Watching porn: Mizoram Tops List; Delhi at 2nd Spot, Maharashtra 4th

New Delhi, Aug 4 : While most of us don't openly talk about porn and sex, the words itself attract the attention of almost everyone across the globe.

Condemning the culture, the government of India has recently ordered blocking of more than 800 porn websites in the country.

The government's move has been criticised harshly with some even calling it 'Talibanisation' of India.
According to a survey, the northeastern sate of Mizoram is marching ahead of other Indian states on internet porn access.

Delhi occupied the second spot whereas Maharashtra stood at number four in watching porn websites.

Apart from Mizoram, three other Northeastern states- Nagaland, Meghalaya and Assam are in the list that lead in watching porn sites.
On a world wide basis, it is said that India ranked at the fifth spot in number of visitors to the porn website.

Mizoram plans for aid, charity events for flood-affected ethnic Zo communities in Myanmar

Some Mizo singers and musicians have also announced plans to hold a mobile charity concert in state capital Aizawl.


Local residents wade through a flooded road in Bago, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Yangon, Myanmar, Saturday, Aug 1, 2015. (Source: AP)

Various organisations and political parties in Mizoram have appealed for aid and prayers for ethnic Zo communities affected by floods and heavy rains in Myanmar as well as in Manipur.

The Zofa Global Network and the Mizo Zaimi Insuihkhawm (MZI), a body of singers and musicians, have announced plans to hold a mobile charity concert in state capital Aizawl this week, proceeds from which would be sent to flood-affected ethnic Zo communities in the neighbouring country.

Both the Mizo National Front and the Mizoram People’s Conference have issued appeals to residents of the state to pray for and contribute to aid meant for ethnic Zos in Myanmar who have been affected by the heavy rains and winds in the wake of Cyclone Komen.

Various groups and political parties also met at the Zo Reunification Organisation’s offices on Monday to discuss how best to collect and send aid to the flood-affected regions, saying ethnic Zo communities have been severely affected by flooding in towns across Chin State and Sagaing Divisions such as Tahan, Falam, Kawlphai, Kalemiau and Halkha.

Other groups such as the central committee of the Young Mizo Association have also called meetings to take part in the aid effort as pictures and videos on social media and news reports from across the international border continue to inform Mizoram residents about the natural calamity.

Ethnic Zos are spread over Myanmar’s Sagaing Division, Chin State and the Arakan region.

Worried over competing land claims that mar infra projects, Mizoram govt has new arsenal

Mizoram government has circulated among top officials a recent High Court judgement nullifying a widely-issued land ownership document from being used to claim or allot compensation.

​Increasingly worried over conflicts and delays over compensation for land chosen as sites of various infrastructure projects, the Mizoram government has circulated among top officials a recent High Court judgement nullifying a widely-issued land ownership document from being used to claim or allot compensation.

The Aizawl Bench of the Gauhati High Court had towards the end of June passed a judgement saying Village Councils (the equivalent of panchayats) have no authority to issue “garden passes” (basically land ownership letters for agricultural purposes within the council’s territory) and that no one can claim compensation for land they own through these letters.

“The power to issue a Garden Pass or a pass for any agricultural purpose to any person by a Village Council is not traceable to any power in any land laws prevailing in Mizoram…” the judgement said while striking down a lower court’s order that awarded compensation to more than a hundred petitioners.

Their lands had been acquired by the government for the under-construction railway line from Assam to Aizawl as part of the North-East Frontier Railways’ plans to link all NE state capitals by 2022.

The petitioners had approached the Gauhati HC (Aizawl Bench) saying they had been compensated only for the crops on their agricultural land and not for the land itself.

“The issuance of the same for any agricultural purpose does not give any right to such pass holders to claim any land value. As such, persons having lands covered by Village Council pass for agricultural purposes cannot be entitled to compensation i.e. there cannot be any land valuation made in respect of those lands,” the judgement added.

The judgement was discussed at length during a meeting last week of various top officials to discuss the state’s strained finances and proposals to ease it.

Lalramthanga, Principal Secretary, Chief Minister’s Office, brought the judgment to the meeting’s notice. Copies of it have subsequently been circulated among heads of various departments that are and can be involved in infrastructure projects and accompanying acquisition processes, according to several officials who took part in the meeting.

Several infrastructure projects in Mizoram have been delayed and complicated by land compensation claims, prompting CM Lal Thanhawla to declare in a recent assembly session that “We are a compensation community”, leading to a heated exchange between him and opposition MLA Lalruatkima who demanded the CM’s speech be retracted and struck off the assembly records.

Lal Thanhawla refused and instead reiterated his statement.

Besides the railways project, another project that has been complicated by compensation claims have been the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, which aims to connect the North-East to the rest of Indian through the Bay of Bengal via a sea-port at Sittwe in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

Competing claims for compensation for land acquired for the project has prompted an Anti-Corruption Bureau investigation against the Lai Autonomous District authorities after investigators found out the total size of alleged landholdings along the 100 km highway within Mizoram, according to compensation claims, exceeds the total area of the state of Mizoram by almost 5,000 sq kms.

CM Lal Thanhawla has also said several times that claimants for land to be acquired for the extension of the Indian Army’s Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS), considered one of the best on the world, near Vairengte village have also submitted documents typed out in and printed from a computer although the documents date from the 1960s and 1970s.

Mizoram Cabinet Nod for Closure of 3 PSUs, Downsizing 2 Others

The move to overhaul all state-owned enterprises in Mizoram has been prompted largely by an agreement between the state government and the Asian Development Bank.



Chief Minister of Mizoram Pu Lal Thanhawla.

The state Cabinet has approved a proposal to close down three of Mizoram’s Public Sector Enterprises and restructure and downsize two others.

The move to overhaul all state-owned enterprises in Mizoram has been prompted largely by an agreement between the state government and the Asian Development Bank as part of a USD 100 million loan aimed at managing state finances better.

Another reason has been that successive CAG reports show the PSEs have been making losses year after year and contributing just a fraction of a percentage to the state’s coffers, according to documents accessed by The Indian Express.

The state Cabinet has approved the closure of the 27-year-old Zoram Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited (ZOHANDCO), the 24-year-old Zoram Electronics Development Corporation Limited (ZENICS) and the 22-year-old Mizoram Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (MAMCO).

The government had earlier this month notified the Mizoram State Enterprises’ Early Retirement Rules 2015 for employees, and has also set in place a mechanism to absorb employees who do not opt for early retirement. This will be done though relaxation of the state’s Public Service Commission’s selection process, the documents show.

The Cabinet has also approved the “downsizing and restructuring” of two other PSEs — the 30-year-old Zoram Industrial Development Corporation Limited (ZIDCO) and the 26-year-old Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Corporation Limited (MIFCO).

All five PSEs have largely been headed by ruling MLAs for years and even decades, and all but one are currently headed by junior Congress MLAs except for MIFCO, which is headed by a senior Congress leader.

The PSEs together employ about 270 people.

The latest CAG report, tabled before the state assembly this month, shows that the PSEs overall incurred annual losses of between Rs 4.86 crore at its peak in 2010-11 and 1.70 crore at its lowest ebb in 2013-14.

There has been no year in the past six years they have not incurred losses as a group (except for ZIDCO, which registered profits once) even as their annual turnovers over the same period hovered between just 0.02% to 0.15% of the state’s GDP.

The PSEs’ loss-making nature has however been around even earlier. An Asian Development Bank assessment from July 2009 (a month prior to the approval of the USD 100 million loan for the state’s public sector financial reforms) had red-flagged the issue.

“The performance of state public sector enterprises (PSEs) has … affected the state budget. Currently, all of the five small PSEs in Mizoram are loss-making… The PSEs are in financial distress requiring huge amounts of budgetary support to sustain them…. In spite of a periodic infusion of equity capital and grants, the companies continue to report losses,” the ADB said in a report to its board of directors.

Southern Mizoram Rivers in Spate, 100 Families Homeless

Flood in the Khawthlangtuipui river on the Bangladesh border submerged around 30 houses rendering around 70 families homeless.

Aizawl, Aug 3 : Swollen rivers in southern Mizoram rendered about hundred families homeless while one house was swept away by swirling Chhimtuipui, officials said.

Two houses were also vacated by the inhabitants in Darzokai village, on the banks of the Chhimtuipui river who took shelter in the village community hall.

Flood in the Khawthlangtuipui river on the Bangladesh border submerged around 30 houses rendering around 70 families homeless, administration officials of southern Mizoram Lunglei district said.

Submerged houses included a waiting shed constructed to commemorate the arrival of the pioneer missionaries - Rev. J.H. Lorraine and Rev. F.W. Savidge - by boat in southern part of Mizoram ages back, the officials said.

Reangs Refuse To Go Back To Mizoram

By Nilotpal Bhattacharjee

Aizawl, Jul 31 : Not a single person turned up on the third day of the seven-day verification camp for Bru refugees at Naisingpara relief camp in North Tripura today.

The camp houses 2,469 Bru families. The camp was conducted in four relief camps since June. But barring a woman identified as Porati, no refugee was willing to return to Mizoram.

Mizoram additional home secretary Lalbiakzama told The Telegraph today that no refugee turned up at the verification camp at Naisingpara, the largest relief camp in North Tripura.

"Bru refugees residing in various relief camps in North Tripura have raised a new set of demands. Only a woman reported at the camp in Hamsapara and was willing to be repatriated," he added.

Asked about the fate of the refugees who refused to turn up at the verification centres, Lalbiakzama said the Centre would take the final call. He added that the Supreme Court was also monitoring the repatriation process.

Additional deputy commissioner of Mamit Lalbiaksangi told this correspondent over phone from Naisingpara this evening that a team of officials from the three Mizoram districts of Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei are at the relief camp since Tuesday.

He said the identification process is being undertaken to determine whether the Bru families are originally from Mizoram. "Once verification is over and the inmates are identified as original citizens of Mizoram, repatriation will begin," he said.

The seventh batch of Bru repatriation began with the identification procedure in two phases. In the first phase, people whose names are enrolled in the electoral rolls in Mizoram would be identified. In the second phase, people whose names are not included in the rolls but who claim to be original settlers would be recognised.

The families, which choose not to return to Mizoram, would be deemed permanent residents of Tripura. The refugees willing to return to Mizoram will be rehabilitated in Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei. The Mizoram government has offered a rehabilitation package of Rs 85,000 for each family along with food allowance for six months.

Nearly 34,000 refugees living in North Tripura's refugee camps were driven out of their homes in November 1997 in the aftermath of a clash between the majority Mizos and minority Reangs. Between 2009 and 2011, 3,000 Bru refugees were repatriated to Mizoram from North Tripura.

The Bru refugee leaders are demanding higher compensation. They have put forward a charter of demands, which include financial assistance of Rs 150,000 per family, free ration to every repatriated family for two years, cultivable land, political settlement of the ethnic problem and adequate security, among others.

Centre Should Stick To Provisions of Mizoram Accord

By Sanjoy Hazarika


Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in Aizawl, Mizoram, after the signing of the Mizo Peace Accord, July 11, 1986. (Picture credit: Press Information Bureau)

In 1969 the Fifth Finance Commission recommended the creation of ‘special status’ for three states: The then undivided state of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir. The recommendation was to economically help states that are faced by disadvantages of geography, international borders, low population density and other factors.

Over the years, as Assam fragmented with Meghalaya being carved out of it as a state and Mizoram as a Union Territory (which later became a state), and new states emerged from the former kingdoms of Manipur and Tripura, political and economic demands grew for parity in places of turmoil. During these difficult decades, Arunachal Pradesh moved peacefully from being a Tract under the Assam governor’s jurisdiction to the Northeast Frontier Agency (NEFA), and finally became a state in 1987.

Sikkim merged with India in 1975, and in 2002, it became a part of the North Eastern Council.
All the northeastern states along with Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh got the ‘special’ tag. As a result of this, a large amount of money began to flow into these states.

The Centre would grant 90% of the funds the ‘special status’ states needed, while 10% were given as loans. In addition to this, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and Arun Shourie was the planning minister, the first to hold charge of a new Northeast portfolio (then a department, and not a ministry), a special offer was designed, according to which every ministry would contribute 10% of its annual budget to the Northeast department.

The money was to go to the non-lapsable central pool of resources in the department, which was to become the ministry of DoNER (department of the north-east region). It was the 14th Finance Commission that recommended the ending of the ‘special status’ category and took out provisions under Normal Central Assistance (NCA) and Special Central Assistance (SCA). The chief ministers of the eight northeast states have opposed this, saying that it would ‘drastically affect the finances in the northeast states’ and objected to the fact that the Centre would no longer make good the gap in non-plan revenue expenditure such as local development projects and programmes.

A big worry of the states was that the large central subsidies that were going into medium-term and long-term infrastructure programmes and projects in these states (and quite likely into the pockets of the contractors, officials, politicians and ‘militants’) would no longer come for specific projects, but will be a part of a larger transfer. We cannot forget that these states have a history of 30-50 years of conflict. As a result of the violence, they have lost out on opportunities for growth as well as innumerable lives and livelihoods. 

The calculations of the Centre and the finance commission suffer from a fundamental flaw when it comes to Mizoram.

It’s simple: The ’special category’ issue is one of the key provisions of the 1986 landmark peace accord between the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Government of India as well as the local government. The agreement has made Mizoram one of the most peaceful states in the country. In Clause 6 of the Mizoram Accord’s Memorandum of Understanding, the status is spelt out: (a) The Centre will transfer resources to the new government … and this will include resources to cover the revenue gap for the year, (b) Central assistance for Plan will be fixed taking note of any residuary gap in resources …

The MNF, it may be recalled, revolted against India in 1966, and received arms, funds and training from, and in China and Pakistan. The Government of India’s response was nothing less than brutal, uprooting two-thirds of the civilian population from their homes, burning villages and settling them in new fenced-in protected villages or regrouping centres. This remains one of the most undocumented and unresearched parts of the Centre’s campaign in Mizoram. That both sides showed courage and statesmanship to rise above the bitterness and bloodshed to sign a peace treaty 20 years after the first shots were fired needs to be recognised regularly. That the peace has been sustained for the overall part for nearly 30 years is no mean achievement and has happened because of the determination shown by a highly knowledgeable and educated public, the church, the governments of different parties and civil society.

This is to be underlined, especially when conditions in parts of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam remain unsettled and unresolved. The latter represents a different set of issues and stories, which we shall not dwell upon here.

Anything that vitiates or dilutes the Mizoram Accord, the only peace agreement to have held in more than a half century of conflict in the northeast and which has been passed by Parliament, is unacceptable.

It is, therefore, heartening to note that the sub-committee of chief ministers set up by the Niti Aayog has tabled a draft report saying that for this category of states, the old formula should continue.
Changing the status would create new problems: The question will surely be asked — what is the value of a peace accord if there isn’t an economic dividend, let alone a political one? The Government of India needs to firmly assert that the interests of Mizoram and its special status compatriots will not be harmed.

Sanjoy Hazarika is director, Centre for Northeast studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University. The views expressed are personal.

Mizoram Court Begins Hearing Molestation Case Against Teacher

The Aizawl District and Sessions Court on Wednesday began hearing the case of a primary school teacher who was arrested last November for molesting 32 schoolgirls at Saichal village, about 150 km from the state capital.

Aizawl, Jul 30 : The Aizawl District and Sessions Court on Wednesday began hearing the case of a primary school teacher who was arrested last November for molesting 32 schoolgirls at Saichal village, about 150 km from the state capital.

H Lalhmingmawia, the accused, pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against him.

Thirty-year-old H Lalhmingmawia was accused of molesting 32 of his female students — all between the ages of 8 and 12 years — at the government primary school there.

The police investigation whittled down the list to 27 victims after concluding that several kids were apparently touched by the teacher on parts of their body that might not be considered sexual.

The prosecution on Wednesday brought before District and Sessions Judge 15 cases under POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act 2012) against H Lalhmingmawia.

Seven of theses cases were however changed to offences under IPC 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and transferred by the court to a Judicial Magistrate for further action.

The eight POCSO cases have further been divided between sections 6 and 8 of the law: three cases under section 6, five under section 8, according to Additional Public Prosecutor K Lalremruati.

Section 6 deals with “aggravated penetrative sexual assault” and carries a jail term of no less than 10 years which may be extended to a life term. Section 8 deals with “sexual assault” and carries a jail term of between three to five years.

The teacher, who is also a native of Saichal village, was arrested after being accused of molesting his schoolchildren over two years. Specifically, he is accused of raping one thrice, touching another on her private parts till she bled, and the rest on different parts of their body.

Bail Granted in Teacher Recruitment Scam

Aizawl, Jul 30 : The Gauhati High Court has granted interim bail to the five accused in the alleged teacher recruitment scam.

Justice MR Pathak of the Aizawl bench granted interim bail to Lai Autonomous District Council (LADC) Chief Executive Member V Zirsanga and four other accused and fixed August 4 for the next hearing.

The five accused were released on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 each and were restrained from leaving the southern Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district, the officials said.

Aizawl District and Sessions Judge Lucy Lalrinthari had rejected the anticipatory bail petition on Wednesday after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials pleaded that the investigation against the accused was hampered as many witnesses were turning hostile.

Zirsanga and the four persons were allegedly involved in the Rs 3.19 crore teacher recruitment scam, which is being investigated by ACB. ACB contended that Zirsanga, then an executive member, education in the LADC received bribe amounting to Rs 21 lakh.

The investigating officers said that 41 new teachers were recruited fraudulently and the accused included District Education Officer (DEO), a cashier and two teachers.

HPC(D) Resumes Operations in Mizoram

HPCD resumes extortion operations after rejected talk offers, Mizoram DGP says police will bring militant group “to it’s knees” The letter addressed to the PWD SDO at Ratu has demanded a donation of Rs 1 lakh.

Mizoram DGP Dharmendra Kumar said at a meeting of SPs and battalion commandants in Aizawl on Friday that the state police will continue to pressure the militant group until they are “on their knees”. Within a month after the Mizoram government rejected it’s offers for conditional tripartite talks, the Manipur-based Hmar People’s Convention Democratic (HPCD) has apparently resumed underground operations by sending letters demanding donations to four village heads and a PWD official in northern Mizoram, top sources in the state police have said.

The letters signed by “L Hmar, Commander” and addressed to the Village Council Presidents (VCPs) of New Vervek, Damdiai, Ratu and Lungsum and the state PWD’s Sub-Divisional Officer at Ratu were dated July 17 but were received by the addressees on July 21.

The letter addressed to the PWD SDO at Ratu has demanded a donation of Rs 1 lakh, sources said, while the demand letters addressed to the VCPs asked them to collect 5% of funds meant for all job-card holders in their respective jurisdictions and hand it over to the group or its representatives at Sihpuikawn, near Tipaimukh in neighboring Manipur.

Mizoram is separated from Manipur by the Tuivai and Tuiruang (Barak) rivers, and Sihpuikawn lies east of the point where these two converge.

One of the recipients has told police a middle-aged woman in a vehicle delivered the letters on behalf of the militant group, which was responsible for the March 28 ambush on a convoy of three MLAs that killed three policemen and injured six others, including two civilians.

Meanwhile, Mizoram DGP Dharmendra Kumar said at a meeting of SPs and battalion commandants in Aizawl on Friday that the state police will continue to pressure the militant group until they are “on their knees”.

Saying the group’s latest move suggests they have “again become a little active”, DGP Kumar said, “I hope it is not because we have lessened our pressure. We cannot let it go at this stage.”

The Mizoram Police had retaliated against the HPCD by mounting a covert operation and shooting to death “Sergeant” H C Malsawmkima alias Danny, a 31-year-old man suspected to have led the lethal ambush along with the group’s “Western Commander” L Biaka, in early May at a village on the Manipur-side of the Barak river’s bank.

Malsawmkima was a constable with the state police’s armed wing before he fled from the camp at Sakawrdai last year with two guns and joined the militant group.

“Our teams have been so effective that the underground is now running around trying to seek talks again. They are scared of us, they are scared of the Mizoram Police, it was only because of our response that they have come to this kind of a situation. It is only because we have arrested their top leaders and managed to keep them behind bars,” the DGP said.

had on April 16, less than three weeks after the ambush, arrested the HPCD’s “Army Chief” Lalropuia Famhoite and “Finance Secretary” Norbar Sanate from near Silchar town in south Assam. They are currently in judicial custody and Famhoite currently faces dozens of criminal charges in two districts, Aizawl and Kolasib.

The HPCD had last month approached the state government with offers for conditional tripartite talks involving itself, the state government and the Centre, with even it’s chairman Zosangbera making telephone calls to police investigators to help facilitate the talks.

The state government has however rejected the offers saying they must be unconditional and only between the state and the HPCD.

Meanwhile, the HPCD’s long-standing interlocutor Lalmuanpuia Punte, currently chief of the Zoram Nationalist Party’s youth wing, met Union MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju on July 21 to talk about the Hmar “political issue” (the militant group claims to be fighting for an Autonomous District Council for the Hmar tribe) according to a post on Virthli.in, a web portal that largely publishes posts about the Hmar community.

We Have Taken Measures To Repatriate Bru Refugees: Rijiju

New Delhi, Jul 24 : Kiren Rijiju Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday stated that the ministry has taken measures to repatriate the Bru refugees to their homes in Mizoram in a phased manner.

Rijiju, in a written reply to a question by M Chandrakasi in the Lok Sabha, stated that the ministry is also extending financial as well as other logistical assistance to both the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura for their repatriation and resettlement.

Ethic tension between the Reang tribals and the Mizos in the state of Mizoram has been increasing and due to this rising tension, a total of 30000 Reang (Bru) people from Western Mizoram migrated to Tripura.

The Bru migrants are sheltered in the six relief camps set up in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions of North Tripura.

The repatriation and resettlement process started in November 2010 and till now about 1,622 Bru families (8,573 persons) have been repatriated and resettled in Mizoram. A Detailed Action Plan 2015-Road Map has been prepared by the state government for repatriation of all the remaining Bru families to the state.

The ministry has also released an approximate amount of Rs. 246 crore to the Tripura government since 1997-98 for the maintenance of Brus lodged in various relief camps and approximately Rs. 45 crore to the Mizoram government since 2004-05 for disbursement to Bru migrant families for their rehabilitation in its state.

Further, various confidence building measures have been undertaken to instill a sense of security and to remove apprehensions among Brus, for their early repatriation to Mizoram. The issue of their repatriation and rehabilitation is subjudice in the Supreme Court.

ZoRO President Thangmawia Passes Away

Geneva/Aizawl, Jul 21 : President of Zo Reunification Organisation (ZoRO), R Thangmawia passed away in Geneva on Monday at around 12.45 (IST).

Thangmawia left Aizawl on July 15 to attend the "8th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" in Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland slated to be held from July 20 to 24, 2015.

He was found dead inside the toilet of the hotel he is staying.

The cause of his dead is yet to be ascertained. He was 79.

Thangmawia is well-known for his zeal in unifying all the Zo people— Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi — who are divided by three international boundaries - India, Myanmar and Bangladesh- under one administrative unit.

F Lalruatliana, coordinator of ZoRO Northern Zone said Thangmawia was the first-elected treasurer of ZoRO in 1988. He was elected as its president on July 17, 1991 and held this post till date.

Mawia was appointed as the Senator in the Provisional Govt of Mizoram and also became the first Chairman of Foreign Affairs, under Provisional Government of Mizoram.

Mawia is said to have shared close rapport with Isak Chishi Swu, the chairman of National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah/ NSCN-IM) during their college days in the late fifties. In those days, Mawia was pursuing a degree in Commerce (BCom) in Shillong and held the post of presidentship of Mizo Zirlai Pawl (Mizo Students Assn), and later became a scholar in Economics.

"We are deeply saddened by his demise. We lost our great leader," said F Lalruatliana.

"It will be hard to find a true leader like Thangmawia," Lalruatliana said.

In his hey days, Mawia visited China, South Korea, Thailand and German to promote the movement of ZoRO. He marched on foot from Jiribam (Manipur) to Makokchung, Nagaland which is a distance of about 600 kms, and from Makokchung to Moreh, a border town in India-Myanmar, about 400 kms during the Mizo Movement, in 1967. Thangmawia has never contested any MDC, MLA or MP elections during his life. Thangmawia was born in Maite village in 1936. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. He lived in Aizawl Electric Veng.

Mizoram Told To Implement FSA

Aizawl, Jul 20 : The Centre has given September 30 deadline to the Mizoram Government for implementing the Food Security Act, an official of the State Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department said here.

John Tanpuia, Deputy Director of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, however, said that there has been no replies from the Centre on many queries and explanations sought by the State Government including profit margin for the retailers, cost of transportation and other modalities in implementing the scheme, reports PTI.

The Centre had given several deadlines for implementation of the Food Security Act by the States, but this would be the last deadline, according to the instruction from the Government of India.

Earlier, State Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister John Rotluangliana informed the State Assembly that implementation of the Food Security Scheme would lift the burden of the State Government to provide rice for all the people of the State.

The heavy burden of subsidy to the State exchequer would also be lifted while many people in the State would suffer due to the implementation of FSS in the State, Rotluangliana said.

Newmai News adds: Rotluangliana said that FSA will cover only 6,06,000 families and there will be no more BPL families but only AAY families, who are entitled to get 35 kg of rice per month.

The Minister said this while interacting with the new village council members of Rawpuichhip, Dapchhuah, Dampui, Mamit and Lengpui villages at a MZP Mamit felicitation programme on Thursday.

About half of the Mizoram population shall not be covered by the FSA, the Minister said, adding, however, that the State Government is taking steps so that even the families not covered by the Act may get ration as before.

The Minister called on the village leaders to form a selection committee for the implementation of FSA in their respective villages and asked for selection of people who are really in need of the government provision, not along party lines.

Mizoram’s Missing Pangolin Scales – A Tale Of Maybes And Whodunits

Pangolins are protected under national and international law, but their scales are apparently highly-valued in some Asian countries, for decorative as well as alleged medicinal properties.



A Pangolin. (Source: Wikipedia) It is a tale of maybe’s and whodunit’s, how more than a third of all pangolin scales seized in Mizoram have disappeared and possibly re-appeared (only for some portion to perhaps disappear again) in another seizure more than 350 kms away.

It began in the end of May this year when it was discovered that 292 kgs of seized pangolin scales locked up in a forest department godown in Kolasib, a western town, had been replaced by fakes.
The consignment made up more than a third of the 848 kgs of pangolin scales various law enforcement agencies had caught from smugglers since 2012.

Pangolins are protected under national and international law, but their scales are apparently highly-valued in some Asian countries, for decorative as well as alleged medicinal properties.

Consignments have been seized in some North-Eastern states, all supposedly headed towards South-East Asia through Myanmar.

A case was registered soon after the end-May incident at Kolasib, but initial investigations apparently went nowhere.

Then, two-and-a-half weeks later on June 11, a joint operation by police and the Assam Rifles seized six bags from a bus at Farkawn, a village close to the international border with Myanmar, at six in the evening. The bags contained 216 kgs of pangolin scales, the police and AR told the forest department when they handed it over the following day at two in the afternoon.

The official account from the forest department says the AR troops had opened the bags and took pictures with the seized pangolin scales and then re-packed them for submission to the forest officials.
But when the forest department officials received and weighed the bags, they found it was 32.5 kgs lighter.
As of now, they remain clueless how this could have been — either some amount went missing during the 20 hours between the seizure and the handing over of the consignment to the forest department, or the police and AR had incorrectly weighed the goods.

What has added more mystery to the siezure was that the bus driver testified the cargo was loaded onto the bus by one Hmangaihthangi of Kawlkulh village, more than 164 kms north-west of Farkawn.

Hmangaihthangi went to Farkawn after being told that the cargo had been seized because it contained unlawful materials, but when she was interrogated, she said she had indeed loaded it onto the bus but that it was someone else’s.

The owner, she said, was a Myanmarese trader she knew only as Paliana, which could either be a name or the person’s build because Palian in Mizo translates to Big Man.

She knew Paliana from before and she met him unexpectedly in Aizawl about nine days before the seizure while she was there for a medical check-up, she said.

She said he gave her Rs 1,000 to help her with her bills, and asked that she do a simple favour in return; some of his wares were coming by Sumo Service from Shillong to Aizawl on June 9, he said, and asked if she could load them unto the Farkawn bus for him.

She obliged, she said, and left for Kawlkulh the following day. The day after that, the cargo was seized at Farkawn.

Officials are not ruling out the possibility that the 216 kgs (or 183.5 kgs, as it turned out later) of pangolin scales seized at Farkawn are part of the 292 kgs that was replaced with fakes at the forest department godown at Kolasib less than three weeks earlier.

Forest Minister Lalrinmawia Ralte, who gave a brief report about the missing scales at Congress Bhavan on Friday, said, “We are investigating the cases and we cannot say they were or they were not, but it is difficult to say anything definite as long as Paliana is not found and arrested first.”

Kidnapping in Mizoram Drops to Zero in 2015

Officials from the state Home Department confirmed that there had not been a single kidnapping incident so far this year.

The ebbing of militancy in Tripura has had a positive effect in the neighbouring state of Mizoram. As Tripura exited AFSPA with the number of extremist-related incidents, civilian deaths, security personnel deaths, kidnappings and encounters falling to zero this year, Mirzoram, too, saw the number of kidnappings by Tripura-linked militants drop to zero.

Officials from the state Home Department confirmed that there had not been a single kidnapping incident so far this year. They attribute the success to the current tripartite talks between the NLFT, Tripura and the Centre, the second round of which was concluded earlier this month.

Over the past half-decade, at least 31 people were kidnapped — 29 at gunpoint — within Mizoram in nine separate incidents.

Except for two kidnappings near the state’s north-western border with southern Assam, all others incident took place in the border area with Tripura and Bangladesh, according to data furnished to the Tripura Assembly last November by state Home Minister R Lalzirliana.

The latter’s hilly, forested border area has been a hotbed of militant groups that, investigators said, relied on ransom-kidnappings as their main revenue source. The major operators in the area have been the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and lesser-known gangs of Bru tribals that aid the NLFT.

Tripura CM Manik Sarkar recently said the NLFT cadres remain in 16 camps in Bangladesh, three of them close to the Indian border. The Mizoram Home Minister added that 10 kidnappers had been arrested by Mizoram Police, among them seven cadres of the Bru Democratic Front of Mizoram and two cadres of the NLFT.

Seven of these arrested kidnappers were from North Tripura’s Naisingpara relief camp for internally displaced Bru tribals.

Two Congress Spokespersons in Mizoram Quit as Publishers of Party Mouthpiece

The questionnaire the duo refer to in their resignation letter had asked readers to name pastors who have been criticising the Congress government over the lifting of prohibition.

Aizawl, Jul 17 : Two top spokespersons of the ruling Congress party in Mizoram have quit from their posts as publishers of the party mouthpiece following outrage over a questionnaire that targets pastors over the Church’s opposition to the lifting of prohibition.

David M Thangliana and James Thanghmingmawia have submitted their resignations to state party president and Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla saying the questionnaire, published in the July issue of the Congress Thlifim newsletter, has “deeply wounded the sentiments of the church and disgraced the party”.

David, a former journalist, is secretary of the Congress’ media department. James, a former president of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl students’ union, is the department’s chairman.

The questionnaire the duo refer to in their resignation letter had asked readers to name pastors who have been criticising the Congress government over the lifting of prohibition.

It also leaves space to mark the pastors’ current place of posting, and also carries seven options where readers can mark where and on which platform the pastor made adverse comments against the party or the government.

The questionnaire had caused outrage and has been the subject of considerable online debate, especially on social media, where on one post a user identifying himself as a pastor asked members to mark the seventh option, which says “Everywhere he [the pastor] goes”.

Mizoram lifted 18 years of prohibition by enacting a new law last year and opening liquor retail shops in March.

While the church has been vocal against the lifting of prohibition and church members have picketed at least one liquor shop, it has largely been community-based organisations and neighbourhood groups who have been the most active in not allowing liquor shops to open in their vicinities.

Mizoram Govt Amends Rule For State’s Technical Entrance Examination

Aizawl, Jul 17 : The official said the decision was taken so that hundreds of students who have given the entrance test this year would not be adversely affected. The Mizoram government has amended the state’s technical entrance examination rules to include non-ethnic Zo students in category 1, according to a senior official privy to the move but who declined to be named because the matter might still be sub-judice.

The official said the decision was taken so that hundreds of students who have given the entrance test this year would not be adversely affected.

The Gauhati High Court had earlier stayed the Mizoram government’s new technical education rules that placed “Zo-ethnic people who are native inhabitants” in category 1 in the state’s selection criteria for college admissions. This would have given them the first preference to fill up the available seats under the state’s quota in various colleges across India.

According to the rules, students who are not in category 1 — specified as “Non-Zo-ethnic people who are non-native inhabitants” — would then fill up the remaining seats. This includes several ethnic minorities as well as those from elsewhere who live permanently in the state.​

T​he Mizoram Chakma Students’ Union had approached the Gauhati High Court and challenged the new rules that were notified in March after the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), a students’ body, pressured the government by picketing the higher education office in Aizawl. The MZP demanded first preference should be given to students from the ethnic Zo community, which forms a majority in the state.

The Chakmas, who mostly live in the Chakma Autonomous District of southern Mizoram, had protested against the new rules, calling it ​​discriminatory. The community’s main student body, meanwhile, went to court against the rules through a PIL.

Pic source: Vangliani.org

Mizoram: 16-year-old boy Allegedly Kills Sister, Brother-in-law To Buy Mobile Handset

Aizawl: A 16-year-old boy, who wanted to purchase a mobile handset, allegedly killed his sister and brother-in-law and looted Rs 36,000 from them in a village in the district, police said in Aizawl on Wednesday.

The 16-year-old boy confessed to the Juvenile Justice Board on Tuesday that he had killed the couple on July 7 and took away Rs 36,000, said Aizawl district SP C Laldina.

The 16-year-old boy confessed to the Juvenile Justice Board that he had killed the couple on July 7 and took away Rs 36,000, said Aizawl district police.

The boy was arrested from his home a day after the crime, Laldina said.


Laldina said quoting the boy as having told the Board members that he had been given a single-barrelled gun to hunt animals in the jungle surrounding his village and was overcome by the temptation to rob his step-sister so that he could buy a mobile phone.

"The boy went back, gunned down the husband and hit his step-sister with a firewood," his interrogators said adding that he also inflicted several injuries with an axe.

The couple recently received Rs 66,000 from the government after being selected as the beneficiary of the state government's flagship programme - the New Land Use Policy of which they had already spent around Rs 30,000 and the rest stolen by the accused.

Mizoram celebrates World Skills Day, CM buys tools for trained Youth

Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla also talked about PM Modi's launching of the Skill India program on the occasion of World Skills Day


Chief Minister of Mizoram Pu Lal Thanhawla. (Source: PTI/File) Mizoram celebrated World Skills Day at two venues on Wednesday with CM Lal Thanhawla distributing tools he bought for 92 youth newly-trained under a state program while state Labour Minister Lalrinmawia Ralte pushed for greater collaboration with South Korea beginning with a k-pop concert scheduled in Aizawl later this month.

Lal Thanhawla took part in a program in his constituency Serchhip where he handed over the tools he spent Rs 4 lakh from his own pocket for to 92 youth who trained for various vocational skills under the Young Mizo Association, a community-based organisation, and the Mizoram Youth Commission.
Lal Thanhawla also talked about PM Modi’s launching of the Skill India program on the occasion of World Skills Day.

In Aizawl, state labour Minister Lalrinmawia Ralte said the K-Pop contest and concert planned for later this month is “not only for fun and games” but for the Mizo community “to knock on the doors” of the east Asian country for better collaboration in other fields.

“We have begun taking steps towards learning from the South Koreans, with whom we share similarities,” he said.

Korean culture, films, music and even cuisine has a large following in Mizoram.

The K-pop contest and concert is being jointly organised by the Mizoram government and the Korean Cultural Centre on July 25 at the Mizoram University.

Mizoram Has the Highest Number of Landless Farmers

Aizawl, Jul 15 : Mizoram has the highest number of rural residents without land among the tribals in Northeast India.

According to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011, a whopping 80 per cent of the state’s Mizoram’s rural dwellers are landless, compared to the national average of 56 per cent of villagers without land.

Mizoram tops the rest of NE states in terms of landless villagers as 88,757 of the total 1,11,626 families living in the rural areas do not own an inch of agriculture land.

Of the total 80,43,896 families in the Northeast region living in rural areas, 1,007,77,240 are without arable land, constituting 59 per cent of the total rural population, the Census revealed.

Sikkim, the smallest state in the NE region, tops the rest of the NE states as 53,339 of the total 88,727 rural families are owning arable land.
Northeast tribals are worse than their mainland Indian counterparts as 59 per cent of families living in the rural areas in the hilly region are without land, compared to 56 per cent among tribals in mainland India.

While 80,43,896 families of ST/SC in the NE region are living in rural areas, 13,60,207 of them are living in urban areas.

Mizoram has the highest number of Scheduled Tribe (ST) as 98.91 per cent of the total population belongs to ST.

About 80 per cent of farmers in Mizoram still practice the slash-and-burn system of cultivation or jhumming, that involves clearing of forest and burning the slashed trees and leaves for cultivation.

The land used for jhumming cultivation cannot be reused until the next five years. Most of the forest used for cultivation belong to the concerned village councils, who distribute land to the villagers on yearly basis.