Noted journalist Arnab Goswami Sunday said that it is important for legislators to put people first in their agenda. “We are all here because of the people. People should come first whether it is in politics or media,” said Goswami while addressing legislators on the topic: “Legislators and Relationship with Media” during the third phase of Sabal Bidhayak, a series of orientation programmes initiated by the Assam Assembly. The series that will continue on select days until January 2017 next year have been designed and coordinated by Guwahati based think-tank Centre for Development and Peace Studies.
Describing the quality of journalism Goswami said that Indian journalism is stronger than journalism elsewhere because the media here can question everything including religion, something not practiced by the western media. At the same time, Indian media is independent and secular- it can cover issues for instance as to why a woman cannot enter a place of worship. While in UK the media is very structured, in India it is not. Stating that his channel Times Now has broken six major scams so far and each case has been followed by the judiciary, he said that the media in India has kept the judiciary on its toes. Media in India has come a long way. Today’s media is an unusual media. It is confrontational unlike media in earlier days which had information but little impact.
“Politics is about taking responsibilities. Development follows when the media behaves responsibly and politicians too work responsibly,” he said. Terming the New Media as an Activist Media or Campaign driven Media, he said that today’s media followups news until there is response from the concerned quarters. He said that today journalists are no longer disseminators of information only, they have become activists. Media is a reflection of the changing country. Legislatures should open up new relations with the media and both should think about how they can work together and not how they can fight, he added.
Veteran politician and former minister Abdul Muhib Majumder highlighted the participants on procedural devices available to members to raise matters of urgent public importance on the floor of the house. Former Assam Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta also addressed the participants and spoke on Parliamentary etiquette, ethics, customs and conventions. He said that if legislators follow the rules and procedures of the Assembly, it will be beneficial both for them and the public.
Phani Bhushan Choudhry, who has been representing his constituency for the seventh consecutive term, threw light on general rules of procedures of the Assembly – questions, legislations and resolutions. He said that it is very important for a legislator to know how to put a question in the Assembly, which question is to be given priority and how to frame a question. According to him, the question must be focused and proposals should be such that it includes the problems and issues important for the stateas a whole apart from then problems of a particular constituency.
Speaking on the occasion Director, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, Gautam Barua said that new and relevant courses should be introduced in the ITIs along with vocational courses for students who cannot pass tenth standard. State Minister for Water Resources Department, Science and Technology, Information Technology, Keshab Mahanta sensitized the legislators on the relationship between legislators and media and said that for legislators media is the medium to reach the masses. Senior journalist Samudra Gupta Kashyap stated that media and politics are inseparably related and while media plays the role of a watch dog, it also has its own responsibilities.
Vice Chairman of the State Planning Board Dipok Kumar Barthakur speaking on “Skilling and Regenerating Assam,” said that courses must be developed with an eye on the employability sectors of the region. He was of the opinion that a Skills University is necessary in the region to boost employment. In the programme that followed the Centre for Development and Peace Studies Executive Director Wasbir Hussain presented an overview of skill development initiatives in Assam. Intense interactions between the legislators and resource persons marked the sessions.
Two policemen have been injured when suspected ULFA exploded a powerful grenade in Jorhat on Tuesday.The explosion took place on Friday wee hours at Kenduguri areas near the town. Two policemen on checking duty on the road sustained serious injury. They have been indentified as Kesav Gogoi and Bolin Sonowal who have been rushed to the Jorhat Medical College Hospital. Police called it a handwork of ULFA militants who struck to avoid police checking. Later police recovered some explosives from the spot.
It’s a ray of hope for farmers. Courtesy the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti. Led by Akhil Gogoi, KMSS has kickstarted a few ‘fair price’ stalls for vegetables in Guwahati pulling huge crowd. The two shops at Chandmari and RG Baruah Road Tiniali are being expanded till Ganeshguri on Tuesday after procuring the produce in bulk from farmers in Barpeta Road where they had been deprived of their due remuneration due to large-scale presence of middlemen and illegal syndicates in the trade. The stalls seems to have drawn overwhelming response from the citizens who made a beeline to the stalls to get vegetables at half the price sold in the city markets. ON Monday alone, over a hundred...
The World Bank will help Dispur improve public service delivery and governance of government departments. The government and World Bank are set to initially provide technical assistance, which will be later followed by financial assistance.The government departments that would be covered under the programmeare in the areas of business process re-engineering, digitization ofrecords, capacity building, human resource management, strengthening of institutions, and electronic service delivery adoption of innovative administrative practices.
Utpal Borpujari's documentary "Mayong: Myth/Reality" will have a special screening at the main auditorium of the India International Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi, at 6:30 pm on March 11.SynopsisOn July 15, 2011, the day Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 got released in India, we carried out an informal survey among about 200 young (and not so young) people in Guwahati, Assam, India, about whether they had heard about Mayong. Many had not heard about it, and most of those who had, did not know where it was located. Most of them knew everything about the fictional world of magic in Harry Potter, but were largely unaware that in Mayong, just 40 km off Guwahati, practice of magic –...
ULFA boss Paresh Baruah appealed to media not to call the outfit after him.In a statement sent to media on Sunday, Baruah said that the anti-talk faction is usually referred to in the media as the Paresh Baruah-led faction after the group led by Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa came overground to hold talks with the government to resolve the issue. He said that ULFA does not believe in a struggle spearheaded by a single individual.
Over 70 per cent voters cast their votes in the Algapur Assembly by-election on Sunday. The polling was peaceful.The voting which began at 8 in the morning ended at 4 in the afternoon. Polling in the constituency was held amidst tight security with 14 companies of paramilitary forces deployed. There are 12 candidates in the fray including candidates from the Congress, AGP, AIUDF and BJP besides eight Independents though the contest was expected to be direct between Congress candidate Mandira Roy and AIUDF's Mehbubul Hasan. The by-elections to Algapur was necessitated following the death of AGP MLA Sahidul Alam Choudhary on November 20 last year. The total electorate in the constituency was...
Sensation prevails in Bagsa district of Assam on Sunday a day after four teenagers were killed in Borbori area forcing police to step up operation to nab the culprits.The incident took place at Geruwa Aashram village on Saturday midnight when unidentified miscreants sprung upon the four youths with sharp weapons. Identified as Bijoy Boro, Fungfa Boro, Raju Boro, the three local youths were on the back to their homes after visiting their fiend Hemanta Narzary who was also killed by the miscreants. Police rushed to the spot and investigation is going on. But the police still remain clueless on the gruesome incident.
Nagaland government had successfully held at one pollig station at Borhollah, Gelekey on Saturday. Around 200 armed Nagas, 12 election officers were performed their duty in the No.1 polling station of 49 no. Tamlu Constituency of Lung Lang district, Nagaland. Border magistrate of Nazira Richand Ahmed, a police team lead by Ashif Ahmed, SDPO, Nazira and district administration of Sivasagar were failed to prevent the aggression.
The Assam Secretariat and other offices have been declared as a protected area. The order was issued by Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner Ashutosh Agnihotri, who directed that none except bonafide residents and public servants of the secretariat and other offices could enter the area without prior permission. According to an official statement, the working hours at the secretariat and all government offices on all working days would be from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm without break from March one to September 30, 2013.
A grenade explosion rocked Belshri railway station in Sonitpur district on Friday. But there was no report of any injury. According to police, a five-member group of unidentified persons on motorcycles lobbed two grenades at a paddy field at Belshri under Misamari Police station at around 3.30 in the afternoon. A grenade went off at an open space near the railway station. Another unexploded grenade was also recovered from a well in the area by the local people. Then the bikers fled towards Hugrajuli, the sources said adding, a search operation was launched to track them out.
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