Sainik School opens door for girls
For the first time in the history of Sainik School in Assam’s Goalpara, girls will be enrolled in Class VI from the next academic session. Defence sources said talented girls would get an opportunity to prepare themselves from an early age to serve the nation by joining Indian defence services. Established in 1964, the Sainik School in Goalpara has to its credit around 300 of its former students who joined the defence forces as officers. Besides, there are a good number of its alumni who brought laurels to the school by joining the civil services. The school celebrated its 57th Raising Day on November 12.
New parties leave AGP worried
As Assam braces for the Assembly elections due early next year, the formation of two regional parties has left the Asom Gana Parishad worried. Student bodies All Assam Students’ Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad jointly floated Asom Jatiya Parishad. Another party, Raijor Dal, was floated by 70 organisations led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee. Both are championing the cause of regionalism. As they are trying to reach out to voters, AGP president Atul Bora, who is also a minister, has started reacting. Putting up a brave face, he asserted the two parties would not be able to erode the AGP’s vote-bank. He admitted the AGP had made mistakes in the past but said the party would march ahead and not repeat them.
‘Mini Kaziranga’ opens for tourists
Tourists who love wildlife may have a reason to smile. After Kaziranga and Orang national parks, the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam has opened for tourists. Forests and Environment Minister Parimal Suklabaidya formally opened the ‘Mini Kaziranga’ by cutting a ribbon the other day. He told journalists that his department was putting in efforts to develop the sanctuary’s overall infrastructure in coordination with the tourism department. Located on the outskirts of Guwahati, the 38.85 sq km Pobitora was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1987. It provides grassland and wetland habitat for the Asiatic rhinoceros and is home to 375 species of birds.
Congress may lose MLAs
All is seemingly not well with the Congress in poll-bound Assam. At a time the party is gearing up to oust the BJP from power, speculations are rife that two legislators will soon join the saffron party. One name doing the rounds is that of Golaghat MLA Ajanta Neog, who was a Cabinet Minister during the Congress regime. She has not yet given a statement on the speculation. The Congress had faced a similar problem ahead of the last Assembly elections when senior leader and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had defected to the BJP along with a group of Congress MLAs, loyal to him. He is now a BJP stalwart and the saffron party’s go-to man for any issue in the Northeast.
prasanta mazumdar
Our correspondent in Guwahati prasantamazumdar@newindianexpress.com