Dimasa militancy

It defies logic for any militant group to be cutting its own legs. But that is exactly what the Dimasa militants are doing by repeatedly attacking the goods and passenger trains passing through North Cachar Hills. Earlier the militants had attacked some goods trucks which led to suspension of their services. A public hue and cry ensued as NC Hills ran short of essential supplies. The railway line is also a lifeline not only for the people of NC Hills but for those of Mizoram and Tripura. If the trains are allowed to pass smoothly there is mutual advantage for all land-locked states. Trains are a symbol of human progress as they enhance connectivity and ensure cheaper and safer means of travel. By disrupting train services the Dimasa militants appear to be anti-progress. Yet most militants have one common grouse, which is that their region is underdeveloped. Most militant outfits blame the Government of India for treating this region as a colony. Ironically when the Centre invests in a railway line, that would, to a great extent, facilitate movement of people and goods, it is not understood why that should not be allowed to happen. The Assam Government has too much on its plate at the moment. The ULFA is acting up and things are likely to get worse until the parliamentary elections. So the state government is unable to give its undivided attention to the Dimasa problem. Moreover the state police force is overstretched and evidently are spread too thin.

Tarun Gogoi has blamed the army for not doing its bit to counter the Dimasa rebels. Gogoi has sent an SOS to the Union Home Ministry to activate the army and reinforce security along the entire stretch of the railway line. This is a problem that besets the North East. On the one hand all states want greater autonomy. But in the same breath they want the Centre to take over their law and order problems. On their part, the plains tribals of NC Hills and Karbi Anglong nurture a deep sense of alienation from Dispur. The mere act of pumping money is apparently not enough to assuage hurt feelings which have remained largely unspoken until recently. Sadly, violence has become the method of choice for such articulations. Most militant groups in Assam have lost faith in the state government. They now seek to talk only with the Centre. This only compounds the problem since New Delhi is equally ambivalent. Meanwhile it is the common citizen and policemen who are facing bullets everyday.
source: THE SHILLONG TIMES

Cachar paper mill in crisis

: Special Correspondent
SILCHAR, Jan 1: After being in good shape, Cachar Paper Mill at Panchgram which is situated at a distance of 30 kms from here, is again in trouble mainly due to gross mismanagement and scarcity of raw materials. According to the Joint Trade Union Action Committee, the crisis in the mill has been caused by no other factor than the overlooking of the basic management and resultant cropping up of related problems. The Committee has squarely blamed Chief Executive Mohan Jha who led the management officials.

The crisis instead of being tackled intelligently and deftly is being allowed to aggravate, adversely affecting production and intermittent closure of the mill. The Committee headed by Lalit Raj and Manvendra Chakraborty which has been agitating since Monday against the shut down has been vociferous in demanding the removal of Jha and other management officials.

In order to hammer their demands and to highlight the present crisis of the mill, the Action Committee has drawn up phase-wise agitation programme which include hunger strike, demonstration and sit-in-protest. Lalit Raj briefed the media persons about the latest position and cautioned if remedial measures were not taken immediately, it would turn for the worse, leading to complete shut down of the mill.

The Action Committee saw behind this mismanagement, a subtle move for privatization of the mill. It is to be recalled that during the NDA regime, preparations were afoot for disinvestment of the Cachar project which however failed to materialize due to protests from employees and their Unions. Lalit Raj said behind this privatization move was the direct complicity of the Chief Executive Officer. He warned that such a step would never be allowed to succeed.
The Union leader pointed out that for the last one year the production has been badly affected, causing heavy financial loss. According to a rough calculation, there has been an accumulated loss of Rs 50 crore. Quite puzzling, as he said, is the silence of the central minister, Sontosh Mohan Dev, state ministers, Dinesh Prasad Goala and Gautom Roy.

Besides blaming the management, the Action Committee has also expressed its displeasure at fund utilization for modernization of the mill. Not long ago, Rs 250 crore was provided by the centre for this purpose. The scarcity of bamboo as has been projected by the management for the present stalemate is a lame excuse, Lalit Raj stated. He failed to appreciate the scarcity factor as abundant bamboos are available in Barak Valley, North Cachar Hills and Tripura.

He rued at the fact that the Action Committee has time and again drawn the attention of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises as well as the State Government to the problems of the mill, but no positive action has been initiated. He said there is still time to rejuvenate the only industry of Barak Valley. source: sentinel assam

Contractors not keen to resume work Lumding-Silchar BG Project

Lumding-Silchar BG Project
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Sept 12: Despite suspension of operations against the outlawed DHD (J), work at the NF Railway’s Lumding-Silchar Broad-gauge project is yet to resume.

In the past, work of the Lumding-Silchar BG project has come to a halt on many occasions, primarily due to insurgency problems. The project work has been worst hit in North Cachar Hills.

It should be noted that the BG work has remained suspended since May 15 this year. A semblance of peace seems to have returned to hill district with the DHD (J) offering an unilateral ceasefire. However, the Government is yet to take a decision. As per sources, both the Centre and the State Government are busy pushing the ball into each other’s courts.

Though the people feel that the BG project work would resume after the end of the monsoon season, the contractors are refraining from voicing their assent.

In a meeting with a delegation of the NF Railway Contractors’ Association last week, DGP RN Mathur requested the contractors to resume work after the end of the monsoon season. IGP (law and order) Chandra Nathan was also present at the meeting.

The contractors, however, are still afraid of resuming work. The contractors alleged that extortion is still going on, albeit, on a lower scale. A source said, “People feel that peace has come back. But how long will it last? Once we resume our work, extortion will start again.”

Quoting police sources, the source said, “The suspension of operations against the DHD(J) is entirely a political decision.” He added, “We don’t want to lose any more lives.”

The source further said the fear psychosis amongst the workers has become so strong that it has become very difficult to persuade them to start work again. He added that the NFRCA would hold a meeting soon to discuss its future stand. source: sentinel assam

‘Trans-Asia rail link a key to Barak Valley development’

SILCHAR Aug 28: The south north-eastern region comprising Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and North Cachar Hills districts of Asom as well as Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura remain cut off from the main lane of the country for about four months a year due to disruption of surface communication. It is more than a decade that railway communication between the southern region and Guwahati has been disconnected for the Lumding-Badarpur gauge conversion work.The part project work of gauge conversion between Lumding and Silchar cannot be completed due to terrorist activities. The current situation gives an impression that it will take another decade for completion of the gauge conversion work even if militants stop their activities. The only existing road link between the south north-eastern region and main land via Meghalaya also remains disrupted for three months a year due to landslides and other factors. The terrain of this road is accident prone. Frequent forays by robbers, dacoits and extremists also pose a serious threat to this surface link. The Barak Valley has its own strategic importance with its international boundary with Bangladesh and inter-state boundary with Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura. Giving details of an identical memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, South NE Regional Cooperation (SNERC) organizer Sunil Roy said 20 countries, including India, signed an agreement on June 30, 2007 in New York wherein it was agreed that the 11,460-km Trans-Asian Rail Communication would connect India with China, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Bulgaria. Railway Board Chairman J P Batra signed the agreement as the representative of India. This Trans-Asia Rail is also to run through Bangladesh via Myanmar via Karimganj, Badarpur, Silchar and Jirighat of Barak Valley. Prior to the partition of India and Pakistan, Barak Valley and part of the north-eastern region were connected with Kolkata via East Bengal, now Bangladesh, by road, rail and water in the shortest possible ways. Even during 1971-72, these surface links were restored temporarily. Restoration of surface communication from Silchar-Kolkata and Agartala-Kolkata is the only option for speedy development of the south north-eastern region. Against this backdrop, the SNERC has impressed upon the Prime Minister, the External Affairs Minister and the Railway Minister to take immediate action to restore regular rail, road and water links from Barak Valley-Kolkata and Agartala-Kolkata via Bangladesh. Part of Trans-Asia railway communication project from Kolkata-Myanmar via Bangladesh, Barak Valley and Manipur needs to be completed expeditiously in the overall interest and development of the north-eastern region, the memorandum said. source: sentinel assam

Rail services hit by shutdown in Assam

Silchar (Assam), Aug 8 (IANS) Schools and offices remained closed and rail services were disrupted in four Assam districts Friday as students and youth organisations called a 12-hour shutdown to protest delay in completion of rail projects.

All Cachar-Karimganj-Hailakandi Students’ Association (ACKHSA) called a dawn-to-dusk shutdown across the four districts of southern Assam - Cachar , Karimganj , Hailakandi and North Cachar hills districts.

Most shops, business establishments, government offices and educational institutions remained closed. Roads wore a deserted look while rail services were also disrupted by protesters blockading the tracks.

‘No incidents of violence have been reported so far,’ said a police official. About 150 protesters were arrested by the police from different places of the four districts.

‘The dawn-to-dusk strike was total,’ said Rupam Nandi Purkayastha, president of the ACKHSA.
The ACKHSA and the All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU), supported by Left parties and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been protesting against the delay in Lumding-Silchar broad gauge conversion work since early June.

The foundation stone for the 201-km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was laid in 1996 by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and work was supposed to be over by 2006.

The gauge conversion project, declared a national project by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was considered as the lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur. According to Northeast Frontier Railway, so far 50 people, including construction workers and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel, were killed by militants in southern Assam after the Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was undertaken.

‘Militancy and acquiring of land besides shortage of funds are the main problems for the gauge conversion project,’ a railway official said on condition of anonymity.

Railway authorities on May 15 suspended train services in the Lumding-Badarpur Section and also evacuated about 1,200 railway staff from 13 railway stations of the North Cachar Hills district following a spurt in violence by the separatists group Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel faction), also known as Black Widow.

The construction companies have estimated a loss of about Rs.500 million during April-May due to the spurt in insurgency. source: sindhtoday

E-W corridor progressing well in Cachar: DC

Special Correspondent Sentinel Assam
SILCHAR, May 18: The progress of work on East-West Corridor in insurgency-hit North Cachar Hills might have been bogged down, but the pace of its development on the Cachar stretch is quite satisfactory. This has been revealed by Cachar Deputy Commissioner Gautam Ganguli, who made an on-the-spot visit to see the progress made so far in the construction of the four-lane 55-km part of Silchar-Detekcherra Super Highway. The Deputy Commissioner pointed out work on 25-km-long Silchar-Balacherra portion of the corridor is progressing well. The work of the remaining 30 km stretch from Balacherra to Detekcherra has been handed over to PWD (NH Division), which was earlier entrusted to the National Highway Authority of India.
This part of the corridor between Balacherra and Detekcherra will be double lane as the area falls within the proposed Borail biodiversity project. The official team was taken to different places of the corridor by the Executive Engineer, AK Chanda, of NH Division and showed the pace of work. Chanda said by 2009 the Cachar part of the super highway would be complete.