Shekhar, Shabana selected for Fakharuddin Award
From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Assam government will confer the Fakharuddin Ali Ahmed Award for National Integration to eminent journalist Shekhar Gupta and noted actress and social activist Shabana Azmi for the year 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively. Informing this at a press conference here on Saturday, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, "They have been chosen for the Award for their invaluable contributions towards brining the people together and closer through their chosen field of works."
Complete devolution process, Aiyar tells Arunachal Govt
Itanagar: Panchayati Raj Minister at the Centre, Mani Shankar Aiyar on Saturday released the acitivity map of 29 subjects devolving the functions to panchayats in Arunachal Pradesh and expressed the hope that the State Government will notify it within a few days.
He asked the State Government to complete the process of devolution of financial power with functionaries to pave the way for effective functioning of the newly-elected three-tier panchyats in the state within three to four months.
Political analysts feel the move will help the ruling Congress to strengthened its base at the grassroot level much before the assembly and parliamentary polls due in the state next year.
Addressing the second convention of Arunachal Pradesh Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sanghatan (APRGS) at the state Congress headquarters here attended by MLAs, party leaders and elected panchayat leaders, Aiyar, who is national convenor of Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, said the State Government would not be burdened to implement the devolution of powers to the panchayats as the budgetary allocations could be shared between the departments and the panchayats.
He said, the Centre has spent Rs 1,20,000 for each of the last four years of UPA rule in the social sector as against Rs 34,000 crore spent during the last year of NDA rule and most of the funds were meant for the panchayat.
As for the fear expressed by the legislators that devolution of powers to panchayat means erosion of their clout, Aiyar said on the contrary the elected panchayat leaders would be your force and you can pass on to all "useless" works like sewer cleaning, constructing link roads and other odd works to them and get workloads reduced to that extent.
The devolution will only take away some powers of the bureaucrats and the legislators should not worry, he said.
According to him, at best 30 per cent funds would go to panchayts and the rest would remain with the MLAs and they should not mind in sharing it as the panchayat leaders would help them during election as they are the elected leaders at various level down to the village. (PTI)
NERIST registrar in custody over ‘attack’ on students
Itanagar: A local court on Saturday ordered seven days police remand for the registrar of North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) Ashok Singh and his two sons for allegedly attacking students.
The trio, arrested on Friday night on the charge of attacking and causing grievous injuries to three students of the institute, was produced before the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Itanagar on Saturday.
Meanwhile Joram Begi, the Director of Higher and Technical Education of Arunachal Pradesh, who has been given additional charge of the director of NERIST two days ago, held discussions with striking students and employees for restoring normalcy in the campus of the deemed university.
The campus witnessed heavy brickbatting after the students alleged that they were attacked by Singh and his two sons with sharp weapons following an altercation, which took place when he was prevented by a few students from taking some files from his office to his residence in the premises of the institute.
The students and employees have been on strike since Thursday demanding removal of Singh, against whom an employee had filed an FIR, alleging suppression of scheduled tribes through subtle administrative tactics.
Singh was called to the local police station after the complaint was lodged, but he denied the charges.
The Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police and Begi rushed to the scene of the clash on Friday night and amidst brickbatting police took out Singh and his two sons in a van and recorded the statement of the students.
Two of the students, allegedly injured in the attack, were admitted to hospitals. (PTI)
Unified Command to stay in Assam: Gogoi
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday ruled out possibility of disbanding the three-tier counter -insurgency Unified Command (UC) structure headed by the Indian Army in immediate future 'given that terror threat still persisted in the State. Talking to the media here, Gogoi said, "the Unified Command structure remains a necessity for the State to ward off threat from insurgents. There is no question of dismantling it till the law and order situation improves to satisfactory levels."
The Unified Command, which was enforced in the State way back in 1997 is reviewed after every six months by the strategy group headed by the State Chief Secretary before extension for another six months.
The Chief Minister of the State is in overall charge of the unified command while the GOC 4 Corps of the Indian Army is the operational head of the command that has State police and Central paramilitary forces as the two other components.
Gogoi lauded the Unified Command for doing a commendable job in containing insurgency in the State notwithstanding often repeated allegations by human rights groups and different social groups that the security personnel in the State were given free run of the State in the name of counter-insurgency operation under the unified command.
He also laid stress on the need for modernisation of police and improvement of intelligence gathering mechanism for tackling the insurgents more effectively.
Tripura civic bodies by-polls peaceful
Agartala: Adequate security arrangements were made for by-elections for 135 seats of civic bodies in Tripura which were being held on Saturday. Elections for one seat of Agartala municipal council, four nagar panchyats, three Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) seats, eight panchayat samities, 94 gram panchayats, 23 village committee seats and two zilla parisad began at 8 am and would continue till 4 pm.
No untoward incident was reported from any part of the state till noon, the sources said. (PTI)
5 injured in police lathicharge
Morigaon: Five persons were injured in a police lathicharge on two groups of clashing groups in central Assam's Morigaon district on Saturday.
A rickshaw puller of Morigaon town was beaten up by a police constable at Morigaon Chariali leading to a tense situation in the district headquarters, official sources said.
Protesting against the incident, the leftist Rickshaw Puller Association of Morigaon Town under the leadership of CPI leader and former MLA Munin Mahanta resorted to a road blockade in the town, the sources said.
Meanwhile, some Youth Congress activists supporting the police action blamed the rickshaw puller and accused Munin Mahanta of politicing the issue of a minor incident.
At this, the rickshaw pullers turned violent and clashed with the Youth Conggress activists leading to police lathi charge on the two groups to control the situation, and five persons were injured, the sources said.
The wounded were admitted to Morigaon Civil Hospital.
The constable involved in the assault incident has been suspended and arrested, the sources added. (PTI)
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