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New Delhi/Guwahati : President Pratibha Patil will undertake a six-day visit to Assam and Meghalaya from Sunday.
The President, who will arrive in Guwahati on Sunday afternoon, will give away the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Awards to actor Shabana Azmi and Editor-in-chief of Indian Express Shekhar Gupta at a function.
On Monday, she will give away the Nirmal Gram Puraskar for the North-East region and later lay the foundation stone for Tezpur Medical College. She will address troops of 4 Corps of Indian Army there
Ms Patil will arrive in the Meghalaya capital on October 22
During her two-day visit to Meghalaya, the President will inaugurate the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme at Mawphalng in Shillong and address a meeting with Padma awardees and women leaders of Meghalaya on October 22. She will grace the centenary celebrations of Laban Bengali Girls' Higher Secondary School in Shillong the same day.
She will inaugurate Baljek Airport at Tura on October 23. Indications are that the Baljek airport would be inaugurated by Ms Patil without any flag-off ceremony as the government is yet to overcome the problem of aircraft.
It may be mentioned that it will be second visit of the President of the country to Garo Hills areas in Meghalaya after 56 years. The only other President to make a trip to the remote hill area of the region was Rajendra Prasad who visited Tura in 1952. (UNI and Our Correspondent )
AGP ‘undecided’ on joining NDA
Guwahati: The Asom Gana Parisahd (AGP) is yet ''undecided'' on joining the NDA even as the party is busy cobbling together a seat-sharing arrangement of non-Congress parties in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP already on board.
''The talks with various parties are heading in the right direction and we are extremely hopeful and optimistic,'' AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said here.
He will be meeting Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal ahead of the AUDF's executive meeting.
The AUDF had startled by winning 10 seats in the state Assembly elections in 2006, the very year of its formation. (UNI)
ATTF denies hand in serial blasts
Agartala: The proscribed All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) on Saturday rejected the police claim that it was behind the October one serial blasts here and demanded an enquiry by an international human rights body to find out the perpetrators.
The ATTF claimed in a statement that it was no longer known as the central committee of the Tripura People's Democratic Front (TPDF) of which it was the armed wing and had changed the name of ATTF to Revolutionary People's Army (RPA) in 2003.
No member of the RPA was involved in the blasts, the statement said and demanded an enquiry by any international human right body.
"We have no trust in the Tripura police," the statement added.
Director General of Police Pranay Sahaya last Thursday had claimed that the ATTF had triggered the serial blasts and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) had trained the insurgents at the Satchchari camp of ATTF in Sylhet district of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, another prime accused, Kumariya Debbarma was arrested yesterday from Duski area in the jurisdiction of Teliamura police station in West Tripura district taking the number of arrests to 18, the police said.
Kumariya, sources said, was assigned to trigger the blast at the motor stand here but he could not do so as he became nervous. (PTI)
NDFB leader sentenced to 5 years jail
Gangtok: A designated court on Saturday sentenced National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) leader Dhiren Boro to five years' imprisonment under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the Explosives Substances Act but ordered his release as he has already spent six years in jail. The designated POTA court judge SW Lepcha also imposed a fine of Rs 6000 on Boro in default of which he would undergo imprisonment of additional one month. Boro was convicted under various sections of POTA, Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities Act. The court had on October 14 held Boro, the then vice-president of NDFB who was arrested along with his wife from his rented house here on January 1, 2003, guilty of the charges.
Two of his aides were also arrested along with him and a haul of arms and ammunition, diary, e-mail addresses and other documents with regard to Bodo separatist activities were recovered from his possession. The Sikkim police had booked all the four accused under POTA on the basis of the documentary evidence suggesting their involvement in subversive and anti-national activities. The three accused persons, including Boro's wife, were released after the state police failed to substantiate the charges against them during the trial of the case. (PTI)
Students demand rehab, security for riot-hit areas
Guwahati: Students’ organisations of Assam on Saturday staged a sit-in silent demonstration demanding rehabilitation and security for the communal violence-hit victims of Darrang and Udalguri districts.
They alleged that the Congress-led state government had failed completely in providing security to life and property.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) members participated in the two-hour demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan here.
The students’ bodies demanded adequate and prompt rehabilitation of the affected people and asked the government to provide ample security so that the people can return.
A joint team of the AASU and ABSU had visited the relief camps in the two districts and alleged inadequate provisions following their interaction with the victims. (UNI)
Pollution threatens Himalayas’ rain formation in NE
From Our Spl Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The array of green valleys along the mighty Himalayas including that of North East might look enchanting.
But lakhs of people living in the beautiful land are creating enough pollution, which could affect the rain formation on top of the biggest mountain range. In the long run this would adversely affect the climate of not only of the region but also major parts of the world with two most populous countries ringing the range on both sides - India and China.
Higher levels of pollution in Asia may affect the formation of clouds high in the Himalayas, and perhaps disrupt monsoons. This might also speed a thaw of glaciers, according to a latest study.
The report by scientists in France and Italy, found microscopic particles in the air that can be seeds for water droplets at a Nepalese mountain observatory, the highest in the world at 5,079 metres above sea level. It was the first time scientists had observed such particles forming so high, far above those seen in previous studies from Europe and Japan.
There's a lot of pollution in the valleys, which rises and meets clean air masses higher up. This creates new particles.
The study, in the US journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences', said the particles might come from smoke from burning of wood in Himalayan valleys. Or some might have a natural origin, from vegetation.
Incidentally, North East monsoon was recorded at 21 per cent below normal in 2006. This is the lowest recorded rainfall since the last five years, according to a Reserve Bank of India report which came out recently.
According to an RBI report, the cumulative rainfall was 21 per cent below normal as compared with 10 per cent above normal, during the corresponding period of the previous year (October-December 2005).
This rainy season, most parts of the North East also experienced scanty rainfall. Several states like Assam experienced even heat wave, a rare phenomenon in the region. Sohra (Cherrapunjee) the wettest place on earth has become a wet desert and even Bhutan, the land of thunder bolts has experienced draught last year.
Still, the scientists pointed to wider risks of the cloud-forming mechanism. Rising air pollution levels in South Asia will have worldwide environmental consequences, they wrote. The mountain range feeds some of the mightiest rivers of the world - Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra.
Transport of pollutants from the densely populated regions of India, Pakistan, China and Nepal to the Himalayas may lead to substantial radiative forces (warming effect) in South Asia.
In turn, that could affect the formation of monsoons, disrupt the regional climate and have "dramatic impacts on glacier retreat" in the Himalayas, they wrote.
The UN Climate Panel said last year that Himalayan glaciers, which feed rivers on which hundreds of millions of people depend, could shrink to 1,00,000 square kms by 2030 from 5,00,000 now because of global warming. However, that it was too early to know exactly what impact rising pollution would have in the Himalayas.
Scientists and environmentalists have already warned that the global warming is going to affect lower parts of the Himalayas under which several areas of the region come. They have predicted erratic rainfall and abnormal changes in the weather in the region once famous for a salubrious good climate. source: the shillong times
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