PM To Visit Imphal, Assures Ease Of Economic Blockade

Imphal, Nov 26 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to visit Imphal on December 3, has assured to help alleviate the current crisis in the state due to the intensified economic blockade on two National Highways.

Officials here said a state cabinet meeting was held on Thursday after receiving a confirmation letter about the PM's visit to the state from the PMO. It is speculated that the PM would be accompanied by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during the visit.

Responding to a letter sent by former Union commerce minister Mohan Dharia, the PM said, "Let me assure you that we will work together with the state government to do everything possible to improve the situation that you describe."

Denouncing the state government's alleged bid to bifurcate Naga-dominated areas to create new districts, the United Naga Council (UNC) has been imposing economic blockade on Imphal-Silchar and Imphal-Dimapur routes since August 21. The UNC is also demanding the Centre to make an alternative administrative arrangement for the Nagas without linking the state government.

Upon learning of the turbulent situation gripping Manipur, former union minister had written to the PM on October 17, requesting him to intervene in the matter. In his reply letter sent to Dharia recently, the PM said, "Our government is reviewing the situation of essential commodities in Manipur on a daily basis."

Even as over 1000 empty trucks left Imphal to bring commodities from Assam along the Imphal-Silchar route on Thursday, under heavy security, the PM said the Centre has arranged for transport on the two highways by organizing convoys and protection for trucks carrying essential commodities into Manipur.

Meanwhile, ahead of the PM's visit, repairing and beautification works in the restive Imphal city are underway at a fast pace since the past couple of days.

The PM will land here in a special BSF flight at 10.30 am of December 3 and will inaugurate some major projects of the city convention centre, state bus terminus, assembly complex and the Imphal bench Gauhati high court building, under construction as part of the capitol project in Imphal.

Inauguration of the Imphal bench Gauhati high court building would be attended by the Supreme Court Chief Justice as well, sources said, adding the PM will also inaugurate NIT and address a public meeting at Kangla fort in the afternoon.

In Manipur, Women Take the Lead

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Manpreet Romana for The New York TimesA Manipuri woman arguing with an Indian army official in Gamgiphai village of Manipur, in this file photo from August 31, 2011.

India is the land of a million mutinies, in V. S. Naipaul’s indelible phrase, but almost all the mutinies I have witnessed have been led and populated by men. When the farmers of Uttar Pradesh demonstrate against a new highway, they leave their wives at home. When the Jats agitate for caste-based job and education preferences by sitting on railway tracks, their daughters remain in the village, their faces, in all likelihood, covered by dupattas.

Even the massive marches against corruption in New Delhi during Anna Hazare’s hunger strike had an overwhelmingly male cast. When the barricades go up in India, it seems they are almost always manned by men.

But when I rolled up to an agitation in the village of Gamgiphai in Manipur earlier this fall, the ramparts were lined almost exclusively with women. The road connecting the village, which sat nestled in the hills outside the state capital, had been torn up. The protesters had blocked the roads into Manipur, as so often happens in this remote region. They hoped that strangling commerce would force officials here to grant their request: a separate administrative district for their ethnic group, the Kukis. I used my cellphone to record a video that captured just how unafraid Manipuri women are to confront soldiers.

“Women take the lead in these protests,” explained  Lamshi Haokip, one of the women at the barricades. “If the men did it the army would kill them.”

Perhaps, but the involvement of women in the struggle for human rights and self-determination in Manipur has a long history. In 1939, Manipuri women launched what was called Nupi Lan, or the women’s war, against the maharaja that ruled the kingdom over what they called his oppressive policies.

The state’s most famous activist, Irom Sharmila, is a woman who has been on a hunger strike for more than a decade, seeking the removal of draconian laws that shield the armed forces from prosecution for crimes committed here. She is force-fed through a feeding tube in her nose.

In 2004, a group of middle-aged Manipuri women protested against the same law by stripping naked in front of an army barracks in Imphal and unfurling a banner that read: “Indian Army: Rape Us.” Their protest was prompted by the killing of an activist named Thangjam Manorama, who was taken into custody by the Assam Rifles — a paramilitary force in India — and later found dead, her body riddled with bullets and showing signs of sexual assault and torture.

Statistics from the most recent census show that women in Manipur fare better than other Indian women on several counts. The ratio of boys to girls is closer to even here, a crucial marker in a country where female fetuses are aborted and female babies killed or neglected by parents who prefer sons. Its female literacy rate here is 73 percent — higher than the national rate for women of 65 percent.

One afternoon during my visit to Manipur, I went to a meeting of a group of activists working on Ms. Sharmila’s case and broader human rights issues in the state. It was the first meeting that I had ever been to in India on a topic not exclusively female-oriented (like women’s rights or gender violence) where the majority of participants were women: nine women and six men attended.

“It is a patriarchal society, but women take very strong roles,” said Basantakumar Wareppa, a lawyer who works at Human Rights Alert, one of the groups working on Ms. Sharmila’s cause. “They are not afraid to fight for their rights.”

Indian women have come a long way. The country has had a female prime minister and president, and women occupy top leadership roles at major companies and institutions. But when it comes to hitting the streets and making their voices heard, Manipuri women seem to be leading the pack.

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Dream Come True For Mizoram Lad

Accidental player Renthlei hopes to make it big in snooker

By Sidney Kiran

Bangalore, Nov 25 : Lalrina Renthlei’s foray into cue sports might have been a pure accident, but the confident and multi-faceted youngster is on the threshold of realising a big dream.

Two years after he embraced the sport for the second time after completing his 12th grade, the 20-year-old from Aizawl in Mizoram, will be competing at the World Snooker Championship that is scheduled to kick off here at the KSBA on Monday.

“It is a dream come true,” gushed Renthlei. “Ten years ago, when I first started to play the game I never imagined I would be competing at the world stage. When the national federation (BSFI) called me and told me that I would be playing in the world championship, I initially thought it must be for pool.

“I was reluctant to play because I wanted to concentrate only on snooker. A couple of days later, the Mizoram federation secretary called me to his office and showed me the mail from BSFI. Only then I realised it was for the snooker championship. I just couldn’t believe it and immediately sat and finished all the necessary formalities,” remarked Renthlei here on Thursday.

Renthlei’s tryst with cue sports and subsequent rise is stuff of a fairytale. One evening after a game of basketball in Aizawl, his friends forcefully took him to a pool parlour. Just 10 years old then, Renthlei looked completely out of place, and when he tried to push his way out, he was forced back in by his friends and was handed a cue stick.

A few days later, the youngster stumbled upon a snooker match on television and the game caught the teenager’s fancy then. “I was completely bowled over by the way those guys kept potting ball after ball. I wanted try my hand and took up the game immediately.

I played for a few years but had to discontinue due to academics. Now that I’ve completed 12th grade, I am fully focussed on making it big in snooker,” said Renthlei, who has represented his State several times in basketball national championships and is a quality drummer as well.

Unlike many youngsters of his age, Renthlei is good at both pool and snooker -- two completely different disciplines of cue sports. In 2010 nine-ball pool nationals, he knocked out defending champion Rafath Habib in the round of 64 before falling short in the next round. In this year’s nationals, he finished fifth in the eight-ball event and lost to eventual champion Alok Kumar in the nine-ball event. This August, he gave enough evidence of his multi-tasking skills, clinching the junior national snooker title in Chennai.

Renthlei, however, wants to channel his energies only on snooker now. “Pool is fun while snooker is for the intellectuals. There are no flukes and one needs to be really good to succeed. My aim is to play professional snooker and I see this event as a huge stepping stone. I believe I am destined to play snooker and I am going to give it everything,” he signed off.

'Gandhian Anna Like Taliban'

'Anna wears a Gandhi cap but thinks like Taliban'

New Delhi, Nov 24 : Anna Hazare's prescription to flog drunkards to curb alcoholism invited sharp reactions from politicians and activists Wednesday.

Terming Anna's remedy as reminiscent of the Taliban, Samajwadi Party leader Mohan Singh told IANS: "While he wears a Gandhi cap, Hazare's thoughts are akin to that of Taliban."

"This statement has dented his image," he added.

Criticising the anti-graft campaigner for the comment, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Nilotpal Basu said: "There is no need for self-appointed guardians in our society."

While agreeing that Anna's cause was right, social activist Ranjana Kumari said his ways "are not acceptable".

"Flogging people is taking law in your hand, you can't do that," she said.

Anna recently told a TV channel that drunkards should be flogged so they drop the habit.

His encouraging women in his native village Ralegan-Siddhi to flog the errant menfolk reportedly "cured" the place first of liquor and then gutka and paan.

Myanmar Exporters Eye Fish Trade in Manipur

Imphal, Nov 25 : Taking into account the huge demand of fish in Manipur, a delegation of Myanmarese businessmen has expressed their willingness to export fish to the state.

According to Manipur fishery department officials, normal production of fish crop in the state is 19,200 metric tons per year and the requirement for the same is around 27,500 metric tons. The deficit of 8,300 metric tons is being bought from outside the state, including Andhra Pradesh.

"Upon learning of the huge requirement of fish in your state, we are ready to export whatever you require to buy, provided the item is listed officially in the ongoing Indo-Myanmar commercial agreement," said Win Myint, managing director of Shiwe Si Soe Co, Ltd.

The Sagaing division businessman, who exports fish to Thailand, China, Cambodia, and also to some American countries, said once the business materializes, the items, including local and sea fishes, could be transported easily to Imphal via Moreh, the commercial hub of the two countries.

Responding to queries during an interaction programme, organized by the Indo Myanmar Fraternal Alliance (IMFA) at Imphal on Thursday, Myint said people of Northeast India are buying fishes from his company in retail from their respective markets bordering Myanmar in any case.

Economists and experts, who joined the interaction session, said currently fish is not a permissible item in the Indo-Myanmar trading activities, as certain infrastructure is needed to examine edible items for human consumption. Once the required infrastructure is set up in Moreh town, the transportation rate of any item in the corridor would be much less than from other states of India.

IMFA president R K Shivachandra appealed to people, mostly young business enthusiasts, to embark upon the Look East Policy for better prospects for the state. Sundergopal Sharma, alias U Htun Shwe, a Myanmarese-Manipuri, who is the managing director of Mandaley-based Man Giri Industrial Co Ltd, said he would extend maximum efforts in developing any new trading activities between the two countries.

The 11 Myanmarese delegates are currently in Imphal at the invitation of the state government for the ongoing 10-day-long Manipur Sangai festival.

Bangladeshi Envoy To Visit India Over Tipaimukh Dam

Dhaka, Nov 24 : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Wednesday that a special envoy would be sent to India soon to discuss the Tipaimukh Dam to be built on the Barak river, that flows down into Bangladesh, in India's Manipur state.

Speaking during a question-answer session in the national parliament, Hasina said her government had already sought clarification from Indian government about the reports on 'Promoters' Agreement' on the Tipaimukh Dam Project, Xinhua reported.

Stating Bangladesh must be included in the survey if conducted by India on the Tipaimukh Dam, the prime minister said: 'Unilateral survey (by India) will not be acceptable.'

Earlier, Bangladesh's leader of opposition Khaleda Zia urged the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to allow a survey by experts before proceeding with the dam project in northeast India.

Khaleda, also chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), made the request in a letter written to the Indian prime minister Tuesday in the wake of growing resentment in her country over the recent signing of an agreement for the construction of Tipaimukh dam and a hydroelectric project on a common river Barak in India's Manipur state, said Shimul Biswas, special assistant to Khaleda Zia.

The proposed dam is to be constructed near the confluence of Barak and Tuivai rivers in Manipur and within 100 km of Bangladesh's border.

A pact in this regard was inked Oct 22 among India's National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, or NHPC Ltd, the Manipur state government and another state enterprise Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVN) to form a joint venture company to implement the project.

The project, estimated at a cost of $1.7 billion, is aimed at producing 1,500-megawatt hydropower. It's site is located in India's Manipur state that borders Bangladesh.

Water experts and environmentalists in Bangladesh say the proposed Tipaimukh project would adversely impact on Bangladesh.