Mizoram Charity Concerts for Myanmar Flood Victims

The Zofa Global Network and the Green Mizoram Network organized mobile charity concerts for flood victims called “In Aid of Disaster Victims in Myanmar” on 6 and 7 August in Aizawl, Mizoram State, North East India.

Mizoram State's largest community-based organisation donated 10 tons of rice while local musicians held mobile charity concerts in five public squares in Aizawl, the state capital.

On 6 August, the mobile charity concerts were held at the Bawngkawn, Chanmari, New Market and the Millennium Centre in Aizawl.

On 7 August, the concerts were held at Thakthing Bazar (Mizzion Veng), Khatla Kawn, Vaivakawn and Israel Point in Aizawl.

Performing were the top Mizo singers Rosangliana (Zo Rock), Sawmtea, Manuna Chawngthu, Ronald Zothantluanga, Zualboihi, Sangkimi Khiangte, Lawmi Khiangte, Feli Fanai and Rosy Zorinpuii.

The Presbyterian Church also asked all churches in Aizawl to contribute towards the aid effort and asked those in towns and villages to also pitch in if they can. A local TV network has also called for contributions from viewers.

Two of the state’s main student unions, the MZP and the MSU, have also appealed to all students in the state to contribute one-day’s lunch worth of money to be sent as aid to the flood-affected people.
Another group of musicians is also planning a concert for later this month.

People United in Music with a Purpose (PUMP) has organised a Charity Concert for victims of the  flooding in Myanmar on 14 and 15 August in front of the Millennium Centre, in Aizawl.
The following singers and bands will be performing on 14 August: C.Luri, Zoramchhani, Mami Varte, Manunna (Hardray), Andrew Laltlankima, Henry Varte, Ruthi Ch.Ralte, Zorini Khiangte, Feli Thangluah, Dr.Zothansanga, DJ Lalvenhimi, Sawmtea Chhangte, Mizo Cardinal Choir, David Vanlalpeka, Lancy Remlalhruaii, Pratima, Spi, Michael M Sailo, Zualboihi, May-i, Ruatfeli (Triau Track), Hmingtea, and The Breeze.

The following singers and bands will be performing on 15 August: Lawmi Khiangte, Lungmuana Chhangte, The Prophets, Stacy VL Muanpuii, Forever Young, The Keys, Hlimhlimi, Henry Varte, Rosy K. Remsangpuii, Temi Sailo, Betea, TBZ Choir, leprosy Mission Choir, Mizo Cardinal Choir, Feli Fanai, Laikai ROCK, Tribal Power, Hexatone, 3rd Eye, Radiowave and Kroashia.

source: bnionline.net

Mizoram: Local group ask Gov to remove Army Colonel to prevent ‘civil-military conflict’

Aizawl, Aug 11 : Colonel Ravinder Singh, who is posted at the Army's Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS), was arrested by Vairengte police for threatening a man in a shop last week with a knife.

Locals in Mizoram’s Vairengte village have asked state Governor Nirbhay Sharma to help remove an Indian Army Colonel to prevent “civil-military animosity and conflict” after the Colonel was arrested for the second time in a month by police due to his alleged violent behaviour, including threatening a local man with a knife.

Colonel Ravinder Singh, who is posted at the Army’s Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS), was arrested by Vairengte police for threatening a man in a shop last week with a knife. He had been arrested and later charge-sheeted for allegedly assaulting a fellow-Colonel in the school campus a month before.

The local unit of the Young Mizo Association, the state’s largest community-based organisation with members in bvirtually every household, on Monday submitted a letter to Governor Sharma asking that the Colonel be removed from the school and listed out complaints by villagers.

These include the Colonel playing football outside church buildings during Sunday church services, moving around the village with guns, machetes and other weapons and terrifying residents, presenting gifts to women after they make it clear they do not want them and visiting them at odd hours in their shops, workplaces and even homes, knocking on locals’ doors late in the night and one time removing a porch light-bulb, and general public drunkenness.

“Our young men have developed a sense of enmity against him,” the YMA wrote in the letter to Governor Sharma, adding the Colonel’s continued presence might lead to “unwanted commotion breaking out in the village”.

Key Link To Indo-China Pangolin Smuggling Nabbed From Mizoram

By P Naveen

Bhopal, Aug 10 : Madhya Pradesh forest department arrested another key link in the Indo-China international pangolin smuggling racket from Mizoram. The accused, Laltlan Kunga, a resident of Kolasib district in Mizoram, was brought on transit remand to Madhya Pradesh and produced in Chhindwara court on Saturday. One kg of pangolin scales were confiscated from his house. Blood, meat and scales of pangolins are sold to traditional medical practitioners at a premium in south-eastern countries.

Ritesh Sirotia, in-charge of state forest's special task force (STF) wildlife crime, told TOI that Kunga is a mediator between pangolin traders in India and China. "We have identified two Myanmar nationals, who are part of the poaching syndicate. Efforts are on to arrest them through Interpol," he said.

He was into this trade for last five years. "Kunga was getting commission from poachers in India and Myanmar. He was assigned with task of smuggling pangolins and its scales to China," said the officer.

As many as 38 people from seven states have been arrested, including 23 from Madhya Pradesh, seven from Maharashtra, two from Odisha, two from Andhra Pradesh, one from Chhattisgarh, two from West Bengal and one from Mizoram.

Another key player of the gang has been identified as Amir Hussain Laskhar of Assam. He is absconding. Laskhar moved an application for anticipatory bail in the court. STF is also trying to arrest his female associate, Zobi Hmar, who is a tribal and part of the global smuggling ring.

Last month, STF arrested Ashfaq Hussain, 63, a leather businessman from Odisha's Berhampur area. A Kolkata-based marine engineer and a corporator involved in smuggling Indian pangolins to China and Vietnam were arrested during previous operations. Accused allegedly confessed to poaching and trafficking 100 pangolins from Madhya Pradesh to China in the last 12 months.

Those arrested from Kolkata have been identified as Jamal Iqbal, 59, and his son Danish, 24, a marine engineer. Eleven others, including an independent corporator were arrested from Chhindwara district.

"Tribals were used to pick up pangolins from forests and paid Rs 400-500 per kg for scales. It was then forwarded to Jamal between Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 and then shipped to China where it's sold for around Rs 1 lakh and more.

The operation to bust the pangolin racket was carried out by special task force (STF) of state forest department led by Chhindwara chief conservator of forests, Ritesh Sirothia, range officer Nitin Nigam and forest guard Chandra Sekhar Sharma.

This ant-eating mammal with armour of keratin scales has been listed under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as an endangered species. Experts said, "If poaching continues, pangolin could go extinct."

In traditional Chinese medicine, roasted pangolin scales are used for detoxification of blood, draining pus, curing palsy and stimulating lactation while its blood is used to treat asthma, cancer and reproductive problems.

How an High Court Order is Helping Mizoram Tackle Land Compensation Demands

Aizawl, Aug 7 : Village Councils are the equivalent of panchayats, and the “passes” have traditionally acted as certificates of land ownership for agricultural purposes within the Council’s territory.

Worried about conflict and delays over compensation for land chosen as sites of infrastructure projects, Mizoram has circulated to its officials a High Court ruling that a widely-issued land ownership document could not be used to claim or allot compensation.

The Gauhati High Court’s Aizawl Bench passed an order in June saying Village Councils had no authority to issue “Garden Passes”, and that no claim for compensation could be made on the basis of these letters.

Village Councils are the equivalent of panchayats, and the “passes” have traditionally acted as certificates of land ownership for agricultural purposes within the Council’s territory.


“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 court said, striking down an order passed by the lower court, which had awarded compensation to more than 100 petitioners.

The petitioners’ lands had been acquired by the government for the under-construction railway line from Assam to Aizawl as part of the North-East Frontier Railway’s plan to link all Northeastern state capitals by 2022.

The petitioners had approached the HC 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 court said.

Lalramthanga, Principal Secretary, Chief Minister’s Office, brought the judgment to the notice of participants at a meeting of top officials last week. The court order was discussed at length, and 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 attended the meeting.

Several infrastructure projects in Mizoram have been delayed and complicated due to land compensation claims, prompting Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla to declare in the Assembly recently that “We are a compensation community” — leading to a heated exchange between him and opposition MLA Lalruatkima, who demanded the CM’s speech be taken off the records.

Anticipatory bail to Zirsanga, six others in education funds Scam

Aizawl, Aug 5 : The Aizawl Bench of the Gauhati High Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Chief Executive Member of Mizoram’s Lai Autonomous District Council, V Zirsanga and six others in a Rs 1.5 crores education funds scam.

Justice L S Jamir granted anticipatory bail to the accused, which include the District Education Officer, a high school teacher attached as cashier to the DEO and two teachers who head the main teachers’ body there.

They have been told not to leave Lawngtlai town (headquarters of the LADC) without prior permission, cooperate with investigators and not try to influence witnesses.

The men had earlier been granted interim bail by the same court on July 23, a day after the Aizawl District Court rejected their anticipatory bail plea after the investigating officer, an Anti-Corruption Bureau Inspector, said the court prosecution witnesses were turning hostile or were less enthusiastic about giving testimony.

The IO said he suspected it might be because the accused remained at large and lived in the same town as the accused.

LADC CEM V Zirsanga and the others are accused of illegally amassing about Rs 1.5 crores from the education scam.

According to the ACB, they did this by issuing fake pay certificates for 41 teachers, drawing salaries of some teachers more than once while apparently pocketing the salaries of several others.

NGOs & Churches To Collect Donations To Help Myanmar Flood Victims

Aizawl, Aug 5 : Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and churches will be collecting donations to help flood victims in the neighbouring state of Manipur and ethnic Mizo inhabited areas of Myanmar.

Zo Re-unification Organisation (ZoRO) leader R Zamawia today said the ZoRO convened a meeting of major NGOs and political parties yesterday and agreed to collect donations from the people of Mizoram for helping the flood victims in the Mizo inhabited towns of Kanan, Khampat, Halkha, Falam, Tahan and Kalemyo in Myanmar and several villages in Manipur.

Association of singers and musicians - the Mizo Zaimi Insuihkhawmpawl (MZI) and People United to Promote Music (PUMP) would also organise charity concerts on the streets of Aizawl this week to help the flood victims.

The Presbyterian Church's Mizoram Synod issued a circular to all local churches asking for donation to help the flood victims in Myanmar and also appealed to the church members to hold special prayer services for flood victims.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla sent a condolence message to his Manipur counterpart Ibobi Singh as several died in Chandel district due to the floods.

Lal Thanhawla said the people of Mizoram were praying for the people of Manipur at this time of disaster and grief.

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.”