No untoward incident was reported from any part of Khasi and Jaintia Hills where the bandh came into force from 6 p.m. of the day.

Even as the district administration and the police beefed up security arrangements, people did not venture out as usual late in the evening. The main markets in Police Bazaar and Laitumkhrah, however, remained open for sometime allowing people to shop for the weekend.

Besides routine checking of vehicles, State Police and personnel of paramilitary forces like CRPF have been deployed in sensitive areas of the city to foil any attempts by militants or anti-social elements to disrupt Republic Day celebrations.

Governor Shivinder Singh Sidhu will unfurl the tri-colour at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium here on Saturday.

Special squads equipped with bomb scanners and metal detectors have also been pressed into service to ensure foolproof security at the main venue of official celebrations.

BSF personnel guarding the porous Indo-Bangla border were also directed to keep an extra vigil to thwart attempts by North East-based militants to sneak into India from their hideouts in Bangladesh.

Shillong has over the years witnessed a change of sorts with most of its residents choosing to come out of their homes to celebrate the Republic Day in their own way.

The past few years have also seen Shillongites join in processions leading to the Jawaharlal Nehru Sports Complex

In some city localities, elaborate plans have been made to celebrate the Day. Besides hoisting of the national flag, the agenda for the occasion will include sports events and luncheon for the participants.

People in other areas have planned community celebrations and feasts to mark the national day.

Incidentally, Garo Hills will not be affected by the HNLC bandh. Garo outfit ANVC has not called any bandh against national days since entering into a ceasefire agreement with the State Government in July 2004.

Allegations of violation of the poll code have surfaced against Mr Lyngdoh amid reports of legislators misusing government assets for electoral advantage, sparking public demand that expenses of candidates be monitored by the authorities to prevent them from buying votes or adopting unfair means to win election.

Congress MLA from Dalu constituency Samuel A Sangma was recently found violating the election conduct when he used a government-funded ambulance to ferry his supporters. The ambulance was later seized from the premises of a Tura hospital by West Garo Hills district authorities.

Mawlaingut villagers on Friday complained to East Khasi Hills DC Bhalang Dhar that Mr Lyngdoh, also Congress candidate for Sohiong seat, had misused his official position to distribute utensils and chairs in the village through three of his supporters, two of them said to be government employees.

Meanwhile, supporting the complaint brought against Mr Lyngdoh by people of Mawlaingut, KHNAM poll nominee R Kharbuki has also charged Congress with going against the model code of conduct.

Mr Kharbuki claimed that he had investigated the matter and found that two of the persons deputed for handing  out the freebies were employees of PHE and MeSEB departments.

The Congress MLA, however, was not available for his comments.

DC Mr Dhar told The Shillong Times that he had not received any complaint against Mr Lyngdoh. He added that the model code of conduct was applicable only "when the expenditures (by candidates) are made with government money."

"If somebody buys any materials at his own expense, the model code of conduct does not apply to him," Mr Dhar said.

The Election Commission, however, has clearly stated that expenditures of candidates have to be monitored, saying it is immaterial whether they spend their own money or draw it from official funds.

The civil society also strongly feels that expenses of candidates need to be properly monitored to check vote buying and unfair practices in elections.

Speaking to The Shillong Times on Friday, Dr Giri, a retired Professor of Art, NEHU, expressed both surprise and happiness on being selected for the prestigious award by the Government of India in recognition of her contribution towards Khasi traditional music.

"The award is not only for me but also for the whole community as it is a recognition of our own traditional music," Dr Giri said.

She, however, admitted that there was much to be done to "take our community to higher levels," adding the award could be the starting point to work towards that objective.

"Though winning awards has never been my goal in life, my ambition is to do as much as I can for the good of music," Dr Giri said.

She also stressed on the need for inclusion art music in academic curriculum.

"At the moment, I devote my time to training on crafting of Khasi traditional instruments and also teach young girls on how to make Khasi traditional attires," she added.

Dr Giri runs a music school called Larity Cum Training Centre and teaches post-graduate music students at Martin Luther University.

She was recognised as a Grade A singer by All India Radio in 1964.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, SRS general H Oflyn Dohling stated the State Government had no other option but to refrain from proceeding further to implement the power deals.

The headmen's organ-sation expressed dissatisfaction with the Cabinet's decision to constitute a committee to study the details of the power projects, saying it was only a "delaying tactic" adopted by the Government to "hoodwink the public". The organisation stated that as the committee would comprise Government officials who were already involved in the decision making process when the projects were approved by the Cabinet, there was "nothing much" to be expected from such a move.

The State Government has failed to respond to a large number of queries raised by SRS, the memorandum said.

While condemning the latest decision of the Cabinet, Mr Dohling said the State Government should rescind its decision and cancel allotment of the projects immediately in the best interest of the State and its people.

Meanwhile, Mr Dohling lauded the Meghalaya State Electricity Regulatory Commission (MSERC) for its decision not to chage the existing rates for supply of electricity to domestic users.

However, he felt the MeSEB proposal for rates even lower than domestic rates Industrial EHT consumers calls for reconsiderations and rationalisation while citing cases in other states in which the rates of power supply to the major industries, under the Extra High Tention (EHT) voltage, are normally higher than the rates applicable to other domestic consumers.

"If the EHT Industrial rates are revised as per all India pattern, the domestic rates could be further brought down and this would benefit the people of the State at large," Mr Dohling added.

Meanwhile, the North Eastern Council (NEC) will observe the Republic Day on Saturday in a befitting manner. The national flag will be hoisted at the NEC Secretariat at Nongrim Hills here at 8 am.

Following are the names of candidates and their constituencies: Meristella Wahlang (Pynthorumkhrah), Irene Hujon (Laban), Aidalis Rani (Nongspung), Petrus Umdor (Nongthymmai-Malki), Roger D Syiemlieh (Mawprem), A Paul Lyngdoh (Jaiaw), Clement Mawlong (Sohiong), Baltasar Nonglang (Langrin) Shemphang Nonglang (Pariong), Alexander Marwein (Mawkyrwat) and Gabriel Thongni (Nongstoin).

The GSU, in a statement, said its CEC meeting at Phulbari held on January 19 last passed off without any untoward incident thanks to the Police Department which provided adequate security for the conference.

Denying the charge of assault on a group of people at Rajabala, GSU stated that the entire team of student leaders and members returned from Phulbari to Tura along with the police entourage and police pickets were in place at all important junctions of the road.

"There were nine vehicles commandered by the GSU team and every vehicle was accounted for during the return journey. The whole issue of allegation is a conspiracy to gain political mileage," stated Walan Momin, secretary for information and public relation of the GSU.

In typical Congress fashion, the party has been speaking in more than one voice after one of its general secretaries, senior leader Veerappa Moily, announced that a second states reorganisation commission would be set up. It wasn’t only that the PMO did not seem too enthusiastic about the proposal, Moily himself qualified his earlier statement that the commission would treat the demands for Telengana and Vidarbha on a priority basis.

It is difficult to believe that such a major step could have been contemplated without a thorough discussion in the party and government, but the Congress is known to act in such curious ways. One such occasion was Arjun Singh’s announcement of OBC quotas in higher educational institutions without taking into account the latter’s absorptive capacity. As a result, a committee headed by Moily had to be set up to ascertain how the proposal could be implemented.

Considering that the country will witness as many as 10 state assembly elections this year, and a general election in 2009 (if it is not brought forward), it seems unlikely that a decision to set the ball rolling for breaking up the existing states will be taken in a hurry. However, the idea will probably be used as a political ploy without doing anything concrete about it, using the concept as a bait to win voters.

BSP czarina Mayawati seems to have already decided to do so with her suggestion for the trifurcation of Uttar Pradesh. Having used her Dalit-Brahmin card to win a single-party majority in the state, she probably thinks that she can repeat the feat in the three new states of Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh. But neither the Congress nor the BJP will be so optimistic. Nor will be Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has already protested against the proposed division. Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh, Jaipal Reddy, the Union Urban Development Minister, has voiced his opposition to any hurried move on Telengana.

The idea of cutting up U.P. into smaller states has been in the air since the time of the first states reorganisation commission in the 1950s. But the politicians of the time genuinely focussed on the administrative aspect while taking such decisions. But now it is different. Administration is the last thing on the mind of the political class. Instead, its sole interest lies in assessing how a smaller state will help their own parties and put their opponents at a disadvantage. Or whether things will remain more or less the same. Uttarakhand, for instance, was carved out of U.P. in 2000, but it has helped neither the Congress nor the BJP, since both have been in power in the state. Evidently, the familiar factors of incumbency and governance continue to determine who will rule and who will be voted out.

There are two problems, however, with the idea of small states. One is that it will be easier in a legislative assembly of 100 or so members to "arrange" for defections to topple a government in view of the smaller numbers who have to be won over. Such a possibility wouldn’t have occurred to members of the first states reorganisation commission. The second problem is the domino effect of more and more pressure groups demanding a state for themselves.

Already, the proposal for cutting U.P. into three has led to a demand for a fourth state, Vindhyachal, in the east comprising tribals. If there is any definitive move in respect of U.P., it will undoubtedly fuel the demands for a Mithilanchal in north Bihar, Gorkhaland in north Bengal, Gondwana in Chhattisgarh, Bodoland in Assam, Garoland in Meghalaya, Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, and so on. In other words, a virtual Pandora’s box will be opened. Given that such demands are almost always accompanied by violence, the governments at the Centre and in the states will have their hands full.

Apart from the political impact, the social repercussions of the breaking up of UP do not seem to have been considered. In any event, it is not something which will be uppermost in the minds of politicians. But social scientists will be interested because of UP’s importance not only to India’s politics, but also to the cultural and academic world, with which towns like Lucknow and Allahabad have long been associated. Evidently, Bundelkhand or Purvanchal or Harit Pradesh or Vindhyachal will not be considered the true inheritors of the tradition of polite conversation and sophisticated conduct which the prominent urban centres of U.P. do.

Bihar may have lost its mineral wealth to Jharkhand, but the retention of Patna means that its link with the past has not been broken, just as the retention of Kolkata has enabled West Bengal to partly neutralise the traumatic effect of partition. Or the retention of Mumbai has helped Maharashtra to overcome the separation of Gujarat. In contrast, the loss of Lahore has meant that Punjab has lost its focal point, which Chandigarh has not quite been able to restore.

A state is more than just territory, especially in an ancient country like India with its rich history. If the first reorganisation of states did not have too much of a disruptive effect, it was because the redrawing of boundaries was carried out on a linguistic basis, which had a rationale of sorts. But the new proposals are based on perceptions of regional identity, which are not always deep-rooted. (IPA Service)

The intense lobbying for the Bharat Ratna award prior to this year's Republic Day has caught many political movers and shakers on the wrong foot. The moves have put many a leader in a funny soup of their own making as several leaders have ludicrous proposals to try and make brownie points and engage in one-upmanship and not to be left behind in the games they play and wish to be counted rather than be left behind in showing off as people with some kind of originality or loyalty to leaders of yore or of today to impress the world with the dictum that they also serve who stand and wait.

Mr. Lal Krishna Advani, who started the Bharat Ratna game, could not have dreamt in his wildest dreams he would be caught in a trap and slip badly when he came up with what he might have thought was a unique idea that Atal Bihari Vajpayee should be conferred the Bharat Ratna title. He might have thought he would enhance his own chances of becoming Prime Minister in the distant future by paying court to his boss, whom he often tried to dethrone during the halcyon six years of BJP led National Democratic Front government at the Centre from 1998 to 2004. But that was not to be.

Far beyond his own expectations, Mr. Advani started a chain reaction that caught him unawared; he found himself off guard and his own idea promptly received a rebuff from the Government when the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, publicly stated that the Bharat Ratna was not a trifling matter and such proposals should not be aired in the public domain. He added: first, Mr. Vajpayee should be honored within his own party, taking a dig at Mr. Advani's repeated attempts to derail Mr. Vajpayee when he was Prime Minister and when out of power and out of good health from the top position in the BJP. One wonders whether Mr. Vajpayee was initially pleased with the suggestion from his deputy; or being a man of the world who has drunk deep at many river fronts and shores, was he amused at first and later quite angry at being dragged into some kind of an unnecessary controversy or being exposed to some kind of a ridicule.

No doubt about it that Mr. Advani has been anointed as the shadow Prime Minister or one in waiting if his party and its few coalition partners win the next general elections, but has the Bharat Ratna lobbying enhanced his reputation as a shrewd leader? Perhaps, it is not so. It appears that he is being blamed by most of his detractors, if not silently even by some of his own thinking loyal supporters that the lauh purush or the so called iron man of the party started a chain reaction from politicians of all hues to demand the Bharat Ratna for their own top leaders of bygone days or the present day. It is quite possible that the minds of several politicians are still working to come up with more names for the nation's highest award, if for no reason other than to see their own name in print or voice or visual media.

Ms. Mayawati would like the Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP leader, the late Mr. Kanshi Ram, and not her mentor, but also the Messiah of the downtrodden in recent times, to be posthumously given the award as she would expect it for herself at a later date because in the not very distant future, she aspires only to Prime Minister Ship. Her greatest enemy, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav has discovered that his camp followers are not lagging behind in seeking the honour for him because Prime Minister Ship is an impossible goal in the coming years. The name of the veteran Marxist of Bengal, Jyoti Basu, was shot down as soon as it came up. But nobody suggested the names of A.K.Gopalan, Hiren Mukhjerjee or even E. M. S. Namboodiripad, leave alone Ajoy Mukherjee or Indrajit Gupta of the CPI.

There has been even a suggestion that Mr. Karunanidhi could walk away with the honour as being perhaps an indispensable supporter and partner of the present United Progressive Alliance government, but all indication point in the direction of nobody being conferred the honour this year in view of the names being bandied about right, left and center about Bharat Ratna. This year's Republic Day could go without it as have most of the 56 Republic Days done in the years since India became a Republic.

For the present, Ms. Mayawati has been regaled with a sumptuous birthday, what with the gift of a helicopter and other goodies, said to be worth Rs. 100 crores. She has also had her own statues and those of Mr. Kanshi Ram put up in a nimber of places around U.P. She is not to be left behind in planning and perhaps early launching a great expressway through the length of Uttar Pradesh from Noida in the west near Delhi to Ballia in the east at a cost of Rs.30,000 crores, half of it running parallel to the Grand Trunk Road from Kanpur in central U.P. to the east on the banks of the mighty Ganga. She thinks she is now the queen bee of the Scheduled Castes and the backwards of India and their lone voice and deserves to be at the top of the nation's political ladder, but a by-election in Ballia has left her on slippery ground as the late Chandra Shekhar's son defeated her Brahmin candidate and gave a lie to her casteist arithmetic which gave her the throne in Lucknow. She sees red in the games the BJP and the Congress might have played by transferring some of their own vote bank to her opponent to send a message to her that she is not the unquestioned leader of U.P. (From NPA Corrspondent)

Sir,

The recent episode of the disappearance of Miss Jasmine Marbaniang from Lower Lumparing prompted the police to arrest two innocent persons, under the pressure from the family members of Jasmine and also the members of the Seng Kynthei, Laban who jumped to the conclusion that she was being kidnapped by the duo even without the smallest of clues.

Now, Jasmine is back from her holiday and not realising the suffering and mental agony caused to the two innocent souls by Jasmine, her relatives along with the Seng Kynthei, who behaved more like headless chickens shouted at the magistrate's office as not knowing the facts.

What is more disappointing is that the media, both print and electronic, never highlighted the plight of the duo and the incident just forgotten. And even more surprising is the fact that none of the relatives of Jasmine or even members of the Seng Kynthei ever admitted that they were wrong.

May this incident open the eyes of all those NGOs so that they do not follow the footsteps of the Seng Kynthei, Laban lest they end up in such an embarrassing situation.

Yours etc.,
Carlister Khar

Sir,

It is a matter of great concern that fictitious persons sometimes send threatening and alluring e-mails. Such type of incidents have come out to be a menace in internet world. We have seen one such example of such incident in the letters column of The Shillong Times recently. Is this the intention of some vested interested organization to terrorize people and disturb peace and tranquility in Shillong?

Shillong has set the best example of peace and communal harmony in the past few years. However, if the intention of the sender is to disturb communal harmony he has just opted the worst option as he does not know the unity of different communities here with the indigenous people. This fact can be testified by the Amit Paul phenomenon. Meghalaya has set a record of advanced civilization. People of the State have realized that development cannot come without peace and peace comes when people live unitedly. Now some anti-social elements may be jealous by seeing the harmony prevailing in the State.

It is my firm belief that Shillongites are not so foolish that they don't understand the intention of the anti-social elements. Now it is for the authorities concerned to bring the culprit to book and teach him such a lesson of a life time.

Again the cyber cafes have a great role to play in this connection. They can record the details of their customers in a separate register. So when the time demands, they can produce the register before the authorities.

One major issue I would like to highlight through this letter is that visitors to the cyber cafes are of two types -- experts and non-experts. Experts take care of everything from signing in to signing off. However, non-experts log in their e-mail accounts and sometimes forget to sign out. So what happens is that in the meantime any subsequent user could misuse his mail. I would request the owners of the cyber cafes to make sure that customers visiting their café should sign out properly before the next one uses that computer. I would also request the internet surfers and chatters to make sure that they don't leave the cyber café before signing off their mail account or any account on the net. It is for their own safety.

Yours etc.,
Subash Deb

Official sources said the two ULFA militants were killed in an encounter with the 2 Bihar Regiment at Ajuka South inside Dibru Saikhowa Reserve Forest in Tinsukia district.

In Baksa district, four hardcore ULFA militants were nabbed from Barama and Borbori during stepped up combing operations by the police.

Five persons were injured on Friday evening in a powerful grenade blast in Nalbari district of Assam, where several bombs and explosives were recovered on the eve of Republic Day.

The condition of one of the injured is serious and he has been admitted to the Nalbari Civil Hospital.

Meanwhile, three bombs were recovered at Rangiya in Kamrup district from a bus coming from Howly in Barpeta.

Security personnel patrolling the highway stopped the bus at Rangiya and recovered the bombs from a bag.

Two more bombs were recovered from Golokgunj in Dhubri district.

Police also seized 200 powerful detonators and 170 gelatine sticks from Chapaguri in Bongaigaon district while a two-kg IED was found near the gate of RNB Civil hospital in neighbouring Kokrajhar district. (PTI)

Agartala: The Forward Bloc, a key constituent of the Left Front in Tripura, on Friday quit the ruling alliance after being denied three seats by major partner CPI(M) for next month's assembly elections in the state.

"We are no longer in the Left Front. We left it because of the autocratic functioning of the CPI(M), which had virtually established one-party rule within the Front," Forward Bloc state secretary Shymal Roy said. The CPI(M) should no longer call the ruling coalition a Left Front as it now only comprised with the CPI(M), CPI and RSP, he said, adding "they can call it a three party alliance."

The Forward Bloc, which has no MLA in the outgoing assembly, had demanded that it be given three seats to contest the next month's polls.

The CPI(M) had, however, dismissed the demand and said only one seat would be given to the FB. The Forward Bloc had then said it would contest 15 seats and if its demand was not met, it would think whether to continue in the Front. The CPI(M) had, however, not relented.

CPI(M) MP Khagen Das, when asked if the Left Front continued to exist, replied that it did. (PTI)

Guwahati: Kopili Hydel Project of North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) located at remote part of Umrangshu sub-division of North Cachar Hill district of Assam is under threat from tribal militants belonging to the Black Widow group or the anti-peace talks faction of Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) outfit.

NEEPCO employees working in the 275 MW hydel power project have been living under constant fear for their lives following the January 14 killings of five persons including two security men of the plant and a minor girl by suspected Black Widow militants at the gate of the power project though Assam Government has assured the NEEPCO authority to augment the security cover.

The NEEPCO alleges failure on part of Assam Government to provide adequate security cover to the employees working in the power plant located in remote part of the violence-affected North Cachar Hills. The NEEPCO authority had submitted a memorandum to Assam Government last week setting a deadline for augmentation of security to its staff working in Kopili Hydel Project.

The power project supplies 500 million units of hydro-electricity to Assam a year out of which 60 million units (six per cent) are provided free of cost and the rest of the units at 50 per cent of the actual cost. Assam pays Rs 1 per unit to NEEPCO authority for the power procured from Kopili Hydel Plant.

Alarmed by the deadline set by the NEEPCO authority, Assam Government has assured to provide adequate security to lives and property in Kopili Hydel Project in no time. A source in the NEEPCO informed that senior NEEPCO officials met the Assam's Principal Secretary Home, SC Das, the DG of police RN Mathur early this week to apprise the gravity of the security situation in Kopili power plant.

Senior Assam government officials assured the NEEPCO to facilitate adequate deployment of security personnel to guard over Kopili power project near Umrangshu after making the on the spot assessment of the ground situation in the power plant.