Pakistan ISI Admits Supporting Insurgency in India's Northeast

By Dipanjan Roy

Former ISI chief Asad Durrani made the admission during a Pakistan Supreme Court hearing.

Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has admitted to meddling in India's Northeast and funding the right-wing Bangladesh National Party (BNP) during the 1991 general elections in that country.

The admission came from no less than former ISI chief Asad Durrani during a Pakistan Supreme Court hearing on the spy agency's mandate on Wednesday.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary grilled the former spy agency chief on ISI's funding for politicians both within and outside Pakistan.

Recently a UAE-based daily had alleged that ISI paid Rs 50 crore to BNP chairperson and former PM Khaleda Zia ahead of the 1991 elections in which the BNP won and formed the government.

There are allegations that the ISI has been active in Bangladesh whenever the BNP has been in power (1991-96) and later during 2001-06.

The spy agency was also alleged to have launched a campaign from Bangladesh to destabilise the Northeast by patronising and providing logistic support, including funds, to the insurgent groups operating from Bangladesh.

The ISI is alleged to have supported a network in Bangladesh, which includes the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), the BNP and Northeast rebel groups during the BNP's rule.

Is Shared Sovereignty the Future of Nagaland?

Globalisation and inter-dependence have pushed Naga rebels to reassess their goals. Is peace within reach, asks Avalok Langer Blowin’ in the wind Rebel leaders with the flag of Nagaland Photo: Benjamin Sugathan

FOR 64 YEARS, the Naga struggle for sovereignty has been based on the idea of ‘urra uvie (our land belongs to us)’. Over the years, a sense of a collective Naga identity has been instilled and the idea of sovereignty based on their historical rights and cultural identity has become real. Warring factions created a sovereignty hyperbole, something akin to the idea of Kashmir’s azadi, where the fight for independence was about “all or nothing” and the cause that justified the violence was sovereignty. However, at the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) meeting on 29 February in Dimapur, Nagaland, addressing thousands of Nagas from all walks of life and all Naga-inhabited areas (Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Myanmar), National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Kitovi-Khole) Chairman Gen Khole Konyak explained that independence for Nagas in the present international context was not possible nor was Greater Nagaland. “It is a practical reality, necessitated not because of the aggressive posture of the Government of India but a realisation that Naga nationalism must be evoked in the right spirit through practical wisdom as opposed to idealist views on sovereignty and independence,” he said.

A statement that, for the first time, touched on the issue of sovereignty in a public forum and gave an inkling of what the future might hold.

“Sovereignty, or the denial of it, has been a bone of contention between the Nagas and the Government of India since 1947,” says Father Abraham Lotha, a Naga intellectual. But what has resulted in this changing definition? A change that is being seen as a progressive and positive step.

Over the past six decades, there has been a paradigm shift and the idea of globalisation and inter-dependence has taken root not only in India but among the Nagas as well. Exposed to the idea of a global village, young Nagas aped the hairstyles of their favourite Korean movie stars and political stands of the ‘underground’ softened. Sovereignty underwent an adjustment.

“How we defined sovereignty 50 years ago does not fit into today’s context,” explains a Naga rebel. “Both sovereignty and self-determination are still key, but we will adjust our demands to the needs of a modern world.”

‘Shared sovereignty’ is the new catch-phrase in Nagaland, says Father Lotha. “We aren’t very sure what ‘shared sovereignty’ means. We don’t know what we will give to India and what India will give us. But what we do know is that no country is sovereign in the old understanding of the word; we are all inter-dependent.”

Another contributing factor was the military stalemate. As the decades passed, the death toll mounted. The Indian government’s military response to a political problem created a deadlock. While it contained the ‘insurgency’, sporadic violence continued. “The harsh and sad reality of India is that for every soldier killed, there are a hundred waiting to take his place,” explains a senior army officer. “Yes, you can create an irritant, but you cannot win in a battle of attrition.”

The implication of this mindset is that violence cannot provide any solution. Whether it is in Kashmir or the Northeast, the Centre has shown its willingness to take on losses and bide its time for an opportune moment.

‘The demand for complete sovereignty has vanished from the younger generation,’ says 28-year-old Zakie

But the protracted violence in Nagaland and other parts of the Northeast has created ‘conflict fatigue’. The local population — the support base of the movements — has grown wary of the violence, extortion, lack of normalcy and development. They are stuck between the cause: sovereignty, which is close to their heart, and the reality, which falls horribly short of what was promised.

“The demand for complete sovereignty has vanished from the younger generation and the Naga intellectuals,” says businessman Zakie, 28. “Complete sovereignty is neither possible nor will it be to our advantage. Though there is a sense of optimism after the recent FNR meeting, many people are jaded. We have heard these promises before.”

Former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai believes that, “When the Naga groups came to the negotiation table, the understanding was that sovereignty is something that the Indian government cannot give. However, the negotiation must result in a win-win situation, an honourable solution. The first step is for the Naga groups to go back to the people and explain to them, we were fighting for X, but we are getting Y, which is an honourable solution and in the best interest of both parties. They need to get the people to support the agreement. Then we will have a lasting solution.”

A young member of the Naga underground very candidly expresses, “This political struggle has been on for many years now, but there is a growing feeling that if we don’t do something now and seize the moment, it will not be wise on our part. We will talk to the people, understand what they want and then go ahead with the negotiations.”

The FNR meeting, in which four resolutions were passed and a desire expressed to create a common platform, is being seen as the ‘first step’. Though there are still hurdles, the progressive approach provides hope that the contours of a lasting peace could be seen by the end of this year.

KASHMIR TOO has reached a military stalemate and life in the Valley is anything but normal. Azadi is the war cry and various separatist leaders rally around the cause to assert their dominance. Does the Naga movement hold a lesson for India’s other longstanding dispute?

Pillai feels that though the Pakistan factor makes Kashmir a different ballgame, “the idea of globalisation, soft borders and being exposed to what is happening in Pakistan has resulted in a shift”. “Pakistan is no longer an option; the options are azadi and India. This shift has taken 50 years. You have to give it time,” he says.

The longer the movement lasts, the graver the consequences are for the local populace. So, is a shift in mindset required from both sides?

Dilip Padgaonkar, one of the interlocutors sent to Kashmir last year, believes that the solution lies within the idea of India itself. “In the Valley, sovereignty is co-equal to a ‘State’. When that is the understanding, in a region where people feel oppressed, the demand for sovereignty comes up. Realpolitik or armed conflict is a nonstarter. The idea of India allows for people to follow their political aspirations. We have seen that the Constitution of India has proven to be very flexible and allowed space for this kind of aspiration. The most recent example of this space is the creation of Gorkhaland, a purely constitutional solution to people’s aspirations.”

Hurriyat (G) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s visit to New Delhi and interactions with different civil society members are being seen as a softening of his otherwise hardline stand. Could this be a step in a new direction?

Over the years, there has been one constant, the Indian government will not give complete sovereignty. This is the stark reality facing the rebel outfits: Is prolonged conflict in pursuit of an outdated idea of sovereignty worth it, especially when New Delhi is comfortable with protracted deployment? Maybe there is a lesson to be learnt from the Naga rebel outfits — to stay relevant, you must evolve.

At the end of the day, the groups have to realise that in a people’s movement, the mandate is in the hands of the people.

Avalok Langer is a Correspondent with Tehelka. avalok@tehelka.com

What Threatens Peace in India’s Northeast?

By Samrat


EpaA boatman on Brahmaputra River, 43 miles from Guwahati, Assam, in this June 27, 2008 file photo. The last in a three-part series on peace quietly breaking out in India’s Northeast.


For India’s Northeast to have a bright future, the region will need to avoid a few minefields.
Most importantly, “a sustainable peace, including in the Kachin state (in Myanmar), is essential for all this to happen,” wrote Thant Myint-U, the author of “Where India Meets China,” in a message.

This peace, and the subsequent the reopening of road links, and the Trans-Asian Railway – which seeks to connect India to Myanmar – could be held up in the Naga inhabited areas because of disputes among the Naga, Kuki and Meitei ethnic groups over control of the hill tracts of Manipur. Forming a crucial link that would connect India to the economies of Southeast Asia and China ultimately depends on the calming of several ethnic battles.

Roads through Manipur are frequently blockaded for months over the issue. Elections for the Manipur state assembly provided a break in the usual routine of ethnic animosities, but those could erupt again at any time.
In addition, the larger region could find itself in turmoil over environmental issues sparked by an attempt to build 168 big dams here. Popular protest movements have already gathered steam over these dams, which many people fear will lead to loss of their land and livelihoods. There are also fears of earthquakes leading to dam ruptures in this region.

European Pressphoto AgencyProtesters participate in a rally against the construction of mega dams in the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border region, Guwahati, Assam, July 14, 2010.

Answering local residents’ concerns about the dams is essential to lasting peace, said Sanjib Baruah, a professor of political studies at Bard College in New York and author of “India Against Itself,’’ a book about conflict in the region.

Mr. Baruah recently spent several weeks in Assam, where he traveled with hopes that “we may indeed be able to soon talk about post-conflict/post ULFA Assam,” he said in a recent interview by e-mail. (ULFA, the United Liberation Front of Assam, is the major insurgent group that has been fighting for the state’s independence from India since 1979.) “But after traveling to Lakhimpur-Dhemaji, seeing the anti-dam protests, and reading the Assamese press, I am no longer sure,” he said.

“The hydropower dams under construction, or on the drawing board in Arunachal Pradesh, appear to be an enormous source of anxiety in Assam,” he said. Moreover, the hydropower is meant almost entirely for use elsewhere, at least for the moment.

“The region is being groomed to play a familiar role: that of a resource frontier – supplier of natural resources to fuel the engines of economic growth elsewhere,” he said. It is a role that breeds insurgency and anti-state protests.

“My tentative formulation is that the politics of identity is slowly giving way to a politics of anxiety,” said Mr. Baruah. Political parties and insurgent groups in the region have long championed rights of particular ethnic groups. The protests against the dams, though, have united ethnic and religious groups as they face shared fears.

“Delhi’s commitment to developing Arunachal’s hydropower potential is huge – there are even strategic considerations,” he said. “There is a notion among Indian decision-makers that we have to build dams in the Siang before China does. They seem to believe that international law on water is fairly solid, and that there is a ‘use it or lose it’ principle because of which we have to beat China to it.”

He doesn’t see any easy way of all this sorting out.

Another fear about the recent weakening of local insurgent groups is that Maoists, identified as India’s biggest internal security threat by prime minister Manmohan Singh, will extend their operations to Northeast India. “There are already indications that the Communist Party of India-Maoist is trying to occupy the spaces vacated by the insurgent groups that have lost traction,” said Ajai Sahni, the head of South Asia Terrorism Portal, a security think tank in Delhi. “Demographic trends, including significant increases in population, pressures of migration, and frictions between divergent ethnic formations, add to the conflict potential of the region. Environmental and resource challenges can exacerbate the situation further.”

European Pressphoto AgencySecurity personnel patrol insurgency affected areas of Thanga constituency, Binsupur district on the eve of the Manipur State Assembly elections, Jan. 27, 2012.

Almost every one of the seven states in the Northeast has experienced a higher population growth than in India as a whole. Local residents tend to blame migration from Bangladesh and Nepal, though large families are common in the region. Good governance could prevent conflict, said Mr. Sahni, but given the quality of governance the region has experienced, there is reason to worry.

Indian officials have also expressed concerns that China may be providing support for insurgent groups in the region. Paresh Barua, the military chief of the ULFA, is said to be under Chinese protection somewhere near Ruili on China’s border with Myanmar.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland’s Isak-Muivah faction, the most powerful insurgent group in Northeast India, has also re-established contact with China, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said in February.
China has denied all this, saying in a statement on Feb. 16 that it follows a policy of not interfering in the affairs of other countries.

If the leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), Th. Muivah, 76, dies or retires without a settlement being reached, the group, which has rearmed during the 14 years since the cease-fire, could go back to war under a new leadership, a Naga activist with links to the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in an interview last month.

Across the border in Myanmar, cease-fires with the ethnic armies are tenuous where they exist. Any settlement would have to give political autonomy and control over local resources to the ethnic groups. That is, if the Burman majority don’t fall out among themselves.

Both India and China stand to gain greatly from peace and progress in these parts. China’s relatively underdeveloped Yunnan province, where about 40 percent of the population belongs to ethnic minorities, borders Myanmar on one side. India’s relatively underdeveloped Northeast, with its mainly tribal states, is on the other.

Trade between the two countries has been rising, and hit an all time high of $73.9 billion in 2011. There is, however, a big trade deficit of $27 billion in China’s favor.

The two giants of Asia will come closer as flights, roads and rail links connect both to Myanmar. Whatever happens next will determine the destinies of close to half the world’s population.

Earlier, the author looked at the Northeast’s expanding foreign ties, and young population’s desire for prosperity and connectedness.

The writer is editor of the Mumbai edition of The Asian Age and author of The Urban Jungle (Penguin, 2011). He can be found on Twitter as mrsamratx.

Tripura Withdraws Imposing Mizo Language on Halam People

Agartala, Mar 15 : The Tripura state government has decided to withdraw the imposition of Mizo language on Halam communities following a protest from the latter saying that the Mizo language was forcibly imposed upon them since 2009 despite no plausible connection between Halam-Kuki linguistic group and the Mizos.

A delegation of the Halam-Kuki linguistic tribal stream spread across a wide stretch of land of Tripura today met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar in a deputation at the Civil Secretariat here today. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) approves formation and functioning of advisory committees for tribal languages and dialects.

The Advisory Committee for Development of Mizo Language had suggested running educational courses of the tribes covered under Halam community through Mizo language way back in 2009. Since then, the state government has been paying for subsidies in purchasing books from Mizoram in Mizo dialect for students from the first till fifth standard. While most of the Halam communities are not actually linked with the Mizo dialect or script, they have finally rebelled against the practice.

Thomas Halam, Debthang Halam, Ganga Bahadur Halam, Bokhathang Halam and others who met the CM in the deputation today said, “The Halam community is shocked to see that the Advisory Committee for Development of Mizo language which is formed with the approval of higher authority vide no. 1.32/ MIN (SE)/ 09 dated December 31, 2009 had taken such a step”.

“The Halam has a culture, tradition and language different from the Mizos. The language of Halam and Mizos are not the same. Instead of developing the Halam language, the Committee imposed the Mizo language which is not the mother tongue of the Halam people”, added the delegation invoking rights provided under Article 350 A of the Indian Constitution.

Speaking to reporters at the Civil Secretariat here later this evening, Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty said, “The state government appreciates their protest against this practice. In fact, we presume that the protest has been much delayed than usual”.

“The Chief Minister has assured them that the practice of using Mizo dialect as medium of instruction for Halam-Kuki students would be revoked shortly. Principal Secretary of School Education Department Banamali Sinha has been asked to issue a notification declaring the practice withdrawn with immediate effect”, added the minister.

He also stated that a separate Advisory Committee for Development of Halam-Kuki language would be set up very soon to fulfill the gap in developing the language. It seems, good sense has prevailed at last; though in late!

In India’s Northeast, Youth Crave Global Links, Development

By SAMRAT

Amit Bhargava for The New York TimesSchool students at a sit-in protest against the economic blocade imposed by Naga rebels, near Imphal, Manipur in this Aug. 3, 2005 file photo.

In the second of a three-part series, a journalist from the Northeast examines the peace that is quietly breaking out across the once strife-torn region.
Northeast India is part of one of the world’s last great ungoverned spaces.
The wider region it inhabits has a name, given to it in 2002 by a Dutch professor, Willem van Schendel: it’s called Zomia, derived from the word Zomi, which means ‘‘highlander’’ in several of the languages spoken here, as Frank Jacobs wrote recently in The New York Times. The original area was defined as extending from the highlands of Laos to Tibet.
All of Myanmar and most of Northeast India are a part of this area, inhabited by people who have traditionally been outside the control of whatever government technically controls the land they live on. The Yale University political scientist James Scott theorized in 2009 that these “highlanders” remain unassimilated because they reject modernity, Mr. Jacobs writes.
Perhaps some of them do, but I suspect the majority actually have no issues with modernity per se. I was born and grew up in Northeast India and I’ve seen the hunger for a better life as it is popularly understood in most places. I know the love for branded clothes, and the desire to shop in malls, which are mistakenly seen by locals as symbols of development.
The battles here are not against modern lifestyles. They are against loss of ethnic homelands and rule by outsiders. Given enough political autonomy over their areas, most of these peoples would gladly join the modern, globalized world, if changes here in the past 20 years are any indication.

Mustafa Quraishi/Associated PressEthnic Nagas from the northeastern state of Nagaland participate in a rally urging the Indian government to expedite the India-Naga political dialogue for a positive solution, in New Delhi, Feb. 24, 2012.

“I think the people of the Northeast, especially the youth, want to be actively involved in the economic development that India is rapidly moving towards,” says Agatha Sangma, who at 31 is the youngest minister in the Indian central government. Sangma, a petite woman from the Garo Hills of Meghalaya in Northeast India who has degrees in law and environment management, is the junior minister for Rural Development. She rues that the impact of India’s economic growth is not very visible in the Northeast, “maybe because the Northeast only contributes 2 percent to the Indian economy currently. That dynamic needs to be worked upon.” She also says that in this globalized world, youth from the region who go elsewhere no longer want to be identified merely by the place they come from, “but also by what they have to offer as gifted and talented individuals…I think the youth want to move freely across the country and feel accepted and safe so they can go about doing their work and live comfortable lives.”
Her views reflect a new mindset in a region where the major conflicts have long been about separate identities and homelands. The average Indian from the mainland has nothing in common with the average Naga, for example: No shared history in roughly 5,000 years preceding British rule, no shared culture, no language or religion that binds them.

Kevin Frayer/Associated PressEthnic Naga women in traditional clothing at a rally urging the Indian government to expedite the India-Naga political dialogue, New Delhi, Feb. 25, 2012.

It is little surprise then that many Nagas see themselves as different from Indians. This feeling of difference was recorded well before India became independent, in the Naga Club’s memorandum to the British Simon Commission in 1929. It subsequently led to the Naga insurgency.
The Naga tribes inhabit several areas of northern Myanmar as well. The chief of one wing of the powerful National Socialist Council of Nagaland, an insurgent group, is S.S. Khaplang, a Burmese Naga.
Naga politicians in India are quietly forging their own links to Myanmar. With a nod from the Indian and Myanmar governments, the current chief minister of the state of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, has reopened his state’s border with Myanmar and started facilitating free movement to and from the Naga areas there through jungle routes.
“The daily movement of Naga villagers across the border for jhumming (a kind of farming) and other activities is a necessity,” Mr. Rio said at an international conference on Myanmar at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi on Jan. 30.
It is a hint of the way forward in this part of the world, where borders split not only ethnic groups, but even families.
Nona Arhe is the author of a new book published with support from the Nagaland government on the Nagas of Myanmar, titled ‘‘As It Is.’’ A Naga herself, Ms. Arhe traveled several times to Myanmar to document the life of the tribe there. She found a people living primitive lives.
Yet, even in these remote reaches of Myanmar, she met Naga students who regularly went back and forth across the border with India without identification documents. “There were even some who had studied in Bangalore,” she said.
Previous: A flurry of activity between the Northeast and Myanmar is a sign of strengthening foreign ties in the area. Read the article here.
Next: Some hurdles still remain to the Northeast’s transformation.

The writer is editor of the Mumbai edition of The Asian Age and author of The Urban Jungle (Penguin, 2011). He can be found on Twitter as mrsamratx.

India (barely) Protests Dams on International Day Of Action

Hundreds of dams are planned for northeast India, but only those directly affected seem to care.

By Jason Overdorf

Siang River, Arunachal Pradesh: More than 150 hydroelectric power projects are proposed for the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh despite concerns about their impact on the environment and local cultures. (Jason Overdorf/GlobalPost)

Not many people in India recognized the International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers Wednesday – though nearly all of the country's great waterways are gravely polluted, and at least one activist has died fasting for action to save the Ganges from desecration.

But in Arunachal Pradesh, where the state government has signed memoranda of understanding for the construction of more than 150 dams in hopes of making the state “the powerhouse of India,” local tribal organizations hit the pavement in Pasighat, activist Vijay Taram said by telephone.

Representatives from the Forum for Siang Dialogue, the Siang Peoples’ Forum, the Mebo Area Bachao Committee and the Adi Students Union distributed flowers along with pamphlets with their objections to hydroelectric projects slated for the Siang River—which locals hold sacred, Taram said.

Sadly, nobody will likely listen. I visited Pasighat and other areas of Arunachal Pradesh last week for an upcoming series on the controversy over its race to dam the rivers, and it's a beautiful spot that deserves protection. But recent reports tell a different story.

According to an article in the Hindustan Times today, for instance, the current Arunachal Pradesh government's vocal support for the Lower Subansiri dam flies in the face of the objections its predecessors from the same political party (the Congress).

'The warnings were made through two letters — dated January 30, 2005, and March 16, 2005 — written by the Arunachal Pradesh power secretary to the chairman and managing director, NHPC,' the paper writes. 'The letters from the Arunachal government had pointed out “serious procedural lapses”, stating that its approval had not been acquired for the project.'

These days, everybody and his brother is rushing to push the project through, despite continued objections from people downstream of the dam in Assam, who say it will wreak havoc on the agriculture and fishing they depend on to survive.

Meanwhile, a second article in the Hindustan Times explains that some 13 dams in the Lohit River basin threaten to wipe out the local Mishmi tribe – who will face displacement and an influx of laborers from outside the state.

And a third item from FirstPost.com skewers the Ministry of Environment and Forests for clearing a massive dam project on the Lohit River despite the objections of the National Board of Wildlife. Apparently, too much money had already been spent.

If your experience of India is limited to cities like New Delhi and tourist meccas like Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and Pushkar, Rajasthan, you'd be forgiven for assuming that, where the environment is concerned, India is a lost cause (or a “gone case” as they say here). But take a trip to the Himalayas – and especially to Arunachal – and you're reminded that there's still a lot to save.

The only problem is that it's disappearing fast.

Kukis, Nagas fight over Manipur deputy CM

Imphal, Mar 15 : Soon after Okram Ibobi Singh was sworn in as chief minister for his third term on Wednesday, the fight for his deputy came out in public.

The Kuki-Paite bloc in Congress is unhappy with the party high command's move to appoint a Naga leader as the deputy chief minister. Sources say the Congress high command is in favour of appointing PCC chief Gaikhangam, a Naga tribesman, as the deputy CM to counter the Naga hard line politics played by Naga People's Front (NPF) and United Naga Council (UNC) as both are backed by NSCN (IM). The highest Kuki tribal body, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) has openly supported the seniormost tribal minister and former PCC chief Phungzathang Tonsing for the deputy CM's post.

In a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, KIM president Thangkhosei Haokip said the Congress in Manipur has neglected the political demands of the Kukis by following a Naga appeasement policy at their expense. He said, "Tonsing helped build the party during the NDA rule. He ensured 100 per cent success from Churachandpur district in the recently held election. Tonsing also enjoys the confidence of majority of the CLP members."

He informed the AICC chief that the state government had only agreed in principle to create a Sadar Hills district but had not fulfilled it yet. "This has created a sense of mistrust and alienated Kukis from the Congress," Haokip said. Manipur had suffered a 121-day economic blockade last year over the issue of creation of Sadar Hills district.

"Unlike Naga rebels who demand secession, the Kuki militant groups have entered a Suspension of Operations with the state government for a peaceful solution to our political demands. If the Congress continue to follow a blatant pro-Naga policy, it could be disastrous for the peace process," Haokip said.

He hoped the Kukis' loyalty to Congress will be kept in mind while appointing the deputy CM. Haokip reminded the AICC chief that "in every Lok Sabha, assembly and district council elections, the Nagas under UNC and NPF with support from NSCN (IM) have been attacking Congress candidates and workers. On the contrary, Kukis have been staunch Congress loyalists and are an important support base of the party."

Deloitte Recommends 3 Mizoram PSUs Be Abolished

Aizawl, Mar 14 : Deloitte and Touche Consulting India Pvt Ltd, employed by the Mizoram government to study the functioning of state government corporate bodies, has recommended that three PSUs should be abolished.

After conducting a thorough examination of the PSUs, Deloitte recommended that three of them - Mizoram Agriculture Marketing Corporation (Mamco), Zoram Electronics Development Corporation (Zenics) and Zoram Handloom and Handicraft Development Corporation (Zohandco) - should be abolished.

The recommendations said that these state government undertakings have been incurring losses rather than earning profits for the government and it would be more profitable if the government abolishes them.

Deloitte also recommended that Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Corporation (Mifco), which owned food and fruit processing units, should be privatized and Zoram Industrial Development Corporation (Zidco) should be revamped.

The state government in 2008 launched the Mizoram Public Resource Management Programme to improve its finances and the state finance department employed the services of the Deloitte to study the functioning of the PSUs.

The state government is yet to take any action on the recommendations.