Ex-Silchar MP's son dies after suicide attempt

SILCHAR: A doctor based in Silchar, who had attempted suicide by shooting at himself with a pistol on November 30, died at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) on Sunday.
The 32-year-old dentist, Kunal Bhattacharjee, is the son of former Congress MP from Silchar Kamalendu Bhattacharjee.
A senior police officer said Kunal had pumped a bullet into his head around 12.30 pm on Friday at the toilet of his private clinic at Church Road. He was taken to SMCH in critical condition.

He was on ventilation at the intensive care unit of the hospital for the last three days. He succumbed to his injuries at 10.45 am on Sunday.
The pistol used by him is yet to be recovered. Police have started investigation.

Source:  http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-02/guwahati/35547979_1_suicide-attempt-silchar-medical-college-intensive-care-unit

KVIC fair at Silchar from Feb 23

KARIMGANJ, Dec 24 – For the first time, Silchar is going to host the North East level exhibition and fair under the auspices of Khadi and Village Industries Commission of the Govt of India. The fair will commence from February 23 at Town Club field and will continue till March 23. In order to patronise handicraft and micro, small and medium scale industries product of North-east KVIC has organised the fair. Chairman of the KVIC North-East zone and member National Committee Sharifujjaman Laskar said besides ‘North-East 150 stalls from national-level will participate in the exhibition. A strong reception committee has been constituted with Sharifujjaman Laskar as chairman with three ministers, twelve MLAs, two MPs, Vice Chancellor, Assam University, Director NIT, Principal, Silchar Medical College, educationists, DC, Cachar, SP, Cachar, Chairman, Silchar Development Authority, secretary, Silchar DSA as members. Besides forming three sub-committees.
A meeting was organised for the purpose. At the meeting, S Laskar disclosed they have invited Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister and other dignitories to inaugurate the exhibition. He informed that cultural function, competition on photography exhibition of varieties of food and sale, folk song and dance will also held every day.
Health camp: Under the auspices of the Viswa Hindu Parishad, Cachar unit a health camp was held at Ichacherra Karbipunji, the remotest corner of the West Kathighora recently.
Altogether 150 patients attended the camp where Dr Kalipada Purkayastha examined the health of the patients.
A primary medicine centre was also inaugurated. VHP is supplying medicines to this centre.
It may be mentioned that Ichacherra Karbipunji is situated under the foothill of Borail hill and whole area is dominated by tribal community. They have to visit Digharkhal, five km away for marketing. The Punji has no LP or ME school and PHC.
Considering the extreme problems of the tribals, VHP has decided to open a medicine centre here. Pradip Baishnab organising secretary, VHP Cachar said VHP is always extending helping hand towards the poor tribal people. Tribal people in different time are deprived from getting their legitimate rights. The VHP has also undertaken village renovation work.
The VHP wants to make Ichacherra Karbipunji as a model village.

Source : http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=dec2512/state05

Barak students move PM for expediting railway projects

SILCHAR: Representatives of All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students Association (ACKHSA) on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manhohan Singh and submitted a memorandum to him to ask the railway authorities to take measures to expedite the completion of key railway projects of southern Assam. These include the Silchar-Lumding broad gauge project, the Silchar-Mahisasan-Sylhet-Akhaura-Kolkata tracks and Silchar-Agartala-Akhaura-Kolkata tracks. The student body also demanded early completion of the Silchar-Saurashtra East-West Corridor project.
ACKHSA said the broad gauge project was initiated way back in 1983 and it was then proposed that the broad gauge tracks be laid between Sukritipur and Lanka, avoiding much of Dima Hasao hill district. The total outlay for the project was Rs 600 crore. The engineering-cum-traffic survey was done, but, surprisingly, the project was shelved.

After that a proposal came from the Railway Board to connect Silchar with Jogighopa through the broad gauge tracks, most of which would go through Meghalaya. The people of Meghalaya, however, objected to the proposal as they were not didn't want their state on the railway map for fear of easy infiltration by outsiders, ACKHSA added.
It's almost three decades since the project was initiated, but connectivity in southern Assam, Mizoram and Tripura hasn't improved. The progress of the present 214-km Lumding-Silchar broad gauge project through Dima Hasao has been delayed because of government apathy. Although the foundation of the project was laid by the-then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and it was declared a National Project in 2004 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the project has witnessed little progress over the years, the student body said. It said the project may again fail the fresh deadline of December, 2013 given the tardy progress.
ACKHSA said in response to the repeated demands of the people of this region, New Delhi sent a proposal to the Bangladesh government for revival of the defunct railway transit facilities between India and the neighbouring country through Mahisasan point on the international border in Assam's Karimganj district.

Source :  http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-27/guwahati/36021655_1_broad-gauge-project-lumding-silchar-railway-projects

Barak Valley joins protest against Delhi gangrape

SILCHAR: Students of Assam University, Silchar, and several other colleges evening brought out a candlelight procession here on Monday morning seeking speedy justice for the 23-year-old paramedic who was gang-raped in a moving private bus in Delhi.
The students in Barak Valley areas have been taking to the streets in line with the nationwide protest for last few days. Silchar, Karimganj, Hailakandi towns witnessed several protest rallies and some more are on the pipeline.

Posters seeking capital punishment for the six culprits involved in the crime have been pasted on many roadside walls and buildings.
The candlelight procession, which was organized by the university and collage students of Silchar, started from the statute of martyr Kshudiram Bose at 5 pm during the day and moved through the main streets of the town. The students, who were carrying banners and posters, decried the government for its highhandedness in dealing with the ongoing protests in different places of Delhi.
"There's presence of a large number of students from the northeast in Delhi and they are often subjected to molestation and other harassments by goons. NE students enjoy little security and justice in such cases. We demand a halt to such incidents and a suitable atmosphere for security of students in Delhi coming from across the country," said Rupali, a student of GC College, who joined the protest. "We will help spread the agitation against the brutal rape of a paramedic in Delhi throughout the country. We will not stop until the authorities pronounce capital punishment of the six rapists," said Ashok, a student of AU.

Source : http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-25/guwahati/35999621_1_ne-students-protest-rallies-barak-valley

BSF-BGB meet decides to start Indo-Bangla border survey in Nov

SILCHAR: A sector-level meeting of senior officials of Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) was held on Saturday at Sutarkandi trade centre in Karimganj district. The meeting decided that the survey of border areas of the two countries will start on November this year.
While the team of BSF officials was led by its sector commander (Silchar) deputy inspector general UC Hazarika, the Bangladesh officials were led by BGB sector commander (Sylhet) Col Muhammad Khair-uz-Zaman.

Source :http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-21/guwahati/34627370_1_bgb-bsf-indo-bangla

Frequent power cuts create public woe

SILCHAR, May 29: The scorching heat, frequent power cuts and high humidity have made lives of the people of Barak Valley miserable in the last few days.
The frequent power cuts in this hot and sultry summer have become quite irritating for the people of Silchar in general. The power supply has totally gone out of control with no predictable pattern to the power cuts.
Bidyut Debnath, a resident of Kanakpur, said that there is a power cut after every one hour and sometimes it takes two to three hours to back.
Madhumita Acharjee, a student, who is preparing for LLM entrance said, “My entrance examination is very near. But it is very hard to concentrate on studies because of this excessive heat and undue power cut.”
The power cut is not limited to only day’s hours. People of here are also suffering from power cuts at night.
Chunilal Das, a resident of Co-operative lane, said that he was unable to sleep during the night. Due to the sweltering heat, the fan had become a must. Without it, the sweltering heat of the summer makes sleep impossible.
Angshuman Dey, a resident of Ambicapatty, said that between 6 am and 6 pm, there are at least six hours of power cuts. During night , there are more six-hour of power cuts, taking the total power cut duration to 12 hours every day.
Moreover, in the night, there is a power cut after every one hour for which people can’t sleep properly. It is being forecasted that the heat would increase sharply in the coming days, but chances of heavy rain is also there.
However, the ASEB earlier assured that power supply would get normal, but hue and cry over power supply among public remains constant.

Source: http://www.sentinelassam.com/cachar/story.php?sec=2&subsec=12&id=119132&dtP=2012-05-30&ppr=1#119132

Youth Congress gherao on DTO

SILCHAR, May 24: The members of Silchar Youth Congress gheraoed the office of the district transport office demanding the action against the illegal carrying of over-loaded goods by the super buses in their day to day journey particularly in Silchar- Guwahati route, which might jeopardize the life of general people, on Wednesday.
The members of youth congress in an operation, early on Thursday  morning, to the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Ramnagar found eight passenger buses with overloaded goods, where they stopped all the buses and informed the transport authority. The youth congress leaders thereafter gheraoed the office of the district transport officer and sought his intervention in this regard.
Abhijit Paul, president, said that they have submitted a memorandum regarding this issue nine days ago but still no action has been initiated. He further said if it continues they would think of mass movement.
S Alam, district transport officer, called a meeting with the enforcement officers and asked them to take proper action. He also ordered the managers of the Capital and the Jagannath travels not to carry over loaded goods. He further assured the members of Youth congress that adequate steps would be initiated to deal with the issue very soon.
The leaders who were present in the operation included Papon Deb, , vice president, Rahul Amin Laskar, general secretary, Bandita Divedi Roy, Anita Das Chowdhury, Anupam Paul, Rinku Borlaskar, Shyamal Saha.

Source: http://www.sentinelassam.com/cachar/story.php?sec=2&subsec=12&id=118562&dtP=2012-05-25&ppr=1#118562