Metre gauge railway lines in NE to be phased out in 4-5 yrs

New Delhi, Oct 27 : Government today said the over 10,000 kilometres of metre gauge railway lines in the country including North East will be phased out over the next 4-5 years by converting them into broad gauge.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Railways R Velu said there were 49,819.44 km of broad gauge rail lines in the country and 10,621.38 km of metre gauge lines.“In 4-5 years, all the metre gauge lines are to be phased out,” he said.

The North East has 2,365 km of railway lines, the Minister said while admitting that the region was lagging behind in rail connectivity.

Ten new railway line projects have been sanctioned for North East to connect seven States. The projects include Jiribam-Imphal link, Kumarghat-Agartala line, Azara-Byrnihat, Dimapur-Zubza (Kohima), Dudhnoi-Depa (Meghalaya), Harmuti-Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh and Assam), Agartala-Sabroom (Tripura) and Bhairabi-Sairang (Mizoram).

Besides, gauge conversion work has been taken up at five lines in the region, he said.

While route km per lakh of population in NE compares favourably with the average in the rest of India, route km per thousand square km area in the region was low.

North East had an average of 6.06 km of rail line per lakh of population as compared to the national average of 6.16 km. However, it had only 9.02 km per thousand square km area as opposed to the national average of 19.26 km line per thousand square km, he said.

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ULFA camp along Indo-Bangla border

Guwahati, Oct 27 : The security forces have recently come to know of a camp of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) just around five kilometres across the international border in Bangladesh following the arrests and surrender of a few cadres who came to Assam from that camp. Security sources said that the camp is located at Bakapura in Sherpur district of Bangladesh, which is just across the international border with Meghalaya.

Sources revealed that according to information available, around a hundred to 150 cadres of the ULFA are staying in the camp. Though no senior leader of the ULFA stays in the camp, middle rung leaders of the militant group including Antu Chowdang, Pradyut Gohain and Drishti Rajkhowa are believed to be heading the camp.

Sources also alleged that the ULFA must be receiving direct or indirect help from the DGFI, the intelligence agency of Bangladesh or from the Bangladesh Rifles as it would not have been possible for the militant group to run a camp so close to the international border.

Sources said that the senior leaders of the ULFA including the chairman of the outfit Arabinda Rajkhowa and the commander in chief Paresh Baruah also spend most of their time in Bangladesh, they usually stay in Dhaka and the security agencies do not have any report of them visiting the camp adjacent to the international border.

Sources pointed out that after the declaration of unilateral cease-fire by the A and C companies of the 28 battalion of the ULFA, the level of violence has come down in the upper Assam districts as the militants belonging to the B company of the battalion, who were entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out operations in the districts of Sivasagar and Jorhat, have not been able to move around freely.

According to information available with the security forces, around 150 cadres of the B company of the 28 battalion of the ULFA are still in the camps in Myanmar, but they are not in a position to come down freely because of operations by the security forces and also because of the fact that they are not keen on coming face to face with their former colleagues, who are on cease-fire.

Sources also claimed that the ULFA has not been able to carry out any major operation in recent months due to pressure from the security forces and also because of the fact that the cadre strength has come down drastically.

The cadres who are outside the country in Bangladesh and Myanmar have not been able to come to Assam as freely as they did before.

However, sources admitted that the militant outfit might continue efforts to trigger off blasts to create disturbance and the outfit made several such attempts in the run up to the Independence Day but fortunately the recovery of the explosives foiled their bid.

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Manipur’s educated unemployed reaches taunting proportions

Imphal, Oct 27 : The number of educated unemployed youths in Manipur has reached a taunting figure of 6, 33,451 (over six lakh mark) till September 2008 as per the report of the Directorate of Employment Exchange, Lamphelpal in Imphal.

According to the report of the total number of educated unemployed youth 4,59,806 are males while 1, 73,645 are females.

On district wise basis, Imphal West district leads with 2, 13,579 educated unemployed youths comprising of 1, 48,782 males and 64,797 females followed by Thoubal district with 75,272 males and 19,724 females.
Imphal East district comes in the third place with 64,519 males and 25,641 females followed by Churachandpur district lining up in the fourth place with 43,322 males and 13,975 females and the fifth place has been filled by Bishnupur district with 41,904 males and 15,093 females.

Senapati district comes in the sixth place with a total of 46,627 educated unemployed youths consisting of 34,155 males and 12,472 females followed by Ukhrul district with 25,075 educated unemployed youths comprising of 17,713 males and 7,382 females.

Chandel district comes in the eighth place with 21,391 consisting of 15,603 males and 5,788 females while Tamenglong district comes in the ninth place with 18,848 educated unemployed youths comprising of 14,458 and 4,390 females.

Moreover, in the section for the special employment exchange for physically challenged persons, Imphal has a total registered of 2, 253 educated unemployed youths which comprises of 1,541 males and 712 females.

UEI and GB have a total of 5,198 youths comprising of 2,527 males and 2,671 females.

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Dalai Lama’s Tawang visit postponed

Itanagar, Oct 27 : The postponement of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh has dismayed the people of the Buddhist centre on the Sino-India border.

The Dalai Lama was scheduled to inaugurate a hospital early next month but his office had verbally communicated that the visit has been postponed to March due to his ill health, Tsewang Dhondup, Tawang Congress MLA, told PTI.

The Tibetan temporal head’s secretary and spokesman Tenzin Takhla had said in Delhi yesterday that the week-long visit to Tawang, Bomdilla and Itanagar had been postponed due to ‘logistical problem’.

The Dalai Lama touched by the poor medical infrastructure of the mountainous region had given Rs 20 lakh for the hospital during his visit here in 2004.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and BJP MP Kiren Rijiju, both Buddhist and residents of Tawang, had contributed Rs 90 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively for the hospital project and the State Government provided Rs 1 crore.
The hospital will have tele-medicine, modern eye surgery facilities.

Dhondup, who is looking after the construction of the hospital, told PTI that the Dalai Lama had given his consent to inaugurate the hospital when Khandu accompanied by other Ministers met him at Dharamsala last year.

He said he would go to Delhi soon to find out if the spiritual leader would be able to undertake the visit in March as people are eagerly waiting for him.

“We may look for some other person for the inauguration if we feel the chances of the Dalai Lama’s visit here in March is bleak,” he said.

Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to Tawang assumes significance since the rejection by India over the claim of China on the land of Monpas and birth place of the 6th Dalai Lama.

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Manipur invites private companies

New Delhi, Oct 27 : Militancy-infested Manipur has invited the private sector to invest in the state and help improve its the economic condition, assuring that adequate security cover will be provided to the investors.

Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh said his government will ensure security of the investors as adequate private investment will help the economy of the state and enable it to come out of the cycle of violence.

Making a fervent appeal to the private sector, Singh said there is a huge opportunity awaiting for the investors in various sectors in Manipur as government will offer “unstinted efforts” to boost investment.

“Manipur needs huge investment from the private sector. The investors need to change perception about the state.

We will do everything possible to ensure security to them,” Singh told PTI here. Singh said the security situation was improving in the state and the government will even consider extending incentives to the investors beyond the facilities provided under the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP) 2007.

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Preparations on for Mrs India North East pageant

Guwahati, Oct 27 : Preparations are in full swing for holding the 3rd Darpan Mrs India North East, the highly coveted beauty pageant for the married women from across the eight north-eastern states of India, to be held at the Pragjyotish ITA Centre auditorium, Machkhowa on November 22.

Organised by the Epitome Educational Society under the banner of Darpan, a chain of beauty training institutes of the state, the pageant is being held with the motive of giving a platform to showcase the talents and potentials of the married women of this part of the region.

Already, nearly 100 participants from across North-east, including the two women who were crowned Mrs Arunachal and Mrs Nagaland in their respective states recently, have confirmed their participation.

The organizers would hold a screening of these contestants in the first week of November, from which 16 finalists would be selected.

Apart from the three top crown positions, several other titles like Mrs Translucent Skin, Mrs Captivating Eyes, Mrs Beautiful Smile, Mrs Lustrous Hair, Mrs Photogenic, etc., would also be vied for.

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