Skip to content Skip to navigation

Assam steps up towards a clean administration

Hardly a few days ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Alliance has taken the reign of Assam administration the results of efforts made by Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi to bring back black money to the state coffer, has started recently with the arrest of Dhemaji Divisional Forest Officer, Mahat Chandra Talukdar by anti-corruption department. For a long time the reports of wildlife crimes were in the air, but the previous state administration ruled by Congress Party under the three-terms  leadership of Tarun Gogoi did not try to take any action. The former Chief Minister Gogoi was under a wrong impression that the people who gave him a chance to rule over the state for last fifteen years would further give him another chance to continue. His calculation was imaginary and the practice of distributing blankets, liquor and mosquito nets had failed as the mindset of electorate was stuck on the change.

It was not that the recovery of crores of rupees from the possession of the DFO of Dhemaji was the only case in the state. Media reports had earlier on different occasions pointed out heavy destructions of forest wealth including timber and animals, but no action was taken by the state government. Instead during the elections campaign the publicity of ‘Fifteen years of confidence and Fifteen years of development’ was high. Because of the people’s confidence corruption developed and development turned into destruction. The people like Dhemaji DFO got inspiration to accumulate wealth likes crores of rupees and the poor people had to cry out for even two meals for their family.

In the recent case Mahat Chandra Talukdar had allegedly demanded Rs.30,000 each from three truckers who transport forest produce. The truckers lodged a complaint with the Vigilance and Anti-corruption wing of Assam Police after which a trap was laid. Talukdar’s Dhemaji and Guwahati residences were raided by anti-corruption department. More than sum of Rs.56,000 in cash, FDR worth Rs.15 lakhs, tiger and deer skins. Elephant tusk were also recovered from his residence. It proved a bad luck for Mahat Talukdar who was to retire by the end of this year. According to local people of Dhemaji several complaints of corruption and misdeeds against the DFO were lodged earlier, but the forest department had chosen not to take any action.

Assam forest minister, Pramila Rani Brahma, has begun to take drastic action against corrupt forest officials after assuming her office recently. She has sought reports on rhino poaching incidents in Kaziranga and has warned the corrupt forest officials, who hid its carcass to cover up the killing. Any way the new government of the state has raised a hope for better future of the state.

Add new comment

Random Stories

Sensation in Chaparmukh

28 Dec 2017 - 1:15pm | AT News
NAGAON: An unidentified body struck no less sensation in Chaparmukh in Nagaon district on Thursday. Local residents in the area spotted the body floating over the river Kopili which bore injury...

Health check-up camp at press club

23 Jun 2011 - 10:04pm | editor
Down Town Hospital in association with Guwahati Press Club has organized a health check-up camp for the scribes on June 30 (Thursday) next. During the camp, starting on 10 am, blood sugar...

2 nabbed in teen assault case

5 Jun 2016 - 10:23pm | Shajid Khan
Police on Saturday arrested Babul Das and Tupa Das, involved in the brutal assault of the teenager at Harisinga on May 30 leading to loss of vision in his eye. The arrest came aftermath of vehement...

Teachers’ hunger strike in Kokrajhar

2 Mar 2017 - 9:01am | AT Kokrajhar Bureau
Hundreds of teachers from various schools join hands with banner, placards in the six-hour hunger strike on Wednesday demanding solution to various grivances of the teachers, which included...

Other Contents by Author

A city based NGO, Citizens’ First, has appealed to the district administration to remove all hazardous towers of mobile phones from different localities in Guwahati city and surrounding areas to ensure safe living condition for the citizens. Submitting memoranda recently to the Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (Metro), Commissioner, Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and Member Secretary, Pollution Control Board, Assam, the organization has brought it to the notice that different companies like Reliance, BSNL, Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel and Tata Indicom etc; have installed their towers in different areas of Guwahati city. All such towers are installed within the jurisdiction of Guwahati...
‘Majority of the four lakh displaced people of July 2012 violence in Bodoland did not return to their homes apprehending fresh attack from miscreants of rival communities due to burning of their houses’, said Prof Vipin Kumar Tripathi of IIT, Delhi and a social activist, after his three days tour to Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts. Speaking to media persons at Guwahati Press Club on October 10, 2012, Prof Tripathi gave a brief description of the prevailing situation in the strife torn areas of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD). He said that during his contacts with the affected people in the relief camps at Khargaon, Bhotgaon and Bilasipara etc, he came to know...
Assam Don Bosco University is going to hold its first ever convocation on September 19, at its Azara Campus. Assam Governor, Janaki Ballav Patnaik will be presiding over the function and Prime Minister’s Adviser, TKA Nair will be the chief guest who will deliver the Convocation address. In a press conference at Guwahati Press Club on Friday, the vice chancellor of the University Fr Stephen Mavely SDB said that the Assam Government favored the Don Bosco Society with a letter of intent to establish the first state university in the private sector in Assam on March 29, 2008. Since then the University has made immense strides in all fields-infrastructure, academic and research departments...
The recent riots in Assam’s BTAD, were absolutely preventable, but could not be prevented due of the criminal dereliction of duty by officials starting from the officer-in -charge of Kokrajhar police station to the highest authorities of India’s military establishment, alleged Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR). Releasing a report on the recent Badoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) disturbances, Chakma asked the Prime Minister, Man Mohan Singh to order an inquiry into the refusal by the Army to be deployed in the riot affected areas, fix the responsibility and take necessary measures including disciplinary action for criminal dereliction...
Much awaited Rs32 crore aerial ropeway project between north and south banks of Brahmaputra river connecting Guwahati city and North Guwahat, undertaken by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) remains under the shadow of uncertainty due to objection raised by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). According to reliable sources the GMDA issued work order for construction of the ropeway connecting both banks of the Brahmaputra via Urvashi Island to M/s Samir Damodar Ropeway Pvt Ltd, who constructed four big size RCC pillars in the Umananda Island to install high structure for ropeway project. Getting reports of some irregularities a team of a NGO, namely, Citizens’...
National Panther Party chairman and a member of National Integration Council , Prof Bhim Singh, who recently made a hectic three day visit to conflict torn districts of Kokrajhar and Dhubri in Assam, bordering Bangladesh, has said that the situation in Assam is not like Jammu and Kashmir as observed by certain leaders in the country. Addressing the media persons at the Guwahati Press Club on 2nd August last he urged the Central government to intervene in Assam to restore peace, communal harmony with return and rehabilitation of about four lakh displaced Bodo and Muslim migrants, in the interest of National security and human dignity.During his visit to some migrant camps in the districts...
The Archaeological Survey of India as a part of its 150th anniversary celebrations organized a two days regional conference on archaeology of North Eastern India recently in Guwahati. Scholars from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur Meghalaya and Nagaland participated in the celebrations. The earliest inhabitants of the northeastern region are assigned to the middle Pleistocene period as attested with the findings of paleoliths from its different arts including Daphabum area of Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh, Khangkhui cave site, Songbu and Tharon cave of Manipur, Tilla site in Tripura, Rongram Valley of Garo Hills, Meghalaya. The region has also attested the prevalence of upper...
I remember the day when my news report about Assam state’s excise department’s inaction in respect of auctioneering of liquor sales system in Guwahati, was not published in the news paper to which I represented. I had tough time in procuring the news through a reliable source. The source from which I got the news had no right to interfere into the continued malpractices going on in the excise department of the state. There was a clandestine understanding between the existing dealers and excise officials. It was at the fag-end of the year 1981, when I entered into the field of journalism after passing long 25 years’ career in marketing. I joined an English daily newspaper,...
Mission of Friends of Tribal Society (FTS) is to eradicate illiteracy from rural areas, particularly tribals, so that a literate population simultaneously gets access to primary health, child care and gainful self-employment to empower them economically and socially. The Society established in 1989 along with likeminded organizations, has now spread to nearly 38,120 villages as on June,30,2012, in 23 states of India, where 10,76,691 students and lakhs of adults in villages are getting benefit of the Ekal’s education programmes. In the North East Ekal has its presence in 3,060 villages with about one lakh children being given support education. The society has evolved a cost effective...
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a revolutionary Act of the Government of India with tremendous potentiality of eradicating unemployment situation in the country. On February 2, 2006 first phase of NREGA implementation was started in 200 districts of the country in which seven districts of Assam were also incorporated. In the year 2007, the second phase of NREGA had started where five districts of Assam were also included. The third phase started on April 1,2008 where remaining 14 districts of Assam came under the purview of the Act. Hence, at present all the districts of Assam are implementing the provisions of MGNREGA. On March 31, 2012 Assam completed...