5,000 Foreign Facebook Accounts Suddenly Active In Assam: Himanta Sarma
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during a press conference held at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur today, raised concerns about the sudden activation of thousands of suspicious Facebook accounts ahead of the upcoming elections in the state.
Guwahati Diary | Solar fence to mitigate human-elephant conflict
In a bid to mitigate human-elephant conflict and facilitate co-existence, biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak has installed a 30.1-km solar fence covering three project villages in Jorhat district in collaboration with the British Asian Trust and the Elephant Family with support from the Darwin Initiative. The project has benefitted over 1,047 households affected by human-elephant conflict. There was a time when herds of wild elephants would wreak havoc in these villages while foraging for crops, causing immense hardship to the agrarian community. However, the installation of these solar-powered fences helped significantly ease the problem. 15K bighas of satra land encroached upon: CM The satras monastic institutions within Assams neo-Vaishnavite tradition have lost over 15,000 bighas of their land to encroachment. Taking a serious view of it, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma noted that an area twice the size of Dispur had been encroached upon. The sheer scale of encroachment of the satras is a direct assault on Assams culture and identity. Not anymore. We are dealing firmly with this, he posted on X. The Satra Aayog, constituted by the government for reviewing and assessing the problems of satra land in Assam, has submitted its final report to Sarma with its recommendations. IED case: ULFA chief, 2 others chargesheeted The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has chargesheeted ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah and two other members of the banned insurgent group Abhijit Gogoi and Jahnu Boruah for a conspiracy to carry out multiple IED blasts in Assam on Independence Day last year. During the probe, the NIA found that as many as 11 IEDs were planted in different parts of the state, including Guwahati. However, none of them exploded. The investigation agency says the plot was meant to cause deaths and unrest. Boruah, who has reportedly admitted to planting four of the IEDs, was arrested from Dibrugarh in December. Prasanta Mazumdar Our correspondent in Guwahati prasantamazumdar@newindianexpress.com
Congress files several police complaints against Assam CM Himanta for remarks against women
GUWAHATI: The Congress on Thursday filed police complaints against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his alleged derogatory remarks against women during the recent panchayat poll campaign. In a protest against Sarma's statement made on April 28, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) lodged several complaints at district headquarters across the state. The police are, however, yet to register the FIRs and said they are investigating the complaints. Sarma, during panchayat election rallies, had mentioned a witness' statement from the report of the Justice (Retd) Biplab Kumar Sharma Commission on irregularities in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) examinations for 2013 and 2014, when the Congress was in power. He had said the witness' statement maintained that women had to adopt a wrong path to get jobs during the Congress regime. District Congress presidents and other leaders filed complaints at their local police stations, condemning the chief minister for making comments that allegedly malign the character of Assamese women, party spokesperson Monalisa Baruah Hazarika said. The Congress demanded legal action under relevant provisions of the BNS and called for an investigation into the CM's statements, she added. In Guwahati, while filing the complaint at Dispur Police Station, Metropolitan District Congress president Gopal Chandra Sharma told reporters that the chief minister's remarks casting doubt on the chastity of Assam's women reflect a deeply regressive and distasteful mindset. He also alleged that the CM's suspicion towards women appointed during the Congress rule was unjust and could cause serious social unrest. Sharma also asserted that during the time of those appointments, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma himself had held influential positions in Tarun Gogoi's cabinet. If there were any irregularity, the current chief minister should also be held accountable, he added. The Congress had, on Wednesday, burnt an effigy of the Assam chief minister for his alleged derogatory remarks against women and wrote to the National Commission for Women (NCW) seeking action against the BJP leader.
