GUWAHATI, September 16: The stand of Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir on the issues of the inter-state boundary between Assam and Nagaland and Greater Nagaland is not different from that of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) factions, even though he presents his case adroitly in a diplomatic manner. Addressing newspersons this afternoon, on his way to Tura for electioneering, Jamir, also the chairman of the North East Cooridination Committee of the Congress (NECC), appealed to the Assam government for coming forward to resolve the boundary dispute with Nagaland, which has its "genesis with the Britishers' artificially demarcating the boundary between the two states", amicably with a spirit of "mutual accommodation". Saying that as long as the people of the border areas are happy both the state Governments should refrain from 'politicising the border issue', Jamir called for serious steps to weed out the foreign nationals occupying the border areas between the two states. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 17, 1999)

ELHI, September 18: The Asom Gana Parishad(AGP)-led Assam government has sought directions of the Supreme Court to the Central government to repeal the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, while maintaining that safety and security of the state was at stake because of the close nexus between illegal migrants and fundamentalist organisations on one hand and between fundamentalist organisations and the Inter-Services Intelligence (IS) of Pakistan on the other. The Assam government's affidavit in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberty filed here yesterday, supporting the contention of the petitioner, admitted that illegal migration from Bangladesh had resulted in changes in the demographic pattern of the state and threatened to reduce the local people into a minority in their own state. The Assam government has submitted a six-point charter of suggestions to the Apex Court, seeking its directions to the Union Government. Pointing out that involvement of the ISI had added a new dimension to the problem, the Assam government maintained that recent arrest of four Pakistani ISI agents at Guwahati has proved the sinister activities of the ISI and its well-laid plans in league with the Muslim fundamentalist organisations as well as United Liberatoin Front of Asom (ULFA) and other militant outfits for destabilisation of the state by indulging in large-scale subversive activities. Another significant aspect of the state government's affidavit was that apart from seeking repeal of the IMDT Act, it has sought immediate squashing of the cut-off date of March 25, 1971, introduced under the Act for defining illegal migrants, "For determination of such foreigner the Constitution under Article 5, has already laid down such 'cut-off date' "So without amending the Constitution, in respect of it, as prescribed by the Constitution, introduction of a new cut off date' is wholly illegal and not sustainable." state government pointed out. The Assam government has demanded that IMDT Act be repealed by the Centre in view of the impediments created in detection and deportation of illegal migrants. Citing instances as to how the Act has made the process of detection and deportation of foreigners redundant, the Assam government informed the apex court that out of the 3,02,554 enquiries initiated, only 9,625 were declared as illegal migrants while out of whom only 1,461 could be physically expelled. (Kalyan Barooah; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 19, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 19 : The hill districts committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, in its election manifesto, has demanded steps by the government to supply free arms licence and arms at free of cost to the poor people living in the rural areas who are under attack from separatist and lumpen armed groups. Addressing newspersons here, the CPI(ML) candidate for the Autonomous District constituency, Jayanta Rongpi, said that the extremists have deprived the poor people of the hill districts of their democratic rights. He alleged that as the government and its security forces had failed to protect the life and property of the people, the people should be allowed to defend themselves. If the Union government could provide firearms to the village defence committees in Jammu and Kashmir, there was no reason why the same policy could not be followed here, he said. He, however, said that the democratic movement launched by the ASDC and CPI(ML) against the extremists in the hill districts would continue. Rongpi said that the present system of issuing arms licences was not correct and in most cases the rich people and antisocial elements were getting arms licences. He said that those who really needed weapons to protect themselves were not getting arms licences. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 20, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 19: The People's Democratic Front (PDF) released its election manifesto today demanding a political solution to the separate Bodo hadot (state) and creating a congenial atmosphere for discussion with the militant groups. In the manifesto, the party also demanded immediate steps to solve the foreigners' problem. The six-page manifesto urged the government to take pragmatic steps for unemployed youths and to provide funds for the flood-affected farmers. Laying stress on the conservation at forests, the PDF appealed to the government to rehabilitate the people who have been staying in the forest areas. The manifesto also emphasised the need on proper communication system and to remove the transportation bottleneck. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 20, 1999)

NEW DELHI, September 20: The Supreme Court today granted eight weeks time to the Centre to file a comprehensive affidavit on detection and deportation of illegal migrants. The issue of illegal migrants came up for hearing before the division bench headed by the Chief Justice AS Anand. The other two judges of the bench were Justice Lahoti and Justice Nivasan. The case was in connection with the public interest litigation filed by the All India Lawyers' Forum for Civil Liberties. The bench expressed serious concern over the unabated infiltration from across the border. The Centre has already filed an affidavit through the ministry of home affairs where along with other things it proposed to repeal the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. Subsequently, all infiltration-prone states were made respondents in the case. Meanwhile, the Assam government's blueprint to check unabated infiltration from across the border is still awaiting clearance from the Union government. The proposals among other things have sought sanctions of additional forces for detection and deportation of illegal migrants instead of creation of additional posts of foreigners regional registration officers. Seeking the assistance of the Supreme Court, the Assam government has opined that to plug the gaps along the highly porous Indo-Bangladesh border, the detection machinery has to be strengthened otherwise concrete results in terms of performance cannot be expected. The government's proposal seeks sanction of additional posts in the rank of inspectors, sub-inspectors and constables for detection of the migrants, disfavouring the practice of appointing additional posts of FRROs. The posts sought to be created includes inspectors (24), sub-inspectors (95), head constables (96), unarmed constables (240), driver constables (48), prosecuting inspectors (24), unarmed branch constables (48) and lower division assistants (24). The force, the Assam government informed, has been conceived as a second line of defence to supplement the efforts of the Border Security Force (BSF) in the task of detection of infiltration. The setting up of these additional posts is expected to minimise the existing average distance between the two posts to facilitate effective patrolling, it claimed. The proposals submitted on February 22, is however still awaiting a response from the Union government, the Supreme Court was informed. (Kalyan Barooah; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 20 : The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) has convened a public meeting to be attended by representatives of all parties at Bishnu Nirmala auditorium here at 2 pm tomorrow to protest against the aborted attempt to kill its activist Ananta Kalita of Hajo by secret assassins and police personnel on September 18 here. Accusing the Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, of killing many innocent youths by secret assassins, Apurba Bhattacharyya, general secretary, and Dilip Patgiri, president, said Mahanta had exposed himself and the people of the state would not tolerate such activities in the near future. An AJYCP statement also said that a series of agitational programmes including Assam bandh would be taken in this regard soon. Ananta Kalita was kidnapped from Hajo last Thursday by some youths and was found yesterday in Burnihat with a bullet injury behind the ears. When questioned by newsmen at the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre where he was brought for treatment, Kalita said he was confined at the Kahilipara police battalion till Saturday. He said that he was tortured and interrogated about the whereabouts of two ULFA activists. Kalita, a school teacher, was reportedly blindfolded and taken to a hillock near Burnihat on Saturday night by the youths where he was shot at and fell downhill. He was found on Sunday morning by travellers on the highway and later brought to Guwahati. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

JAMUGURIHAT, September 20: A crowd of about 1,000 agitated people today attacked the convoy of Congress candidate for the Tezpur Lok Sabha constituency, Mani Kumar Subba, at Khanamukh. The convoy of nine vehicles of the Congress candidate had reached the Khanamukh centre for electioneering at around 5.30 pm when the minority-dominated crowd, shouting 'Subba go back' and 'Congress murdabad', shattered the glass panes of two vehicles, and roughed up Subba and the Rangapara MLA as well as Sonitpur district Congress president Bhimananda Tanti, forcing the entire convoy to flee the scene. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 20: Former Assam home minister Bhrigu Kumar Phukan and former public works department minister Atul Bora today accused the chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, of fuelling corruption in the state. Addressing a joint press conference, they alleged that corruption had hampered developmental activities of the state, but steps were yet to be initiated in this regard. The leaders said developmental activities in rural areas had come to a grinding halt due to misappropriation of funds. Commenting on the letter of cerdit (LoC) scam, they said Nabin Kalita was arrested recently without any valid reason. "His arrest was a political conspiracy of Mahanta fearing that he might get trapped in the LoC scam," the leaders said. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

AIZAWL, September 20: Mizoram will have only independent candidates for the September 25 Lok Sabha polls. The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) and Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) decided to put up a consensus candidate who would neither use symbol of the MNF nor the MPC. Vanlalzawma, the consensus candidate of the MNF-MPC combine will use a free symbol. The main Opposition national party, the Congress has an electoral tie-up with a regional party - MNF (Nationalist) - and their common candidate Rokamlova, though a Congressman, would be an independent candidate using a free symbol. Another national party, BJP is not likely to field any candidate in Mizoram with every indication that the state unit would support a non-Congress alliance. Other national parties like Samata Party kept silent while the state unit of Lok Shakti had snapped ties its with New Delhi. Another unique scenario is that all the probable candidates this time are first time Lok Sabha contestants. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

IMPHAL, September 20: Two persons were injured and the office of the ruling Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) partly damaged when unidentified youths exploded two powerful foreign-made hand-grenades at its office near Keisampat electricity colony in the heart of Imphal town here today. Officials said three unidentified youths entered the MSCP office complex and asked the people in the area to vacate the place immediately and hurled two China-made hand-grenades at the rooms of vice president and other officebearers. The grenades exploded at 11.20 am ours injuring an office peon and a party worker, sources said adding that the assailants escaped in broad daylight after committing the crime. Injured persons were immediately taken to hospital. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 21: The Prafulla Kumar Mahanta-led Assam government came in for scathing criticism from a wide range of politicians, intellectuals and other prominent citizens for its failure to stop the series of secret killings in the state and the latest attack on Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) activist and schoolteacher Ananta Kalita. In a public meeting organised by the AJYCP here today to protest against the secret killings, the speakers came down heavily on the government with some accusing chief minister Mahanta of being directly involved in the affair. A resolution was passed calling for a 10-hour statewide bandh on September 24 to demand the dismissal of the state government and restoration of the people's rights. The meeting was chaired by AJYCP president, Dilip Patgiri, who said that the statement made by Ananta Kalita after surviving a gun shot injury has proved that the responsibility of the attack lay with the four-party alliance government. The AJYCP general secretary, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya, who set the tone of the proceedings, said that the state government was inflicting capital punishment on its political opponents since 1998 when such killings first started. Noted academician, Hiren Gohain, said the time was right to ask whether the present state government had the right to stay when it could not provide security to the people. He said so far the state government had shown little interest in investigating the killings. He said that the government was as much responsible for vitiating the atmosphere as the militants. Gohain said the attacks by the secret killers was an attack on the democratic rights of the masses and it is the people themselves who have to defend their rights. The editor of Natun Samay, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, said the term "secret killer" was a misnomer since it is known to all as to who they are and under whose orders they function. "Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is the state's greatest militant," he said. He said it was sad that an organised protest had not been launched against it. He described the secret killings as a 'fascist' move by the four-party alliance government. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 22, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 21: The manifesto of the ruling four-party-alliance in Assam for the coming Lok Sabha election today reiterated its commitment towards wresting 50 per cent of the taxes realised by the Union government in the state for the latter's development. The manifesto, which was released by Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president and chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, also suggested that the alliance would engage itself to establish the joint control of the Union and state governments over the financial and commercial institutions, besides devolving more political, economic and legal powers to the state. The manifesto also said the alliance members in the Lok Sabha would mount pressure on the Union government for implementing the Brahmaputra Board schemes and the short-term schemes of the state government for flood control in the state within a specific timeframe. The alliance will also engage itself for the implementation of the Rs 6,100 crore HD Deve Gowda package for the Northeast and the recommendations of the LC Jain Committee and Shukla Commission, besides fixing the mineral oil royalty for Assam at par the international market rate. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 22, 1999)

SONARI, September 21: Though the tea garden labourer votes constitute 49 per cent of the total number of votes in Sonari Assembly seat, this community is neglected by all the ruling parties. This community with more than 60,000 voters in Sonari LAC and about 40,000 voters in Mahmora LAC will be one of major factors in the battle for ballot in the Jorhat parliamentary constituency. But this large section of voters is still living in very deplorable conditions even after 52 years of independence. Majority of these voters are living without electricity, pure drinking water, primary education for their children, health facility, etc. They are being used only as a vote bank. The main organisations of tea-garden labourers like INTUC and Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh (ACMS) are being run by the Indian National Congress. The so-called leaders of this community too ignore them after being voted to power. The government schemes are far out of their reach. Nothing has been done to improve their life-style during the last 50 years of independence. In a significant development, a resolution was placed at an election meeting of Congress at Sonari College recently demanding candidature of a person belonging to tea community for the Sonari LAC in the next Assembly election. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 21, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 23: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today said the interests of the minority communities in the state would be safeguarded even if the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act was repealed. The AGP's election committee spokesman Prabin Sarma said while Congress had lost any right to speak on the IMDT issue, the BJP had betrayed the cause by backtracking on the question of repealing the Act. When pointed out that the BJP government at the Centre had expressed its helplessness so far as repeal of the Act is concerned, Sarma said that at least some objectionable sections of the Act should be dropped so as to make it functional. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 24, 1999)

AIZAWL, September 23: Rokamlova, the common candidate put up by Congress and Mizo National Front (Nationalist), has come under attack for mixing politics and religion during electioneering in Mizoram. The state chief minister and MNF president Zoramthanga on Wednesday made a scathing attack against Rokamlova for allegedly canvassing in the name of Christianity during campaigning. Addressing an election rally organised by the MNF and its poll partner Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) here, Zoramthanga said, "Religion should not be used for political gains for getting votes." Performances in governance should be the main issue during elections. Election for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state will be held on September 25. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 24, 1999)

JORHAT, September 23: The ruling Asom Gana Parishad suffered a setback just before the ensuing Lok Sabha polls when family members of former state Minister, Lalit Chandra Rajkhowa, one of the architects of the regional party, on Wednesday joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Seven members of the former AGP minister including his aged mother joined the BJP at a function at Bistu Ram Barooah Hall in presence of hundreds of BJP workers. Commenting on the decision to join the BJP, the former AGP leader's brother, Jugal Rajkhowa, said the family was peeved with the AGP for its failure to take up developmental works at the constituency of late Lalit Chandra Rajkhowa. "We take it is an insult to our beloved brother (Lalit) who had sacrificed so much to give a concrete shape to the regional party." Jugal Rajkhowa was also very vocal in criticising the widow of the former AGP leader, Renupoma Rajkhowa who represents the Teok constituency as an AGP MLA in the present Assembly. She is also the Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly. The brother Lalit Rajkhowa complained of in different attitude of Renupama Rajkhowa to the interests of the people of Teok constituency which was earlier represented by her husband. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 24, 1999)

GUWAHATI, September 24: The state-wide 10-hour bandh against 'secret killing' was spontaneous and total paralysing normal life all over Assam. Apart from some news of arrest of picketers and bandh supporters from some parts of the state and the police applying force to open shops at Tezpur, the bandh by and large passed off peacefully. The call for the bandh was given by a citizens' meeting held in the city on September 21 last, under the aegis of the Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) against 'secret killings' allegedly backed by the state government, following the abduction and attempt on the life of AJYCP member from Hajo Ananta Kalita who is also a schoolteacher, by the 'secret assassins'. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 25, 1999)

TEZPUR, September 28: The Gorkha Liberation Army (GLA) Sonitpur unit with its headquarters at Lohitkhola has warned the candidates of the ensuing Lok Sabha election of dire consequences for betraying the Nepali community and making false promises during election time. In a press release signed by Sanghar Rai, commander-in-chief of the administrative group and Mritunjay Thapa, commander-in-chief of the communication group, the GLA stated that despite knowledge of the burning problems of the Nepali people, none of the political parties including the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party promised a permanent solution to the problems in their election manifesto. It warned that if the candidates approach and try to use the Nepali voters as their votebank, the GLA will have no other alternative than to use arms against such candidates during the election. LR Bishnoi, Sonitpur superintendent of police, said the outfit was a new one and was mainly concentrating in Itokhola area under Sootea police station in Sonitpur district. He further said a team of intelligence officers is investigating the matter after a banner and a poster were found in the area. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; September 29, 1999)