North East Rising

Guwahati, 16th October: Assam police on Thursday arrested the brother of Assam Chief Secretary in connection with the Exam question paper leak scam of SI (UB) recruitment examination of Assam police.

Brother of Assam Chief Secretary and SP Kumar Sanjit Krishna has been arrested by CID on Thursday evening in connection with CID police station case no 21/ 2020.

Kumar Sanjit Krishna is brother of Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna and he is currently posted as Superintendent of Police (SP) or Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) of Barpeta district.

Earlier he was the SP of Karimganj district.

The written exam of SI (UB) of Assam police for 597 posts was scheduled on September 20 and the examination was cancelled after its question paper was leaked through WhatsApp.

Following that, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had directed Assam police to conduct a thorough probe into the scam and not to spare anyone who is involved in the scam.

Police have so far arrested more than 50 people including a former DIG Prasanta Kumar Dutta and expelled BJP leader Diban Deka.

Police have also recovered cash worth more than Rs 6 crore and gold ornaments from the houses of few arrested persons.

Guwahati, 16th October: The sleuths of Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) of Assam excise department had seized a huge consignment of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in Assam’s Kamrup (Metro) district.

The Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) team had seized 918 cases of IMFL from a truck at Tetelia area on NH-37 on Thursday.

The excise officials had also apprehended two persons while they were carrying the liquor illegally from Himalayan Distillery Pvt Limited (factory) to M/S Borgohain Enterprises Bonded Warehouse Pvt Ltd in Mariani under Jorhat district.

The apprehended persons were identified as Ranjan Daimary and Habibul Haque.

The Excise Intelligence Bureau officials have launched a search operation to nab other persons.

Sailen Pandey, PRO to Assam Excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya said that, presently the excise department provides online challans carrying bar codes in it, however, the arrested persons presented the invalid challans before the EIB officials which have been discontinued by the department way back in the year 2016.

“Earlier, the excise department had seized illegal liquor from nearby compound of Himalayan Distillery Pvt Limited (factory) and has registered a case. Two people were detained for their alleged involvement in the illegal bottling of IMLF liquors. Out of the two accused, one person was arrested and the court sent him to judicial custody and the other was be absconding. Later, both the persons were released on bail by the court,” Sailen Pandey said.

In a separate operation, the state excise department had detected an illegal bottling plant at 14^th Mile area near Guwahati and recovered 4000 litres of Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) and other machinery items.

Meanwhile, Assam Excise minister Parimal Suklabaidya hailed the EIB officials and directed the state excise department for an inquiry into the matter and has urged the concerned authority to take strict action against the concern factory officer in charge and Kamrup Metro Enforcement in-charge in this regard.

Guwahati, 15th October: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) coordinator of Assam has asked all Deputy Commissioners of the state to delete the names of ‘Ineligible Persons’ from the NRC list.

The final National Register of Citizens list was published on August 31 last year by excluding over 19 lakh people.

The NRC state coordinator’s direction has come at a time when the BJP-led Assam government has demanded 10-20 per cent re-verification of all included persons to get a correct NRC.

NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said in his letter issued on October 13 that – “Some names of ineligible persons belonging to the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) along with their descendants have found entry to the NRC.”

As per the laws governing the preparation of the NRC list, the persons who fall under the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) along with their descendants need to be kept out of the NRC list.

NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said that, there are many cases found that, the names of the categories of DF (declared foreigner), DV (doubtful voter), PFT (persons with cases pending at foreigners’ tribunals) were included in the NRC list.

“After disposal of Claims and Objections have prepared and published the Supplementary List, whereas the Registrar General of India is yet to publish the final NRC as per Clause 7 of the Schedule of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens & Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. And as per Clause 4(3) of the Schedule of the same Rules, ‘the LRCR may at any time before the final publication of the NRC in the State of Assam may cause or direct to cause verification of names of such persons considered necessary’. The DRCR under Clause 4(6) of the Schedule of the same Rules ‘shall, by order, and for reasons to recorded in writing either for inclusion or, as the case may be, exclusion of names, dispose of the report of the verification ………,” said in the NRC state coordinator letter.

In his letter, Hitesh Dev Sarma directed the Deputy Commissioners who also holds the post of District Registrar of Citizen Registration (DRCR) to write speaking orders for deletion of such names as per Clause 4(6) of the Schedule under the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens & Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 after specifically ascertaining the identity of the person.

“The verification would mandatorily require the correct identity of the person so that no ambiguity arises in future so far as the identification of the person is concerned,” Hitesh Dev Sarma said in the letter.

The NRC state coordinator asked the DRCR to submit the list of such persons who are not eligible for having their names in the NRC along with speaking order justifying reasons for each case for necessary action for deletion of such names.

“A software Application for submission of reviewed results of such persons along with mechanism for uploading of the scanned speaking order (freshly written) will be rolled out shortly,” the NRC state coordinator said.

Assam government and the state BJP have demanded 20 per cent re-verification in the bordering districts and 10 per cent in the other districts of the included names in the final NRC list.

Earlier, Assam government said in the Assam Legislative Assembly that the state government had given an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying there should be re-verification of 20 per cent included names in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent in the rest of the districts.

There are more than 1.13 lakh doubtful voters or D-voters in Assam.

Guwahati, 14th October: Geetanagar Police had arrested a 41-year-old man on charges for raping his 14-year-old daughter in Assam’s capital city Guwahati.

Police said that the man had allegedly raped his own daughter in the past two years.

A top official of Guwahati city police said that the incident came to light on October 12 after the victim described to her aunt about the incident and lodged a complaint against the person.

“The victim was staying with her father and other relatives. The victim’s mother is in the process of seeking a divorce from the man and staying separately,” the police officer said.

After receiving the complaint, Geetanagar police in Guwahati had arrested the man and registered a case under POCSO Act.

The arrested person was produced before the court and the court sent him to 14 days judicial custody.

Guwahati, 13th October: The Assam government on Tuesday has issued guidelines for the celebration of Durga Puja festival in view of COVID-19 pandemic.

The state health department has issued the COVID-19 guidelines for organizing a Durga Puja festival in the state.

Assam Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a press conference held in Guwahati that, the state government has not imposed any ban in the celebration of Durga Puja, but the organizers have to follow the government guidelines.

The Assam minister said that, all the volunteers, priests and puja organizers must get mandatorily tested for COVID-19 before puja starts (on Panchami day) and after immersion (Ekadasi day).

According to the government guidelines, all organizers of the puja committee must take permission from the district administration of the concerned district for organizing Durga Puja.

“Pandals should be spacious and must remain open from all sides. Pandals must keep adequate space for arrangement of physical distancing of at least one-meter distance. Management must take measures to avoid crowding at all costs and mot more than 10 to 30 persons can aggregate at a time depending on the size of the pandal. Entry and exit gates must be separate. Use of face masks properly shall be mandatory for all visitors visiting a pandal. A priest must use a microphone so that devotees need not come close to him to offer Anjali. There will no distribution of Prasad in the pandal or community feasting,” said in the government guidelines copy.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, organizing cultural programmes before, during and after Puja days is strictly restricted and all the Puja pandals must be closed for the devotees at 10 pm.

“Restaurants will be closed at 9 pm and only takeaway food should be allowed, subject to relevant permissions from the government. Pillion riding will not be allowed for males during Puja days. Pillion riding is allowed during Puja days for women or child below 15 years,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Assam has so far registered 1,95,304 positive cases for COVID-19 and out of these 1,66,036 patients have discharged from hospitals and 826 persons died.

Guwahati, 13th October: A controversial BJP leader of Assam and some Hindu activists of the state have opposed to serve beef to the animals of Assam state zoo and demanded to ban cow slaughter across the state.

Satyaranjan Bora – who claims himself as a BJP leader and some workers of a Hindu organization have demanded the state government and the authorities of Assam state zoo to stop feeding of beef to the animals of the zoo immediately.

“We call cow as Gau Mata and how can we allow to kill our Gau Mata. We demanded an alternative way as to serve goat and pork to the animals instead of beef,” Satya Ranjan Bora said.

On Monday, some Hindu activists had staged a demonstration in front of the entrance of the state zoo and stopped vehicles carrying beef meant for the animals of the zoo.

They demanded that cow slaughtering as well as feeding of beef to the animals should be banned across the state and the state government should take appropriate action.

A protester said that, feeding of beef to the animals should be stopped.

The protesters also demanded the BJP-led Assam government to issue an order for banning cow slaughtering across the state and stop feeding of beef to the animals of the state zoo immediately.

Meanwhile, Assam state BJP clarified that, Satya Ranjan Bora is not a member of the party.