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Nab ring leaders: Delhi to Gogoi

By editor |

Delhi on Wednesday directed Dispur to nab the ring leaders involved in ethnic clash in BTAD areas. Further, it ruled out a Bangladeshi hand in the entire episode where 42 people lost their lives. According to Union Home Secretary R K Singh, 2,000 central security personnel have been deputed to guard Guwahati-bound trains and railway tracks which were disrupted.Singh said that the international border is sealed and that it was impossible for any intruders to foment trouble from across the border. Around 2,500 paramilitary personnel have reached Assam to assist the local administration.

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Lathi charge in Doomar Dalang Tea Estate; several injured

12 Feb 2008 - 4:01am | editor
Several tea garden people including Moran's Assam Chah Mazdoor general secretary Lakheswar Tati, have been injured in police lathicharge made to quell the situation while these people were attaking the Assam Chah Mazdoor office in Moran.
Hundreds of tea garden labourers at the Doomar dalang Tea Estate attacked the Assam Chah Mazdoor office in Moran in protest against the lock out of the garden from January 28. Moranhat police pounded on these striking people with lathicharge. It left several people injured. A seriously injured Tati has been shifted to the Assam Medical College Hospital. The entire incident took place following a clash over distribution of Congres ticket for the recent panchayat polls. The clash divided the people while a faction was backed by the management. Caught in the clash, the management declared the lockout of the estate on 28th of January.

Tripura film bags first National Film Award

26 Mar 2010 - 11:30pm | editor

Internationally acclaimed Kokborok film YARWNG (Roots) won the first national film award for Tripura at 56th National Film Awards (2008) held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, 19 March, 2010. The President of India Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil handed over the medal and certificate to Don Bosco priests Joseph Kizhakechennadu (producer) and Fr. Joseph Pulinthanath (director) for their second feature film.


Pulinthanath dressed in white cassock and Kizhakechennadu in his preferred saffron lungi and half-sleeved white kurta were among 52 film award winners of 2008, including high-profile Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra and the doyen of Indian Cinematography V.K. Murthy who was awarded country’s highest honor in cinema - the Dada Saheb Phalke Award.


Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni and Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, and other officials accompanied the President.


Accent on People’s Cinema


The award winning 95 minute film Yarwng (Roots) tells the story of large-scale displacement of tribal people that took place in the tiny Northeastern state when a hydel project was set up there in the late 1970s. Yarwng was the opening film at the prestigious Indian Panorama section of the 39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Panaji, Goa, November 2008.


According to the filmmakers, the script of Yarwng emerged from the numerous encounters they held with displaced people in the sanctity of their ramshackle homes. “All the incidents and emotional turmoil we see in the film were etched in the subconscious psyche of the people. All we did was to get close to them and feel their stories as they recalled them with looks, sighs, tears and also words,” recalled the priest director and winner of national and international awards.


“Although the technical team came from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) and the support team from Guwahati (Assam), the best part of the production was the involvement of the local people,” says producer Kizhakechennadu who claims cinematic traditions from his legendary relative John Abraham, a genius in Malayalam cinema and founder of a people's cinema movement called Odessa.


All the artistes and production hands were from Tripura state including noted actors Meena Debbarma who plays the lead role of Karmati, Amulya Ratan Jamatia, Nirmal Jamatia and Surabhi Debbarma.


Yarwng has traveled throughout India and has been screened in major cities around the world including New York, Brisbane, Moscow, Taipei, Stuttgart and Dhaka.


Yarwng also won a Special Jury Mention Award at the 3rd Eye Asian film festival held in Mumbai in 2008.


The film, part-financed by Church organizations – Missio Germany, Signis and the Salesian Congregation is also a compelling testament to the commitment of the Church and the Don Bosco Society to preservation of local, indigenous cultures and people.


C.M. Paul, New Delhi

Tea board seminar on climate change and water management

4 Jul 2011 - 2:08pm | Ritupallab Saikia


A seminar on climate change and water management issues in tea industry was held at Golaghat on 1st July 2011. The seminar was organized by Tea Board in association with IIT Guwahati and coordinated by North Eastern Tea Association (NETA). The keynote speaker of the seminar was Prof. A.K. Sarma, B.P.Chaliha Chair Professor for Water Resources, a chair established by Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India, to carryout research work on impact of climate change in the water resources of Brahmaputra Basin. The seminar was chaired by Rakesh Saini, Executive Director Tea Board and attended by Prof. S.K. Deb of IIT Guwahati, P.K. Sarma, a field expert of climate change project and many tea planters of Golaghat, Jorhat and Karbi Anglong districts.


The preliminary studies carried out by IIT Guwahati on impact of climate change on water resources of Brahmaputra Basin reveal that there will be significant changes in rainfall pattern and temperature of this Basin. High intensity rainfall of shorter duration and longer dry spells will adversely affect flood and drought scenario of this region.


Speaking on the occasion Bidyananda Barkakoty, Chairman NETA said that tea gardens have provided rainfall & other climatic data, which are considered to be the most authentic, to IIT Guwahati for the research work on impact of climate change in the water resources of Brahmaputra Basin and thereby we are contributing in our own small way to the national cause.


Rakesh Saini, Executive Director, Tea Board was of the opinion that the water management in tea gardens had always been a complex art and science, involving effective drainage to avoid water logging and flooding in rainy days and ensuring water availability for irrigation in draughty season. In the recent years, the subject has assumed greater significance due to visibility of climate change footprints in this region. The geographical and time pattern of rainfall is changing erratically and temperatures are rising. These variations require revisiting the available techniques of water management in tea gardens. Indigenous, innovative and cost-effective techniques of harvesting rain water have become inescapable. The academic institution of national importance like IIT Guwahati can make valuable contribution in seeking these methods and technologies.


Kirti Barbaruah of Gorunga T.E. said that with the change in climate, water harvesting in a scientific way will go a long way in solving the water management problem of the tea industry.


Jadoo Goswami, Senior Tea Consultant of Assam further added that a study is required to know the rate of evaporation of moisture due to wind velocity and a study to know the soil texture for retention of water particularly in Golaghat and Karbi-Anglong districts.


During the seminar various issues like rain water harvesting to do in a more scientific way, the blocking of natural water outlets of tea estates are by neighboring villagers and thereby the problem of water stagnation and flash floods in many tea estates, erosion of tea estate land by river and wrong placements of culverts by PWD during new road construction and thereby the natural outlet of tea estate is disturbed and resulted in water logging were also came up for discussion.


Tea Board had organized this seminar with the objective of facilitating the tea industry to project the climate change related issues (i.e. Soil Erosion, Water management, Rain water harvesting and problems arising out of clogging/ blockages of natural drainage outflow network etc, in tea industry).and facilitating the Project team in understanding these issues, offering available technological solutions or dovetailing presently unsolvable problems into study project.