Stir to oust Bangladeshis builds, five more picked

BY MANOJ ANAND

Guwahati

Aug. 5: Five more Bangladeshi citizens were picked up by the police in central Assam’s Nagaon district and taken for pushing them back to Bangladesh. Nagaon district superintendent of police Nitul Gogoi told this newspaper that five persons, including two women who were declared Bangladeshi by the Gauhati high court were picked up by the police on Tuesday. "We are taking them to Karimganj in Barrak valley to push them across the border," he said.

In a judgment, the Gauhati high court had directed the police to take custody of 49 persons, declared as foreigners by the court, until their deportation.

Before this, Mohammed Kamaruddin, who resided in the central Assam district of Nagaon and had contested the elections to the state Assembly in 1996, was pushed back to Bangladesh following the court order.

In lack of any extradition treaty with Bangladesh, the authorities are taking illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators to a bordering district to push them across the international border. The court judgment, accusing that the state government has not done enough to stop migration and detect illegal migrants from Bangladesh, has created a furore in the state’s political scenario.

Various groups, including the All-Assam Students’ Union (Aasu), the main Opposition Asom Gana Pa-rishad (AGP) and the BJP, have threatened agitation if the government failed to stop influx.

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UN envoy seeks more investment in health

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi

Aug. 5: The international panel to review India’s flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has said that NRHM should be given an international profile and suggested that health ministers from some key countries may be invited to share the NRHM experience. The panel, chaired by special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Jeffrey Sachs, has called for more investment in the health sector.

"Investment in health is always a sound growth strategy. Hitherto, the public health sector was not able to deliver because of lack of investment. You cannot overspend in the health sector," said Prof. Sachs.

Expressing satisfaction over strides made under NRHM, especially in the area of reproductive and child health, development of health infrastructure and revamping the health system, Prof. Sachs described NRHM as "revival of hope in the world for the public health sector".

Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss briefed the panel about the status of National Rural Health Mission and steps taken in the health sector.

Prof. Sachs emphasised the need for collection of innovations.