VOL 01 | ISSUE 35 | MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014

`1024 Pages

Catching Up, Pg 24

Ward Watch@

Ward No 04PGNo 11

Ellie Goulding No TraFFIC

SIGNaL CoNTroL rooM

IN GHYAlthough the number of vehicles has continued to rise every year, the traffic chaos has not ceased and the most surprising part is that Guwahati does not have traffic

signal management system.

orGaNIC HUB SHUT dUE ToGoVErNMENT INEFFICaCY

PG 02

PG 05

Board rESULTS

PG 07 & 09

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 20142

Society

At a time, when the number of vehicles plying on the roads is increasing at a rapid pace,

the traffic management system of Guwahati is still at a primitive stage. More than five lakh vehicles ply ev-ery day on the 3,600 roads and lanes in the city. To manage that, a small group of traffic personnel have been engaged to control the traffic conges-tion of the entire city.

In a bid to ease the traffic chaos of the city, GMDA in collaboration with the city traffic police had in-stalled two automated traffic signals at Maligaon and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) traffic intersections way back in 2006. But, later on, because of the failure of those two signals in fulfilling their purpose, the GMDA rolled out the project of installing automated traffic signals to three pri-vate firms under PPP mode. But, till today there is no model control room that has been put in place to control the automated signals.

“The automatic traffic signal sys-tem made its debut in the city in the year 2006. But, till today, no model control room has been put in place for controlling the signals from one single place. There is a need for a modern approach to the traffic man-agement system of the city. Guwahati still lacks a proper traffic manage-ment system. The way the number of cars have been increasing and citizen’s ignorance of traffic laws and rules which ultimately leads to vio-lation of traffic laws, the traffic flow of the city will be stalled in the near future,” city traffic SP Pranabjyoti Goswami told G Plus.

Currently, there are 48 automat-ed traffic signals installed at different traffic intersections of the city and out of which, three signals at Naren-gi, Jalukbari and Beltola tiniali have been taken down temporarily due to some technical issues. The project of installing these pre-programmed traffic signals was started by the end of the year 2009 and three firms (16 signals each) had been allotted to do the job.

Regarding the non-functionality of some of the automated traffic sig-nals of the city, the traffic SP held the road accidents responsible. “The sig-nal at ABC remained has been dys-functional for the last couple of days because a car rammed into it. Now, it has been reinstalled at the place again. Similarly, we had to uninstall three signals from Narengi, Jaluk-bari and Beltola tiniali because of some developmental issues going on in those areas and in the next couple of weeks, they would be reinstalled. Besides, there is no pedestrian cross-ing signal at the traffic signals. Apart

from such issues, there are no major issues with the functioning of the signals. The temporary failure has been repaired accordingly,” Goswa-mi stated.

Surajit Roy Chowdhury of Lu-minelle, one of the private parties involved in installing and maintain-ing the automated traffic signals in the city had this to say to G Plus, “The Bharalumukh traffic signal is one of the best managed junctions of the city but it has not been functioning for the last couple of months. Some six months back, the existing under-ground cables running through that locality were damaged by some infra-structure company who laid under-ground cables for some other purpose and since then the signal has not been working. The traffic department has been manning the junction manu-

Although the number of vehicles has continued to rise every year, the traffic chaos has not ceased and the most surprising part is that Guwahati does not have traffic signal management system.

MrinMoyee Hazarika

No TraFFIC SIGNaL CoNTroL rooM IN GHY

ally ever since.Besides, the public are suffering as well. The repairing of the cable will cost over `50,000. We even lodged an FIR at the Bharalumukh P.S. after the incident and requested the department to take action against the faulty agency but nothing seems to have happened. All this could have been avoided if we had been informed about the new developments to be done near the signal beforehand.”

On the other hand, he had cited some other issues which was encum-bering with the automated traffic sig-nal system in the city.

“There is no synchronisation or integration among the traffic signals since every signal has been individu-ally preset with different fixed stop-page time which sometimes cause inconvenience to the public as well as the traffic personnel on duty. The

time can be changed with the help of the software, but it takes a lot of exer-cise to do it. Sometimes what happens is that even after there is no traffic on the road, the commuters have to wait for the red light to go off before cross-ing the road. Therefore, if it gets hard for the person on duty to control the heavy traffic on road, we switch the automated signals off and control the traffic manually,” Goswami further added.

The traffic SP also mentioned that the lack of coordination among dif-ferent agencies has sometimes caused problems in the smooth functioning of work.

“Guwahati does not have a joint traffic management committee which includes representatives of civic bodies (GMC and GMDA in case of Guwahati), police department, trans-

port department, road engineering cell, public representatives etc, which is very important to keep coordina-tion in successful implementation of a project,” Goswami told.

In order to manage the smooth traffic flow of the city, the traffic de-partment has suggested some pro-posals to the state government, which includes construction of crash bar-riers like the one being constructed at Chandmari, on the road starting from Ulubari to Dispur, introducing zebra crossings on the road at a gap of 500 meters.

“We have also proposed to pro-vide us with traffic assistants to the government and GMDA,” Pranab-jyoti Goswami said.

There is no synchronisation or integration among

the traffic signals since every signal

has been individually preset with different fixed stoppage time

which sometimes cause inconvenience

to the public as well as the traffic

personnel on duty

mrinmoyee.hazarika@g-plus.in

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 3

G-View

The authorities feel that the city of Guwahati is quite peaceful but the recent incident of mur-

der in the Nizarapar Hills of the city’s Noonmati area has again spread un-certainty amongst Guwahatians. A local youth running a fast food cen-tre was allegedly murdered by local goons, led by a local businessman and his sons. Locals, after knowing about Manu, the victim’s death, headed to Mantu Ali’s house only to find that all his family members had fled. This enraged them and they set the house and vehicles on fire. Police rushed to the spot to disperse the angry mob. The incident raised a lot of concern among the city people as the deceased was severely wounded.

Major crimesHead wise major crimes regis-

tered since 2012 upto March 2014 in Guwahati

Crime heads Years - 2012 Years - 2013 2014 up to March

Murder 83 66 26

Rape 79 103 17

Kidnapping 341 453 142

Dacoity 15 11 01

Robbery 280 247 57

Extortion 201 193 31

Burglary 825 830 152

Theft 2426 2351 693

Rioting 47 57 13

Criminal Breach of Trust 175 186 47

Cheating 337 506 94

Counterfeiting 22 37 02

Other IPC 6436 7383 1610

Total IPC 11267 12423 2885

Total Minor Act 214 378 121

Total Cognizable Crime 11481 12801 3006

The above data obtained from the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Assam, shows that there is an increase in rape cases as in 2012, 79 rape cases were registered in the city and in 2013, 103 cases of rape were recorded. In the initial three months of 2014 17 rape cases were registered and to think that the year is yet to pass by.

Similarly, there is a huge in-crease in the number of kidnapping recorded in the city. In 2012, there were 341 cases of kidnapping regis-tered whereas in 2013, 453 cases of kidnapping were recorded and till March 2014, 142 cases are already registered. Murder sees a decrease in the year 2013. The year 2012 wit-nessed 83 cases of murder in the city whereas in 2013, the number was 66. There is a tremendous increase in the number of theft and cheating cases in the city. In 2013, the city witnessed 2351 cases of theft, and 506 cases of cheating, which was 2426 and 337 in the year 2012. So, the total cognizable crime cases registered in 2012 were

11481, whereas the numbers went up to 12801 in the year 2013. In the three initial months of 2014, 3006 numbers of cognizable offences were recorded in the city.

The reasonsThe main reasons as told by the

police for the increase in the crime cases is unemployment. It is mostly the dropouts that commit petty crimes and after they grow up, they graduate to major crimes like mur-der, robbery and rape. Migration is another major factor. People migrate to urban places from rural areas in a search of better earning opportu-nities and better life style. Not all of them can make it and many migrants end up as cheap daily wage labourers and eventually their greed lead them to devise shortcuts to become rich. They end up robbing, stealing or even indulging in crimes like kidnapping and rape.

Many migrants, after commit-ting the crime, return to their native

place or even flee country. As there are many illegal migrants in Guwa-hati from countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, they mostly run away af-ter the crime, making it difficult for the cops to get hold of them. The rape cases have also increased as people are uneducated and the animal act is mostly done when they are out of their senses because of intoxicants.

‘Goonda’ism The recent Nizarapar Hills mur-

der incident has raised questions about goonda-ism and lawlessness in the city. The family of Mantu Ali, who killed the deceased identified as Manu, have gone to jail many times before on minor crime cases like theft. The deceased too had a crimi-nal record and both the families had a long running feud. According to local residents, the family of Mantu Ali used to behave like local dadas and people used to be scared of them. Similarly, Manu too was considered to be a goon. Be it Nizarapar Hills, Uzaan Bazaar or Fatasil, these areas too are filled with such unscrupulous men and the residents usually avoid any conflict with them.

HEINoUS CrIMES STILL oN THE rISE

Deepika Das of Jyotikuchi, a house wife, is always scared at night as her daughters go for tuitions and they usually are eve-teased while return-ing home. On being asked if there had been any complain about the problem to the police, she said, “I told my hus-band to do something about it and he even talked to the Gaubura (Head-man) but after a few days, the guys are still there. Going to police sounds a bit scary as it has many pros and cons.”

The police say that Guwahati is a very peaceful city and there are a few goons and dadas but there is no chronic problem of goondaism in the city. Apparently, when the city is ruled by people with the help of muscle

Although the city does not have any chronic problem related to ‘Goonda’ism, a recent murder incident in the city caught the attention of the citizens as the aftermath resulted in public outrage against the alleged killers.

raHUL CHanDa

I told my husband to do something

about it and he even talked to

the Gaubura (Headman) but

after a few days, the guys are still there.

Going to police sounds a bit scary

as it has many pros and cons”

power and when even the police are scared of those people, then there ex-ists goondaism. When people become politicians and forcefully acquire all contracts with their power, than there is goondaism. But at present, the city has not seen any such scenario.

The authorities might feel so, but the escalating crime rates and hei-nous incidents keep people on their toes. If we have to believe that the city is peaceful and safe, the fact that lo-cal goons and dadas exist in the city makes us doubt the fact. Will Guwa-hati too see a day when it will be ruled by people with their muscle power? Is it an inevitability?

rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 20144

Web Watch

A couple of years back, the ur-ban local body of the city, Guwahati Municipal Corpo-

ration (GMC) geared up to illuminate the city with LED (light-emitting diode) street lights. According to the GMC, they had then completed all formalities for the installation of LEDs in six vital roads.The pilot pro-ject for installing LED lights in the city had been initiated by the GMC with a grant of 6̀7 lakhs from the 13th Finance Commission.

It was expected to be completed within three months. The non-corro-sive, non-breakable and long lasting LED lights, besides lighting up vital streets in the city, was also a way to save energy. As the rains have already brought back the chaos on the roads, and with load shedding reaching its peak, the city streets are quite dark these days.

the projectsAccording to sources at the

GMC, there are many streetlight pro-jects underway and various projects have been completed since August 2012. Some of those projects are:

1. Installation of 10+2 numbers of high mast lighting system at vari-ous locations under GMC Trade & Development fund for 2011-12 for `111.00 lakhs

2. Street Lighting System in fol-lowing roads of Guwahati under the award of 4th Assam Finance Commission:-

a. Nepali Mandir to Sarabbhati – 4̀1.19 lakhs

b. Fatasil Bridge to Ambari Tiniali Police point – `32.40 lakhs

c. Hengerabari Road from Ganesh-guri point to Express Highway – `77.04 lakhs

d. Hatigaon Chariali to NH – 37 – 6̀1.76 lakhs

3. Renovation of existing street lights on 176 roads having 2493 numbers of 40 watts tube lights and 438 numbers of sodium va-pour lamp – 4̀0.00 lakhs

4. New street lights on new octago-nal poles on seven roads – `119.22 lakhs

5. Installation of 1260 numbers lamps on existing ASEB – `150.70 lakhs

There were many projects through which the city lighting sys-tem was improved and developed, but the LED lights, as expected, were not installed by the city urban body. The lights which are installed and de-veloped are concentrated high mast lighting known as sodium vapour lights.

A sodium-vapour light is a gas-discharged lamp that uses sodium

in an excited state to produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure. Low-pressure sodium lamps are highly efficient electrical light sources, but their yellow light restricts applica-tions to outdoor lighting such as street lamps. High-pressure sodium lamps that are used in the city have a broader spectrum of light than the low pressure ones, but they still have poorer colour rendering than other types of lamps.

However, sodium-vapour lamps

cause less light pollution than mer-cury-vapour lamps and many cities that have large astronomical observa-tories, employ them including Guwa-hati.

An LED lamp is a light-emitting diode (LED) product that is assem-bled into a lamp (or light bulb) for use in lighting fixtures. LED lamps have a lifespan and electrical efficiency that is several times better than incandes-cent lamps and significantly better than most fluorescent lamps, with some chips able to emit more than 100 lumens per watt. LEDs are best known power savers.

In Guwahati, there is already a persistent problem of load shedding and with the number of street lights increasing in the city, both sodium vapour and florescent tube lights are eating up extra power.

According to the Chief Technical Engineer of the GMC Kishore Das, “The urban body is installing only high mast lighting and till now there is only one street which has LED lights - the one where the IAS Colony is situated (from Beltola Tiniali to the APSC building). These were installed by the Public Works Department (PWD), as the road is under that de-partment. The GMC is also install-ing and developing fluorescent street tube lights, which again consume more electricity than the LED lights.”

LEd LIGHTS STILL LIGHT YEarS aWaYForget LED streetlights, the roads and lanes of the city are still dark and without any kind of lighting

at all but LEDs make better sense since they are longer lasting and consume lesser energyraHUL CHanDa

dark alleysThere are many streets where the

area is mostly dark at night. From 6th Mile to Patharquarry, there are only three street lights and the GMC is planning to install more of them as soon as possible. The roads like Fata-sil Tiniali to Gorchuk, Sarabbhati to Lokhra, have very less streetlights installed and at nights the areas in these stretch of the roads are very dark.

On enquiry about these, the GMC informed that the roads do not have dividers in between them and so installing lights on that stretch is a problem. As there are service lines which are used by the households and also commercial lines, there are some points where the GMC cannot install street lights. If the roads have dividers than there can be a line in a stretch where street lights can be installed. So, planning is required to have a proper lighting system.

No matter how many lights the GMC is installing in the city, LED lights still look like a dream. Many city roads are still dark which can be lit up only with proper planning. With all the funds getting pumped in, when will the city be properly lit up and that too at lesser energy?

The urban body is installing only

high mast lighting and till now there is only one street

which has LED lights - the one where the IAS

Colony is situated (from Beltola

Tiniali to the APSC building)”

“

rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 5

City

mrinmoyee.hazarika@g-plus.in

At a time when a large section of the population is smitten by the organic or organically

produced products, the first ever or-ganic market complex of the state, located near Six Miles, Guwahati has been remained dysfunctional for more than a month.

The complex, which covers an area of 4,711.65 square metres, was constructed by the Department of Agriculture and the Assam State Ag-ricultural Marketing Board at a cost of Rs 7 Crores under the Rashstriya Krishi Vikash Yojna. The complex was inaugurated by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in the year 2012 and since then was being run by a pri-vate group named Neog Agro and Alliance Limited before being shut down around a month back.

“We had given some part of the organic market complex to the pri-vate firm to be run on a completely temporary basis. To be more specific, we had asked them to run the place for the inauguration of the market complex only. We did not sign any MoU nor underwent any other for-malities with them. But, thereafter they had been running the market for almost a year,” Pranab Baruah, Chief Executive Officer, Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board told G Plus.

Baruah also stated that they had issued a notice to the group which had been operating their business at the organic market complex, to va-cate the place in the month of March last year. But, challenging the notice, the representatives of Neog Agro and Alliance Limited moved to the court.

“After we served notice to Neog Agro and Alliance Limited to vacate the place, they moved to the court. But, the court judgment was in our favour and subsequently the private party had to vacate the place last month (18th March, 2014). Besides, the market complex was too big for a single firm to operate and it did not bring any profit to the government. Instead, we had to pay the electric-ity bill of Rs 7 lakhs for the usage of electricity in the complex,” Pranab Baruah said.

The entire market complex is situated in a two storey building which includes facilities like grad-ing and auction yard for vegetables, fruits and flowers, store, godown, cold room, banana ripening unit, re-tail market yard for fruits, vegetables

and flowers, electronic auction hall, administrative hall, administra-tive block, training hall, laboratory, lobby and restaurant. But because of the inefficient policies being made by the government, the market which had been able to attract the urban customers, has been lying empty for over a month now.

“We have submitted a proposal to the government for the rolling out of the market place to private firms under PPP mode. Since we are only a facilitating agency, we cannot take part in the buying and selling of commodities. Biddings will soon be called for and we expect to reo-pen the market in another one and half montsh of time,” Pranab Baruah assured.

Moreover, scarcity of organic or organically produced products has been a cause of concern for the or-ganic market of the state. Though, Assam produces organic products ‘naturally by default’, but because of the absence of a certified agency, it is hard to prove that those products are organic.

“Till now, there is no certifica-tion agency to certify the organic products produced in the state and it is not economically viable for the producers to grow organic products if the products are not being certi-fied,” said V K Pipersenia,the Agri-culture Production Commissioner

MrinMoyee Hazarika

and additional Chief Secretary. He said this at a seminar organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce held last Wednesday at Guwahati.

Mentioning that the agencies are not being able to address the actual producers and attract the market-ers, Pipersenia also stated, “In order to address the issues related to the organic farming, we are having a talk with APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export

orGaNIC HUB SHUT dUE To GoVErNMENT INEFFICaCY

The organic market in the city was shut down recently and sees no sign of being restarted any time soon. With the market becoming a favourite of many Guwahatians, G Plus finds what exactly caused the closure.

Development Agency) and expect to come up with a certification agency for organic food produces.” He also acknowledged the fact there is a scarcity of organic products for the markets of the state.

A P Sandilya, General Chief Manager, NABARD, Assam re-gional office who was also present at the seminar highlighted various schemes funded by NABARD for or-ganic products.

“There is a need for suitable in-frastructure for organic farming. In order to develop the same there should be a synergy between the government, bank and other insti-tutions. As of now, we have not re-ceived any proposal from the gov-ernment of Assam regarding the infrastructural development of or-ganic farming,” Sandilya stated.

We had given some part of the organic market complex to the private firm to be run on a completely temporary basis. To be more specific, we had asked them to run the place for the inauguration of the market complex only. We did not sign any MoU nor underwent any other formalities with them.

Pranab Baruah,Chief Executive Officer, Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 20146

In The News

Cultural icon Bhupen Hazarika had already gone global even before his death but here is

an effort by a young fan of the bard to send his message across the globe by launching the translated version of the evergreen songs of Hazarika on Electronic Publication (EPUB). A young student of Tezpur Univer-sity has translated 41 songs in a bid to pay her homage to the legendary balladeer of the country.

EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

“We have grown up listening to the songs of Bhupen Hazarika. These are not mere songs but a part of our lives. I just tried to pay my homage to one of the greatest souls ever born in the state,” Pronami Bhattacharyya said after formally launching her col-lection of translations.

She had earlier published her book - Let My Songs Be, The Door to A New Dawn - with 21 songs but this time she added another 20 songs which have been able to win the hearts of thousands across the coun-try and even abroad.

“I could feel the soul of the bard’s songs. I decided to spread across the

message that the bard embedded in his songs which is diverse in emo-tions and innovative and original in vocabulary and language usage. It was extremely tough but I’m grateful to the people who have been kind to me in completing the mission,” Bhat-tacharyya added.

Artistes and scholars among others who were present during the occasion have appreciated the effort of Bhattacharyya to bring the songs of the Balladeer to the global readers.

“Her effort will go miles with the modern technology of reading books. It will be of great help for the youths living in any part of the globe to read the lyrics of the bard. We ap-preciate the effort of Pronami and wish her best,” Amarjyoti Choud-hury, pro-vice-chancellor of Tezpur University and former vice-chancel-lor Gauhati University said.

The author Bhattacharyya who is doing her PhD in English in the area of African-American literature said that she would like to do more of his songs in the coming days.

aDitya GoGoi

Unavailability of a comprehen-sive water supply system and the exhaustion of ground wa-

ter sources like wells and tube wells have offered a chance for illegal water trade to flourish in Guwahati city.

During dry seasons (December-April) almost all the residents of the city have to depend on the water sup-plied by three-wheeled carriers, while in some localities like Nabagarh, Jyo-tinagar and Krishnanagar, residents have to depend on these water supply carriers all round the year.

The water supply carriers collect the water from deep bore-wells (more than 500 feet deep) set up by private parties in various localities of the city. Initially, these deep bore-wells were set up for domestic purpose but later on, they were used to supply wa-ter on commercial basis without tak-ing the requisite permissions from the Guwahati Municipal Corpora-tion (GMC).

A senior off icial of the GMC

told this correspondent that 20-30 such water suppliers and more than 200 carriers are operating in the city without taking due per-mission from the corporation.

“We have started a drive against them and have already sealed a few deep bore-wells which are involved in this i l legal trade,” the off icial said adding that they have recently seized two such bore-wells in the Kahilipara area of the city.

The rate charged for 750 litres of water (the maximum capacity of one three-wheeled carrier) varies from 120-350 depending upon the distance it has to cover.

“We purchase 750 litres of water at `40 and charge `120-350 from customers depending upon the distance we need to cover to deliver the water. Normally we do not charge more than `350 as one carrier’s operation area is limited to one locality near to the source

of the water,” said Khagen Das who has been involved in this trade for more than three years.

According to the locals of the areas, which have acute water shortage problem, rampant instal-lation of deep bore-wells pumps by builders and the rich house owners is one of the main reasons of grow-ing water crisis in the city.

“Now-a-days people are in-volved in competition as to who can dig a deeper bore-well.  A 500 feet deep bore-well pump seriously af-fects the nearby water sources like wells and less deeper bore-wells, which even results in the total dry-ing up of these water sources. Un-der such circumstance people who cannot afford a deep-bore well has no other option than taking water from these illegal suppliers as you will hardly find GMC tankers de-livering water at your residence,” said Upen Barman a resident of the Jyotinagar area of the city.

arUP Saikia

ILLEGaL WaTEr TradE FLoUrISHES IN GUWaHaTI

In a city that still does not have a proper water supply system, the existence of illegally dug bore-wells have only added to the scarcity of underground water.

BHUPEN HaZarIKa SoNGS rELEaSEd IN EPUB

Her effort will go miles with

the modern technology of

reading books. It will be of great

help for the youths living in

any part of the globe to read the

lyrics of the bard. We appreciate

the effort of Pronami and

wish her best”

“Pronami Bhattacharyya at the launch

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 7

In The News

Cotton College of Guwahati has once again proved to be the premier institute in the city

after seven of its students from the sci-ence stream bagged top ranks in the Class XII results that were declared on Friday.

Swaroop Nath secured the 4th po-sition with a total of 469 marks while Bhaskarjyoti Das grabbed the 5th position in the state with 468 marks. Ankurjyoti Goswami secured 464 marks grabbing the 8th position with Jyotisagar Medhi and Pankaj Kumar Purbey scored 463 marks each, jointly grabbing the 9th position. Kallol Dey and Sudeshdeep Sinha of Cotton Col-lege secured the 10th position by scor-ing 462 marks each.

In the Commerce stream, Gauhati Commerce College bagged the 1st rank with Bineeta Jain scoring 465 marks. The 3rd and 6th positions were held by Aparajita Neog with 458 marks and Subhadeep Saha with 452 marks from the city respectively. KC Das Commerce College bagged three positions with Sweta Agarwal securing the 8th position with 447 marks with Reshma Jain and Kushal Rajghariya of the KC Das Commerce College secured the 10th position with 445 marks each.

From Arts background, Bhanita

Kalita of Assam Jatiya Vidyalay scored 465 marks and bagged the 6th posi-tion whereas Gunjan Sharma of Cot-ton College secured 460 marks and bagged de 10th position.

This year, Cotton College saw a pass percentage of 98% for its Science stream and 100% for the Arts stream. The Gauhati Commerce College saw 99.69% as pass percentage in its AH-SEC exam for the year 2013-14 in comparison to its last year’s 92%.

CoTToN CoLLEGE BaGS SEVENIN CLaSS XII EXaMS

Bhanita Kalita

ARTS STREAM COMMERCE STREAM

SCIENCE STREAM

Swaroop Nath Bhaskar Jyoti DasAnkur Jyoti Goswami

Jyoti Sagar Medhi

Pankaj Kumar Purbey

Kallol Dey Cotton

Sudeshdeep Sinha

Gunjan Sarmah Bineeta Jain Aparajita Neog Subhadeep Saha Sweta Agarwal Reshma JainKushal

Rajghariya

shubhojit.roy@g-plus.in

SHUBHoJit roy

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 20148

In The News

The eyes of the entire country is on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his newly formed

Union Cabinet after they swept the Lok Sabha elections. The question now though is how will the Modi team perform after settling down in Delhi. The BJP poster boy has clus-tered ministries, putting them under one minister to improve synergies and ensure that related departments come under one roof.

There are big gainers and also some losers for the time being as in spite of losing the LS polls, Arun Jaitley became the biggest winner obtaining the finance, corporate af-fairs and defence ministries. Simi-larly, Smriti Irani after losing to Rahul Gandhi got HRD. After the elections, there was speculation that Gen. VK Singh might get defence but got MoS and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) (Indepen-dent Charge). Well, Modi must have thought out well we presume, before deciding on the profiles.

With a new cabinet in place will NaMo be able to deliver it all?

There are 23 Cabinet ministers and 22 Minister of States as decided by Narendra Modi. In India, the no-menclature of cabinet minister and minister of state is used at the central level where cabinet ministers are con-sidered superior and are given charge of separate ministries such as home, foreign, petroleum, education, wel-fare, science and technology, health, and so on. In case of smaller depart-ments, there is usually a cabinet min-ister with no ministers of state. But in cases where the ministry is large and necessitates junior members to help and assist cabinet minister in discharging his duties, ministers of state are appointed. Team Modi for the time being may have decided a bit hastily, but as the Indian system is such that reshuffling is never a cli-ché, there might be a rejig soon. But are the people who voted for the saf-fron party happy with the allotments of berths?

Medhi Alam Bora | State Congress Chief spokesperson

“The formation of the Union Cabinet is entirely in the purview of the Prime Minister. The HRD ministry decides the future of a country’s future as it takes care of the education sector which develops the in-stitutes. So, I think the HRD ministry should have been headed by an educationist.”

Praffula Kumar Mahanta | President, AGP

“I am very happy with the change in the Centre and wish them all the very best for the future. The formation of Cabinet is entirely decided by the PM and I hope that they keep their promises as made.”

Pallav Bagaria | CEO, Brand New Day

“I am very happy with the formation of the Cabinet and this is for the first time that three ministers will take care of Northeast. And when the leader of a team is good, the performance is always better.”

WILL TEaM ModI KEEP ITS ProMISES?

Rajnath SinghHome Affairs

Sushma SwarajExternal Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

Arun JaitleyFinance, Corporate Affairs, Defence

Venkaiah NaiduUrban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs

Nitin GadkariRoad Transport and Highways, Shipping

D.V. Sadananda GowdaRailways

Uma BharatiWater Resources, River Devel-opment and Ganga Rejuvena-tion

Najma HeptullaMinority Affairs

Gopinath MundeRural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sani-tation

Ram Vilas PaswanConsumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Kalraj MishraMicro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Maneka Sanjay GandhiWomen and Child Development

Ananth KumarChemicals and Fertilizers

Ravi Shankar PrasadCommunications and Infor-mation Technology, Law and Justice

Ashok Gajapathi RajuCivil Aviation

Anant GeeteHeavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Harsimrat Kaur BadalFood Processing Industries

Narendra Singh TomarMines, Steel, Labour and Em-ployment

Jual OramTribal Affairs

Radha Mohan SinghAgriculture

Thawar Chand GehlotSocial Justice and Empower-ment

Smriti IraniHuman Resource Development

Dr. Harsh VardhanHealth and Family Welfare

Gen. VK SinghDevelopment of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

Rao Inderjit SinghPlanning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Imple-mentation (Independent Charge), Defence

Santosh Kumar GangwarTextiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Shripad NaikCulture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge)

Dharmendra PradhanPetroleum and Natural Gas (Inde-pendent Charge)

Sarbananda SonowalSkill Development, Entrepreneur-ship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)

Prakash JavadekarInformation and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environ-ment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), Parliamen-tary Affairs

Piyush GoyalPower (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)

Nirmala SitharamanCommerce and Industry (Indepen-dent Charge), Finance, Corporate Affairs

GM SiddeshwaraCivil Aviation

Manoj SinhaRailways

NihalchandChemicals and Fertilizers

Upendra KushwahaRural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation

Pon RadhakrishnanHeavy Industries and Public Enter-prises

Kiren RijijuHome Affairs

Krishan Pal GujjarRoad Transport and Highways, Shipping

Sanjiv BaliyanAgriculture, Food Processing Industries

Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai VasavaTribal Affairs

Raosaheb Dadarao Patil DanveConsumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Vishnu Deo SaiMines, Steel, Labour and Employ-ment

SudarshanBhagatSocial Justice and Empowerment

Cabinet ministers

Ministers of State

Dr.Jitendra SinghScience and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Indepen-dent Charge), Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space

People speakDevajit Saikia | Additional Advocate General

“I am happy that for the first time, the minister in charge for sports is from Assam. Assam has huge talent in the sports sector so, the talents will be recognised and the minister will do something for the region.”

The mandate that the people of India has given is massive and there is no doubt that people have huge expectations from Narendra Modi. Of course, when citizens start questioning him even on the re-cent flash floods that inundated Guwahati, that would be carrying it a bit too far, but then the citizens of the country are hoping that Modi can bring about a change in the country and make it a global power.

The TeamPrime Minister | Narendra Modi

Personnel, public grievances and pensions, department of atomic ener-gy, department of space, all important policy issues and other portfolios not allocated to any minister.

raHUL CHanDa

rahul.chanda@g-plus.in

Jahnabi Phookan | Director, Jungle Travels India

“I am happy that Assam has been given due recognition in the Union Cabinet. But the cultural ministry should not have been merged with the tourism ministry as the culture is something special and dif-ferent. I am sure Mr Modi will do something about it in the near fu-ture.”

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 9

In The News

Jyotikrishnan Kalita, Trisha Bora, Ananya Jaimini, Himangshu Bar-man and Mrinmoy Kashyap have

made the city proud by becoming the rank holders in HSLC (High School Leaving Certificate) Examination from SEBA (Secondary Education Board of Assam). Jyotikrishnan Ku-mar Kalita of Malaybari High School bagged the 2nd position by securing a total marks of 581, four marks less than the top position holder Achyut Ranjan Gogoi of Nazira Jatiya Vidya-laya of Sivsagar.

Jyotikrishnan Kalita brought honours for his school as well as for the region of Jyotikuchi. Jyotikrisnan belongs from the Malaybari High School that is not known for having too many students. However, Jyo-tikrishnan expressed his happiness and gratitude towards his parents and teachers who according to him supported him all throughout the academic year.

The 5th and 9th positions were bagged by Trisha Bora and Ananya Jaimini respectively from the Holy Child School at Chandmari. While speaking to G Plus, Trisha Bora, daughter of Hemanta Kumar Bora and Ambika Ganguly, hailing from Hatigaon gave credit to her parents and teachers for backing her up at all times. “I have received constant support from my parents, my grand-mother, teachers, and relatives and even from my friends. I was expect-ing 90% from the start but didn’t expect a ranking,” said a jubilant Trisha. She secured 576 marks with Letter marks in Assamese, Eng-

lish, Science, General Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics and Social Studies. She further announced that she will be doing her HS from Ma-harshi Vidya Mandir School at Bar-sajai in the Science stream and wants to be an engineer in the future.

Ananya Jaimini, the 9th rank holder in the state wants to be a mechanical engineer in the future. Ananya says, “Securing a rank was really unexpected, I had hoped for 90%, but a state rank was not at all expected.” Ananya further informed that she is looking forward to take admissions in Don Bosco, Army School or Shrimanta Sankardev Academy. Jaimini, daughter of Gau-tam Barman and Pinkumani Barman of Milanpur scored an all total of 572 marks with Letter marks in Assa-mese, English, General Mathematics, Advanced Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.

Holy Child School secured a 100% as pass percentage this year after bag-ging 100% last year as well for HSLC. 118 students out of 121 who appeared from Holy Child for HSLC secured 1st division and the rest three has se-cured 2nd division. The principal of the school, Sister Annie informed that 43 students have scored distinction whereas 41 students are the star holders from the school. “It is a great feeling and a proud moment for the entire school staff and knowing the fact that the school is shifting to CBSE from SEBA from this term, it is a great achievement for the school as the last batch of SEBA,” informed Sister Annie to G Plus.

Two more ranks from the city

were secured by Himangshu Barman of Suderashan Public School and by Mrinmoy Kashyap of Sankardev Sishu Niketan. Both Himangshu and Mrin-moy secured the 10th position with 571 marks each. Himangshu Barman is eager to get admission into Cotton Col-lege and wants to take up Civil Engi-neering in the future whereas Mrinmoy Kashyap is right now unsure about his future studies but wants to get admitted into Cotton College and take up Science stream.

Speaking of the overall SEBA HSLC results, the educational board has seen a decline in the pass percentage

from 70.71% last year to 61.42%, with a dip of 9.29%. The Male pass percentage for SEBA stood at 65.33% while the fe-male pass percentage witnessed 57.73%; standing 7.6% lower than its male coun-terpart.

Kamrup (M) saw an overall 67.83% as pass percentage for this year whereas Dhemaji scored the highest pass per-centage of 80.39%. A total of 14,542 stu-dents from Kamrup (M) appeared for HSLC examination for the year 2013-14 out of which 9,955 passed all total; 2973 students scored 1st division. Overall, this was the lowest pass percentage in the last five years.

FIVE CITY STUdENTS BaG raNKS IN HSLC

SHUBHoJit roy

Assam bags the lowest overall pass percentage in the last five years

SPLUrGE UrGE

THIS SPACE CAN BE YOURS AT

`1000/-Please Call 8486002303/4/5

“Securing a rank

was really unexpected, I had hoped for 90%, but a state rank

was not at all expected.”

shubhojit.roy@g-plus.in

Ananya Jaimini

Ananya Jaimini

Trisha Bora

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201410

Politicking

The general elections of 2014 marks a paradigm shift in Indian politics - be it for the political par-ties or for the election commission of India. The winning party took almost two years to devise a foolproof strat-egy to sweep India and the election Commission of India took decades to come up with stringent ground rules to conduct free and fair polls. But fi-nally, the people of India and democ-racy won and the people at the helm of affairs in the Election Commission of India deserve a big salute.

The election commission of India would emerge much tougher in the days to come, especially in the com-ing state elections and will keep no room for money, muscle and mafia influencing poor voters to vote for a particular party or a person. And the political parties must understand that caste, community and religious polarisation may not work all the time.

Two years down the line from now, Assam will head for the state Assembly elections. However, going by the present political scenario of Assam, it cannot be ruled out that the state might have to go for elections much before the due date.

The ruling party has got trapped in some sort of a ‘Chakrabehu’ which would be difficult to break out of easi-ly. If the present instability continues to dog the government, it will be dif-ficult for the Congress to repeat the success, which it recorded in the last elections. Secondly, Congress also lacks young and credible leaders with new world leadership traits and so the major challenges for the Congress in Assam are to quell dissidence, iden-

All the parties need to gear up as the next two years will be critically crucial for the Assembly elections in 2016.

SMS BorDoLoi

tify and groom leaders who can lead Assam and devise development mod-els that would touch the hearts of the voters.

Moreover, innovative develop-mental projects that are likely to be rolled out by the Modi government for Assam and the North-east as well as expeditious completion of the pending projects will doubly expose the previous Government’s insincer-ity and commitment to the region. This will put the ruling government in a fix, giving advantage to other parties.

Similarly, the state BJP leader-ship might have become highly en-thusiastic after bagging seven seats in the 2014 general elections and have declared their mission 84 for the state assembly elections but it must not be undermined that it was purely the Modi wave that helped the party win a large number of seats. BJP’s mis-sion 84 may sound very exciting, but to achieve that, the party leaders will have to burn tons of midnight oil.

The BJP’s grass roots organisa-tional set up is not very strong and so the party will have to project a strong and capable leader to lead the party for the coming Assembly elections, which may not be an easy task. The BJP will also need a strong back office set up to devise strategic game plans, which Modi single handedly did for BJP during the 2014 elections.

Though Sorbananda Sonowal’s entry in to the Modi ministry is a feather in BJP’s cap, the challenges for Sonowal are much bigger. He will have to be in sync with Modi’s mo-dus operandi and show performance from day one without which, survival

for Sonowal in the ministry would be tough. Sonowal’s portfolio requires a great deal of out-of-the-box thinking and he must associate with such peo-ple to sail well and survive. ‘Perform or perish’ is the Modi mantra.

In the next hundred days Modi

will identify people in the bureau-cracy and his ministry who would deliver on time and every time. In case Sonowal fails to live up to the expectations of Modi, he may eventu-ally find his Chief Ministerial dreams far from achievable.

On the opportunity side Sonowal has an ocean of them for his portfolio because skill development, entrepre-neurs, youth and sports, if promoted with a sound strategy, can make So-nowal a national hero.

Going for Modi’s style of func-tioning it is crystal clear that he will neither tolerate mediocrity form his ministers nor from any bureaucrat. It seems for now as if the word ‘me-diocrity’ has no place in Modi’s dic-tionary.

Political pundits may have al-ready written the obituary of AGP, but unprecedented opportunities lie before them to reengineer the party in the next one year and get set for a big bang in the coming elections. However, to do so the AGP would need to indulge in a great deal of in-novative ideating for which the party would need a huge pool of strategic think tanks and experts in a wide array of subjects. The party’s major defect lies in the complete absence of a culture for grooming future leaders and the absence of think tanks.

It reminds me of a practice of Modi on how he picked up efficient bureaucrats in Gujarat as a Chief Minister. He used to take 245 senior officers to an unknown destination for a brain storming session and these bureaucrats were asked to speak on what good work they had done in the previous year and what good

work they would do in the coming year. The sessions were very informal with no podium for the Chief Minis-ter and no formal address or ceremo-ny. Modi’s objective was to identify the most brilliant officers with the capability to deliver extra ordinary results. So this way he picked up his team and put the right person in right assignment.

Now the question is, whether the AGP leadership has the guts to invite young and talented boys and girls above 25 years of age from across the state (even professional who are working outside Assam now) for a strategic presentation/debate. This needs to be on various development models ensuring 360 degree devel-opment of Assam over a period of time with an assurance that the most brilliant youth identified through this process would be given the op-portunity to contest the elections in 2016 assembly election. This is just an example; anything is possible with an open mind and a brave heart!

Modi has redefined leadership and set new benchmark in Indian politics. People of this country now know what type of leaders we want to lead this country. In the state level too, expectation of the people in gen-eral will remain the same and will not get easily swayed by hollow promises and goodies.

In Assam too people would ex-pect their next Chief Minister to be a person with commitment, char-acter, capability and techno-savvy who would compel us to dream more, learn more, do more and become more. Well, we await paradigm shift in Assam’s politics!

ParadIGM SHIFT IN INdIaN PoLITICS

Two years down the line

from now, Assam will

head for the state Assembly

elections. However, going by

the present political

scenario of Assam, it cannot be ruled out that the

state might have to go

for elections much before the due date.

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 11

Ward Watch

Set atop the Nilachal hills, Kam-akhya temple holds the pride of place as the most significant

landmark of Guwahati city for tour-ists as well as travelers. Surrounded by tall trees, the Nilachal hill is a scene of tranquility. However, the re-gion is not very highly populated as compared to the rest of the city and is home to the priests (also known as the Pandaas) of the Kamakhya tem-ple. G Plus found that the locality is mostly peaceful and does not suffer from any major issues which plagues the rest of the city.

Business is good!

After taking a ride through the winding roads of the Nilachal hills, we reached the market area outside the main Kamakhya temple. Out in the corner of the VIP parking lot, Kamal Boro, a local businessman selling shells and marble sculptures greets this correspondent with a warm smile. Kamal Boro who has been doing business since the past 10 odd years tells G Plus that the busi-ness in the locality has mostly been good. “This place never has scarcity of visitors from all across the country and also from outside India. With the blessings from Kamakhya Maa, our business has been consistent, if not great,” said Kamal. On asking about the major issues in the area, he says that there are none “except for some fights that happen between the trek-ker drivers occasionally,” adds Boro.

Police Status

Searching for some answers, G Plus reached the Kamakhya outpost police station and talked to the officer in-charge. Upen Sharma, OC at the Kamakhya Outpost told G Plus that besides some rare cases of theft, “the area is very peaceful,” said Sharma. On being asked about illegal intoxi-cation atop the hill and at different viewpoints, Upen Sharma informed that intoxication in the area has re-duced extensively. “Previously, you would have found youths drinking alcohol openly at the viewpoints but now it has reduced and is almost nil. I am strict with the perpetrators of such incidents; however I avoid filing cases and try to resolve it in consul-tation with the parents of the youths involved in the illegal activities,” ex-plained Sharma.

Incoming Tourists

While climbing the stairs of Kamakhya, one comes across many small shops that sells items such as garlands, earthen lamps and incense sticks. These shops also look after the foot wear of the visitors to the temple for free. Ashish Nath is one such shop owner in the locality who informed that the number of visitors coming to the temple has been consistent ir-respective of better roads or street-lights. “The visitors have been com-ing to this place since ages. People come here seeking blessings from the Kamakhya temple. It doesn’t matter if the roads are good or if there are streetlights or not, people come here when Maa Kamakhya calls them,” says Nath.

Councilor’s Pride

Shyamal Chakraborty, the Coun-cilor of Ward No. 4, while speaking to G Plus spoke about the develop-ment that the Nilachal Hills has gone through over the years. He said, “At present, we have received a sum amount of `30 lakhs from the GMC for installation of streetlights in every ward. The streetlights will soon be in-stalled in the staircases that reach the temple.” On asking about the prepa-ration for the upcoming Ambabuchi

mela, Shyamal informed that last year, 150 portable lavatories were installed, “This year we are going to place around 200 of them,” said the Councilor. He further adds that the Kamakhya tem-ple has around 3 lakh litres of reserved

Sub-division 4a/ 4BNo. of voters 16, 552 (approx)Concentrated region Nilachal Hills, KamakhyaMajor Issues None

KaMaKHYa GETTING rEadYFor aMBUBaCHIThe residents of Kamakhya are quite happy with the facilities and developments in the area and the Ambubachi Mela seems to be the only challenge they face every year.

WardNo

4SHUBHoJit roy

drinking water for the people.There is no doubt that Kamakhya,

because of its importance in the city, has been taken good care of. It has enabled fruitful business scopes for many locals in the area. However, the

maintenance and arrangement of the place is questioned every year during the Ambabuchi mela, which is again going to be a big task ahead for the au-thorities.

shubhojit.roy@g-plus.in

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201412

The Week That WasCITY NEWS

Kim Sarma Hmar, a  resi-dent  of Silpukhuri in the city, has the unique ability

to hand-knit woollen fabrics at a mindboggling speed. She is set to enter the Limca  Book of  Records as the fastest Indian to knit. Kim is capable of knitting a 42-inch x one-inch woollen fabric in a record time of just 30 minutes. Even more amazing is the fact that she can do the knitting even blindfolded and without compromising even a bit on speed. Kim gave a demonstration of her exceptional talent at the District Industries and Commerce Centre (DICC), Kamrup  located at the  In-

dustrial Estate, Bamunimaidam on May 26. Her feat was witnessed by the officials and employees of the DICC besides many enthusias-tic EDP trainees under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme. The DICC has also is-sued a certificate as a mark of recog-nition of her exceptional talent and feat. “Knitting used to be tradition-ally practised by most women in the North-east but the art has lost its appeal these days. I hope that my feat would put some focus back on this beautiful pursuit – akin to an art – and inspire women to take re-newed interest in it,” she said.

According to the recent sur-vey by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, Assam has

about 39 percent of tobacco users, which includes the consumers of cigarettes, bidis and raw tobacco. The survey catered to people from age 15 and above. In this context State Tobacco Control Cell’s State Nodal Officer Arundhati Deka said that along with the rest of the world May 31 would be celebrated as the World Anti Tobacco Day in Assam too. The authorities are planning to organize a signature campaign programme at Dighalipukhuri in the city while inviting celebrities

and important dignitaries to be a part of it. Talking on this issue, she stated that out of the stated amount of tobacco users, 37 percent are cig-arette smokers, 11 percent are bidi smokers, while 14 percent are gut-kha and khaini chewers. She also stated that the state government has banned tobacco products in the state and tobacco products are not allowed to be sold near educational institutions. She also added that about `1 lakh has been collected as fine by the department in form of fines from all over the state so far. She said that 82 colleges have been declared as no smoking zones.

Tobacco a big threat: SurveyA huge financial loss of more

than 2,500 crore has been faced by the Assam State

Electricity Board (ASEB) in the last five years mainly under the operation of electricity transmis-sion. Sources said high operation and maintenance costs, inter-est payment and salary of a huge workforce of about 10,382 employ-ees are some other factors which are also behind the loss incurred by the ASEB from time to time. As per 2011–12 figures, the State has suffered 27.7 per cent loss arising out of electricity transmission and distribution. Sources said that the ASEB has to make huge expenses for purchasing power from other sources. “ASEB spent `1321.7 crore for purchasing power from other sources in the financial year 2009–10, ̀ 1871.5 crore in 2010–11, `2242.2 crore in 2011–12, `2331.1 crore in 2012–13 and ̀ 2696.9 crore (approx.) in 2013–14,” the records stated. The State is also still not self–sufficient in power produc-tion and the move to identify the areas of power loss will boost the earnings of ASEB, sources added. The State is also still not self–suf-ficient in power production and the move to identify the areas of power loss will boost the earnings of ASEB, sources added. On sev-eral occasions, State Power Minis-ter Pradyut Bordoloi said the State government is taking all possible measures to strengthen the power generation and supply in the State, but the government is yet to fulfil the state’s power demand and sup-ply gap.

aSEB faces biggest loss ever

City Cong unit demands

Himanta’s ouster

An immediate demand for ex-pulsion of Himanta Biswa Sarma and his followers from

the Congress party has arisen from the Guwahati District Congress Committee. They held the meeting on May 26 to save the party in Assam. A joint statement issued by former MLA Mohan Basumatary, former Guwahati District Congress Com-mittee, President Naren Sarma, Gu-wahati District Congress Committee, General Secretary Dilip Bhattacha-ryya, Guwahati District Congress Committee, Secretary Atiqur Rah-man and Chairman, SC cell of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Uttam Das said there is no need to serve showcase notices on Sarma and his cohorts because their statements are well recorded in the footage of the  electronic media. Sarma and his cohorts have hurt lakhs of Congress workers, who have been selflessly working for  the party  even during its bad days. The meeting was of the opinion that the  Congress party  in Assam is not made up of only 79 leg-islators, nor these legislators are the lords of the party.

Eminent social activist Dibyajyoti Saikia won the coveted Maulana Azad

National Award at a function held in Maharashtra’s Nasik city on May 25. Saikia was given the award at the ceremony or-ganized by the Samata Sahitya Academy. He was given the award by former Arunachal Pradesh Governor Mata Prasad. Saikia is a social activist who has been working on providing edu-cational materials to students in backward areas of Assam as well as other parts of India. The award carries a memento, a letter of recognition, a cer-tificate and a shawl. Saikia is the Founder and General Secretary of the Asom Satra Mahasabha’s Youth Organisation, Samannita Yuvatirtha. He is also the Secre-tary General of the social outfit brothers.

Local activist earns fame

for Ghy

Drug kingpin Samsul Haque Talukdar, alias Pakhi Miyan, was granted bail by Gauhati

High Court on May 27. With this, Pakhi Miyan received bail in all four cases registered against him in As-sam. He was acquitted in a case in West Bengal earlier this year. As-sam Police named Miyan as the key drug racketeer of the state in all the cases. He was arrested in April, 2008

in West Bengal by Barrackpore Police with 10kg of ganja, 200gm of heroin, 21 SIM cards and some documents. He was later handed over to Assam Police. He was shifted to Gauhati Medical College Hospital while in judicial custody, but managed to es-cape in 2008 by allegedly drugging policemen engaged to keep an eye on him. He was again arrested in West Bengal’s Durgapur.

drug dealer gets bail

Singer Pranamika Goswami endured a rude shock when she had to face an attack by an

armed robber in the wee hours of May 29th when she was returning with her entourage after performing a show at Garigaon near Jalukbari. At about 3 am in the morning, a lo-cal robber named Raju Ali came on his motorcycle while carrying a huge machete and started giving blows on the car where Goswami was seated with other members. The car was stopped and Ali snatched away the purse and mobile phone from one of the occupants of the car. The occu-pant also sustained some minor inju-ries on his hand. After Ali ran away, Goswami and her troupe members quickly reported the matter to the Jalukbari police station whose team soon arrested Ali in the morning. Ali was detained by the police after he was identified by Goswami and her companions. The incident left Gos-wami in deep shock and she has sent forth a message to all the function or-ganizers of the state not to hold late night functions as the roads are not safe for them to travel during the wee hours of the night.

Singer Pranamika Goswami

attacked by robber

Writer Suranjana Baruah has been chosen for the first Pallavi Barua Bhuyan lit-

erary award for translation instituted by the Pallavi Barua Bhuyan Founda-tion. Baruah has been chosen for the award for her English translation of the Assamese classic Miri Jiyori by Rajanikanta Bardoloi. The award was formally presented to the writer at a function at the Vivekananda Kendra on May 27. Veteran journalist DN

Bezboruah was the Chief Guest of the function to be presided over by poet-critic Hirendranath Dutta. Prof Madan Sarma delivered a memorial lecture on the occasion. Translator Deepika Phukan will be felicitated for her lifetime achievement on the occa-sion. The third edition of Grandma’s Tale, an English translation of Lak-shminath Bezbaroa’s children classic Burhi Aair Sadhu was also released at the function.

Translation award for Suranjana Baruah

City lady to register name in record books

GNRC Medical has launched a new scheme for the free treatment of accident and

emergency patients. Launching the scheme, Chairman of GNRC Ltd, Dr. Nomal Chandra Borah said, “Human life is precious, but everyday many lives are lost prematurely. Accidents are one of the most common causes behind this untimely and sudden loss of life. In such a situation, the sooner they are treated more will be the pos-sibility of their survival. Keeping this

in view and for the overall wellbeing of the society, GNRC Medical has taken a bold and revolutionary step towards providing free treatment for the first 24 hours after an accident. This scheme will cover patients suf-fering from stroke, heart attack and other medical emergencies also. The free facility will cover doctor’s con-sultation, bed charges, Oxygen, mini-mum but essential medicines, ECG, CT Scan, X-RAY and limited blood tests.

GNrC launches new emergency scheme

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 13

The Week That WasCITY NEWS

Bonjour Guwahati” a cer-tificate award ceremony of French and German

languages was organized by Global Academy of Foreign languages and Professional Training on May 25 at ITA Machkhowa. As many as 70 students were awarded international diplomas in French and German languages during the programme, which was attended by many aca-demicians besides students and

parents. It may be mentioned that Global Academy of Foreign lan-guages has been imparting inter-nationally recognized courses in French and German languages since 2011. The institute also plans to in-troduce Japanese and Spanish lan-guage courses for the students be-sides teaching Assamese to foreign students. At present the institute has three teachers from France for the teaching of French language. Soon,

it is planning to start international course in Japanese language to be taught by a native Japanese language teacher. A French musical extrava-ganza was also organized during the programme in which the students of the institute performed French song while the French teachers performed Bihu dance. Indian idol finalist Eman choudhury also enthralled with a French melody during the programme.

award ceremony on foreign languages organised Local body protest against power shortage

The Asomiya Yuva Mancha protested against the acute shortage of power in the state

in front of the ASEB head office Bi-juli Bhawan in the city. The protest-ers threw candles inside the premises of the office in protest while venting out their anger over the scenario. The Mancha’s General Secretary Jitul Deka said that while the entire state has descended into darkness, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and State Pow-er Minister Pradyut Bordoloi are busy

engaging in dissident politics within the party. Deka also criticized Bor-doloi over the matter and said that if he is incapable of handling the power shortage, then he should provide free candles, kerosene oil and hand held fans to the people to quell with the power shortage. The protesters also burnt an effigy of the Power Minister in this regard and severely criticized his failure. Later, the police rounded up the protesters and arrested them. They were taken away in police vans.

A person involved in the international fake currency

racket got arrested from the city’s Gorchuk area on May 25 by the Police. Idrish Ali of Barpeta was caught with fake currency worth `11, 500. He was nabbed while trying to exchange the money after shopping. Assam Police, along with other security forces, are now struggling to tackle the flow of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in the region. According to security forces, the fake currency racket is a strong network run by militants from across the border with

the help of local carriers. “The ISI, which wants to destabilize India’s finan-cial system, is running the racket in Assam with the help of Ulfa (Independent). Several other underground groups from Manipur are smuggling counterfeit notes,” said a security of-ficial. “The seizures also showed that currently the highest number of counter-feit notes was found in `100 notes, followed by `500. According to RBI norms, if 15 fake currency notes are found in every 10 lakh notes of `100 denomina-tion, the situation is alarm-ing,” added the official.

Fake currency racket linkman arrested

To popularize the idea of or-ganic farming, Indian Cham-ber of Commerce organized a

one day seminar  ‘Organic Production Technology Development and Trans-fer for Promotion of Horticulture’ in Guwahati on May 28 in association with the National Horticulture Board (NHB) supported by NABARD. The seminar created a platform for dis-cussion among representatives’ gov-ernments, corporations, agencies consumer organizations, NGOs, in-dustry representatives, experts, policy makers etc to device a way forward for organic farming to move up on a higher growth trajectory. Besides, the seminar also provided an insight into the opportunities in organic farming. Central Agencies like NHB, CIH    have played a key role in this scenario as most of the beneficiaries are unaware of the various require-ments like certification and packag-ing. State government of the North Eastern region has started organic mission to organize and create in-stitutional buying in the sector. Shri

Nilamani Sen Deka, State Minister for Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Processing; attended the semi-nar as chief guest and deliberated on activities and schemes of Government of Assam. Keynote address was deliv-ered by Shri AP Sandilya , Chief Gen-eral Manager , Assam Regional Of-fice, NABARD on Funding Schemes of Organic Projects , Amlan Baruah, IAS , Secretary, Department of Agri-culture , Govt of Assam , Dr. Lallan Ram, Director, Central Institute  of Horticulture, Medziphema, Dimapur. Mr. Mihin Dolo , Coordinator ( Natu-ral Resources) , NERCORMP , Ronn Pakrashi, Chief Co–ordinating Offi-cer, North East Mega Food Tech Park Pvt Ltd deliberated in the inaugural ceremony. The seminar was organized based on suggestions and recommen-dations at the B2B Meet of the 1st As-sam International Agri Horticultural Show 2014 organized by Department of Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Processing Government of Assam in association with Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) early this year.

Seminar on organic production held by ICC

With an implementa-tion view on state language and to

make the vernaculars compul-sory in  the schools  up to the 12th standard, the Asam Sa-hitya Sabha organised a meet over it. The two-day  conven-tion held in the city on May 25 and 26. The State Government assured the delegation that a small committee would be set up to examine  the issues  re-lating to  implementation  of State Language and vernacu-lars. But that committee is yet to come into being. Though the Sabha forwarded the plea many a times before the Chief Minister, the State’s Council of Ministers and the legisla-tors of the State, there was no sign of sincerity seen over

that. Hence, the Sabha has de-cided to hold the above  con-vention to chalk out an action plan on the issues. The Sabha also involved the other na-tional organisations in final-ising the resolutions adopted in the  convention. The Sabha organised a special function on the songs of Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaroa on May 26 at the Rabindra Bha-wan. Asam Kalatirtha, State Directorate of  Cultural  Af-fairs and Numaligarh Refinery Ltd were also associated with this venture. Noted artistes Khagen Mahanta, Sudakshina Sarma, Pulak  Banerjee, Man-yotsna Mahanta, Tarali Sar-ma, Dikhu, Jayprakash Medhi, among others, performed in the function.

Meet on State language and vernaculars

In a bid to show his respect to-wards the newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Assam

artist Gautam Bardhan painted the Prime Minister’s portrait with his blood on May 27. “This is my way of showing respect to Narendra Modi, who created history by winning the election so convincingly. Now, he has to fulfil the hopes of crores of In-dians for a better future,” said Bard-han, after completing the 35-inch portrait at Guwahati Press Club. The portrait also features a dove with the tricolour and an outline of Swami Vivekananda. Bardhan, who runs an

art school in his hometown Lumd-ing in Karbi Anglong, will send the portrait to the PMO. “I would also like to appeal to the new Prime Min-ister to look into the problems of our state,” Bardhan added. In the last four years, he has painted several pictures with blood, including that of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, former president APJ Kalam and Rabin-dranath Tagore. Bardhan, who has conducted exhibitions in New Del-hi, Kolkata and other cities, said he wants to spread the message of peace and selflessness.

assam artist shows respect to Modi

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201414

Society

Situated in the Islampur area of Guwahati, Haji Musafir Khana is the only place in the city that ac-

commodates pilgrims of Hajj to Mec-ca. Every year, hundreds of travelers from all over north-east India come to Musafir Khana from where they con-tinue their next phase of travel. The foundation stone for the Haji Musafir Khana was laid on 2nd February, 1975 by the Former President of India Late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.

Initial yearsPrior to establishment of Haji

Musafir Khana, the pilgrims from all over the north-east used to come down to Guwahati and stay in the Madrassa High School and other places. MM Is-lam, Secretary of Musafir Khana says that it was difficult for the pilgrims to halt at Madrassa as the condition for overnight stay at that place was unfit at that time. “The camp for Hajj was set up at Madrassa High School dur-ing those days, but due to congestion and poor living condition, ministers, government officials and social work-ers joined hands together to build this Haji Musafir Khana by seeking door to door donation,” said MM Islam to G Plus.

Hajj SignificanceThe Hajj is associated with the life

of the Islamic Prophet, Muhammad from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Abraham (Ibra-him). Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge at Mecca for

the week of the Hajj and perform a series of rituals. According to these, each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Ka’aba, the cube-shaped building which acts as the direction of prayer, runs back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Ara-fat to stand vigil and throws stones at a ritual Stoning of the Devil.

MM Islam says that “Every year, the Roja gets shifted ahead by 10 days, which is followed by Eid-ul-Fitr and after 70 days, the Eid-ul-Zuha or Bakri-Eid is commenced. The Hajj time in Mecca is witnessed just before the Eid-ul-Zuha,” informs Islam. He further informs that “Thus the Hajj season gets shifted every year and there is no specific season for the Hajj.”

Pilgrim PopulationLast year, around 3,800 pilgrims

from the North-east visited the Hajj, out of which hundreds took shel-ter in Haji Musafir Khana. Pilgrims from Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and other north-eastern states flocked to Guwahati for stay at the Haji Musafir Khana and many other hotels to embark on their Mecca journey.

Facilities at Musafir Khana

Haji Musafir Khana consists of 90 rooms that can accommodate around 90 to 100 people. Besides the rooms, it also comprises of a prayer hall and a marriage hall that is available for the people of Islamic community at a min-imal rate. SE Alam, President at the

HaJI MUSaFIr KHaNaThe Haji Musafir Khana has been a landmark in the city for a long time.SHUBHoJit roy

Musafir Khana tells us that the rooms are given for free to the pilgrims dur-ing Hajj time. He further states, “The place is open for students who want to have their education from here and the hajj pilgrims.

“In addition, it is used for various socio-cultural activities, get togethers and wedding ceremonies. However, a new Hajj House is being constructed at Jalukbari specifically for accommo-dating the pilgrims.”

the ProcessPreviously, in order to visit Mecca

for Hajj, the pilgrimage visa and pass-port were accessible for the pilgrims, “but however things have changed now. Regular visa and passport is re-quired for visiting Mecca. The Hajj applicant while submitting the form also needs to attach the passport ap-plication form,” informs S.E. Alam, President of Haji Musafir Khana.

costingOn being questioned about the

expenses required for the entire trip, Secretary of Musafir Khana, MM Is-lam informs, “At present, the total cost of the trip would be around `1.8 lakh which can be paid in two installments to the Central Hajj Committee. The trip would include everything from flights, visa, fooding, accommodation and till return of the pilgrim. During 90’s, the trip would cost something around `40,000. But now price has raised, even the facilities. Previously, people used to go by special trains to the city from where they boarded their international flights. But now-a-days, the package includes flight trip all the way.”

the ProblemS.E. Alam has stated that due to the

road condition, there are many people who do not feel like coming to Haji Musafir Khana. “We have complained to the authorities many-a-times, but it has been of no use. The roadside is in filthy condition with garbage lying open, there is water logging problems and no one to take care of. Sometimes, we pay out of our pockets for cleaning the area,” said Alam.

Haji MusafirKhana has undoubt-edly sheltered many pilgrims of the Hajj but still it is somehow not very well known across the city. The place has provided good service to the pil-grims till date, and same is expected in the coming years as well.

Every year, the Roja gets

shifted ahead by 10 days, which

is followed by Eid-ul-Fitr and

after 70 days, the Eid-ul-Zuha

or Bakri-Eid is commenced.

The Hajj time in Mecca is

witnessed just before the Eid-

ul-Zuha”

shubhojit.roy@g-plus.in

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 15

Business

Despite investors losing Crores of Rupees to duping from the chit fund companies, the

ponzi scheme companies are still op-erating in the capital city of Guwahati and other parts of the state.Investors are still parking their money in the chit fund companies, club or group managed funds. This makes the in-vestors vulnerable to duping.

The Supreme Courts’ order of a CBI probe into the multi crore Saradha scam, which duped investors in Assam has snowballed into politi-cal controversy when Sardha group CMD, Sudipta Sen in his letter to CBI has named politicians, bureaucrats for fleecing money from him.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi requested the Gauhati High Court to set up fast track courts for quick disposal of the forgery cases filed against some chit fund compa-nies in Assam.

Several businesses were affected after the collapse of Sardha fund. Sev-eral poultry farms, which run on the Sardha’s money closed down as they ran out of funds following the state government’s crackdown on the un-

Ponzi Schemes Still at Large

incorporated financial bodies in the wake of the Sardha chit fund scam.

Sources in the financial market said that there is a tendency among a section of investors to make fast money. As stock market was not do-ing well, such chit fund companies attract investors with lucrative of-fers.

He added that these funds thrive in areas where there is less financial literacy and abysmal presence of banks and other financial institu-tions. Assam has several unbanked or under banked areas.

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A web of chit fund companies has spread in the entire Northeast India. In Assam, around 222 cases have been registered against 128 companies which include Saradha Group, Unipay 2U, Jeevan Suraksha and others in Assam.

Around 17 cases have been charge sheeted so far against 42 per-sons and 15 companies. At least 303 persons have been arrested so far. Nearly `94 lakhs in cash has been seized and `24 crore frozen. Accord-ing to the state government, nearly 106 bank accounts have been frozen.

SHaMBHaVi

Sources in the financial

market said that there is

a tendency among a

section of investors to

make fast money.

Emboldened by its best ever performance in Assam, BJP now

dreams of forming the gov-ernment in 2016. BJP has launched mission 84 in As-sam for the assembly polls in 2016. 

The saffron party in-creased its tally from 4 seats of 2009 to seven in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, surprising political pundits. However now the party has set next target that is to capture Dis-pur.

The party has started the task of making the blue-print for economic devel-opment of the state, which it intends to implement in next two years and will as-sist the Saffron party in getting 84 seats out of 126 assembly constituencies. Sudhanshu  Mittal, BJP’s election in charge for As-sam said, “In 2016 our tar-get is a Congress free As-sam.”

The party has asked the cadres to prepare them-selves for the polls and asked its elected MPs to make a report as to how much money has come to Assam in the last 13 years and if these were properly utilised or not.

Mittal added, “We will work according to the blue-print which will ensure that that in 2016 we have a BJP government in As-sam. There were doubts pre 2014 elections and people were saying BJP will not win even a single seat as it has not tied up with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), how-ever voters proved every-body wrong”  

BJP’s MISSIoN

84GPLUS featUre

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201416

Life

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji

ritU GUPtagritu21@yahoo.com

tinat atifa MaSooD

Date: 1st June , Time: 10:30 to 12:30 Speakers: Dr. Dipesh Bhagabati (Consultant Psychiatrist) Ritu Gupta (Psychological Counsellor)

“Managing stress is all about taking charge of your thoughts, emotions schedule and the way you deal with problems.....”

A two hours workshop on “STRESS MANAGEMENT “ to be held at the Institute of Human Reproduction conference hall.

For registration and details contact

09854089279

Music has the ability to shift our mood, affecting our subconscious mind from

where all the negativity and stress comes out. Music has the power to lighten our mood making us feel euphoric. Once you are up and mov-ing, fill your room with beautiful and inspiring music. Create a playlist or CD of music that relaxes and inspires you. A positive morning music ritual is a sure way to start your day off in a better mood and keep your busy mind from dragging you back into the worries of yesterday, today, or to-morrow. 

Singing along with music also does wonders because by doing so we are putting all our energy into something positive thus enabling us to ease out all the negativity and in the end we feel much better. If you’re going to sing, pick songs you know

will put you in a better mood, inspire you or help you relax. Pay attention to how different you feel after a few minutes of singing aloud, and make note of the songs that make you feel best so you can return to them when you need them the most. 

Playing music is like a mega-vitamin, engaging more areas of the human brain than any other activity. Music’s ability to help us shift thought patterns and moods, and even im-prove our physical well-being, is quite remarkable. When choosing the kind of songs and piece of music, it’s very important that we don’t choose something very challenging because by doing so, we will get more stressed and frustrated. This is the reason why they call it “playing” music and not “working” music. The point is to con-nect to your instrument in a positive, relaxed, and joyful way, and then let

the vibration of the music do its mag-ic. The more you can be present and truly enjoy the experience, the more it will help keep the stress at bay. 

We often see a lot of people, while going for a walk or doing yoga, they take their music along with them. Adding music can enhance the effect. Instead of rushing to catch the evening news, jumping onto the Internet or flipping through the TV channels to unwind when you finally arrive home, try making music a part of your end-of-day unwinding ritual.

You will see a drastic change in your mood. You will find yourself more calm and at peace. If you are a parent and find the kids to be a big contribu-tor to your stress, teach them to join you. You can share the same musical selections together or have each fam-ily member listen to their own music on headphones during the designated time. 

Music is a powerful alchemy that affects our perceptions, emotions, and physical well-being, whether we are paying attention or not.

MUSIC IS LIFE

Mom used to always tell me, “Never blame anyone for anything. If you are strong enough, then you should

be ready to take the blame yourself.” And this statement has somehow stayed im-printed inside my head forever.

And years later, now when I counsel students, the only thing I tell them is, “Nev-er point your finger at anyone ‘cause there are three fingers pointing back at you!”

And what do these three fingers say? They say that I am three times worse than the person I am pointing my fingers at. And how does that make me feel? Obviously not nice. All this time I was thinking that I am the best and suddenly, you tell me that I am worse than you?

Having said that, I wonder why we do small talk at all. I have noticed that when three friends (age is not a question here!) get together, they start talking about the fourth. What they haven’t realised is that when it’s the turn of one of them to be ab-sent when the other three meet, then what happens? The same story! Haven’t we wasted enough time already doing what we shouldn’t have done? Isn’t it late al-ready? Late? You ask me, “Late for what?”

Obviously, late in saving my land from all this rut. We have our hands full with so much to perform and then do we anyway have time for idle gossip?

People love gossip and in fact, more the merrier! But let me tell you, this will not do us any good; not now, not ten years from now; not for the future generation! The world needs us, needs good people to save it and protect it from thoughts which are alienating it from its own self.

Gossip can be a deterrent to devel-opment! When I see young people stand-ing or sitting around in groups talking, I

sometimes wonder if they are talking of something exciting to do for the city or their community. What a waste if they are just ‘checking out’ girls or vice versa. It’s okay to do that too as it’s all a part of growing up but if it becomes a habit, then there lies the fault. And after frustration sets in, the youth gets into the vicious cycle of blaming their elders and the leaders for not deliver-ing the right means for their future. Who should be blamed? It is they who wasted their time, not XYZ, who was investing time in building himself or herself. And then ev-eryone starts getting jealous because that person has out-performed the ‘guys’ gos-siping on the street and carved a niche for herself/himself. Is there some logic in such behaviour?

The recent furore in the Assam state politics has left everyone speechless, ap-palled and with absolutely no clue as to what will blow up the scene next. The mud-slinging and hate rhetoric got the better of the people and everyone’s mood swung to an all-time low. “This is not how a state is run. Each one has a different blame game altogether.” Some people, sad by the state of happenings, commented in unison. Ev-eryone loves Assam and to see it wounded is an unbearable situation. What I feel is that a family might have differences amongst the brothers and sisters but it is very wrong to take the fight to the streets for all to see. People living as a family in homes are hardly seen taking to the streets because of a fight they had, with exceptions ofcourse these days, due to the excessive coverage given by the media. Shouldn’t the same be followed for any political party? Washing dirty linen in public is so passé! So it’s time, we did some serious introspection and worked for the city and Assam, rather

than working for personal benefits!Okay, we all, barring some, want

that power, money, fame and whatever the fringe benefits that come with it. But please, not at the cost of the happiness of the people. That is divisive!

On joining the Congress, I was ques-tioned by the electronic media, “So, does this mean that you are going to leave everything. Your cultural activities et al? Do you have a purpose for joining the party” I said, “No. I would never do that. See, I have been committed to working for people since I was in school. It is not new for me. Being a member of Rotary Interna-tional too has given me a very big scope to work for the people who need me. Now, after joining Congress, I will get a much wider arena to work in for the deprived and the down-trodden.”

No-one and take that as not a single right-thinking person wants to live in a conflict-ridden society. We all want that peace of mind to grow, to think, to perform and see our children happy too. Each and every person looks up at their elected lead-er to conduct the business of the land in a manner conducive to everyone. They want to see their city clean, get clean drinking water, security for everyone; basically a co-hesive environment sans violence.

The rising number of thefts, dacoities and murders in and around the city is very alarming. Guwahatians are of the opinion that they are not safe in their own city, in their own homes. Who should they turn to, they ask, as they are of the opinion that the police will not be of any help. However, we just can’t afford to sit back and think that such incidents are the end of the world and point our finger elsewhere. I feel that in times of need, every person can turn into a

leader. What we can do as citizens is to tie up with the local police and start commu-nity policing. The unity of a particular area can be streamlined by conducting meetings at regular intervals in collaboration with the local police. Community policing is an inherent practice in most countries; I had the privilege to know more about it during my travel to Canada. A list of help phone numbers can be typed out alongside the numbers of all the neighbours in the area. If anyone is in trouble at any point of time, at least before the police arrives, one of the neighbours can take stock of the situation.

What I personally feel is at this very moment we need to talk, discuss and come to a solution about the city and our state. There is so much we can talk about; the de-velopment of the minds of the youth, wom-en protection, depleting tree cover, train-ing for mothers, education, clean drinking water, hygiene, sanitation, medical aide, girl child mortality and so much more. We have so many, read that as gargantuan, huge, mammoth, endless problems to dis-cuss about across the table and come to a solution. Assam, Northeast, India and the World at large needs so many good people to heal it off its wounds and nurse it back to what it was before.

But ordinary as we humans tend to behave, we still have time to discuss petty nothings rather than thinking how beauti-ful we can make the Earth only by carpet-ing it with the most attractive ideas and thoughts.

Just give it a try and take the first baby step to save the Earth! It desper-ately needs a lot of good people!

THE dEVELoPMENT MaNIFESTo!

Eklavya teaches us how to be a stu-dent; how to learn, and how to feel the connection with the master.

He teaches us how to have that one-sided love, one-sided connection, and how that can bring about skill within you. That is what we can learn from Eklavya.

Nachiketa  teaches us steadfast-ness. He was determined and he was steadfast in getting to know what he really wanted to know. He could not be tempted by anything. He could not be deviated from his goal.

From  Abhimanyu, we can learn valor and finesse. And how, alone without losing courage, he could face everyone in all directions. If someone else was in his place they would have run away. He challenged thousands of people everywhere. Only a person who is firmly centered can accept challenges from thousands of people.  He could fight thousands alone, that was Abhimanyu’s greatness.

If you go into these scrip-tures, you can find so many glori-ous qualities, and imbibe them all in you. In fact you should know that they are already present in you. If you think you don’t have them, and you try to imbibe them, it be-comes a strenuous thing to do, and success becomes doubtful. You should know you already have these qualities and you only have to nurture them. Then it becomes easier. Do not try to develop divine qualities and think it is difficult. Whenever we think something is difficult, our mind moves away from that. This is the na-ture of our mind. We don’t want to do something that is difficult.

One is challenge, another is difficulty. Young people want to take up chal-lenges. A young person says, ‘I want to do something challenging’. But even young people, when they find something difficult, and when they think, ‘Oh, this is very difficult’, that means they want to move away from it. But for a challenge, you say, ‘Yes, I want to take that challenge’. There is a slight difference in our attitude.

The moment we say, ‘Difficulty’, the mind or the spirit tries to withdraw from it. It is not natural to be in difficulty. So, you should assume that all the good qualities are already within you. Never think it is difficult to attain them. And when you acknowledge that they are present in you in the form of a seed and you need to nurture them, then you will be able to nurture it. If you think you don’t have them, then you will not even make that little effort to nurture those qualities.

What if Abhimanyu, Nachiketa and Eklavya (characters from the Indian epics) come together? What lessons can today’s youth draw from them?

You are‘all In one’

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 17

Health

Stay motivated: Often times, it is easy to work on improving our health for two weeks, then to stop once we don’t immediately see results. The major part of improving your health is remaining consistent and motivated in doing activities. Bring your friend along for workout.

Health Tip

The increasing urbanisation and mechanisation of the world has reduced our levels

of physical activity. Physical activity or exercise is a part of everyone’s life. However, it is the degree of physical exertion that differs among people. The World Health Organisation be-lieves that more than 60% of the glob-al population is not sufficiently active. Physical activity, at any age, protects against a multitude of chronic health problems including many forms of heart and blood vessel diseases. Phys-ical activity increases the life span, regardless of any adverse inherited factors. Physical activity protects by regulating the weight and improving the body’s use of insulin. Being ac-tive is beneficial for blood pressure, blood lipid levels, blood glucose lev-els, blood clotting factors, the health of the blood vessels and inflamma-tion, which is a powerful promoter of heart disease. Studies show that do-ing more than 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate physical activity or an hour of vigorous physi-cal activity every week will reduce the risk of heart disease by about 30%.

Even if somebody has existing risk factors for heart disease, if the person keeps active, the evidence suggests that this may lower the risk of premature death compared to in-active people with no risk factors for heart disease. The good news is that even small increases in physical fit-ness are associated with a significant reduction in risk, even if someone has existing disease.

Why is physical activity important?

Physically inactive people are more likely to suffer from heart dis-ease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholester-ol, etc. The heart is basically a muscle and like other muscles in the body it needs exercise to keep it fit in order for it to work efficiently.

What are the benefits of physical activity?

Being physically inactive doubles the risk of coronary heart disease. Not doing enough physical activity to stay healthy makes physical inactiv-ity the most common risk factor for heart disease. People who have been physically active are more likely to survive the heart attack compared with people who have not been ac-

tive. Physical Activity can benefit one’s health in many other ways also; by helping to lower blood pressure, reducing the chance of developing diabetes, or help to control it, helps to lose weight, It can make one feel more energetic, helps relieve stress, lower the risk of osteoporosis (thinning of the bones), help one to relax, help older people to stay independent, or become more independent.

Physical activity and diabetes

If someone develops diabetes he is at greater risk of developing heart disease. Physical activity is known to reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. This is particularly true if someone is at high risk of diabetes. Keeping physically active will better protect the heart. One study showed that walking at least two hours a week reduced the incidence of pre-mature death from heart disease by about 50%. In people with diabetes, exercise is thought to improve blood glucose control, which reduces the negative impact of diabetes on heart health.

Influence of exercise on blood coagulation and fibrinolysis

Blood coagulation and fibrinoly-sis are two important physiological functions influencing the formation and breakdown of clots within blood vessels. A balance in the blood con-centrations of clotting and fibrinolyt-

ic factors is important because they seem to be directly correlated to the risk of heart events such as stroke and heart attacks. In patients with heart disease, it is essential to ensure that a proper balance of these blood constit-uents is maintained. Different studies have shown that the probability of heart events or stroke is decreased with long-term regular exercise. The results of these studies also substanti-ate the need for regular physical ac-tivity and provide scientific evidence to support a possible reduction in clot formation with exercise.

Influence of exercise on vascular remodelling

Physical activity plays a positive role in manifesting useful changes linked to vascular remodelling. Fol-lowing exercise, the cardiovascular system benefits from vascular re-modelling showing a very promising approach for treating vascular heart diseases with exercise.

Influence of exercise on BPHigh blood pressure is an im-

portant risk factor for inducing heart and blood vessel disorders, because high blood pressure increases the risk of heart and kidney diseases. When considering the positive impact of exercise on the heart, blood pressure and heart rate measurements are part of the package. Regular physical ac-tivity has a positive impact on lower-ing blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Studies have found consist-ent overall reductions in blood pres-sure with the adoption of physical activity regimens.

Effect of exercise on blood lipid profiles

Blood electrolytes, lipoproteins, total lipids and cellular constituents play a pivotal role in maintaining cardiovascular health. With regard to vascular plaque formation and blood pressure, blood lipid profiles are of major interest. Maintaining balanced blood lipid profiles is very important in minimising the formation of arte-rial blood vessel plaques and clots. Routine physical activity (three to five days per week) markedly lowers the amount of the bad LDL choles-terol and increases the good HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and exhibits a predominantly positive effect on blood lipid concentrations. Signifi-cant reductions in overall cholesterol and LDL-C, as well as increases in HDL-C, are known to have a positive impact on cardiovascular health.

adverse effects of vigorous exercise

Despite all the obvious advantages of regular physical activity, there are some potential pitfalls if regimens are not properly integrated into a person’s life. Sudden death from exertion on the heart may occur during or immediately after vigorous physical activity. For the most part, spontaneous death may not be directly related to sudden bouts of exercise but may instead be due to some other underlying heart disease. Moder-ate exercise may be the most desirable activity, because it is not necessary that physical activity be of high intensity to elicit the same health benefits. Further-more, pushing people to perform vigor-ous exercise may have a negative impact on health promotion and on a person’s health, increasing the incidence of drop-out and thereby preventing peo-ple from experiencing the health bene-fits so clearly provided by regular mod-erate physical activity, such as walking, bike riding and using treadmills. Gen-erally, routine exercise of varying fre-quency and intensity is recommended. However, even low-intensity exercise may not be advisable for patients with chronic heart failure. If a patient has chronic heart failure or has experienced a heart attack or stroke during the past six months, he or she must seek a doc-tor’s advice before undertaking routine exercise of any intensity.

So, now is the time to grab your favourite sports shoe and run your way to a healthy life and protect yourself from the ‘Diseases of Affluence’ such as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

rUN YoUr WaY To a HEaLTHY HEarTPHYSICaL aCTIVITY aNd HEarT HEaLTH

Dr.Bikash Rai Das,Consultant Cardiac Surgeon

Physical Activity can help to lower blood pressure,

reducing the chance of

developing diabetes, or

help to control it, helps to lose weight, It can make one feel

more energetic, helps relieve stress, lower

the risk of osteoporosis,

help one to relax, help older

people to stay independent, or

become more independent

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201418

Web Watch

Facebook now lets users ask for personal information of their friends

Social networking giant, Face-book, which is usually known for prying into users’ personal

information, has rolled out a new feature in the form of a button called “Ask”. The button is associated with information that a user hasn’t speci-fied. If a user has not declared his/her relationship status, friends of that user can now ask about it. The button is visible to the person who is checking out a profile.

The new ask button doesn’t only work for relationship statuses but also lets users ask about work, college, school, address and other personal information. Basically, all the information that has not been mentioned by a specific user will have an ask button next to each for

the friends of that user.The feature was quietly rolled

out by Facebook quietly without any announcements.

Once a user receives an ask in-quiry, he/she will get a notification from that friend (along with a per-sonal message if they chose to write one) and then a list of options for re-plying - options that are themselves taken from other friends’ profiles.

For most users, this new feature might just become a new tool to an-noy others. Then there will be some users who will be ready to share any personal information with another user that ‘asked’ him/her about it. Also, there is no obligation for any user to reply to any requests sent by friends.

Cars with no steering wheels

Google is building a car with-out a steering wheel.

Sergey Brin, co-found-er of the technology titan, told a Southern California tech confer-ence on Tuesday evening that Goog-le will make 100 prototype cars that drive themselves and therefore do not need a wheel. Or brake and gas pedals.

Instead, there are buttons for go and stop.

A combination of sensors and computing power takes the driving from there.

To date, Google has driven hundreds of thousands of miles on public roads with Lexus SUVs and Toyota Priuses outfitted with the special equipment.

This Indian Mario video may be the best thing you watch all day

Despite the game never being of-ficially launched

in India, many of us grew up playing Super Mario Bros. on our Little Mas-ter or Sega consoles. If Nintendo had ever real-ised how popular the little Italian plumber was in India, they would have perhaps created an Indian ver-sion of the gaming superstar. Since

they haven’t, we’ll have to be content with this amazing ‘Indianized’ ver-sion of Mario (or rather, ‘Mukesh’) created by the always funny folks over at All India Bak****.

Ever wondered how much better Mario would be if he was Rajnikanth instead? This video from AIB attempts to answer that question.

revamped PMo website launched as Modi highlights power of tech, social media

Soon after Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister of the country, a revamped PMO

India website went live carrying his pictures and a message to the nation.

In his message, Modi highlights the importance of the website as a direct communication between the government and public. He says: “I envision this website as a very impor-tant medium of direct communica-tion between us. I am a firm believer in the power of technology and social media to communicate with people across the world. I hope this platform creates opportunities to listen, learn and share one’s views.”

“Through this website you will also get all the latest in-formation about my speeches, schedules, foreign visits and lot more. I will also keep in-forming you about innovative initiatives undertaken by the Government of India.”

You can visit the revamped PMO website at http://www.pmindia.nic.in/

The website currently fea-tures five main sections – Know your Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Our Govern-ment, Prime Minister and Press and Media Gallery. There’s also a section called “Wish the Prime Minister” where you can greet Modi on becoming India’s 15th Prime Minister.

To interact with PM, scroll down the page and click the Interact with Hon’ble PM link on the footer. It directs you to a typical query submission page, where you can send your query and comment within 1000 characters. Check it out

here - http://www.pmindia.nic.in/feedback.php

Narendra Modi has extensively campaigned his policies and ideolo-gies through the social media. He has

also stressed the importance of tech-nology in governance. We can expect the IT and Telecommunications sec-tors to get big boost from the govern-ment.

Wikipedia is now an im-portant part of our life. We use it to learn about

many things. It has nearly 4.4 mil-lion articles covering information about most of the things. But you should have Internet connection to access Wikipedia. What if you want to download articles for offline? For this, you can use Wikipedia’s create eBook feature to download articles as PDF file. But what if you have complete Wikipedia in your system for offline reading. Yes, it is true. There is a freely available app which brings entire Wikipedia to your computer with nearly 4.4 million ar-ticles and 3.7 million images for of-fline reading. This nice app is Xowa.

Download Entire Wikipedia With XOWA App

XOWA is available for Win-dows, Linux and Mac operating sys-

tems. You are also required to install Java in your system before start-ing installation. As it brings entire Wikipedia, it takes too much space for storage. You need to have at least 80 GB of free disk space.

Download XOWA : http://xowa.sourceforge.net/download.html

When you run it in your system and browse articles, you will feel like you are accessing articles in your browser. Search function also works fine for finding articles. When you first run the software, it will import many predefined Wikipedia articles and images.

Download and setup process will only take less than 5 minutes depending upon the internet con-nection speed. There are various sec-tions that will also guide you while using XOWA.

download whole Wikipedia to your system

Indrajeet Bhuyan is a 16 year old tech blogger and security researcher. He is passionate about computers and believes in sharing knowledge and information . He uses his spare time helping people and companies secure themselves. fb.me/indrajeet.bhuyan

Google Chrome 35 release brings ‘oK Google’ voice search for all users

Google has rolled out a new Chrome 35 browser update that

integrates ‘Ok Google’ com-mand into the latest version of its browser and Chrome OS. The new update is avail-able globally for Windows, Linux and MAC.

The new voice-search feature in Chrome 35 allows users to ac-tivate search via the ‘OK Google’ voice command and simply ask a question. The feature also allows users to set up reminders and tim-

ers apart from performing searches. Users can enable the ‘OK Google’ voice-assist feature by clicking on the microphone icon placed on the main Google search bar, and then enable the feature in Google.com in Chrome.

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 19

Reviews

Citylights” that reu-nites National Award-winning pair, director

Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkum-mar Rao, has received rave reviews from critics and Bollywood celeb-rities.

The makers of the film had held a special screening of “City-lights” this week in Mumbai for celebrities and critics. The film, which is the official adaptation of “Metro Manila” has garnered ac-claim even before hitting screen worldwide.

“Citylights” is Patralekha’s debut film and is paired opposite Rao. The story is based on the life of trader Deepak Singh (played by Rao) in Rajasthan, who comes to Mumbai with his wife and daugh-ter to live a better life. However, after coming to the commercial capital of India, he gets caught in numerous difficult situations.

Actor-director Arbaaz Khan who attended the special screen-ing of the film said: “Just saw City-lights, another stellar performance by Rajkummar Rao !!! Patraleka and Manav kaul excel too. Hansal and Raj combine well again”.

“#Citylights got me really down, when I thought I was al-ready. @raj_kumar31, Manav Kaul and Patraleka all got to me. @me-htahansal bravo,” Kalki Koechlin said about the film.

“Citylights.. @raj_kumar31 fab.Patraleka couldnt have had a meatier debut.Manav Kaul a scene stealer. Lady seated nxt to me wept her heart out,” Huma Qureshi said.

“Watched CITY LIGHTS last night! Director @mehtahansal out does himself!! Another national award winning film,” director Tarun Mansukhani said.

“#Citylights cites original source, Metro Manila, 6 times in the credits. Wonderful change fm days when the Bhatts cheerfully stole stories,” film critic Anupama Chopra said.

Tushar Joshi of Bollywood Life said: “Performances by both the leads are exemplary. Rajkum-mar Rao has already established himself as one of the brightest fac-es to look out for. His performance is not only measured but also real to the point where we forget all his previous work or the many characters he played. Patralekhaa deserves a specious mention for making a stunning debut.

Kusumita Das of Deccan Chronicle said: “Unlike strug-gler dramas of this kind, City-lights doesn’t fall into the abyss of pathos, thanks to clever use of irony time and again. The story is fast paced, and every member of the cast keeps you hooked with their performances and there are enough twists too. A special men-tion for Manav Kaul who plays Rajkummar’s senior partner in the security agency.

“The film is as breathless as its protagonists, but there is a certain poetry in its treatment that leaves a mark. Given its premise, some might say it’s old wine in a new bottle. But this bottle’s certainly a keeper.”

Daily Bhaskar in its review said: “CityLights is not a commer-cial film at all. It’s not a film which you like to watch with your family to lighten up for your mood. City-Lights will make you think, cry and will stay with you even after the climax. Indian audience has so far maintained a distance from this genre of cinema. CityLights might change the trend.”

Director: Hansal MehtaCast: Rajkummar Rao, Patralekha

Mariah Carey’s first proper album since 2009 is a cou-ple covers away from being

as nostalgic as the Glitter soundtrack. Its title -- well, the part that precedes the ellipses -- is taken from a self-por-trait, reproduced on the back, drawn at the age of three and a half. “I’ll just sit right here and sing that good old school shit to ya,” she sings on “Dedi-cated,” a song seasoned with a Wu-Tang sample, a Nas throwback verse, and reminiscent chatter. Like many other songs on the album, flashbacks are laced through the music as well as in the lyrics, with Carey reflecting upon happier moments in a relation-ship while either pining or scolding. The feel-good “You Don’t Know What to Do,” one of a few songs made with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, cleverly interpolates Inner Life’s 1979 disco classic “I’m Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair)” and has Carey channeling the group’s Jocelyn Brown throughout, especially in the intro. In sharp contrast with Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, a set produced strictly by Carey, Tricky Stewart, and the-Dream, this involves numerous co-writers and co-producers who bring distinct material, from the dusty and dreamy feel of “#Beautiful” (with Miguel) to the pumping, Eddie Kendricks-sampling “Meteorite” (a

Q-Tip co-production). Additional co-producers Hit-Boy and Mike WiLL Made-It provide up-to-date elements, while the latter half involves a couple of gospel-flavored standouts, the lat-ter of which is an inspired tribute to the Reverend James Cleveland. The quality level is as varied as the sounds -- a quality that makes the set play out like a collection of songs that could have been edited and/or sequenced in innumerable ways. The standard

edition could have done without the clumpy and jumbled “Money ($ * / ...),” the oddly cheap-sounding cover of George Michael’s “One More Try,” and the stiff and empty “Thirsty,” all of which weigh down the hour-plus program. Carey unfortunately doesn’t feel nostalgic for the succinctness of her early albums, but this shows that she’s still capable of delivering 40 minutes of strong, supremely voiced R&B when she’s up for it.

YoUSHoULd

LISTEN

Me. I am Mariah...The Elusive Chanteuse

Be Careful What You Wish For

NoW SHoWING

Artist: Mariah Carey

Author: Jeffrey Archer

CitylightX-Men: Days of Future Past

HeropantiLove you crazy girl

Jilmil Jonak

Apsara CinemaDaily at 11AM (H-2D)& 5 PM (H-2D)

Daily at 2 & 8 PM

Anuradha CineplexDaily at 9 AM & 2.45 PM (H-3D), at 8.15 PM (E-3D)

Daily at 11.45 AM & 5.15 PM

Fun Cinemas Daily at 3.20 PMDaily at 12.20 & 5.45 PM (E-3D)

Daily at 10 AM & 8.30 PM

Gold Cinema(Fancy Bazar)

Daily at 11, 11.30 AM, 2, 5, 8 PM

Daily at 2.30 & 8.30 PM

Daily at 5.30 PM

Gold Cinema(Paltan Bazar)

Daily at 2 & 5 PM

Daily at 11AM, 2.30, 8, 8.30 PM

Daily at 11.30 PM

Daily at 5.30 PM

Gold Cinema(Narengi)

Daily at 11 AM & 5 PM

Daily at 8 PM Daily at 2 PM

Be Careful What You Wish For: 4 (Clift-on Chronicles #4),

available in paperback, is a novel which revolves

around the Cliftons and the Barringtons. the book showcases the master sto-ryteller’s talent as never before – when the Clifton

and Barrington families march forward into the sixties, in this epic tale of love, revenge, ambition and betrayal.

YoUSHoULd

rEad

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201420

Bazaar

“An aquarium tank is nor-mally setup as per the cli-ent’s needs and the space

available. It is also made as per the client’s desire on what type of aquar-ium he wishes for. The main expense includes the cost of glass, pasting, lighting and filtration. A fresh water fish tank setup can start from `500 to `30,000 and above whereas a marine tank setup can start from `35,000 to `5 lakh and above” said Simanta Kakati of Aqua Aesthetics.

Kakati also informed us about the importance of maintaining a tank. He says, “Try to provide an ideal setup for the species you are getting. Always keep a proper track of the feeding routine and your atten-tion is very important. Some fishes are required to be fed twice or thrice a day while others require to be fed twice or thrice a week. If you feel that the fish is not eating properly and might be looking unhealthy or sick, do some research over the internet to find out the ailment and get the medi-cine from any aquarium stores that is available all across the city.”

Fish Facts•Freshwater sharks grow upto two

and half feet and cannot grow to their full potential inside an aquar-ium.

•Many exotic fishes are auctioned outside India.

•Some very high priced Arowana fish comes with a certificate from the breeder from the approval of the government where the breeder is re-siding and along with a microchip.

•Arowana sold for `5.5 lakh in Sin-gapore some 10 years back is one of the highest auctioned rate for a fish.

•Pacu, which is available in Guwa-hati fish markets as ‘Rupchanda’ is actually the cousin of Pirhana. In 2013, a pacu specimen was found by a fisherman in Denmark. This led to media reports mistakenly warn-ing that the fish could attack male testicles and since then Pacu is also known as ‘The ball cutter’.

LoVE YoUr FISHESAn aquarium can be one of the best hobbies ever but you need to get yourself ready for it.

AROWANAPrice `800 to 1 lakhs per fish

Life span 20 to 40 years

shubhojit.roy@g-plus.in

SHUBHoJit roy

PART 2

The do’s and don’ts•Never include turtles, tortoise or

terrapins into the aquarium as tur-tles need to get out of water in order to lay eggs, tortoise is a land animal and terrapins are semi-terrestrial. It is injustice to keep these creatures in a complete aquatic environment without any proper reptilian setup.

•Don’t buy a fish on impulse. Re-search first and make sure that you can take proper care of the fish.

•Do not release a foreign species fish into the local water body as any foreign species which is introduced to the local water body will cause problem to the local species. Some foreign species fish feed on the roots of plant at the shore which may re-sult in soil erosion, other foreign species fish feed on the local fishes.

What happens when a foreign species is included in the local body?

The Asian Silver Carp fact- Sil-ver carps were imported to North America in the 1970s to control algae growth in aquaculture and municipal wastewater treatment facilities. They escaped from captivity soon after. They are considered a highly invasive species. Silver carp, with the closely related bighead carp, often reach ex-tremely high population densities, and are thought to have undesirable effects on the environment and native species.

By 2003, silver carp had spread into the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers and many of their tributaries in the United States. By August 2009, they had become abundant in the Mississippi River watershed from Louisiana to South Dakota and Illinois, and had grown close to invading the Great Lakes via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.The silver carp is also called the fly-ing carp for its tendency to leap from the water when startled. They can grow to over 18 kgs in weight and can leap 10 ft (3 m) in the air. Many boaters traveling in uncovered high-speed watercraft have been injured by running into the fish while at high speeds. In 2003, a woman jet-skier broke her nose and a vertebra by col-liding with a silver carp, and nearly drowned.

It is wonderful to have a fish aquarium in your household but it is also important at the same time to understand the habitat and sur-roundings of any fish, or for that matter any creature. Fishes are very beautiful and innocent creatures, but when you include them in your fam-ily, they become a part of your life.

DISCuSPrice `300 to `15,000 per pairLife span 5 to 8 years

fLOWERHORN CICHLIDSPrice `400 to `1.5 lakh per fish

Life span average 30 years

BLACk GHOST kNIfEfISHPrice `200 to `1000 per pair

Life span 6 to 8 years

Some fishes are required to be fed

twice or thrice a day while others require

to be fed twice or thrice a week”

Tank setup and maintenance

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 21

G-Talk

PoINT CoUNTErPoINT

arE IMPoSING LaWS ENoUGh to SaVE dIPor BIL?

Dipor Bil is a permanent freshwa-ter lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south

of the main river. It is also called a  wet-land under the Ramsar Convention, which has listed the lake in November 2002, as a Ramsar Site for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.

Since Guwahati already suffers from a major problem of encroachment, protect-ing the environment was always a chal-lenge for the district administration. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently inspected the Gorchuk area and the Dipor Bil wildlife sanctuary and instructed the concerned of-ficials of the district administration to take immediate measures to remove encroach-ment for unhindered flow of water from the city to the wetland. The CM instructed the revenue and the disaster department to take immediate steps to remove encroachment and to stop further issue of land sale deed to prevent haphazard growth of construction and destruction of the green cover that have compounded the problem of water logging and flash floods in the city.

The district administration immediate-ly issued directives and applied Section 144 in and around Dipor Bil so that no illegal construction happens in the area. Criticis-ing the authorities of not doing anything is a clichéd approach towards any given prob-lem. People might say that this initiative of the district administration will not work at all but if we talk about the past, there are ex-amples of people getting evicted from places encroached by them illegally.

It’s the public who encroach the vacant wetlands or forest and hill areas for their own vested interests. The major problem is migration, which results in growth of illegal settlement. The move taken by the district administration will obviously help in reduc-ing or may be completely remove encroach-ment from Dipor Bil. People will be scared to encroach after knowing that they will be prosecuted by the authorities. In addition,

constructing a concrete house will be a risk as it might get demolished any moment. Ac-cording to the directives, the officials have to strictly follow the order and ensure that no encroachment happens in and around the Dipor Bill.

The district administration after the CM’s review issued notices to all illegal set-tlers in and around the wildlife sanctuary and also ordered section 144 in the area. Recently, an eviction drive started across the city starting from slum areas in Paltan Bazaar (behind the Meghdoot Cinema Hall) and some other areas were also evicted. The eviction drive was the initiative of the administration and similarly if required the illegal settlers at Dipor Bill will also be evicted. It is not that the district administra-tion does not work at all and if the initiative is taken seriously, I think the citizens should back the authorities to resolve the issue.

ARwAT CHALLAMEnvironmentalist

Mere imposition of 144 in and around Deepor beel will never be help-ful to preserve one of the most

important water bodies of Guwahati. The authorities keep on announcing such pro-hibitory orders from time to time and this time too, after the recent visit of the Chief Minister to the Dipor Bil and his subsequent instruction to check encroachment in and

around the water body lead to the announce-ment of the district administration to impose 144 in the area. The ban was imposed mainly to clear the illegal settlers or constructions going on in the area, which is believed to be causing flash floods in the city by hindering the regular flow of water.

At this point, the most important con-cern is that whatever was the reason for im-posing ban on illegal construction in and around Deepor beel, it will hardly help in preserving the only Ramsar site in the state.

Because, till date, the boundary of Dipor Bil has not been demarcated by the govern-ment, which helps the people to do unlawful constructions inside the water body. Until and unless the boundary of the Deepor beel is identified by the authority, any other effort to preserve it will go in vain. Because, it is very important to identify the boundary of a particular thing first if we have to preserve it.

I have been in touch with the area in and around Dipor Bil since 1973-74, but have not seen any initiative to demarcate the boundary of the water body. There is only one rampart building behind the Assam Engineering Col-lege side and the southern side is completely open. There is no sign by which people can identify the boundary of Deepor beel.

The water body spreads to approximately 38 sq km during monsoon and shrinks down to 12 sq km during winters. Taking the ad-vantage of shrinking down of the water dur-ing the season of winter, people have been do-ing construction work inside Dipor Bil. These activities contribute in minimising the total geographical area of Dipor Bil, thus hamper-ing the preservation of the water body.

There are various laws existing to protect and preserve the water bodies, but these acts will be of no value if they are not executed properly. Moreover, it is very important to have a proper boundary around the Dipor Bil, so that the laws could be enacted in it.

We have been urging the government to demarcate the boundary of the Dipor Bil for a long time but the authority does not seem to be taking the matter seriously.

MOLOY BARUAHPresident, Early Bird (NGO)

Dear Sir,The recent flash floods in the city caused by the rain have

again made us very concerned about the status of the city. We live by the river Brahmaputra, which usually flows above the danger line and in this scenario we have to face a tough time owing to the heavy rainfall in the city. With rain clouds loom-ing large across the sky, we fear that flash floods triggered by torrential rain may wreak havoc in the city, as it did in the previous years. The authorities seem to be working on ways to

improve the present drainage system, but even this year it looks like the general public will have to suffer again.

There are some roads in the city, which no matter how much you repair are always in a shabby state. The lanes in some newly built colonies are in a pathetic condition, as they are not properly constructed. The drainage and the garbage dis-posal system is yet to get an uplift and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) will take ages to complete the cleaning of drains to curb artificial floods. My only concern is that with the

world developing, why can’t even the drainage system of a city like Guwahati, which is considered as the capital of the entire northeast region, be planned in such a manner that people do not have to face the urban flood problem every monsoon. If the drainage system is not proper, why can’t the government do something or even hire a foreign firm to plan and construct a proper drainage system in the city?

Suraj Das, Jyotikuchi

UrBaN FLoodS LETTERS To ThE EdiToR

“It’s the public who encroach the vacant wetlands or forest and hill areas for their own vested interests. The major problem is migration, which results in growth of illegal settlement. The move taken by the district administration will obviously help in reducing or may be completely remove encroachment from Dipor Bil. “

There are various laws existing

to protect and preserve the

water bodies, but these acts will be of no value if they are not

executed properly. Moreover, it is very important to have

a proper boundary around the Dipor

Bil, so that the laws could be enacted in it.

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201422

SUDOKU

Fun

Solu

tions

(Last

Issu

e)

ARIES Monday and Tuesday re-

ally couldn’t be better. Everything you make in your kitchen turns out delicious. Every book you buy is a page-turner. The special someone in your life is im-pressed by the way you move through the world. Romance figures very strongly. Wednesday and Thursday present more challenges, especially in the work realm, but if you can take any time out of your workday to get some exercise, you’ll be able to keep your head screwed on. On Friday and continuing through the weekend, don’t hesitate to turn on the charm when you need it.

TAURUS Think of yourself as a balloon

on Monday and Tuesday — light, hap-py, floating high above it all. You don’t have the energy for anything other than absolute tolerance of the people around you. Sit back and enjoy the interactions nearby as if you’re watching a movie. It’s a romantic comedy on Wednesday and Thursday — full of screwball gags involving flowers, games and art. Friday is the beginning of what can only be de-scribed as a thriller. There might not be a lot of action, but a sense of urgency and surprise makes the weekend exciting — in a good way.

GEMINI Even if you say something in

jest — and it’s clearly in jest — some-one might read something into it that simply has no grounding in reality. So watch what you say on Monday and Tuesday, or at least qualify it. On Wednesday and Thursday, communi-cation problems persist in your inter-actions with family. Your relationship with the outside world is frustrating until Friday, which is best described as an open door leading to a bright, color-ful garden full of weekend pleasures: sleeping in, romance, coffee, energy, creative projects … just about any-thing you feel like doing at any given moment. Bliss.

CANCER The world is a rummage sale on

Monday and Tuesday, but you’re not interested in bargain-basement stuff. You want the top of the line. If you’re assembling some friends or coworkers for a group project, call together your ‘most valuable players.’ If you’re treat-ing someone to lunch, splurge on some-thing great. Wednesday and Thursday are Utopian vis-a-vis your communica-tions with others — your powers of articulation are award-worthy. Friday, however, brings about some hiccups. Trouble at home. Domestic bliss chal-lenged. Spend the weekend smoothing things out the way only you can.

LEO You’re a seven-layer cake at the

start of the week. Sweet, magnificent, deep, rich — all of these adjectives ap-ply. At a party, all eyes are on you. The trouble this week comes on Wednes-day, when you have the odd feeling that, well, someone wants a piece of you. You wisely disengage. You turn introverted and spend a portion of Thursday reassessing your life plan while sitting in the most comfortable chair in your home. Friday is a revela-tion: Your social interactions couldn’t be better, and if you’re single, someone may ask you out. The weekend is per-fect for dating.

VIRGO There’s so much happening on

Monday and Tuesday that you’re li-able to flip out — but try to avoid that. Instead, pour your adrenaline back into what you’re doing. Don’t let your desire to organize impede your ability to go with the flow. Wednesday and Thursday, the flow is of the fun, rushing variety, so you’re content to let some-one else drive for a while. This frees you up to — what else? — plan a bunch of new projects that are sure to stress you out in the future. Hilarious. But that’s how you operate. Friday through Sunday see you splashing out in all kinds of exciting ways.

LIBRA It’s in your nature to strive for

leadership positions, but it’s even better when leadership positions are handed to you, which is what happens on Mon-day or Tuesday. You have a way that brings out the best in others, and you take pride in it. Toward the middle of the week, let some of your other excel-lent virtues come to the fore, like your tolerance (apply Teflon to whatever grudges you might be holding). Thurs-day is work-heavy, but the end of the week brings a certain reward: Romance. Friday through Sunday are full of flirting and beauty.

SCORPIO On Monday and Tuesday,

work is less than ideal — there’s noth-ing hugely wrong, but any problems grow in your mind until they become enormous. Just remember that they’re only in your mind. Are you having a career crisis? Possibly. Your best policy is not to do anything to call attention to yourself. Wednesday and Thursday, stay in this ‘not making waves’ mode, except around good friends, in which case you can let loose. These are clari-fying, happier days. Friday through Sunday you’re introverted and impres-sionable, but interested in the ideas floating around you. It’s an easygoing weekend.

SAGITTARIUS

If you could bottle and sell the good cheer that surrounds you on Mon-day and Tuesday, you’d be a million-aire. But you’re hardly thinking about ways to make more money, what with all the free things people are giving you. Perhaps you even get a bonus! Wednesday and Thursday, an author-ity figure is a thorn in your side, but Friday is so bright that you’re scarcely able to recall what was bugging you just a day earlier. The weekend contin-ues in this vein — bright, happy and full of people who admire you. Whatever you need to do, you’ll have the time.

CAPRICORN Someone close to you feels they

are owed something, and they’re going to speak up about it on Monday or Tuesday. Your sympathy is provoked, but really, he or she may not have a case. A lot of people are owed a lot of things they nev-er get. Don’t let your empathy drain your last resources. Wednesday and Thursday, by contrast, are productive and inspiring. A phone call to an old friend reminds you of whom you used to be, in a great way. And Friday’s challenges are the kind you like — the kind that bring out your best. Saturday and Sunday are packed with activity.

AQUARIUS

You practically have to mine old military manuals to figure out how to deal with a standoff at the start of the week (either something you’re involved in or something you’ve witnessed). The solution may, in fact, be in a book, and you can ex-pect to make an extraordinary discovery Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday are chill by comparison — you’re fine, you’re working well, the usual sorts of challenges arise. Friday affords you a totally new ex-perience, something that gets your blood pumping, perhaps with someone you’ve never really talked to. Saturday and Sun-day, your friendships are paramount.

PISCES Whatever’s bugging you at the start of the week, look at your diet — it might have something to do with it. Bring on the blueberries and broccoli, foods rich in vitamins and nutrients. Meanwhile, if someone is trying to rope you into his or her weird dramas, don’t let yourself be recruited. Midweek, the politics reach quite a distracting pitch. Just maintain outsider status: Don’t weigh in, even when it’s hard not to. Friday brings about some rearrangement of your financial situation, with positive developments. The weekend is oriented toward your future.

JUST FOR LAUGHS

YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF TIMEPASSHOROSCOPE

Two smart fellows were in a pub. They called the pubs owner over and asked him to settle an argument.

“Are there two pints in a quart or four?” asked one.

“There be two pints in a quart”, confirmed the owner. They moved back along the bar and soon the barmaid asked for their order.

“Two pints please, miss, and they are on the house.”

The barmaid doubted that her boss would be so generous so one of the fellows called out to the owner at the other end of the bar, “You did say two pints, didn’t you?”

“That’s right,” he called back, “two pints.”

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 2014 23

Citypedia

G Plus will keep on publishing such relevant and useful information in this page in the coming issues.

Compiled by Mautapa Dhar

EMERGENCY NUMBERSAMBULANCE

Ambulance 102Arya Hospital, Ulubari 2606888, 2606665

Downtown Hospital 9864101111, 9435012669GLP Social Circle 2737373

GGUMTA (Mirza) 03623-227109Marowari Yuva Manch 2542074, 2547251

BLOOD BANKArya Hospital, Ulubari 2606888, 2606665

Ganga Blood Bank 2454742, 2455029Lion’s Club of Ghy Central 2546611

Marwari Yuva Manch 2546470, 2547251Saharia’s Path Lab (24 hours) 2458594

24-HOUR PHARMACIESArya Hospital, Ulubari (2606888, 2606665)

DEAD BODY CARRYING VANGLP Social Circle 2737373, 9435047046Marowari Yuva Manch 2542074, 2547251GGUMTA 98640-16740

RADIO TAXI SERVICESPrime Cabs

0361- 2222233Green Cabs

0361-7151515My Taxi

0361-2228888Cherry Cabs8876222288

OTHERSFire Emergency 101State Zoo 2201363

GMC Carcass Pickup 9435190720, 9864047222

LPG Emergency/Leakage 2385209, 2541118

CINEMA HALLAnuradha Cineplex – 0361-2656968, 99545-44738

Fun Cinema (HUB)- 98648-00100, 98648-00200 Gold Cinema (Paltan Bazaar) – 98540-66166

Gold Cinema (Salasar) – 0361-2735367, 98540-77177Gold Cinema (Narengi) – 88110-01898

SP, Kamrup District: Ph- 2540278DGP Control Room: Ph- 2540242SB Control Room: Ph-2261511Police Control Room: Ph-2540138, 2540113Azara PS: Ph2840287Basista PS: Ph-2302158Bharalumukh PS: Ph- 2540137, 2731199Borjhar PS: Ph-2840351Chandmari PS: Ph- 2660204Chandrapur PS: Ph-2788237, 2785237Dispur PS: Ph-2261510Fancybazar PS: Ph- 2540285

Fatasil Ambari PS: Ph-2471412Geetanagar PS: Ph-2417323Hatigaon: Ph-2562383Jalukbari PS: Ph-2570587Jalukbari Out Post: Ph-2570522Jorabat: Ph-2896853Khanapara: Ph- 2281501Khetri PS: Ph-2787699, 2787220Latasil PS: Ph-2540136Noonmati PS: Ph- 2550281North Guwahati PS: Ph-2690255Paltanbazar PS: Ph-2540126Panbazar PS: Ph-2540106Pragjyotishpur Ps: Ph-2785237Women PS Panbazar: Ph-2524627

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

Call Centre – 9678005171

Arya Hospital, Ulubari(2606888, 2606665)B Baruah Cancer Institute(2472364/66)Brahmaputra Hospital Ltd(2451634/678)Chatribari Christian Hospital0361-2600051, 92070-44374Downtown Hospital2331003, 9864079366, 9435012669Guwahati Medical College(2529457, 2529561)Guwahati Medical CollegeEmergency (2263444)

BOOK STORES

ANAND BOOK STALL Panbazar, J B Road, Ghy- 1

Ph- 03612547987

KALYANI BOOK STALLPanbazar, Jaswanta Road, Ghy- 1, Ph- 9864109095

M P BOOK STALLR P Road, Dispur,

Guwahati Gpo, Ghy -1, Ph- 03612592511

RAJ KUMAR BOOK STALL Near Pandu Collage, Ghy- 12

Ph- 9435010351

PANDEY BOOK STALLTokobari, A T Road, Ghy- 1

Ph- 9854929393

RANI BOOK STALLA T Road, Maligaon, Ghy-11

Ph- 9706210750

RAJU BOOK STALLOpp Mansarovar Hotel,

Fancy Bazar, Ghy- 1Ph- 9954733892

BIKRM BOOK STALL56 Near Network Counter,

Paltanbazar, Ghy- 8Ph- 9678715137

STATE TRANSPORT BOOK STALL- Paltan Bazar,

Ghy - 8, Ph- 9864019121

PRATIMA BOOK STALLG S Road, Ulubari Chariali, Ghy-7, Ph- 03612459642

B. R BOOK STALLSaraswati Market, Jaswant

Road, Pan Bazar, Ghy -1Ph- 9859469208

DEKA BOOK STALLA G Bus Stop, Near Laxmi

Mandir, Ghy-1Ph- 9864608084

ASHOK BOOK STALLSaraswati Market, Jaswant

Road, Pan Bazar, Ghy- 1 Ph- 9435044525

AVIJATRI BOOK STALLNear SBI, Jaswant Road,

Pan Bazar, Ghy1 Ph- 03612663428,

03612519012

RAMESH BOOK STALLNear Sarmah Sweets, M S Road, Fancy Bazar, Ghy-1

Ph- 9706120869

KUBER BOOK STALLCollege Hostel Road, Panba-

zar, Ghy -1, Ph- 03612630443

LAWYERS BOOK STALLH B Road, Panbazar, Ghy -1

Ph- 0361 2543799

FREINDS BOOK STALLTarulata Bhavan, Jashwant

Road, Pan Bazar, Ghy-1 Ph- 03612630450

MADHUSHREE BOOK STALL C K Road, Panbazar, Ghy -1

Ph- 9508336033

UNIVERSAL BOOK STALLJaswanta Road, Panbazar, Ghy-1, Ph- 03612632005

KALITA BOOK STALLM R D Road, Noonmati, Ghy-

20, Ph- 9864049569

SRIMANTA SHANKAR BOOK STALL- Railway Colony Road,

Bamunimaidan, Ghy- 21 Ph- 9854590197

BIKRAM BOOK STALLChandmai, M R D Road,

New Ghy -21Ph- 9085293975

SHAHIL BOOK STALLNotboma, Miyazan Nagar,

Hatigaon Road, Ghy-38Ph- 9707834543

BHAI BOOK STALLSijubani Road, Hatigaon,

Ghy – 38, Ph- 9954788974

MODERN BOOK STALL Beltola, Tiniali, Ghy- 28

Ph- 9706333116

CENTRAL BOOK STALLJayanagar Road, Khanapara, Ghy -22, Ph- 9864066210

MAMATA BOOK STALLSix Mile, Panjabari Road,

Khanapara, Ghy -22Ph- 8011950078

M D BOOK STALLSix Mile, VIP Road, MAA Kali Market, Khanapara, Ghy-22

Ph- 9508076061

PRAGYAN BOOK STALLRahul Market, Panjabari Road,

Khanapara, Ghy-22Ph- 9085844140

TALUKDAR BOOK STALLBatahghuli, Panjabari, G P S

Road, Ghy- 37, Ph- 9859642895

PUSHPANJALI BOOK STALL 865 Rajagrg Road, Bhangaga-rh, Ghy-18, Ph- 9854016650

SABITA BOOK STALLBasistha Chariali, Ghy – 29

Ph- 9435302115

BAISAKHI BOOK STALLJayanagar Road, Khanapara,

Ghy- 22, Ph- 9954117907

STUDENT BOOK STALLJayanagar, Beltola,

Beltola Road, Ghy- 28 Ph- 8822185042

FLOWER BOOK STALLDispur, Hatigaon Road, Ghy-38

Ph- 9435104717

SAMIR BOOK STALLNr. Shillong Hotel, Paltanbazar,

Ghy- 8, Ph- 9954117239

U LIKE BOOK STALLNear Laxmi Mandir, A G Road Basistha, Ghy-28

Ph- 9864016026

K. V. BOOK STALLSatgaon Road, Ghy- 27

Ph- 9954109969

International Hospital0361-7135005Mahendra Mohan Choud-hury Hospital(2541477, 2543998)Marwari Hospital & Re-search Centre0361-2602738/39Marwari Maternity Hospi-tal 0361-2541202/01Nemcare Hospital0361-2528587, 2455906, 2457344

HOSPITALS Pratiksha Hospital0361-2337260, 2337183/84Basistha Military Hospital (2304617/0351)Railway Central HospitalCasuality (2671025)Redcross Hospital(2665114)Sri Sankardeva Netralaya0361-2233444, 2228879, 2228921TB Hospital(2540193)Wintrobe Hospital0361-2519860,98647-77986

POLICE STATION

GNRC Hospital 0361 2227702GNRC Life First Ambulance 9401194011

G PLUS MAY 31 - JUN 06, 201424

Printed & Published by Sunit Jain on behalf of Insight Brandcom Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Arkashish Publications (P) Ltd., Katahbari, Garchuk, Guwahati and Published at H/No. 34, K. C. Choudhury Road, Chatribari, Guwahati - 781008, Editor: Koushik Hazarika. Phone: 0361 2737737, Email: info@g-plus.in, RNI No: ASSENG/2013/52641

Kamur of the weekWhat did i just hear?

Catching Up

pick of the Week

WHo’S SHEElena Jane “Ellie” Goulding is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actress from Lyonshall, Hereford-shire, England. After signing to Polydor Records in July 2009, Goulding released her debut extended play, An Introduction to Ellie Goulding, later that year.

So WHaTIn 2010, she became the second artist to both top the BBC’s annual Sound of... poll and win the Critics’ Choice Award at the Brit Awards in the same year. Goulding released her debut studio album, Lights, in 2010. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and has sold over 850,000 cop-ies in the UK.

NoW WHaTEllie Goulding proved she is worth all the attention, kicking off her Australian tour this week with a show at Challenge Stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The singer, 27, hit the stage in a series of crop tops teamed with loose black pants, including a sequined gold tummy-baring number as well as a plain black, long-sleeved version. She proved she has more than one musical talent, trying her hand at the drums and playing guitar in between songs. Ellie will tour Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and South Australia before heading to New Zealand.

Ellie Goulding

With just a handful of days before the start of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, claims that fixers targeted Nigeria’s warm-up game against Scotland could not have come at a worse time. Follow-ing other recent revelations, football’s integrity is already in the spotlight, although the World Cup itself has remained stain-free. Surely the fixers would shy away from such a high-profile tournament, watched by billions around the planet and with football’s governing body on red alert for corruption?Not so, according to Ralf Mutschke, Fifa’s head of security.The former Interpol executive and police officer says he can-not give the World Cup a clean bill of health and has even identified the matches that carry the greatest risk. Accord-ing to Mutschke, the following is all true:• Certainteamsandgroupshavealreadybeenidentifiedas

vulnerable to fixers.• Thelastroundofgroupmatches,involvingteamswith

nothing to play for, are most in danger.• Warm-upgamesarealsounderthreat.• Fixershavealreadyapproachedplayersandreferees.• Thefixofchoicewillfocusonthenumberofgoalsina

match.For the last two years, Mutschke and his team have been planning meticulously to prevent World Cup games from falling victim to the fixers.

Headlining acts!Fifa World Cup 2014: Could matches be fixed in Brazil?

Former Kerala minister TH Mustafa was suspended from Congress for calling Rahul Gandhi a “joker” and saying he should be removed if he does not resign in the backdrop of the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. As the remark by Mustafa fuelled a controversy with some party leaders condemning it, a meeting of the KPCC held to review the elec-tion performance of the party and the UDF led by it in the state felt the Congress leader had committed “a serious mistake” by making adverse comments against Rahul.

Guwahati is back to its best: load shedding and urban floods. Every summer, Guwahatians face the fury of nature. Heat makes people sweat, and the power cuts adds to the existing sufferings. If people wait for rain, it becomes almost impossible to come out and commute as most of the roads are almost submerged by urban floods which results into pathetic road condition. Phew!

Assam Football Association Sec-retary, Ankur Dutta has been nominated by the All India Foot-ball Association as one of the AIFF delegates to attend the FIFA Congress at Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 10th and 11th.