May 19, 1981, Forty Years Ago: Panel for Assam

The complex question about the future of the foreigners who had crossed over to Assam between 1961 and 1971 was referred to a committee comprising agitation leaders and senior officials of the home ministry for finding a solution. Discussions at the committee level will begin on May 19. The Home Minister Zail Singh during his brief separate discussions with leaders of the All Assam Students Union and the All-Assam Gana Sangram Parishad proposed that the problem be referred to small groups, which should try to arrive at an acceptable solution. AASU leaders promptly accepted the suggestion. The AAGSP too seems open to the suggestion but hasn’t yet conveyed its decision formally. While the AASU believes that one committee would be constituted, the Home Minister seems to have kept the option open for more than one panel.

Violence in Beirut

A night of shelling and rocket fire has left a trail of death and destruction in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. This is the eighth week of hostilities. Since the past four days, rockets and shells have been exchanged between Christian East Beirut and the Muslim West in one of the most violent clashes since the conflict began, killing about 30 people and injuring some 130.

Former dacoits lobby

A demand has been voiced for a change in leadership in Madhya Pradesh. It has been made not by leaders of the Congress (I) but a section of dacoits who surrendered in 1972. The dacoits, who today form an influential lobby in MP, want P C Sethi, Central Minister, to assume the reins of power to solve their problems. Sethi was the CM when these dacoits surrendered. Some of the dacoits, who assembled here to attend Saturday’s peace conference to discuss the dacoity problem in the Chambal Valley, complained of being given a rough time by the government which had made tall promises at the time of their surrender.