No Move To Grant Greater Nagalim: Indian Government

By Vishwa Mohan

New Delhi, Nov 20 : The Centre on Saturday informed Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh that there was no move to grant a 'supra state body' status to Nagas settled across the north-east and the negotiators, who have been talking to the NSCN (I-M), had never promised the outfit any such arrangement that may have severe inter-state ramifications.

The 'clarification' comes in response to the objection from all the three states that sought the Union home ministry's views over certain reports on the purported 'move'.

The reports have mentioned that the Centre was considering keeping the Naga-inhabited areas of Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh under a 'supra state body' to enable the Nagas to preserve their culture, identity and customary laws under an umbrella entity, and it would be finalized before Christmas (December 25).

Referring to the 'clarification' made to the states over such reports, sources in the home ministry said the government had nothing to do with the 'move', which was a NSCN (I-M) proposal. The Centre had never agreed to any such proposal, and the outfit badgered the negotiators with it during both 'formal' and 'informal' discussions, they added.

'Greater Nagaland' has been a long-pending demand of NSCN (I-M), who under their leaders Isak Swu and T Muivah have been demanding control over all Naga-inhabited areas in neighbouring Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, ever since they joined talks with the government after signing a 'ceasefire' agreement in 1997.

Sources here said it appeared that people having some vested interests might have involved in some 'misinformation' campaign to test the ground, taking a cue from the NSCN (IM) 'internal' papers - comprising its own proposals and demands - at a time when the Centre was opposed to the demand of 'Greater Nagaland' or any kind of 'pan-Naga supra state body' at the cost of neighbouring states.

They said as part of any peace deal with Nagas, the government would, at best, provide maximum autonomy to Nagaland under existing provisions of the Constitution that may lead to giving them additional financial and legislative powers.

Truth vs Hype: Manipur - The Myth of The Blockade

When we set off from Delhi to report Manipur's 100-day-long economic blockade, we thought we would be telling the story of a massive crisis: a shortage of essentials, soaring prices, a government - State and Centre - that seem paralysed.

But as we discovered very quickly, the ground realities are far more complex, with rising levels of skepticism - even direct accusations by the people. So, what is the true extent of the shortage, especially of fuel? Is it genuine or manufactured?

Are security concerns tying the hands of the state or are there political gains from the blockade? We take a look on Truth vs Hype.

SHDDC Wants Sadar Hills District Inaugurated in Nov

Imphal, Nov 19 : The Sadar Hills District Demand Committee (SHDDC) on Friday met Union home minister P Chidambaram and submitted a memorandum urging him to instruct the state government to inaugurate the Sadar Hills district before November ends.

Leaders of the SHDDC, including its president Ngamkhohao Haokip and general secretary Tonghen Kipgen, have been camping in the national capital for the last few days to lobby with central leaders for early upgradation of the Kuki-dominated Sadar Hills to a full-fledged district.

On October 31, the SHDDC and the state government signed an MoU in which the latter assured the creation of the Sadar Hills district after the chief secretary-headed District Reorgnisation Committee (DRC) submits its report to the government.

With the signing of the MoU, the SHDDC suspended its economic blockade on the Imphal-Silchar and Imphal-Dimapur routes that began on August 1. On the other hand, the United Naga Council (UNC) has been imposing a similar stir on the same supply routes since August 21 to denounce the state government's alleged attempt to bifurcate Naga-dominated area to create new districts.

"Our position on the committee/commission was made very clear to the state government from the initial stage that it should not affect or alter, in any way, the existing boundaries of Sadar Hills," the SHDDC memo said.

The memo added, "Subsequent to the signing of the MoU, we have temporarily suspended all forms of our agitations including economic blockade along national highways till the end of November 2011."

"We believe that this gesture of ours will enable both the Union and state governments to prepare ground for the complete implementation of the said 1971 Act with respect to the Sadar Hills Autonomous District," said the memo, signed by top SHDDC leaders as well as legislator Thangminlien Kipgen, who is also the chairman of the hill areas committee, a statute body of the Manipur legislative assembly.

The SHDDC urged the Union home minister to give "clear but strong instruction" to the state government to inaugurate Sadar Hills as a full-fledged autonomous district before the end of the current month.

"We shall faithfully as well as hopefully wait to see how our 40-year-old grievance is redressed within November 2011, as already agreed upon, by the largest democratic country in the world," the SHDDC memorandum said.

"The Centre should repeal the said Manipur (Hill Areas) Autonomous District Council Act 1971 in case the state government fails again to grant full-fledged district status to Sadar Hills according to the principal objectives of the act and declare the Sadar Hills area as an 'un-administered region of Manipur', it added.

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Go Live, Starts From Rs 44,500

Airtel has just flipped the switch on iPhone 4S pre-orders. Users will have to pay the full amount online and will get the phone on the day of launch – November 25.

The iPhone 4S is priced at Rs 44,500 (16GB) and Rs 50,900 (32GB). There is no mention of iPhone 4S 64GB variant. The iPhone 4 8GB page at the moment is redirected to Apple’s Hong Kong store.

We will be updating this post through the day, stay tuned. Just for the record, the prices of iPhone 3GS 8GB could be priced at Rs 20,900 and the iPhone 4 8GB at Rs 37,900.

Mizoram Abolishes Permit System For Forest Produce

Aizawl, Nov 19 : The Mizoram government has abolished the mahal and permit systems to avoid wasteful and unprofitable system of exporting forest produce from the state.

Stating this, Environment and Forests Minister H. Rohluna on Thursday said it would be more profitable to export ready-made furniture and handicrafts made by artisans than export bamboo and timber outside the state.

Addressing a press conference here he urged the forest department field staff to be more vigilant in preventing smuggling of forest products including orchids and animal organs.

He also said that prevention of destructive forest fire should not be neglected while making efforts to protect the flora and fauna from poachers and smugglers.

Ethnic Divisions Affecting Development in Manipur: CM

Imphal, Nov 19 : Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh said sharp divides in ethnic line have emerged due to conflicting claims and aspirations and this has adversely affected all efforts to bring development in the state. Mr Singh said Manipur is a land of diversity.

It is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multi-religious state with more than 30 different tribal communities living together peacefully since time immemorial. But of late troubles in terms of ethnic rivalry and conflicts haave broken out, he observed.

Addressing the first state level tribal cultural festival, Mr Singh said, Manipur and all its resources belong to each and every one of us. We have inherited it from our forefathers and share a common ancestry and our best interest lies in a common goal and common future.

Harmonising and Honouring our culture is very relevant and appropriate and it is the need of the hour, he added. All should be equally developed and learn to live together in harmony, the Chief Minister reiterated.

Stating that tribal communities have traditionally been deprived, Mr Singh said all out efforts were being made by the government for their development and empowerment. Revival of the six District Councils after two decades is a big step in this direction, he added.

Manipur Police Burn Down 200 Floating Huts To Clear Loktak

By Subir Ghosh

The state government in Manipur is forcefully evicting families living on Loktak. Since Tuesday, the state police has used brute force to chase alleged illegal settlers away from their homes, including burning nearly 200 huts. It is being alleged that the eviction is in fact a security operation, and not to preserve the environment under the controversial Loktak Lake (Protection) Act, 2006, as claimed.

Loktak's floating islands called phumdis. Photo: Subir Ghosh

State government officials started burning down floating huts, khangpokshang, built over phumdis (floating plant mass) of the fishermen living in the Loktak wetlands in central Manipur on Tuesday. The officers from the Loktak Development Authority (LDA) and the Manipur state police carried out the burning down of the huts. The LDA had earlier issued an eviction notice to the residents on November 11. Nearly 200 floating huts had been already burnt by Thursday, and the remaining 1,132 floating huts are to meet a similar fate. There are about 5,000 persons living in these floating huts located in Khuman Yangbi, Nambul Machin and Karang Sabal areas within the Loktak Lake.

The burning down of the floating huts is in accordance with the provisions of the controversial Loktak Lake (Protection) Act, 2006, in particular Section 19 and 20 of the Act, which divides the 236.21 sq km Loktak Lake into two zones – a core zone comprising 70.30 sq km, which is a ‘no development zone’, or ‘totally protected zone’, and a buffer zone of other areas of the lake excluding the core zone. A vital aspect of this division is the prohibition on building huts or houses on phumdis inside the lake, or athaphum fishing, a destructive form of fishing using vegetation enclosures in the core area. This however, will adversely affect over 10,000 people living in phumdi huts, as well as others dependent on the Lake.

The eviction has led to the displacement of nearly 950 community members so far who have been living in these floating huts for generations. The number of affected families is expected to increase since the burning down of huts is still continuing. The victims, including women, children and the aged have sought refuge at the Ningthoukhong Makha Leikai community hall in Bishenpur district. The fishing gears and nets of the communities, their only means to catch fish from the Loktak wetlands, were also burned. This has left the community having no means to find food for survival. Having lost all their belongings, including books, uniforms and school bags, many children can no longer go to school. With the winter already setting in Manipur, the displaced villagers are left to fend for themselves during the harsh weather.

Each household was offered Rs 40,000 as compensation before their huts were burned. However, most of the villagers rejected this amount as too meagre. The Manipur police commandos were alleged to have threatened and intimidated the affected villagers before burning down their huts. In many cases, the police also forced the displaced family members to burn their own huts.

Affected peoples on several occasions had been raising vehement opposition to the introduction of the controversial Loktak Protection Act, 2006, which they feared would break the age-old bond between the lake and its people. Indigenous peoples depending on the Loktak Lake for survival continue to demand the complete scrapping of the Act.

The state government, through the LDA has been blaming the indigenous peoples dwelling in Loktak for polluting and causing contamination of the lake. However, the impact of the Ithai Barrage of the Loktak Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project, commissioned in 1984, which led to a largescale devastation of the Loktak wetlands ecosystem, loss of indigenous plant and faunal species, disturbance of the wetlands’ natural balance and cleansing system leading an accumulation of pollutants in the lake, has been ignored.

There is no comprehensive government policy to protect the environment in Manipur. Under the pretext of protecting wetlands to mitigate climate change and also to conserve wetlands, there is an increasing effort to evict poor fishermen and villagers who depend on the Loktak Wetlands and Lamphelpat Wetlands. The Loktak Wetlands Ecosystems has already been destroyed by the Loktak Multipurpose Hydroelectric project.

Furthermore, the government has been adopting an indiscriminate policy of converting the Lamphelpat Wetlands for heavy and widespread construction, including several government offices, military camps, Imphal Sewerage Treatment Plant, National Information of Technology buildings, National Games village, Langol Housing complex and the Police Housing complex, all of which has led to widespread destruction of the Lamphelpat Wetlands.

source: asiancorrespondent.com

Northeast Delays National Identification Project

By Sumir Karmakar

Guwahati, Nov 19 : Three northeastern states have disallowed enrolment for the much-hyped Aadhaar project, a move which will cause the Unique Identification Authority of India to miss its initial mandate to complete the process by March 2012.

Under the Aadhaar project, led by IT honcho Nandan Nilekani, every resident across India will be provided with a 12-digit unique identification number which will serve as address proof anywhere in the country.

Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, however, are yet to give the green signal to the Identification Authority to start enrolment, citing various problems, while the process is moving at snail’s pace in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.

Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh want to conduct the process themselves and not through the Planning Commission-supported Identification Authority.

Assam, on the other hand, wants to complete its National Register of Citizens project first — ascertain who the genuine citizens are — before embarking on the identification process.

Tripura is way ahead in the implementation of the project in the region and has completed 80 per cent of enrolment, while Sikkim has crossed the one-lakh mark since the project was launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September 2010.

Debajit Khound, assistant director general of Identification Authority’s regional office here, said that the progress of the Aadhaar project was very slow in most states of the Northeast.

“Assam had issued a notification to allow us to start the enrolment in five districts initially but thereafter we were informed not to go ahead with the process. The government stated that the enrolment process would create problems, as it required identity proofs of residents. The government also informed us that it would carry out the enrolment process itself,” he said.

“Similarly in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, we are yet to receive the green signal from the state governments. It is almost certain that we will miss the initial mandate to complete the enrolment by March 2012,” he said.

According to statistics ava-ilable, Tripura leads the enrolment, with 2,072,902 Aadhaar cards being issued, followed by 1,27,666 cards in Sikkim.

Manipur has enrolled 38,329 residents while in Nagaland and Assam, identification cards has been issued to 6,851 and 6,372 residents respectively.

“In Assam, some enrolments were done by two agencies in Guwahati without our knowledge and later we stopped the process as we are yet to get permission from the government. But those who have received their cards will not be cancelled as they were issued after valid documents were produced,” Khound said.

The Identification Authority had issued the first Aadhaar number to Ranjna Sadashiv Sonwane, a tribal woman from Tembhali village in Maharashtra.

The ambitious project aims to issue 600 million Aadhaar numbers in the next four years to residents across the country.

After the Identification Authority’s mandate expires, the enrolment process would be looked after by the Registrar General of India with the help of state governments and other agencies.