GUWAHATI, October 4: The government of Assam, in a bid to improve mobilisation of internal resources, has decided to introduce a small savings gift coupon scheme in the state. Announcing this here today, the chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, said the progress and economic stability of a state depend a lot on the collection through small savings as the state gets 75 per cent of the money collected from small savings as longterm loan to carry out development schemes. Giving a detailed account of the scheme, Mahanta said that any person who invests a minimum amount of Rs 1,000 in National Savings Certificate or Kishan Vikash Patra would be given a free gift coupon. The offer will remain open from tomorrow and the gift coupon draw will be held on March 31, 2000. The first prize of the draw will be a Maruti car. There will be 130 attractive prizes including a Hero Honda motorcycle, scooter, colour TV, washing machine and various other items, Mahanta said. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 5, 1999)

GUWAHATI, October 3: Again an alleged attempt has been made to hoodwink the people of the Northeast. This time, a Union government officer of the joint secretary rank has been appointed project director of US 5.5 million dollar United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) project for helping nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and community self-help schemes for drugs de-addiction in the Northeast, in gross violation of the government of India guidelines. There was also a violation of the UN guidelines allegedly in matters of transparency for selection of the incumbent for the post. Similarly, the selection of the incumbent for the post of assistant director of the project has also been done allegedly in violation of the principle of transparency. According to Union government guidelines, no officer of the Union government can be employed with a UN project in which the officer and his or her ministry is involved. But a joint secretary in the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment, Anand Bordia has been appointed project director of the UNDCP project in which his ministry was involved at the stage of preparation. He took over on September 9 last. Significantly, it is alleged that there was no advertisement, nor any circular issued to ensure a wider participation from the eligible interested candidates. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 5, 1999)

NEW DELHI, October 6: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a decision to allocate 1,000 tonnes of rice per month at below poverty line (BPI) rate to drought-hit Manipur for September and October. The ex-post-facto approval to the decision would involve an additional subsidy of Rs 1.33 crore, the Union information and broadcasting minister, Pramod Mahajan, told reporters after an hour-long meeting of the Union Cabinet. Manipur had made the request for additional allocation of rice in June, following failure of paddy crop due to drought. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 7, 1999)

DIBRUGARH, October 9: Teachers and students of the Dibrugarh University have expressed serious doubts on the viability of the proposed tea plantation, if done on the basis of the existing memorandum of understanding, while demanding transparency in the matter, so that the entire controversy is brought to an amicable end. Addressing a news conference at the varsity campus here today, officebearers of the Dibrugarh University Teachers' Association (DUTA) and the Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students' Union (DUPGSU), said they were not opposed to the proposed tea plantation on the peripheral land of the varsity campus, "but we want to know the area where the tea bushes will be grown, and an assurance that the plantation will not hamper academic activity even in the future." The teachers and the students expressed their displeasure at the "uncalled for secrecy" maintained by the DU authorities on the project. Demanding publication of the DU master plan vis-à-vis land usage in the campus, the senior teachers of the varsity said that the DU engineering department evades the matter, whenever asked to show the master plan. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 10, 1999)

GUWAHATI, October 11: Till a few decades ago tribals in Assam used to produce on an average over one lakh kilograms of raw lac of good quality per year. But over the years the production has gone down drastically with the culture remaining confined to a few pockets at Amchoi area in Nagaon district. The basic reason for which the tribal people have become averse to lac culture despite presence of large number of host plants in their areas, is that due to want of any marketing network they were forced to sell their lac to the middleman who give them meagre price for it. The state government or the forest department still do not have any policy on lac culture and marketing though the commodity has a good international market. In 1998-99 the country earned Rs 70 crore in foreign exchange through export of 7,625 metric tonnes of lac, according to the latest report of Indian Lac Research Institute, Ranchi. In view of history of lac culture in the region, the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation (Trifed) has taken up a project to revive lac culture in the state in co-ordination with Indian Lac Research Institute. As a first step towards implementation of the project, the Trifed yesterday organised a training-cum-motivation camp on lac culture among the villagers of Patarkuchi hamlet at Sonapur near here. The programme was conducted by two scientists from Indian Lac Research Institute in co-ordination with local forest officials. (Bijay Sankar Bora; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 12, 1999)

GUWAHATI, October 13: The Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, has called upon the youth to seek avenues of self-employment stating that government jobs are no longer available. "There are 17 lakh unemployed youth in the state and the government already has five lakh employees," the chief minister said. He said that the Centre has already instructed the state Governments to reduce government jobs so as to cut down on establishment costs. Mahanta was speaking at the valedictory session of a training programme for self-employment of educated unemployed youth organised by the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) at Khanapara today. Mahanta said that rural development will automatically bring urban development. He said that there were a lot of areas where self-employment avenues could be explored. He stated the state now was dependent on other states for virtually all its requirements. He hoped that the training programme would help the beneficiaries in providing a source of income as well as motivating others. He said that it was a new initiative and hoped it would bring better results than the previous initiatives. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 14, 1999)

GUWAHATI, October 13: The government of Canada would very much like to increase its activities in the north-eastern region, said the high commissioner of Canada in India, Peter F Walker. Talking to The Assam Tribune here last evening, Mr Walker, who arrived here yesterday on a five-day trip to the Northeast, said at present the government of Canada was involved in only two projects in the region. He revealed that the Canadian International Development Agency was working on a project for the development and preservation of the Loktak Lake in Manipur. He revealed that the five-million-dollar (Canadian) project also include management of the wetland of the lake and the project has received very good response from the local people. Walker revealed that the second project of Canada in the region was an agro-forestry project in Nagaland. The project is being implemented by the International Development Research Centre, a non-governmental organisation of Canada funded by the government of Canada. He pointed out that the tradition of jhum cultivation in Nagaland posed a serious threat to the environment and the project aims to develop environment-friendly agro-forestry in the hill State. Walker said during his present trip to the region, he would visit Manipur and Nagaland to assess the implementation of ongoing projects. "We have two successful projects in the region and now we have to see to where we can go from here. We would definitely like to increase our area of activity in this part of the country," he added. (R Dutta Choudhury; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 14, 1999)

NEW DELHI, October 14: The water resources ministry has been directed to submit a report on functioning of the Brahmaputra Board and details about its ongoing as well as future projects, the minister of state for water resources, Bijoya Chakravarty disclosed this here today. Seeking of a comprehensive report on the almost defunct board was one of the first action taken by the newly inducted minister who took over her charge here this afternoon. Chakravarty will look after various departments including flood control, groundwater, irrigation among others. Chakravarty later told The Assam Tribune that she intended to give priority on toning up of the Brahmaputra Board. "The officials have informed me that the board can carry out its work even without its chairman and accordingly they have been asked to furnish a report about their projects", she added. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; October 15, 1999)