Haryana CM announces Rs 5 cr for flood relief in Assam
Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday announced that the state government will give Rs 5 crore for the assistance of persons affected with floods in Assam. The amount will be sent to the Assam Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, an official statement said here. According to the flood bulletin of Assam State Disaster Management Agency (ASDMA), a population of 3,64,553 in 459 villages of 12 districts in the state are currently affected by the floods. However, the flood situation improved considerably on Thursday with the water level of all the major rivers and its tributaries receding and life was slowly returning to normal in the flood affected districts of the northeastern state. There was no report of any fresh casualty due to floods and the death toll in the current wave of floods stays at 86 there. (PTI)
Former Assam MLA passes away
Guwahati: Aug 1 (PTI) Former three-time Congress MLA Sarat Saikia, who later joined the BJP, died at a hospital in Kolkata on Thursday following prolonged illness, family sources said here. He was 71 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Saikia was suffering from renal failure and was hospitalised for four months. He was elected thrice consecutively in 2001, 2006 and 2011 from Upper Assam’s Mahmora constituency on Congress ticket. Saikia had served as a parliamentary secretary in the last term of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. He was denied a Congress ticket in the 2016 Assembly polls, following which he left the party and joined the BJP. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal mourned Saikia’s death. He was a man dedicated to the cause of public service and was admired by all for his amiable personality who made immense contribution for uphold ethical politics and worked to empower the marginalised communities, Sonowal said in a statement here. Saikia’s mortal remains will be brought to his home town Moran on Friday where the last rites will be performed. (PTI)
Ex-RS MP nominated to panel
New Delhi: Former Rajya Sabha member Mrinal Miri has been nominated as a member of the recently constituted high-level committee, set up to assess the quantum of seats to be reserved in the Assam Assembly and local bodies for Assamese people, officials said on Thursday. Miri, ex-director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and former vice-chancellor of North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, will be part of the panel which will examine the effectiveness of actions taken since 1985 to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. The former RS member’s name has been included in the committee through a gazette notification, a Home Ministry official said. The committee, headed by former Gauhati High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma, was set up under Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord. The panel, constituted on July 15, will hold discussions with various stakeholders, including social organisations, legal and constitutional experts, eminent persons from the fields of art, culture and literature, conservationists, economists, linguists and sociologists, the official said. A meeting of the committee is expected to be held in Guwahati on Friday. (PTI)
17 lakh educated unemployed
Guwahati: Assam has a total of 16,99,977 educated unemployed people as per record available up to December 31 last year, the Assembly was informed on Thursday. Records in Employment Exchanges across the state also show that there are 20,24,886 registered employed persons till last year, Industry Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said. He was replying to a question by Pabindra Deka of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). On the steps taken to provide jobs to the unemployed, the minister said their names are forwarded by the Employment Exchanges to various employers who are legally bound to send their requirements to the exchanges. The exchanges also provide career counseling and vocational guidance to the registered persons to find alternate means of employment, he added. (PTI)
Govt seeks nod on Registers Bill
Aizawl: The umbrella organisation of all the major civil societies and student associations of Mizoram on Thursday urged the state government to impress upon Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi to give assent to a bill that seeks to detect foreigners illegally residing in the state. The Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019, was passed by the state Assembly on March 19. In a statement, the NGO Coordination Committee expressed regret that the governor was yet to give assent to the bill after four months of being passed in the Assembly. Chief Minister Zoramthanga had earlier said the influx of foreigners into the state that shares over 700-km border with Bangladesh and Myanmar has remained a serious concern for several decades. The Committee also expressed unhappiness over Mizoram being without a regular governor for a long period of time. Mukhi, who is also governor of Assam, has been given additional charge of Mizoram in March after resignation of Kummanam Rajasekharan from the post. (PTI)
Ravi sworn in as Nagaland guv
Kohima: R N Ravi, a former Intelligence Bureau officer and the Centre’s interlocutor for Naga peace talks, was on Thursday sworn in as the 20th governor of Nagaland. Ravi was administered the oath office at Raj Bhavan by the acting chief justice of Gauhati High Court, Arup Kumar Goswami, in presence of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Assembly Speaker Vikho-o Yhoshu, Opposition Leader T R Zeliang, state ministers, legislators and other dignitaries. He was appointed as the new governor on July 20 by President Ram Nath Kovind. Ravi succeeded P B Acharya, whose tenure ended on July 19. (PTI)
BJP sweeps panchayat polls
Agartala: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tripura swept the three-tier Panchayats Polls, the elections for which was held on July 27 last and the results were announced on Thursday. Polls were held in only 15 per cent of the total seats, as 85 per cent of the seats have already been won by the ruling BJP unopposed. Polls were held in 833 gram panchayat seats, 82 panchayat samiti seats and 79 zilla parishad seats. “Out of 833 gram panchayat seats, the BJP won 638, the CPI(M) 22, the Congress 158 and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) 6. Nine seats were won by independents,” State Election Commissioner GK Rao said. In panchayat samiti, the BJP won 74 seats, the CPI(M) one and the Congress six. In zilla parishad, the BJP won 77 seats and the Congress two, Rao said. There are a total of 6,111 gram panchayat seats, 419 panchayat samiti seats and 116 zilla parishad seats in Tripura. The SEC official said the BJP has won 5,652 seats of the total 6,646 gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad seats unopposed. The state recorded 76.63 per cent turnout during the polling. (PTI)