<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "Assam: PCCF MK Yadava accused of illegally clearing protected forest for Commando Battalion" appearing in the Northeast
The Assam government on Thursday banned clinical trials on humans of a genetically engineered vaccine developed by Dhaniram Baruah, a cardiac surgeon from the State. He claimed that the vaccine corrected genetic defects causing heart diseases and diabetes and even prevented cancer. Dr. Baruah was jailed by the State government in 1997 following the death of patient on whom he had carried out a transplantation of a pig's heart. The operation took place at his institute, the Dr. Baurah Heart City located at Sonapur, 20 km from here. He was released the same year. State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma told the Assam Assembly that the State government would ask Dr. Baruah not to carry out further clinical trials of the vaccine without first obtaining a licence for it. The Minister said the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drug and Magic Remedies Act, 1955 stipulated that after the successful clinical trial of any new drug on animals, one had to take the permission of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization for carrying out clinical trials on two humans after obtaining their consent. If the test on the two was successful then fresh permission had to be taken for conducting further trials on 10 more persons to establish its medical success. The Health Minister informed the House that Dr. Baruah had not obtained any permission from the drugs control authorities. Replying to a zero hour notice raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Ananta Deka, the Minister said the State government would also urge Dr. Baruah to hand over the materials in support of his claim for onward submission to the drugs control authorities. Mr. Deka drew the attention of the Minister to newspaper reports about Dr. Baruah's claim and demanded a high level probe.
We talk of herds of wild elephants creating havoc in human habitats. But what about humans who encroach on land especially reserved for wildlife. This has come to light when Early Birds, an NGO working for conservation of wildlife went on a cattle vaccination programme to Chanaka and Bharoitari, both fringe villages of Pobitora wildlife sanctuary. These villages are behind the Burha Mayang hill range and have no road connectivity. The team members of the NGO said that they could see a few dwelling houses next to a wildlife sentry camp and around 100-120 such houses of semi-permanent nature had sprang up in the riverside char areas just opposite to the sentry camp. The NGO said that this kind of settlements is a potential threat to the sanctuary and demanded that the park authorities with the help of the Morigaon and Darrang district administration evict the encroachers. The Early Birds team during the programme vaccinated 412 cattle including buffaloes. A large number of free medicines were also distributed.
About 80,000 chickens and ducks were culled and over Rs 20 lakh given as compensation to the affected people in Asom during the recent culling operation undertaken to avert the outbreak of avian flu in the State, especially in the districts bordering West Bengal. State Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Minister Khorsing Ingti informed the Assembly today that though no bird flu case was reported in the State, preventive culling was undertaken in Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts. In his reply to separate questions in the House, Ingti said altogether 50,640 birds were culled in Kokrajhar and 29,069 birds in Dhubri, while Rs 20,50,210 was given away as compensation
The Assam Assembly today witnessed a ruckus during the discussion on the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in the State during the Question Hour. Replying to questions, State Panchayat and Rural Development (P & RD) Minister Chandan Brahma said the scheme was being implemented in its true spirit, benefiting the poor rural masses. The Opposition members, however, alleged that massive corruption was going on in the name of allocation of job cards under the NREGA, with middlemen and contractors being involved in the scheme. AGPLP leader Chandra Mohan Patowary said: "Even people from families that have Government job holders have been given job cards.' AGP member Keshab Mahanta, CPI-M members Ananta Kalita and Uddhab Barman, CPI member Dhrupad Buragohain and BJP member Ranjit Dutta alleged massive corruption in the distribution of job cards. Brahma, however, refuted the allegations and asked the Opposition to bring discrepancies, if any, to his notice. He said that 14 districts of the State that were not covered by the NREGA till 2007-08 would be brought under the scheme from the next fiscal, thereby extending the benefits of the scheme to all districts of the State. The minister further said that of the total Rs 72,883.93 lakh available for NREGA implementation during 2007-08 (up to January 2008), Rs 34,223.44 lakh had been spent. For the year 2005-06, of the total Rs 25,147.79 lakh made available, Rs 10,519.65 lakh was spent, whereas for 2006-07, Rs 57,987.40 lakh of the available Rs 70,772.10 lakh was spent.
MUSHALPUR
The Dhemaji district unit of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has asked the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) authorities to execute the decisions adopted at the December 8, 2006 tripartite meeting held among the AASU, NHPC and the State Government on the Lower Subansiri Hydel Project within March 13. It has also requested the NHPC authorities to keep in abeyance construction of the main dam of the hydel project till the report of the expert committee engaged to study the impacts of the dams becomes available. Otherwise, it has threatened a democratic agitation to mount pressure on the NHPC authorities to comply with this request. The students' body in a letter to the general manager of the NHPC's Lower Subansiri Hydel Project, said that the NHPC had failed to justify the inordinate delay in executing the tripartite meeting's decisions.
Asom Social Welfare Minister Ajanta Neog has today admitted on the floor of the State Assembly that the problem of undernourishment of children in the State is alarming, and it is a national problem. She, however, said the State Government will not compromise at any level when it comes to the supply of nutritious food for children. "We have taken it as a challenge,' she said. Replying to a call attention notice from AGP MLA Dr Kamala Kalita, Neog said: "Factors responsible for undernutrition of children are many. Funds and public awareness are a must for ensuring proper nutrition of children in the State.' She said all the funds released by the State Government and the Centre for supply of nutritious food for children have already been sent to the deputy commissioners for supply of nutritious food for children. "The supply of nutritious food for children has been decentralized, and the State Government has formed as many as 37,000 management committees to monitor the supply of such food for children,' Neog added.
A full-grown leopard, which came from the Ripu Reserve Forest to No. 2 Panbai village under Kachugaon police outpost could not be saved despite the efforts of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel, forest guards and local people to catch it alive. In an interview to The Sentinel, DFO, Kachugaon, RN Boro said the full-grown leopard came to the Panbari area on Thursday morning. The leopard turned furious as it was chased by the people of the area, Boro said, adding that forest guards rushed to the spot immediately. The department made all efforts to catch the leopard alive and asked for tranquillizers from the Manas National Park (MNP) authority. He said the SSB personnel were also pressed into the rescue operation. Boro expressed that the Ripu Reserve Forest is the home for various endangered species but there is no tranquillizer with the forest department officials to catch the wild animals when they appear near human habitation. The tranquillizer, which was brought from Manas National Park to rescue the leopard had a only one bullet. There were chances that if the bullet missed the target, the shooter might have to face the wrath of the wild animal, Boro said adding, an SSB jawan who took the initiative to shoot from a close range was lucky enough as the leopard jumped over him and the other jawans chased it with lathis. The DFO said at least three persons of the locality were injured by the leopard. The forest department, finding it difficult to tranquillize it, rounded up the area with SSB personnel and local people and started to fire crackers to bring out the leopard from its hideout but it did not do so. Till the filing of the report, the forest guards were still guarding the area to check if it was still there. RN Boro told The Sentinel that the leopard never stayed at a same place but roamed around for food. He said the leopard might have gone back to the jungle at night as they did not get any evidence of its presence at Panbari during the check. On the other hand, the local people, when contacted by The Sentinel, said they heard three rounds of gunshots. Sources also added that some armed youths came after sunset and they killed the leopard and took it away somewhere. The sources, on condition of anonymity revealed that the leopard was a female and its organs were cut away by the miscreants as the people in remote areas believe that it stops unprecedented bleeding of women during childbirth. This kind of medical treatment has been prevalent throughout the rural areas due to the presence of witch-doctors and quacks, who allegedly claim to have the cures for all ailments. DFO (Social Forest) Sonali Ghosh was also present along with Rangers, Deputy Rangers on Thursday. It may be mentioned here that in 2006, another leopard was killed under the same range and even on earlier occasions, the villagers have killed two leopards.
