GUWAHATI, March 1: Experts in the state differ in their opinion over the Union budget while the Federation of Industries and Commerce of Northeastern region (FINER) expressed disappointment over it. Noted economist and the chairman of the Northeast Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), Jayanta Madhab said, "I am not surprised that not too many things have been said about the Northeast in the Central budget as only a month ago the Prime Minister had announced a Rs 10,700-crore package for the region. There cannot be a second package within a month." On the other hand, Dilip Kumar Baruah said, 'For the Northeast there is not much to enthuse about. One would have liked release of sizeable funds for infrastructure development in the region and to tackle specific problems like flood control in Assam, heavy landslide in Arunachal Pradesh, reforestation in Meghalaya and so on." Madhab pointed out that in the budget speech the finance minister stressed the need for development of Northeast and identified power, railway, airport, technical education, telecommunication as thrust areas for infrastructure development. 'Now the point is Assam government must be able to present well-conceived projects to get funds from the Centre,' Madhab said. Dilip Baruah said, "On the whole, it is a soft budget contrary to expectations. It is a rural oriented budget and that is the right thrust. Social sector has been highlighted and in a market-friendly economy, the market failures can be corrected through more budgetary allocation in the social sector." However, Gautom Baruah of Guwahati IIT said, "Despite the relaxation there will be only 3 to 4 per cent reduction in prices of Indian computers while the prices of computers manufactured by multi-nationals are likely to remain unchanged." Baruah said there would be more availability of different components of the computers hence there would be better maintenance support. The FINER sounds very disappointed over the Union budget. The senior vice-president of the FINER, Abhijit Baruah stated that high hopes were raised that the finance minister would come up with a bold and innovative budget to 'bite the bullet' as declared by him a few days back. Unfortunately, while the finance minister talked about curbing Union government expenditure through cut in subsidies and down sizing of the government, there was hardly any action. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 2 March, 2000)

GOLAGHAT, March 1: The people of one hundred villages of Morongi mouza have been spending sleepless nights due to depredation by wild elephants since December last year. The herd of more than 50 elephants damaged dwelling houses and destroyed crops in Miripather, Kumar Basti and Naga Kota areas. Recently the elephants damaged more than seven granaries. A youth was injured by the elephants, which also destroyed several labour quarters of the Bogidhola tea garden. The elephants come out of the Bizuli forest reserve at night and destroy the houses and damage the crops. The people have demanded of the forest department to take necessary steps to drive out the elephants from the areas. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 2 March, 2000)

NEW DELHI, March 2: Peeved at Yashwant Sinha's Union budget for failing to reflect the Centre's commitment for economic development of the region, MPs from the Northeastern region cutting across political lines under the aegis of Northeast MPs forum have formed a core committee with former Lok Sabha speaker, P A Sangma as convenor to study the budgetary provisions concerning the region. The four-member core group has been asked to submit its recommendations at the earliest and its findings will be the basis of a memorandum proposed to be submitted to the Prime Minister. The core committee has H Haokip of Manipur, Sangtam of Nagaland and Bijoy Krishna Handique as members, chairman of the Forum PR Kyndiah told The Assam Tribune. The decision to form the core group to study the budget was taken at a meeting of the Forum held at the Parliament House here last evening. The meeting also condoled the killing of Assam state PWD and forest minister, Nagen Sarma and four others. Kyndiah said that majority of the members from the region were not happy with the Union budget as it did not reflect the policy commitment made by Vajpayee government for development of the region. The chairman of the MPs Forum has echoed the growing feeling among the members from the region that Centre in its two budgets has only paid lip service to the region. Several of the Northeastern states including Assam which have been reeling under severe financial crunch were, for example, expecting some reprieve. But to their dismay the NDA government has decided to bail out only Punjab by making a provision to write off its debt. The revised estimates for 1999-2000 take into account the effect of the recommendations of the Tenth Finance Commission regarding debt relief to state accepted by the government. While the Tenth Finance commission had recommended one-third waiver of Punjab government's debt, in case of the other special category states including the Northeastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and few others only five percent of the Central loans were directed to be written off. Even as Punjab government's debt was waived off similar request by other Northeastern states like Assam, Nagaland Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram were kept hanging in balance. Assam for instance has time and again requested writing off repayment of the principal and interest due on Central loans over the period 2000-2005. The state's estimated outstanding debt as on April, last year stood at Rs 7204 crore out of which the loan outstanding to the Union government was Rs 4438 crore. The centre has so far provided assistance under Fiscal Reform Programme to only the four states of Mizoram (Rs 97 crore), Nagaland (Rs 200 crore), Manipur (Rs. 80 crore) and Sikkim (Rs 25 crore). all the states were given assistance after their signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. While the Northeastern states are critical over the financial package given to it, the MPs from the region also are sceptical about the provision of Rs 500 crore made in the budget for the non-lapsable pool of funds for undertaking development projects in the region, as the amount was found to be too insignificant to carry out any major developmental work, considering the fact that the amount would distributed among the eight states. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 3 March, 2000)

AGARTALA, March 2: Following the direction of the Election Commission the state election department has created a computer database of electoral rolls of all the 60 assembly constituencies in the two parliamentary constituencies of the state. An official release said here on Thursday that the entire rolls which were published on January 7 after the annual summary revision have been put on CD-ROM for supply to political parties and for sale to the members of the public. The CD-ROM version of the rolls has been formally released by Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar here on Wednesday at a simple function. Senior officials, including chief secretary V Tulsidas and chief electoral officer Sanjib Ranjan were present at the function. Copies of the CD would be supplied to the recognised political parties free of cost for their use, the release added. The release said one of the major objectives of computerisation of electoral rolls was to make it easily accessible to the political parties and members of the public to ensure transparency of the entire process. For this purpose, it was decided to make the rolls available on computer and offer facilities to political parties and general public to review the database and obtain copies of rolls at their convenience. An application software has also been developed for maintenance and future updating of the database. The updating and consolidation of the database and development of software have been done by CMC Limited, Calcutta, a public sector enterprise, which was engaged as a state-level agency for implementation of the project, the release said. (United News of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 3 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 3: A total of Rs 311.2 crore has been provided for new and ongoing projects of Northeast Frontier Railway in the 2000-2001 Railway budget tabled in the Parliament on February 25. Out of this amount, Rs 305.1 crore has been sanctioned for completing the ongoing new line, doubling and gauge conversion projects and Rs 6.1 crore has been provided for new projects announced by the Railway minister in her budget speech. While Rs 6 crore has been allocated for the 230-km Jogighopa-New Maynaguri new line, Rs 10 lakh has been provided for construction of crossing facilities at Abhayapuri, said an NF Railway press release here today. The budget attached highest priority to completion of the ongoing projects and, accordingly, Rs 10 crore has been provided for completing gauge conversion works of the Makum-Dangari and Amguri-Tuli line in Lumding-Dibrugarh section of NF Railway. An amount of Rs 5 crore has been approved for Bogibeel bridge, Rs 15 crore each for Diphu-Karong and Jogighopa-Kamakhya new lines, Rs 10 crore for Dudhnoi-Deepa new line, Rs 40 crore for Kumarghat-Agartala new line, Rs 10 crore for Harmuti-Itanagar new line, Rs 80 crore for gauge conversion works in New Jalpaiguri-New Bongaigaon section, Rs 40 crore for Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion work have also been approved. While the Eklakhi-Balurghat new line has been allocated Rs 50 crore, Rs 10 crore each for Katkhal-Bhairabi and Katihar-Jogbani gauge conversion works have also been provided, said the NFR press release. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 4 March, 2000)

NEW DELHI, March 3: The uncertainty hanging over the fate of the Assam Gas Cracker Project has been cleared with the Oil India Limited (OIL) and the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) resolving the contentious issues. The Gas Supply Agreement will be signed by April 4, it was officially announced here this evening. The deal arrived at a meeting here and brokered by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas stipulates that the liquidity damages in the event of termination of the Gas Supply Agreement before the expiry of the period (15 years from the date of commissioning of the project) the party terminating the contract will pay to the other party liquidity damages equal to the cost of one year of interest on the total outstanding debt on the date of the termination of the contract. The other clause of the agreement relates to shortfall in supply of gas both in quantity and quality, which the OIL agreed to concede by guaranteeing to pay damage at the rate of Rs 2500 per thousand cubic metre of the loss. It was further agreed that both the parties will sign a document laying down the principles of agreement by March 10, while the final Gas Supply Agreement will be formally signed probably in Assam in April. Today's meeting considered significant in more ways than one was chaired by additional secretary in the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, Naresh Narad and attended among others by chairman-cum-managing director of the OIL, B S Sarma, while the RIL team was led by president Corporate Affairs, NN Saini. The Assam government was represented by its Resident Commissioner, VK Pipersania. With today's broad agreement resolution of the main issue, the over Rs 3,700 crore project is likely to finally take off. The talks between the two sides were deadlocked over guarantee clause for supply of gas by the OIL for 15 years. The negotiations had broken down over a year ago when OIL expressed its reluctance to give such guarantee to the RIL. The issue which was the core of the ruling AGP's industrial policy was about to fizzle out, with all the three parties to the agreement hardening their stand. The Assam government had even gone to the extent of serving an ultimatum to the Centre to consider other options like handing over the project to public sector oil company. The parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and natural gas headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav had only last month served an ultimatum to the RIL and OIL to resolve their differences setting a deadline of March end. The members belonging to Assam had raised serious objections to the manner in which the implementation of the project had been handled so far. The government had assured to supply gas to produce two lakh TPA of ethylene, besides agreeing to subsidise its project cost. The uncertainty of the project had cost the RIL also dearly as the IDBI first withheld release of Rs 1000 crore loan to the Reliance Assam Gas Cracker Project. The Union budget also proposed to cut down subsidies for the project to Rs 1 crore from Rs 26 crore sanctioned in earlier budgets. Significantly, the race will be now on for selection of the site as the one at Tengakhat has been rejected owing to the objection by the Indian Air Force. Three alternative sites have been earmarked by the government in Dibrugarh district. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 4 March, 2000)

SHILLONG, March 3: The Northeastern Council (NEC) has constituted a high-powered co-ordination committee comprising members from the Central and Northeastern states to reduce the impact of natural calamities in the region. The council said it would work out a detailed plan to control natural disasters which affected the region frequently. Considering the major role to be played by new technologies such as satellite remote sensing and communication, the NEC sources said it has taken the lead in constituting an expert committee to plan disaster management. At the first meeting of the committee chaired by NEC secretary JS Syeim and attended by several senior scientists and representatives from various organisations such as the Department of Space, Survey of India, Central Water Commission, Brahmaputra Board, India Meteorological Department, Geological Survey of India and Border Road Organisation held here on February 29, it was felt that the region is unique in many aspects having rich natural resources, diversity in flora and fauna and is faced with natural calamities such as floods, landslides, forest fire and earthquakes. The development of the region was very much related to efficient management of such disasters by reducing their impact, the meeting pointed out. The NEC Secretary highlighted the importance of disaster management for the Northeastern region and the urgent need to workout an action plan. He said the key role would be played by the Council and requested the state governments to actively participate in the important task. KV Venkatachary, director, ISRO headquarters, Bangalore gave a technical presentation on the various aspects of disaster management and highlighted valuable inputs and information provided by space systems. It was possible to map out disaster-prone areas and assess damages after the disaster using Indian remote sensing satellite data, he said, stressing the need for creation of database, networking, date analysis/modelling and training for the proposed programme. He also gave a concept of the disaster management system for the Northeastern region. (United News of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 4 March, 2000)

SHILLONG, March 3: A workshop organised by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Northeastern region, has observed that the economic development at micro-level hold the key to total uplift of the backward Northeastern region where infrastructural facilities for industrial mega projects are not yet available. The workshop on project DOVEMAP (development of village economy through mineral appraisal programme) was held here recently in pursuance of the follow-up actions of the recommendations of the 24th meeting of the sub-committee Group XI (all minerals of Northeastern region and geoscience in rural development) of the Central Geological Programming Board. In recent years, it has been increasingly felt that small-scale enterprises could meet the ever increasing demand for building and construction materials in the region, the workshop said. The exploitation and utilisation of these resources being highly labour intensive would generate employment opportunities for the weaker section of the rural society. Although the raw materials are of low unit value and high volume, they will yet form a value addition in small scale industries such as pottery and tile manufacturing. Besides mineral search, this exercise would simultaneously assess the groundwater potential for providing safe drinking water, mapping of land use pattern, assessment of terrain conditions favourable for water storage structures, drainage improvement, construction sites and evaluation of feasibility for micro-hydel projects. (United News of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 4 March, 2000)

AZARA, March 4: An export orientation centre, to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 35 lakh, will be set up at Rani by the handloom and textiles department. The poor weavers of the area will be benefited by the centre, the main function of which will be to provide adequate prices to the weavers for their products. This was announced by Romendra Narayan Kalita, handloom and textiles minister, while addressing the annual general meeting of the Rani Anchalik committee of AGP held recently at Rani High School. Kalita also announced at the meeting that Rs 20 lakh had already been sanctioned for the weaving centre to be set up at Mateikhar. Kalita also highlighted the role of the grassroot level workers for the survival of a political party. Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a capitalists' party, he said that the BJP can survive only in economically-strong states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, but not in Assam. The meeting, presided over by Parameswar Barman, was also addressed by Kiran Kakati among others. A 15-member new executive committee of the Rani Anchalik Committee of AGP was formed at the meeting with Parameswar Barman and Apurba Goswami as president and secretary respectively. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 5 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 5: The vast tourism potential in Assam has been barely exploited despite the fact that this sector could turn out to be one of the biggest money-spinners for the state. For long, the tourism sector in the state had borne the brunt of the fragile law-and-order situation as well as the lack of proper initiative by the concerned authorities. A new hope, however, has arisen as the state-run Assam Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (ATDC) has woken up to the possibility of tapping the tourist market next door - in neighbouring West Bengal. The ATDC is cooperating with the privately-run Barnali Tours and Travels in conducting tours for the local tourists in West Bengal and getting tourists from that state to come to Assam. minister of state for Tourism Jagadish Bhuyan flagged off the inaugural run of the service from the Guwahati Tourist Lodge here today signalling the commencement of the package tour. The inaugural trip took a handful of local tourists to Darjeeling on a five-day trip to Darjeeling and back. The service is an opportunity to develop tourism in the state and publicise Assam's tourist potential. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 6 March, 2000)

KOHIMA, March 6: The Union tribal affairs ministry has set up a standing tripartite committee in the Planning Commission to ensure that all the Union ministers prepared tribal sub-plan and allocated funds in proportion of the tribal population in the country. Talking to newsmen here, Dileep Singh Bhuria, chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste, said the Union ministry of tribal affairs had given guideline for the separate tribal sub-plan by all the Union ministries, yet to be followed by the most of the ministers. The tripartite committee had already started reviewing schemes of various ministries and they were asked to immediately formulate a separate tribal sub-plan for the financial year 2000-01, Bhuria said. Special interest had been accorded in understanding the problems of the Northeastern states and to enable them to accelerate the socio-economic development. Bhuria had already visited Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya and held detailed discussions with the senior officials and NGOs of those states. In Nagaland also he met the chief secretary and other senior officials, representatives of the NGOs and the state governor and visited several multi-purpose cooperative societies producing handicrafts and handlooms. (United News of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 7 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 8: The Assam government has incurred a revenue loss of Rs 3827.75 lakh during 1998-99 due to failure in recovering taxes from various departments, according to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The report which was placed in the assembly today said that the state government had received revenue of Rs 4506.54 crore for the year 1998-99 against Rs 4325.65 crore for 1997-98. The report also said that failure to monitor the minimum prescribed stock of liquor in two warehouses led to a revenue loss of Rs 24.73 lakh. 'On the other hand failure of the forest department to protect reserved forest from illicit felling and to prevent removal of timber resulted in loss of revenue of Rs 140.42 lakh, the report added. The report also stated that due to non-recovery of royalty as well as monopoly fee, there was loss of revenue of Rs 114.54 lakh. Similarly, the state government has suffered a loss of Rs 3.58 lakh due to sale of minor forest produce below the government valuation. The report stated that the state government fixed the royalty rate of sand and gravel at the rate of Rs 50 and Rs 70 per cubic metre respectively, but in Darrang district, 2700 cubic metre of sand and 1600 cubic metre of stone was disposed of without any tender leading to a huge loss. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 9 March, 2000)

DIBRUGARH, March 8: At the end of the eleventh round of wage negotiations, the consultative committee on plantation associations (CCPA) has failed to agree to the demand of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS) on raising tea labourers' wages to Rs 50 a day, while agreeing to bring it up to Rs 45 a day. The latest round of the negotiations were held on Tuesday at the Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP) office here, and was presided over by the BCP chairman, KK Saharia. At one stage during the talks yesterday, the ACMS delegation was about to walk out of the meeting, incensed at a suggestion by the Tea Association of India (TAI) advisor, Chinmoy Bhaduri, that the ACMS stick to 'traditional wage negotiations.' With the ACMS insisting on a 55 per cent wage hike in one go, the industry is getting jittery that this increase, if allowed, may cost it dear. Earlier negotiations resulted in 10 to 15 per cent wage hikes, worked out on an elastic scale spreading out to 24 to 36 months. But this time around, ACMS wants the hike in a single shot. It was only when the Indian Tea Association (ITA) secretary general, Ronnie Das intervened and explained 'traditional wage negotiations' that the ACMS general secretary, Madhusudan Khandait, chose to sit back for the talks. Thereafter, it continued for two-and-a-half hours. The CCPA comprises all the five tea associations operational in the Northeast : ITA, TAI, BCP, Northeastern Tea Association (NETA) and the Assam Tea Planters' Association (ATPA). The tea labourers, as of now, are receiving daily wages of Rs 31.60. This was to have been revised a year ago, but the negotiation stalemate has deprived them of their due increments. (Ron Duarah; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 9 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 7: The alleged move of the Assam government to legalise surreptitiously alteration of the green belt zoning pattern in the city has drawn flak from environmental scientists and environmentalists. The state government in a bid 'to bring about modification' to allow Housefed to take up plot development scheme at Pub and Pachim Boragaon, Under Jalukbari Mouza in the city, on the eastern bank of the Deepar Beel, has published a public notice in the February 8, 2000 issue of The Assam Gazette inviting popular reaction on the proposed move for altering the demarcation of the green felt in the said area, within 30 days from the date of publication of the notice. Reacting to the state government move on the issue, Dulal Chandra Goswami, head of the department of environmental science, Gauhati University, said that the state government move on modifying the master plan and zoning regulation of the city on the plea of providing accommodation to 'houseless persons' goes against all norms of preservation of environment and ecological balance affecting the city population of today and tomorrow. Goswami who prevented a similar move of the Housefed virtually singlehandedly about two years back, now feels very aggrieved and outraged at the insensitivity demonstrated by the state government in ensuring conservation of the city environment and its teeming population. At a time when adding new green patches to the beleaguered city landscape should have been the core agenda, the state government is up in arms to erase out the remaining vestige of the once lunch green city, Goswami said. The State Human Rights Commission in a judgement on a suo motu case, on May 20, last year, said, "We very much appreciate the efforts of Housefed trying to provide residential house accommodation particularly for the people of Guwahati. But we should keep in mind that any scheme should not affect the ecology and environment of the area. It must maintain the flora and fauna for our future generation. "They should develop satellite township nearby Guwahati in areas which are not covered by Green Belt. Because, Guwahati city is already overcrowded being unplanned and also polluted and three is already great scarcity of water and electricity", said the Human Rights Commission verdict passed by the court of Justice S N Bhargava and members P Kalita and SK Chand Mohammad. The case was registered by the Commission suo motu on the basis of a report carried by The Assam Tribune on February 18, 1998. Deepar Beel is one of the sixth major drainage basins identified for Guwahati city. Moreover, the Beel is recognised by government of India as a wetland of national significance. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 10 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 10: The Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today presented a Rs 1841.28 crore deficit budget for the state for the year 2000-2001 in the state assembly without imposing any fresh tax. Considering the industrial backwardness of the state and the difficulties faced by the existing industries, the chief minister proposed to give "set off of tax paid on curtain raw materials used by the industries like mustard, rapeseed oil, plastic goods, iron and steel." Mahanta said that the total receipts of the state for the year 2000-2001 would be Rs 1177.75 crore compared to the expenditure of Rs 12627.59 crore, leaving a deficit of Rs 854.84 crore. Taking into account the opening deficit of Rs 986.44 crore, the year 2000-2001 is anticipated to close with an overall deficit of Rs 1841.28 crore. Giving an account of the state's own tax revenue resources for the year 2000-2001, Mahanta said that the total tax revenue collection for the year is estimated to the tune of Rs 1424.54 crore, of which, Rs 848.16 crore would come from sales tax and Rs 164 crore would come from state excise. He said that of the total expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of the state, 60 per cent expenditure would go in paying the salaries and wages and 20 per cent in debt servicing, leaving only 12 per cent for development activities and eight per cent for other administrative expenditure. Presenting a grim financial position of the state, Mahanta, in his budget speech, said that the outstanding debt of Assam government as on April 1, 1999 was Rs 6705 crore, out of which outstanding loans of the Union government stood at Rs 4292 crore. Keeping in view the state's narrow resource base and heavy expenditure in containing terrorism and insurgency, the state government has been urging the Centre to grant debt relief, he added. Mahanta said that the failure of the revenue receipts to keep pace with expenditure, particularly expenditure on salaries, wages, and pension, lack of returns on the heavy investments made in public sector undertakings, declining buoyancy of the state's tax revenue, increasing expenditure on account of debt servicing etc. are some of the main reasons for the present financial position of Assam. He said that in order to arrest further deterioration of the state's finances and to improve fiscal balance, the state government, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance of the government of India, has decided to adopt a fiscal reforms programme. The deficit is also sought to be covered with special financial assistance from Centre and by enforcing austerity measures. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 11 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 9: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials admitted on Wednesday night that there are "some unguarded areas" as far as security in the oil installations in the Northeast region is concerned. Precautions, however, are being taken, the officials assured. Addressing a news conference in here on Wednesday evening, Indian Oil (Marketing Division) Executive director for the Eastern Region, MC Sachdeva said that the corporation is in touch with the security forces as well as the government officials to ensure the security of the installations in the Northeast region where insurgent elements have often targeted depots and oil pipelines. "There are some destabilising forces working in the region but we have taken adequate security measures," Sachdeva said. He said that apart from the uniformed men, help from the local villagers is also being taken. Indian Oil has undertaken a massive expansion plan for the Northeast amounting to over Rs 200 crore, Sachdeva told the attending scribes. The projects include provision of additional tankages at North Lakhimpur and Silchar besides a relief depot at Pasighat. The projects include construction of the Nagaon depot which was a target of militant attack some time ago. Sachdeva said that the depot will restart by June after a Rs 7 crore repair exercise. Apart from these projects, Indian Oil, along with the Assam Oil Division, is setting up seven new LPG bottling plants at Sarpara, Digboi, Mualkhon, Sekmai, Kimin, Umran and Dimapur, with a total bottling capacity of 77,000 MT at a total approximate project cost of Rs 174.2 crore, Sachdeva informed. This will help in easing the demand for LPG in the region, he felt. The official said that the Mirza LPG bottling platen is ready for commissioning while additional tankages at Misamari, Dharmanagr and Dimapur depots have already been completed along with automation of six depots in the region. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 11 March, 2000)

GANGTOK, March 11: The India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) has decided to hold trade shows in different places of the Northeastern region "more frequently" with a view to "give more exposure to local entrepreneurs" to the outside world, reports PTI. "We will undertake trade promotion exercises by organising such trade fairs in all state capitals of the Northeast every year or every second year," ITPO Executive director, KT Chacko told reporters here on Saturday. Speaking at the seven-day-long 'India Trade Show' at the Ralgor stadium, inaugurated by Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling, he said, "With Gangtok, the process started." The second India Trade Show in Sikkim, held in collaboration with the state Industries department, was being participated by 80 companies from across the country. Besides merchandisers, government agencies like National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, National Seeds Corporation, Central Warehousing Corporation and Coir Board also took part in the trade fair. (Press Trust of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 12 March, 2000)

AGARTALA, March 12: The Tripura government has enhanced the rate of penalty to prevent diversion of fertile agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes, report agencies. Official sources said as per the estimate of the state's agriculture and revenue department, over ten per cent of Tripura's fertile agricultural land has been diverted for other purposes. Besides construction of houses, crop land has being used for digging ponds, construction of brick kilns and factories, it said. State revenue minister Keshab Majumdar said during the last few years, it has been observed that there has been a tendency to divert land for non-agricultural purposes even without permission or in violation of the order of the competent authority. The penalty prescribed in the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, which was enacted by Parliament in 1960, was perceived to be too mild. Therefore, it was necessary to provide a deterrent penalty to prevent diversion of land for purposes other than agriculture, he pointed out. The Tripura assembly recently passed the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Eight Amendment) Bill, 2000. The Bill provides for enhancement of penalty from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 both for diversion of land without permission and for diversion of land in contravention of an order or a condition prescribed. It has also been provided in the Bill to enhance the rate of penalty from Rs 4 to Rs 4,000 for each day during which such contravention continues. To compound the problem, large tracts of fertile cropland have been deserted or remained unused in the interior areas because of militancy. Cautioning the people against growing tendency to divert agriculture land for lucrative business purposes, the minister said this would spell disaster for the state. (The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 13 March, 2000)

AZARA, March 12: Agchiya and Majirgaon, the two neighbouring villages 20 km west of Guwahati city, have witnessed a lot of agricultural activities. Both the aged farmers and the educated unemployed youths of the two villages have adopted modern cultivation by giving up their old traditional methods. The farmers of Agchiya have installed about thirty shallow tube-wells covering an area of 500 bighas of land under the Samridha Krishak Yojna (SKY) scheme with the financial assistance of NABARD and state agriculture department. Besides installation of a deep tube-well at Majirgaon by irrigation department, shallow tubewells have also been installed in a huge area of 500 bighas of land by the farmers of Majirgaon. The Majirgaon Lakhimi Samabai Samity and Agchiya Pathar Parisalana Samity have been able to motivate the educated unemployed youths to adopt modern methods of cultivation. As floods create a major problem every year, the farmers in the localities have decided to go for summer paddy to avoid the flood problem. The farmers have started cultivation with different varieties of paddy crops like 'aijong', 'rangjit', 'iri' etc. in order to get more production. The farmers of Agchiya and Majirgaon villages have alleged that they have not received proper guidance which they expected from the gram sevaks and other agricultural officials. They have not visited their paddy fields so far. Moreover, they have not been provided fertiliser and pesticides by the agriculture department, they alleged. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 13 March, 2000)

TEZPUR, March 13: The flood control department of Assam has taken up five major flood protection schemes at a total cost of Rs 14.4 crore this year of which the flood protection scheme of Tezpur-Gabhru at a total cost of Rs 5.44 crore has already been started and another four schemes including Tarajan-Daflagarh flood protection scheme at a cost of Rs 1.80 crore will be completed during this financial year, said Promode Gogoi, Assam flood control minister. Addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of the project of 'Protection of Tarajan-Dafalagarh area from the erosion of river Jia-Bharali on the left bank of river Brahmaputra' in Sonitpur district 40 kms from here recently, Gogoi said the Union government has agreed to provide loan assistance and grant-in-aid for the schemes in 20 districts of Assam and hoped that the Centre will provide loan assistance in time for the state for the protection of flood from the turbulence of rivers Brahmaputra and Barak. The minister disclosed that about 4450 km embankment areas existed in the state which could not be maintained in entirety due to paucity of funds. However his department has accorded priority to maintain all the major embankments to pre-empt any further erosion and devastation by floods in the Brahmaputra and Barak valley. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 14 March, 2000)

JALAH, March 13: Circulation of Bhutanese currency notes is in full swing in the entire Jalah area and the northern parts of Barpeta district. The large circulation of foreign currency notes has already been creating a problem for the local economy. Since the Indian currency notes are wearing a pitiable look, people are not willing to transact with the same. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 14 March, 2000)

NEW DELHI, March 14: In a significant development, the Oil India Limited and the Reliance Industries today signed a document laying down the principles of the gas supply agreement for the gas cracker project. The document was signed in a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee held here today. The chairman of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited and the Union petroleum secretary were present as witnesses. The final gas supply agreement is scheduled to be signed on April 14. As per the broad parameters laid down, the gas cracker project would be commissioned within 66 months from the signing of the agreement. Informed sources said that as per the parameters, the project would be started within 22 months from the date of signing of the agreement and it would be completed within 44 months. It was on the unrelenting pressure from the parliamentary standing committee, which had set a deadline of March 14, that finally managed to break the ice and the two sides after hectic rounds of negotiations agreed to go ahead with the deal. According to an earlier schedule worked out, the gas supply agreement would be formally signed towards the second half of April. The committee meeting today chaired by Mulayam Singh Yadav was informed that apart from the technical aspects, a broad agreement for supply of gas has been worked out. It was now for the state government to provide the land for the project, as the main hurdle that had been holding up the project, has been cleared, the members were informed. The meeting today attended by top officials of the petroleum and natural gas, petrochemical and chemical ministries was briefed by the Union petroleum secretary, S Narayanan. Meanwhile, the hurdles on procurement of land for the project is also likely to be cleared soon. The state government through its chief secretary had informed the committee that it was committed to provide the land for the project. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 15 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 14: The Northeastern states will soon take up with the Centre the issue of its move to change the present funding pattern for the special category states of the region with the new pattern of 75 per cent grants-in-aid and 25 per cent state contribution which will affect development work in the region. Revealing this during a news conference in his office at the Janata Bhawan here on Tuesday, state flood control minister Promode Gogoi said that the Northeast states will approach the Centre to demand 100 per cent grant-in-aid for all developmental activities. The Centre had recently decided to introduce the new funding pattern replacing the system of 90 per cent grant-in-aid and 10 per cent loan. Along with the states of the region, West Bengal is also to be included in the new scheme. He said that under the new scheme, the Centre's share of funds will be available only after the state department concerned had spent the 25 per cent share. The minister expressed fear that with the state government already faced with a fund crunch, Central assistance may dry up altogether. He said that the state government would seek to get Central funds as 100 per cent grant. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 15 March, 2000)

GUWAHATI, March 14: Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today said in the assembly that the growth of population in the state was much higher than the national average and attributed it to unabated infiltration. In reply to discussion on budget, the chief minister said the per capita income in the state had nosedived because of abnormal growth of population sparked by infiltration from across the border. He, however informed that construction of roads and fencing along the Indo-Bangla border would be completed within the year as the state government has mounted pressure on the Centre for the purpose. The chief minister expressed concern over the very low growth rate of state economy which is because of lack of investment in the state due to policies adopted by the Centre. He said due to continuing violence investors are wary of venturing into the state. He criticised the militants for destroying property of the state which is having an adverse affect on the pace of development. He said perennial problem of flood has been one of the key factors which are hampering economic development in the state. Small tea growers in the state can rest in peace as the chief minister dismissed suggestions made by several legislators to collect tea cess on their produce. He said the small tea growers needed more time to be economically sound enough to pay tea cess. The state government has been mounting pressure on the Centre to reserve Union government jobs for unemployed youth of the state in addition to laying stress on self-employment through agro-based industries, handicrafts, fishery etc. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 15 March, 2000)

NEW DELHI, March 14: The final clearance for opening up border trade between the land-locked Northeastern states and neighbouring countries, is unlikely to be granted soon as the Planning Commission now proposes to appoint an empowered committee to examine and implement the recommendations of the inter-ministerial task force on the Northeast border trade. Acknowledging that the report is currently lying with the Planning Commission, Union minister of commerce and industry Murasoli Maran, in a written reply to a question by Arun Kumar Sarma, however, did not set any time-frame for implementing the recommendations. The inter-ministerial task force itself was formed on the basis of the recommendations of the Shukla Commission, to review the entire Northeast border trade issue. The task force as part of its assignment also looked into the need for commissioning of a transport optimisation study for international linkages and transit and transshipment arrangements with Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan, among other areas. As for implementation of Shukla Commission recommendations, the Union minister said that a 'walk-in-type' cold storage for horticulture, agriculture and floriculture products has been provided at the Guwahati airport. The Airport Authority of India has planned expansion and modification of domestic terminal building and installation of modern state-of-the-art equipment, the minister said. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 15 March, 2000)

IMPHAL, March 15: Manipur finance minister H Lokhon Singh on Monday presented before the Legislative assembly a Rs 637.14-crore deficit budget for the financial year 2000-01. Revenue deficit is estimated at Rs 124.53 crore while the shortfall in capital account is likely to be Rs 151.49 crore. Taking into account public debt and servicing, loans and advances and other expenditure, the total closing balance at the end of the coming financial year is put at minus Rs 637.14 crore. The financial year 2000-01 begins with a deficit of Rs 367.63 crore. However, the finance minister did not indicate anything about covering the gap nor did he make any budget speech. He also presented before the House supplementary demands for grants for 1999-2000 seeking an amount of Rs 1016.81 crore covering 45 demands and three appropriations. Of this, Rs 374.30 crore are charged on the consolidated fund and Rs 642.51 crore are to be voted by the House. (United News of India; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; 16 March, 2000)