Great News for today :

Today, His Exillency Governor Janaki Ballav Patnaik visited flood and erosion affected area of Majuli. He was accompanied by Hon'ble W. R. Minister R. L. Pegu, Upper Assam Commissioner and CEO (MCLMA) S. I. Hussain, Deputy Commissioner of Jorhat Mr. Ramesh Jain.

  - Abakash Majuli

Callous babus rob Assam's Majuli island of Unesco tag :

Kumari Selja's callous culture ministry has put a spanner in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dream of getting Majuli, an island on the Brahmaputra, the coveted Unesco world heritage site status.

For the third time, Unesco rejected the appeal to include the world's largest freshwater island near Assam's Jorhat town on its coveted list. And this happened because the culture ministry submitted "incomplete documents" to the UN organisation. The ministry's highpowered heritage advisory committee had promoted Majuli for the Unesco nominations following requests from the PMO. PM Singh has been reportedly pushing hard for the unique island as he represents the state in the Rajya Sabha.

But the advisory panel repeated the same mistakes of "incomplete documentation" that Majuli had suffered during its two earlier attempts in 2008 and in 2010. It was rejected again on "technical grounds", a letter received on March 12 stated. The Unesco's world heritage committee said the submitted documents didn't carry a list of the Vaishnavite monasteries called "sattras", some built during the time of Assam's 16th-century saint philosopher Shankardev, which were singular and needed to be protected.

Amazingly, when Unesco dismissed the proposal in 2008, it recommended that a complete list of the 31 surviving sattras be attached. Similarly, the proposal got rejected in 2010 for "missing out on clearly defining the universal value of the site".

The goof-up was appalling because a consultant was hired this time and paid a hefty fee to do the paperwork.

The advisory panel, chaired by former Union tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee, has conservation architect Shikha Jain as its member secretary. Moreover, among the 10 other members, it has Amitabh Kant of the Incredible India fame and former Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) director general C. Babu Rajeev. Ministry sources said most of the committee members were not even aware of the rejection.

A senior ASI official said: "It was double embarrassment for India as we are in the Unesco world heritage committee to scrutinise nominations from other countries."

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/unesco-rejects-appeal-to-include-majuli-island-on-its-list/1/178575.html

- Abakash Majuli

A lot of thanks to the human rights depttt from all majulians :

RAJNITIA MAJULIR JONOTAK ARU KIMAN HUHIBO....???

Dispur takes stock of Majuli damage:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120713/jsp/northeast/story_15721273.jsp

"We are Thankful to all those groups who are coming forward to help us....

It is our great pleasure that ASSAM SAHITYA SABHA, ALL ASSAM LEKHIKA SAMAROH, ADDA GROUP GUWAHATI etc, etc are ready to help us... We want more..."

- Abakash Majuli