PASIGHAT: The Pasighat district health department is going all out to control mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue and recently detected Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in the district. Headed
The reconstruction of Naryanguri dyke is going on in full swing bringing ray of hope to the people of that area especially those affected by floods in Barpeta and Baksa district. The construction which started in February 3, 2008 would be completed in March. The Narayanguri dyke was washed away in 2004 by the strong currents of Beki river which was overflooded due to the release of excess water of Kurisshu dam by the Royal Government of Bhutan. As a result Beki river changed its original course and flowed through Kalpani and Palla causing havoc in a number of villages. That year, though the dyke was repaired costing more than Rs 3 crore, the quality of work was poor and it collapsed on July 31, 2007. Since then about Rs 1.5 lakh people in Barpeta and Baksa district has been suffering from floods. On December last year the reconstruction work was formally inaugurated by BTAD chief Hagrama Mohilary, assuring quality work this time. An official with the Water Resource Department informed that the structure of the bundh will be the stronger this time. Depending upon the depth of the water,
High alert has been sounded in Asom following the outbreak of kalaazar on the outskirts of Guwahati. Health Department sources said that the samples tested for suspected kalaazar have yielded positive results and the patients would be shifted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) soon. The suspected cases of kalaazar were reported from the Panikhaiti area in Kamrup district last week, when several people were admitted to the local hospital with kalaazar symptoms. The State Health Department has already sounded an alert and taken up prevention measures, including spraying of DDT and distribution of mosquito nets in the affected area.
Nagaon district tops the list among all districts of Asom in having the highest number of illegal saw mills operating in different prohibited forest reserves. An unofficial source also alleged that the district at present has more than a hundred illegal saw mills which are functioning under the very nose of the forest and police officials. The different prohibited forest areas include Dabaka, Lumding, Kaki, Salana, Chapanalla, Anjukpani, Lawkhowa, Garajan, Ambagan, Borghuli, Amchai, Madartoli and other forest reserves. All of these reserves have now been converted into a haven of illegal timber smugglers, many of whom are being given protection and shelter by a section of powerful political leaders of the ruling party, sources added. In the meantime, the DFO Nagaon has launched several drives against the timber smugglers and illegal saw mills, and have even managed to detect and lay seize to several such mills, notably from Panikhati, Arjuntol, Jagari, Hatichung, Kawaimari, Jakhalabandha, Chapanala, Silghat, Mairabari and Dhing areas. But such operations have proved to be ineffective in curtailing the spread of the net of timber smuggling which is assuming alarmingly proportions in all the forest areas. It has been found that even after the seizure of mills, the proprietors easily manage to free them from the court, due to their nexus with higher officials of the forest and police departments. Recently, owing to the initiative of the forest officials of Salana Range several such illegal saw mills were seized by the district forest officer from different places of Kaliabor area, but no follow-up action has been taken by the forest department against the timber smugglers and saw mills till date. Most of the mills are freely operating is different places of the Samaguri LAC. More than 37 such illegal mills were functioning under the shelter of a section of political leaders of the ruling party of the LAC, it is alleged. It is also alleged by the conscious people of the areas that in the Samaguri LAC itself there are many such mills illegally functioning at Lawkhowa, Ambagaon, and Borghuli. The people of the Kaliabor and Samaguri LAC have requested the Forest Minister of the State, an elected MLA of the Samaguri LAC to give his personal attention to the matter, and to also visit the forest areas to take stock of the situation. It may be mentioned that, Nagaon district alone is endowed with 9 forest reserves, but except a couple of them the others have all turned into barren land due to indiscriminate felling of trees resulting in slow disappearance of the flora and fauna. According to an unofficial source, more than 200 big saw mills are functioning in the district with timbers brought from different forest reserves, in open disregard of the prohibition order of the Supreme court in this direction. If the civil, police and forest department continues to be so indifferent it is not long when forests would altogether disappear from the area. It is worth mentioning that in the last couple of years, encroachment in Lawkhowa wild life sanctuary and other reserve forest is rampant with thousands of encroachers (suspected illegal immigrant Bangladeshis) having entered the forest and feeding off the valuable timber wealth and also eliminating the wild life in the forests. Wild animals have been found to be moving into the neighbouring villages, causing great concern among the department officials and naturalists. The Lowkhowa forest reserve is perceived to be the home of more than 200 varieties of migratory and local birds. However, in view of the depletion of the forest reserves, a conscious section of people appealed to the Forest Minister of Asom who hails from Nagoan to take appropriate measures to save the forest resources and also to take stern measures to punish the guilty, sources added.
The All Assam Gramin Sramik Santha (AAGSS) and the Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Krishan Sramik Sabha (KANCKSS) have submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the office of the Deputy Commissioner demanding an CBI inquiry into the alleged NREGA scam involving issue of job cards which came to light after a Comptroller and Auditor General interim report. The organizations have alleged that original candidates who applied for the job cards have been ignored. They have demanded that the State Government hold a special session of the State Assembly to discuss the failure of the implementation of the NREGA scheme and issue a White Paper on the matter. The memorandum stated that there must be strict legally enforceable provisions whereby 100 days salary is cut from the pay of panchayat and block officers if 100 days job guarantee and payment of minimum wages is not ensured. It also stated that the policy of restricting the poor to a pre-fixed "BPL quota' be rolled back and publish a fresh list based on comprehensive ground survey. It also demanded that job cards must be issued to all poor families who demands it. The scheme must also guarantee 200 days of work per family in a year and make the number of job-card holders the basis for budgetary allocation for NREGA. Both the AAGSS and KANCKSS have stated that if the Government ignore their demands they would resort to an agitational programme from March 1.
Nagaland Governor K Sankaranarayanan inaugurated the second phase of pulse polio at Naga Hospital Kohima Nagaland recently, stated a press release. The simple yet significant event for concern to eradicate polio was also graced by SK Tripathy Advisor to the Governor, Lalhuma Chief Secretary Nagaland Principal Director of Health Services, senior doctors, nurses and was chaired by Menukhol John Commissioner & Secretary Department of Health. The Governor said that pulse polio programme was launched to ensure total eradication of polio from the world with sustained efforts. The Governor pointed out that immunization has saved 20 million lives in the last two decades from the six major vaccine preventable diseases of pertussis, childhood tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, measles and diphtheria. The Governor expressed the need to ensure cent per cent coverage to all the children in immunization against these six diseases. The official report said that during this second phase of pulse polio immunization all over Nagaland the department has set up 2011 pulse polio booths to immunized the children and around Kohima town 31 polio booths has been set up.
The Purni Drinking Water Supply Scheme has been a cause of concern for the people of Purni village under Golakganj LAC of Dhubri district. According to sources, the purni drinking water supply scheme which was launched 21 years ago with 29 taps. After its installation, it properly functioned for several years, but due to the lackadaisical attitude of the PHE department, the scheme has virtually become nonexistent. The people of the area have been deprived of potable water for a long time. Due to the lack of timely repair, lack of sand supply, lack of diesel supply and nonpayment of electricity bills the supply of potable water became irregular for which the taps remained nonfunctional and the pipes were also stolen away by some miscreants. The two diesel engines have also been reportedly stolen away. The filtration chamber too is lying abandoned. It is to be recalled here that in absence of the PHE workers, the doors and windows of the residence have also been taken away by some miscreants besides many other materials of th PHE. People have urged the authorities concerned to repair the potable water supply scheme earlier so that the villagers are benefited by the scheme, sources added.
The national flagship programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has contributed a lot towards making Mizoram one of the topmost States in the country in the education scenario, State Government officials said here today. "The SSA Mission has really brought about a paradigm shift in the field of primary education. It has helped us achieve the top slot. We have almost achieved total enrollment in primary education,' State Education Minister Dr R Lalthangliana said. Officials have attributed the success of the SSA in Mizoram to the participatory mode with which the programme has been implemented. "Village councils and local-based NGOs participate in the programme which in return has given them the feeling of ownership.' "We can proudly say that the government schools have now gone back to the public,' SSA Mizoram officer on special duty Robert Romawia Royte told UNI here today. However, even though every village in the state now had a primary school and village education committee to watch over it, the Mizoram SSA has reached a deadlock in its mission to universalize elementary education in the entire State. "About 2,000 children are believed to be still out of schools. They are from the residual or the hardcore groups. They belong to the nomadic families of Chakmas along the Indo-Bangla border, migrants and religious sects who do not allow their children to study,' the Royte said. However, the SSA will leave no stone unturned to give education to even this group of children, he asserted. One of the strategies were mobile schools meant for children of the nomadic Chakma families, are living in remote jungles. "Sometimes we mobilized the NREGS, the 100 days' employment, to lure the parents to send their children to the mobile schools,' SSA coordinator Irene Lalruatkimi said. Education volunteers and remedial teachers were being engaged to carry out the task. Besides formal education, the SSA Mission has instilled the spirit of sports in the minds of children. Under the "innovative programme', it has set up as many as 153 sports academies for various sports disciplines across the State. "The achievement of our sports academies are quite encouraging. Our academies' students have brought home a good number of national and regional level medals in judo, taekwondo, boxing and football,' Hmingsanga, an instructor at the SSA sports academy said. Recently, the Mizoram SSA signed a memorandum with US-based International Alliance for Youth Sports (IAYS) to introduce "Game On ! Youth Sports' to become the first Indian State to join the global sports promotion programme.
Top representatives of the Forest departments of the North-east, NGOs and other agencies are attending a two-day regional workshop on "Bamboo flowering: Status and management strategies' which got under way at the Deovan-based Rain Forest Research Institute here today. Several State Forest departments, NGOs, paper corporations and consultants, both national and international, had participated in a similar national-level meet at the same venue in April, 2002. The Planning Commission incorporated the recommendations made at that meet in its document on "National mission on bamboo technology and trade development.' These recommendations have served as guidance for management of bamboo flowering in the north-eastern States in particular and the country as a whole. The present workshop is a sequel to the previous consultation meet and will highlight those issues which did not figure in the last workshop, RFRI research officer Dr TC Bhuyan said. Suggestions and opinions for the development of RFRI as a centre of excellence for bamboo research will also be entertained at the workshop, he added. Recommendations and strategies for future course of action will comprise the agenda for the concluding session of the workshop, slated for tomorrow.
The Naduar region in Sonitpur district has been one of the most neglected areas in the State, according to the people here. One of the main causes of this opinion has been the indifferent attitude of the Government towards the checking of erosion caused by the Jia Bhoroli river. The citizens of greater Naduar have vehemently criticised the State Government for it failure to check the erosion of cultivable land of the people residing near the Jia Bhoroli river, though successive Governments in the State have claimed to have spent more than Rs 15 crore from the exchequer in the name of flood-protection measures. Till date, more than 5,000 hectares of cultivable land have been washed away by the mighty river. People living in the areas near the river
At a time when the State Government is blowing its own trumpet saying that it is serious about preserving the forest resources of the State and has implemented schemes like the Seuj Prakalpa, massive denudation of forest cover in the reserve forest in Dhubri district has made the State Government's so-called "intention' a mockery of sorts. According to sources, Dhubri district has become a safe haven for timber smugglers which has threatened the very existence of the forest resources in the district. Unabated felling of trees in the reserve forests and roadside areas is going on in spite a ban being imposed by the Supreme Court. Due to the rapid deforestation in the district, reserve forests like the Pabatjhara, Rupsi, Guma, Mahamaya are on the verge of being names only. Smugglers are illegally trading the timber varieties like gomari, newly-grown sal, segun, titasap, that too in broad daylight, in these reserve forests under Parbatjhora and Dhubri Forest divisions. Valuable small and medium-sized logs are being carried on thelas and bicycles to Tamarhat Guma Ferry Ghat and supplied to Bengal on horse carts, through Boxirhat and Chhotaguma areas crossing the Gangadhar (Sonkosh) river on boats. A huge quantity of logs are daily being ferried along the banks of the Gangadhar at Guma Ferry Ghat. It is worth mentioning here that valuable timber are also sold in the weekly markets of Tamarhat and Paglahat. People here blame the forest department officials and guards for an unprecedented increase in smuggling incidents in the area. They have alleged that it is due to an unholy nexus of the forest department officials and guards with the smugglers that these illegal acts are being carried out. The local people have alleged that these smugglers have been paying huge amounts of money to the forest officials on a monthly basis. Reacting sharply over the Forest Department's inaction to protect the forest cover from getting depleted, the people here have said that if the Government does not takes any step to stop this illegal practice with an iron hand, the whole forest cover in the district would soon vanish and hence, would also affect the ecological balance.
