26 February 2015

Mizoram Shut Down By Two Parallel Bandhs


Aizawl, Feb 26
Most of the areas of Mizoram was shut down by two parallel total bandhs on Wednesday as the opposition Mizo National Front enforced a 12-hour shut down to protest against rising prices of government services such as electricity and water supply charges.

The MNF is demanding roll back of hikes in electricity, water and government-supplied rice prices as well as a re-imposition of total prohibition (a demand echoed by Mizoram’s powerful Church and community organisations).

The Young Lai Association, a community organisation in the state’s southern Lai tribe-dominated area, also enforced day two of its indefinite bandh to demand better roads in Lawngtlai district.
The indefinite bandh is also being carried out at night, and YLA leaders have said they will not stop until the government assures them their demands will be met.

No bandh was enforced in the Chakma Autonomous District Council area, however, as residents voted in rural body polls to 81 Village Councils.

Thirty-two Congress candidates were declared elected unopposed in six Village Councils Tuesday after no other party fielded candidates in these areas.

J Hmingthanmawia, the Returning Officer at district headquarters Lawngtlai however said neither the overall turn-out nor results (votes began being counted after 4 pm) were available yet due to communication problems between polling stations and his office by the time of filing this report, but added there has been no reports of poll violence.

Pic Source: Vanglaini

Mizoram Eye 3rd Consecutive National Gold at Santosh Trophy

Mizoram, Santosh Trophy, Santosh Trophy Football, Football Santosh Trophy, Football News, Football Mizoram keeps its fingers crossed for the the third consecutive national gold.

Aizawl, Feb 26 : Defending champions Mizoram left from state capital Aizawl on Wednesday to take part at the Santosh Trophy to be played in Punjab. The state keeps its fingers crossed for the the third consecutive national gold – Mizoram won last year’s Santosh Trophy and bagged gold in the just-concluded National Games.

Mizoram beat both Meghalaya (3-0) and Tripura (2-0) in the qualifiers held at Assam to proceed to the Santosh Trophy’s final round, where the team will face Railways, Goa, Kerala and Delhi in the group matches.

The team features five fresh faces but all hopes are pinned on captain Zico Zoremsanga (who scored 9 goals last year) and F. Lalrinpuia alias Valpuia (who scored 5 goals).

Boys Rescued at Train Station

14 Reang children from Tripura & 4 from Assam stopped
Some of the boys at Guwahati station on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos
Guwahati, Feb 26 : Eighteen children from Reang refugee camps in Tripura and Assam's Hailakandi district were stopped by a joint team of Assam CID and Childline here while being taken to an ashram in Himachal Pradesh today.

Police said they stopped the boys, aged between six and 15 years, and three persons at Guwahati railway station. Trafficking rackets earlier took out many children from the region, so police are scrutinising their documents to ascertain if these boys were also being taken out illegally. One of the boys is visually impaired.

Based on a call to Childline's helpline number (1098), the joint team stopped them and brought them to a shelter home. "The three persons accompanying them told us that they were taking the children for religious and educational purposes. We are verifying whether they were being taken without the consent of their parents," superintendent of police, Assam CID, Violet Baruah, told The Telegraph .

Childline officials said they suspected it to be a child trafficking case as 14 of them are from Reang refugee camps in North Tripura. "Children from violence-affected areas in the Northeast were earlier rescued from trafficking rackets. These children are vulnerable groups as they are living in relief camps for years," coordinator of Childline, Guwahati, Nirmal Deka, said. "We are trying to speak to the children but they only speak their mother tongue," he said.

The other four boys hail from Hailakandi district in Barak Valley in Assam and speak Bengali.
Over 30,000 Reang or Bru refugees have been living in at least six camps in North Tripura district for more than 17 years.

Altogether 35,326 Reangs from neighbouring Mizoram had fled their homes in October 1997 following largescale violence there.

Displaced people comprise one of the most vulnerable targets for traffickers. Children, including minor girls from areas affected by ethnic violence in parts of the Northeast, have been rescued from states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and cities like Mumbai and Delhi. "Their parents may have been lured with the promise of good education in the ashram. As they are struggling for survival in the relief camps for years, their parents may have agreed," said a CID official.

Both the Centre and Tripura government have been trying to repatriate the Reangs to Mizoram but many refused to return fearing further violence. Their security concerns increased following fresh ethnic violence in Reang-dominated areas in Mizoram in 2009. They have also been complaining that the amount announced for their rehabilitation was insufficient.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, during his visit to Tripura on February 13, met representatives of Reang refugees and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar to expedite their repatriation. Singh appealed to the Mizoram government to ensure their security in Mizoram.

Wild Boar Enters Mizoram Village, Attacks and Injures 5 Before Being Shot

By Adam Halliday

Aizawl, Feb 26 : A male wild boar entered a village in eastern Mizoram on Wednesday morning and injured five people, three of them grievously, before villagers shot it dead.

Village leader C Lalnunpuia said the wild boar entered Saichal, within Champhai district, from the nearby woods around 9.45 am, chasing a woman who was coming from the same direction.

As it reached a house on the outskirts, it attacked a group of women sitting on the porch.

One of the women, identified as Lalruatliani, sustained wounds on her hands and arms, with several fingers broken.

Another woman, Pi Kawli, sustained wounds in the back, while the third woman, Lalrampari, was wounded in the chest and legs.

Two men who came to the women’s aid were also injured before one of them could hit the wild boar with an axe.

The animal fled after it was wounded, and another villager chased after it and shot it dead near the village graveyard, which adjoins the woods.

Lalnunpuia, president of the village’s Young Mizo Association unit, said the wounded were being shifted to the Aizawl Civil Hospital, about five hours by road.

Fanaia Fanai, another village leader, said it was rare to find wild boars roaming in the area and that he has not seen one himself in recent memory although he regularly goes to the woods and adjoining farmlands.

Manipur and India’s ‘Act East’ Policy


Manipur and India’s ‘Act East’ Policy
Image Credit: REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Manipur and India’s ‘Act East’ Policy

Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May, he has sought to project to foreign-policy watchers a renewed commitment to India’s Look East Policy (LEP) – or, as Modi’s administration has renamed it, the “Act East Policy.” The LEP was put forward in 1991 to reorient Indian foreign policy towards East Asia and Southeast Asia. But half-hearted commitment to the policy has severely restricted India’s footprint in these regions, even as Chinese influence destabilizes Indian hegemony in South Asia. Major deals with Bangladesh and Japan, in addition to a flurry of meetings between top Indian officials and their regional counterparts, have been taken as early signs that Act East represents a genuine shift in Indian foreign policy.

With Myanmar, deliverables under Modi thus far have been fairly modest: an agreement to crack down on regional insurgencies, a route-mapping exercise for the long-awaited Imphal-Mandalay bus service, and continued progress on the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Project. The LEP framed Myanmar as India’s overland bridge to the dynamic ASEAN belt, and Modi’s rhetoric on Myanmar has stressed his dedication to realizing this vision. But the two countries have no rail links; the only road link (Asian Highway 1, or AH-1) is insecure and poorly maintained; and there are no flights to Mandalay, northern Myanmar’s most important city. India-Myanmar bilateral trade has grown steadily over the past several decades, from Rs9.8 billion ($163 million) in 1997–98 to Rs131 billion in 2013–14. But those gains have been made entirely through sea trade. Whereas Myanmar’s overall border trade volume jumped from 8 percent in the late 1990s to almost 14 percent 10 years onwards, border trade with India actually regressed during the same period: from $72 million (cumulative, 1995/96–1999/2000) to $38 million (cumulative, 2005–06/2009–10).

The deficits in India-Myanmar overland connectivity reflect a complex array of factors: Yangon’s limited control in northern Myanmar, Delhi’s fixation on transnational and internal security threats in the Northeast, and uneven bilateral relations over the tenure of Myanmar’s erstwhile military junta. But within India and Myanmar, Delhi and Yangon are not the only players influencing the progress of bilateral connectivity. If Modi wishes to live up to his rhetoric on boosting Indian ties with its eastern neighbors, he will need to work closely with local actors in the four states on the India-Myanmar border: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. Of these, Manipur is the most important. Manipur’s border post at Moreh, on Asian Highway 1, handles 99 percent of formal overland trade between India and Myanmar, and also the bulk of the far vaster category that is India-Myanmar informal and/or illegal trade.

On a mid-January visit to Manipur, I had formal and informal conversations with an array of academics, journalists, activists, entrepreneurs, and current and former politicians and bureaucrats about Manipur and the future of India-Myanmar connectivity. I heard plenty of optimism there about the sincerity of Modi’s ambitions for boosting cross-border connectivity, but also major questions about the practical scope for change. Policy implementation in Manipur involves engaging with a variety of actors – the state government, insurgents from Manipur’s 30-odd insurgent (“underground”) outfits, the Indian Army units stationed to fight them, central infrastructure bodies – whose agendas do not always align with the needs of cross-border trade. These issues are of particular concern because India is not necessarily operating from a position of strength in border trade here. Present-day patterns favor Burmese businessmen, and Chinese and Southeast Asian manufacturers, more than they do their Indian counterparts. What’s more, even if India’s border trade position improves, it is an open question to what extent Manipur’s economy will benefit. The state’s economic struggles drive many of the dynamics that interfere with connectivity initiatives today; these dynamics will continue to cause trouble so long as those struggles persist.

Overland connectivity with ASEAN has long been presented as priority for the LEP and for developing the Northeast. But those expecting that Modi’s emergence will spark a rapid transformation in the connectivity scenario – for the benefit of Manipur, and of the rest of India – would do well to temper their hopes. Reshaping Indo-Myanmar connectivity requires rewiring basic features of the development environment in Manipur, through persistence, attention to local perspectives, and skillful bureaucratic management. Success in this matter will prove a stern test of the substance of the Act East pledge.

Connectivity and the State in Manipur
Both Delhi and Imphal have sought over the past few years to demonstrate a serious commitment to strengthening Indo-Myanmar connectivity via Manipur. For Delhi, at least, this is a somewhat new development, and certainly not an uncontested one. For most of the past seven decades, what attention the Northeast has received from Delhi has mostly come in the sphere of security: The region’s active insurgencies, and their links with Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China, provoked a policy framework that prioritized border security and anti-insurgent crackdowns. Since the early 2000s, Union (Central) Government agendas have placed greater emphasis on development and international connectivity in the region. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 2012 visit to Myanmar focused on trade promotion, with deals signed to boost air and road links between Manipur and Myanmar. Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh took a delegation to Myanmar in May 2013 to liaise with Burmese officials on ways to boost cross-border trade. Modi’s administration has even put forward the improbably bold idea of developing Moreh as one of its 100 new “smart cities” around India.

But if government-to-government initiatives suggest enhanced support from Delhi and Imphal for stronger connectivity, the actual workings of Manipur’s state apparatus – not just local authorities, but also the Union bodies engaged in the state – are far less helpful. Failures of governance have produced major levels of corruption and insurgency that generate an ugly gap between policy formulation and implementation.

Corruption and Infrastructure
As noted above, cross-border transit infrastructure deficits are a major drag on India-Myanmar trade. Redressing this issue on the Indian side will require substantial investment, especially in railways and roads, the most natural channels for large-volume trading in this region. In the railway sector, such efforts are ongoing, but progress is slow. A November 2014 presentation by India-ASEAN connectivity expert Prabir De suggests that efforts to connect Imphal to India’s railway map, initiated in 2003, are slated to be completed by March 2018. An extension from Imphal to Moreh, likewise set in motion during the mid-2000s, finished its engineering survey only this year, according to the Bangkok Post; and links from Moreh into Myanmar are further off.

For roads, at least, the basic infrastructure of trade already exists. Manipur connects to mainland India via two major highways. National Highway 102 (NH-102) is the extension of AH-1; it goes northwards into central Assam. National Highway 37 (NH-37) runs westwards into southern Assam. These two highways are essential not just for overland trade to Myanmar, but also for providing Manipur with the rice, petrol, cement, and other basic commodities which the state imports from other parts of India. However, both highways are plagued by shoddy construction, especially NH-37: Even in the dry season, traveling the 220 km from Imphal to Jiribam on Manipur’s western border can take 13–14 hours.

The border trading environment itself is characterized by a combination of weak basic infrastructure and byzantine bureaucratic procedures. A June 2014 report by Manipur-based Hueiyen News Service notes that the town struggles to guarantee five hours’ power daily – a major obstacle to state government plans for establishing a cold storage center, a must-have for high-volume trade in a host of food products. In 2006, central government authorities approved the development of an Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Moreh – a single complex for border management authorities, intended to improve inter-agency coordination. Construction is currently halted on account of Myanmar’s claims, announced in December 2013, that the ICP site lies on its territory. In the meantime, a 2011 report on border infrastructure at Moreh suggested that maintenance of current customs facilities had dropped off since ICP development began. Such deficits work against the sort of professionalized trading operations that Delhi policymakers seek to encourage, and in fact, the vast majority of Moreh’s trade goes through informal and illegal channels. Official statistics for these channels do not exist; but estimates I have heard – both publicly available (as in these reports) and in my own conversations with experts in Manipur – indicate that the annual volumes moving through each of these channels today stands somewhere in the billions to tens of billions of rupees, far above the hundreds of millions of rupees in annual formal trade.

Indeed, the volume of informal trade can be understood to indicate the mismatch between the infrastructure of formal trade and the demand for trade at Moreh. Informal trade here consists primarily of “headload trade” – goods carried across the border on one’s head, which are largely exempted from standard customs procedures. But much of this trade is actually coordinated by high-volume traders, who hire large armies of coolies to carry goods across the border. Ch. Priyoranjan Singh, an economist at Manipur University, says that, of the forty traders who obtained licenses to operate at Moreh’s formal customs station upon its establishment in 1995, just three still use them.

The issues of slow execution and unsatisfactory results in connectivity infrastructure projects in Manipur follows from the authorities who implement the projects: a nexus of central and state bodies with a nasty track record of corruption and poor performance. I heard estimates of standard graft levels on road projects in Manipur reaching 66 percent of project fund allocation, with skims demanded variously by Delhi mandarins, local politicians and bureaucrats, and underground groups, among others. The most functional road in the region is actually the 160 km Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road in Myanmar, built from 1999–2001 by India’s Border Roads Organisation as the easternmost link in a longer intended road between the Myanmar border town of Tamu and Mandalay. But the Border Roads Organisation is now facing a central inquiry into major non-performance of maintenance and construction tasks on NH-37.

Some observers offer examples of interest groups positioning themselves on connectivity issues according to their prospects of financial gain. The Indian army, for instance, has long expressed concerns that steps to boost India-Myanmar connectivity, by loosening the border, could undermine efforts against Manipur’s insurgent groups, a number of whom have permanent camps in northern Myanmar. But Priyoranjan of Manipur University questions the army’s motivations. He notes that local army figures are also important sponsors of nighttime smuggling operations whose traffic is worth billions rupees annually.

Managed Insecurity: Insurgent-State Relations
The politics of insurgent-state relations in Manipur have also generated serious obstacles to connectivity. Ethnically speaking, Manipur’s three major ethnic groups – Meiteis, Nagas, and Kukis – are closer to the peoples of northern Myanmar than they are to those of mainland India, and the accession of the state into India in 1949 occurred under heavy pressure from the Indian government. These issues were aggravated by economic alienation, as Partition severed Manipur from most natural trading links to the outside world, on the coast of modern-day Bangladesh. Violent Meitei insurgencies had emerged in Imphal and the surrounding valley areas by the late 1970s. Delhi responded with aggressive paramilitary campaigns backed by the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, which sanctioned the use of deadly force by central security forces against citizens “acting in contravention of any law or order.” The law has weakened the foundations of criminal justice in counterinsurgency operations in Manipur while also generating what many observers have called a “culture of impunity” extending into state security personnel as well.

This governing strategy has worked as ideological justifications for underground groups, as organizations fighting back against maltreatment by the Indian state. Like many other Northeastern insurgencies, the Manipur underground’s penchant for criminality has seriously weakened their legitimacy in recent years amongst large segments of Manipur’s population. But the insurgencies’ persistence and strength owes much to the fact that, for decades, they have found popular support on these grounds. The underground forces have declined in manpower over the past several decades, but the security establishment has fought aggressively against revisions to AFSPA. In late 2014, Home Minister Rajnath Singh ruled out revisions to AFSPA in the near future. Given the BJP’s assiduous courting of key security players, a change seems unlikely.

In the meantime, the insurgents, and their appointed state handlers, create major hassles for cross-border traders. Insurgents’ influence today follows partly from their use of violence. Fatalities in the state have declined substantially over the past several years, but the threat of violence still forces traders to invest time and money (and take personal risks) forging and reforging links with different players in the ever-shifting insurgent landscape. Strikes and blockades targeting NH-37 and NH-102 are another source of trouble. The most frequent instigators are the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), a Nagaland-based insurgency with a strong presence in the Naga-dominated hill districts of northern Manipur. The NSCN-IM uses these tactics to press for the integration these districts into “Greater Nagaland,” a vision fiercely opposed by the Imphal Valley-based Meiteis who form the majority of Manipur’s population. Calculations based on data from a 2014 Observer Research Foundation report by Subir Bhaumik indicate that, between 2004–2005 and 2011–2012, strikes and blockades shut down one of NH-102 or NH-37 for a cumulative average of 129 days annually. (Students associations and other civil society groups also carry out strikes and blockades, but such organizations are often themselves close collaborators with the insurgencies.)

Even when the roads are open, passengers and truckers along these roads contend with an extensive series of extortion checkpoints set up by the underground or army and police officials. Fieldwork presented in a recent thesis by Sanabam Gunjait Mangang of the University of Calcutta claims the existence of 20 such checkpoints along each of NH-37 and the Imphal-Moreh stretch of AH-1, as well as another 15 along NH-102 from Imphal to the city of Dimapur in Nagaland. Security officials use bribes and political connections to jockey for position along these routes, with Imphal-Moreh the most desirable, followed by Imphal-Dimapur. Insurgent extortion often occurs with the blessing, tacit or otherwise, of local officials.

As regards the impacts of corruption and insurgency on connectivity, the stakes for improvement are high. At Moreh today, the most powerful traders are businessmen from not India but Myanmar, selling Chinese and Southeast Asian goods. Dulali Nag’s 2010 report for the Calcutta Research Group describes how the Burmese military’s establishment of Namphalong market in the 1990s, right by the gate for headload trade on the border, undid the patterns of trade that had ruled Moreh since the early 1960s. Historically, imports into India were coordinated by Moreh-based Indian businessmen with diasporic connections in both Myanmar and India. But wholesale and retail customers now skip the middlemen at Moreh to purchase directly from Namphalong market, whose shops stock mostly Chinese and Southeast Asian goods – cheaper, and often of better quality, than their Indian counterparts across the border. More recent writings on Moreh confirm the persistence of these basic dynamics.

A major part of the blame for Indian goods’ price disadvantage lies with poor infrastructure and endemic extortion along the transit corridors running up through Moreh. The existing imbalance means that Indian goods will not gain competitive edges by steps that nibble around the edges of the connectivity deficit; such edges will follow only from major progress.

Manipur’s 2017 Elections: Hopes for Change?
Could a change in local government improve conditions for boosting cross-border trade? Congress’s Okram Ibobi Singh is enjoying his third term as Manipur’s chief minister, and his second at the head of a simple-majority Congress administration. His reputation for graft earned him the nickname “10 Percent Ibobi,” for the cuts he demanded from sundry projects; a number of people in Manipur joked with me that the nickname was outdated, his takes had increased. Singh’s long tenure owes also to good ties with the insurgencies and the local security establishment.

The next two strongest parties in the current legislature, the Trinamool Congress (seven seats) and the Naga People’s Front (four seats), pose no threat to Congress’s rule; neither have the capacity to be more than side players. Instead, the most likely challenger is Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, whose share in the legislature has never exceeded 10 percent. Its capacity suffered in the early 2000s under a ban in the Valley imposed by the Meitei underground, in retaliation for gestures by the BJP-led central government in 2001 that signaled (very) tentative acknowledgment of the NSCN-IM’s demand for Greater Nagaland. The BJP did not win seats in either 2007 or 2012, even as enforcement of the ban was already waning.

Nonetheless, most observers I spoke to in Manipur suggested that the BJP stands a real chance of forming a coalition government in the 2017 elections. State BJP figures have based their appeals on an anti-corruption message and on their association with Narendra Modi, whose message of development-based governance seems to have been met with cautious interest in the state. Such is their public message. But there is good reason to question whether a BJP-led administration would do much to change the politico-economic environment that constricts cross-border trade through Manipur. As regards the anti-graft platform, the state BJP leadership’s reputations are not necessarily much better than the targets of their criticism: reporting by Imphal-based journalist Yambem Laba, for instance, has raised questions about corruption by state BJP president Thounaojam Chaoba Singh. The leadership is also riven with infighting, a issue which helped derail the BJP’s efforts in the most recent legislative election in Manipur, a state legislature by-election in October 2014. A number of people I spoke to in Manipur suggested that the BJP may end up relying on efforts to convince sitting Congress legislators to switch parties in the months before the poll. Such a strategy, of course, involves inheriting many of the networks that make meaningful changes in the state’s role with the political economy of Manipur even more unlikely.

For these reasons, the significance of a BJP administration for Manipur may ultimately depend upon the sort of relationship it builds with the national BJP – that is, whether Modi and his party are content with just having another state in its pocket, or whether they see BJP control in Manipur as a tool for reshaping local governance. Still, even if Congress holds its majority, New Delhi has a powerful tool for shaping its behavior: money. The state government is helpless without central government transfers, which constituted 89 percent of state revenues from 2010-13. Central government monitoring of state government projects (and those of the Border Roads Organisation, a central government body) has long suffered on account of a combination of influences in Delhi: graft, indifference towards the Northeast, political deal-cutting. Focused leadership could weaken the hold of these influences and make space for heightened accountability.

Connectivity for Whom?
Modi’s signals on Act East have spurred cautious optimism among many of Manipur’s elites that the new prime minister is genuinely committed to boosting regional connectivity. But my interviews in Manipur pointed to a complementary pessimism over the significance of pro-connectivity initiatives for Manipuris. Many observers fear that the benefits of greater connectivity will accrue far more to mainland Indians than to Manipuris.

Manipur’s weak economic base is the main cause for concern. Manipur’s proximity to Myanmar gives its one edge in supplying goods for, or in attracting businesses with an interest in, cross-border markets. But even as that proximity becomes more valuable, the state’s weak economic performance points to a host of other factors that will discourage capital from locating here. Gross state domestic product in Manipur averaged 5.19 percent annual growth rates between 2004–05 and 2012–13, well below the all-India average of 7.96 percent. Average output growth in Manipur’s industrial sector (from 2005–06 to 2013–14) was especially weak: 1.69 percent, versus the national average of 6.87 percent. Union government statistics on state industrial sectors in 2007–08, taken against 2011 population figures, allow for rough calculations on per capita factory density in each state; Manipur is securely in the bottom quintile. The sector is heavily constrained by poor infrastructure, most dramatically in terms of power supply. Manipur’s electricity transmission and distribution loss in 2007–08 and 2008–09 hovered around 50 percent – only Jammu and Kashmir are worse. Meanwhile, agriculture, per 2008–09 state statistics, employs more than half of the state’s labor force. But a preponderance of small-holding subsistence farmers means that the state relies upon imports for a variety of essential foodstuffs. Commercially-minded growers in more vibrant sectors like horticulture are held back by basic infrastructure bottlenecks – for instance, a statewide absence of cold storage facilities. In terms of human capital, literacy rates in the state are strong: 79 percent as of 2011, as opposed to the all-India average of 73 percent. But the lack of economic opportunities restricts the development of what one might call commercial human capital—business acumen and experience.

Even in the border trade sector itself, Manipuris have traditionally been marginal players. Moreh has long facilitated small-scale exchange between locals, but the town has served an important node in larger trading networks ever since the early 1960s, when traders from mainland India’s oppressed diaspora in Myanmar settled here. Most significant were the Tamils, who had grown from just 200 in the early 1960s to 13,000 in 1980, though Marwari and Punjabi families also played an important role. The mainlanders’ reliance upon kinship ties made these networks inherently difficult for Manipuris to penetrate. Manipuris also suffered from a lack of commercial human capital; the state had no tradition of capitalist commerce or of large-scale trading, and its economic isolation in post-Partition India had exacerbated these deficits.

In the past two decades, mainland Indian populations have declined significantly, and Nag says that Namphalong’s emergence has boosted the position of aspirant Meitei traders, who can leverage their diasporic links in Myanmar. But my interviewees suggested that any inroads by the Meiteis should not be exaggerated, and that, in regards to formal and informal trade coordinated from the Indian side, mainland India communities are still far more powerful. Instead, the Manipuris most effectively integrated into the local political economy of trade are largely those in the insurgencies and in army or state government positions, via highway extortion, graft, and illegal trade.

Left unresolved, the state’s weak economic base will restrict avenues for Manipuris to take advantage of the opportunities that stronger connectivity brings. My interviews suggested that some sectors are in relatively better positions – niche ones like medical tourism from northern Myanmar, and also potentially broader ones like horticulture, mentioned above, and standard-issue tourism. (Elevated investment in tourism has run into trouble with the sudden cancellation of the 2007 North East Industrial and Investment Policy and its investment incentives; but New Delhi assures that the cancellation is only temporary.) The best-case scenario would see such sectors survive the state’s formidable deficits in infrastructure and law and order to lay a foundation for a more competitive economy. Judicious central government engagement here will be essential: targeted infrastructure funding, steady incentives for investment, and somehow, some way, improved mechanisms of accountability.

Connectivity may not deliver much for Manipur without concurrent improvements in the state’s economic base. But local development will also be a boon for connectivity, by weakening the nexus of corruption and insurgency outlined above. With the underground’s ideological underpinnings corroding, their strength rests more and more upon their ability to offer Manipur’s youth access to income amidst a bleak local economy. Meanwhile, local underdevelopment boosts corruption’s hold on the local economy: Almost all large-scale investment in the state, and hence almost all opportunities for accumulating wealth, comes through public expenditure.

Connectivity: Why Manipur Matters
The place of Manipur within Indo-Myanmar connectivity represents a serious test for Modi’s government – of its ability to impose its agenda, and of its sensitivity to local concerns. Stronger connectivity requires major infrastructure initiatives: In one of India’s most corrupt states, can rails and roads be done right? Stronger connectivity also requires recognition of the development needs of Manipuris: To what extent will such issues feature on Modi’s connectivity agenda?

The Indian government, in policy design and implementation, does not have a sterling record on these questions. And its leverage is greater over some bodies than others. But only the central government has the combination of resources and responsibilities to coordinate between, and try to shape the behavior of, the various players of Manipur’s political economy – interest groups in the central government itself, state authorities, the security establishment, and local underground and civil society players. Success in these efforts would demand special persistence and focus from Modi and his team, and from those who follow them. But the benefits could be enormous: a more stable and prosperous Manipur, emerging overland trade corridors to ASEAN, and new diplomatic leverage in East and Southeast Asia for other priorities. That is truly Acting East.

Edmund Downie is a Yale University Gordon Grand Fellow at the Calcutta-based Centre for Studies in International Relations and Development, studying Indian regional integration with East and Southeast Asia.
25 February 2015

Indefinite Total Bandh in Mizoram To Demand Better Roads

Aizawl, Feb 25 : An indefinite total bandh began in southern Mizoram’s Lai Autonomous District on Tuesday as the Young Lai Association demands better roads and better electricity in the region.

The YLA’s total bandh is to demand better roads from Lunglei district, the main thoroughfare to the Lai district from Mizoram capital Aizawl, and to force the government to re-route a planned new highway through the district’s capital Lawngtlai. The current plans for the road will bypass the town.

The YLA is also demanding an Executive Engineer’s post be sanctioned for the district in the Power and Electricity department.

32 Congress Candidates Elected Unopposed in Village Council Polls

Aizawl, Feb 25 : Thirty-two Congress candidates have been declared elected unopposed to six village councils in Mizoram’s Chakma Autonomous District as the district readies to face rural body polls for 71 other rural bodies on Wednesday.

The BJP, for the first time, has fielded more candidates than state parties: the national party has little of a base to speak of in Mizoram where it has never won a single seat in any election, but this one appears to mark a watershed in its operations, albeit in an area dominated by a minority.

A statement by the State Election Commission said on Tuesday that 32 Congress candidates did not face any competing candidates in six village council areas and have therefore been declared elected unopposed.

The SEC also gave the figures of each competing party’s candidates – 480 for Congress, 187 for BJP, 148 independents and 108 for the Mizo National Front. Neither the Mizoram People’s Conference nor the Zoram Nationalist Party have fielded candidate for the 481 seats up for grabs in the rural polls.

The Chakma areas of southern Mizoram have been a traditional Congress stronghold, but the BJP has this year attempted to make inroads in the region. It has recently welcomed several veteran politicians from both the Congress and MNF into its fold.

How does Bangladesh figure in India's Look East Policy?

By Wahiduddin Mahmud
India is looking for new economic frontiers in the East. In the face of continuing stalemate of WTO negotiations, countries are looking for alternative or parallel arrangements. The past decade has seen the flourishing of many such initiatives. As an emerging global economic powerhouse, India would obviously not like to be left behind.

There is the American-led 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in which neither India nor China plays any part; but both the countries as well as Japan are involved in the ASEAN-led 16-country parallel initiative called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECEP). The outcome of these initiatives will depend on factors that go much beyond the nuts and bolts of trade into the realm of geopolitics.  It thus makes sense that India is looking for alternative routes to link with the ASEAN, which is currently the focus of India's so-called Look East policy.

But while pursuing the big ideas of economic partnerships, it would be a folly for India to lose sight of what can be achieved nearer at home. To start with, one could argue that India's Look East policy needs to look first within its own borders, so that its east and north-eastern parts can both be a vehicle and a beneficiary of the policy. Connectivity and economic integration with Bangladesh becomes important in that context. Consider this fact: most of the 30 border districts of Bangladesh – out of a total of 64 districts -- are among the most economically disadvantaged areas of the country. The Indian districts bordering Bangladesh are similarly lagging behind. Clearly, the cross-border economic synergies due to geographical proximity are not being fully exploited.

The potential of turning geography to economic advantage is obvious. This sub-region provides the land corridors for connecting India to East Asia, such as through the proposed trans-Asian road and train links. But beyond that, the connectivity is also important for providing access to seaports. The hinterland of Kolkata and Chittagong ports can extend beyond Nepal, Bhutan and the seven sister states of northeast India to large parts of inland China. As China's manufactures move inward, it is exploring backdoor routes, such as reviving the old Silk Route and looking for new ones. That is why Bangladesh in particular would like to see the success of the initiative called BCIM-EC, the acronym for Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar economic corridor.

There has been much talk about transit facilities for Indian goods through Bangladesh. The issue has been narrowly focused in terms of transit of goods only and not as part of sub-regional economic integration through which a number of things can happen. For example, supply chains can be developed to use the resources of the Indian north-eastern states by setting up labour-intensive processing industries in Bangladesh – say, by Indian investors – and exporting the products worldwide through Chittagong port or to the rest of India. These may not be as big ideas as India's current Look East policy in terms of priority of the Indian policymakers at the centre; but the potential economic dividends can be high for Bangladesh and the North-eastern states of Bangladesh.

The sub-regional integration can also benefit Kolkata –a city that has not clearly lived up to its full economic potential, mainly because of its remoteness from the major Indian economic hubs.
For the same reasons, the South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) comprising Bangladesh, eastern India, Bhutan, and Nepal deserves more attention and should be part of India's Look East policy. The region, compared to SAARC, enjoys geographical proximity, economic complementarities, and socio-cultural similarities favouring greater economic integration. Previous studies have concluded that power trading within the SAGQ sub-region would confer major benefits on all four countries.

Realising that potential of economic integration will need huge investments in infrastructure. Scarcity of land in Bangladesh and the governance problem of implementing large projects are additional hurdles.  The newly created Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated by China has immense developmental promise for infrastructure development in Asia, particularly by bringing together the two Asian giants, China and India, and by providing China an institutional mechanism to deploy its large pool of accumulated reserves.

The main economic logic of India's Look East policy lies in the fact that South Asia generally has been left behind in the race to integrate into global supply chains, which is a particularly dynamic segment of world trade. India has seen an upsurge of its trade with some of the south-east Asian countries after it implemented the free-trade agreement with the ASEAN in 2010. The question remains whether there will be similar enthusiasm in India for fostering comprehensive regional economic integration with its immediate north-eastern neighbours.

The writer is Chairman, South Asia Network of Economic Research Institutes.
(Extracts from the speech delivered at the “Kolkata Dialogue” of the Look East Economic Summit organised by Indian Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata, January 9, 2015.)

FCI To Engage Private Players For Procurement in The Northeast India

States in the region told to prepare road map to take a final call, sustainable policy support needed to make operation viable
By Dilip Kumar Jha

Mumbai, Feb 25 : Faced with insufficient storage facility, the government might engage private warehouses for foodgrains procurement in north-eastern states either independently or on behalf of state agencies.

Acting on the recommendations of the high-level committee (HLC) of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), chairman C Viswanath convened a meeting of state secretaries of the north-eastern states and a couple of private players in the warehousing sector on February 17. In the meeting, they were asked to draw a road map on how to reach out to farmers for foodgrain procurement to prevent distress sale. The state governments are to give their plan to FCI by Wednesday.

According to sources, state secretaries were convinced enough on the need to engage private warehouses to commence minimum support price (MSP) operations (to buy foodgrains at MSP), considering the inadequate storage facility of FCI and state governments in the region, which produces 40 per cent of India’s foodgrains. Private players also presented their plans.

“West Bengal would welcome private players to increase the reach of benefits of MSP to the small and marginal farmers,” said state principal secretary (food), Anil Verma.


Most large farmers in the north-eastern regions, including a part of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Odisha execute distress sale at the time of harvesting foodgrains, resulting into the middlemen building stocks when prices are low to sell on highs, thus, creating price arbitrage.

“We have some instances of distress sell in this region. However, agriculture being a state subject, the onus lies with the state governments to engage private-sector warehouses to start MSP operations on their behalf. We do not have any problem if state governments engage private players. In case private players are engaged, they will be allowed only for procurement. Transportation and distribution to the public distribution system will be controlled by respective states,” said an FCI official.

Since FCI does not have adequate storage facility, the public-sector foodgrains procurement agency does not execute any MSP operations on its own, thereby leaving no options for farmers to sell their produce. Only one crop is grown in most fields in the region due to lack of irrigation system against three crops in other agriculture-centric states. Hence, the region holds immense potential for further growth in foodgrains.

“The eastern states have a huge potential for procurement of foodgrains. That is one region that can trigger a second green revolution,” said former Agricultural Costs and Prices head Ashok Gulati, a member of the HLC formed in August last year to resolve its functional inefficiencies.

Private-sector warehouses have been active in this region for the past several years, holding massive stocks of foodgrains on behalf of their corporate or bank clients. They have proved to be cost-efficient, too.

“We suggested that the private sector could work as an agent of FCI without compromising on providing MSP to the farmers and preserving the quality of the grain. We have emphasised on the need to identify and select only credible private-sector players who would agree to make payments to farmers on account payee cheques /online transfer and who have good corporate governance practices and past experience. The agency should be selected geography-wise in a competitive transparent framework. This can cut down transport costs, provide MSP to farmers in the unserved areas and introduce efficiencies along the entire food value chain. In the poorly-served states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Jharkhand, private-sector warehouses can play a very important role,” said Sanjay Kaul, managing director and chief executive officer, National Collateral Management Services.

For sustainable procurement, however, the government should draw a long-term road map and allow private players at least for four years to make operation viable, Kaul noted.

MUTUAL BENEFITS
  • The north-eastern region produces 40 per cent of India’s foodgrains
     
  • The FCI and the state governments are faced with inadequate storage facility there
     
  • To tackle this insufficiency, government might engage private warehouses for foodgrains procurement, either independently or on behalf of state agencies
     
  • Most farmers in the north-eastern regions execute distress sale at the time of harvesting foodgrains
     
  • This results in the middlemen building stocks when prices are low to sell on highs, thus, creating price arbitrage
     
  • FCI conducted a meeting with state secretaries and private players and asked them to draw a road map on how to reach out to farmers for foodgrain procurement to prevent them from distress sale
24 February 2015

Mizoram Rural Polls: 10% Lesser Voters

By Adam Halliday

Aizawl, Feb 24 : In less than two months, Mizoram will face rural body polls that are unprecedented in several ways; the new bodies will have an extended term of five years while seats will be reserved for women for the first time in such elections. However, the more unusual thing is that the number of voters has decreased by a remarkable 10 percent.

As the State Election Commission initiated a mass review of the electoral rolls for village council election and released new rolls this month, it was found that there are 10 percent lesser voters compared to the 2012 polls.

“Earlier the Village Council seats were allotted based on the number of households in each village. The figures would be drawn up by Circle Assistants after consultation with the VCs. Apparently they would not only quote the higher number of households, but also make some young adults eligible voters without cross-checking their ages whenever villagers said they had reached 18,” said H Darzika, SEC secretary.

The new VC rolls have been based on the latest electoral rolls of the Election Commission of India, which was updated on January 1, 2015.

For example, in eastern Champhai town, one VC area with just 70-odd households was marked as having 200. In Aibawk, a village just 30 kms south of  the state capital Aizawl, the old VC rolls had 1053 voters while the ECI rolls had just 950. In Kolasib town, in the north, the VC rolls had 3000 more voters than the ECI’s rolls.

Swine Flu Cases Cross 14,000, 832 Deaths Reported

India reported 20 swine flu (H1N1 virus) deaths on Sunday, taking the death toll to 832 even as the number of cases crossed 14,000.

On Saturday, 38 deaths were reported, the highest number of swine flu deaths in a single day this year.

In 2014, India had 937 swine flu cases and 218 deaths.

This year, Rajasthan is the worst hit, with more than 4,000 cases and 200 deaths have been reported.

Delhi and Gujarat have had more than 2,000 cases each in less than two months.

The Drug Controller General of India G N Singh has directed all states to set up a ‘Swine flu drugs availability monitoring cell’ with a designated officer to monitor there are no drug and vaccine shortages even as some states like Kashmir reported vaccine shortages.

All chemists have also been asked to prominently display availability of medicines.

Experts maintain that H1N1 virus is no more deadlier than last year cases and deaths are being reported simply because more people getting tested and diagnosed. Most deaths are among people over 40 years.

While infection appears to be waning in Telangana, new states such as Jammu and Kashmir are reporting cases.

Kashmir
With one more H1N1 virus infected patient dying on Sunday night, the total number of swine flu deaths in Jammu and Kashmir rose to six on Monday while the number of infected people went up to 120.

"One more H1N1 infected patient died yesterday (Sunday)," Parvaiz Koul, pulmonary disease specialist at the super-specialty Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, where eight people are currently being treated.

"We have provided sufficient medicines and preventive advisories to the families of patients being treated at home, which include using a face mask and washing hands and cleaning surfaces frequently," he added. "The most important precaution is to avoid social and religious gatherings during these days.”

Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh, which has reported 280 cases and six deaths since January 1, has enough medicines in stock, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan informed the State Assembly on Monday.

State capital Lucknow is the worst hit, reporting 228 of the 280 cases from across the state. "There is no need to panic due to swine flu. Those who are saying hundreds have died due to disease are wrong. We have made all the arrangements to deal with it and have sufficient amount of medicines,” said Khan.

The minister said this after the swine flu issue was raised on the assembly floor by BJP suresh Suresh Kumar Khanna ,as the House met, who demanded a statement from the government on rising cases of the virus in the state.
         
West Bengal
Five persons have succumbed to swine flu in West Bengal, with 67 testing positive for it, state Minister for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya told the state Assembly today.

The minister said there is no shortage of medicines and testing kits at hospitals to tackle the spread of the H1N1 virus.

The health department is taking all necessary steps to control the spread of the disease and trying to spread awareness, she said, adding that the virus is not being spread through swine but through the air.

Mizoram
Mizoram has started swine-flu screening and testing all passengers arriving at Lengpui Airport after a woman arriving from Delhi tested positive on February 13.

All passengers arriving with cough and fever are being tested. Mizoram has had one swine flu case and no deaths.
The state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme's Nodal Officer Pachuau Lalmalsawma said the screening was being conducted after obtaining permission from the Aviation department.

The IDSP officials will also start the screening people arriving in the state at the Mizoram-Assam border Vairengte town soon.

Am isolation ward to treat infection has been created at the Referral Hospital at Falkawn village near Aizawl and a special laboratory for testing has been set up at the Aizawl Civil Hospital.

India, Indonesian Troops Hunt For Insurgents in Mizoram


Sharing experiences in conduct of counter-terrorism and insurgency operations, troops of India and Indonesia participated in joint army exercises in Mizoram.

The exercise was aimed at building and promoting positive military-to-military relations between the armies of the two nations, defence officials said.

Exercise 'GARUDA SHAKTI-III' is the third one in the ongoing series of joint exercises between armies of India and Indonesia. Conducted for a period of 12 days, it ended on Saturday at the Counter Insurgency and JungleWarfareSchool in Mizoram's Vairengte.


The scope of the exercise included sharing experiences in counter terrorism and conduct of joint counter insurgency training at platoon level to neutralise terror threats.

The Indian Army was represented by troops from an Indian Infantry Battalion and Special Forces unit while personnel from 432 Battalion Kostrad Infantry (Airborne) and Gp I & Gp II of the Special Forces represented the Indonesian contingent.


The joint training was aimed at enhancing knowledge of each other's military experience, skills and techniques and thereby enhancing the aspect of interoperability and responsiveness to a common threat in the future, an army official said.

Scheduled Tribe Status To More Assam Communities Likely

By MANOJ ANAND

It is significant that 26 adivasi communities, which are going to be included in the schedule list of Assam, have Scheduled Tribe status in their respective place of origin. (Photo: PTI)
It is significant that 26 adivasi communities, which are going to be included in the schedule list of Assam, have Scheduled Tribe status in their respective place of origin. (Photo: PTI)
Guwahati, Feb 24 : In what may change course of politics in Assam, the ministry of home affairs is set to recommend tribal status for at least 26 communities of adivsis, like Munda, Oraon, Santhal and other tribals of Jaharkhand origin, mostly associated with the tea plantation industry of Assam.

Pointing out that 97 communities are listed as tea tribes in the state, authoritative security sources in the home ministry told this newspaper that most of them are listed as Other Backward Class (OBC) at their respective place of origin so all in the list of tea tribes of Assam can’t be granted ST status.

Disclosing that Cabinet memorandum has already been prepared to include 26 adivsis in the schedule list of Assam, authoritative security sources said that the ministry has also forwarded the report of a parliamentary committee in 2002 to the tribal affairs ministry which proposed to include tribal groups — Tai Ahom, Moran, Motok, Koch-Rajbongshis, and Chutia with adivsis in the schedule list.

It is significant that 26 adivasi communities, which are going to be included in the schedule list of Assam, have Scheduled Tribe status in their respective place of origin. The adivasis, which is known as tea tribes in Assam, comprising present and past plantation workers, have an estimated population of more than 60 lakhs in Assam.

However, due to sizeable presence of OBC workers in the tea-tribe community, the Adivasis of Jharkhand origin were deprived of getting the ST status which they have been accorded at their respective states of origin.

Clarifying that a parliamentary committee in 2002 had recommended the inclusion of these communities in the schedule list of Assam, security sources said that home ministry has already started the process.

6 Mouth-Watering Recipes From Northeast India

By Soma Das

The award-winning book, The Seven Sisters — Kitchen Tales from the North East, offers ample insight into the culinary traditions of India's north east region. We have picked up some recipes from the book for our readers

Mary's Chicken Soup for the Soul
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 kg chicken, cut into small pieces
2 tbsp slivered ginger
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 green chilli, kept whole (optional)
1 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
To garnish
A few sprigs of fresh coriander (optional)
Method
Wash the chicken and set aside.
Pour enough water into a pan to cover the chicken and bring to a boil on high heat.

Put in the chicken pieces, ginger, garlic and green chilli.
Add the turmeric powder and salt and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, till the chicken is tender and the soup is slightly thick. 

Add a few fresh coriander sprigs as garnish (optional).
> Serve hot by itself or with steamed rice.
 
Iromba


Ingredients
1 large potato, cut into cubes
100 gm cabbage leaves, shredded
100 gm French beans, trimmed, cut into 1” pieces
50 gm oyster mushrooms (optional)
1 tbsp + 1 tbsp mustard oil
50 gm dried prawns or dried fish
3-4 dried red chillies
1 large onion, minced
Salt to taste
To garnish
A few fresh coriander sprigs, chopped
1 small onion, cut into rings
Method
Put the potato, cabbage leaves, French beans and mushrooms in a pan. Pour in just enough water to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil on high heat. Continue to boil, till the vegetables are cooked. Remove from heat and drain. Set aside.• Heat 1 tbsp of mustard oil in a small pan and gently fry the dried seafood. Remove from heat and set aside.
Roast the red chillies in a dry tava or griddle on low-moderate heat, till fragrant.
Grind the chillies with the salt to make a fine powder.
Heat 1 tbsp of mustard oil in another pan. Sauté the minced onion on moderate heat, till crisp and brown.
Crush the onion and add it to the chilli-salt mix with a little water. Add this to the vegetables with the fried seafood.
Mix gently and heat through.
Garnish with the coriander sprigs and onion rings.
Serve hot with steamed rice.

Hot Chicken and Mushroom Steamed with Bamboo Shoot


Ingredients
5-6 dried red chillies
1 kg chicken, cut into small pieces
3 tbsp bamboo shoot (fresh or dried)
½ tsp North Eastern or Szechuan pepper, crushed
1 tsp red chilli powder
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp ajinomoto (optional)
250 gm green beans, trimmed (optional), cut into 2” pieces
200 gm mushrooms, sliced
2 bunches bok choy, washed, leaves separated (optional)
Salt to taste
Method
> Boil the red chillies in 1 cup of water in a small pan on high heat, till they are soft. Drain the excess water and crush the boiled chillies in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
> Put the chicken in another pan and pour in just enough water to cover. Boil the chicken on high heat, till tender.
> Add the bamboo shoot, pepper, chilli powder, garlic and the reserved red chilli paste and cook on low heat, till all the Ingredients are well mixed.
> Stir in the salt and add ajinomoto for that extra dash of flavour.
> Next, add the beans, mushrooms and bok choy and cook, till the vegetables are tender, but crisp. Keep adding a little water intermittently so that the mixture is not completely dry.
> The chicken should have a fiery red colour. Serve hot.

Spicy Ginger Chicken

Serves 4-5
Ingredients
1 kg chicken, boned, roughly shredded
1½” piece ginger, roughly chopped
8 green chillies, roughly chopped
Salt to taste
To garnish
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped (optional)
Method
> Put the shredded chicken in a large wok on low heat. Let the chicken cook in its natural juices. Cover the wok periodically to let enough steam generate so that the chicken is cooked evenly. Stir occasionally.
> Add salt and let the excess water dry out.
> Meanwhile, pound the ginger and green chillies in a mortar and pestle till the ginger fibres separate. The mixture should be somewhat coarse.
> Add the ginger-chilli mix to the chicken and cook for 5 minutes or so.
> Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves (optional).
> Serve hot or cold.

Brenga Chicken steamed in Bamboo


Serves 4-5
Ingredients
1 kg chicken (or 4 small chicks)
2 large onions, finely minced
2” piece ginger, finely shredded
5-6 green chillies (preferably aaba chillies from Meghalaya), minced
1 tbsp mustard oil
1 fresh bamboo tube, about 10” long, 3” in diameter
Wholewheat dough, for sealing
Salt to taste
Method
> Clean the chicken and remove the bones. Cut the flesh into very small pieces and smash with a fork to make a coarse mince.
> Add the onions, ginger and green chillies to the chicken. Mix in the salt.
> Pour the mustard oil all over the mix and knead thoroughly with your hand.
> Stuff the chicken mix into the bamboo tube and seal the opening with the dough. Put the bamboo tube on a gentle wood or coal fire and roast for about 30 minutes.
> Serve hot.

Arsa Beipenek Spicy Chicken Stew from the Hmar Tribe


Serves 4-5
Ingredients
1” piece ginger, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
4 medium-sized onions, finely minced
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 kg chicken, cut into small pieces
10 dried red chillies, kept whole (bird’s eye chilli is used in Mizoram)
4 tbsp mustard oil
3 heaped tbsp wholewheat flour
A few leaves of bahkhawr (wild cilantro/fit-weed), optional
Salt to taste
Method
Mix the ginger, garlic, onions, turmeric powder and salt in a bowl and rub it into the chicken. Mix in the red chillies.
Heat the mustard oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, put in the marinated chicken and fry on moderate heat till brown.
Pour in enough water to cover the chicken and cook, till the chicken is tender.
Next, make a thick paste of wholewheat flour and a little water and stir it into the chicken, ensuring that no lumps are formed.
Add the bakhor leaves (optional) or fresh coriander and cook for a few minutes. 
Serve hot with steamed rice or toasted garlic bread.

Note: You can add a fistful of shredded mustard leaves/ string beans when the stew starts to boilMizoramBakhorBakhor or fit-weed, also known as spirit weed, as the name suggests is used to calm a person’s spirit. Its regular usage is said to counter epileptic fits.
23 February 2015

Passengers To Be Screened For Swine Flu at Mizoram's Airport

Aizawl, Feb 23 : Passengers at Mizoram's lone Lengpui Airport near here will be screened to ensure detection of people infected with swine flu.

The state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme's Nodal Officer Pachuau Lalmalsawma said the screening was being conducted after obtaining permission from the Aviation department.

The lone case of swine flu infection was detected on February 13 in a woman arriving from Delhi but she is now completely cured, Lalmalsawma said, adding that samples of four people have been tested so far and only one person was found to be positive till date.

The IDSP officials would also undertake screening of people arriving from outside the state at the Mizoram-Assam border Vairengte town soon.

At the Referral Hospital at Falkawn village near Aizawl, an isolation ward has been prepared to treat any swine flu patients while special laboratory was arranged at the Aizawl Civil Hospital.

Zomi tribes celebrate ‘national day’ in Manipur

Imphal, Feb 23 : The Zomi tribes on Friday celebrated their 67th 'Zomi Nam Ni' (Zomi National Day)-cum-Mithun Festival at Churachandpur district headquarters with pomp and gaiety.

Music and dance performances by various tribes lightened up the festive atmosphere and amid all the din and bustle the political leaders pledged to maintain peace and unity. This year's theme was "Marching forward in Unity".

Zomi tribes from Myanmar, Mizoram and New Zealand also participated in the event. The tribe can be found in 35 countries. The Zo ethnic group comprises Chin, Kuki, Mizo, Lushai and Kachin, according to the community elders.

Former chief minister and veteran politician Rishang Keishing (96) was the chief guest. He appealed to all the communities co-existing in the state to set aside their narrow interests and join hands for a better Manipur.

Keishing, who served 33 years as legislature and 22 years as MP, expressed dissatisfaction over the internal conflicts that have earned a bad repute for the state.

People should not forget that the hills should be brought on a par with valley in terms of development to maintain peace and harmony in Manipur, Keishing said.

Kuki National Organization (KNO) president P S Haokipw urged the state people to harbour a fellow feeling among themselves. KNO is an umbrella body of 17 Kuki militant groups which are signatories of the Suspension of Operation (Soo) with the government.

"I am pleased to say that the vision of unity is not confined to our people in Manipur, but extends to our fellow Mizo, Chin, Kachin, Konyak, Khimnungan, Zeliangrong, Karbi, Heimi, Para, Makury , Lainao, Naow and Nahen people," Haokip said. "We share a common past, customs, culture and tradition that bind us despite international boundaries that physically separate us," he said.

Mizoram Schools To Begin Classes Early, MSU Protest

Aizawl, Feb 23 : Schools across Mizoram will begin classes at 8 a.m. from the next academic session beginning April to avail daylight savings, an official said here Saturday.

The classes used to earlier begin at 11 a.m.

“Starting classes from 8 a.m. in schools up to higher secondary level was decided at a cabinet meeting earlier this week. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla,” a school education department official said.

The Mizo Students Federation (MSF) greeted the government decision while Mizo Students Union opposed it arguing that it would be too early for young students and would disturb the daily activities of not only young students but also the entire society.

The MSF in a statement expressed satisfaction over the government decision saying that the people in general and students in particular in Mizoram would wake up early and help avail daylight savings to perform both educational, sports, social, official and non-officials works.

The day breaks early in the northeast region with the sun normally up at least an hour to 90 minutes ahead of other parts in India.

There was a long pending demand in the northeast region to create a separate time zone to avail the scope of daylight savings.

Mizoram has around 5,500 primary and higher secondary schools with about 306,000 students.

MSU strongly opposes change in school timing


Even as the State Government Cabinet Meeting has approved the agenda of shifting school timing earlier than the present timing, Mizo Students’ Union has voiced its strong disapproval of the move for change in school timing, decided to be used from 2015–2016 School academic session.

As per the state government decision, the schools across the state would begin at 8 a.m. and ends by 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. for Primary, Middle, and Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools respectively. The students’ body comes up with a press statement in which it stated that it is quite regretful that the Mizoram government has brought an abrupt change in the school timing without carrying out comprehensive study and without proper preparation.It mentioned in its statement that the origin of the idea behind shifting of school timing is not for improvement in education but to ease traffic problem in Aizawl; the first meeting in this regard was held on 2012 September 24 by Co ordination committee on traffic management.

“It is inappropriate that the people across Mizoram would suffer with the change in school timing just because of a move to ease traffic congestion in Aizawl. This is a big contempt of democracy”, MSU stated. It also quoted National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) National Curriculum Framework 2005 Chapter 5 which says ‘…the timings of school day could be decided at school level, in consultation with local panchayat”.

MSU also made the point that it would create big trouble in rural areas where students commute between their village and neighboring villages for schooling.

It also said that the present school timing is suitable to the climate of Mizoram such that it can be used throughout the year without any need to change in summer and winter too. MSU also said that the state government making a decision in disrespect of the opinion of parents of the students and in spite of knowing the fact that it would not help improve Mizoram education but create trouble to each family, is subjugation and downgrading of the people who elected them to power. It pointed out that even the result of survey conducted by School Education department also shows that 85% of parents of students across the state want the present school timing, adding, this shows that not only MSU but the people of Mizoram want to follow the present school timing, asking the government to take note of it.

Writing of its opinion, MSU said that the present school timing is good enough for the school children of today and in consideration of the present Mizo society and culture. Moreover, While in other states/countries, even for a little change in the system of education, an ‘expert committees’ are formed, bringing a change to school timing without comprehensive study and proper suggestions is really disheartening, MSU said.

The Big Picture: Mizoram gets into the spirit

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Liquor prohibited People queue up for application forms to get liquor cards at excise office in Aizawl.
By Adam Halliday
From bootleggers to Church, vigilantes to youths, and government to opposition, the battle lines are still drawn a week before prohibition ends and liquor sales begin in the state. The longest lines, however, are for permits to buy alcohol, finds Adam Halliday.

A middle-aged widow who has for years sold bootlegged rum at roughly twice the original price sat at a friend’s grocery shop in an Aizawl neighbourhood and contemplated if she should start a new line of business.

With total prohibition ending and liquor outlets set to open March 2 across Mizoram, she reckoned, bootlegged alcohol would be profitable no more, certainly not enough to feed her family, including a son and daughter and an infant grandson.

Every Sunday for the past two months, she has been running a small food stall on the pavement near her home. Two weeks ago, she also started hawking second-hand clothes near it.

She still bootlegs, of course, and every hour or so young men on motorcycles drive up to the main road near her basement dwelling to quickly pick up a bottle or two — McDowell’s No.1 rum from Meghalaya for Rs 500, that from Assam for Rs 400 (original price around Rs 150) — and stash it in their bags before zooming off.

Those convicted under new law doing community service as punishment. Those convicted under new law doing community service as punishment.
One night, as a group of four young men emerged from the steps leading down to the dwelling, a man sitting at a nearby shop grinned, “You guys willing to be frisked?”. The four smiled sheepishly, as one of them put a finger to his lips and said “Shhh!”.

The end of two decades of prohibition may be something to say cheers about for many in Mizoram, but not for the hundreds of bootleggers who eked out a living from it, including many women.

Equally vocal about their “dread” are thousands of parents, devoted Christians and community leaders, who fear the open availability of alcohol will do more harm than good.

Biaka Fanai, 18, is one of those not yet eligible to drink (the legal drinking age has been set at 21), but he foresees what’s in store for his peers. “For those who drink, it’s good because it’ll mean they will get booze cheaper. But it’s definitely going to make people my age drink heavily,” he warns.

Fanai explains why. “See, a lot of people my age are too proud to drink indigenous fermented rice beer, and anyway you need to drive down to the outskirts for that, and we usually don’t have vehicles of our own. A bottle of rum or whiskey is available for Rs 500 or more at some bootlegger’s place inside the city. But people my age are almost always broke. So if five guys want to share a bottle, they have to pool in about Rs 100 each. Once the outlets open, then the price will come to Rs 150 or Rs 200. So that’s just Rs 30 per head.”

What about the age limit? “Like that’s going to actually work,” he scoffs.
Upmarket Aijal Club that is the only one allowed to open a members-only bar. No permits have been issued yet to bars, only wine-shops. Upmarket Aijal Club that is the only one allowed to open a members-only bar. No permits have been issued yet to bars, only wine-shops.
It was just before the 2013 state elections that Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla spun the bottle. In a television talk show, he was asked bluntly by the interviewer if his government, if voted back to power, would lift prohibition. “We will review it keeping in mind what it has done for society,” he replied.

In the months that followed, more and more government leaders began talking about introducing a new law. Alcohol dominated conversations and debates through much of Mizoram.

The government argued that studies had shown that prohibition had failed completely and the number of people getting admitted in hospital due to alcohol-related causes had increased because of large-scale consumption of spurious liquor.

Come June 23, 2014, the Act was brought to the Assembly floor for a debate. On July 10, people across the state stayed glued to their television sets to watch live proceedings of one of the lengthiest debates on a single issue in recent memory, lasting almost seven hours.

Revellers at Chapchar Kut (the traditional Mizo festival that falls in March) sneaking a few pegs near the venue in Aizawl. Revellers at Chapchar Kut (the traditional Mizo festival that falls in March) sneaking a few pegs near the venue in Aizawl.
Finally, when a few minutes after 5 pm, the misleadingly titled Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) Bill was passed, one policeman on duty near the Assembly building shook hands with friends and said, “I don’t drink much, I hardly drink at all. But finally we will be able to get some good stuff when we do feel like it. It’s good.”

Soon the rules accompanying the new law were revealed. It would rely heavily on permits, including for buying alcohol, and also involve fines and jail terms for a number of offences. Liquor card holders would be allowed no more than six bottles of strong liquor and 10 each of beer and wine every month.

The punishment for breaking the law, varying from five days in jail to five years, would be longest for offences such as drink driving, causing ‘nuisance’ and drinking in public places — although magistrates have been provided amnesty powers to commute both fines and offences to community work.

Most importantly, the new law would empower citizens to arrest offenders provided they were handed over to police or excise and narcotics officials.

On January 15, the new law came into force, oddly more than one and a half months before liquor was slated to be legally available in the state and before any permit had been issued.

Since then, an estimated 40,000 people have applied for permits to have alcohol in the state.

The applicants admit the process is cumbersome, but add that they are just happy to finally be allowed to drink legally. They are required to submit a bank challan of Rs 520 each with their application forms, and once they have braved the bank queues for it, submit the same after lining up once more. The long wait for the liquor cards starts after that, with their distribution yet to start. Even withdrawal of the form invites a fee of Rs 20.

Doing the math, that’s roughly Rs 2 crore or more in government coffers already, just from the issue of permits, not a bad start given the government hopes to rake in Rs 30 crore every year from the restricted sale of alcohol. That amount would roughly equal the Excise Department’s entire earnings in fines from those who broke the law in the two decades of prohibition.

In addition, bonded warehouses that will bring in alcohol from outside and store it before it is sent to outlets have to pay Rs 1 lakh each per year to the government. There will be two such warehouses to begin with, and the contracts have gone to the family business of Cabinet minister Zodintluanga and the firm of former Congress minister S Hiato’s son.

The Cabinet minister incidentally had been the first one to support the new law during the Assembly debate.

The other major source of revenue for the government would be the licence fee collected from vendors, of Rs 50,000 each per annum. Only state PSUs (none of which has made profits in the recent past) and the ex-servicemen’s association are being allowed to run outlets, apart from the upmarket Aijal Club that has got permission to run a bar exclusively for members.

Every brand has to pay a fee to be allowed to be sold in the state. At least five liquor companies have already been approved to carry on operations.

For example, Pernod Ricard will pay the government Rs 10,000 per annum to sell its Seagram’s Royal Stag brand in Mizoram (where it is one of the most bootlegged whiskey brands), while it will have to pay an additional Rs 15,000 per year for the mono-carton each bottle comes in.

The Excise Commissionerate in Aizawl’s Tuikual locality is abuzz these days. On the top floor, a team of officials is busy applying the department’s official seal on thousands of freshly-printed, fake-leather-bound liquor cards. These are about the size of passports, containing pages where the date and number of bottles purchased are to be marked.

An official hurries down to the office of a senior colleague and asks where more seals can be found.
The senior official, who is showing guests some sample bottles by wine and whiskey makers who have applied for a licence to sell in Mizoram, looks up as he replies, “First floor. There’s a box there.”The junior official taps his heels in a salute and exits.

“We ordered 11 new seals just last week. They don’t last that long. There are just too many cards to mark with them,” the senior official, who doesn’t want to be named, quips as he flashes the business card of a manager at Pernod Ricard and flips it over to show the embedded signs of the various alcohol brands they manufacture and sell — a colourful ensemble on a small piece of paper.

“You will be like Bethlehem although you are a small department. You will be the source of much of the state’s finances,” Excise Minister R Lalzirliana told a gathering of excise officials in December, drawing on the Old Testament in reply to an officer batting for the workforce, currently at four-fifths the sanctioned strength, to be enhanced.

The government has steadfastly denied it covets liquor revenues, however, and the Excise Minister and other leaders have said on many other occasions that the government cares more for people suffering severe health problems because of consumption of spurious alcohol.

However, the Church and community-based organisations such as the Young Mizo Association are not convinced. The modern-day avatar of the traditional bachelor’s dormitory, the Young Mizo Association controlled pre-colonial Mizo society by enforcing a code of honour, and continues to have members in virtually every household.

Says Vanlalruata, general secretary of the Young Mizo Association, “It is our stand that total prohibition should stay, and we have and will continue to petition the government for it.”

Reverend Chuauthuama, one of the most vocal critics of the lifting of prohibition, fears the effect of drink. “It’s something I have written about many times, that as a society we are troubled by drink. Even in historical writings we find that drunkenness led to violence and fights, destroyed families and relationships and led to all kinds of social evils. It will be no different now.”

Even the ruling Congress didn’t have it too easy. The Cabinet tellingly backtracked once on discussing the new law before it was finally introduced in the House. With the party enjoying total majority in the Assembly, it was smooth sailing then on.

The opposition parties continue to object, and the Mizo National Front has called a bandh on February 25. Apart from the rise in prices of various government services, the protest is against lifting of prohibition. “Total prohibition is in the best interest of the state’s people,” says Leader of the Opposition Vanlalzawma.

Before the new Act was introduced, the Presbyterian Church’s top authority, the Mizoram Synod, had put up posters with slogans such as “It is more desirable to be poor without liquor revenue than to be rich with it” and “Wine makes fools of us, alcohol leads to violence”.

More than 50 per cent of Mizoram’s population, including Minister Lalzirliana, are members of the Presbyterian Church.

The Young Mizo Association issued statements advising the government to work towards strengthening prohibition, adding that it “wishes the battle against alcohol and drugs continues”.
In Mizoram, the struggle against liquor has been at the forefront of many an agitation. Volunteers from the Young Mizo Association and neighbourhood watch bodies calling themselves Joint Action Committees, and Village Defence Parties in villages, earlier carried out “checks” and destroyed bootlegs. In the latter half of the last decade, such vigilante action even claimed a few lives.

Police and excise officials continue to routinely arrest people for any of several listed offences and promptly produce them in court.

This past Wednesday, seven young men stood in the courtroom within the Aizawl District Court premises with their hands behind their backs as green-bereted excise officers sat chatting on wooden benches just outside.

As the judge read out each of the men’s names, they came forward and murmured replies to the questions asked of them. As one young man in a T-shirt, shorts and one missing sandal stepped up, an excise official stared at him and asked, “Where did you leave your sandal?”

The other men snickered as the man scratched his head and grinned sheepishly. The magistrate too chuckled under his breath as one of the other accused men mumbled, “I don’t think he remembers.”
“Do you have money to pay the fine?” the judge asked.

The young man shook his head ambivalently.

“Well, you’ll have to sweep then,” the judge said, and wrote down the sentence.

He then called out the names of two other men who were presumably arrested together.

“What about you? You have money to pay the fine?” the judge asked.
“Yes sir,” said one confidently.

The judge gestured to the excise official and wrote down the sentence as the men were led out.
Outside, a group of young women giggled as the duo emerged and one of them paid two Rs 1,000 notes to one of the seated excise officials.

As they all left, an official called after them, “Remember, you’re paying the government for drinking.” It provoked another round of laughs.

Inside, the judge finished sentencing the men.

Once all four of the men who were let off with a fine had left, the officer who had collected the money turned to three young men sitting in a corner.

“What happened to you? No money?”

The young men smiled embarrassedly.

“Well then, get ready to sweep. We have lots of places for you to sweep,” he said. The other officers laughed again.

As of today, in Aizawl district alone, 66 people have been arrested for drinking without permits, of whom 47 have been sentenced to three days each of community work, 14 let off with fines, and four others, who failed to turn up for community service, sent to a month in jail.

One morning last month, as office-goers made their way to work, three men in masks and caps earnestly went around cleaning up the milling campus of the Aizawl Civil Hospital, much to the delight of the administration.

One senior administrator looked at the men and asked the excise official overseeing their sentences, “I thought there were five. Where did two go?”

“They’re at the market. Cleaning up there,” the officer replied.

The administrator seemed pained the workforce had been split, but said it was still a blessing since there was always a shortage of sanitation staff at the hospital.

The men continued working, silently.