By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Hokson Lyngdoh Marshilong has been selected by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), HQ, New Delhi to participate as a member in the IMF Expedition to Mt Sulitop, which is located at 6300m in the Kumaon Region of Himalaya at Uttarakhand, from 1st June to 1st July 2012. This was informed here by the Meghalaya Rock Climbing and Mountaineering Association (MRCMA). The association has also informed that Hokson did not receive any sponsorship for the said expedition.
From Our Correspondent
TURA: Renowned table tennis player and coach from Tura, Bruce P. Marak has been named the Manager for Indian team at the South Asian Federation (SAF) Junior TT Championship to be hosted by Meghalaya from June 17 to 19 next at the Indoor Stadium of the J N Sports Complex in Polo, Shillong. Seven South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India are participating in the three-day championship.
Mumbai: Senior batsman Sachin Tendulkar on Friday said India will focus to get back to the pinnacle of Test rankings rather than thinking about taking revenge against England in the upcoming home series in November.
“It’s not about revenge (the home series against England). It’s taking pride to play for India and for me that is really important. It (revenge) can be against any other nation but I take lot of pride in playing for India. That’s what matters to me. It doesn’t matter with whom we play. As long as we produce quality performance expected from us, that is important,” said Tendulkar.
“For four years, I mean post-2007 World Cup till the 2011 World Cup, we played quality cricket and got to No 1 ranking,” Tendulkar told NDTV. (PTI)
NEW DELHI: Having led Kolkata Knight Riders to the Indian Premier League triumph, Gautam Gambhir on Friday said that he is ready to captain the Indian Test side.
Asked if he was ready to lead the Test side, Gambhir said, “Absolutely, it is the biggest honour. I am ready for it. Ready for the responsibility of the challenge because you want to take different challenges as well. That’s where your mental toughness and character will be tested.”
“I have heard of the talks (of he being made India captain) but as I have said a captain is as good as the team. It’s a successful team that makes a successful captain and not that a successful captain makes a successful team,” he said.
Gambhir has played 48 Tests and 134 ODIs in his eight-year old international career but said he still feels insecure about being dropped from the national team.
“I am very insecure guy as far as my profession is concerned and my insecurity is far more than my security. Even now to be honest. That’s how I played my cricket starting from my Under-14 days, everyone told me if I don’t score runs I will be dropped. Since I started playing cricket as a kid I consider every game I played my last game.
“Even at this stage, if I don’t score runs in two or three game I start feeling that I am going to be dropped. That has gone so much inside my system that I have started living with it,” Gambhir told a news channel.
Surprisingly, he also said that he did not enjoy too much of cricket and the game was just his priority.
“I don’t enjoy, to be honest, too much of cricket. For me cricket is something which is my priority. I want to get there and get the best result. One thing which has helped me is that whatever I have gone through I try not to give to other people playing with me. Whenever I led a side I have always tried that my players feel secure.
“It’s not about I enjoy or not. Till the time the team is enjoying I am happy with that,” he said.
Gambhir admitted that, at times, he had crossed the line of playing with the spirit of the game and has learnt from the mistakes.
Gambhir also spoke highly about the IPL and dismissed the talks of banning the Twenty20 league. (PTI)
Itanagar: Opium trade, banned by the government, goes on unchecked in the districts of eastern Arunachal Pradesh where cultivation of poppy plants is widespread, causing concern to the authorities.
Changlang is one of the districts where poppy plants are cultivated extensively despite periodic raids by the district police and men of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
After one such raid in which a large chunk of the poppy plantations was destroyed, the Union Home Ministry’s announced cash reward to the Changlang police. In Tirap, Lohit, Lower Dibang Valley and Anjaw districts, poppy cultivation similarly goes on unabated notwithstanding raids from time to time while illicit drugs, including brown sugar, from the infamous ‘Golden Triangle’ find their way there.
An NCB team and the state police last year destroyed 470 hectares of illicit poppy plantations and destroyed about 2,350 kg of raw opium under the leadership of SP Tume Amo in the Khimiyong circle of Changlang district.
At Roing, the headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley district, people smoke opium in public gatherings or functions.
A local panchayat leader Anjite Menjo said, “It’s a sign that opium is becoming a routine addiction. A few years back, such sights were rare in social gatherings.”
He said that within a span of five to six years, opium addiction in the district had grown drastically, to the extent that it was being sold openly in various pockets of Roing town like Cheta, Mayu, Intaya and Asali.
A 2010-11 survey by the Delhi-based Institute for Narcotics Studies and Analysis (INSA) has revealed an alarming situation on drug abuse in Lower Dibang Valley, besides Lohit, Anjaw, Changlang, Tirap and Upper Siang districts.
Menjo leads an organisation called ‘Dibang Anti Drug Campaign Committee’ which is spearheading a movement against drug addiction in the district.
In one such campaign on May 6 last, the committee with support from All Idu Mishmi Students Union (AIMSU) caught a drug peddler from Medo in Lohit district with 844 grams of opium on him.
AIMSU president Lokha Elapra said often drugs were delivered at the door step. The recent boom in opium trade in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh can be traced to early 1990s when the United Nation Drug Control Programme offered assistance to Myanmar to eradicate illicit opium production.
A ruthless anti-opium drive was launched by Myanmar in the northern provinces and as a direct upshot of this the opium cultivation shifted to the eastern borders of Arunachal Pradesh as demand grew from across the border.
The INSA in its survey found that there are around 3,460 hectares of land in Anjaw and 12,981 hectares land in Lohit which produces opium. It also disclosed that 186 villages out of a total 226 in Anjaw and 95 villages out of 232 in Lohit has opium as their main source of income.
The absolute control of wholesale trade by outside agencies is also one reason why poppy cultivation has got a boost as farmers no longer find growing cash crops like orange, maize, cardamom etc, high income yielding. Meanwhile, Lohit district deputy commissioner R K Sharma said they were going to start a massive awareness campaign to teach people the ill effects of opium use.
The district has cultivated opium for centuries for consumption and use in rituals and medicines. According to a rough estimate, the annual yield of opium is around 100 tonnes, an average of 10 kg a hectare.
The average addict in Arunachal Pradesh takes about three gms of opium a day, which is much more than what an addict consumes anywhere in the country.
Opium extracted from poppy plants is gathered onto a cloth made from sting nettles. A small piece, about 6 cm x 8 cm in size and weighing about 11.9 gm, is sold at Rs 200.About 6 gm of opium is obtained from it. (PTI)
Mumbai: Filmmakers rarely applaud each other’s work — but Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee are all praises for each other. After watching Shanghai, Kashyap has declared it is the best film he has ever watched and Banerjee is the country’s best director.
“It’s a film that should be made compulsory for everybody to watch. This is the most powerful and the best film I have seen in a long time,” Kashyap said here Thursday at a special screening of Shanghai.
“Dibakar Banerjee is the best filmmaker in the country. Period. There is no scope for discussion on this,” he added.
Shanghai, featuring Abhay Deol, Emraan Hashmi and Kalki Koechlin in prominent roles, focusses on politics and corruption.
Kashyap even took to Twitter after the film’s screening and called it a “visceral, stunning and ballsiest film ever made in this country”.
Banerjee, who has earlier helmed projects like Khosla Ka Ghosla and Love Sex Aur Dhokha, believes Kashyap is an inspiring filmmaker.
“Anurag is too generous and I also think that probably because Anurag is around in the scene and he makes it so exciting and at the same time encouraging is what gives other filmmakers the guts to actually go ahead and do what they are doing,” he said.
“It’s very exciting to have someone like Anurag around because you kind of get excited to do more exciting stuff,” he added.
Kashyap’s two-part series Gangs of Wasseypur received critical acclaim at the recently concluded 65th Cannes International Film Festival. The movie is now set for premiere at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards, to be held in Singapore June 7-9. (IANS)
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Three poachers were arrested in Pobitora wildlife sanctuary on Friday by police and forest staff and recovered ne .303 rifle and 10 rounds of ammunition from their possession.
The arrested poachers were identified as Khaipung, Mimin Naga Angami and Arjun Biswas.
They were arrested in a joint operation by police and forest guards.
In another incident two poachers were captured by local people at Methoni tea estate at the outskirt of Kaziranga National Park on Friday.
Locals thrashed the poachers and handed over them to police. They were identified as Madan Orang and Biju Orang.
The 38 square kilometer Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary near Guwahati has the highest desity of one-horned rhinoceros in the world.
It has over 80 rhinos. ON the other hand world famous Kaziranga National Park has a treasure trove of over 2000 one-horned rhinoceros.
Inter-state gangs of poachers armed to the teeth are on the prowl in and around both the rhino habitat in the state keeping the wildlife personnel on the toes.
From Our Correspondent
Guwahati:The anti-talks faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), a Bodo tribe separatist group led by its ‘chairman’ Ranjan Daimary on Friday warned that it would kill 20 persons in case the security forces kill one Bodo youth in ‘fake encounters’.
In a statement issued to the media through e-mail, the NDFB strongly condemned the killing of one Simul Boro in the name operation against the NDFB by security force yesterday in Boko, under Kamrup District. “Simul Boro was not the member or cadre of NDFB,” the statement said.
“In the name of insurgency many innocent Boro youths have been targeted and victimized by Assam Police and Indian Security Forces. Which is very disastrous for our community.
Bodo people have been exploited, dominated, suppressed, oppressed and discriminated till today. Simul Boro was targeted and shot dead by security force, because he was from Bodo community,” it stated. “The government should not test our patience. The authorities should not repeat the blunder. One: twenty” is our standing resolution. We warn the government to exercise utmost restraint from fake encounter or killing any innocent Bodo youths in the name of insurgency. If our calls are not responded with honor the government will be responsible for any untoward incident in the future. We also call upon the Bodo people and civil society to remain watchful about ulterior motives of the government on Bodo people,” the statement added.
The NDFB had declared unilateral truce a few months back expressing its desire to sit for talks with the Government of India and demanded release of its chairman Ranjan Daimary from jail to facilitate talks. Bodo civil society organizations have also demanded that government should start talks with the faction of the NDFB to restore lasting peace in Bodo tribe dominated areas in the state.
However, Government of India which is now talking with the other faction of the outfit called NDFB Progressive has not responded to the truce declared by the NDFB faction led by Ranjan Daimary.
Los Angeles: Oscar-winning film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial will soon be released in a digital format to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, the Blu-ray DVD of the film will feature never-seen-before footage from the sets of the film and will include a new interview with Spielberg, a report said.
“When E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial premiered in 1982, it captured the imaginations of people young, old and everyone in between in a way that was unparalleled in modern movie history,” said Craigh Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
“A global cultural phenomenon-and the biggest box-office blockbuster of its day-E.T. brought out the child in all of us. We are thrilled audiences will now be able to experience the film in the astounding quality of Blu-ray,” he added. The new version of the film, about an extra-terrestrial entity and his camaraderie with a young boy, includes two deleted scenes, a reunion with the cast and filmmaker, a feature on the evolution and creation of the movie and a discussion with composer John Williams.
The film will be released on Blu-ray DVD in October. (IANS)
Guwahati: Three prominent tea growers’ organisations in Assam have sought Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi’s intervention over the halt in tea production in five districts.
The production came to a halt Thursday in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat following non-supply of gas by the Assam Gas Co Ltd (AGCL) to the tea estates.
Industry experts say the state is losing production of about 1 million kg of tea daily due to the crisis.
Most tea factories in the five districts, which also account for about 45 percent of the total tea factories of Assam, run their Dryers and Weathering Troughs (hot air) on gas supplied by AGCL.
The gas supply has been disrupted due to a 72-hour blockade by Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) demanding a Rs.100 crore package from the company for the development of tea community and 30 percent reservation for posts of grade IV employees for local youths in the firm.
The Assam Tea Planters’ Association (ATPA), the North East Tea Association (NETA) and Bharatiya Chah Parishad (BCP) approached the power minister seeking his immediate intervention.
“June is the time for high priced second flush of tea, and we are losing not less than one million kg of tea every day,” NETA chairman Bidyananda Borkakoty told IANS.
“Most factories have stopped buying green leaf and will have to stop plucking of leaf in their own gardens. Tea leaves are perishable.” Barkakoty warned that the industry will be hit very hard if immediate steps were not taken by the government to end the crisis. (IANS)
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