'If Bangladesh Grows, Northeast India Would Develop Too'

Agartala, Apr 27 : India, Bangladesh and other countries in the region should strengthen existing rail, road and water linkages for their prosperity since "if Bangladesh grows, northeast India would also develop", said Bangladesh's envoy and other experts here.

Bangladesh High Commissioner Tariq Ahmad Karim stressed on development that would "make them truly land-linked with even more prosperous regions beyond".

Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) acting director general Sarvajit Chakravarti pointed out that "Dhaka and New Delhi have sorted out most outstanding and difficult issues", while a professor suggested that "economic cooperation between India and Bangladesh must go hand in hand with strong political support".

Addressing an international seminar here Thursday, Karim said: "Bangladesh has already agreed to allow India, Nepal and Bhutan to use Chittagong and Mongla international ports in that country as well with transit through its own country."

He said: "These ports would facilitate sea-going access for the land-locked BIMSTEC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Economic Cooperation) regions with Sri Lanka in the southeast and Thailand in the east, and beyond."

"Recent visit of India and Bangladesh leaders in each others' countries...demonstrate the growing interest of the northeast Indian states in Bangladesh as a development partner that would free them of the epithet `land-locked' and make them truly land-linked with even more prosperous regions beyond."

The two-day seminar on "Northeast India in Transition: Tripura - the Commerce and Connectivity Corridor between India and Bangladesh" was organised by Kolkata-based Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies.

Karim said that it is in everyone's larger interest that the agreement on Teesta river water sharing should be signed as quickly as possible and joint study of Manipur's Tipaimukh hydel power project should be speedily undertaken to clear the air of misconceptions.

"Bangladesh want to achieve a growth rate much much higher than today's little over six percent, as India wants to soar from its current national average of a little over seven percent. But India's national average is pulled down by the northeast India's low average of four percent. If Bangladesh grows, northeast India would also develop and if northeast grows, India's national average would also surge higher," Karim said.

ICWA's Chakravarti said: "As part of mutual cooperation, India gave $830 million to Bangladesh as grant to develop its infrastructure. It has used so far $83 million."

"Both Dhaka and New Delhi have sorted out most outstanding and difficult issues, some of their implementations have remained unfulfilled," Chakravarti said, adding that within the next few months active movements of goods via Bangladesh are expected.

"The Indian missions in Bangladesh have been issuing several thousand visas everyday to Bangladeshi citizens to visit India. We are constantly creating an atmosphere of trust," he stated.

Chakravarti said that to reinforce the business and economy between India and Bangladesh, New Delhi has removed all negative list of items allowing them into India without any restrictions.

"India and Bangladesh have taken positive steps to invest in each other countries. The investment would help for rapid development of all social parameters of the two neighbours."

India's northeastern states are surrounded by Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and China and the only land route access to these states from within India is through Assam. But this route passes through hilly terrain with steep roads and multiple hairpin bends.

Agartala is 1,650 km from Kolkata and 2,637 km from New Delhi via Shillong and Guwahati whereas the distance between the Tripura capital and Kolkata via Bangladesh is just about 350 km.

Kolkata's Jadavpur University professor Om Prakash Mishra said that "most people in India and abroad have very little knowledge about the mountainous northeastern region though it has huge untapped natural as well as human resources".

"Economic cooperation between India and Bangladesh must go hand in hand with strong political support from the highest places of the two close neighbours," said Mishra.

Tripura (Central) University Vice-Chancellor Arunoday Saha said that the university would soon open a "Center for Bangladesh studies" in association with Dhaka University and Jamia Milia Islamia in New Delhi.

German Diplomat Assures Help To Mizoram

Kolkata, Apr 26 : Kolkata-based Germany consul general Rainer Schmiedchen today assured all possible assistance to Mizoram to help the state's economy move ahead.

Mr Schmiedchen, who was on his maiden visit to Mizoram, called on Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla at the latter's bungalow and told him that the hospitality of the people of Mizoram and the state's natural beauties impressed him at first sight.

The German consul general said he was willing to help Mizoram students pursue technical education in Germany and help them get visas easily.

Germany is keen to expand its economic relations with India to Mizoram to help the state grow faster, he told the CM.

The CM also told the German diplomat about the natural resources like oil and gas in Mizoram being explored by major national and international companies.

Meghalaya CM Alleges Discrimination Against Students From Northeast

Gurgaon/Shillong, Apr 26 : A day after an MBA student was found dead in her hostel room in Amity University's Gurgaon campus, she has been identified as Dana Sangma, niece of Meghalya chief minister Mukul Sangma. The city police on Wednesday registered an FIR against the university's administration.

In Shillong, chief minister Sangma described his niece's suicide as a "result of discrimination" by the authorities of the institute. "Primary evidence suggests that the girl was thrown out of an examination hall after the invigilator found a mobile phone with her," Sangma said.

The CM also said that students from the northeast are regularly subjected to humiliation by the university, which, he said, could also be true in the case of his niece. "This could have resulted in mental pressure that pushed the girl to take the extreme step," he added.

"There have been many instances of students from the northeast being subjected to all kinds of atrocities and discrimination," Sangma told reporters.

Police filed the FIR after a complaint was lodged by Dana's aunt Sofia. Twenty one-year-old Dana's body was found on Tuesday afternoon after she returned from the examination hall.

Investigators said that during the examination, the university officials caught the victim cheating through a mobile phone. "The girl might have committed suicide as its fallout," police officers said.

Sangma's daughter Miani Shira, a student of SRCC, said the university authorities compelled Dana to take the extreme step. She alleged that Dana was traumatized.

"All such practices should stop. The university authorities also did not inform her family members about the incident. We have filed the FIR seeking action against whoever is responsible for this," Miani said.

The university has rejected all allegations of torture or pressure. Vice chancellor of the Amity University (Gurgaon), Major Gen (retd) B S Suhag said they have no personal agenda against any student. "She was a nice student and we never received any complaint against her.

The invigilator had reported a case of using unfair means when she was caught with her mobile phone in the exam hall," Suhag said.

Tamenglong Under Scanner For Hepatitis B

Imphal, Apr 26 : The Manipur health services department is all set to hold a widespread Hepatitis B awareness programme in the remote Tamenglong district after nearly 30 persons from Noney and its surrounding areas in the district were tested positive for the disease.

During the programme, to be conducted immediately, family members of those who tested persons would also be tested. One girl reportedly died of Hepatitis B last month. The viral disease usually affects the liver.

Zeliangrong-dominated Tamenglong is one of the neglected districts of the state, particularly in healthcare.

Health department director Sh Shurchandra Sharma said the medical officer of the primary health centre at Noney reported last month that 16 persons from Noney and its surrounding areas were tested positive for Hepatitis B.

The department further collected blood samples from four of these 16 people and examined these at the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in the state capital on March 28 for further confirmation, which too tested positive, Sharma said in a statement.

On April 3, hordes of civil and anti-drug bodies - Zeliangrong Students Union, Manipur (ZSUM), All Manipur Anti Drug Association (Amada), Inpui Naga Students' Union (INSU) and two prominent private diagnostics units organized medical camps in Noney and Tupul villages. A specialist from the centre-run Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here, JNIMS as well as chief medical officer, Tamenglong spoke in depth on the epidemic, the statement said.

Amid Uncertainty, Reang Refugees To Return To Mizoram

Kanchanpur (Tripura), Apr 25 : The much-awaited repatriation of Reang tribal refugees from Tripura to adjoining Mizoram is set to resume Thursday, but there is still uncertainty over whether all the migrants in six camps will return home, officials said Wednesday.

'A total of 669 tribal families comprising about 3,655 men, women and children are likely to be sent back in five phases starting Thursday,' North Tripura district magistrate Parshanta Kumar told IANS by phone.

By May 15, the tribal refugees would be repatriated to their villages under Mamit district in western Mizoram.

He said: 'A team of Mizoram government officials has been camping in Kanchanpur in north Tripura to take back the refugees. They also held meetings with Tripura's district officials. The Tripura government would provide all logistical support for the purpose.'

'The refugees' main demands before repatriation was to a tripartite agreement between Mizoram, central governments and the tribal inmates,' Kumar said adding 'our officials are providing all possible assistance to the Mizoram government officials to make the process trouble-free'.

According to him, the repatriation of the remaining refugees is not yet finalised.

Since October 1997, over 41,000 Reang tribal refugees, locally called Bru, have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura's Kanchanpur sub-division, adjacent to western Mizoram.

They had fled their villages after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.

The stalled repatriation process has been restarted after union Home Minister P. Chidambaram's visit to Mizoram last month and a series of meetings with Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and senior officials.

Refugee leaders have been insisting that without signing a tri-partite agreement between them, Mizoram and the central government, post-repatriation activities and works, including rehabilitation of the refugees, will remain uncertain.

Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) president A. Sawibunga said: 'We would not create any impediment in the repatriation process, but a large number of common refugees are not fully influenced by the verbal assurance of the central and Mizoram governments.'

The refugees, lodged in six camps in northern Tripura, 180 km north of Agartala, have occasionally organised protest rallies.

'All 36,000 refugees are inhabitants of Mizoram. The Mizo political parties and NGOs are trying to upset the repatriation process by making new issues of considering the 1995 electoral list as the cut-off year for repatriation,' MBDPF president told IANS on phone from north Tripura.

'The long-awaited repatriation of Reang refugees had resumed April 12 last year, but the process was stopped as most refugees were unwilling to return without a written assurance from the Mizoram government,' a Tripura government official said in Agartala.

Uncertainty still prevails over whether all the migrants in Tripura would return home.

Lifeline On A River: Assam's Boat Clinics

The state of Assam in northeast India has the highest maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the country. One of the reasons for the abysmal figures is that over three million people live on tiny islands along the Brahmaputra River without proper health infrastructure.
Boat clinics on the river, an initiative of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES), have been working to lower the alarming figures. But the latest challenge they face is climate change.
Healthcare for islanders

Murari Yadav is paddling his boat on the Brahmaputra River. His boat has taken off from a narrow strip of water. He navigates through the early morning traffic on the river. Boats pass by with people eager to get across to the land for their day’s work. Yadav is also helping people get to work.

He’s ferrying a team of doctors and supporting medics from the C-NES to an island about 40 kilometres from Tinsukia, a commercial town in upper Assam. They are heading upstream on the river to get to a remote island called Amalpur. Today, they will be setting up a camp there for villagers of the Missing tribe.

Floating clinics
Sanjoy Hazarika, founder of C-NES, came up with the idea of delivering medical aid to the needy along the Brahmaputra River. Once while he was travelling on the river, he heard a story about a pregnant woman on an island who died while waiting for transport.

“This is really unacceptable in this day and age that people have to die for lack of care. So I thought, instead of people going for the service, why not take the service to them?” Hazarika says. Today the boat clinics, which began in 2005, work in 13 districts in Assam along with the government organisation, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Poor infrastructure
Back on the river, the C-NES boat has reached the bank. It’s taken two hours on two boats. But the journey isn’t over yet. The team has to endure an arduous tractor-ride to reach Napun village, where they will be setting up camp.

Villagers, most of them women and children, have already queued up at the clinic. Narintari Chantalya, is pregnant with her eight-month-old baby. She remembers the last time she delivered a baby boy. “I was in labour four days. It was very difficult. They finally took me to a hospital far away,” she says.

Maternal mortality
Narintari is still scared from her experiences and so are many others. They have all heard of women dying while giving birth. Assam has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country at 393. The doctor presiding over the camp, Dr Ritesh Kalwar says Narintari’s haemoglobin levels are very low. “She is anaemic,” he says. “I’ve prescribed her iron tablets and hopefully they should do the work. She is due to deliver the baby in a few weeks, so she should be careful,” Dr Kalwar adds.

Once the patient leaves, he says, awareness among villagers about their health is very low. “They have myths about some things. For instance, they believe that taking iron tablets will make the baby too big causing complications during delivery,” he says. On that day, Dr Kalwar treats 110 patients at a go.

Environmental hurdles
But illiteracy and logistics are not the only problems faced by the boat clinics. Their growing concern now is climate change. In the past couple of years, the boats have not been able to reach many islands due to lowering water levels on the Brahmaputra River.

As he ferries the medical team across the river on land, Murari Yadav, the captain of the boat says he’s seen the river change a lot. “I’ve been riding boats since I was 13. But I can tell you the river is not the same these past years. The water levels have gone down and the river has grown wider,” he says.

He’s right. The Brahmaputra is widening at an alarming rate of five metres every year. If it continues at a regular rate, saving lives on the islands will become more and more difficult for the boat clinics.

Iran’s “Nude Revolutionary” Golshifteh Farahani (NSFW)

An Iranian actress has been banned from returning to her homeland after appearing naked in a photoshoot for a French magazine.

Golshifteh Farahani, co-star of the 2008 spy drama 'Body of Lies' with Leonardo DiCaprio, had moved from native Iran to Paris a year ago.

She appeared in the news magazine 'Madame Le Figaro' in protest against the ultra-conservative cultural policies, which she claims are restricting Iran's film industry.

"I was told by a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guide official that Iran does not need any actors or artists and 'you may offer your artistic services somewhere else'," the Independent quoted her as saying. Meanwhile, she got praise from some fans for her courage in tackling a taboo subject among Muslim
women.

Lisa Edelstein Nude for PETA (NSFW)

The former House actress Lisa Edelstein posed nude for PETA and she looks good. Yes, we love PETA – but for all the wrong reasons!