Saturday, November 14, 2009
Ajmal hints at tie-up with AGP
GUWAHATI, Nov 13: AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal today told newsmen in Dhubri that his party might go for an electoral understanding with the AGP if the regional party severed its ties with the BJP.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Muslim NGO to build 1000 homes for Assam riots victims
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: New Delhi-based Muslim NGO Rehab India Foundation is going to build 1000 homes for the homeless riot victims in Assam’s Bongaigaon district. The NGO has purchased 15 acres of land for the project.
The foundation for the first phase of the project – 200 homes will be built in three months – was laid earlier this month.
Talking to TwoCircles.net Rehab India Foundation (RIF) Chairman E. Abubacker – who also heads Social Democratic Party of India – said: “The foundation stone for the project of 200 homes was laid on 7th November. By March 2010 we will be completing the first phase of the project. Within five years we will build 1000 homes for the riot victims in Assam.”
Giving more details of the project he said: “In our project area we will also build school, hospital and community centre.”
As result of riots in Bongaigaon thousands of families have been compelled to flee their homes in Assam. Now on the banks of rive or sides of highways they are leading precarious life. They live in huts and find it hard to earn their daily bread. Most of them are the victims of the murderous riots engineered by Bodos in 1994.
The RIF has done a survey of the refugees living in 8 camps in different districts of Assam. The survey identified 24,613 people are living in the refugee camps. The NGO has purchased land in the Hapasara Panchayat of Bongaigaon district. Excluding the land, RIF is going to spend Rs 115 million (US$ 2.3 Million) on the project.
Estimates of the project
1000 homes @ Rs. 1,00,000 each = Rs. 100 million (US$ 2 Million)
100 tube wells @ Rs. 10,000 each = Rs. 1 million (US$ 20000)
School Building @ Rs 600 per sq. ft for 5000 sq ft = Rs. 3 million (US$ 60000)
Furniture/computers etc. = Rs 0.5 million (US$ 10000)
Community centre @ Rs 1000 sq. ft for 5000 sq. ft = Rs. 6 million (US$ 1.2 Million)
Mosque @ Rs. 1000 sq. ft for 4500 sq. ft = Rs. 4.5 million (US Dollars 90000)
http://twocircles.net/2009nov13/muslim_ngo_build_1000_homes_assam_riots_victims.html
New Delhi: New Delhi-based Muslim NGO Rehab India Foundation is going to build 1000 homes for the homeless riot victims in Assam’s Bongaigaon district. The NGO has purchased 15 acres of land for the project.
The foundation for the first phase of the project – 200 homes will be built in three months – was laid earlier this month.
Talking to TwoCircles.net Rehab India Foundation (RIF) Chairman E. Abubacker – who also heads Social Democratic Party of India – said: “The foundation stone for the project of 200 homes was laid on 7th November. By March 2010 we will be completing the first phase of the project. Within five years we will build 1000 homes for the riot victims in Assam.”
Giving more details of the project he said: “In our project area we will also build school, hospital and community centre.”
As result of riots in Bongaigaon thousands of families have been compelled to flee their homes in Assam. Now on the banks of rive or sides of highways they are leading precarious life. They live in huts and find it hard to earn their daily bread. Most of them are the victims of the murderous riots engineered by Bodos in 1994.
The RIF has done a survey of the refugees living in 8 camps in different districts of Assam. The survey identified 24,613 people are living in the refugee camps. The NGO has purchased land in the Hapasara Panchayat of Bongaigaon district. Excluding the land, RIF is going to spend Rs 115 million (US$ 2.3 Million) on the project.
Estimates of the project
1000 homes @ Rs. 1,00,000 each = Rs. 100 million (US$ 2 Million)
100 tube wells @ Rs. 10,000 each = Rs. 1 million (US$ 20000)
School Building @ Rs 600 per sq. ft for 5000 sq ft = Rs. 3 million (US$ 60000)
Furniture/computers etc. = Rs 0.5 million (US$ 10000)
Community centre @ Rs 1000 sq. ft for 5000 sq. ft = Rs. 6 million (US$ 1.2 Million)
Mosque @ Rs. 1000 sq. ft for 4500 sq. ft = Rs. 4.5 million (US Dollars 90000)
http://twocircles.net/2009nov13/muslim_ngo_build_1000_homes_assam_riots_victims.html
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Copenhagen Mosques Face Resistance
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
CAIRO – Plans to build two mosques in the Danish capital Copenhagen to serve the Muslim community are facing some resistance and stirring a hot debate in the Scandinavian country, especially over funding from overseas.
"There’s very strong pressure — people living here don’t want it," Per Nielsen, a 56-year-old retired history teacher, told The New York Times on Thursday, November 12.
Copenhagen City Council has given the green-light to build two mosques to serve each of the Sunni and Shiite communities.
But the plans are opposed by the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP), which is preparing for the November 17 local elections.
"We are against the mosque," said Martin Henriksen, a DPP official, referring to the mosque dedicated to Shiites.
"It’s obvious to everyone that the Iranian regime has something to do with it… The Iranian regime is based on a fascist identity that we don’t want to set foot in Denmark."
Imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Muslim leader who chairs a 15-member committee promoting construction of one of the two mosques, defended the plans.
"If someone wants to chip in, that is O.K.," he told NYT.
"But they will have no influence on running the place."
Denmark has a Muslim minority of nearly 250,000 out of its 5.4 million-strong population.
Islam is the country's second largest religion after the state-run Lutheran Protestant Church.
Support
Copenhagen Deputy Mayor Klaus Bondam, 45, defended the right of Danish Muslims to build mosques.
He said they are not concerned about the funding for the mosques as long as the sources were listed openly.
Bondam noted that the ongoing debate on the mosques construction helps give ammunition to the anti-immigrant DPP.
In the 2007 parliamentary election, the DPP took 25 seats in the 179-member legislature, remaining the third largest party in Denmark.
While not being a part of the cabinet, it maintains a close cooperation with the government parties on most issues.
Some welcome the constructions of the new mosques as a step to improve ties between Denmark and its Muslims.
"I wrote a front-page story saying we somehow had to reconnect to the Muslims, to collect money to build a mosque as a sign of solidarity," said Herbert Pundik, former editor of Politiken daily.
"The steam went out of the project."
Denmark has had tense relations with its Muslims and the Muslim world at large after a mass-circulation daily published in 2005 satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Preben Anderson, a 61-year-old bricklayer, also supports mosque construction.
"We have churches. We have to have mosques."
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1256909938243&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
CAIRO – Plans to build two mosques in the Danish capital Copenhagen to serve the Muslim community are facing some resistance and stirring a hot debate in the Scandinavian country, especially over funding from overseas.
"There’s very strong pressure — people living here don’t want it," Per Nielsen, a 56-year-old retired history teacher, told The New York Times on Thursday, November 12.
Copenhagen City Council has given the green-light to build two mosques to serve each of the Sunni and Shiite communities.
But the plans are opposed by the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP), which is preparing for the November 17 local elections.
"We are against the mosque," said Martin Henriksen, a DPP official, referring to the mosque dedicated to Shiites.
"It’s obvious to everyone that the Iranian regime has something to do with it… The Iranian regime is based on a fascist identity that we don’t want to set foot in Denmark."
Imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Muslim leader who chairs a 15-member committee promoting construction of one of the two mosques, defended the plans.
"If someone wants to chip in, that is O.K.," he told NYT.
"But they will have no influence on running the place."
Denmark has a Muslim minority of nearly 250,000 out of its 5.4 million-strong population.
Islam is the country's second largest religion after the state-run Lutheran Protestant Church.
Support
Copenhagen Deputy Mayor Klaus Bondam, 45, defended the right of Danish Muslims to build mosques.
He said they are not concerned about the funding for the mosques as long as the sources were listed openly.
Bondam noted that the ongoing debate on the mosques construction helps give ammunition to the anti-immigrant DPP.
In the 2007 parliamentary election, the DPP took 25 seats in the 179-member legislature, remaining the third largest party in Denmark.
While not being a part of the cabinet, it maintains a close cooperation with the government parties on most issues.
Some welcome the constructions of the new mosques as a step to improve ties between Denmark and its Muslims.
"I wrote a front-page story saying we somehow had to reconnect to the Muslims, to collect money to build a mosque as a sign of solidarity," said Herbert Pundik, former editor of Politiken daily.
"The steam went out of the project."
Denmark has had tense relations with its Muslims and the Muslim world at large after a mass-circulation daily published in 2005 satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Preben Anderson, a 61-year-old bricklayer, also supports mosque construction.
"We have churches. We have to have mosques."
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1256909938243&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout
Revolt in AGP, campaign for leadership change intensifies
By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS,
Guwahati : Assam's main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is facing a major political crisis with party supporters and senior leaders demanding a change in leadership after it suffered yet another electoral defeat.
"It is time the party leadership takes serious note of the feelings of the grassroots workers and supporters who are clamouring for a change in leadership. Leadership should not be based on seniority, but should be on the basis of performance and ability," AGP vice president Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya told IANS.
The internal revolt within the AGP has become public after the party lost the by-elections to the Dhekiajuli assembly seat in northern Assam's Sonitpur district, results of which were announced Tuesday.
The Congress party wrested the Dhekiajuli seat from the AGP.
The AGP suffered successive electoral defeats beginning with the 2001 assembly polls, then again the 2006 state elections, the local council polls, the April-May Lok Sabha elections, and more recently the by-elections.
"It would be wrong on the part of the AGP leadership to ignore the sentiments of the party supporters and workers," Bhattacharya said.
Surprisingly, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said the loss of Dhekiajuli was not a major upset.
"I don't think the defeat in Dhekiajuli is a major setback for the party. The chief minister campaigned for the Congress party and begged votes and maybe the voters responded to his appeal," the AGP president told journalists.
But other senior party leaders rejected Patowary's claims.
"Definitely the loss in Dhekiajuli is a big setback for the party as this was considered the bastion of the AGP (Sonitpur district) and we had MLAs, including two from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," former AGP president Brindaban Goswami said.
Party supporters and leaders at the local level are stepping up its campaign for leadership change.
"The entire central leadership of the AGP should resign and there should be a new committee so that the party can survive. Under the present AGP president, the party would simply sink into oblivion," Surajit Deka, secretary of AGP's youth wing of Sonitpur district, said.
http://twocircles.net/2009nov12/revolt_agp_campaign_leadership_change_intensifies.html
Guwahati : Assam's main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is facing a major political crisis with party supporters and senior leaders demanding a change in leadership after it suffered yet another electoral defeat.
"It is time the party leadership takes serious note of the feelings of the grassroots workers and supporters who are clamouring for a change in leadership. Leadership should not be based on seniority, but should be on the basis of performance and ability," AGP vice president Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya told IANS.
The internal revolt within the AGP has become public after the party lost the by-elections to the Dhekiajuli assembly seat in northern Assam's Sonitpur district, results of which were announced Tuesday.
The Congress party wrested the Dhekiajuli seat from the AGP.
The AGP suffered successive electoral defeats beginning with the 2001 assembly polls, then again the 2006 state elections, the local council polls, the April-May Lok Sabha elections, and more recently the by-elections.
"It would be wrong on the part of the AGP leadership to ignore the sentiments of the party supporters and workers," Bhattacharya said.
Surprisingly, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said the loss of Dhekiajuli was not a major upset.
"I don't think the defeat in Dhekiajuli is a major setback for the party. The chief minister campaigned for the Congress party and begged votes and maybe the voters responded to his appeal," the AGP president told journalists.
But other senior party leaders rejected Patowary's claims.
"Definitely the loss in Dhekiajuli is a big setback for the party as this was considered the bastion of the AGP (Sonitpur district) and we had MLAs, including two from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," former AGP president Brindaban Goswami said.
Party supporters and leaders at the local level are stepping up its campaign for leadership change.
"The entire central leadership of the AGP should resign and there should be a new committee so that the party can survive. Under the present AGP president, the party would simply sink into oblivion," Surajit Deka, secretary of AGP's youth wing of Sonitpur district, said.
http://twocircles.net/2009nov12/revolt_agp_campaign_leadership_change_intensifies.html
AGP leaders on ‘divorce’ mode with BJP
Patowary for the debacle that the party has had to face in the successive elections in recent times. These AGP leaders say that whenever the AGP has forged electoral understanding with the BJP, the regional party has had to suffer setback.
In the 2001 Assembly elections, the party led by former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had inked an electoral pact with the BJP only to be defeated. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, with Patowary at the helm of affairs of the party, the AGP undertook a seat-sharing exercise with the BJP, but was again defeated except for a lone seat, Tezpur, that went to the regional party. The AGP’s poll debacle in the last Lok Sabha polls brought to the fore the discomfort of several party leaders, including religious minority leaders like Sahidul Alam Chou-dhury, on the AGP-BJP seat-sharing stratagem. However, the party went to the just-concluded by-polls along with the BJP, within the same seat-sharing framework and, as usual, failed.
The defeat of the AGP candidate in Dhekiajuli LAC that was with the party for the last 13 years has made the AGP leaders feel that the party candidate did not get BJP votes in the constituency. The Congress candidate defeated the AGP candidate in the constituency by a margin of over 21,000 votes.
According to sources, a majority of AGP leaders are of the firm view that instead of going with the BJP, the regional party should engage itself in consolidating its own strength and maintain good rapport with other regional parties like the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF), Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the Gana Shakti, besides the Left parties.
Many AGP leaders and workers also feel that a politics centred on ‘‘who will become Chief Minister if the party is voted to power in the State’’ among the top leaders of the party has cost it dearly. Many a party leader say that Patowary and his coterie actually take all vital party decisions and impose them on the party. “This is an ominous trend,” they told this reporter on the condition of anonymity.
In the 2001 Assembly elections, the party led by former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had inked an electoral pact with the BJP only to be defeated. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, with Patowary at the helm of affairs of the party, the AGP undertook a seat-sharing exercise with the BJP, but was again defeated except for a lone seat, Tezpur, that went to the regional party. The AGP’s poll debacle in the last Lok Sabha polls brought to the fore the discomfort of several party leaders, including religious minority leaders like Sahidul Alam Chou-dhury, on the AGP-BJP seat-sharing stratagem. However, the party went to the just-concluded by-polls along with the BJP, within the same seat-sharing framework and, as usual, failed.
The defeat of the AGP candidate in Dhekiajuli LAC that was with the party for the last 13 years has made the AGP leaders feel that the party candidate did not get BJP votes in the constituency. The Congress candidate defeated the AGP candidate in the constituency by a margin of over 21,000 votes.
According to sources, a majority of AGP leaders are of the firm view that instead of going with the BJP, the regional party should engage itself in consolidating its own strength and maintain good rapport with other regional parties like the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF), Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the Gana Shakti, besides the Left parties.
Many AGP leaders and workers also feel that a politics centred on ‘‘who will become Chief Minister if the party is voted to power in the State’’ among the top leaders of the party has cost it dearly. Many a party leader say that Patowary and his coterie actually take all vital party decisions and impose them on the party. “This is an ominous trend,” they told this reporter on the condition of anonymity.
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