Rabindranath Tagore anniversary celebrated in Silchar

Tagore’s 152nd birth anniversary celebrated with fervour and gaiety

SILCHAR, May 9: Barak Valley today celebrated 152nd birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with much patriotic fervour and gaiety. Different social and cultural organizations remembered the versatile bard through his ever popular songs, poems and other compositions.

Sammilitho Sanskritik Mancha, an umbrella of 25 cultural organizations, and Barak Upothakya Banga Sahitya O Sanskritik Sammelan took out a colourful procession which after moving through the main thoroughfares of this town assembled in front of Tagore’s statue at Tarapur where the members of the organizations offered floral tributes to him.

Silchar Municipality Board, Arya Sanskrti Budhani Samiti and Lion’s Club organized a cultural programme near the Tagore’s statue. Enthralling performances were delivered by the people in the form of poems, songs, dances and speeches. Ample light was thrown on the life and achievements of Tagore by the eminent personalities of the town.

The students of different schools and colleges participated in the cultural programme organized by Sammilitho Sanskritik Mancha in the district library auditorium in the morning. Several enthralling performances were staged by the members of different cultural organizations in the evening.

Barak Upothakya Banga Sahitya O Sanskritik Sammelan, Cachar district unit, held a function in the morning in the premises of Gandhi Park to mark the occasion. The Sammelan organized a colourful cultural programme in the auditorium of Gandhi Bhavan in the evening.

The different social organizations including the Karimganj and Hailakandi district units of Barak Upothakya Banga Sahitya O Sanskritik Sammelan organized a series of functions to celebrate Gurudev’s birthday.

It is pertinent to mention here that though the great poet did not visit Silchar, but he spent a few hours at Badarpur railway station, 32 km from here, on his way to Sylhet from Guwahati in the year 1919. He was deeply impressed by the scenic beauty of the sylvan hills, dales and the lovely greens all around, the cascading streams and the fleeting clouds with the interplay of light and shade.

The protagonist of his famous novel Shesher Kabita Amit in his sojourn through all the beauty and charm of nature finds the bliss, peace and eternal joy while wandering all alone in the wilds of Silchar–Sylhet–Shillong. This finds mention in these lines, Tai o jakhan bhabche, palai pahar beye neme giye paye hete Sylhet–Silchar bhitar diye jekhane khushi, eman samay asarh elo pahare pahare bane bane tar sajal ghanchayar chadar lutiye. (When he thought of dismounting the hills and wandering deep inside Sylhet–Silchar, came down heavy showers in the hills and woods, throwing around the dark blanket).

Source The Sentinel

Convocation of NIT Silchar

APJ Abdul Kalam to address 11th Convocation of NIT, Silchar

SILCHAR, May 9: Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India and an eminent scientist will address the 11th Convocation of National Institute of Technology (NIT), Silchar, slated for May 12 and to be held at the Students’ Activity Centre (SAC) in the campus. On this occasion, the Institute will also confer DSc (Honoris Causa) on him.

Addressing a press meet held here last evening, NV Deshpandey, Director, NIT, Silchar threw light on the visit of the former President to Silchar. He said that Dr Kalam would come to Silchar on May 11 and would plant tree in the campus. He will participate in an interaction programme with the students of different schools in the evening of the same day. Deshpandey said that around 1,000 students will participate in the one hour long session.

The Director added that Prof Asis Datta, Chairman, BOG, NIT Silchar would preside over the Convocation. Dr Vijay P Bhatkar, Chairman, BOG, IIT Delhi will be present on the occasion as a Guest of Honour.

The 11th batch of students, after conversion of REC to NIT, will be receiving BTech degree in this Convocation. The 8th batch of Post–Graduate students of the Department of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronics & Communication Engineering will also be receiving the MTech and 3rd batch of Post–Graduate students of the Department of Chemistry will receive the MSc degree in Applied Chemistry in this convocation programme.

There are 464 students who are eligible for BTech, 65 students are eligible for MTech and 7 students for MSc degrees. Also there are 9 research scholars who are eligible for Doctor of Philosophy from various departments. The Institute Gold Medal will be awarded to the best graduate Jahidul Islam Sarkar of Computer Science and Engineering branch of the Institute. Institute Silver Medal will be awarded to the branch toppers of rest of the branches, namely Vishal Patwary, for Civil Engineering, Dipesh Kumar Guha, for Mechanical Engineering, Karthik, for Electrical Engineering, Arpita Gang, for Electronics and Communication Engineering, and Niluptal Choudhury, for Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering.

Dr Prakash Amte and Dr Maheshwari Amte, the Magsaysay Awardees for ‘Community Leadership’, son and daughter–in–law of Magsaysay awardee and the legend Baba Amte, will grace the occasion as special invitees. A good number of educationists and distinguished personalities are likely to attend the Convocation of the Institute. Meanwhile, Education to Home (ETH), the mission of ‘Mass Personalized Education’ was launched in the Institute today at 9.30 at CET Hall. Source: The Sentinel

Production in Cachar Paper Mill

Non-availability of bamboo shoots halts production in Cachar Paper Mill

Production in Cachar Paper Mill, the only major industrial undertaking in south Assam and adjoining states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura, has once again come to a halt due to crisis of green bamboo shoots. Industry sources said production in the mill, a unit of the public sector Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd situated at Panchgram in Hailakandi district, stopped five days ago due to non-availability of the main raw material. Source: Times of India

Silchar Lumding Broad Gauge Project

Condemnation day observed in Barak Valley

SILCHAR, May 8: Silchar Lumding Broad Gauge Rupayan Committee observed today as condemnation day in Barak Valley in protest against the lackadaisical attitude of the elected representatives of the valley towards the much awaited Silchar–Lumding BG project.

The members of three districts–Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi held a sit–in demonstration in the respective district headquarters, condemning the role of political representatives of this region.

In Silchar, the members of the SLBGRC along with the representatives of different social organizations staged sit–in demonstration in front of the statue of Khudiram Basu. The speakers vehemently condemned the indifferent attitude of seven MLAs and an MP of the district and slammed the Chief Minister of Assam as well as for maintaining an intriguing silence over the issue.

Ajoy Roy, convener, SLBGRSC, Cachar district, said that Tarun Gogoi though has been in power for the last 12 years, but he has never uttered a single word for the expeditious completion of the project. “It seems that he is not at all interested in the development of Barak Valley,” he added.

Taking a dig at the elected representatives of Barak Valley, Roy said that 15 MLAs and two MPs of this valley have also not showed any kind of interest for the early completion of the project. “Our MLAs have failed to create pressure on the CM for the early completion of the project. Both the MPs have also not raised the issue on the floor of the Parliament,” he added.

He said that the target date of this BG track has been changing with the passage of time and the government has been taking the help of different ploys to hoodwink the people of this valley for the last one decade. “After all the hurdles of land acquisition and insurgency, the project has been dragging its feet year after year with new promises and assurances about which people are no more convinced,” he said.

Slamming the elected representatives of Barak Valley, Ajoy Roy said that the politicians are playing politics with the vital issue of connectivity and taking the people of Barak Valley for a ride. He suspected a deep rooted conspiracy by the transport lobby as he said that if BG gets started the shining business of the transport lobby would come to an end.

Bisawjit Das, secretary, Sammilitho Sanskritik Mancha, appealed to the people of the valley to come forward in support of this legitimate demand cutting across the caste, creed, religion and political ideology. He said that unless the people get united and resort to mass movement, the BG would remain a distant dream.

He said that the Silchar–Guwahati road has turned out to be “a dead road” as it took around 25–30 hours for the people to reach from one place to other and thus Silchar–Lumding BG has become a need of the hour. The secretary of the SSM said that keeping the spirit of language martyrs, they have taken a series of protest programme too for the immediate completion of Silchar–Lumding BG and East West Corridor projects on the eve of the Language Martyrs’ Day celebration which falls on May 19.

Expressing his deepest sense of displeasure at the way ‘the syndicate’ has in cohorts been trying to sabotage the BG, the dream project of the people, Dipak Sengupta, district secretary, Barak Upathakya Banga Sahitya O Sanskritik Sammelan, said that the BG when completed would not only provide faster and easier connectivity but also lead to rapid development of the region.

In Karimganj, the SLBGRSC along with different social organizations held similar protest demonstration at Chantar Bazar area. Nandan Nath, Piklu Das, Nirmalya Das were among others who spoke on the occasion.

The Hailakandi unit of the organization took out a rally and held street corner meetings at different areas of the town with a view to garner the mass support for the legitimate demand. Sushil Paul, convener, Hailakandi unit, said that the extremely slow progress of the gauge conversion project has shattered the emotion and sentiments of the people of the four districts having almost a population of one and half crore. Source: The Sentinel