NC Hills Signboards Renaming: Fury Coming Soon

Haflong, Jun 8 : A new underground outfit in Dima Hasao has asked the Centre and state government offices to immediately replace old signboards with new ones showing the district’s name as Dima Hasao.

The Hill Tiger Force’s demand has instilled fresh fear of ethnic clashes among the people in this backward south Assam district, formerly known as North Cachar Hills district, where peace returned last October following the surrender of arms by the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah.

Activists of The Hill Tiger Force distributed the letters last week but did not issue any threat if its order was not carried out.

According to police sources in Haflong, the new outfit is 30-cadre strong and is now in the process of procuring arms. Its chairman is Kapchi Naga and publicity secretary Lunneh Kuki.

On April 2, 2010, the state government renamed North Cachar Hills Dima Hasao district.

In a two-line press note issued late that evening, the government said Haflong would remain the district headquarters.

The new name was given by a cabinet sub-committee headed by D.P. Goala, the urban development minister in Tarun Gogoi’s Congress-led government.

This was one of the main demands of the Dimasa organizations, including the Gorlosa faction of the DHD which is in ceasefire since October 2.

While the change of name of the hill district, sprawling across 4888 square km, has gladdened the majority Dimasas, the Kukis, Hmars and the Nagas resented the decision.

Flood Situation in Karimganj Continues to Remain Grim

Karimganj, Jun 8 : In Assam, the over all flood situations in the Karimganj district of Barak Valley remains unchanged with all the three major rivers of the district flowing much above the danger mark.

The surging flood waters of these rivers have submerged more new areas of the district. No immediate respite is in sight for improvement in the flood situation in the district as rain continued to lash the region.

Meanwhile, the Assam Chief Minister, Shri Tarun Gogoi has reviewed the flood situation of the state on Monday at Dispur at a high level meeting.

The Chief Minister has instructed the all Deputy Commissioners of the state to prepare action plan to face the challenge of possible floods.

Bernie Madoff: "F--k My Victims"

Bernie Madoff appears to have none of the remorse expected of a man staring down a 150-year prison sentence.

According to a lengthy new piece by Steve Fishman in New York magazine, Madoff, who apparently pals around with a former mob boss and a spy in a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina told a fellow inmante, "F--- my victims. I carried them for twenty years, and now I'm doing 150 years."

Madoff, whose con artist bona fides seems to have turned some fellow inmates into "groupies," even indicated to other prisoners that some of his victims actually deserved to have their money taken from them. Overall, Madoff comes off as cocksure, unrepentant and a bit miffed at the world. Here's New York magazine:

He was past apologizing. In prison, he crafted his own version of events. From MCC, Madoff explained the trap he was in. "People just kept throwing money at me," Madoff related to a prison consultant who advised him on how to endure prison life. "Some guy wanted to invest, and if I said no, the guy said, 'What, I'm not good enough?' " One day, Shannon Hay, a drug dealer who lived in the same unit in Butner as Madoff, asked about his crimes. "He told me his side. He took money off of people who were rich and greedy and wanted more," says Hay, who was released in December. People, in other words, who deserved it.

The idea that Madoff "carried" his investors or those in his employ, was echoed by earlier comments he reportedly made to another prisoner. Late last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Madoff told Kenneth C. White, a convicted bank robber, that he "carried" his employees for years and felt that they had turned their back on him."

In December, Madoff reportedly suffered a broken nose and fractured ribs in a prison fight. (It was initially reported that Madoff fell out of bed.)

Convicted of a decades-long Ponzi scheme, Madoff's total take from investors is said to approach $19 billion

Read the entire piece at New York magazine here.

Delhi Court Gives Bail to Former Deputy Speaker of Manipur

New Delhi, Jun 8 : The Delhi High Court Monday extended bail granted to a former deputy speaker of the Manipur legislative assembly by one month in a case of alleged unlawful activities to allow him visit his riot-hit constituency.

Justice Siddharth Mridul granted bail to Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh on furnishing a personal and surety bonds of Rs.50,000 each.

Singh was arrested in October 2006 at Indira Gandhi International Airport here and was accused of being a member of Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and working as a liaison between KYKL and the banned United National Liberation Front.

Singh was booked under various penal provisions dealing with unlawful activities and criminal conspiracy, apart from sections of the Official Secrets Act.

Singh in his bail application pleaded that as a member of the legislative assembly he should be in Manipur where riots have erupted, killing many people, in the wake of the ban imposed by the government on Naga separatist leader Thuingaleng Muivah’s visit to his native village in the state.

‘There is a civil war like situation in the Manipur. There have been fresh instances of violence over the Naga leader’s proposed visit to Manipur and seven Naga legislators in Manipur have resigned protesting against the government decision,’ Singh said.

‘There is political unrest in Manipur because of the violence. I, being a sitting member of the Manipur assembly, am required to be among the people of my constituency where huge public property has been damaged and some people have died,’ his petition said.

Agreeing to Singh’s contention, the court said: ‘The petitioner being a member of the Manipur assembly, has the constitutional duty to be among his constituents at a time when the state and his constituency is plagued by riots. It would go a long way if the petitioner as legislator assists the government and the administration in normalizing the situation.’

‘Therefore, it is deemed appropriate that the petitioner be released on bail for a period of one month,’ the court said.

Are Manipuris Less Important Than Kashmiris?

New Delhi's inaction on the grim situation in Manipur, whose people are facing untold hardship due to the economic blockade by Naga rebels, is shocking and can have disastrous consequences for India, warns Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale (retd)

Indians often complain that when they visit the northeast, they are asked if they have come from India. Conversely, many north-easterners are asked for a passport, as they are mistaken to be foreigners. There is a communication gap and there are problems of distance; but lack of governance and the media's obsession with happenings in Delhi has widened the gulf further.

As the economic blockade of Manipur by Naga rebels enters the second month, the miseries of common Manipuri citizens have seldom found space on the so-called national media. The price of petrol has gone up to Rs 150 a litre and a gas cylinder costs Rs 2,000. Delhi either seems asleep or too weak to take any action to break this blockade.

I am reminded of another era and another blockade. I refer to the oil pipeline blockade organised by Assam agitators in 1980s. The idea was that if the oil remained blocked in the pipeline through winter, the heavy crude would freeze. Oil experts had warned that if the oil was not flushed out, the whole pipeline would have to be replaced as cleaning the wax would cost more than a new pipeline. We had the no-nonsense Indira Gandhi as the prime minister then. She ordered the army to solve the problem.

Image: Cars damaged by Muivah's supporters outside the Manipur Bhavan in New Delhi
Photographs: Reuters

The utter paralysis of decision-making

Secretly, the army sent its engineers to the Gujarat oil fields and trained soldiers in complex operations (codenamed Amar Prem). Once the army was ready, in a swift operation, the troops were airlifted to oil fields and in a fortnight, Operation Indra Vajra broke the oil blockade.

The Assam agitation never recovered from that blow and such a tactic has never been attempted again.

The saddest part is that today the National Socialist Council of Nagaland rebels are a shadow of their former self. There is very little support for them in Nagaland, since their leader Thuingaleng Muivah is himself from Manipur. It is possible to call the rebel's bluff and end the blockade. If need be, the Indian government should threaten to revoke the ceasefire and resume operations. But such is the lethargy/indifference of the Centre that a small group of trouble makers have been holding the whole state of Manipur to ransom.

The media silence is in glaring contrast to the shrill noises made when a couple of years ago Kashmir valley faced a similar blockade in Jammu.

But there is another major failing that this episode has brought to light, namely the utter paralysis of decision-making. Seems Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is so overwhelmed by the Naxals and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism that the woes of Manipuris are not registered in Delhi.

Image: Women hold placards during a protest against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act
Photographs: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

There is a non-violent solution

Our think tank Inpad was at the forefront of demanding the reform of higher decision making apparatus and had hoped that now that the National Security Council and its associate organisations are in place, security issues would receive due attention and see refined decision-making.

The reason to voice this disappointment is that the kind of deep psychological wound this would inflict on the Manipuris would create trouble in the future. Are Indian citizens of Imphal not as important as those living in the Kashmir valley?

The saddest part is that there is a non-violent solution, though a temporary one! Manipur has a common border with Myanmar (Burma) at Moreh. A limited border trade is permitted across the border. What stops the government from importing petroleum products from Myanmar? The infrastructure up to Moreh is reasonably developed and the road to the border post runs mostly through Meitei-dominated (Meitei are the majority ethnic group in Manipur) areas.

Image: The border at Moreh

The NSCN must be served an ultimatum

Simultaneously, the NSCN must be served an ultimatum -- that their greater Nagaland demand can only be achieved through peaceful means and violence would mean an end to the ceasefire.

Our foreign office seems so obsessed with our neighbour to the west that it fails to think of these alternatives.

On a visit to Nagaland two years ago, I found that the Nagas have no desire to resume armed conflict. Nagaland is already enjoying the dividends of peace -- it has the lowest percentage of people below poverty line and thanks to the reservation policy, many Naga youth are in the IAS, IFS and IPS.

Image: The Moreh border

The situation in Manipur is desperate

Some years ago, when the agitation against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was at its peak in Manipur, I had suggested that the least the government could do was to hand over the Kangla Palace area to the people (since British times it has been occupied by the Assam Rifles and was a reminder to the Meiteis of their humiliation). Somewhere, someone apparently liked the idea and today the area has a lovely garden and a monument.

The situation in Manipur is indeed desperate and any delay will leave a deep scar on its people's psyche. After the Bangladesh victory, it was said that Indira Gandhi not only made history but also changed geography! Her daughter-in-law (Sonia Gandhi) who is the current supreme leader of the ruling party, may also get that credit (though with disastrous consequences for India), for let us make no mistake, the neglect of Manipur's woes by tolerating the economic blockade would reap a whirlwind of secessionist movement by the Meiteis.

Colonel Ani Athale (retired) is the coordinator of Pune-based think-tank Inpad.

Image: Thuingaleng Muivah
Photographs: B Mathur/Reuters

[ via rediff.com ]

Mizoram Health Infrastructure in Dire Straits

Aizawl, Jun 8 : As per the financial investigation carried out by the visiting team from Planning Commission on the expenditure of centrally sanctioned schemes, it has been found out that the government of Mizoram is not spending the money enough on National Rural Health Mission.

The officials in its report also discovered lack of modern infrastructure in the health sector. The Mizoram government, which is allotted financial assistance to recruit 68 doctors under NRHM only recruited 36 doctors where there are still 32 vacant posts lying for medical doctors and 57 posts for health workers in this sector.

At a review meeting held in Aizawl recently, officials from the state department maintained that lack of good health infrastructure in Mizoram is due to the delay in sanctioning financial from the centre.

The meeting also resolved  to ask the centre to allot more financial package as only 33% of the NRHM fund is allowed to spent for civil works like construction of building, purchasing of building materials etc,.

The visiting team from Planning Commission while briefing media on their tour across Mizoram has highlighted that many hospitals in Mizoram were out of service and their equipments were also not good enough.

As most Public Health Centre has very vast area in its jurisdiction which resulted in leaving many patients beyond the reach of doctor’s care and treatment.

Due to maximum effort made by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), rate of baby born in government hospital has jump up from 53.5% to 55.9%, as well as supply of immunization to a baby was increase from 32 % to 50%.

The visiting team was also spoke of their concerned for high increase of HIV/AIDS in Mizoram. They suggested the state government to create more awareness among the general masses.

Mizoram has received Rs. 6,752.23 lakhs from the centre under NRHM. The Mizoram government also sanctioned Rs. 1,206 lakhs during 2009-10. Out of the total sanctioned, Rs. 5,871.74 (73.8%) has been spent on this scheme.

Meanwhile, sources from the government revealed that in Mizoram, 2,623 people have shared one doctor which is much higher than India which is 1,786 whereas one nurse for 666 people.

[ via Newmai News Network ]

Mizoram Initiates Census of Bru Refugees in Tripura

Aizawl, Jun 6 : Mizoram government has taken initiative to conduct census amongst Bru refugees lodged in the six relief camps in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district.

Elvis Chorkhy, president of Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) told PTI over phone that Mizoram government sent them two proformas for the census - one for those who left Mizoram in 1997 and another for those who left the state last year.

"We were doing a head count of the refugees who left Mizoram in 2009 and who had not returned till date, but the Mizoram government's instruction left us with no option but to undertake census for the all the refugees," Chorkhy said.

He said Tripura government had also taken up head count of the refugees who left Mizoram last year and had not returned and had found around 120 families so far.

Thousands of Brus left Mizoram in the later part of 1997 after Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants gunned down Lalzawmliana, a forest guard inside Dampa Tiger Reserve in October 1997, which triggered communal flare-up.

The efforts of Mizoram government and Union home ministry to repatriate Bru refugees from November 16 last year was derailed by the killing of a Mizo youth by suspected Bru insurgents three days before the scheduled repatriation, sources said.

India's Rent-a-Womb Industry Faces New Restrictions

By Hillary Brenhouse

Surrogate mothers wait for check up at Dr. Nayna Patel's clinic in Anand, Gujarat, Dec. 4, 2007 - Ajit Solanki / AP

Since the day they were delivered more than two years ago, twin toddlers Nikolas and Leonard Balaz have been stateless and stranded in India.

Their parents are German nationals, but the woman to whom the babies were born is a twenty something Indian surrogate from Gujarat.

The boys were refused German passports because the country does not recognize surrogacy as a legitimate means of parenthood. And India doesn't typically confer citizenship on surrogate-born children conceived by foreigners.

Last week Germany relented, turning over travel visas, and the entire Balaz family is finally going home — though only after a long legal battle that took them deep into the convoluted world of inter-country adoption.

"We can only wish them good luck," India's Supreme Court told local media. But it also reiterated the urgent need for legislation to regulate one of India's fastest-growing industries. Hundreds of foreign tourists spill into the country every year to hire women to incubate their children. India has become the world capital of outsourced pregnancies, whereby surrogates are implanted with foreign embryos and paid to carry the resultant babies to term.

In 2002 the country legalized commercial surrogacy in an effort to promote medical tourism, a sector the Confederation of Indian Industry predicts will generate $2.3 billion annually by 2012. Indian surrogate mothers are readily available and cheap. Unlike most countries in which surrogacy is lawful — and bucking the norm in heavily bureaucratic India — the procedure can take place without reams of government red tape.

That may soon change. A draft bill to direct assisted reproductive technology (ART) is likely to be introduced this year in Parliament.

The new legislation will beef up surrogacy guidelines authored by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that have often gone unheeded by the few hundred Indian fertility clinics accustomed to writing their own rules. Among them is the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in the town of Anand, in the western state of Gujarat, where the Balazs found themselves.

"We are lost when there are no laws," says Akanksha medical director Dr. Nayna Patel, who has become the face of the industry abroad since being spotlighted on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007. "But the people drafting the bill have to remember to take care of the clinics, too."

Patel chooses among the women who appear at the clinic, at least three a day, hoping to hire out their wombs. She pairs the surrogates with infertile couples, catering to an increasingly international clientele base — from 13 foreign couples in 2006 to 85 in 2009.

And she oversees the negotiations between them. The entire process costs customers around $23,000 — less than one-fifth of the going rate in the U.S. — of which the surrogate mother usually receives about $7,500 in installments.

Patel implants the women with embryos, using specimens from sperm or egg donors if necessary. Once pregnant, the surrogates are housed onsite until delivery, in a dormitory that was once a local tax office, so that they can be supervised. But under the new legislation, Patel will be permitted to supervise nothing but surgery.

The new proposed government bill bans in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics from brokering surrogacy transactions. It also calls for the establishment of an "ART bank" that will be responsible for locating surrogate mothers, as well as reproductive donors. Fertility clinics will only come into contact with surrogates on the operating table.

"We need to create a safe distance between the clinic and the surrogate to avoid unethical practices," says Dr. R.S. Sharma, deputy director general of the ICMR and member-secretary of the bill's drafting committee. "IVF clinics should only be concerning themselves with science."

It's a suggestion that has caused a stir in the medical community. Dr. Patel insists that she will not accept a surrogate sent to Akanksha unless she herself is permitted to perform medical and background checks. She maintains that ART banks will not have enough experience to determine whether a woman is fit for surrogacy, let alone to replicate the personal bonds she cultivates with her surrogates. "The trust they have with me is what makes the whole thing secure and safe," she says. "And at the end, when they want to buy a house or a piece of land for farming, we get them the best deal. With this bill, we will not know what they are going to do with such a big amount of money."

Indeed, surrogate mothers are likely to enjoy an unprecedented autonomy. They'll have more freedom in negotiating their fee and receive mandatory health insurance from the couple or single employing them. Firm legal standards will ensure that medical professionals only be permitted to implant three embryos in a woman's uterus per attempt.

(The American Society for Reproductive Medicine advises doctors to implant just one; until recently, Dr. Patel routinely used five at a time, aborting anything more than two fetuses.) The legislation will only allow a woman to act as a surrogate up to five times, less if she has her own children, and will impose a 35-year age limit. That way, ladies motivated by desperation won't be able to put themselves at risk.

In a push to avoid cases similar to the Balaz family debacle, the bill will also make things more challenging for foreign customers. The new legislation will require that the international couple's home country guarantee the unborn infant citizenship before a surrogacy can even get off the ground. Such a stipulation will certainly not go over with Germany.

"In fact, I'm not sure if any country will be ready to pledge citizenship before birth," says Amit Karkhanis, a prominent Mumbai surrogacy lawyer. Countries accepting of surrogate-born children typically rely on DNA tests done post-delivery to determine the parentage of the baby.

Same-sex couples — a growing number of whom are relying on Indian surrogates — may not even make it as far as a plea for a government pledge. Just last year, Delhi's High Court overturned a section of the penal code outlawing "carnal intercourse against the order of nature," and the status of gays and lesbians in the country remains unclear.

"Tomorrow, if the government outlaws gay relations," says Sharma of the bill's drafting committee, "then we will not allow gay couples to hire surrogates. The law of the land will be followed so far as this issue is concerned."

When Australian partners Trevor Elwell and Peter West visited the country nearly two years ago, only one clinic was open to providing them surrogacy services. Now, with their surrogate-born twin girls a year old and their third baby incubating in Mumbai, Elwell estimates that a half-dozen Indian IVF clinics cater to homosexual couples. The men have found it uncomplicated to use Indian egg donors.

They've made the switch to a facility where their new surrogate knows they are gay, and is comfortable with it. And they attained Australian citizenship for their children in a process that took no more than a few weeks.

For them, as for most who flock to India hoping for a baby, informal surrogacy guidelines have been a blessing. "If the bill does complicate things, people will go to another country," Elwell says. "There will always be somewhere this can be done. This is just the beginning."

[ via time ]