Dear reader, In his second visit to the state before the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will land in Assam on Sunday. This time, he will address a public event at Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district, and virtually flag off two important projects, including the ‘Asom Mala’, an ambitious road corridor project. Earlier today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman kicked-off a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for Assam tea garden workers. The choice of projects are significant — Assam’s tea garden worker community is a strong voter base of the BJP, while development of roads and bridges has remained a major focus of the BJP-led state government. Read here for more details. Meanwhile BJP’s anti-'Miya' poll rhetoric continued as the party’s most well-known Northeast leader, Himanta Biswa Sarma, made another polarising statement on the community. And finally, Assam’s newest political parties, which emerged from the massive anti-CAA protests that rocked the state in 2019, have announced a formal alliance. Shortly after, the Congress invited them to join hands. From the frontier Following the military coup in Myanmar, businesses in border town Moreh in Manipur take a hit just as they were hoping to recover from the pandemic-related lockdown. Moreh is an important international border crossing and a major trade route that connects the South Asian, Southeast Asian and ASEAN economies. Says Mohammad Faizal, a grocery store owner from the area, “For the past eight to nine months, I have only been feeding them (his children) dal and water.” Nature news When 36 vultures, including the endangered Himalayan Griffon, were found dead in Assam’s Tinsukia district, hundreds of got together to observe a ‘shraddh’ or a prayer meeting — “If we can grieve for human beings, why can’t we do the same for birds and animals?” — read more here. In better news, villagers and forest officials came together to revive and rejuvenate Sessa Orchid Sanctuary, the only one of its kind in the country, located on the Bhalukpong-Tawang road in Arunachal Pradesh. And finally… Assamese film, Bridge, was honoured with a Special Mention award at the recently held IFFI in Goa. Find out what the director Kripal Kalita has to say about not just filming Assam’s annual floods, but living it to tell its story. Until next week, Tora Agarwala | 
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