Guwahati, Feb 1 (IANS) A Class 8 girl student of an English medium school in this Assam city Guwahati Monday attempted suicide by jumping from the second floor of the institution, alleging humiliation and punishment by teachers for speaking in Assamese.
Teenaged Nabanita Das is now in the intensive care unit of a city hospital with back and limb injuries, although doctors said she was out of danger.

The girl said she was immensely humiliated by the vice-principal of the Gurukul Grammar Higher Secondary School for speaking in Assamese with some of her friends inside the school premises.

“I was punished by my vice-principal – asked to kneel down outside, then I was asked to write down in English 1,000 times that I would never speak in Assamese again. Also I was asked to learn English from Class 1 students….I felt so humiliated in front of my friends that I decided to end my life by jumping from the second floor of the school,” Nabanita told journalists from her hospital bed.

Parents and relatives complained that the school authorities behaved rudely with them when they went to enquire about the incident.

“No teachers cooperated with us and refused to say anything about how the incident took place. The security guards present in the school simply tried shoving us out from the campus as if we are criminals,” Gautam Das, elder brother of Nabanita, told IANS.

School authorities refrained to make any comments on the incident.

A guardian said: “We were simply shocked and stunned by this incident of a teacher forcing a student to take this extreme step.

Three people, including two tribal separatists, were killed and three civilians wounded in a shootout by unidentified gunmen in Assam, officials said Sunday.

A police spokesperson said heavily armed masked gunmen late Saturday attacked a group of people at village Mukuldang in Kokrajhar district, about 220 km west of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.

“The gunmen entered the village and opened indiscriminate firing on a group of people in which two NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) militants belonging to the ceasefire group and a daily wage earner were killed,” a police officer said.

Three other locals were injured in the attack.

“We are investigating into the incident and so far we have no clue,” the officer said.

The gunmen fled the area on motorcycles immediately after the attack.

The NDFB pro-talk faction have accused the now disbanded Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) of carrying out the attack.

“This is nothing but fratricidal attacks on our members by the ex-BLT,” B. Sudem, NDFB pro-talk leader, said.

The ex-BLT denied the charges.

A faction of the NDFB headed by Gobinda Basumatary entered into a ceasefire in 2005, while another group led by guerrilla leader Ranjan Daimary is waging a war for independence for the Bodo tribal people.

Fratricidal clashes between the NDFB and the ex-BLT have claimed more than 50 lives in the past two years in western Assam.

Guwahati, Jan 2 (IANS) A speeding freight train mowed down four wild Asiatic elephants, including two calves, amid dense fog in Assam Saturday, the authorities said.
A railway spokesperson said the incident occurred near Walingdisa railway station in Karbi Anglong district, about 270 km east of Assam’s main city Guwahati. The train was carrying petroleum products.

“The train hit the elephant herd squatting on the track. The train driver probably did not see the herd because of dense fog,” Northeast Frontier Railways chief spokesperson S. Hajong told IANS.

Witnesses said the crash cut the calves after dragging them for about 200 metres.

“The two adult elephants were in a pool of blood after being hit by the train,” said Narayan Das, a wildlife ranger.

Soon after the accident, hundreds of locals armed with crude implements arrived at the site and took away the nails, tusk and other body organs of the dead animals.

“When we reached the site, we found body organs of the elephants missing,” Das said.

Experts say that wild elephants have been moving out of the jungles in search of food because people have been encroaching animal corridors. This has led to increasing elephant attacks on villages.

Elephants have killed 270 people in Assam in the past five years. A total of 280 elephants have died in the same period, many of them victims of retaliation by people, according to the wildlife department.

Assam has India’s largest population of Asiatic elephants estimated at around 5,500

Vodafone Essar has enthralled its GSM customers in Assam circles by launching exciting SMS@1paisa plan for prepaid and post paid subscribers. The new SMS pack is specially tailored to lower the local and national SMS charges. With the new SMS packs Vodafone customers of Assam can enjoy all local and National SMS just at 1 paisa per sms.

To avail the SMS@1 paisa tariff prepaid customers need to recharge with bonus card 14, which comes with tariff validity of 30 Days.

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GUWAHATI, Jan 1: The turn out in the two semifinals of the 31st Federation Cup Soccer Tournament has brought smile in the face of the organizers. There might be more good news for them as a good turn out is expected in the final also which would be held between East Bengal and Shillong Lajong FC on January 3. The increasing sale of tickets means boost for the Shillong team as they will be banking on the crowd support to overcome the rival during the title clash.

Officially, the sale of the tickets for the final will start from tomorrow morning at the RG Baruah Sports Complex. However, many ticket seekers were found today in the same venue who wanted to know the timing of the sale of the tickets. It may be mentioned here that the first semifinal between Shillong Lajong FC and Churchill Brothers were witnessed by around 8,000 spectators while the number of spectators were raised to 12,000 in the second semifinal which was held between two arch rivals Mohun Bagan and East Bengal on Thursday.

Like semifinal, a good number of crowd are expected from Shillong in the final too as their own team Lajong would be one of opponent in the match. Munin Nobis, the secretary of the Gauhati Sports Association, on whom Assam Football Association has entrusted the responsibility to sale the ticket, talking to The Sentinel said that Shillong Lajong FC had already booked 1,200 tickets of the final of which 1,000 are general tickets.

Though Shillong Lajong will go into the final as an under dog but the team felt that they are capable to make one more upset. The goalkeeper of the team Gumphe Rime, who was the hero of the semifinal, talking to the mediapersons said that the team is playing well through out the tournament and if they were able to maintain the same performance in the final then it is not impossible to take the cup to Shillong. However, Lajong will miss a few key players including Daniel Bedemi, the top defender of the side, in the match for double booking.

Meanwhile, the secretary of the Assam Football Association Ankur Dutta today said that the winner of the 31st Federation Cup Soccer Tournament will get a cheque of Rs 12 lakh while the amount for the runners-up team would be rupees seven lakh. There would be award for the best player and most disciplined team of the meet. THE SENTINEL

GUWAHATI: Deepor Beel has turned from a pristine wetland to a wasteland. The city continues to dump municipal waste close to the water body
located on the outskirts despite a clear directive from the environment and forest ministry to the state government in 2006, urging it to stop dumping garbage near the Beel.

The directive, issued on October 4, 2006, by then director-general of forests J C Kala to Assam chief secretary S Kaliban, categorically asked the authorities to stop dumping waste matter near the wetland. The letter stated, “It is a very serious issue which needs immediate intervention at your level. May I request to immediately direct the authorities to stop dumping of wastes in the wetland and ensure that cleaning-up work of wetland is immediately taken up under the supervision of experts.”

Ironically, a source in the forest department said dumping of municipal waste continued even after the instruction issued by the ministry about three years ago, putting the Ramsar Site wetland under great ecological risk. “Dumping garbage in a haphazard manner has come to such a pass that municipal waste has started spilling out of the wetland after the recent rains which left a swathe of Deepor Beel’s surrounding areas flooded,” the source said.

The 2006 directive stated that politician and environmentalist Maneka Gandhi had brought Deepor Beel’s deplorable condition to the ministry’s notice. She had said the wetland was being used for dumping solid waste and medical refuse by municipal authorities. The Guwahati Muncipal Corporation (GMC) had conceded that haphazard dumping of garbage and incompletion of a protective embankment at the dumping site has resulted in a spillover of solid wastes.

“The spillover is owing to the non-completion of an embankment to stop garbage from getting washed away to Deepor Beel. The embankment was supposed to be completed last year. Unfortunately, a portion of the embankment is still unfinished. Once the work is done, the problem of spillover will be solved,” S Thiek, additional commissioner of GMC, said last week.