Inspector Tlangthanzuol was accused of having links with the militants by Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana. Aizawl, Jun 5 : The Manipur police inspector Tlangthanzuol accused of being hand in glove with the HPCD militant group has issued a statement that he neither has links with the militants nor has he transported ammunition for them as alleged.
Inspector Tlangthanzuol was accused of having links with the militants by Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana.
Tlangthanzuol, officer in charge of the Parbung police station in Manipur’s Churachandpur district, has called the neighbouring state’s Minister’s accusations “false and baseless” and that he is filing a defamation case against R Lalzirliana.
The Inspector has also said he had not gone to Tiaulien to investigate the encounter in which HPCD militant Malsawmkima was killed by Mizoram Police on the day R Lalzirliana alleged. He further said that he had gone two days later from a different route.
R Lalzirliana had said in a letter to Manipur’s Deputy Chief Minister that the inspector had transported about 500 rounds of ammunition in his official vehicle for the militants as he was visited the encounter site for an enquiry.
The policeman has been tasked with investigating the encounter.
Kaskau (North Tripura)/Agartala, Jun 5 : Mizoram Bru (Reang Tribes) refugees in Tripura are reluctant, none of them turning up for identification till the third day on Thursday at Kaskau relief camp in North Tripura district, officials said.
Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Mamit district Deputy Commissioner representative Victorladam Puiya who had gone for the identification at the Kaskau camp said, "Three identification teams from Mamit and one from Kolashib has come and started identification from yesterday but there is no turn out. We have been waiting from 10 AM today but till now no one has come. We will extend our wait till 4 PM today and tomorrow also we will be continuing this identification process, lest some of them turn up."
"Actually the camp leaders said that they are supporting everything and have conducted public meetings and encouraged everyone to come here. There is no major opposition but they also can't say why they (inmates) did not turn up. It's a bit confusing. We have informed everybody but not a single person has turned up, we don't know the exact reason," he added.
As per earlier tripartite talks between Mizoram Government, Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) and Tripura Government, identification of bonafide residents of Mizoram for repatriation started at the Kaskau camp from July 2 June 2 but not a single family turned up.
The Mizoram Government made arrangements for resumption of repatriation of Brus from the six relief camps in Tripura and proposed to repatriate more than 3,500 families.
The preparations came after the Supreme Court instructed both the Centre and the Mizoram government to repatriate all the Brus within six months.
"We did not go because what is the use in returning as we will not be secure and have land to cultivate there. After two years when the package will be over who will look after us," said an inmate Parvati Reang.
Meantime, MBDPF general secretary Bruno Mesa speaking to ANI at Agartala said: "In this regard, MBDPF have been cooperating with both the government of Mizoram and Tripura and also trying to convince our people to return. To live in relief camp is very unwanted but our people have not turned out in this identification process because after viewing the road-map prepared by the Mizoram government, they found that there is no development and this road-map is very uncertain for their future survivor. The spots selected for rehabilitation is not satisfactory for the (Bru) people as it is mainly in Mizo dominated areas. Moreover, the demands which MBDPF had submitted are also not considered and there is no point agreed by Mizoram Government to be materialized. May be this is the reason why our people have not turned in the identification process."
The MBDPF demanded for allotment of sufficient land to each repatriated Bru family so that they can cultivate after constructing house in Mizoram.
They also demanded for reservation for the Bru people in Mizoram under the primitive tribal category.
The MBDPF leader said that the Mizoram Government needs to change their mindset in rehabilitating the Bru people in their territory so that the roadmap is acceptable to the Bru people who may feel secure after returning to their home state after 18 years.
Beside this they have also demanded enhancement of the repatriation package from the earlier demand of Rs 80,000 per family.
Around 35,000 Bru displaced people of Mizoram for the last 18 years have been living in seven camps in Kanchanpur of North Tripura after an ethnic violence flared up with the majority Mizos.
The Mizoram government had objection on the total number of Brus which according to them is much less.
For the identification of the Brus, the process was supposed to start from Kaskau camp followed by repatriation from June 8.
The group was detained by the Myanmar government at Tamu near Tahan in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division.
The group that returned from Myanmar at the international border near Zokhawthar. (Photo courtesy: DIPR Mizoram)
Aizawl, Jun 4 : Eighteen people from four families who undertook a journey on foot
from Mizoram to China to “escape” from Aadhaar enrolment and what they
believed to be “an impending darkness waiting to befall the state”
returned home on Wednesday after spending over two months in captivity
in Myanmar.
The group, including four minors and seven women, are members of a
religious sect that lives in Tlangsam village near the eastern town of
Champhai, close to the border with Myanmar.
An official from Champhai said they admitted to having been afraid of
the Aadhaar project, which they interpret as the number of the
anti-Christ prophesied in Christian theology. They also admitted to
having undertaken the journey to escape a “blanket of darkness” that has
in recent years been prophesied to befall Mizoram by some self-styled
modern day prophets, the official said.
The group was detained by the Myanmar government at Tamu near Tahan
in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division. Mizos who live in the region, including
the late MLA of Tamu, D Thangliana and leaders of the Mizo Thalai Pawl
(youth group), intervened on their behalf and tried to get them
released. The efforts eventually paid off and the group was finally
released.
Aizawl, Jun 4 : New Land Use Policy, the state governments flagship project, has significantly reduced the traditional shifting cultivation or jhumming, said a survey conducted by Consultative Committee for NLUP (CCN) today.
The CCN, comprising experts from the Mizoram University, found that families engaging in jhum cultivation has decreased from 66.
44 per cent of the total families in Mizoram to 46.
14 per cent, after the launching of the NLUP in 2011.
The area under jhum cultivation has also decreased by 22.
52 per cent, according to the survey.
At the same time, number of families engaging in wet rice cultivation have also gone up to 27.
20 per cent of the total families in Mizoram from 16.
19 per cent.
While the number of labour engaged in jhum went down to 29.
54 per cent from 47.
69 per cent, that of wet rice cultivation has gone up to 31.
14 per cent from 18.
17 per cent.
The number of NLUP beneficiaries having bank accounts has also increased to 98.
24 per cent from 46.
81 per cent.
The survey was conducted among beneficiaries who opted for orange plantation in the eight districts of Mizoram.
It covered 6,565 of the total 8,538 who are engaged in the trade.
The survey also found that 68.
35 per cent of orange trees have grown up and are expected to yield good harvest.
However, 25 per cent of the beneficiaries have lost 50 per cent of their orange trees to different factors, including diseases, the survey found.
The survey made several suggestions for improvement of orange orchards.
Orange plantation under NLUP is undertaken in 3100 hectares of land.
Expected to be harvested from 2017, the orange produced in Mizoram is expected to increase by 1095 MT and further to 7838 MT in 2020.
The report of the Study on the success and impact of NLUP under Horticulture Sector in Mizoram: Mandarin Orange was released by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla.
Thousands of Bru tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic
violence between them and the majority Mizos following the murder of a
Mizo official by Bru militants.
Aizawl, Jun 3 : Not a single internally displaced Bru tribal turned up for the
verification process at Kaskau relief camp in spite of officials from
Mizoram setting up counters there as the last and final repatriation
process began on Tuesday.
Mamit Deputy Commissioner Vanlalngaihsaka said three teams of
officials set up a counter at the camp to verify anyone who wants to
return to Mizoram as to whether they are original residents of the
state.
The officials would, however, remain there for the next two days before moving on to other relief camps.
If anyone who passes the verification process is willing to return to
Mizoram, the state government would provide transportation for them to
return to the state from Tripura and resettle them in selected villages
where they will be allotted land and given compensation packages.
Tens of thousands of Bru tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 following
ethnic violence between them and the majority Mizos following the murder
of a Mizo official by Bru militants.
They made their way to Tripura where the neighbouring state put them
in designated relief camps where they have been lodged ever since.
Tripura has repeatedly said Mizoram should take back the tribals.
Six phases of the repatriation process has been organised since 2010,
but these have met with limited success, partly because relief camp
leaders have rejected the compensation package saying it is too less.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Mizoram and Tripura governments
have agreed and told the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the repatriation process, that this would be the last time an effort is made
to repatriate the tribals.
Anyone who does not take part would be removed from Mizoram’s
electoral rolls (where they have continued to remain after a generation
in absentia) and the relief camps disbanded, the sides had agreed.
Aizawl, Jun 2 : Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today said the state government has been contemplating on giving powers to the police to arrest and fine those who smoke in prohibited places.
Speaking at a function in Aizawl on the observation of the World No Tobacco Day, Lal Thanhawla said the government was mulling giving authority to all ranks of the police to prosecute smokers who smoke in public places.
He lamented that 67 per cent of the people of Mizoram were using tobacco and tobacco products resulting in the state having the shameful distinction of being the highest incidence of cancer in the country.
This year's theme of the World No Tobacco Day was 'Stop Illicit Trade of Tobacco products' and the day was observed today in the Christian-dominated Mizoram as it fell on Sunday.
The inspector, the Home Minister has said, is allegedly "hand-in-glove" with the group and even transported several hundred rounds of ammunition for the militants when he conducted a spot visit on May 21. By Adam Halliday
Aizawl, May 29 : Mizoram Home Minister R Lalzirliana has requested neighbouring Manipur’s Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam Gangmei’s personal intervention to remove a police inspector tasked with investigating the encounter killing of the HPCD militant group’s “Sergeant” H C Malsawmkima.
The inspector, the Home Minister has said, is allegedly “hand-in-glove” with the group and even transported several hundred rounds of ammunition for the militants when he conducted a spot visit on May 21.
Malsawmkima, a Mizoram Police defector, was the main accused in the April 28 ambush on a convoy of three Mizoram MLAs near the inter-state border. The militants killed three policemen and injured six others, including two civilians, in the course of the attack.
Malsawmkima, who decamped with two rifles from an armed police camp in mid 2014 to join the HPCD, was identified as the leader of the group that waylaid the convoy.
R Lalzirliana’s letter details how the Mizoram Police team that shot dead Malsawmkima at Tiaulian (a village near the inter-state border within Manipur) in a pre-dawn operation immediately evacuated the body and evidences from the spot and later filed an FIR at Sakawrdai Police Station in north Mizoram, and how the FIR was transferred to Manipur Police which handed over the probe to Inspector Tlangthanzuala, the officer-in-charge of the Parbung Police Station.
”However, a technical input indicated that Inspector Tlangthanzuala is hand-in-glove with HPC(D) and was instigating them to take reprisal action Mizoram Police. This fact was conveyed to the Manipur Police but with no appropriate positive outcome.
“It was also revealed that approximately 500 rounds of ammunition supposedly sent by HPC(D) leaders from Rengkai to Vangai command via Tipaimukh road on 21st May 2015 was transported by the same officer in a police Gypsy when he proceeded to Tiaulian village in the aforesaid case and was also apparently accompanied by pro-HPC(D) TV cameraman and journalist on a Mahindra Bolero,” R Lalzirliana’s letter said.
The Mizoram Home Minister requested the Manipur Dy.CM to “kindly look into the matter personally and initiate investigation” against the inspector and appoint someone else for the probe.
When contacted, Manipur DGP Shahid Ahmad said the Manipur Police was looking into the matter and awaiting final reports about the allegations before taking action against the inspector.
”We are collecting verification into this. It will be verified and necessary action will be taken as per the verification report,” Ahmed said.
Aizawl, May 29 : Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) increased in southernmost Mizoram's Saiha district despite efforts to bring down the IMR by the state health department, Health and Family Welfare department officials said.
The officials, attending the meeting of Saiha District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee chaired by Lok Sabha MP C L Ruala yesterday, revealed 55 infant deaths have already been reported since January till March this year.
It was also reported that the IMR in Saiha was the highest during 2014-2015 among the eight districts of Mizoram.
Experts from the Centre had earlier conducted a study on high INMR in Saiha district and made several suggestions including change of lifestyle, cleaner drinking water and awareness among pregnant women to approach health facilities including health sub-centres.
The FIR says the accused prepared revised estimates of Rs 1,470 lakh for the projects after they had been completed. Aizawl, May 28 : Mizoram’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has started criminal investigations against 16 government engineers, including three who have since retired, for allegedly swindling Rs 933 lakh while working on two mini-hydel projects over one and a half decades ago.
The FIR says the accused prepared revised estimates of Rs 1,470 lakh for the projects after they had been completed (ostensibly to pay outstanding liabilities but of which Rs 373 lakh remain unaccounted for).
They are also accused of spending almost Rs 129 lakh to “repair vehicles”, making payments for which no vouchers are available, buying material that never reached the site and ordering unnecessary materials.
Aizawl, May 28 : Mizoram government asked the Union Home Ministry to expedite release of fund meant for expenses of the resumption of repatriation of Brus from the six relief camps in neighbouring North Tripura district, scheduled to commence from the first week of June, a senior state home department official today said.
Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama told PTI that a memorandum was handed over by the state government to the visiting Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju during a dinner hosted by the state home minister R Lalzirliana last night.
The memorandum said that the MHA has only released Rs 4.70 crore which would be highly insufficient to meet the expenditure of the proposed repatriation of around 3,500 Bru families.
Mizoram government earlier submitted the Road Map-IV for repatriation of the Brus to the centre and asked for Rs 68 crore for the massive exercise.
The state government also asked the centre to accept 1971 as the cut-off year, as done in Assam, for determination of foreigners coming to Mizoram from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Earlier, the MoS for home denied the allegations that the BJP government at the centre has a soft corner for Buddhist illegal immigrants (Chakmas) while hardening its stance on Muslim illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Rijiju, who came for a two-day visit yesterday left Mizoram today by helicopter after visiting the integrated check post at Kawrpuichhuah, the proposed border trade centre for the Indo-Bangladesh border in south Mizoram's Lunglei district.
Author Malsawmi Jacob was in high school when the independence
movement in the future state of Mizoram began in 1966. Her father, an
army subedar
stationed in the hill town of Shillong, now in the state of Meghalaya,
predicted at the time that ordinary people would bear the brunt of an
armed conflict. He was right.
The two-decade-long revolt by the Mizo National Front (MNF) would lead the Indian government to use war planes
against its own citizens for the first time. A “grouping” policy was
introduced where villages were burned and civilians herded to guarded
centres so that people would be unable to shelter insurgents.
The rebels signed a peace accord with the government in 1986, and
Mizoram came to be known as an “island of peace”, unlike neighbouring
northeastern states like Manipur, Nagaland and Assam where militant
violence continues. But Bangalore-based Jacob, whose new novel “Zorami”
tells the story of a girl in the backdrop of the “disturbance”, said
for many people who suffered during the insurgency, the pain remains.
Sixty-two-year-old Jacob, perhaps the only Mizo author to have
published a novel in English, spoke about why she decided to write about
the “ram buai” (disturbance in the land), and why she thinks the
decision of the Mizo rebels to take up arms was a mistake.
Q: Why did you decide to write a novel with the insurgency as a backdrop? A: We were staying in Guwahati in 2002, where I used to contribute
to regional news publications. Mizoram was often described as an “island
of peace”. I thought about the hardships we (Mizos) went through, and I
started wondering how the people from that period are coping
emotionally. I wanted to find out.
So in 2004, I travelled to places like Aizawl and Lunglei (towns in
Mizoram) and interviewed people who were somehow involved with the
insurgency. I asked them to describe their experiences during that
period. And it was worse than what I thought. The Mizo people’s hearts
have still not healed… I wanted to take a literary approach in
describing what I discovered. So I started attempting to turn it into a
novel.
Q: Who did you talk to during your research?
A: Those who experienced the disturbance. Some people are well known
like Pu James Dokhuma and Rev. LN Ralte. They were part of those who
started the peace process so they were well known. I also talked to my
own relatives, some of whom have spent time in jail. And some others I
met at random in places of gathering, like at a mourner’s house (in Mizo society, whenever someone dies, relatives and people in the society gather for days to mourn) where I asked people to share their experiences. I also read a few books where people documented their experience.
Q: How much truth is there in the events that you described in the book?
A: The backbone is based on real incidents. I just embellished it with my imagination.
Q: You said people are still hurting? A: Our suffering was so much. Atrocities committed were so much that
we still can’t forget it, and our heart still aches. There are a few,
the more hardcore ones, who are still talking about whether we should
renew the fight for independence.
Q: Did you personally experience the insurgency period? A: I didn’t because we were outside the state. I was in high school
when the disturbance started. My father used to lament about it and
often said the people will suffer because of the uprising.
Q: Apart from some short story books and poems, I haven’t seen any
novel written by a Mizo author in English. What do you think is the
state of Mizo literature? A: I think there still isn’t enough depth when it comes to Mizo
literature. We still have some way to go. It’s beginning to look good –
book releases have increased, and writers are also increasing, but we
need to improve the quality of work.
Q: Do you think the armed uprising was necessary? A: My personal opinion is violence should not have been used at all.
We were unhappy with the Indian government, the Assam government (present-day Mizoram was then a district of Assam),
and it was necessary to show it. But taking up arms was a big mistake
because we suffered so much. And for the people who lost their fathers
and mothers, who lost their children, no outcome really mattered. We
should have fought with peaceful means, according to me.
Q: Was the protagonist Zorami used as a metaphor for the Mizos –
their suffering and the influence of the church and spirituality in
their culture? A: Yes, I used the name Zorami deliberately to describe the Mizo people. I also used her as a symbol. (“Zoram” is a term of endearment used to describe Mizoram; “i” denotes the name is that of a female)
Like her, we suffered because of the disturbance, but we can be
healed through God – not symbolic worshipping at church etc but
achieving peace through an individual discovery of God. That’s what I
wanted to show, and what I believe in.
New Delhi, May 26 : The Supreme Court has rejected the Mizoram government’s special leave petition against a lower court’s order that the Anti-Corruption Bureau investigate alleged misappropriation of funds in the construction of two mini hydel projects in south Mizoram.
The SC’s dismissal of the government’s plea paves the way for the anti-graft agency to finally begin a probe into an alleged scam the government first allowed and later retracted, a move the Gauhati High Court has termed “enigmatic”.
The People’s Right to Information and Development Implementing Society of Mizoram, or PRISM, had in October 2008 filed an FIR against the state’s Power and Electricity Department (P&E) which constructed the two mini hydel projects.
The complaint pointed out that the estimate for the Tuipanglui mini hydel project rose from Rs 980 lambs in 1992 to Rs 3721 lakhs by 2001 (an almost four-fold escalation over less than a decade), while that for the Kau-Tlabung mini hydel project rose from Rs 482 lakhs in 1994 to Rs 3253 lakhs in 2001 (an almost seven-fold escalation over seven years).
The ACB conducted a preliminary enquiry and found that 13 government engineers led by the then Engineer-in charge of the Mizoram Public Works Department caused a loss of Rs 1.75 crores to the state exchequer while building the two hydel projects.
The ACB conducted two more enquiries following calls for clarification by the Vigilance Department, but each time the agency made out prima-facie cases of corruption.
Finally the Vigilance Department in May 2010 gave the ACB the green light to register criminal cases against 16 government engineers from both the state PWD and P&E departments. Less than two months later, however, the Vigilance Department withdrew the permission. PRISM took the government to court over the withdrawing of the permission, but the government argued neither the CAG, the Public Accounts Committee under the state legislature nor a departmental enquiry found cases of misappropriation.
The Gauhati HC however questioned the Vigilance Department action of cancelling the permission for an ACB investigation and doubted the exact extent the other bodies cited by the government during the case arguments might have gone to during their own enquiries. It passed an order that the ACB proceed with the investigation and wind up the case by September this year.
Interestingly, the Mizoram government to hired seven lawyers and approached the SC against the High Court order. The three-judge bench headed by CJI H L Dattu however dismissed the petition saying it is not inclined to interfere with the High Court order.
Mizoram has seen eight governors of the state in last ten months.
Lt.Gen (retd) Nirbhay Sharma arrives at Lengpui airport, where he
was received by officials led by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla. (Source:
DIPR)
By Adam Halliday
Aizawl, May 26 : Former Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt.Gen (retd) Nirbhay Sharma
arrived in Aizawl on Monday, a day before he is scheduled to be sworn in
as the state’s eighth Governor in ten months.
Sharma was greeted at the airport by officials led by Mizoram Chief
Minister Lal Thanhawla. He arrived with his wife, daughter and
mother-in-law.
The frequent changes in the incumbents of the Raj Bhjavan at Aizawl
has caused many controversy in Mizoram, with political and student
leaders condemning the state being used as a “dumping ground” of
UPA-appointed Governors the BJP-led government wants to sideline or force out of office.
When President Mukherjee visited the state in April, he was greeted
by students sporting posters protesting the frequent changes and were
seen draped in traditional shawls of mourning.
The
LADC is an autonomous tribal district under the sixth schedule of the
Indian Constitution, and is located in Mizoram's southern periphery
bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar.
By Adam Halliday
A local court has given permission for Mizoram’s
Anti-Corruption Bureau to proceed with criminal investigation against
the Chief Executive Member of the Lai Autonomous District Council (LADC)
and five others for allegedly siphoning off several crores of rupees
meant for teachers’ salaries, including those of ghost teachers.
The LADC is an autonomous tribal district under the sixth schedule of
the Indian Constitution, and is located in Mizoram’s southern periphery
bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The Aizawl District court gave its assent to the ACB on Thursday
after the anti-graft agency submitted it’s premilinary enquiry showing
at least Rs 3.19 crores in teachers’ salaries were siphoned off by the
District Education Officer, a teacher working as a cashier in his office
and two leaders of the district’s teachers’ association, who
purportedly also gave Rs 21 lakhs of their loot to CEM V Zirsanga.
According to the preliminary enquiry report submitted to the court, a copy of which is with The Indian Express,
DEO Lalduna Chinzah withdrew salaries for more than a hundred teachers
worth Rs 1.33 crores in spite of the same already being withdrawn
earlier.
Chinzah had also issued Last Pay Ceritifcates for 41 teaching and non-teaching staff who had never been employed by the LADC.
The DEO also withdrew salaries for two ghost teachers which amounts to at least Rs 13 lakhs.
Meanwhile, salaries of three real teachers worth a total of more than
Rs 16 lakhs was also withdrawn but the money never reached the trio.
The ACB’s inquiry says at least four others benefitted from the
siphoning of funds besides the DEO, who allegedly pocketed more than Rs
73 lakhs.
It says N C Muankima and C Lalchawiliana, respectively the president
and secretary of the district’s Middle School Teachers’ Association,
took at least Rs 53 lakhs between themselves and of this handed over Rs
21 lakhs to CEM V Zirsanga.
The teacher cum cashier in the DEO’s office Ramengzauva meanwhile is alleged to have gotten Rs 30 lakhs for himself.
Besides these five persons, the ACB has also received sanction to
investigate a former assistant education officer named B Vanlalngheta,
who is currently poisted in the Art and Culture Department.
The ACB said it examined a total of 48 witnesses including Minister
of State C Ngunlianchunga, who was formerly CEM of the LADC before
becoming an MLA in the 2013 statewide elections.
A
look at Mizoram's finances shows why states in the North East might have
to sack employees and shut down development programmes.
In early
April, PC Zosangzuala lost his job. About three years ago, the
28-year-old had been hired by an Indian government programme which
supports India's middle schools – Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.
The job contract signed by “Peecee”, as his friends call him, suggested
the programme would run till 2017. However, on April 4 or April 5 – he
doesn't remember the exact day – he got a letter from the department
saying the part of the programme that employed him had been closed.
Peecee,
with an earnest mien which makes him look much younger than 28, was not
the only one axed. In all, 366 staffers, mostly lab technicians and
clerks, lost their jobs.
The job cuts have followed a budgetary
squeeze in New Delhi. This year's national budget has slashed central
allocations to the middle school programme from Rs 1,500 crore to Rs
1,010 crore, said a senior official in Mizoram's education department.
Faced with less funds, the central government officialsoverseeing
the programme retained teachers but axed clerks, lab technicians and
counsellors. The Mizoram government could have retained the 366
employees fired by the centre, but their salariesadd up to Rs 6.8 crore a year – money the cash-strapped state doesn't have.
Since
jobs are hard to find in Mizoram, the sacked employees – mostly between
25 and 35 years old – panicked. Some of them had married recently.
Others had become parents. Some others had taken bank loans they were
still repaying. Peecee had taken a loan to pay for the treatment of his
grandmother who eventually succumbed to cancer.
In
late April, 70-80 of them went on a hunger strike. They went without
food for 12 days, calling the fast off only after the state education
minister assured them that whenever the state finds funds, they will be
the first to be hired.
PeeCee lost his job in April.
New formula
In
the weeks and months ahead, Mizoram is likely to see many more such
protests. This is partly due to the 14th Finance Commission, which has
altered the way revenues are distributed between the centre and the
states. Until now, state departments have run on money
from three sources – their own revenues, the state's share of taxes
collected by the centre, and development programmes funded by the centre
and implemented by the states. States with high non-plan expenditure
like salaries but low revenues – like those in the North East – also
receive deficit grant funding from the centre.
One critique of
this system was that a large chunk of the funds received by state
governments were “tied” funds – funds which could be used only for the
purpose defined by the centre. This, it was said, took away financial
autonomy from the state governments.
With the centre accepting
the commission's recommendations on how to overhaul funding to state
governments, all this has changed. In the new system, states' share of
central taxes has risen from 32 per cent to 42 per cent. At the same
time, the centre has cut back on the development programmes it funds in
states. The rationale that has been offered is that states would now get
more funds they can deploy any way they like.
In theory, this
means states can undertake more locally relevant developmental work. But
in practice, while some states gain from the new system, others lose.
Mizoram is one of the losers. In 2014-'15, the state got about Rs 5,300
crore from the centre. This year, after increases in both its share of
central taxes and deficit grant funding, it will get Rs 4,200 crore from
these two sources.However, the centre's decision to cut back on development funding – the third source – might nullify these gains.
Changed ratios
In a previous report, Scroll outlined how the state was struggling to fund its anti-AIDS programme. Its sequel
tried to identify, using the State Health Mission as an instance, the
reasons for this funding crisis. The answer, we found, lay in the
construct of Mizoram's economy.
The state depends on the centre
for as much as 90% of its annual budget. In recent years, as Mizoram's
expenditure has climbed, it periodically runs out of money. At these
times, it redirects central allocations – for health, education and
other schemes – towards more expedient monthly requirements like
salaries or interest payments. As Scroll's reports showed, every time the government redirects funds, the people of Mizoram are deprived of vital services.
At
the same time, given the low revenue generated by the state, some
programmes – like the State Health Mission – are entirely dependent on
central allocations.
But now, the centre is cutting back on those
payments. It has divided its development programmes into three
categories – those it will no longer fund, those it will fund as before,
and those where the ratio between central and state funding will
change.
Typically, the centre used to put in 90% of the money
needed to run a programme. But now, said an official in the Mizoram
finance department, the centre wants to bring down its share to 50-75%
which means the state would need to put in as much as 25-50% of the
funds needed for these schemes. At the same time, the state has to
support the programmes the centre will no longer support.
What does this mean for Mizoram?
A
letter from the state finance department dated 7 May lists 22
programmes where the funding pattern will change and 8 projects that the
centre will no longer fund. Take the Rashtriya Kisan Vikas Yojana, one
of the biggest agriculture programmes running in Mizoram. The
centre-state ratio for scheme until last year was 90:10. Under that
formula, in 2014, after the state government raised its spending to Rs
14 crore, the centre released another Rs 128.9 crore for this programme.
But this year onwards, the state government will have to pay moreto
keep the programme size intact. While the agriculture ministry is yet
to communicate what the new ratio will be, back of the envelope
calculations show that if Mizoram wants the programme to operate at the
same size – Rs 140 crore – it will have to cough up Rs 35 crore (25 per
cent contribution) or Rs 70 crore (50 per cent contribution).
It
is the same story with a set of other critical state programmes – like
the National Health Mission, the state AIDS programme, education
programmes, you name it. If we assume that, between the state and the
centre, Rs 100 crore was being spent on each of the 22 projects. Then,
Mizoram paid Rs 220 crore while the centre paid Rs 1,980 crore. If the
funding ratio for all of them changes to 75:25, then Mizoram now has to
pay Rs 550 crore.
In some programmes, like the Integrated Child
Development Scheme, which runs a network of child care and feeding
centres, the ratio is 50:50. This means the state's contribution would
have to rise steeply to keep the programme intact. At the same time, the
state has to support – or axe – the eight programmes the centre will no
longer fund.
The big question is whether Rs 4,200 crore is
enough for the state to meet its existing expenditure plus these new
commitments. The official in the state finance department doesn't think
so. “The centre is saying that we have to match the centre's allocation.
It will be very hard for the NE states to manage anything more than
90:10, like 60:40 or even 70:30. We cannot do this. In the name of more
fiscal space to the states, why are they taking away these programmes?”
As
it is, the state government may not even get Rs 4,200 crore each year.
As the official said, “Share in central taxes comes with
conditionalities. Which means that the increase (100%) will never be
fully delivered. The 100% is what we can get at the most. A lot also
depends on how much the centre is able to raise in taxes.”
Lack of consultation
But
what is most surprising is this: The centre has accepted and rolled out
the Commission's recommendations without taking the states on board, or
letting them grasp how they would be affected. As the states have come
to understand the full implications of the changes, there have been
belated protests from state chief ministers like Assam's Tarun Gogoi and
Mizoram's Lal Thanhawla. In Mizoram's case, its finance department
officials estimatedtheir new
allocations only when the state received its first monthly instalments
of "share of central taxes" and "deficit grant funding" in April.
At
this time, a month after the new financial year started at Mizoram,
information is still trickling from central departments about the new
ratios. The state has to learn about the new funding ratios, decide
which programmes it can afford and which ones it will have to axe, and
then put in its share.
“They will have to shut down some
programmes," said James Thanga, a professor of economics at Mizoram
University. He pointed out that while the National Rural Livelihoods
Mission and National Urban Livelihoods Mission had just started, other
programmes like AIDS control, farmer development, child nutrition and
health have been running for decades and would have to be continued.
The
departments which survive will see delayed fund allocation this year. A
senior official in the middle education department at Mizoram told
Scroll: “It is mid-May and we still do not know what we will get. We
were about to start construction of new schools – the tendering was
over. But now we are not sure about how much money will come.”
Economic realignment
In
the state, at this time, the funding crisis is still sinking in. Some
feel this might even be a blessing. Successive governments in Mizoram,
as in other parts of the north-east, have been very profligate. The
crisis might force them, some people speculated, to be wiser and stop
relying on Delhi for money.
For this, the state needs to create
more economic activity. But given its location, poor connectivity and
ecological conditions, only some activities are viable here. " We could
invite companies to come and do organic farming or oil palm
cultivation," said the official. "But for that, we would have to give
them large swathes of forestland.” Apart from the questions about forest
loss and oil palm's environmental impact, these activities will also
take time to establish themselves and generate revenues.
And time is what Mizoram doesn't have. The funding crisisis already here.
Can
Mizoram emerge unscathed from the looming crisis by merely curbing
wasteful expenditure or will deeper cuts need to be made? At the same
time, will the government want to cut back on the programmes it uses to
dole out patronage? If they make deeper cuts in social programmes, then
what happens to the people? Like the health reports showed, things are
already grim.
These are the questions that state officials are
struggling with. “How do we do this? There are no state assets to sell,"
said the official in the finance department. "We will have to borrow
against future remittances of the state.” I ask what that means. The
official says: "future payments like salaries".
In essence, the
government will take a loan and repay it from the next year's central
allocation. That will worsen the financial shortage that year. If the
state does follow that plan, a vicious cycle will begin.
The
other course of action, suggested Thanga, the economics professor, could
be raising revenues by charging for land transactions and increasing
the professional tax. With the lifting of prohibition, he said, loss
making public sector units – the state industrial corporation, the
agriculture marketing corporation, even the state handloom and
handicraft development corporation – have applied for liquor
distribution licenses. “This should help them become viable," he said.
But
the question that is the most difficult to answer: why did the centre
force such an abrupt transition on the states? It is going to impose
penalties on the people of Mizoram and elsewhere.
Aizawl, May 21 : The Mizoram government's much-hyped programme to reach out to the people of Barak Valley districts of Assam for better ties has been all of a sudden put on hold for "an indefinite time".
The Outreach Programme, the second edition of which is scheduled to be held tomorrow, is the brainchild of the BJP-led NDA government.
The Centre aims to strengthen the bond between Kolosib district of Mizoram and Cachar and Hailakandi districts of Assam.
The deputy commissioner of Kolosib district of Mizoram, Jitender Yadav, however, did not spell out the reasons of this decision.
A senior official of the Hailakandi district administration, however, said they are at present busy in the onerous job of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
He added that in view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the district at present, it would be wise to postpone the celebrations.
The last Outreach Programme held at a higher secondary school in Dholai township of Cachar district in April evoked tremendous enthusiasm among people of the two countries.
Mizo women, in their traditional hand-woven tribal attire, added to the celebration mood.
Some dance items like bamboo dances of the Mizos and the dhamail dance by the rural women of Cachar districts, interspersed by the songs, stole the show in this inter-state exhibition of mutual affinity between people of these states.
Apart from these, some common sports events like volleyball, football and kabadi were the other stellar features of this inter-state festival in Dholai.
In the recent past, the two state administrations had to mutually tackle the spurts of the acrimony between the Mizos and the local inhabitants.
Mizoram officials will undertake the first verification process in Kaskau relief camp.
By Adam Halliday Aizawl, May 21 : Officials in Mizoram’s western districts will start verifying displaced Bru tribals lodged in the relief camps in Tripura on June 2. This will be the final phase of repatriation for the displaced tribals.
Mamit Deputy Commissioner Vanlalngaihsaka said Wednesday that he had held meetings with various village council leaders and community organisations in this regard. “All the groups have pledged their cooperation and said that they will watch out for any untoward incident before and during the repatriation process,” Vanlalngaihsaka told The Indian Express.
Mizoram officials will undertake the first verification process in Kaskau relief camp, during which they will ascertain whether the Bru tribals lodged there are originally from Mizoram. Once that is complete, the officials will provide transportation for the tribals to return to Mizoram. The verification process will then proceed to the other five relief camps, Vanlalngaihsaka added.
Officials in Mizoram’s Home Department have said the repatriation process is likely to be completed by September. While Mamit district is set to welcome home almost 2,600 Bru families, several hundred families might return to the neighbouring Kolasib and Lunglei districts.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court approved an agreement reached between Mizoram, Tripura and the Union Home Ministry that any displaced Bru tribal who continues to refuse to return to Mizoram under the repatriation process will be deleted from Mizoram’s electoral rolls (The tribals continue to vote for Mizoram elections despite staying in Tripura ). The agreement also said that the relief camps would be closed.
Tens of thousands of Bru tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 following ethnic violence with the Mizos. The conflict had been triggered after Bru militants murdered a Mizo official. The tribals fled to Tripura where they were put in relief camps and they have stayed there ever since. Over the years, Tripura has asked Mizoram to take back the tribals.
From
language to clothes to culture, South Korean soaps on Mizo television
are leaving a lasting imprint on the North Eastern state.
Stay for a
while in Mizoram’s capital Aizawl and you start catching glimpses of
South Korea. Travel around the state and the images emerge repeatedly ‒ in the clothes, the hair styles, even the furniture.
In
Champhai, the district that conducts most of the trade between Mizoram
and Myanmar, business in fairness creams and hair colour is roaring. At
her cosmetics shop which stocks both Indian and imported cosmetics, J
Lalremruati says most customers favour foreign products. People here
think they are not fair enough, she explains. “If the idea is to be more
like the Koreans, then why would they buy Indian creams?”
While teenagers in Delhi and Mumbai mimic Jennifer Aniston’s hairdo in Friends,
Mizoram's young people are looking east. “A girl in one of a Korean
serial wore her hair as a bun to one side of her head,” said Marina, who
works at an Aizawl restaurant. “My friends and I copied her for some
time.” Periodically, she and her friends look for clothes like those
worn by the actors in the serials.
Even the furniture in people’s homes is changing, says Lalnghinglova Hmar, joint editor of the largest-selling Mizo daily Vanglaini.
People are buying furniture that resembles the sets they see in the
Korean soaps. The state even has a store called Gangnam Style.
The
immediate trigger for these changes is well known. In the last eight
years or so, Mizoram, like the rest of the North East, has seen a large
South Korean wave. Korean movies and television serials, dubbed in Mizo
and broadcast every day by around 10 local TV channels, are the most
watched programmes in the state these days.
What is less clear, however, is how this interest in Korean culture started.
The genesis of a boom
Some
trace it back to an evening – about five or six years ago – when a
local cable company played a DVD of a Korean serial. When the channel
cut that telecast to switch to news, it found its switchboard lighting
up. Viewers were calling to ask when the serial would resume. Others
trace it back to a Korean film called The Classic, which
entered India through Manipur and then spread across the North East,
spawning interest in South Korean films. Yet others trace it back to
2001 when a Korean channel called Arirag become freely available across
the North East.
But mere supply (or access) is not enough to
explain the boom. Indian television has been around in the North East
for a long time but it has not been as successful as the Korean
programming.
One school of thought says Korean serials are
popular because they touch – at least those dubbed into Mizo – upon
themes like family drama, comedy and romance. They are very
constructive, said Malsawma Sailo, founder of a television channel in
Aizawl called Nauban.
He cites one of the most popular Korean serials in recent times – Yellow Boots.
“A
woman is hit by a car and she dies. The leading lady, let us call her
our heroine, is implicated and sent to prison. While she is in jail, her
fiancé ditches her and marries someone else. However, our heroine is
pregnant at the time – she is carrying the child of her fiancé – and so,
she becomes a mother while in prison. However, the truth is that she
has been falsely implicated in the accident. And the woman actually
responsible for the accident is the one who has married her fiancé. And
so, once she leaves prison, our heroine plots revenge.”
Why
is it so popular? “There are a lot of scenes to shed tears over,” said
Sailo, adding that the story shows how a family should behave.
But
that plot seems as contrived and emotionally manipulative as any sitcom
from any country on the planet. Besides, this does not explain why
Mizoram went through a similar fascination with American and Hindi films
earlier.
The real answer, clearly, lies elsewhere.
The Hindi and English boom
Perhaps
the answer lies in office of Zonet, one of the two big cable companies
in Mizoram. (The other is LPS.) The channel began showing dubbed Korean
serials in 2009, two years after CDs of the serials had hit the local
market.
Vanneitluanga, the programming head, looks much younger
than his 48 years. He used to work at All India Radio till 2004, when he
decided to start Zonet along with RK Lianzuala, a journalist who had
worked with the BBC.
In a three-hour long conversation,
Vanneitluanga traced the Korean boom back to an early decision to dub
programmes into Mizo. In its initial days, Zonet had one channel
gender-insensitively called Zawlbuk – the Mizo name for the traditional
meeting hall for men. “It is not easy to produce a full-fledged film in
Mizo,” he said. “It is expensive. At the same time, people are used to
the production quality of channels like the BBC. Their sense of
aesthetics is very high. We couldn’t have satisfied our own people.”
The
easiest way to strike a balance, he says, was to translate: “Dubbing is
easy. All we have to do is lip-sync.” In November 2004, Zonet began
airing a dubbed version of Kasautii Zindagii Kay, an Indian soap which, at first glance, rivals Yellow Boots in the plot twists.
It became quite a craze, remembers Sailo. Soon, he said, “both LPS and Zonet were dubbing Kasautii.
They would air it some days after Hindi channels aired it. But they
would air the same episode on the same day. Magazines were featuring
special columns transcribing the serial.”
The serial,
Vanneitluanga explains, met a latent demand. “People wanted to read or
watch something in Mizo.” It was a demand that Doordarshan, the national
broadcaster, was unable to meet. Its Mizo programming lasted just 20-30
minutes a day.
Before long, dubbing of Hindi and English films
was a booming business. LPS, Zonet and a third cable company, called
Skylinks, were running their own translation services, dubbing Kasautii, then other serials like Karam Apnaa Apnaa, and English films like The Ten Commandments.
In
2008, Sailo, a father of two and a graduate in BA (Arts) from Lunglei,
entered the dubbing trade. Till then, he had switched careers repeatedly
– after his BA in the late 1980s, he opened a grocery store. In 1991,
he became the principal of an English school. He shifted next to Aizawl,
where he ran a cement shop. What that did not do well, he moved to
Mamit district and ran an English school. Finally, in 2008, he handed
the school over to others and moved back to Aizawl.
Malsawma
Sailo in the room in his house where he dubs Korean serials. He has
just two voice artists in his team. Whenever needed, he and his wife
pitch in as well.
At this
time, the cable industry in Mizoram had a lot of small players who ran
cable networks in villages and towns. LPS, Zonet and Skylinks were
present in the bigger towns.
Sailo
began buying Hindi and English films from local DVD and CD shops, which
he would then translate and dub. “In a month, we did three films.” He
started by selling these to local operators in Aizawl for Rs 150 a DVD.
Soon however he was getting calls from cable operators elsewhere in the
state. By 2010, the number of his customers stood at 100 and his
business – employing two voice artists, one editor and one translator –
was notching monthly revenues of Rs 45,000.
Within a year,
however, Sailo’s business was floundering. The reason: competition. “A
lot of people were indulging in translation,” says Sailo. DVDs began
going for Rs 100, then Rs 80.
By then, the Korean wave had
already set in. By 2009, said Vanneitluanga, “DVDs of Korean serials had
entered Aizawl. Some of these had English subtitles and people began
seeing those. There were eight or nine local cable companies and
five-six of them would show these serials. That is how this started.”
Sailo
thinks the wave started earlier. “In 2007, the demand for the Korean
serials was moderate. But by 2012, it was very high. Wherever we went,
people were talking about these serials.”
This raises a new question. Why were undubbed Korean programmes doing better than dubbed English or Hindi ones?
A question of identity
To
answer that question, Vanneitluanga referred to 1966. The Mizo National
Front had rebelled against India and liberated Aizawl. “I was nine
years old. I remember standing in a forest near Aizawl while the Indian
Air Force was bombing Aizawl. We were told by Laldenga then – and we
believed him – that a thlawhnavar [a white aeroplane] would come and
drive these IAF planes away. None came.”
This, he says, was a
turning point for the Mizos. “Before that, we thought we were
westerners. We were born and raised in the lap of missionaries. And we
used to think we were Britishers. In Zodin cinema hall, all the movies
we saw were John Wayne, cowboys, western films. We felt they were very
near to us. But gradually, we came to learn that the west is very far
away – we were very remote, very ignorant. The missionaries were gone.
We had to depend on India.”
The menu at JayJay, a Korean-style eatery.
This,
he says, explains some of the fondness for the Koreans. “Our face is
different from that of most Indians. There are ethnic differences – we
are Christians.” For a while, he says, when Indian media came in, they
had to dub what was available. “At the same time, we hate the Bollywood
style of singing and dancing.”
By contrast, he said, “The Koreans
look like us. There are cultural similarities like respecting the
elders. At the same time, they are clean. Their facial structures are
clean. The plots are conservative, ones that Protestants and Catholics
can relate to. Even the way they talk, a slightly musical tone, is
similar to ours.”
Listening to him, it sounded like the Mizos
wished for affinity with a larger group. When asked about this,
Vanneitluanga mentioned people from the North East who had moved to
Israel believing themselves to be the lost tribes of Israel. Perhaps, he
said, “This is because of where we are," he said. "On the western side
of Mizoram, we see you. On the east, we see the Burmese Buddhists.
Neither of you is us. We are an island in the Himalayan range.”
A question of affinity
In
Mizoram, the Korean wave has had predictable and unpredictable
outcomes. Between the Peiteis, Brus, Lais, Chakmas, Maras, Hmars and the
Mizos, the state speaks many dialects. In the expanded Chin tribal
area, which covers parts of Myanmar too, there are even more dialects.
For all their speakers, there is no programming in their native
language. This is partly due to economics – the populations are too
small to support local programming.
For this reason, says
Vanneitluanga, the dispersed Chin population, in Myanmar and outside,
not to Mizoram, watches the dubbed Korean programmes. “I found people
asking me for these when I went to Kuala Lumpur. And when I went to
Singapore.”
Some worry that Mizo, riding on the Korean
programmes, will swamp the smaller dialects. But the programming is
changing Mizo too. “The normal Mizo way of speaking is soft and
sing-song,” said Vanneitluanga. “In Korean, people speak faster. In
dubbing, we have to lip-sync. So, we end up speaking faster too.” In
this drive, he lamented, “Our beautiful descriptive phrases are going
unused. They are decreasing as we do not have the time to describe as we
would like to.”
Lallian Chhunga, an assistant professor in
Mizoram University’s Department of Political Science, added: “The catch
is also that the people who translate are not very good in literature.
They use very colloquial street language and so the way we speak is
changing.”
The endgame
The big question is what next.
When
his dubbing business slowed down, Sailo moved to Zonet as a“partner.
Both LPS and Zonet follow a strategy where they run three or so channels
on their own – general entertainment, sports and religion. Apart from
these, they have partners – individuals like Sailo – who run individual
channels on their own. Sailo supplies 24-hour feeds to Zonet.
Take
another local channel – Ainawn. It focuses on documentaries. It starts
the morning with a dubbed episode of Discovery Health Science. At 7am,
it has cartoons for children. Then, music and a documentary till 1 pm.
An English film after that. And then, dubbed documentaries till 10pm,
followed by another blockbuster movie till midnight. And then, another
movie.
The channel was started because its founder, who did not
wish to be identified, does not like Korean serials. “The reason for
starting Ainawn is there is good programming – National Geographic,
History Channel, etc – but people do not watch this as they cannot
understand what is being said,” the founder told me.
What Sailo
does is similar – a 24-hour feed, with a greater emphasis on
entertainment. He scans sites like ipop, dovamax264 and hancinema to
discover new soaps. How does he decide what will work? “We read the
story online. And based on our experience, it is usually romance and
family drama that works well.”
For all that, the business is starting to struggle now. As happened with the dubbing business, competition is rising fast.
Zonet
and LPS do not pay the partner channels for content, so they make money
by selling ad time. The advertisers are typically local shops. Telecom
companies and banks do not advertise on these channels, perhaps because
of the difficulty in ascertaining viewership.
Ad rates are
ridiculously low. “A company can be channel sponsor or serial sponsor,”
Sailo said. “We charge Rs 10,000 per month. The channel ad is shown
six-seven times in a day. The serial ad is shown around the serial.”
Consider
the economics. Ten sponsors equal monthly revenues of Rs 1 lakh.
However, as the number of channels increase, ad rates have fallen to as
little as Rs 5,000. “If the number of sponsors comes down to five, it
will be hard to survive,” said Sailo. “We might have to start some other
business.”
The boom of South Korean soaps illustrates two of the
larger truths about jobs in Mizoram. In the state, jobs are hard to
come by. This causes a pell-mell rush into new opportunities, followed
by price warfare, making business cycles really short.
The low ad
rates indicate how little money there actually is in the state economy,
the result of the state government’s financial crisis. As it delays
salaries, establishments across the state are reporting less business
this year than earlier.
It’s unclear how long the Korean wave
itself will last. It is mainly seen, says Vanneitluanga, by the educated
rural people, some of the youth, and housewives. Those with better
education prefer English.
“This is a wave," Vanneitluanga said.
"It is not permanent. I wonder how long it will last. Korean culture
really has nothing to do with us – just like that white aeroplane. Our
population is so small. And economic activity is so low. We have no
money and so we cannot go to Korea. Our education is not fit enough to
take us there. I don’t know where this goes.”
Maybe it will be
English. Take Marina, who used to go looking for clothes similar to what
actors wore in these soaps. She is bored now. “These serials are too
long. These days, I watch music videos on VH1,” she said. Other
youngsters are into anime.
Or maybe, as a recent trend suggests,
these films will get more and more customised. In some cases, channels
have changed the entire plot while dubbing, says Vanneitluanga, to make a
film more locally relevant. He cited one scene where a contingent of
marching soldiers are chanting – not 1, 2, 3, 4 – but the Mizo words for
potato, squash, pumpkin and dal.
Like the old journalistic cliche goes, wait and watch.
Following
pressure from the union home ministry and the Tripura government,
Mizoram has finally agreed to take back all the tribal refugees
sheltering in Tripura for the past 18 years.
“The repatriation of refugees expected to start from June 8. A
tripartite meeting between the officials of Tripura and Mizoram
governments and refugee leaders took this decision,” Panisagar
Sub-divisional magistrate Biplab Das told IANS.
He said: “It was decided in the meeting that from June 2 to June 4, a
study would be done about how many of the refugees’ names have been
enrolled in the electoral list of Mizoram. Then sub-divisional level
officials of the two states in presence of the refugee leaders would be
held before starting of the repatriation on June 8.”
According to Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Badal Choudhury,
there are 5,286 tribal families comprising 31,223 men, women and
children sheltered in seven camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar
sub-divisions under North Tripura district adjoining Mizoram.
The Reang tribals, who locally call themselves “Bru”, have lived in
makeshift camps camps in Tripura since October 1997 when they fled
western Mizoram after the killing of a Mizo forest officer triggered
ethnic trouble.
The Mizoram government earlier refused to take back all the refugees
citing that all the migrants are not the resident of Mizoram.
“In the Friday’s district magistrate-level meeting, the Mizoram
government officials more or less agreed to take back all the refugees
sheltered in Tripura,” said Das, who was also present in the meeting.
The Tripura government team was led by additional district magistrate
of North Tripura district Ranjit Das while Mizoram’s team was led by
Mamit district Deputy Commissioner Vanlalngaihsaka.
Meanwhile, Mizoram’s additional secretary of home department
Lalbiakzama said in Aizawl that following the Supreme Court’s directives
and the decision made in the meeting of the union home ministry in
presence of Mizoram and Tripura governments’ officials on January 30, it
was proposed to repatriate all the remaining tribal families from the
relief camps in north Tripura district.
“The union home ministry has recently released Rs.4.7 crore for the
repatriation purposes, but the amount would not be sufficient for
repatriation of all the remaining Reang tribal families,” Lalbiakzama
said.
The Mizoram government earlier sought around Rs.70 crore financial
assistance from the union home ministry to rehabilitate the repatriated
tribal refugees.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and his deputy Kiren Rijiju had
visited the refugee camps and held talks with the refugee leaders on
February 14 and persuaded the tribal to go back to their villages in
western Mizoram.
Refugee leaders told the central ministers that they were willing to
return to their homes in Mizoram if their 10 points demands, including
security and rehabilitation, were met.
The Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), an organisation of
the refugees, submitted a six-page memorandum to the central ministers
accusing the Mizoram government of discriminating against them.
The Mizoram government remains ambiguous on the refugees’ demands,
which also included free supply of food grain for two years, and
allotting land to them.
Mizo organisations, however, have opposed the MBDPF’s demands.
Tripura Revenue and Relief Minister Choudhury told IANS: “We urge
upon the central government to ask the Mizoram government to take back
the refugees.”
“The union home minister tried to hold a meeting with the chief
ministers of Tripura and Mizoram to finalise a road map to repatriate
the refugees to Mizoram. However, the Mizoram chief minister did not
attend the meeting nor did he send his representative.”
“It is very unfortunate that the tribals despite being Indians
nationals and permanent inhabitant of a state, are unable to live in
their homeland. This is dangerous for the ethnic amity, stability and
peace,” the minister said.
“A serious socio-economic problem has cropped up due to the long stay
of the refugees in Tripura. The refugees have damaged vast areas in
forests in Kanchanpur causing serious environmental problems,” he added.
“Some refugees are involved in terrorist activities. The refugees
also work for cheap wages, creating an awkward situation for local
labourers,” the minister said.
Ajeet Kumar Rai, 25, was a rifleman with the 39th Assam Rifles and was posted at the battalion’s camp at Mimbung in eastern Mizoram.
By Adam Halliday
Aizawl, May 19 : The Mizoram police has told the Ministry of Defence the 25-year-old Assam Rifles rifleman who died from gunshot wounds to the head while on sentry duty last August committed suicide and was not murdered as his relatives are alleging.
“The deceased had committed suicide due to depression arising from family and work since investigation could not revealed (sic) concrete evidences of murder and conspiracy,” concludes a report submitted by Champhai district SP R P Meena to Jay Prakash, Additional Private Secretary to the Defence MoS.
Ajeet Kumar Rai, 25, was a rifleman with the 39th Assam Rifles and was posted at the battalion’s camp at Mimbung in eastern Mizoram.
His elder brothers Ajai Kumar Rai and Atul Kumar Rai (Atul is also a rifleman with the Assam Rifles and who was posted in Lunglei, also in Mizoram, at the time of his brother’s death) allege Ajeet was murdered by his colleagues after an altercation. They officially filed an FIR on September 8 in Champhai town.
The police at Ngopa, which hosts the nearest police station from Mimbung, were meanwhile unable to examine the body immediately after the tragedy since the Assam Rifles had brought it to Aizawl for post-mortem and for it to be dispatched home to UP by flight the following day. Police had subsequently registered a case of unnatural death and began investigations.
The SP’s report says the Investigating Officer collected the rifleman’s service rifle, an AK-47, as well as 27 live ammunition in it, two empty cartridges and one live ammo still loaded in the gun’s chamber.
The dead man’s finger-prints were also lifted, it said, adding these were among the items forwarded to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Aizawl along with photos of the dead body taken from different angles (the report however says “chance finger prints could not be developed because of oily surface of the firearm”).
The IO examined Rai’s two elder brothers, three men they accused of killing the rifleman as well as more than 20 personnel posted at the Mimbung camp.
Ajeet’s mobile handset was also seized and a Call Detail Report also obtained from which police found Ajeet had spoken to his ex-wife Vineeta Rai just before he died, the report says.
Vineeta was contacted over phone and she told police Rai had told her he wanted to resign from service because of an argument he had had with this colleagues, and mentioned his elder brothers were arranging for him to be married to another woman soon, the report says.
The SP’s report says Vineeta told police Ajeet told her “his brothers were arranging a marriage with another girl he did not want as he still loved her” and also that Ajeet and Vineeta divorced because of pressure from his brothers.
The Assam Rifles had from the beginning said Ajeet killed himself because of problems at home while his family maintained they suspected murder because Ajeet had told them on the day of his death that he had been in a serious argument with his colleagues, claiming some of his colleagues also corroborated their suspicions.
