been adjusted under the central loan assistance scheme. (Sanjoy Barkataki; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 22, 2000)

KOHIMA, June 23: Altogether four senior treasury officers of the state were suspended and departmental inquiries instituted against them for releasing fraudulent pension claims amounting to Rs 30 lakh. State finance department sources said the senior treasury officers of Mokokchung, Longleng, Kiphire and Baghty were suspended while an officer of Mokokchung has been served a showcause notice. Sources said counterfeit pension documents were printed by some antisocial elements and large amount of money were being drawn in the name of pension from various treasuries. The government had instructed all the treasury officers to collect pension payment orders personally once every month from the office of the accountant-general (AG) of Nagaland with a covering list duly certified by the office of the AG. They were also instructed not to honour any pension document received in any other manner. Preliminary inquiries had shown that the officers were not following the instructions. The treasury officers said they were being forced to pass the fraudulent pension by antisocial elements. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 24, 2000)

BEEN BUSTEE (Hailakandi), June 24: Like many a girl Tara Been dreamt sweet dreams about her life. She dreamt that she would lead a happy life with her children and husband. But it never came to pass. Tara Been was a girl of been bustee (slum). This bustee is a very backward area adjacent to Lala town in Hailakandi district, an Assam-Mizoram bordering district on the southern fringe of Assam. She was married to a youngman of the same bustee. But darkness enveloped the conjugal life of this family. She faced only persecution in her in-laws' house. Life turned out to be insufferable and she had to return to her father's house. But this is not a solitary example; many other girls have to face this unhappy situation. In a male-dominated society there women are grossly neglected. They are simply treated as commodities. Few hundred people of some Been families have been living here for seven generations and so the village has been named Been bustee. Originally they (Been) hailed from Bihar but they have absorbed the life-style and culture of this locality in Assam. The younger generation does not know anything about their ancestry and so it knows Assam to be its native place. The Beens are unfortunately uneducated and therefore very little conscious of their plight. Economically they are very depressed. In order to survive, the women also have to work as day labourers. They have to suffer at the hands of their drunkard husbands after a day of toil. Tragically enough, the women of the society don't have a married life in the true sense of the term. When they are compelled to go back to their father's house another pathetic tale of degradation begins. These destitute women invariably become victims of sexual violence of many a male and they suffer mutely. The males also indulge in random sexual relations after their wives escape. This correspondent has witnessed their sordid condition from close quarters. Take the case of Mani Been - another woman forced to destitution. A teen-aged girl Mani told this correspondent that it was a love marriage on her part. But soon after marriage things went wrong. Her husband started persecuting her everyday getting drunk. She remembers bitterly one incident - as she protested her husband's violence she was forced by him to remain stark naked on a whole cold dreary night. After this inhuman torture Mani had to leave her husbands's place. According to Mani, a sadder and wiser young woman, excess of drinking and economic depression are the root causes of the failure of marriage among the Beens. Despite her desire to return to her husband she is now a victim of lust of other males for sheer subsistence. There may be similar other unknown cases of degradation which cry for immediate redressal. To say the least, after this sorry state of affairs these women are compelled to become professional sex-workers. In order to solve this problem Lala Students' Club, an NGO working for the development of local area, has tried to give legal help to these hapless women who want to return to their husbands. Talking to this correspondent, the secretary of the club PC Surana said that the club has successfully managed the return of Tara Been after going to the court in the process. As Surana observes, for want of knowledge and education these Been women have been deprived from the due recognition over the years. The development of the locality, he thinks, would be possible only when the women are made more conscious. Though these people have been residing for seven generations now they have not got the benefits of development like drinking water, electricity and transport. The whole area is inundated after floods and people suffer. The Beens don't have ration cards even inspite of repeated prayers. Predictably, the political leaders use these people as potential vote bank and they visit frequently during election campaign and their promises never materialize. The clamour for 33% reservation for women in the country is on but the condition of Been women remains the same as nobody seems to care for them. They have not learnt to live like human beings. And, of course, if one can awaken their social consciousness by educating them their development would certainly be possible. (Satananda Bhattacharjee; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 25, 2000)

IMPHAL, June 24: A widow of a Manipur Police personnel has filed a writ petition challenging the breach of confidentiality regarding the HIV-positive status of her deceased husband. The petition in Gauhati High Court has set off a debate in the state on the safety of blood banks in government hospitals as the victim was reportedly infected during blood transfusion. Justice WA Shishak of the Imphal bench of the High Court has directed seven respondents, including the state government, to give their replies within one month. The court has agreed to maintain the confidentiality of the petitioner and respondents during the hearing of the case and assured that everything related with this case would be done in "code words". The policeman was shot at by unknown assailants on January 6, 1994. He was operated on in a hospital here but treated in another hospital. However, he died on September 15, 1997. His widow did not know that her husband has been infected with HIV during the operation. Both the hospitals are run by the government. The matter came to light when the widow applied for an LPG distributorship from Indian OIL Corporation under the widow of ex-servicemen quota. But, another contender for the LPG distributorship - a widow of an Army personnel killed in action - revealed in the court that the policeman had died because of AIDS. She produced documents confirming the HIV-positive status of the policeman from the second hospital. The documents also revealed that the policeman was infected with HIV during blood transfusion in the first hospital. Upset over the disclosure, the widow of the deceased policeman filed a petition in Gauhati High Court seeking action against the officials of the second hospital for committing breach of confidentiality on her husband's HIV status. She demanded compensation from the authorities of the first hospital for negligence, which led to her husband's infection. She also urged the court not to reveal her identity fearing social stigma. According to her petition, Rule 15 of the state AIDS policy says that without a written consent of the persons concerned, the HIV status shall be kept confidential. (Oinam Sunil; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 25, 2000)

NEW DELHI, June 25: The illegal Bangladeshi immigrants detected and detained by the Delhi Police following an ongoing crackdown on them may find their way to Assam seeking protection under the IMDT Act. The Delhi Police's latest move to identify, detect and deport Bangladeshi national in following a special directive from the ministry of home affairs from the Capital state may be a cause of headache for Assam Police, as it is apprehended that the all the illegal immigrants may rush to Assam, the only state where the IMDT Act is in force, seeking protection from deportation. The biggest handicap for the 234 suspected Bangladeshi nabbed so far by Delhi police following the crackdown launched some 20 days back, is that the onus of proving that they are not foreign national lies with them. And with Delhi police working out a tough test where even ration cards are not accepted, they are finding the going very hard. On the other hand, once they enter Assam the onus to prove that they are foreigners would be with the state government and it has to probe in one of the Tribunals set up under the IMDT Act that they are not Indian nationals. And in the state any of the five documents including a ration card would do fine. Even in Delhi, where the political atmosphere is more for less congenial with the political parties including the Congress party and the Left supporting the deportation drive, the police had a tough going. Yesterday, it had to open fire at a mob leading to death of a person and injury to 15 policemen near Yamuna that houses one of the biggest slums with a heavy concentration of illegal Bangladeshi nationals. The police have so far managed to detain some 200-odd illegal immigrants and handed them over to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which has housed them in a detention centre near the old Delhi Railway Station pending their deportation. But the methods adopted to screen the Bangladeshi immigrants have stumped them. Acting on a special set of guidelines, the FRRO and the police have adopted an unique system under which the Bangladeshi nationals are asked to name their native village, post office, police station, even names of rivers and other important landmarks in and around their village. Armed with these information police parties are despatched to verify the information and if they turnout to be false, then the suspects are hooked under Foreigners Act and served 'Quit India' notice and deported. As the suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrant claim to be natives of West Bengal and usually name villages bordering Bangladesh the police have prepared a detailed list of such border villages and profiles of such districts. The method has caught the illegal immigrants on the wrong foot and though have been able to provide names of their village and district, the finer details of their native place being sought by the police have left them clueless. According to the police, they expect such cases to be verified within three weeks time and after which they would ask the Border Security Force to get in touch with their counter parts in Bangladesh to arrange for their deportation. But police fears that once deported the illegal immigrants taking advantage of the long and porous border would be back in the country within a month time. But the only difference this time, it could be Assam where they will head to take advantage of the protection provided under the IMDT Act. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 26, 2000)

AGARTALA, June 26: A controversy is raging over the introduction of Roman script in Kokbarak, the language of about ten lakh tribals in Tripura, reports PTI. Debbabrata Koloi, general secretary of the newly-floated Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), said here the party would bring an amendment on the Kokbarak language bill in the coming session of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). Amendment would also be brought to introduce Roman script in Kokbarak language, Koloi, who is also the chief executive member of TTAADC, which was wrested by IPFT from CPI-M in its recent elections, said. He said, the step would be in line with IPFT's poll pledge to introduce Roman script for Kokbarak if the party came to power in the 30-member tribal council. Tripura education minister Anil Sarkar on Wednesday expressed deep concern at IPFT's decision saying introduction of Roman script would not help the backward tribals. "Rather it (introduction of Roman script in Kokbarak) would harm the tribals in getting education and preserving their culture." He alleged that IPFT had taken the decision due to its relations with the Bengali population and it would disturb the harmony between the tribals and non-tribals in the state. "I am surprised that they (IPFT) did not accept Bengali script and decided to have a script from a foreign language." Sarkar, himself a poet of repute and a scholar, said, adding the decision was "unscientific and illogical." (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 27, 2000)

KOHIMA, June 27: Large-scale seizure of medico-drugs has sent ripples in Nagaland and drove home the point that its usage has become alarming although the medicines are banned in the state, reports PTI. Despite a ban on the sale of Spasmo-Proxyvon, Reliphen and Nitrozepam in Nagaland, reports indicate that they are openly sold at Bokajan, Merapani, Golaghat, Nariani-Anguri, Sonari and Simaluguri towns of Assam and drug peddlers smuggle them into the state, IGP (CID) C Kikom said here on Monday. "They do not enter the state through the check-gates on the border but manage to sneak through the long border tracks and sell them to the addicts here," the senior police officer said. Replying to a question on the presence of organised gangs, Kikom said the police had tried to ascertain whether such gangs were operating in the state. 'Fotunately, no such organised gang appears to be operating here. However, this observation (absence of gang) is not a conclusive one,' the DGP said. Nagaland is used as a transit route by smugglers from Manipur and bordering places of Myanmar, he said. These medico-drugs are used by the abusers, particularly the youths, as pain killer. The tablets are mixed with water and injected into the body. The police officer said use of hard drugs such as heroin is negligible in Nagaland as the police could seize only 1.5 grams of heroin at Dimapur since January last year. But smuggling of contraband ganja has become very common in the state despite the fact that consumption of ganja by Nagas is negligible, Kikon observed. (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 28, 2000)

SILCHAR, June 28: Ranabir Roy, the managing director of the Sonar Cachar Group of Publications has been served with a notice by the Cachar Police asking him to produce documents in respect of his nationality within 15 days. Terming it as a 'personal vendetta' of the SP, Mukesh Agarwal, against whom a series of write-ups were published for the last couple of days in Sonar Cachar, Roy sought the intervention of the chief minister. Meanwhile, Agarwal told The Assam Tribune that the notice served to Roy was part of the routine official duty of the police as his department is entitled to serve such notice to any person. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; June 29, 2000)

NEW DELHI, June 30: The need to include the illegal immigration from across the border as one of the factors of the burgeoning population of the country was underlined here today at a conference of editors and media experts on the national population policy. There were quite a few red faces at the conference organised by the ministry of health and family welfare, to discuss the role of media in generation of awareness on population related issues, when Editors including DN Bezboruah, Editor of The Sentinel wondered why the population policy made no mention about the illegal immigration as one of the factors of population explosion. There are around 10 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh including three-four million from Nepal. The impact of illegal immigrants on demographic pattern can be made out. For instance, take the case of total fertility rate (TFR) and Assam today is among 12 states which forms 54.97 per cent of the country's population which has a TFR of 3 per cent. Assam has a TFR of 3.2 per cent. Assam also figures among the handful of states having highest infant mortality rate of 78 out of 1,000 as against an all India average of 72 (1997-98). It also emerged during the deliberations that Assam has innumerable abandoned health sub-centres and new health sub-centres should not be constructed. The authorities can improve and make functional the earlier health sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres. The conference today was inaugurated by the Union health and family welfare minister, Dr CP Thakur and attended by the Union minister of state for information & broadcasting, Arun Jaitley and minister of state for health and family welfare, Rita Verma. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 1, 2000)

AIZAWL, June 29: Governments of Mizoram and Tripura have decided to create biosphere reserves in 2,000 acres each on both sides of the inter-state border, official sources said. This was decided in a meeting here between Mizoram environment and forest minister Rualchhina and his Tripura counterpart Narayan Rupini on Tuesday, they said. The two ministers decided to jointly approach the North Eastern Council (NEC) for fund to implement the project, they said, adding, the reserve would go a long way in the preservation of flora and fauna along the border areas and would be useful for eco-tourism in the area. Joint verification would soon be conducted on both the sides of the border areas, between Kahmun and Tuipuibari in Mizoram and Phuldungsei area in Tripura, the meeting decided. The two ministers also exchanged views on how to formulate better ways of protection of forest resources and wildlife on the border areas by ending smuggling of forest produces to Bangladesh. (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 1, 2000)