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Regular-article-logo Friday, 18 July 2025

Beyond Headlines

A treasure trove of data for sport fans Tourists, ahoy!

The Telegraph Online Published 10.09.09, 12:00 AM


A treasure trove of data for sport fans

Sport enthusiasts in Assam will no longer have to grope in the dark to find the who’s who in the history of sports in the state for the last six decades.

Two sports enthusiasts — Chiranjeev Sarma and Jintu Borthakur — have archived the history of international sportspersons in a 208-page compilation named Antarjatik Krira Kshetrat Chataa Dasakar Asomiya.

The book comprises profiles and brief histories of all the 51 international sportspersons Assam has produced from the day the legendary Talimeren Ao represented the nation in the 1948 Olympics till Anjali Kalita took to the courts in the recent New Zealand Open Grand Prix in Auckland.

This is the first time such a compilation has ever been released in the state. Earlier, another youth, Bipul Barman, had compiled facts about the Olympians of the Northeast.

“Since my childhood, I have always felt the need for a database on sportspersons from the state who have represented the nation in major events across the globe. And when I met Jintu Borthakur, who shared the same feeling, we resolved to do it ourselves so that the next generation won’t have to grope in the dark like us. Now, we feel proud that we have done something which I hope will be enlightening,” said Sarma.

“It was a Herculian effort because we had to put in our best efforts during the past year to contact the sportspersons personally so that no facts are distorted,” Borthakur added.


Tourists, ahoy!

To attract tourists to Meghalaya, the abode of the clouds, the state government has initiated a slew of measures.

Construction of “welcome centres” and tourism information offices at all entry points to Meghalaya and upgrading of those in all major cities of the country are some of the measures chief minister D.D. Lapang, who also holds the tourism portfolio, is contemplating to adopt to improve the sector.

The first meeting of the newly-constituted Meghalaya Task Force for Development of Tourism in Meghalaya on August 31 also decided to activate an interactive website of the tourism department.

The meeting chaired by Lapang also suggested the need to construct a state-of-the-art inter-state bus terminal in Shillong.

The government hopes to invite investors to develop the golf course in other parts of the state.

The meeting also observed that the tourism department could prepare a calendar of events, including the major festivals that would be organised in a year so that this can be distributed to the tourists.

Other important issues discussed during the meeting were the development of road, air and railway connectivity with the rest of the country and within the state.

n As the splinters of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s helicopter on Rudrakonda hillock flashed on TV screens, people in Meghalaya could not avoid the bone-chilling sense of déjà vu.

It was September 22, 2004. A Pawan Hans chopper carrying Meghalaya minister Cyprian Sangma and nine others crashed on a Ri Bhoi hill in an uncannily similar fashion, leading to the death of all the occupants.

Legislators Ardhendu Chaudhuri and Heltone Marak, Garo Hills Autonomous District Council chairman from Tura, Rikseng Sangma, Shillong-based businessman Shrolenson Marabaniang, joint director of printing, Novelson Sangma, former Deputy Speaker Ira Marak, retired joint director of labour, Sudhir D’Shira, pilot Capt. Jain and co-pilot Capt. Anand were on board when the helicopter crashed.

The Wednesday crash, caused by inclement weather, also took place during the monsoon.

The probe report, however, also cited pilot error as a cause for the crash.

Soon after the mishap, the state government promised that it would try to buy a new helicopter and build a monument at the crash site with names of the dead inscribed on it. Nothing, however, has come up except for an approach road to the site.

The people, including politicians, now prefer to travel by road to Guwahati and Tura.

“We have not travelled on a chopper since the 2004 crash,” said a relative of a crash victim. Meghalaya deputy chief minister Mukul Sangma, in fact, said he has not boarded any helicopter since that crash.


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