Golden Boy Bindra Does it Again

Shooting rivals came together to give India its first Gold at CWG

India’s big moment finally came on the second day at the CWG 2010. The golden boy from the Beijing Olympics has done it again.

Abhinav Bindra joined hands with his fiercest domestic rival Gagan Narang to give India gold in the 10 Metre air rifle pairs event.

New Delhi: Two years ago, Abhinav Bindra had scripted history by becoming the first individual gold medallist for India at an Olympic Game. And, now the golden boy has done it again.

Paired with world record holder Gagan Narang in the 10 metre air rifle pairs event, the famous duo broke the Commonwealth Games record on their way to a historic win for the host nation.

Ironically, they broke their own record set four years ago at Melbourne when Indian shooters went into a golden huddle with Samresh Jung and Gagan Narang running riot.

Iron Maiden’s ‘The Final Frontier’

By Aman Kanth

Thirty years and still going strong! Yes, the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden is back with its fifteenth studio album – ‘The Final Frontier’ after its last outing with ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ in 2006. Phew, what surprises me is the fact when most of its contemporaries are fading into thin oblivion; there is no stopping for Iron Maiden, as it is still considered to be one of the most respected names in the business of heavy metal. ‘The Final Frontier’ is dense, layered, faster and louder. Iron Maiden is the modern day prophet, whose otherworldly verses beautifully evoke the modern day dilemma of our civilization - a guttural cry for peace and humanity.

For all those Biebermaniacs, who just can’t get enough of the bubble-gum pop, a word of advice – set your system levels level a bit higher for ‘The Final Frontier’ and let the dramatic tenor of Bruce Dickinson, blazing guitars of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers, thumping bass of Steve Harris and drum roll of Nico McBrain assault your senses and take you on a whirlwind journey of a fictional world of war, death, spirits, occult, history and mythology. Okay, they might have some grey hair on their pate; so what, Iron Maiden rocks and it rocks really hard. What say headbangers!

The first song of The Final Frontier ‘Satellite 15…The Final Frontier’ begins with an eerie intro effect of heavy distortion, power drumming and Dickinson’s tenor for more than four and a half minutes and then breaks into Maiden-esque riffs and screeching solos which truly justify its lyrics – a far cry for survival.

The second track ‘El Dorado’ has a crunchy bass along with harmonised guitar riffs and rhythmic drumming with Dickinson’s piercing vocals that evoke the present day world order - a capitalist’s haven through El Dorado, where ‘The streets are paved with gold’. A dense, layered and stimulating track, ‘El Dorado’ is another gem from the Maiden stable.

‘Mother of Mercy’ paints a grim picture of a war ravaged world – ‘A land of flowing blood and strewn corpses’, ‘Mother of Mercy’ is a cry for forgiveness. The song paints a gloomy world of lost cause in humanity – a very relevant theme in today’s time. ‘Mother of Mercy’ will surely shake up to your marrow.

‘Coming Home’ is another great track whose lyrics completely justify its composition; ‘Coming Home’ is a journey track, which Dickinson and brotherhood make it all the more alluring.
‘The Alchemist’ is a strictly meant for headbangers as its not just a power ballad, but a sneak peak why Iron Maiden is the ‘Iron Maiden’ – ‘The Alchemist’ is a typical Maiden number with juicy licks and entrancing guitar shredding by the troika of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers.

‘Isle of Avalon’ is dark, broody tale that invokes the fertility myth of mother earth – an isle which stands for the realm of birth and death. ‘Isle of Avalon’ can easily pass off as a romantic, scary yet inspiring vision. Kudos to Iron Maiden for fusing life into beautiful words!

The seventh track ‘Starblind’ evokes a chilling vision of desolate world – a world of solar winds, devoid of any religion and meaning - ‘Religion’s cruel device is gone’ and ‘In your once and future grave you’ll fall endlessly deceived’. The songs reeks of sheer existentialism for it celebrates the emptiness of the being as it nudges you to think about the kind of life we all are living – ‘You are free to choose a life to live or one that’s left to lose’. ‘Starblind’ is stark for it mirrors our reality.

‘The Talisman’ is about a journey to a mythical land of unknown and human fate. The song has a soft acoustic start which melts away into metal mayhem that takes you on a shipwreck journey to a land of spirits, trepidation and death, with just a talisman to guide you in the hour of crisis. Deafening guitars and earth-shattering drums heighten the dramatic element of the song.

The ninth track of ‘The Final Frontier’, ‘The Man Who Would Be Kind’ again begins on a soft acoustic note and is soon taken over by virtuoso guitar shredding that hits the crescendo with a full-blown metal attack. Once again, the song reprises the theme of an eternal journeyman, a seeker fighting against his fate.

The final track ‘When The Wild Wind Blows’ is by far the best and the longest track of the album (to be precise, a total of ten minutes and fifty nine seconds!) - a fitting ode to end the album on a high. Beginning and closing on acoustic notes, in between, the song takes you by a complete surprise by its raw energy the moment it hits the climax. Iron Maiden presents a moving picture of a crumbling world order – ‘Now the days of our ending have begun’ into life. A superb track with anthemic hooks, I am sure that this one will be remembered for a long time.

Enjoy the Maiden experience!

Doing India Proud

By Yambem Laba

When Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom was born to Mangte Tonpa Kom and Mangte Akham Kom, a tribal subsistence farmer in Kangathai village in Manipur’s Churachandpur district in 1983,  little did they realize their first child would one day transform their lives.

They affectionately named her Chungneijang, meaning “Abode of wealth” in their Kom dialect — spoken by some 30,000 fellow Kom tribesmen of Manipur — but it was her Christian name, Mary, that would later transform into “Magnificent Mary” and make her famous the world over.

Chungneijang’s metamorphosis into Magnificent Mary is almost Cinderella-like except hers is the real deal, for all to see, read and hear about. Speaking to The Statesman, this five-time world boxing champion shared with others how, being the eldest, she was looked upon more like a boy by her father.

And she did her best to help make both ends meet, given their marginalized existence, helping her father in paddy cultivation, doing everything in the field except ploughing, collecting firewood, making charcoal, fishing and helping her mother to weave clothes that were sold in the market.

In spite of her hectic schedules, she found time to go to school and, along with her schoolmates, played all the games and everyone thought there was a fine athlete in the making in this girl. It was, however, her decision to pursue further studies at Imphal’s Adimjati High School that propelled her into bigger waters.

At that point of time, Manipur was celebrating the arrival of Dingko Singh in the international boxing arena, especially after he boxed his way to bagging the gold in the Bangkok Asiad. This, coupled with the demonstration of women boxing in the Fifth National Games in Imphal in 1999, spurred her into the boxing ring. She contacted the Sports Authority of India at Imphal and was baptized into the sport by Dronacharya Awardee Ibomcha Singh and, later, two state coaches, Ranjit Singh and Kishen Singh, took her under their wing and polished her into the fighting machine she now is.

But the training period was hard. She saved the Rs 50 she received as pocket money every month from her mother to buy a pair of boxing gloves and had no money to supplement her dietary requirements. Mary Kom almost did not make it to the limelight. In 2001, while going to Hissar camp (Haryana), her luggage containing her passport was stolen on the train.

A distraught Mary thought of ending her life then and there. But being a Christian, she prayed and “the Lord appeared before me and told me to take things in my stride and all will be well in the end”. Thus inspired, she phoned home and her fellow Kom tribesmen led by chief judicial magistrate Shongboi Kom collected money to get her a new passport and enable her to make the journey to Pennsylvania in the USA to take part in the First Women’s Boxing Championship. She won a silver in that opening tourney and has never since looked back.

In the next meet at Turkey, she emerged champion, clinching the gold. That was when the Manipur government took notice of her achievement and offered her a constable’s post in the state police. Her family then decided that a world champion should not settle for a constable’s post and politely declined. After she bagged her second world title in Russia, the state offered her a sub-inspector’s post, which she quietly accepted. Then after her third gold world title, she was promoted to inspector.

There followed her fourth gold in the Fifth World Boxing Championship in China in 2008 and she was promoted to deputy superintendent of police. Following her latest triumph at Barbados, Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh announced, during a public reception in Imphal, that his government was promoting her to additional superintendent of police plus an incentive of Rs 10 lakh and a two-acre plot for her Mary Kom Boxing Academy.

In all, she has won 11 national titles and 17 international and world titles. And in between she has been conferred with the Arjuna Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and the Padmashree by the government of India, and has been feted by the who’s who of India. A picture hung on her wall shows her flanked by Nita Ambani holding one of her twin sons and Aamir Khan of Bollywood fame.

But Mary Kom, who has been compared to Sugar Ray Robinson by the Imphal Free Press, is not one to rest on her laurels. Her boxing academy is where her heart is at the moment. She has 15 boys and 15 girls staying at her residence and being trained under her watchful eyes and whose board and lodge is being provided by her as a cost of Rs 45,000 per month. She is amply supported by her husband Onkholer Kom who manages the academy and minds their twin sons while she is away on her boxing circuits.

As she said in Delhi upon arrival from Barbados, “I am a living example of nothing is impossible.” Magnificent Mary is now setting her sights on winning the gold in the forthcoming Asiad in China and later the Olympics in London in 2012. All said and done, this shy tribal girl from Manipur has done India proud.

**The writer is an Imphal-based Journalists

Abetting Forest Loot

By Patricia Mukhim

The Northeast is said to contain 63 per cent of the country’s forest cover, a huge carbon sink, what is commonly touted as a bio-diversity hotspot. The only problem is that pirates living off forest wealth do not care about such modern jargon.

Why would they bother about carbon footprints when the wealth they make from timber in the region is invested in stock markets elsewhere? Why would timber merchants care if the Northeast loses its bio-diversity and suffers the ravages of climate change?

They do not live here to suffer the consequences, do they? It is the ordinary mortal who has had a long and symbiotic relation with nature and who has been the “unofficial” custodian of forest wealth and bears the brunt of unseasonal rains leading to flash floods and also drought.

One of the commonest excuses given by the Meghalaya department of environment and forests (and other states that have autonomous councils created by the Fifth/Sixth Schedules) for not being able to contain large-scale deforestation is that they only look after four per cent of  forest land while the rest falls under district councils.

If that is so, then do we need such a top-heavy bureaucracy in the forest department which is the equivalent of those functioning in others states where 100 per cent of forests are under the direct supervision of the department? What is the justification of having so many rangers and high officials if they keep their eyes closed when truckloads of timber pass under their noses and because the forests from where the trees are pilfered are not under their jurisdiction?

For too long the forest department has played fast and loose and led us up the garden path. Some of the most venal acts of cleaning up forests have indeed happened under their active connivance. Sample this. The son of a senior forest official (who was at one time also in charge of the Forest Development Corporation of Meghalaya) is a timber contractor in the same department and has an ongoing flourishing business with the corporation. When a stink was raised at this strange arrangement and the resultant felling of timber in large stretches of forests in the Garo Hills, the then chief secretary ordered an enquiry.

This indicted several forest officials, including the then FDC managing director. Sadly, this enquiry was a wasted exercise. It is now a dead document waiting to be buried in the chief secretary’s office.

Meghalaya has a peculiar penchant for ferro-alloy industries although it is far from being an iron-producing state. This industry guzzles up both power and charcoal. As a result, the state is now woefully short on power and its forests are being systemically cleaned up to provide trees for charcoal production. People have used charcoal for cooking and heating for centuries. Until such time it was a sustainable activity. Now, because of the economy of scale, charcoal prices have shot up, depriving the poor who cannot afford a cooking gas connection and find kerosene too expensive.

So rampant is the deforestation in Meghalaya that recently an environmental NGO – the Meghalaya Environmental Social Organisation — wrote to the state forest department in August this year drawing its attention to the destruction of forests and the environmental consequences thereof. Failing to get any response from the department, the NGO went to Delhi and met Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh with a memorandum seeking his immediate intervention. Ramesh assured the group he would order an enquiry into the matter.

Funnily, the forest department had, two years ago, banned the production of charcoal in Meghalaya. But this order turned out to be a paper tiger. Nobody even bothered to read it, much less adhere to it.

There are two issues here that need to be understood. The forest department’s self-proclaimed justification about not having control over 96 per cent of forest land under it is literally taken by forest owners as a licence to plunder. Why should those private owners of forests obey the diktat of the forest department? Interestingly, the role of the district councils – major stakeholders in forests – has never been adequately understood.

The state government has never included them at the time of formulating policies on environment and forests. The councils live in a separate orbit that is neither here nor there. They are neither intimately connected with the communities and their activities, nor do they have any kind of working relationship with the state government. This makes them stand-alone entities with absolutely no accountability or responsibility.

Whether or not they are still needed is a big question mark because they have apparently failed to deliver any form of governance. Their only raison d’etre is that they are custodians of tribal culture. But do we need an institution to safeguard our culture and customary practices? Don’t people themselves do that better? And if 96 per cent of our forests are under the custody of the district councils, then they had better be empowered with human and financial resources to carry out their jobs purposefully. In fact the huge top-heavy bureaucracy should be shared with the council.

Coming back to the forest department, it is ironic that the principal chief conservator of forests is also a member of the single-window agency that clears all industrial projects in Meghalaya. Sometimes you wonder which side of the fence such people are on.

Are they custodians of forest wealth and the environment or are they part of the government lobby that tries to clear projects pronto without a thought for the impact of such industries on the environment?

For the business lobby, which has parachuted from all over the country to feed on heavy subsidies dished out by the Centre, forests are important only to the extent that they contain strategic minerals.

The greenery and the cycle of life that such natural environments and biodiversity sustains are, for them, disposable nuisance. Recently, an RTI activist group found that the 11 charcoal-based industries located at Byrnihat in Meghalaya have consumed 561,000 tonnes of charcoal up to August 2010 which has resulted in large-scale denudation. To make matters worse, the forest department has even issued a certificate to one company to be a stockists of charcoal. So the forest department seems to be doing something for public consumption while insidiously promoting the destruction of forests.

Now we have come to the issue of climate change – adaptation and mitigation. The forest department is the nodal agency for this grand exercise. Normally it is expected that there be large-scale consultation with the people who bear the direct brunt of climate
change. But we can safely say that this will be another bureaucratic exercise showing a lot happening on paper but nothing will reach the affected farmers and forest-dwellers.

The Centre is already talking of the green mission that would also mean additional funds for addressing climate change. Can we trust our forest department to do the right thing? Very doubtful.

Environmental activists from Meghalaya should invite Jairam Ramesh to see just how much forest land the state has, and who is responsible for this large-scale denudation. Some knuckle-rapping is necessary and here the buck stops with the PCCF.

**The writer is editor, The Shillong Times, and can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com

Manipur: The Economics of Disruption

By Sandipani Dash

Afflicted with multiple insurgencies for the past 46 years, Manipur remains the most violent State in India's troubled Northeast, with all its nine Districts marred by varying degrees of extremist activities. The civil administration has ceased to deliver even rudimentary services of governance to its 2.3 million population across the State's 22,327 square kilometers.

Addressing the Manipur Legislative Assembly on January 13, 2010, State Governor Gurbachan Jagat noted that the problem of insurgency had severely hampered the development and growth of the State. This developmental sabotage is starkly exemplified by the sustained disruption of renovation work in the Loktak Lake area, the largest fresh-water lake in the Northeast region, due to insurgent attacks.

The 13.2 million cubic meters of the Loktak Lake are under risk of rampant growth of phumdis (water weeds). In order to save the ecology of the lake, the task of removing this floating bio-mass was taken up by the Loktak Development Authority (LDA) under the Special Assistance Action Plan of Wetlands International - South Asia, a global Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to sustaining and restoring wetlands, and the Planning Commission of the Government of India.
 
A fund of INR 3.78 billion was allocated for a three year project. Since its inception in 2008, however, the activities of LDA have been severely hampered by militant activities in the State.
The work of the LDA resumed once again from January 6, 2010, after its suspension after the July 15, 2009 incident in which the driver of the Executive Engineer of the Loktak Development Authority (LDA) was shot dead by the Puranthaba Lamyanba Kuman group of the Military Council faction of the Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), while trying to abduct the engineer.
However, the State Government's decision to enforce stringent security measures in the area could not prevent the militants from blowing up an excavator on January 22, 2010, which was being used for removing phumdis at Ningthoukhong in Bishnupur District.

K. Jayanta Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP), Bisnupur District, noted, "Their main object was to attack security forces. Of course, they have done the damage but the damage wasn't upto the desired level for them. It was a desperate move. We have mobilized all our resources to prevent such happenings..."

The constant source of concern with regard to developmental activities in Manipur is the extortion drive by the multiple insurgent groups across the State. Almost all the armed groups extract 'levies' and ransoms from residents and transients in their areas of operation. The continuing dominance of the insurgents in Manipur is most strongly reflected in the enveloping regime of extortion that targets Government offices and beneficiaries, local self-Government and educational institutions, health centres, commercial establishments and the wider civilian population alike.

The South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, in its partial estimate (a preponderance of such cases go unreported) records that at least 423 extortion incidents occurred in 2005-2010, with the year 2005 registering 10 such incidents, 2006: 36, 2007: 63, 2008:123, 2009: 95 and 2010: 96 [till October 23]. The SATP database further documents at least 258 extortion-related reprisal attacks targeting Government offices, public institutions, private service agencies, and civilians during the same period, with 2005 recording 7 such attacks, 2006: 11, 2007: 35, 2008: 68, 2009: 68 and 2010: 69.

Militant extortion and related attacks have also directly targeted the infrastructure of governance in the State. In May 2009, members of various Gram Panchayats (village level local self-Government institutions) in Imphal West District, unable to cope with militant demands, had fled their homes and taken refuge at the District Rural Development Agency office in the Imphal West Deputy Commissioner's Complex. Groups such as the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), KCP-Military Council and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), had demanded 30 per cent of the funds sanctioned under State Finance Commission and 12th Finance Commission schemes.

They had also demanded INR 50,000 from each of the Gram Panchayats. These threats and the consequent flight of officials and elected representatives from rural areas, resulted in the collapse of essential services and governance across much of the State. The health and education services and dry fish trade were the worst hit in the year 2009, due to the extortion drive in the Manipur Valley.

The extortion related developmental damage has not confined itself to the Valley region. Manipur Legislator Morung Makunga, on March 10, 2010, disclosed in the State Assembly that Kuki armed groups, which are under a Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreement since August 2005, have been collecting as much as 50 per cent of the compensation given by the Government to land owners in the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Moreh town in Chandel District along the India-Myanmar border in the Hills.

The Minister stated that militant outfits are not in compliance with the terms laid down under SoO agreements, and these should, consequently be suspended. The excesses carried out by the Kuki armed groups were confirmed by a trickle of refugees who had fled Moreh under threat of extortion, or of reprisals for refusal to pay.

Substantial proportions of the extortion revenues are going into the personal coffers of leaders of the militant groupings. Reports in the first week of September 2010 revealed that the Directorate of Enforcement had attached the properties of three absconding militants K. Premjit Singh, his wife K. Elizabeth Devi, and sister Sanajaobi Devi, of the PREPAK. The directorate found that the accused had purchased a plot of land in Imphal town in the name of K. Elizabeth Devi by diverting a portion of the collected funds, and had started construction of a house on the plot.

The official value of the plot and house under-construction was estimated at INR 1.2 million. The Directorate started its process by checking mobile phone records of all the accused in a case registered following the detection of a hawala racket by the Police in the Fancybazar area of the Guwahati city in Assam. The racket was neutralised by the Guwahati Police, which led to the recovery of INR 2.4 million in cash.

The case was later handed over to the Enforcement Directorate and, during the course of preliminary investigations, it was found that those involved in the racket had contacts across the country, including the linkages in Manipur.

The blockade syndrome adds further to Manipur's economic woes. In April-June 2010, violent protests and counter-protests on the issues relating to the Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) elections in Naga inhabited regions and to the proposed visit of National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) 'general secretary' Thuingaleng Muivahs to his native Somdal village in Ukhrul District, had virtually paralysed normal life across the State.

According to one estimate, Manipur suffered a loss of about INR two billion per day through the 68-day long economic blockade, which was only lifted following the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) directive to send Central Paramilitary Forces to break the blockade, and the Naga student leaders' meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on June 14, 2010. Despite this, the State subsequently witnessed another extended phase of blockade on the National Highways 39 and 53, orchestrated by the Naga groups at the instigation of the NSCN-IM, between August 4, 2010, and September 18, 2010.

Economist N. Mohendro Singh noted that the 68-day long blockade brought the State to a standstill, and created avenues for black marketing. With the acute scarcity of petrol during the blockade, Singh records, its price in the black market rose to INR 140 a litre, with a wait of 10-15 hours before petrol pumps delivered five litres of petrol.

Singh added that all private and Government schools stopped functioning due to the suspension of transport as a result of the non-availability of petrol. Blockades of such long duration, he argued, could produce a generation gap in education and human capital formation. Singh argued that the blockade had dehumanised the people of Manipur on all fronts, from the educational, through the industrial to the social sectors.

Given the virtual collapse of Governance in Manipur, the difficulties of the common people are being multiplied manifold by the economic hardships that are being imposed on them by the disruptive and extortionary activities of the many insurgent groupings in the State.

(**The writer is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management. The view expressed in the article is of the author)

Manipur Girls To Get Hostel in The Hills

4 Hostels to come up in Senapati, 2 each in Chandel & Imphal

Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh speaks during the foundation stone laying ceremony for one of the hostels in Imphal on Monday.

Imphal, Oct 5 : Faced with allegations of neglect by hill residents, the Manipur government will construct eight hostels at various places of the state for girl students of the five hill districts.

The government has also promised hostels for boys in the near future.

Apart from hostels for hill students, the state government also decided to construct markets for hill people in and around Imphal city.

The Centre approved a proposal for the construction of eight hostels for girl students of the five hill districts of Ukhrul, Senapati, Chandel, Churachandpur and Tamenglong, who come to Imphal and other hill areas for higher education from the interior villages.

Of the eight hostels, four will be constructed in the Naga-dominated Senapati district while two will be constructed in Chandel district and two in and around Imphal city.

Chief minister Ibobi Singh today laid the foundation of one of the hostels to be constructed inside the compound of Manipur Baptist Convention (MBC) in Imphal city. The MBC is the largest Church organisation in Manipur and it has a higher secondary school inside the complex with students from all the hill districts.

The MBC hostel would have a capacity of 150 students and it would be constructed within six months at a cost of Rs. 5.61 crore. The seven other hostels would also have a similar capacity and construction budget.

Addressing the people at the foundation stone-laying programme, the chief minister promised more hostels and market places for vendors in and the around Imphal city, to provide marketing facilities for the hill people in the valley.

“We are looking for suitable places for at least two market places in and around Imphal city for the hill people in addition to the one now under construction at New Lambulane of Imphal city. The government has a firm commitment to bring equal development in the hills and the valley. Though we have different faiths and follow different religions, we are one and the same,” Ibobi Singh said.

Ibobi Singh’s action plan for development in the hills came after the recent prolonged agitation by Naga organisations spearheaded by United Naga Council, the apex body of the ethnic community in Manipur. It is aimed at doing away with the alienation of the hill people.

The UNC accused the state government of not protecting the rights of the hill people. The UNC had even announced severing of ties with the state government and has been urging the Centre to make alternative administrative arrangements for the Nagas in Manipur. Senapati is the nerve centre of all activities by the Naga bodies against the Ibobi Singh government.

On the other hand, Kukis are also demanding a homeland out of Manipur’s geographical area.

Though he did not mention the UNC and Kuki issues, the chief minister asked the hill settlers to support the government’s efforts to bring development in their districts.

Arunachal Visit Made Easier

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Itanagar, Oct 5 : Tourists and other visitors to Arunachal Pradesh will now require only 15 minutes to procure an Inner Line Permit (ILP) in order to visit that state.

Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu has instructing the concerned officials to do away with the existing lengthy process.

“My government is aware of the hardship and the delay faced by tourists while getting Inner Line Permits in the concerned offices outside the state.

I have issued specific directions to all Resident Commissioners and Deputy Resident Commissioners to issue ILPs within 15 minutes and make the procedure simpler,” Khandu said in Tawang on Monday.

While domestic tourists and other visitors are required to obtain Inner Line Permits for specific periods, foreign tourists are required to obtain Restricted Area Permits (RAP) to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. Mizoram however has already started issuing ILPs on arrival at the Lengpui airport in Aizawl.

Khandu was inaugurating the three-day Arunachal Travel Congress organised by Arunachal Pradesh Tour Operators under the aegis of the state tourism department association.

He also asked officials and tour operators to initiate innovative techniques to attract more tourists.

Mizos Thrilled as Bamboo Dance Costume Stands Out

By Biju Babu Cyriac

New Delhi, Oct 5 : Mizos all over the world were over the moon on Sunday night when a young lady wearing a traditional dress from the state led the Indian contingent, including Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, at the opening ceremony of the XIXth Commonwealth Games.

According to Anna Singh, the costume designer of the show, the idea was to make the Indian placard holder stand out. "The original idea was to dress the Indian placard bearer in a white pochampalli saree but then it looked very repetitive. That's when we thought about the traditional dress and it looked so different,'' she said.

Anna, a two-time national award winner for costume design for her work in Taj Mahal and Umrao Jaan, said it was very difficult to source the dress. "Since there is no Mizoram emporium in Delhi, it was very difficult to get the outfit. In the end, we had to send one person to the hill state,'' she said, adding that the traditional Mizo dress is worn by dancers who stage Cheraw, a colourful and distinctive art form. Legend has it that Cheraw, a dance of satisfaction and redemption, is performed to ensure a safe passage for the soul of a mother who dies at childbirth. However, these days, it's performed on all occasions.

Anna, who also figures in the Guinness Book for her work in 900 movies, said once they were exhausted with all the types of sarees from regions, sub-regions and textures, they had to look for traditional dresses. "Besides Mizo we also included the traditional dresses from Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab,'' she said.

"The only one outfit we couldn't accommodate was the traditional dress from Ladakh. The headgear of that outfit is very heavy and it would have made it very difficult for the placard bearer,'' she added.

Since Cheraw features in the Guinness Book for being the biggest bamboo dance, the state's outfit also got noticed, a website from the state reported. On March 12 this year, Mizoram's Cheraw entered the record book with a 10-minute performance by 10,736 participants.

"It was a proud moment for many Mizos as it was for the first time a woman from the North East was holding the Indian banner during a major event,'' the website said.

"Sonia Gandhi must have surely recognised the dress. She wore it when she went with Rajiv Gandhi to Mizoram,'' said Moi, a Mizo girl who lives in Munirka.

Clarification | In Monday's edition, it was wrongly reported that Indian placard bearer wore a Naga dress.