The declaration, which is the first of its kind, came during the seventh founding anniversary of the Party on 26 December 2005. The amnesty will be effective till the Boisabi Festival in April this year.

Alt. English should be kept as an optional subject only for the few students whose mother tongue is not included in the curriculum. But at the same time, Spoken English should be made compulsory in all the vernacular medium school. In the era of globalisation, no one can deny the fact that English has emerged as the unofficial national language of India. In a state like India where hundreds of languages and dialects exist, inability to communicate in English is a sort of dumbness.

The sole purpose of this event aims at celebrating the spirit of
Assam and its rich culture. Therefore, we on behalf of Assam
Society of Bangalore seek your gracious presence for the same.
Your blessings and support is highly solicited in order to make
it a grand success.

We look forward for your ebullient participation.

Date:28th January \\'06. StarAttraction:Jitul Sonowal.
Venue: St. Aloysius High School
(Near Bengali Association)
Cox Town, Bangalore.

Schedule:

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Natarajan said that the time has come when one can no longer afford to ignore the mismatch between development and sustainability. Giving further explanation of his point, he said that economics and ecology must go hand in hand. Talking about the concept of inter-generation equity, he said that the present generation is accountable to the future generation, and so the precious natural resources should be saved for the future generation.

The four day convention which will kick off on January 21, 2006, will bring the curtains down on the association’s year long silver jubilee celebrations, that had started from February 2005.

Talking to The Sentinel, Bidya Borgohain, chief secretary of the association said that around ten books will be released during the convention.

It may be mentioned here that ‘Dictionary of North East Tais,’ edited by Dr Pushpa Gogoi will also be released on the occasion. On the other hand two Tai music cassettes will also be launched here.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will inaugurate the Book Fair on Wednesday evening in the presence of noted writer Rebati Mohan Dutta Choudhury who will be the chief guest on the occasion.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the inauguration today, Publication Board secretary Dr Rafiquz Zaman said that this year’s Book Fair would be the biggest ever with as many as 119 publishers from all over the country giving it a truly national character. The major objective of organising the event is to popularise books and encourage the reading habit, particularly among children, he said.

At the outset, it should be remembered that the Battle of Saraighat (1669-1672) was not fought against India. India was an occupied territory at that time. Like the occupation of Europe by Nazi Germany for 4 years during the Second World War, India was occupied for 664 years by invaders originally led by Ghori and Babur --- these are the names of ballistic cruise missiles of Pakistan today. During the 4 years of Nazi occupation (1940-1944), the European countries ran their “Government in Exile” in England, the only territory free from the Nazi Rule.

It is estimated that books worth nearly Rs 15 lakh were sold in the last few days with quiz books, dictionaries, children’s books and fiction accounting for most of the sales. Another notable aspect of the book fair was the demand for books authored by the new breed of writers.

\\"What I feel, what I see and whatever impresses me, I like to express those feelings through canvas. To me, painting is refining of a ‘felt experience’ in an aesthetically pleasing language,\\" said Dr Puspa Gogoi, a renowned artist of Assam during the inaugural ceremony of the one-man art exhibition named \\"Puspa Gogoi: A retrospective\\" held at the Dhemaji Press Club on December 20. The exhibition concluded yesterday.

My husband, Nakibul Ghani Ahsan, and I were very honored to be invited by Ms. Flavia Agnes, to attend this prestigious event. Since it was an International event, I wore my assamese traditional Muga Mekhela-Sador and Loka-Paro jewelry set, which got admiration from everybody. And we again felt honored to find Ms Agnes sitting there in a beautiful silver-grey assamese silk saree, probably honoring the home state of her assamese son-in-law, my younger brother, Syed Miran Shah (Director of Marketing, Sales and Affiliates for Southeast Asia for CNN International, HBO, Cartoon Network, etc.).