26 September 2014

Tetseo Sisters From Nagaland Popularize Naga Folk Music


Kohima, Sep 26
: The northeast region has produced several artists who excel in the field of music. Now, a very popular folk music band from Nagaland, the Tetseo Sisters, has taken the Naga folk music to the national and international level.

One of the most popular female bands from Nagaland, they sing songs known as "Li" (folksong) in the Chokri dialect of the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland that tells stories of Naga people, their joys and sorrows, hopes and aspirations.

They started practicing music in their school days and have not looked back since then.

They specialize in folk music and aim to keep it alive among the youth.

"We keep travelling place to place. Eventually we have been invited for cultural exchange program and have performed at many othrs an event that's how we began our journey. As we perform more and more our identity become stronger as a folk singing group. A lot of people called us folk singing sisters on TV. Well then, we became Tetseo sisters," said Mercy, member of the Tetseo sisters.

The Tetseo Sisters comprise four siblings - Mercy, Azi, Kuvelu and Lulu.

The sisters released their first album of acoustic songs called "Li" Chapter One "The Beginning" in 2011.

During their performance they use age-old Naga string instrument known as "Tati or Heka Libuh".

They have performed in different places across the country and abroad. Recently, they mesmerized the audience at Scotland, Myanmar and Thailand.

"We have been performing for more than twenty years so we finally record an album called "Li" the chapter one along with my sisters and it consists of 12 songs. Theme of the song is about love, peace and different festival," said Kuvelu, singer of Tetseo sisters.

"We realize that our folk music is important, different and unique and it's really beautiful so our parents also encourage us a lot they taught us song, they taught us how to play Tati," added Mercy.

The Tetseo sisters are playing an important role in preserving folk tradition of Nagas and are currently working on their upcoming album.

India Invites Thai Businesses To Invest in The Country

Bangkok, Sep 26 : India today invited Thai businesses to invest in the country and said it attaches top priority to the development of the North-East states as it opens a corridor into South-East Asia.

India's Ambassador to Thailand, Harsh Vardhan Shringla referred to various initiatives taken by the new Indian government to take the country's trade and development to a new plateau.

"Opening the North East creates a corridor for us into South East Asia," Shringla told a gathering of Thai commerce ministry officials, trade department representatives, ethnic Indian Thai businessmen and academia on the sidelines of a live telecast function showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching "Make in India" campaign.

Those who had gathered to watch the telecast, organised by the Indian Embassy with the assistance of India-Thai Chamber of Commerce, wanted to know about Indian Government's new "Make in India" campaign and developments in India's North-East region.

"We hope to attract Thai investors," Shringla told the assembled gathering.

Prime Minister Modi today launched the "Make in India" initiative in New Delhi to make India a manufacturing hub by attracting foreign companies to set up their manufacturing units.
25 September 2014

Process for Import of Rice from Myanmar Delayed: Mizoram

Aizawl, Sep 25 : Tender process for import of rice from neighbouring Myanmar to Mizoram has not been fixed and time for finalisation was extended, state food and civil supplies minister John Rotluangliana today said.

Rotluangliana said the tender seemed to have been extended due to technical reasons.

Mizoram was planning to import rice from Myanmar to ensure non-stop supply of foodstuff during the mega railway block beginning from October 1 due to gauge conversion of the Lumding and Badarpur route in Assam.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has made arrangements to import rice from neighbouring Myanmar and the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India Limited had floated a tender on September 8 for import of one lakh quintal of rice from Myanmar.

The rice would be imported via Zokhawthar in the Mizoram-Myanmar border in Champhai district and would be distributed to Aizawl, Lunglei and Lawngtlai districts.

The godown of the state Trade and Commerce department, having a capacity of 8,000 quintals at Zokhawthar border trade centre on the banks of the Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiau was being prepared for stocking the rice.

Rotluangliana said the gauge conversion work was expected to be completed by March 2015, but might be delayed.

The mega block would have severe impact on the food supplies in Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and southern parts of Assam.

Tripura High Court starts SMS Service

Agartala, Sep 25 : The high court of Tripura is now being recognized as an IT-enabled HC in the country.

According to reports, the Tripura HC has introduced SMS service for both litigants and respondents for the first time in the country. It has drawn the attention of the Supreme Court. Now, it is being replicated in other HCs of the country.

"Pull-based SMS system is working as client satisfaction tool in the HC. Immediately after filing a case, a litigant gets an SMS. But SMSs are of two types - if any error is found while filing, the system-generated SMS suggests specific correction in the petition. If the filing is error-free, the petitioner gets an SMS with case number and before every hearing, both the parties get SMS," a top official of HC said.

The auto-generated SMS, voluntarily sent by the high court, has increased the level of satisfaction of the litigants about the judiciary and also curtailed dependency of petitioners on advocates for basic information.

Though a few high courts like Bombay and Punjab have push-based SMS service, Tripura high court is the pioneer in introducing the system. In push-based SMS, the litigant or the respondent has to seek information about the case in the toll-free network and upon receiving the requisition, the court pushes the information.

But in case of pull-based system, the court sends information voluntarily and at the time of filing the case, the litigant has to give his contact details in the application.

The official pointed out that after setting up of separate high court in Tripura in March last year, about 7,500 cases have been disposed of so far.

Meghalaya Blockade Cuts Off Parts Of Northeast

Agartala, Sep 25 : The northeastern states of Tripura and Mizoram, and southern Assam remained cut off from the rest of India following a blockade of the National Highway (NH) 44 in Meghalaya, official said here on Wednesday.

The Movement for Indigenous People's Rights and Livelihood, a non-governmental organisation in Meghalaya, has called for an indefinite "economic blockade" from Sep 23 against a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on unscientific coal and sand mining in the state.

The NH 44 from Guwahati passes through Meghalaya connecting southern Assam, land-locked Tripura and Mizoram with the rest of India.

"Thousands of southern Assam, Tripura and Mizoram bound goods-laden trucks, passenger buses, small cars and other vehicles have been stranded in different places of NH 44 in Meghalaya. The agitators attacked and damaged some vehicles Tuesday and Wednesday," a Tripura transport department official said.

"We have approached the Meghalaya government to intervene into the matter and restore the normal movement of vehicles through the NH 44. The NH 44 blockade would further affect the scarcity of essentials and food grain in Tripura, Mizoram and southern Assam due to monsoon related transportation difficulties."

The official said that after torrential rain during the past three days huge landslides on the NH 44 at Tansen (50 km south of Shillong) in Meghalaya also blocked the movement of vehicles through the highway.

Following a public interest litigation filed by an NGO of Meghalaya, the National Green Tribunal in April imposed a ban on unscientific coal and sand mining in the northeastern state.

The NH 44 blockade was launched just days before train services in Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and four districts of southern Assam would be stopped for gauge conversion by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

Tripura Transport Minister Manik Dey said this would further affect the movement of food grain from different parts of the country to Tripura, Mizoram, southern Assam and parts of Manipur.

Beyond The Oath

YAMBEM LABA REPORTS ON THE GOINGS-ON AT THE REGIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, IMPHAL, WHICH RESULTED IN THE BOMBSHELL DROPPED BY THE CENTRE

A visit to the director’s office at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal is akin to visiting an ultra high security zone. You go past unarmed guards provided by an agency and then you enter a fortified area complete with sandbagged posts manned by the CRPF wielding automatic weapons. Past that you are greeted with signs that read “Visitors not allowed beyond this point” and then you get to the ante room and find Manipur Rifles personnel armed with AK-47s — the personal security detail of the director. The aura of the institute being an advanced centre for medical sciences seems to have been lost somehow.

It is now a premier centre for medical sciences and draws students from across the North-east region save Assam. It celebrated its 43rd foundation day on 14 September and has so far produced 2,904 doctors and 1,053 specialist doctors. Today it has 418 undergraduate students, 414 postgraduate students, 161 BSc nursing students and 95 pursuing a degree in dentistry on its rolls. It also has 24 different departments dealing in subjects as diverse as anatomy and otorhinolaryngology and provides service and care to patients who flock to fill the 1,071 beds available. Last year, it catered to 43,317 in-house patients while another 299,178 were treated as outdoor patients.

Initially, it began as the Regional Medical College funded by the North Eastern Council but was converted into a Centrally managed institute under the Union ministry of health and family welfare in 2007 with a board of governors headed by the Union health minister as chairman and the Manipur chief minister as vice-chairman. Its executive council is headed by the Union health secretary as chairman and its director as member secretary. With such a vast infrastructure and an even more impressive management set-up, one would be coerced into thinking that all is and has to be well with its affairs. On 14 September 2010, Professor S Sekharjit Singh was appointed its director of by the UPA-II set-up in Delhi.

Then on 25 August the bombshell arrived from Delhi in the form of an order signed by a deputy secretary in the Union health and family welfare ministry which stripped Sekharjit Singh of his post and Professor Chongtham Arun Singh of the Department of Orthopaedics was asked to take charge as director until further orders. The drama began unfolding bit by bit, revealing murky business at the Rims where Singh and his caucus functioned much beyond the Hippocratic oath. First, he refused to recognise the Centre’s order stating that a director cannot be removed just like that and he bolted his door and bolted. The Centre then advised Dr Arun Singh to take police help, break open the door and assume charge, which he did the next day. Sekharjit Singh then attempted to take the help of the judiciary and moved Manipur High Court, but Justice N Koteshwor turned down his appeal for a stay on the dismissal order. Then he, accompanied by his son and daughter, both medical doctors, left the state and has not been heard of since.

In the meantime, the CBI had earlier registered a case against Sekharjit Singh on charges of corruption relating to irregularities in the purchase of dental chairs and other misappropriations. On 23 May this year, the CBI furnished the FIR copy to the District and Sessions Judge, Manipur East, and earlier it had also earlier registered a case against Dr L Fimate,  Sekharjit Singh’s predecessor.

Then the CBI, which hitherto in Manipur had only been dealing in murder cases, decided to go a step further and raided the official quarters of Sekharjit Singh and nine other places, including his wife’s and daughter’s houses. The seized items included documents, laptops and computers that were said to have revealed a wealth of information but the most damning of all seems to be a letter alleged to have been written by Sekharjit Singh’s  wife to the president of Manipur’s BJP unit asking him to return the Rs 1 crore paid earlier to forestall the impeachment move and the CBI raids. This amount seems to be a pittance for a man said to be owning three houses in Manipur and others in Guwahati, Kolkata, New Delhi and Bangalore and is said to have paid Rs 4 crore to the personal assistant of then Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for his appointment as Rims director.

But what Sekharjit Singh did goes much beyond the records on the CBI files. For instance, he recruited 121 nurses against 71 sanctioned and advertised posts. The bribe fee was said to have hovered around Rs 15 lakh each for the first 71 and Rs 25 lakh apiece for the remaining 40. And although he tried to get post facto sanction for the 40 seats from the executive council, he failed but they continue to be on the rolls and received salaries till date. He also managed to turn the Rims into a hotbed of corrupt contractors, most of them said to be relatives of his wife.

He went on a spree of digging drains and constructing walls all around and even stripped the wooden planks of the Gymkhana, paved it with cement and again installed teak flooring — all on contract. He also decreased the retirement age of the heads of departments from 65 to 62 years to enable his wife to head the department of anatomy.

When the Nursing College was established, he appointed her principal and when protests arose he made her the advisor of the college, overriding the principal. What was shocking was the manner in which he treated 47 men and women hired as daily wage workers who were being paid a paltry Rs 3,000 a month. The women were utilised by his wife as domestic help and have not been paid for the last five months while their salaries had been withdrawn. And often it was his wife, referred to as “Madam”, who would dole out their salaries at her residence — not in cash but in the form of Amway products for which she is today a platinum card holder agent.

According to Chongtham Bijoy Singh, who resides in the village adjoining Rims and had spent the last three years chronicling Sekharjit Singh’s misdeeds, the man was trying to behave as a despot and his wife, Damayanti, acted as if she was a reincarnate of Imelda Marcos.

Professor Chongtham Arun Singh acknowledged to The Statesman the public perception of Rims being in the centrestage of corruption and added that while he did not know how long he would be holding the office, he pledged to bring about transparency in all spheres of life at Rims, which, he hoped, would mitigate the apprehension of the public in days to come. For now, his morning walks have been rendered impossible because of the bevy of security guards detailed for his protection.

The writer is based in Imphal

India’s Gateway To The East

By G PARTHASARATHY

Given the shared heritage, there’s tremendous potential for New Delhi to push its economic interests with Yangon

In the minds of New Delhi’s elite, India’s South Asian neighbourhood is made up solely of the seven members of Saarc, even though we share no land borders with three of them. We tend to forget that four of our north-eastern States — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram — share a 1640 km land border with Myanmar. Not only is Myanmar a member of Bimstec, the Bay of Bengal grouping linking Saarc and Asean, it is also our gateway to the fast growing economies of East and Southeast Asia.

While successive leaders of Myanmar, who are devout Buddhists, have looked upon India predominantly in spiritual terms, as the home of Lord Buddha, they recognise that an economically vibrant India provides a balance to an increasingly assertive China. Sadly, we have not been able to take full advantage of either our shared Buddhist heritage by facilitating increased pilgrimages, or used our economic potential effectively to promote our interests.
Changing situation

Ties between India and Myanmar have quietly blossomed over the past two decades. The respective militaries and security agencies of the two countries have facilitated cooperation across the border. This has led to effective action against cross-border insurgencies and narcotics smuggling. Myanmar’s information minister recently reiterated his government’s readiness to crack down on Indian insurgent groups such as the ULFA (Assam), PLA (Manipur) and NSCN-K (Nagaland). India, in turn, has acted firmly against Myanmar insurgents entering its territory.

Myanmar has moved steadily in easing the rigours of military rule since the elections that swept President Thein Sein to power in 2011. The military still has a crucial role in national life, as negotiations are on to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire with 16 well-armed insurgent groups drawn from ethnic non-Burmese minorities. This is no easy task, but is a prelude to negotiations on the highly sensitive issue of federalism and provincial autonomy for ethnic minority areas.

After years of bonhomie during military rule, Myanmar’s relationship with its largest neighbour China is under strain. China’s Yunnan province borders the sensitive and insurgency-ridden Kachin and Shan states in Myanmar.
The China factor

China has helped significantly in building Myanmar’s infrastructure and equipping its military. India’s fears of Chinese bases in Myanmar were not borne out. But differences between China and Myanmar have grown recently, especially on large projects like the Myistone dam, which had to be junked, and a proposed railway line to connect Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal. There is growing opposition to Chinese projects in copper and nickel mining. The sentiment is that China has taken Myanmar for a ride regarding an oil pipeline linking Yunnan to the Bay of Bengal port of Kyaukphu.

There are concerns over Chinese involvement with insurgent groups such as the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa Army. Despite this, border trade across the Yunnan-Myanmar border is booming, reaching $4.17 billion in 2013, against a mere $35 million border trade across the India-Myanmar border, though the “unofficial trade” (smuggling) across this border is estimated at around $300 million annually.

India’s former Ambassador to Myanmar VS Seshadri has authored a report spelling out how India has been tardy in building connectivity through Myanmar to Thailand and Vietnam and securing access for our landlocked north-eastern States to the Bay of Bengal. Our border trade regulations are formulated by mandarins in North Block and Udyog Bhavan who have no idea of the ground situation. They could learn a thing or two from China’s pragmatism — the manner in which it treats the markets with its neighbours not as foreign, but as extensions of its own markets. Opening up such trade will also enable our north-eastern States to meet their growing requirements of rice at very competitive rates.

Unless we learn to look at our neighbours the way China does, bearing in mind the inherent strengths of our economy, we can never match the economic influence of China on our borders in the North-East. The new minister for north-eastern affairs VK Singh has served at length in the North-East. It is hoped he will liberalise procedures and permit trade across borders with Myanmar in currencies traders mutually agree upon. Vehicles should move freely across the borders on roads through Myanmar, to Thailand and Vietnam.

Moreover, the “Kaladan multimodal corridor” linking our north-eastern States through the port of Sittwe in Myanmar will be useful only if Sittwe becomes the key port for India-Myanmar trade. India has done remarkably well in human resource development projects in Myanmar. It has played the lead role in the establishment of the Myanmar Institute of Information Technology, an advanced centre for agricultural research and education, an agricultural university and welcomed many Myanmar professionals for training in its medical and engineering institutions.
Tardy record

But we would be less than honest if we did not admit that in project and investment cooperation, our record has been tardy. After having secured exploration rights for gas in the Bay of Bengal, we conducted our project planning and diplomacy so clumsily that we did not have a strategy ready for taking the gas to India through a pipeline across Myanmar and our North-East, or for transporting it as LNG. China deftly stepped in and took away all this gas by expeditiously building a pipeline to Yunnan province.

In the mid 1990s, Myanmar offered us hydro-electric projects with a potential of over 1,000 MW across rivers near our borders. We took years to scrutinise these projects, which companies in South Korea earlier offered to construct. After nearly two decades we backed off. Our private companies too not been able to avail offers of land for plantations across Myanmar.

India was offered hundreds of acres of land for agriculture and for bamboo plantations for making paper pulp, close to its borders. Two private sector companies signed MoUs with Myanmar counterparts. But Myanmar officials found our private sector to be more bureaucratic than our government. India lost access to huge bamboo resources which went to a Thai company that clinched a deal in weeks — something our companies could not achieve for nearly two decades.

The writer is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan
24 September 2014

YMA Members To Be Given Training On Disaster Management

YMA members to be given training on disaster management

Aizawl, Sep 24 :
Mizoram Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Minister C. Ngunlianchunga today said that members of the Young Mizo Association (YMA) in each village and locality would be imparted training on the issue.

Attending the passing out parade function of the 11th batch of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) at the headquarters of the fifth battalion of the India Reserve Police near Aizawl, Ngunlianchunga said that YMA members were the main disaster response volunteers before the formation of SDRF.

“The YMA members were the first response force whenever disaster struck in a village or in the urban area,” he said, adding that better and state-of-the-art rescue equipment would be provided for the SDRF and local YMA members.

Policemen belonging to the state armed police and IR battalions were selected for the SDRF training and were continually trained by the personnel of the first battalion NDRF from Guwahati.

Ziro To Music Haven, in 4 Days

Sleepy Arunachal town wakes up to fest from tomorrow
The Vinyl Records performs at Ziro Music Festival last year. Picture by Shiv Ahuja
Itanagar, Sep 24 : The quiet Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh will come alive with the sound of non-stop music from Thursday.
Located in the heart of Lower Subansiri district and surrounded by rolling green hills, Ziro valley is home to men and women of the Apatani tribe and attracts a number of tourists. From Thursday, the number of visitors to the sleepy town will swell as the third edition of the Ziro Festival of Music kicks off.
In a span of just two years, the festival has become the mainstay of India’s ever-expanding festival circuit. With an eclectic collection of folk, Indie and electro-rock artistes performing against the backdrop of the picturesque valley, it’s not difficult to imagine why.
Festival co-founder Anup Kutty attributes the event’s success to the location, the people and the artistes. “It’s a potent combination of all three,” he said.
The festival was started after Anup and his bandmates from Menwhopause were touring the Northeast and festival director Bobby Hano took them to Ziro for a break. One thing led to another and in 2012 the first festival was organised. Even with showers making the venue ground slushy, it created a buzz across the country. By 2013, the festival had gone global.
Last year, American artistes Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of the erstwhile Sonic Youth headlined the festival and this year, a reunited Indus Creed will bring down the curtains on Sunday. Such is the lure of the festival that singer Uday Benegal is returning with the troupe many feel is India’s first rock band.
Benegal, who was at last year’s event as part of the Whirling Kalapas, says the “valley is a fabulous piece of earth” and that he is “kicked about going back”.
Apart from Indus Creed, this year will feature a host of big names like Ska Vengers and Your Chin. Additionally, the third edition has the largest line-up of folk artistes and musicians from the Northeast. With the likes of the Nagaland-based Tetseo Sisters making their first appearance at the festival and Manipur band Imphal Talkies set to return, music lovers are in for a treat. With close to 30 bands set to perform, little wonder that the festival had to be extended by a day.
Anup says that “three days just didn’t seem enough” and we “decided to keep the first day free for the people of Ziro as a tribute to the wonderful place”.
Aside from the support of the people, this year Living Dreams, an Arunachal-based trust that documents and promotes local culture and Pepsi MTV Indies, will support the festival. Among its long list of supporters is the Arunachal government. Last year, tourism minister Pema Khandu said he was “very pleased with the overwhelmingly stunning response” and made a call to make the festival the “Woodstock of the East”.

Militant Camps Still in Bangladesh, Claims Tripura Chief Minister

RAB’s operation on Jun 4, 2014 yielded arms at the seven bunkers atop hillocks inside Satchharhi jungles of Habiganj, about three km from the Indian border in Tripura. Photo: asif mahmud ove/ bdnews24.com RAB’s operation on Jun 4, 2014 yielded arms at the seven bunkers atop hillocks inside Satchharhi jungles of Habiganj, about three km from the Indian border in Tripura.

Militant camps still exist across the border in Bangladesh, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar alleged on Monday.

He said this while addressing a large gathering of the elite Tripura State Rifles (TSR) personnel and the members of their families at a blood, eye, and body donation programme at the battalion headquarters in Tripura's Agartala.

Sarkar has been praising the present government in Bangladesh, saying it is friendly towards India and has acted against Northeast Indian militant groups using Bangladesh territory as their launching pad.

But he added several camps of Tripura militants still existed across the border.

“The problem of insurgency has not yet been entirely solved. They have been weakened and cornered, but not totally uprooted.”

He said 19 to 20 camps still existed in Bangladesh. Of the two Tripura militant groups - NLFT and the Tiger Force – the former was still ran camps in Bangladesh, though with a depleting cadre strength.

According to him, there were no records any camp of the banned All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) in Bangladesh at present.

The Chief Minister said the militants were trying to achieve a revival in Tripura and hamper development work.

Sarkar praised the TSR for its counter-insurgency operations in the state.

Tripura has an 857-km border with Bangladesh, of which more than 90 percent has been already fenced.

Landslide on Guwahati-Shillong Highway

A man pulls his rickshaw through the flood water in Anil Nagar area of Guwahati on Tuesday. PTIGuwahati, Sep 24 : More than 72 hours of incessant rainfall has caused huge floods in Assam and Meghalaya with several villages in Goalpara, Dhubri, Lakhimpur and Kamrup (Rural) district, besides major areas of Guwahati city, inundated by water on Tuesday.

The Army, IAF, BSF and NDRF are assisting the district administration in rescue operations. IAF swung into action with its helicopters pressed into service and began rescue and relief operations in flood-hit Goalpara district. More than 500 people in the district are suspected to be still missing.

A child was killed in a landslide in Dhubri district’s Hatsingimari, while one person was electrocuted in Guwahati where a body floating on river Bharalu was also recovered, state government officials said.

The Kaziranga National Park and the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary were also flooded forcing hapless animals to move to highlands to protect themselves.  The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been pressed into service.

In Goalpara district, the army and SDRF were assisting the district administration in rescuing the over 50,000 people marooned in 100 villages due to the deluge in Krishnai, Dudhnoi and Bolbola areas, district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Preetam Saikia said.

The National Highway 37 was water logged with tin-roofed and thatched houses in many areas in Goalpara district submerged, converting huge tracts of human habitation and farmland with standing crops into a vast body of water, Saikia said.

Heavy rains in Goalpara coupled with that in neighbouring Garo hills of Meghalaya was causing the deluge in the district, the DC said.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi personally monitored the situation and directed the various agencies to provide relief assistance to the affected people.

In Lakhimpur district, heavy downpour for the last two days along Arunachal Pradesh, had forced the waters of the swollen Ranganadi river to rush through a breached dyke at Kharkati, district officials said. A dyke that had breached at Borsola along with the Kharkati bund on August 14 last also caused waters from Singara river to flood the area, they said.

The flood waters have marooned over 30,000 people in 30 villages in the Kharkati and Borsola area, they added. The situation turned worse in Majuli, where several villages have been submerged since Sunday.

Protests in Itanagar Over Leak Of State Civil Service Paper

Itanagar, Sep 24 : Hundreds of candidates appearing for the Arunachal Pradesh civil service exams staged a protest here Tuesday demanding an inquiry into the alleged leak of a question paper for the main examination.

According to students, the General Studies-2 question paper was a copy of the extra set of question paper prepared for 2011 mains exam and was already with many students.

"Firstly the set of question paper was a ditto copy of General Studies Paper-2 of 2011 and secondly the said question paper was already in circulation and possessed by some candidates since Nov-Dec 2013," Oyam Saring, a candidate told IANS.

Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission prepares 2 sets of question papers to meet any eventuality.

Earlier the students had protested outside Chief Minister Nabam Tuki's official residence following which the commission had postponed the exam until further notice.

"The candidates are shocked how the question paper which is kept in a secured room came into the hands of some candidates. The officials have also shown their laziness by copy pasting questions from the extra paper of 2011 exam," Saring said.

DU's Gyanodaya Express to Take students to Northeast

New Delhi, Sep 24 : Delhi University's Gyanodaya Express train will travel to Northeast this year to enrich students' understanding about the culture and heritage of the region.

As many as 900 students will be given the opportunity to travel on Dharodhar-Gyanodaya Express from December 20 to 30. They will be given basic working knowledge of eight different languages of the northeast under special certificate courses run by DU, Registrar Tarun Kumar Das said in a statement Tuesday.

The students accompanied by around 100 teachers will be selected from colleges on basis of project proposals and will be divided into group of 11-15 with a mentor each. Each group will have at least one member from the northeast.

The projects are to be based on ideas that shall give a deeper understanding of richness of the region and its contribution in diverse ways towards the well-being of the nation, he said.

During the trip, students will get to meet representatives of local universities as well as senior functionaries of northeastern states, Das said, adding, issues related to citizenship, national integration and ideals propounded by eminent leaders would be addressed in the study conducted by the students.

Started as the 'College on Wheels' project in 2012, this will be the fourth edition of Gyanodaya Express. 
23 September 2014

Mizoram Woman Booked For Facebook Post


Aizawl, Sep 23 : A senior office bearer of the Mizoram Pradesh Youth Congress Committee has filed a police complaint against a woman here for a Facebook post in which she alleged that a Mizo fugitive and his friends were beaten up in Delhi by two members of the party unit.

Acting on the complaint from secretary of the committee R Lalhmingmawia Ralte, the police filed an FIR on Monday against Lalrinfeli, who goes by the Facebook name Felly Jahau.

Ralte in the complaint said someone going by the name ‘Felly Jahau’ posted an article on the widely-followed “Zoram Politics” Facebook group where she “defamed” the ruling Congress and wrote about two party members who “do not exist”.

The said Facebook post talked about one Michael, a man wanted by the Mizoram Police in connection with a case involving allegations of EVM rigging during the last year’s state Assembly polls, being approached and manhandled by two men in Delhi.

The post alleged the attackers were dressed as policemen, but they turned out to be youth Congress leaders.

Michael is wanted by the police for instigating a well-known Aizawl educationist to make allegations that the Congress rigged EVMs using a “powerful radiowave machine” and winning 34 of the state’s 40 assembly seats unfairly.

By November, Rajdhani Express to Reach Arunachal Pradesh


Indian Railways is set to kick off the Rajdhani Express between Arunachal Pradesh and New Delhi by November.
Indian Railways is set to kick off the Rajdhani Express between Arunachal Pradesh and New Delhi by November.
New Delhi, Sep 23 : Arunachal Pradesh agrees to relax the rigid norm of inner-line permit for passengers with reserved tickets.
The Indian Railways is set to kick off the Rajdhani Express between Arunachal Pradesh and New Delhi by November. To make travel more passenger-friendly, Arunachal has agreed to relax the rigid norm of inner-line permit, which is otherwise mandatory for “outsiders” entering the state.

After a series of meetings at the Prime Minister’s Office between Railways and state officials, as well as correspondence between the state’s Chief Secretary and the Railway Board recently, it was decided that passengers who have made a reservation will not require the permit.

The Railways had reasoned that details of the identity of a passenger with a reserved ticket are entered into the railway system at the time of booking, and are verified when they board.

“The state has agreed that as long as a passenger holds a reserved ticket, inner-line permit is not required,” Devi Prasad Pande, Member-Traffic, Railway Board, told The Indian Express.

The Rajdhani Express to Naharlagun, 15 km from the state capital of Arunachal Pradesh, will run twice a week to and from Delhi. Another AC-only express train linking Guwahati to the Capital is also on the cards. In both categories of trains, unreserved tickets are not issued.

The problem of running trains with general class coaches, in which passengers can travel with unreserved tickets, is still being discussed.

The two sides have discussed the possibility of creating a ‘holding area’, where credentials of passengers with unreserved tickets can be verified and state officials can issue inner-line permits to them .

Ever since the 33-km railway line between Harmuti in Assam and Naharlagun — the last stage in the Rajdhani project which will connect Arunachal with the rest of the country — neared completion earlier this year, local groups have stepped up protests against the prospect of outsiders inundating the state.

“How does a reserved ticket meet the requirements of the inner-line permit? The permit system was introduced as per a law which still exists to protect locals from exploitation. What is the problem in procuring a permit before boarding the train? I don’t think the new arrangement will be acceptable,” said Ninong Ering, Congress MP from Arunachal East Lok Sabha constituency.

Ering was referring to The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 and the Chin Hill Regulations, 1896, which are meant to provide special protection and safeguard the “peaceful existence of the indigenous tribal people” in Arunachal.

India’s Last Surviving Headhunters

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe

The largest tribe in Nagaland


The remote village of Longwa, with Myanmar’s dense forests on one side and India’s rich agricultural lands on the other, is home to the fierce Konyak Naga tribe. The largest of 16 tribes living in the remote northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, the Konyaks were warriors with brutal pasts, using inter-village fights to accede land and ascertain power. As such, Konyak villages are situated on ridge tops, so they can easily monitor and identify an enemy attack.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe

The last generation


From the tribe’s conception centuries ago, until the gruesome practice was banned in 1940s, the Konyaks were fierce headhunters. Killing and severing an enemy’s head was considered a rite of passage for young boys, and success was rewarded with a prestigious facial tattoo. With the last headhunting case in Nagaland reported in 1969, older tribesmen like Pangshong (pictured) belong to the last generation with these striking facial tattoos.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe
Skulls of battles past

Bones of buffaloes, deer, boars, hornbills and mithun (a bovine species found in northeast India) decorate the walls of every Konyak house – prizes from generations of hunting. During the tribe’s headhunting days, the skulls of captured enemies were also prominently displayed, but once headhunting was abolished, the skulls were removed from the village and buried.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Spacious living quarters

Konyak huts are made primarily out of bamboo. They are spacious, with several partitions forming huge rooms for various purposes including cooking, dining, sleeping and storage. Vegetables, corn and meat are stored above the fireplace, in the centre of the house. Rice, the staple food of the Konyaks Nagas, is usually stored in huge bamboo containers at the back of the house. Pictured here, a Konyak woman named Wanlem breaks the rice by beating it with a wooden log, readying it for a traditional sticky rice dish.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe
One tribe, two countries

Longwa was established long before the borders were drawn between India and Myanmar in 1970. Not knowing how to divide the community between two countries, officials decided that the border would pass through the village and leave the tribe undisturbed. Today, Longwa straddles the international border, with one side of the border pillar containing messaging written in Burmese, and the other side written in Hindi.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe International housing

The border even cuts through the village chief’s house, prompting the joke that he dines in India and sleeps in Myanmar.


Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Family gatherings

Konyaks are still ruled by hereditary chieftains, locally known as “Angh”, and one or several villages can come under each chieftain’s rule. The practice of polygamy is prevalent among the Anghs and the chief of Longwa has several children from many wives. Pictured here, several of the tribe’s children gather around the fire.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Changing beliefs

Konyaks were animists, worshipping elements of nature, until Christian missionaries arrived in the late 19th Century. By the late 20th Century, more than 90% in the state had accepted Christianity as their religion. Today, most of the villages in Nagaland have at least one Christian church. The church in Longwa is located in a vast field atop the ridge, right below the village chief’s house.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Weekly traditions

Women wearing traditional Naga skirts return from church on a Sunday morning.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe
A disappearing culture

A group of Konyak elders gather around the kitchen fire, chewing on betelnut, roasting corn and sharing a light moment. With the invasion of Christianity, many of the tribe’s traditional practices, such as training young boys as warriors and educating them about the tribe’s beliefs in dedicated community buildings called Morungs, have nearly disappeared.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Decorative trophies

The practice of wearing colourful beaded jewellery is also declining. In the past, both men and women would wear elaborate necklaces and bracelets. Brass faces were used in some of the men’s necklaces to signify the number of enemy heads severed.

Longwa, Myanmar, Konyak Naga tribe Change creeps in

Sheltered from the reaches of modern civilization, Longwa is a picturesque collection of thatch-roofed wooden houses. But the occasional tin roofs and concrete constructions are tell-tale signs that change is creeping into this rustic corner. What remains of this inevitable marriage between past and present is yet to be seen.

10 Dead as Floods Wreak Havoc in Assam and Meghalaya


Two men wade through flood water looking for a safer location at Goalpara in Assam on Monday

Heavy rains across northeast India wreaked havoc triggering flash floods in several districts of Assam and Meghalaya, killing ten people and leaving scores homeless in the two states.

Seven persons were killed in Meghalaya's South West Garo Hills district after heavy rains lashed the area inundating over 100 villages and affecting over one lakh people, district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ram Singh said.

"Seven persons have lost their lives in the floods with over 100 villages inundated and more than one lakh people affected," Singh said, adding the rains have led to flooding in the Ganol River badly affecting crops and livestock, besides hampering relief activities in the area. In the West Garo Hills district of the state, several villages have been inundated by the flood waters of Jinjiram River, the DC said.

The MeT department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains at a few places with extremely heavy rains at isolated places in Meghalaya in the next 24 hours. In the meantime, heavy rainfall caused severe floods in the state claiming three lives and leaving several villages in Goalpara, Dhubri, Lakhimpur and Kamrup (Rural) districts, besides Guwahati inundated. The Army, BSF and NDRF were assisting the district administration in rescue operations.

Hatsingimari and Mancachar in Dhubri district were the worst-hit with the BSF, NDRF and SDRF personnel evacuating over 5,000 marooned people to safer places, a Chief Minister's Office (CMO) spokesman said. A landslide claimed the life of a child in Hatsingimari area, district administration officials said.

In severely water-logged Guwahati, which is under Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, a body was recovered from Bharalu river flowing through the city, while a 71-year old man identified as Ashib Bhattacharjee was electrocuted in the waterlogged Netaji Road in Lalganesh area here, they said.
Kamrup Metropolitan district Deputy Commissioner M Angamathu said a relief centre with food and water has been set up for the succour of the people of Guwahati's Anil Nagar.

All education institutions in Guwahati have also been ordered to remain close tomorrow in view of the water-logging and the exams to be rescheduled, Angamathu said.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is closely monitoring the situation, asked the Chief Secretary and the Deputy Commissioners of Dhubri and Goalpara to take all measures and evacuate the marooned people and move them to safer places with the help of personnel from NDRF, SDRF and other agencies, a CMO release said adding helplines with numbers - 0361-2733052; 0361-2237042 and 8811007000 have been set up for assistance to flood affected people in Guwahati.

Flood waters have also marooned over 30,000 people of 30 villages in the Kharkati and Borsola area in Lakhimpur district, the officials said. Forecasting no let up in the rainfall in the next two days, the MeT office said the south-west monsoon has been active over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya since Sunday.

Light to heavy rains have occurred in several areas in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura since yesterday, it said. A report from Aizawl said the Mizoram government has issued a warning in all the eight districts saying there is a possibility of extreme weather conditions in the state and neighbouring states during the next two days. The warning said heavy rainfall could hit northeastern states like Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura during September 23 and 24.

Indefinite Strike in Meghalaya From Tuesday Against NGT’s Coal Mining Ban

The ban was issued following a complaint by the All Dimasa Students’ Union of the adjoining Dima Hasao district of Assam, which contended that rat-hole mining in Meghalaya had polluted the Kopili river and turned its water poisonous.
The ban was issued following a complaint by the All Dimasa Students’ Union of the adjoining Dima Hasao district of Assam, which contended that rat-hole mining in Meghalaya had polluted the Kopili river.


By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, Sep 23 : Four months after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered a ban on ‘rat-hole’ coal mining in Meghalaya, an organization called Movement for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Livelihood-Meghalaya (MIPRL) has called for an indefinite economic strike from Tuesday demanding withdrawal of that order.

The NGT had on April 17 issued orders to the state government to immediately stop rat-hole and other illegal coal mining, as also transportation of coal extracted through such methods. The ban was issued following a complaint by the All Dimasa Students’ Union of the adjoining Dima Hasao district of Assam, which contended that rat-hole mining in Meghalaya had polluted the Kopili river and turned its water poisonous.

While this ban has been opposed by various organizations including political parties on the ground that it had affected livelihood of thousands of people out of job, the MIPRL also complained against lack of response from the Meghalaya government to this major economic issue.

MIPRL spokesman Erwin K Syiem Sutnga said in Shillong that while said that the group had submitted a list of ten issues to the Meghalaya chief minister with a 10-day deadline, there was no response from him. “The state government even failed to make any proper presentation during the NGT’s hearing on September 16 despite demand by so many organizations to it to pray for relaxation of the guidelines,” he said.

The MIPRL has also demanded implementation of Para 12 A Sub Para (b) of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India to protect the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Peoples’ inalienable and absolute rights over tribal land. Its other demands included modification of all central laws applied to the state of Meghalaya done without recourse to the mandatory provisions of Para 12 A Sub Para (b) and (d).

“The government of Meghalaya continues to play with the lives and survival of thousands of people who have bee rendered jobless. We had no option left but to call an economic strike,” Sutnga said.
The MIPRL has asked all transporters of goods in and outside Meghalaya, all petroleum product tankers, limestone exporters and traders, all passenger transporters, carriers, transporters of timber, cement, clinker and coal, among others, to support the economic strike call. The strike will however not affect private and small commercial vehicles within Meghalaya, Sutnga said. It would also not affect schools, colleges, offices, markets, he added.

Meanwhile, an expert committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has permitted transportation of coal already extracted before issue of the ban order, but under strict 21-point environmental guidelines in six districts of Meghalaya. The MIPRL however is not agreeable to it.
Accordingly, a maximum of 9 metric tones of coal will be allowed to be transported by each 2-axle truck. The transporter will have to ensure that the truck is loaded to permissible load of 9 MT or less, the committee had said on September 1. Traffic will be regulated by the state police and a speed limit of 40 kmph should be enforced for these trucks, it said.

To prevent over assessment of extracted coal, the committee has also maintained that all coal owners should maintain registers of declared quantity, assessed quantity, date wise sale, date wise loading and date wise dispatch of coal which will be subjected to the verification of the district administration.
22 September 2014

Probe against Ahmedabad hotel for asking northeast Indian staff to stay away during Xi Jinping's visit

Its a too little too late...Its the mainland Indian attitude...

Probe against Ahmedabad hotel for asking northeast Indian staff to stay away during Xi Jinping's visit
Ahmedabad's Hotel Hyatt which hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping.
NEW DELHI: The Union home ministry on Monday ordered a probe into allegation that employees of northeast origin at an Ahmedabad hotel were asked to stay away during Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to the city.

Sources said the ministry asked the Intelligence Bureau to find out the veracity of the order and, if so, who issued it and why.

There were also reports that northeast-origin employees at a mall in Ahmedabad were asked not to come for duty on the day Xi visited the Gujarat capital last week.

The IB has been asked to send its findings by Tuesday after probing the allegations in both the incidents.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Sabarmati riverfront. (PTI photo)

The sources said that the home ministry ordered the probe taking serious objection to the allegations.

Last week, taking umbrage at the reports, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had said, "It is an insult to the northeast. They doubted us as if we are not patriots. Are we not citizens of India? This is not good for the region."


Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2nd from left) with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and first lady Peng Liyuan (2nd from right) at Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Verdict Due in 2010 Gang-Rape of Mizoram Woman

By Aditi Malhotra


Women held placards placards during a peaceful protest in New Delhi

Two years before the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012 shook India and shocked the world, another young woman in India’s capital was gang-raped in a moving vehicle, this time at gunpoint. The verdict in the trial of the men accused of the crime is expected Monday.

On November 24, 2010, a 30-year-old woman from the northeast Indian state of Mizoram was allegedly picked up at gunpoint on Delhi’s southern ring road at about 1 a.m. The woman was returning from work at a call center in Gurgaon, a satellite city in the National Capital Region, police said.

The five men abducted her in a goods carrier and assaulted her before throwing her out of the vehicle in an industrial neighborhood in Delhi’s west, according to the prosecutor.

They face charges including kidnapping and rape. All five have pleaded not guilty. They were arrested soon after the incident from a northern Indian district called Mewat in the state of Haryana.

On Monday, a fast-track court in southwest Delhi will hand down a verdict to the five men, lawyers involved in the case said. The case was shifted to a fast-track court in April, more than a year after New Delhi cleared dockets to set up special courts for quick disposal of cases relating to sexual assault following the 2012 Delhi rape.

Although they are being tried in a new court, if the defendants are convicted, they will face punishment under old provisions of the legislation on sexual assaults, which were in place before punishments were toughened up in response to the 2012 gang rape.

If found guilty, the maximum punishment for the five men who all take single names – Usman, Shamshad, Kamruddin, Shahid and Iqbal- is life imprisonment.

Under the new law, death is the maximum penalty in extreme cases of rape. In September 2013, a Delhi court sentenced the four men guilty of the December 2012 attack to death. The men are appealing that conviction.

In the case of the 30-year-old victim from Mizoram, the court has heard testimony from 58 prosecution witnesses and 10 defense witnesses, and has recorded hundreds of pages of evidence.
The crime threw light on to the treatment of people from India’s north east who come to the capital for work, especially women.

An estimated 15,000 people travel from the India’s north east to New Delhi every year for better education and employment opportunities. The seven northeastern states share closer ethnic and cultural links with Southeast Asia and migrants from India’s northeast often end up being the targets of casual racism because of their appearance.

According to the results of a 2011 study by New Delhi-based Northeast Support Center and Helpline, 78% of northeasterners in New Delhi said they faced racial discrimination. Of the crimes against northeastern women recorded by the helpline, molestation counted for 34%.

The Indian government has acknowledged several instances of discrimination against people from the northeast and taken steps to ensure their safety. In 2011, the federal ministry of home affairs, made the use of the derogatory slur “Chinki,” a punishable offense with a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

Then earlier this year, after the murder of a 14-year-old boy from the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh- an alleged hate crime- the Delhi police introduced a special helpline to address issues relating to people from the region.  At the time, campaigners also pushed for the introduction of an anti-racism law, a suggestion also put forward by a government committee established to look into the issues of racism against people from the northeast. So far, the requests have not been granted.

Activists say people from the northeast continue to have a hard time in the capital, particularly women. Binalakshmi Nepram, a rights activist, said women from the northeast “become victims of a multifold challenge of racial profiling combined with the increase in crimes against women and lack of quick justice.”

“Women from the northeast are still stereotyped as being ‘morally loose’ and ‘easily available,’” said Ms. Nepram.

Lovers by the lake: Why Rih Dil is a must-visit for newlyweds from Mizoram

lovers-main The water’s lovely: Newly-weds at Rih Dil in Myanmar (Source: C Lalmuanzova)

By Adam Halliday
A day after their mid-January church wedding in the eastern Mizoram town of Champhai, Merlyn Lalrinpuii and her husband Duhawma packed their wedding outfits and boarded one of several hired maxi-cabs with about 20 close relatives, friends, make-up artists and a wedding photographer in tow, and crossed the international border into Myanmar, heading towards Rih Dil, a heart-shaped lake surrounded by forested hills.

That afternoon, having slipped back into her gown, and her husband into his suit, the newlyweds posed for the camera in front of the placid lake, strolled hand-in-hand in the surrounding meadows, rode a small blue boat, and held each other tenderly in the soft winter sunlight that sweeps over Rih Dil.

For many other newlyweds in eastern Mizoram, crossing the border into Myanmar and taking wedding photographs at the natural lake is one way to capture the most important day in their lives. Apart from its stunning beauty, its allure not only lying in its unusual shape, a wedding photograph at Rih Dil is of cultural significance as it is the “most important lake in Mizoram” — except that it is 22 km away from the nearest Mizo town and in a different country.

A bride and her groom walk towards the lake A bride and her groom walk towards the lake (Source: C Lalmuanzova)

“We in Champhai are very lucky. We get to shoot our wedding photographs abroad,” laughs Lalrinpuii. “It’s a beautiful setting, and a great place for a post-wedding picnic with family and friends. Many of our friends from different towns were guests, so for them, it was a treat because they had never been there. And most of all, its heart-shape makes it unique,” she says. Her younger brother, Victor Ralte, got married in April and his wedding photos at Rih Dil featured rare wild flowers in bloom, she adds with a twinge of envy.

Before the border trade began in the mid-1990s, there was no formal border crossing into Rih Dil. It is not much of a hassle these days. Those who cross the border have to register at the Myanmarese immigration post after reaching the eastern bank of the Tiau river that separates the two countries. There’s no need for passports or visas as nationals of either country are allowed to enter till a certain distance into each other’s territories. The western parts of Myanmar, particularly the Chin Hills, were historically inhabited by tribes that now make up the Mizo community. Even today, the dialects spoken by those settled on either side of the Tiau river are fairly similar, with customs and even traditional attire only varying slightly.

The historical and cultural linkages remain strong more than eight decades after the British separated India from present-day Myanmar, so strong that this November a massive cultural program is being planned for ethnic Zos in the eastern Myanmar city of Tahan.

In his community, C Chhawngliana, 56, was one of the first to take pictures of the lake. In his youth, he lived in Rihkhawdar, a village near the lake. The lakeside was a favourite with lovers even then.

“Once, two friends and I took our dates there. We went swimming and afterward the girls were changing in a shack that was open towards the lake. We boys stripped completely and dived into the water with a great shout just where they could see our naked bottoms. They screamed and shouted and cursed us for that,” he recalls, chuckling at the memory.

Back then, the new nominally-civilian government had just been formed, and the Burmese military government kept a close watch on what was photographed within their borders, for fear military sites may be secretly photographed. Chhawngliana would use an old Minolta to secretly take pictures of the lake. In 1998, he and a friend took the negative to Rangoon and secretly got a shop to print 5,100 poster-sized copies of the photo, which they smuggled into Mizoram inside carton boxes in the back of a jeep. He has sold all but 20 of the posters, which he keeps in his brother’s shop in Champhai.

And though the lake lends itself to photoshoots of everlasting love today, historically and culturally, Rih Dil is associated with a far less happy occasion: death. In the pre-Christian Mizo belief system, the soul departed from its body and headed straight to Rih Dil, where it wandered with other souls for a few lonely days before returning to the deceased’s village and home. There, relatives would keep a place at the table for the wandering spirit and offer it a plate of food every time they sat down for a meal, and ask the soul to partake of the food.

After three months of this vagabond afterlife, the soul would once again depart for Rih Dil, and from there on wander towards a mythical mountain called Hring Lang Tlang. After reaching the peak, the soul would pluck a mythical flower, Hawilo Par and would long for the past no more. It would then drink the pure and clear waters of a nearby spring, called Lungloh Tui or the water of forgetfulness, and the water would quench it of all desire to gaze back. Only then would the soul proceed towards the land of the dead.

According to Mizo historian B Lalthangliana, there was a reason behind this belief that Rih Dil was where the soul went to after death. The story goes that a group of warriors were hunting on the lakeside one day, and as night fell, one among them could not sleep.

As he lay awake, he heard voices. “He listened carefully and clearly and distinctly, he heard the voice of his wife saying regretfully, ‘When I departed from my children, I did not tell them that I had hidden some dried meat in the new earthen pot not yet used for cooking, and that I had put some eggs in the bran in a bin behind the inner wall. And their father is away hunting big game’. He listened to the chatter of the spirits of the departed as they approached Rih Dil. When he went home, he found that his wife had died, and he also found the dried meat and the eggs exactly where she said she had hidden them,” writes Lalthangliana in his book History and Culture of Mizo in India, Burma and Bangladesh.

Even today, a line of tall shrubs stand on the lakeside, its reflection on the still waters is referred to as Mitthi Pal – a fence for the dead. A rare wild bird, Mitthi Ar or the dead man’s fowl, is said to be found only in that region. And though the Mizo community now is almost entirely Christian, the myth is referred to in Mizo songs and poems as the passage to the land of the death, and as a reference to dying and the afterlife.

But till that day arrives, Rih Dil and its heart-shaped banks promise new beginnings and, hopefully, eternal love.

Mizoram Court Issues Arrest Warrant Against Bru Leader

Aizawl, Sep 22 : An arrest warrant was issued against A Sawibunga, President of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF,) by a Mamit district court after the police failed to produce him before it.
Senior Civil Judge of Mamit district court also directed the district police yesterday to produce the Bru leader before him on October 14.

The judge had earlier issued an arrest arrest on August 28 and instructed the police to produce Sawibunga on September 19.

The police had claimed that the MBDPF chief could not be arrrested as he is residing in a relief camp in Tripura.

The court’s orders came after Young Mizo Association filed a petition alleging that Sawibunga had, in a newspaper report in January this year, falsely accused Mizo people of assaulting Bru people and driving them out from their homes.

A Special Gift With Love From Mizoram

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan
The female gibbon in Delhi zoo. Photo: Sandeep Saxena
The female gibbon in Delhi zoo. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Hoolock gibbon, highly endangered species, is listed in wildlife protection act.

The Delhi zoo has a new addition which has come here all the way from Mizoram. Currently under quarantine, the 6-8-year-old female hoolock gibbon is a highly endangered species and is listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act, 1972.
“She is getting used to the climate and change of diet at the Delhi zoo and will be introduced to the two other hoolock gibbons (a male and female) on display by the end of this month,” said zoo veterinary Dr. Paneer Selvam said.
The animal has been brought in as part of the zoo’s breeding programme and is from the wild. “This gibbon was in the Mizoram zoo for over four years and was transported to Kolkata by road and then brought here by air. The animal, which weighs about 12-15 kg and has an average life span of 30-35 years has been brought in for our breeding programme. The female that we currently have is very old and we hope that this female will be able to thrive in this Zoo,” added Dr. Selvam.
The animal is currently coping with a change in diet and “is getting used to a new variety of fruits and other supplements being provided to her”.
“We are giving her bananas, apples and other fruits along with egg, bread and milk which are new to her. She is slowly adapting to the change and is currently doing well,” said Dr. Selvam.
Meanwhile, the zoo has suspended two animal keepers after a badly-decomposed carcass of a stump-tailed macaque was found in its enclosure. The animal whose body was found unfit for post mortem had died in the last week of August, according to zoo officials.

Rights Group Alleges Racism in Champions League Ad

New Delhi, Sep 22 : The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has called for immediate stopping of the broadcast of one of the ‘Champions League T20-T20 Nights Are Back’ advertisements for promoting stereotypes and racial prejudices against the Nepalese who are considered as the same people as of the Northeastern States because of Tibeto-Mongoloid features.

In its interventions with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Broadcast Content Complaints Council, International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, ACHR alleged that it in one of the advertisements, “Champions League T20-T20 Nights Are Back!”, one of the Nepali looking youth says, “Wo Raatein Bhi Kya Raatein Thi, Nach te teh, gaate teh, chilla te teh, purra mohalla ko, haami toh jagate teh” (what nights were those nights, used to dance, used to sing, used to shout, we are the ones who used to wake up the entire locality)”– implying that Nepalese work as night guards and wake up the residents of the locality. The same is being repeatedly broadcast with distinguishable heavy, Nepalese accent in various TV channels and FM radios, the ACHR stated.

“In North India where Nepalese and Northeasterners are considered being the same people because of their same physical features, such stereotyping only promotes racism and acts of racial violence.

Though unconnected to the advertisement, on September 14, two Manipuri boys were attacked at Munirka village, New Delhi after they protested when some local youths made fun of them. In fact, the Northeasterners being called Nepali or “Bahadur” derogatively often leads to such incidents.

The Bezbaruah Committee set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs in its recent report stated that 86 per cent of the Northeasterners living in Delhi had faced some sort of racial discrimination while crimes against Northeasterners have gone up by 270 per cent in the last three years,” stated Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

“Though Nepalese serve in various sectors including in the film industry, they are often stereotyped as night watchmen/guards in mass media and this creates inferior impression about the Nepalese and by implications the North- easterners among the viewers. These acts of stereotyping are reprehensible and justify the need for a law against racism in India,”further stated Chakma.

Sports has consistently been used to combat racism across the world but cricket, which is the most popular sport in South Asia, is being used to promote stereotyping and racism. The advertisement reflects extreme lack of sensitivity which is one of the root causes of racism in India, the ACHR added.

Source: Newmai News Network

NSCN (IM) Leaders Arrive in Delhi For Resumption of Naga Peace Talks

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, Sep 22 : More than ten months after the last round of talks, a high-level delegation of NSCN (IM) leaders have arrived in the national capital at the invitation of the government of India for resumption of the Naga peace talks.

The delegation led by its chairman Isak Chisi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah will first meet different officials before attending the formal discussions slated sometime next week. The delegation arrived in New Delhi on Saturday.

It was in November last year that New Delhi had held the last round of discussions, while a meeting with then prime minister Manmohan Singh, slated for December 6, 2013 was cancelled at the last moment. A delegation of the NSCN (IM) had visited New Delhi in March this year after the Centre had called off another round of talks in view of the Lok Sabha elections.

There have been speculations in the media in Nagaland about NSCN (IM) leaders also meeting Prime Minister Modi, especially in view of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appreciating the “unique history of the Nagas” during his visit to Nagaland in July 2002.

The NSCN (IM) has been on a ceasefire with the government of India since August 1, 1997, following which it has held a series of discussions with New Delhi. While the group has dropped its demand for ‘sovereignty’, but  it has maintained that it would continue to press for integration of all Naga-inhabited areas.

The group had earlier this month taken exception to the appointment of former IB special director RN Ravi as New Delhi’s new interlocutor in view of certain remarks made by him in an newspaper column in December last year. This had prompted new Nagaland governor and veteran BJP leader PB Acharya to clarify that Ravi’s article was written much before the new government was elected.
19 September 2014

Mizoram Home Minister Writes To MP Counterpart in Missionaries’ Arrest Case

Aizawl, Sep 19 : Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana has written to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Babulal Gaur asking the latter to personally intervene for the five Christian missionaries from Mizoram who were released on bail Tuesday evening after being kept in judicial custody at Khargone for four days and nights for allegedly offering money to Hindus to convert.

In his letter, R Lalzirliana asked the five men be “acquitted and released” as they still face cases against them and that “appropriate corrective action” be served against “the person who lodged the false report for justice’s sake”.

“I have been informed that these missionaries were arrested subsequent to an FIR, lodged by one local resident, accusing [them] of practicing proselytism by offering a sum of Rs 1 lakh to Hindus in an attempt to convert them to Christianity,” the Mizoram Home Minister wrote.

“I was shocked with disbelief on hearing the allegation as I would confidently vouch that the complaints are false and baseless. Christians…are never taught to resort to using any form of material or financial incentives in their mission works and I assure you that missionaries would not use such form of enticement or allure even in the future,” he added.

The five men and the families of two of them have been moved from Sanawad, near where they were arrested, to a Christian compound at Kanapur.

'Northeast Space Centre Not Getting Data From Central Agencies'

Shillong, Sep 19 : The North East Space Application Centre (NE-SAC), set up by the Centre to develop high-tech infrastructure support for the northeastern states, is grappling to obtain required data from central agencies due to the "security threat" perception in the region, an official said Thursday.

"We (NE-SAC) have been struggling to collect data from central and state agencies in in view of the security threat perception surrounding the northeastern states. This reluctance to share data has only put a hindrance for us to implement various programmes, like the Flood Early Warning System effectively," NE-SAC director S. Sudhakar told journalists.

"A centre like NE-SAC, which has been identified for disaster-related issues, should be provided with the database generated by various centres/state departments for analysis and generation of planning inputs, which will help in decision-making and implementation of various programmes more effectively," he added.

The NE-SAC is assisting various central and state departments to use space technology for their planning processes and also enhance the implementation of central schemes effectively to bring economic inclusive growth at the village level.

Lamenting that government agencies were not assisting the NE-SAC, Sudhakar said a system for data sharing should be created that will help in decision-making and implementation of various programmes.

"People are working in isolation. We need an integration of data as the space community has a greater role to play in improving preparedness for various disasters," he said.

The NE-SAC has initiated various programmes, including establishment of the North Eastern Regional Node for Disaster Risk Reduction (NER-DRR), he said.

'Garoland Demand To Continue Even After Peace Accord'

Shillong, Sep 19 : A rebel group in Meghalaya that would next week sign a peace accord with the central government Thursday said it would continue with its original demand for a separate Garoland state.

"We will continue with our demand for the creation of a separate Garoland state (to be carved out of Meghalaya) politically and through non-violence after signing the peace accord with the central and Meghalaya governments," Arist Sengsrang Sangma, spokesman of the A'chik National Volunteers Council (ANVC), told IANS.

The Centre Wednesday announced the signing of the peace accord with two rebel outfits - ANVC and its breakaway group ANVC-B - operating in the five districts of Garo Hills in Meghalaya.

The accord will be signed Sep 24 in New Delhi after a decade of peace negotiations.

"This issue (Garoland) is very much alive as 80 percent of Garo people want a state of their own. Political parties, civil society groups and armed outfit Garo National Liberation Army are demanding the same," Sangma said.

"We will continue to fight for a separate state as central government officials have told us that there is no harm in continuing with our original demand for a separate state but that should be fought through non-violence," he said.

Gogoi urges Rajnath to deploy SSB along Assam-Naga Border

Gogoi also expressed concern over the alleged presence of Nagaland Armed Police in some villages in the disputed area

Guwahati, Sep 19 : Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday urged union home minister Rajnath Singh to initiate immediate measures to deploy Sashtra Seema Bal (SSB) as a neutral force in the affected villages along its border with Nagaland.

“Necessary suitable directions may be passed to the government of Nagaland and SSB authorities for ensuring early return of the affected families from the relief camps,” he said in a letter to the union minister. Gogoi pointed out the urgent need to rehabilitate the displaced persons at the earliest as delay to their homes “may further aggravate the law and order situation in the state.... Sooner the people return to their villages, the better it is for maintenance of the law and order situation.”

The chief minister also expressed concern over the alleged presence of Nagaland Armed Police in some villages in the disputed area and requested Singh to ensure withdrawal of the forces from the villages immediately. He also reviewed the prevailing law and order situation along the Assam-Nagaland border with senior officials at his official residence last night, officials in the chief minister’s office said.

Officials of the home and political department and Assam police informed the chief minister that some Naga villagers backed by NSCN militants were creating obstruction in the process of rehabilitation of the displaced persons, thus creating a sense of insecurity and panic among villagers.

Eleven persons were killed along the Assam-Nagaland border in Golaghat district since 12 August and nearly 10,000 people had taken shelter in relief camps. Of them 5,700 have so far returned to their villages while 4,167 are still in the camps, the officials said.

18 September 2014

Are You Chinese, Peng Asks Northeast Students

New Delhi, Sep 18 : China's First Lady Peng Liyuan today mistook a group of students from the northeast India as Chinese only to be told by them that they were Indians.

          
As Peng entered the Tagore International School, she was greeted by students wearing Indian traditional costumes. She noticed a group of students, including few from the northeast who greeted her "Ni Hao" (How are you?).
         
Mistaking the northeast students as Chinese, she stopped and asked one of them, "Ni sh zhonggu rn" (Are you Chinese?).

The translation is ""你是中國人?"
         
"Bu. Woh shi Indu ren. (No, I am an Indian)," Albert Ginsangmuam K (12), a class VII student, responded confidently.
         
Hailing from Manipur, Albert, wearing a kurta, said he was nervous about the first interaction with Peng and he had not expected her to speak to him.
         
"I know a bit of Chinese, but I was a bit nervous. What if I made a mistake? What would have the school said?" Albert, along with many of his classmates, has taken up Chinese language course.