$1.47mn ADB Aid to Check HIV Along Northeast India Roads

The fund is meant for capacity development programs to help reduce the incidence of infections in areas earmarked for major road projects

New Delhi, Feb 1 : The northeastern Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland will receive Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to address the social and health issues associated with road improvement.

The Cooperation Fund for Fighting HIV and AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, financed by the Government of Sweden and administered by ADB, is providing a US$ 1.47 million technical assistance grant  to carry out assessment work and capacity development programs in key agencies to help reduce the incidence of infections in areas earmarked for major road projects.

"The assistance will help provide stronger service delivery capabilities for HIV prevention in the five states, and will complement the work of the National AIDS Control Organization," ADB's South Asia Department Social Development Specialist Francesco Tornieri said.

New and upgraded roads may result in broad benefits to communities, particularly those in remote areas, but studies show they can also be a conduit for the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

In the northeast of India, HIV prevalence is higher than in many other parts of the country, is increasingly driven by heterosexual transmission, and poses a major threat to poor rural women who lack equal access to health and nutrition services, and are less involved in social and political decision making than men.

The technical assistance will develop a project baseline and monitoring and evaluation system to provide information on the interaction between HIV transmission, road construction and high-risk behavior.

It will roll out HIV training and skills transfer programs, targeting the private sector, health service providers and condom distributors, and will build up the HIV awareness capacity of nongovernment organizations, community-based organizations, people living with HIV, and trade unions.

It will also complement ongoing direct interventions by state agencies to prevent HIV, targeting construction workers in campsites, and communities directly affected by infrastructure work.

Alternative livelihood and self-employment training initiatives aimed at promoting the economic empowerment of people living with HIV - particularly widows, destitute single mothers, female heads of households, and sex workers - may also be supported.

The National AIDS Control Organization is the executing agency for the technical assistance which will run from February 2010 until 2013.

‘Lost Tribe’ on Fast Track To Israel

By Jonathan Cook

The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of Northeast India.

Under the plan, the “lost Jews” would be brought to Israel over the next two years by right-wing and religious organizations who, critics are concerned, will seek to place them in West Bank settlements in a bid to foil Israel’s partial agreement to a temporary freeze of settlement growth.

A previous attempt to bring the Bnei Menashe to Israel was halted in 2003 by Avraham Poraz, the interior minister at the time, after it became clear that most of the 1,500 who had arrived were being sent to extremist settlements, including in the Gaza Strip and next to Hebron, the large Palestinian city in the West Bank.

Dror Etkes, who monitors settlement growth for Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, said there were strong grounds for suspecting that some of the new Bnei Menashe would end up in the settlements, too.

“There is a mutual interest being exploited here,” he said. “The Bnei Menashe get help to make aliyah (immigration) while the settlements get lots of new arrivals to bolster their numbers, including in settlements close to Palestinian areas where most Israelis would not want to venture.”

The government’s decision, leaked this month to Ynet, Israel’s biggest news website, was made possible by a ruling in 2005 by Shlomo Amar, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, that the Bnei Menashe are one of 10 lost Jewish tribes, supposedly exiled from the Middle East 2,700 years ago.

He ordered a team of rabbis to go to north-east India to begin preparing Bnei Menashe who identified themselves as Jews for conversion to the strictest stream of Judaism, Orthodoxy, so they would qualify to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return.

The Bnei Menashe belong to an ethnic group called the Shinlung (Sinlung), who number more than one million and live mainly in the states of Manipur and Mizoram, close to the border with Myanmar. They were converted from animism to Christianity by British missionaries a century ago, but a small number claim to have kept an ancient connection to Judaism.

DNA samples taken from the Bnei Menashe have failed so far to establish any common ancestry to Jews.

The immigration of the Bnei Menashe following Mr. Amar’s ruling was quickly halted after the foreign ministry expressed concerns that it was causing a diplomatic falling out with India, which has laws against missionary activity.

Ophir Pines-Paz, the interior minister in 2005, who opposed what he called the “clandestine” arrival of the Bnei Menashe, said in an interview last week: “I was against a policy that sends (Jewish) immigrants to the settlements. I hope that could not be the case today with a settlement freeze in place. I want to believe that is the case.”

However, the Bnei Menashe have won two powerful right-wing sponsors: Shavei Israel, led by Michael Freund, a former assistant to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister; and a religious group known as the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which draws on wide support from evangelical Christians in the United States.

Mr. Freund began lobbying for the immigration of the Bnei Menashe to Israel while he was an adviser to Mr. Netanyahu during his previous premiership, in the late 1990s. Mr. Freund is believed to have used his connections in the current government to push the group’s case again.

Arik Puder, a spokesman for Shavei Israel, refused to comment, saying the organization had decided to keep “a low profile” on the decision to bring the Bnei Menashe to Israel. It is believed that Shavei Israel is concerned that the government may come under pressure to reverse its decision if there is too much public scrutiny.

According to Ynet, Israel is planning to avoid diplomatic complications with India by sending groups of Bnei Menashe to Nepal for a fast-track conversion.

The brand of Judaism the Bnei Menashe have been exposed to during their “Jewish education” in special camps in India was indicated by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, who has worked closely with the tribe since the early 1980s. He said he believed in the biblical prophecy of a coming apocalypse – one shared by “End of Days” evangelical Christians – in which “all the world is against Israel” in a battle to be decided in Jerusalem.

“I believe we are very close to the time when the Messiah will arrive and we must prepare by making sure that all the Jews are in the Land of Israel. There are more than six million among the lost tribes and they must be brought to Israel as a matter of urgency.”

Shimon Gangte, 33, who was helped by Mr. Avichail to come to Israel 13 years ago, is among 500 Bnei Menashe living in Kiryat Arba, an extremist settlement whose armed inhabitants regularly clash with Palestinians in neighboring Hebron. He said: “It is important that the 10 tribes are brought here because the time of the Messiah is near.”

Mr. Gangte added that the Bnei Menashe were attracted to the West Bank because life was cheaper in the settlements than in Israel and the settlers “give us help finding housing, jobs and schools for our children”.

Mr. Etkes of Yesh Din said “past experience” fed suspicions that the Bnei Menashe would be encouraged to settle deep in the West Bank, adding that the so-called settlement freeze, insisted on by the United States as a prelude to renewed peace talks, was having little effect on the ground.

“There is no freeze because it is being violated all the time. The settlers had lots of time to prepare for the freeze and spent the four to five months before it in a frenzy of construction activity.”

Shavei Israel lobbies for other groups of Jews to be brought to Israel, including communities in Spain, Portugal, Italy, South America, Russia, Poland and China.

Israeli peace groups were outraged in 2002 when Shavei Israel placed a group of 100 Peruvian immigrants, whose ancestors converted to Judaism 50 years ago, in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank.

Jonathan Cook is a British writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae), published in Abu Dhabi

Trade, Industry Groups Urge Dhaka to Invest in India

Agartala, Feb 1 : Now that India has lifted investment-related restrictions on Bangladesh, trade and industry groups have urged Dhaka to invest in India.

Pakistan and Bangladesh were the only countries figuring in India’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) negative list of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act). India lifted the FDI-related restrictions with Bangladesh early last year.

“The Bangladesh government is expected to allow case-to-case industrial projects to be set up in India or to commission joint venture projects (in India),” said Annisul Huq, president of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI).

“A food processing plant and a tyre manufacturing industry would be set up in India. The Bangladesh government is likely to allow investment in India for these projects,” Huq and India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) president Abdul Matlub Ahmad told reporters here.

PRAN (Programme for Rural Advancement Nationally) group, a Bangladeshi food processing firm, is keen to set up agro-processing plants in Tripura, Orissa and Tamil Nadu while a joint venture tyre manufacturing industry would be set up in Tripura by Indian and Bangladeshi investors.

Bangladesh’s Nitol-Niloy group and two Kolkata-based companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) here Saturday to commission the tyre manufacturing industry in Agartala using the natural rubber available in Tripura, which is the second largest rubber producer in the country after Kerala.

Bangladeshi trade and industry groups, including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and IBCCI are strongly pressing to increase trade and economic activities with India’s northeast region and urged Dhaka to provide transit facilities to India.

A 10-member Bangladeshi trade delegation headed by Huq and comprising members of various Bangladesh trade bodies held a series of meetings here over the past few days with Indian businessmen and government officials to chalk out strategies for setting up joint venture projects and intensifying trade and business between the two countries.

“For the economic interest of both northeast India and Bangladesh, there are huge scopes to tap the resources of both the countries. Northeast India’s large reserves of gas, coal, stones, natural rubber, bamboo, various forest produce and agro-products are still unutilized,” Huq said.

Referring to opposition in increasing economic ties with India by some quarters in Bangladesh, they said: “We have to change the mindset of those who oppose mutual economic activities. With the change of the economic scenario the approach would be changed automatically.”

India has been pressing for transit facilities through Bangladesh for better connectivity between the land-locked northeastern region and the rest of the country.

“If the Bangladesh government provides transit facilities via Chittagong, Sherpur, Ashuganj and Mongla ports, it would benefit in terms of revenue,” SCCI president said, adding that the matter was in principle agreed during the three-day visit to India by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last month.

According to Huq, by providing logistical support to India (including use of Bangladeshi ports by India) Bangladesh can gain 1.2 billion US dollars annually.

The SCCI president said: “A serious effort would be taken to increase the number of SAARC Visa Exemption stickers from 100 to 500 to boost trade and business among the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries.” At present 100 leading businessmen of each SAARC country have been using the SAARC Visa Exemption stickers.

He said that trade among SAARC countries is around 3.5 percent of the region’s total trade with the rest of the world.

“India’s trade with Bangladesh is 3.4 billion dollars, while Bangladesh’s trade with India is less than half a billion dollars. This trade gap has to be narrowed down for the crucial economic development of people of the two neighbors.”

“A multipurpose business complex comprising budget hotels and convention halls would be set up in Agartala to conduct business of both northeast India and Bangladeshi products,” Huq added.

Burma Demands The Return of Democracy

Burma is taking unsure steps towards a democracy again. It has been learnt that military junta have planned to conduct a general election as part of its own 'transition to civilian rule process' which is likely to be held by October 10, 2010.

By D N Singh

Burma’s largest political party National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 392 seats out of total 492 parliamentary seats in the country’s general elections of 1990, could not form its government even after its landslide victory as the military junta regime ignored the verdict of the people and refused to hand over the power to NLD. That was a blatant mockery in the name of election in Burma.

It may be recalled that the people of that country have not forgotten the days when due to deterioration of Burma’s economic situation and oppressive one political party rule on August 8, 1988 (which is also known as 8-8-88), when the workers, monks, peasants, teachers, youth and government servants led by the university students in Rangoon rose up as one to call upon the military rulers to abolish the ill-reputed one party system demanding democracy and human rights in the country.

The military responded with bullets against the peaceful demonstrators and killed more than 3000 demonstrators throughout the country.

Since then, the Burmese democracy activists have been imprisoned, intimidated, tortured and put to death for demanding justice, peace, human rights and a democratic government.

At present there are more that 2100 political prisoners, many of them have been given jail terms for several years and some even up to 106 years without trial. The Nobel Laureate and leader of the Burmese democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi has already spent more than 14 years under detention.

It has been learnt that military junta have now planned to conduct general election as part of its own ‘transition to civilian rule process’ (seven steps roadmap to democracy) which is likely to be held by October 10, 2010 (10-10-10). The people are scared of this election due to their past experiences of 8-8-88.

The Burma Centre, Delhi and Journalists’ Forum, Assam, jointly organized a ‘Consultation meeting on 2010 election in Burma and its implication on North East India’ in Guwahati, with the aim of analyzing and examining the impact of the 2008 constitution, 2010 election and Burmese peoples’ expectations and struggle and responses from Northeast India’s perspective.

General opinion of the participants in the discussion was that, if the election is allowed to go ahead without revision and amendment in the provisions of 2008 constitutions, it will make the Burmese military regime into a permanent dictatorship.

Even in the unlikely event these elections are free and fair, they will not bring any real change in Burma, because the fundamentally flawed constitution that allocates vast powers to military, lacks any checks and balances, allows for the ongoing discrimination and persecution of ethnic nationalities, gender discrimination and lacks protection of human rights.

Such a constitution will lead the country into a conflict and post-conflict situation and will continue to put Burma’s vast problems into neighboring countries and throughout the region, if necessary measures are not taken.

The Northeast India hosts more than one lakh Burmese refugees, which number increased rapidly from 60,000 in August 2007 to one lakh in 2008.

Porous Border Posing Threat to Northeast India Security

By R Dutta Choudhury

Guwahati, Feb 1 : The porous international border is posing a grave threat to the security of the Northeast region and there is urgent need for increasing vigilance along the border, said the Director General of Meghalaya police, SB Kakati.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Meghalaya police DG admitted that complete sealing of the international border would be an impossible task because of the terrain.

However, he said that increase of vigil along the border, deployment of second line of defense and efforts to strengthen intelligence network in the villages located near the international border etc would be able to play a vital role in preventing elements of anti-India forces from sneaking into the country from Bangladesh.

Kakati said that though the ULFA recently suffered setbacks in Bangladesh after the arrests of senior leaders, it is an established fact that forces inimical to India including militants still have their bases in the neighboring country and they take advantage of the porous international border to sneak into India to create disturbance.

He said that Meghalaya based militant group HNLC have their bases across the border, particularly in the Khasi villages located in Bangladesh. He revealed that the border in Garo Hills is considered most vulnerable as the militants often try to take advantage of the terrain to sneak into India from Bangladesh through that area.

Commenting on the slow progress of fencing the international border, Kakati said that though the fencing alone cannot completely seal the border, it is definitely a deterrent. He, however pointed out that the entire border cannot be fenced because of the terrain and because of the decision to construct the fencing 150 yards inside the zero line, India is losing land wherever the fencing is erected.

Moreover, there are places where Indian villages are located within 150 yards from the zero line and construction of fencing would pose serious problems for them. He further admitted that the disputed Pyrdwah area along the international border in Meghalaya is always a cause of concern as even the Pyrdwah village is located outside the border pillars. “I have recently

visited the area and found that the entire stretch of the international border from Pyrdwah to Dowki is vulnerable and it would be difficult to fence the area,” he added.

The Meghalaya police DG revealed that the old fencing, wherever constructed was useless because of the faulty design as it was submerged in water for most parts of the rainy season. But on the positive side, the Government of India has started replacing the old fencing with a new one, which would be beneficial in checking infiltration to a great extent.

Kakati, who had also served as the IG of Border Security Force (BSF) in North Bengal sector, said that there is need for increasing vigil by the border guarding force in the entire region with deployment of additional forces and setting up of new border outposts in the vulnerable areas. Patrolling in the vulnerable areas should also be intensified, he added.

Kakati said that personnel of Meghalaya police have been posted as second line of defense behind the BSF in the areas considered vulnerable and efforts are also on to motivate the people of the villages located along the international border to inform the forces about the movement of infiltrators and other undesired elements. Such moves started paying dividends as recently a group of HNLC militants could be nabbed immediately after they managed to sneak into West Garo Hills from Bangladesh.

The Meghalaya police DG also stressed the need for better coordination and sharing of intelligence between the police forces of the states having international border with Bangladesh to deal with the threat faced by the region from the militants and other anti-India forces having bases in the neighboring country.

via The Assam Tribune

Assam Seeks National Recognition For Prince Who Fought British

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

In 1828, Gomdhar Konwar, an Ahom prince, organized an armed revolt against the British. He was arrested and sent to a jail in Rangpur (now in Bangladesh) and nothing much is known about what happened to him thereafter.

Last week, while delving into Assam’s role in the freedom struggle, a group of people demanded “due national recognition” for Gomdhar Konwar and called for rewriting history by including the role of the people from the region in the national movement.

“Konwar, who revolted against the British in 1828, is one of the first freedom fighters. But hardly anybody in the country knows about him. We want due national recognition for him,” said Jintu Hazarika, general secretary, Gomdhar Konwar Birth Bi-Centenary Committee. The unsung hero’s birth bi-centenary celebrations begins Thursday.

When Assam was annexed by the British in 1826, it was Gomdhar Konwar, son of a nobleman named Phena Konwar, who organised the first revolt to oust them. “He was arrested and sentenced to seven years of jail. You will not find even one sentence on this freedom fighter in any book on Indian history,” rued Hazarika.

A 1987 publication by the Assam government has Gomdhar Konwar’s name in the first place among the 30 martyrs from the state.

Assam: Where People Defy Militant's Diktat

By Nava Thakuria

Who says Assam is a land of separatists, where the concept of Indianness is yet to gain popular support! Look how the common people of the insurgency stricken State have shown their braveness to defy the diktats of the separatist militants. They came out in larger number to pay their gratitude to the motherland once again on the 61st Republic Day (of India). Not only the government functions, but also the community programmes for the observation of the Day were flocked by conscious citizens of the region.

In the main celebrations held in New Delhi, India had showcased its vibrant cultural heritage, entrepreneurship and military might, where the South Korean president Lee Myung Bak was the guest of honor.

Indian president Pratibha Devisingh Patil took lead in the program, where the prime minister Manmohan Singh with many high level dignitaries were present.

In fact, when the mainland India observed the R-Day with fanfare, the people of Northeast celebrated the Day with utmost conviction. The region joined with the mainland with the carnival comprising various programs like hoisting Tri-color, ceremonial march past, competition for children and mass rally on the roads.

Manipur witnessed few explosions prior to the R-Day that wounded four persons. On the other hand, few explosives were recovered from different parts of Assam. At the same time, a number of militants were killed during encounters with security forces in the State before the Day.

The landlocked Northeast, which has been surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet (china), Burma and Bangladesh, is the home for more than 20 active armed groups, who have been fighting against New Delhi with demands ranging from sovereignty to self rule. Those banned outfits have been opposing the celebration of I- Day and R- Day since long back questioning the meaning of celebrating these occasions in Assam and Northeast India.

However, the spirit of Nationalism among the people of Northeast never dried up and hence the diktat of militants could not deter them in participating in the celebrations. Like different other States of the mainland India, the alienated region also witnessed the government functions at various State capitals and district head quarters to observe the R-Day.

In Assam, the main function of R-Day was organized at Latashil playground in Guwahati, where the State Governor Janaki Ballav Patnaik unfurled the National flag amidst fanfare. Addressing the gathering, the Governor appealed to 'all militant groups to shun the path of violence and join the mainstream by holding negotiations to settle their grievances'.

As earlier years, defying the militant's diktat, city based journalists and civilians came forward to celebrate the R-Day in Guwahati Press Club. Following the appeal from a number of media bodies and civil society groups, the citizens joined the celebration, where veteran journalist DN Chakrabarty hoisted the National flag. He also analyzed the importance of the R-Day, which was recognized as the Independence Day during the pre-independence days.

Later the participants took out a procession in the streets of Guwahati and chanted the patriotic slogans like Bande Mataram, Jai Aai Asom, Down with Terrorism, Condemn Separatism etc. The journalists later joined in sports activities and also sang patriotic songs on the press club premises.
It may be mentioned that a meeting of the representatives of several organizations and individuals was organized at the press club on January 15.

The participants of the meeting including Save Guwahati Build Guwahati president Dhiren Barua, Guwahait Mahanagar Unnayan Samiti president of the Subodh Sarma, Brihattar Guwahati Nagarik Samannaya Samity president PC Choudhury, Samannaya Samity secretary general Benudhar Barua, National Federation of Newspaper Employees secretary Nava Thakuria, Journalists' Forum, Assam leaders Rupam Barua, Hiten Mahanta, Ajit Patowary, DN Singh, Mukul Kalita, Sabita Lahkar, Pankaj Duara, Anup Sarma and Swami Vivekananda Janasiksha Puthibharal president of Satish Tahbildar, musician Kishore Giri, academician Jagadindra Roychoudhury etc made an appeal to the people of the State to celebrate the R-Day in a befitting manner.

The participants unanimously commented that the National Tricolour should be hoisted on the occasion of the Republic Day and Independence Day of the country atop the residential complexes, buildings of the public institutions and at public places.

“Homage should also be paid to the martyrs and those who braved all sorts of torture and atrocities to make the country free from colonial
rule- said the participants of the meeting. The people should ignore any threat from any quarter while celebrating the R-Day and I-Day and hoisting the National flag on the occasions,” they stated.

Similarly, the Journalists' Forum, Assam earlier issued a press statement urging the people to defy the militants' diktat. A JFA statement argued, “The great patriots like Kushal Konwar, Kanaklata, Mukunda Kakoti, Tilak Deka, Bhogeswari Phukanani and many brave hearts from Assam laid down their lives opposing the British colonial rulers.

And the people of Assam have inherited the spirit of freedom from those patriots who made immense sacrifices to make India a free nation.”

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) Combined Graduate Level Examination 2010 Recruitment

Staff Selection Commission (SSC) combined examination for recruitment to different posts for which a Graduation from a recognized University is the minimum requirement.

The Examination will comprise of written Objective Type held in two Tiers followed by Interview/Skill test. The Combined Graduate Level (Tier-II) Examination-2010 is likely to be held ion 31/07/2010 and 01/08/2010.

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Last Date : 02.03.2010

How To Apply: Apply Online from 04/02/2010 at SSC website, Pay fee Rs. 100 No fee for SC/ST/PH/Women and Ex-Serviceman at SBI in this case. Further Information: ssc.nic.in