the Assam government has sounded a health alert across the state following an outbreak of malaria that has claimed at least 35 lives and affected more than 20,000 people over the past month. Unofficial estimates put the toll at around 80. Behind the outbreak is the laxity of the administration and a spectacular scam. People in affected areas have also risen in protest.

Most of the casualties were reported from the eastern districts of Golaghat and Lakhimpur, as well as areas bordering Bhutan. State health minister Bhumidhar Barman says medical teams are working to check the disease, but the public remains unconvinced.

On April 24, 2006, hundreds of people from Doyang and Tengali