Meghalaya Sets Mining Policy, But Gaps Remain

By Esha Roy

Shillong, Nov 5 : After some 80 years of unregulated mining, mostly coal and limestone, the northeastern state of Meghalaya is set to adopt a mineral policy that aims to organise the lucrative sector and boost its performance. The state cabinet approved the Meghalaya Mineral Policy 2010 last month and it is due to be introduced in next month’s state assembly winter session for approval.

The state government was forced to act after it was punished by the Guwahati High Court twice. Last year the court fined the state Rs 50,000 for not having a mining policy, and Rs 5 lakh earlier this year for not regulating the rampant mining. The court also directed Meghalaya to submit a report on framing the policy by November 30.

Coal and limestone mining are two of Meghalaya’s biggest industries and the state also has sizable deposits of uranium, granite, kaolin, clay and glass sand. But since all land in the state falls under the Sixth Schedule of the constitution and is protected tribal land, the mines belong to tribal owners. Mining in the state is therefore disorganized. The sector is not known for safety measures, no pollution-control certificate is required and any resident is allowed exploration and mining.

Meghalaya is also notorious for rat-hole mining where small 1-2 ft holes lead to mining tunnels. Due to the size of these tunnels, only small-built adults or children can be employed as miners and estimates show that about 70,000 children are employed in the sector in Meghalaya’s seven districts.

Mining minister B M Lanong, however, said that there is no question of immediately suspending rat-hole mining under the new policy. “This is a traditional form of mining in Meghalaya which has been in practice for 80-odd years now and we can’t just end it. It would mean a war between the government and the stakeholders which is the coal miners,” Lanong told The Sunday Express.

The Centre has never interfered with the traditional mining methods of the state, the minister said. “They have never been strict with mining in Meghalaya because they know this is tribal land and customary laws prevail,” he said. Now, the new policy has put in place safeguards and mine owners will be responsible for who they employ. This means no child labour and workers will have to be given food, medical assistance, sanitary surroundings and safety equipment.

While Lanong admits that mine owners will still not need environmental clearance or permission from the forest department to begin mining, the state will over time switch to a more scientific method of mining, he said.

While the mining policy envisages FDI, Lanong said this is on the back-burner for now. “There has been a lot of opposition to FDI in mining from members in the assembly, especially the opposition. I personally feel this would be a great boon for the state and I’m personally behind FDI, we have not ruled it out. If a foreign concern wants to invest, we will definitely consider it,” Lanong said.
Highlights of the mineral policy

* To carry out geological mapping of mineral resources.
* To promote necessary linkages between mining, mineral industry and power generation.
* To promote research and development activities in mineral sector.
* To promote private sector participation in mineral development, including exploration, infrastructure building and mining.
* To encourage FDI in consonance with the national policy.
* To safeguard the rights of miners, mine owners and mining industry.
* For promotion of export, state government would make efforts for setting up dry ports equipped with all basic amenities at suitable sites.
* Mineral related tourism would be promoted.

Mizoram Government Officers Get Training on eGovernance

Aizawl, Nov 2 : Mizoram Government has organized a programme to enlighten its officials on eGoveranance.

Mizoram Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister Zodintluanga yesterday inaugurated the training on ‘e-Governance with focus on its intervention in office management’ organised for officials above Under Secretary, at Aijal Club here.

Addressing the officials in the training, Minister Zodintluanga highlighted the importance of information technology, mentioning that just like television is owned by almost every households in Mizoram, so is the case with Computer, and in Government offices too, the old typewriter is now replaced by the Computer. In fact, it is now impossible to work without computer, and moreover in some departments, there is the need to use internet in communicating with the Central Government, Minister added.

The Government is now visioning a paperless office by way of Information Technology in near future, ICT Minister said, adding that to fulfill this, Government officers and other workers are important.

Minister further said that as technology is developing the government officials also need to stay update with the new trends, and also every departments need to update their websites, and advised to make the best use of computer and internet, for which ICT Department is also always ready for help, the Minister said .

Information and Communication Technology Principal Informatics Officer Lalthlamuana gave a report on the initiatives taken by the Department, mentioning that the way is opened up for access of IT in rural places too.

System Integrator C Vanlaldika and System Administrator Lalengzuala gave instruction to the officers who participated in the training today.

Mizoram Says No To Border Fencing

By Chetan Chauhan

New Delhi, Nov 2 : In a rare move the tigers have emerged victorious over strategic concerns.

Mizoram government has rejected the proposal of the Border Security Force (BSF) to fence the border and build nine border checkposts, each housing 33 personnel, on the ground that it will kill the unique
bio-diverse region of the state.

The BSF had proposed to bifurcate the Dampa Tiger Reserve on India-Bangla border to check possible infiltration and cross border smuggling.

Around 500 sq km of the reserve is in India and remaining in Bangladesh.

The wild population moves freely between the two countries and the state government had been reluctant to give permission to build a three-line fencing.

The BSF brought the proposal before the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to allow fencing up to 1,500 yards wide and 62 kms long inside the tiger reserve. Along with fencing permission for a patrol road and to set up 13 border check posts was also sought. It would have meant felling of 7,271 trees.

The committee asked one of its members MK Ranjitsinh and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) secretary Rajesh Gopal to conduct inspection and suggestion a remedial measure to consider important proposal in view of requirements of "national security".

The committee in its report to the government said that the patrol road and the border checkposts should be on the Bangladesh side of the fencing so that the tiger reserve remains a compact wildlife zone.

"There are no concrete or reliable reports of movement of insurgents and illegal migrants from this part of the international border" the state government told ministry.

Illegal Village On Indo-Myanmar Border To Be Demolished

Aizawl, Nov 2 : Several men from Vaphai village in Mizoram's Champhai district today tried to proceed to Saikhumphai Bawk to demolish the illegal settlement near the Myanmar border as their deadline ended on October 31.

The villagers, however, pulled back after the district officials pleaded them to wait for this week to evacuate the settlement.

"We decided to pull back after the district officials assured us that the illegal settlement would be wiped out during this week," said Vaphai joint action committee chairman C Zakanglova. All men in the village, 18 to 60 years, took part in the proposed community works to demolish the settlement today.

The district administration had deployed heavy police troops at Vaphai and Saikhumphai Bawk to avert any eventuality. Champhai district deputy commissioner Lalthangpuia Sailo said over phone that he would go to Vaphai tomorrow to hold talks with the Vaphai local leaders.

He said the rehabilitation package of Rs 18 lakh for the families to be relocated to Vaphai has been sanctioned by the local administration department. "Relocating an entire village is a gigantic task that cannot be completed in a day or two," he said.

However, 11 villages in Saikhumphai Bawk, who were said to be Myanmarese nationals, were evicted by the police under the witness of the concerned Khawbung block development officer. They were sent back to Myanmar, the sources said.

According to Vaphai village council sources, there are 64 families in the illegal settlement of which only five are bonafide Indian citizens, the remaining 59 families being Myanmar origins. At least 99 Myanmarese foreigners are said to have possessed Indian electoral IDs with the help of "vote-hungry" politicians.

Owing to its strategic location and Myanmarese domination, the settlement has turned into a hub of cross-border crimes like gun running, drug smuggling and a haven for Myanmar-based militants, the JAC chairman said. "Besides these, Myanmar security forces occasionally crossed into Indian border and terrorised the people," he said.

The illegal village is surrounded by 150 hectares of paddy fields dubbed as "granary of Vaphai." The settlement came into existence in 1987 when four farmers from Vaphai built farm houses as there was no proper connecting the paddy fields to Vaphai, a 10-km distance, by that time.

The Indian farmers used to employ manual labourers from the Myanmar side of the border. These Myanmarese labourers started to settle and gradually increased in number. The resettlement package included four bundles of GI sheets and plot of land for each family at the nearby Vaphai village and free transportation of construction materials.

Kut Festival Marks Call For Peace

A cultural troupe performs a traditional dance at Kut festival in Imphal on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

Imphal, Nov 2 : Peaceful co-existence and unity calls marked this year’s Kut festival, the largest post-harvest festival of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo ethnic communities. The festival was organised at 1st Manipur Rifles parade ground here today.

In the wake of the Centre’s move to reach an agreement with the NSCN (I-M) early next year, governor Gurbachan Jagat and home minister Gaikhangam sought to calm frayed nerves and clear the areas of mistrust during their speech.

While there is an apprehension of losing the political and territorial integrity of the state as a result of the settlement between the Centre and the NSCN (I-M), the Kuki community is demanding that justice be meted out to the Kuki “victims” of the Kuki-Naga ethnic clashes in the early nineties.

“Justice has to be delivered to the Kukis before any settlement is arrived at between the NSCN (I-M) and the government of India,” Thangkhosei Haokip, president of Kuki Inpi Manipur, apex body of the Kuki community, demanded a few days back. He alleged that more than 900 Kukis were killed by the NSCN (I-M) and its collaborators during the 1990 skirmishes, that also uprooted many villages.

The festival is a celebration of bountiful harvest, thanksgiving to the Almighty and honouring the ancestors through colourful dances and songs by cultural troupes of the sub-tribes. However, the state leaders could not ignore the situation in the state.

“Manipur is full of problems that challenge the age-old co-existence. The increase in population has created a pressure on land, created new conflicts. All should introspect the past and plan for the future for a collective identity,” the governor said in his address.

He urged the people to resolve differences through talks and dialogues and not by using violence, including strikes and blockades, which severely impacted on the poorest of the poor. He said emotional integration of the people living in Manipur could be achieved in one day. “However, there should be a beginning to unite the people for progress and development.”

Home minister Gaikhangam also stressed the need for unity and peaceful co-existence of all the communities and expressed the hope that the festival would spread the message of brotherhood.

The daylong programme was rounded off with Miss Kut beauty pageant, with participants from various communities. Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh attended the cultural programmes, including the beauty pageant held in the evening.

Revisiting The Inner Line Laws

Perhaps the time has come to revisit the existing inner line restrictions that exist in North-East India

By Sudeep Chakravarti

Over time, with Partition and India’s Independence, inner line laws morphed differently for different areas, but similarity remained in control of access. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

I love North-East India though I abhor much of the politics that is preached and practised in that quite restive leading edge of the country—both by the agencies of the government of India and local administrations. I don’t care much either about colonial laws that persist, like the one that pertains to entering Nagaland. Outsiders, except those in government, those in transit to other states or those containing themselves to the slim plains of the state, say, the commercial capital of Dimapur, must undergo the ritual of the inner line permit (ILP).

Operative under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, the wording of the application is cringe-worthy. “Sir”, it supplicates the nabobs of Nagaland, “I have the honour to state that I am in need of ILP for a short stay in” one district or another. “Therefore, I would like to request your authority to kindly issue me ILP”, et cetera. One has to apply “faithfully”.

The period revue has triggered isolationist demands in other parts of this region, notably Meghalaya. To be fair, in Meghalaya, the sentiment is rooted in recent Bodo-Muslim-Bengali mayhem in several parts of neighbouring lower Assam, and renewed fears, both real and imagined, of migrants swamping indigenous populations. But the root of the issue lies elsewhere, as I was reminded again by a recent article in The Shillong Times by Ravindra Narayan Ravi, a plain-speaking former special director of the Intelligence Bureau. More precisely, the root lies “elsewhen”.

The British established an inner line in several hill areas of north-eastern India and Chittagong Hill Tracts—now in Bangladesh. The purpose, Ravi asserts like several other observers, was not so much to preserve the tribal way of life in a burst of ethnological responsibility, but preserve the strategic British stranglehold on such newly dominated areas to also enable commercial purpose, such as acquisition of land for plantations. Some critics of the policy also claim that, during India’s independence movement, the British used inner line laws to drive deeper the traditional, and paranoid, wedge between the plains and the hills. Meghalaya largely escaped this as Shillong became an administrative, education and vacation hub—the then gigantic territory of Assam was ruled from here. It also sat on a road link with East Bengal; and so, was too public and too important to be closed off. (Such history has led to entirely too much interaction and migration, claim present-day hardline practitioners of tribal identity in Meghalaya.)

Over time, with Partition and India’s Independence, inner line laws morphed differently for different areas, but similarity remained in control of access. Such control in Nagaland was used by the government of India to suppress news of its near-genocidal war against the Naga people in the 1950s and 1960s; and during the height of the Mizo rebellion in the late 1960s. Such cynical extension of colonial law is now more benign. It is absent in most of north-eastern India except Arunachal Pradesh—the need to preserve the ecology and tribal identities masking the equally real purpose of it being India’s strategic backyard confronting China—Nagaland and Mizoram.

I share Ravi’s disquiet over the raising of a demand by a core group of people in Meghalaya understandably troubled by recurring ethno-religious bloodshed in Assam and the prospect of increased migration from Bangladesh, with which Meghalaya shares its southern border. The disquiet is over isolationist calls at a time when greater—and politically and socio-economically mature—interaction between north-eastern India and mainland India will clearly be the contributor to a stable future in this geopolitical junction. (I’ve heard jokes in Nagaland that refer to the ILP as useful practice for eventual independence of Nagaland, but that’s another story.)

Perhaps the time has come to revisit the existing inner line restrictions that exist in North-East India. There are already several constitutionally mandated provisions that protect identities and land ownership in hill areas and provide great control to local administrations. In several cases, there exists the duality, especially in Arunachal Pradesh, where people and lands protected by law are usurped by the state in the name of greater public good, as with the riotously controversial policy of hydroelectric power generation in that state. Those mainlanders who need to travel and work in these states do so; and find ways with what the Chinese colourfully term fragrant grease to ride local laws to enable residency, employment and de facto co-ownership of property. The inner line is today reduced to innate farce, and the permit, a needless paper trail.

Sudeep Chakravarti is the author of Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country and Highway 39: Journeys through a Fractured Land. This column focuses on conflict situations in South Asia that directly affect business.

Harvest festival 'Kut' celebrated in Manipur

Imphal, Nov 1 : Kut, the biggest harvesting festival of Kuki-Chin-Mizo group of people, is being celebrated in Manipur today with great enthusiasm.

The main function was held at the first Manipur Rifles parade ground here with different tribal ethnic communities performing dances, music and other traditional cultural programmes.

In his message, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh said the festival has a unique place in Manipur's traditional history and expressed hope that 'Kut' festival will bring communal harmony among various communities and will develop brotherly relations among different communities in the state.

Governor Gurbachan Jagat in his message said the festival reminded the people its rich history and would help bring peace in the state.

Official sources said the state government has declared today holiday to enable people participate in 'Kut' festival.

Reports from districts said the festival was celebrated at all the hill districts with villagers in traditional attire coming out to participate in the festival.

Cherrapunji A Testing Ground for Global Products

Cherrapunji, Nov 1 : Known for being the wettest place on earth, this sleepy Meghalaya town near the India-Bangladesh border has attracted some top-notch companies of the world who are testing their products here.

The tag “Cherrapunji,” known previously as Sohra, is said to work wonders for the companies’ new products, which the buyers instantly associate with trustworthiness and quality.

“Tested in the wettest place on earth in monsoons” — so goes the blurb in an advertisement for Italian-made Geox waterproof shoes, an amphibious shoe line.

Sohra has an average annual rainfall of about 12,000 mm and by comparison, Hartley Bay, one of the rainiest places in Canada has an annual rainfall of about 4,500 mm.

The highest recorded total annual rainfall was 24,555 mm in 1974. The maximum for a single day was recorded in 1876 when 1,040 mm fell in 24 hours. Sohra also holds the world record for a month’s rainfall when 9,300 mm fell in July 1861.

Venice tour guide Andrea D’Alpaos, Spanish lawyer David Subirats, Swiss photographer Claudia Leisinger and British ski instructor Rob Spears were recruited by Geox to test its waterproof shoe range in June.

Also, Yamaha sent three of its newly launched gearless scooters here to test the drive-worthiness of their machines. While Yamaha is keeping the exercise under wraps, sources say the company is likely to feature it in their upcoming commercials.

Apart from this, there are a host of other companies lined up to exploit Meghalaya’s scenic beauty and the ideal location for shoots. The reason behind this rush, Pradip Sadarangani, an associate professor at IIM-Shillong said, was because “Cherrapunji” is a name that everybody seems to know.

“Our human minds work on association with time, place, things and persons. When we associate a known place with a new product, it helps our mind identify the product easier,” he said.

A marketing expert, Sadarangani, thinks there are other places in Meghalaya that could also serve advertisers.

 “Advertisers can take note of places like Mawlynnong, the cleanest village in Asia, and the serene 18-hole natural golf course in Shillong,” Pradip said.