Load shedding to remain in power-starved Mizoram

Aizawl, Jan 10 : With the rising demand for power, load shedding is unlikely to leave the power-starved Mizoram even as the chief minister and his parliamentary secretary have endorsed privatisation of power distribution for better power.

Parliamentary secretary for power Lal Thanhawla, who flanked the chief minister at a press conference here today, disclosed the peak hour demand of power in Mizoram has risen to 107 MW as the number of electric consumers in the state are now more than 1.7 lakhs.

"With 68 MW we are receiving from the Mizoram central projects and 18 MW the state generates, we are 21 MW short of our demand. In this situation, load shedding is inevitable," Lal Thanzara said. At present, Mizoram has hydel projects that can produce 29 MW of the state's total potential for about 5000 MW.
"During the last two years, the Mizoram government has taken up hydro projects to be able to generate a total of 2400 MW of electricity," he said.

Of these projects, the 210 MW Tuivai hydro electric project is being taken up under PPP mode with viability gap funding from the finance ministry. "It is under state sector and the first of its kind in India," he said.

He also informed the entire 60 MW of power produced by the under construction Tuirial hydel project will go to Mizoram. Even as the Joint Electricity Regulation Commission (JERC)for the states of Manipur and Mizoram is conducting a series of public hearings on the Delhi-based Eternity Partners' application for intra-state trading license in Mizoram, both Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, who holds the power portfolio, and his parliamentary secretary, endorsed privatisation of power distribution as recommended by the Electricity Act, 2003.

"The application for trading license is under consideration. The government is not supposed to be deterred by oppositions by some sections of the public," Lal Thanhawla said, referring to opposition by some organisations during the public hearing on Tuesday. Sources said the Eternity Partners has offered to sell power at much lower than Rs 3.6 per unit which is the present tariff of the state power & electricity department.

Want Job, Pose As Militant!

By Sobhapati Samom

Imphal, Jan 10 : Seven Manipuri youths who were lured away with the promise of giving them jobs through a recruitment rally of Assam Rifles, were allegedly asked to pose as militants if they want the jobs.

This came to light during a press conference called by the said youths from Heirok Part II Maning Leikai village in Thoubal district who went to attend the so called recruitment rally of Assam Rifles unit at Chandel on Tuesday afternoon.

From December last year to January 5 this year, one lady S Purnima Devi from Andro village in Imphal East district and Th Rameshor Singh of Heirok village along with Purnima’s husband Gambhir who is stationed at the Assam Rifles unit, allegedly lured the youths with the promise of giving them jobs.

Speaking to media, M Thoiba of Heirok Maning Leikai village who returned home along with E Mohendro, N Jonny, M Premkanta, Th Milan, N Herojit and M Oken, all from Heirok Part II Maning Leikai village, after visiting the 42 Assam Rifles camp at Chandel, said that initially, they offered jobs but asked us to pose as militants belonging to KYKL-MDF in the forthcoming surrender ceremony.

The incident evoked sharp reactions from the Heirok residents, but no untoward incident was reported with the timely intervention of the locals clubs and police.

Meanwhile, Thoubal police detained Purnima and Rameshor following a complaint by local clubs.

PRO, Assam Rifles, in a press statement, on Tuesday clarified that they did not approach any locals for joining insurgent groups for peace process/surrenders. “However, after preliminary investigation at battalion level they were not found part of the group. Thus, these seven youths were returned,” the PRO added.

The statement claimed that the press release was aimed at defaming the Assam Rifles and interrupting the ongoing peace process between the Government of India and KYKL (MDF).

MPC Blames Mizo Govt For Alienating

Aizawl, Jan 9 : Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) today slammed the Congress government in the state for "alienating" ethnic Mizos who entered the state from other states and countries.

A press statement, issued by the MPC, accused the Lal Thanhawla-led government of discriminatory attitude towards the Mizos who fled neighbouring states, Myanmar and Bangladesh due to alleged persecution by majority communities in their respective states or countries.

"While all the political parties in Mizoram pledged for the unity and integrity of the Mizos, the state government perpetually alienated the Mizos coming from outside the state by refusing to enroll them in voters' list and denying ration cards to them," the statement said.

MPC urged the government and all political parties to work for the integration of all ethnic Mizos divided by the colonial British rulers.

Half of Arunachal Population Still Make Living Out Of Forest

A bird’s eye view of Tawang city of Arunachal Pradesh

Itanagar, Jan 8 :  Even though the Arunachal Pradesh government has launched a ‘Green Arunachal’ campaign to protect its greenery, a recent Census report has found that half of the state’s population is still dependent on forest for their livelihood.

Over 68 per cent of the total population in the state use firewood for cooking as well as a source of income by selling it in the market, according to the census conducted in 2011.

The report, which was released here recently at a seminar organized by the Directorate of Census Operations, found that only about 29.2 per cent people in the state have LPG connections, compelling them to search alternative fuel sources.

About 65.7 per cent households in the state enjoy electricity connections.

The report found that 38 per cent of the population still had no latrine, though the number had reduced by 5.7 per cent from the 2001 Census.

However, 18.8 per cent use pit latrine facility which was 25.8 per cent earlier.

On the drinking water front, 65.5 per cent of households are having tap water connections, while 13.1 per cent depend on hand pumps and 5.7 per cent are having well water provisions for their daily use.

The report said that 14 per cent people in the state have two-wheelers and 7.9 per cent four-wheelers, which has increased from 6.8 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively recorded in 2001.

Another interesting data was that 68.3 per cent households have their own houses, and 22.6 per cent of people live in rented houses.

While access to telephones has increased dramatically from a lowly 9.2 per cent to 48.3 per cent, the number of television set owners has increased by above 14 per cent.

However, the number of radio set owners has decreased by 17 per cent as compared to previous data recorded in 2001.

The overall crime graph in Arunachal Pradesh has also seen a decrease by six per cent this year in comparison to the previous year’s crime record in the state.

In 2011, around 2,355 crimes were recorded, which was five per cent less than the 2,539 cases in 2010.

Crimes like murder, crime against women and extortion have marginally increased across the state, rape and kidnapping cases being an exception.

Santosh Hegde Panel To Probe Manipur Encounter Deaths

Former Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde

New Delhi, Jan 9 : Supreme Court rejects State’s demand to entrust job to NHRC.

A high-power commission headed by the retired Supreme Court judge, Santosh Hegde, will probe six encounter deaths in Manipur.

A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ms. Ranjana Desai passed this order on a writ petition by the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association, which complained that over 1,500 fake encounter deaths had occurred in the State in the last 10 years.

The Bench said: “This matter requires a further careful and deeper consideration.” It rejected Manipur’s contention that “the occasion for this court to examine those cases would arise only if it holds that the NHRC had failed to perform its statutory functions in safeguarding human rights of the people in the State.”

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The Bench said entrusting the probe to the National Human Rights Commission “will completely dissipate the vigour and vitality of Article 32 of the Constitution.”

The Bench said “Article 21 coupled with 32 provides the finest guarantee and most effective protection of the most precious of all rights — the right to life and personal liberty. Any indication of violation of this right would put all the faculties of this court on high alert to find out the truth. In case the court finds that there has, in fact, been violation of the right, it would be the court’s bounden duty to step in to protect those rights against the unlawful onslaught by the state. We, therefore, see no reason not to examine the matter directly but only vicariously and second-hand, through the agency of the NHRC.”

The Supreme Court said: “It is true that Manipur is a disturbed area, that there appears to be a good amount of terrorist activity affecting the public order and, maybe, even security of that State. If the police version of the incidents in question were true, there could have been no question of any interference by the court. Nobody can say the police should wait till they are shot at. It is for the force on the spot to decide when to act, how to act and where to act. It is not for the court to say how the terrorists should be fought. We cannot be blind to the fact that even after 50 years of our independence, our territorial integrity is not fully secure. We request the commission to make a thorough enquiry in the first six cases.”

The commission, which includes the former Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, and the former DGP, Karnataka, Ajay Kumar Singh, would also address the larger question of the role of the State police and the security forces and make a report on their functioning within 12 weeks. If it was found that they violated legal bounds, the commission should make its recommendations for keeping the police and security forces within the legal limits without compromising on the fight against insurgency, the Bench said.

Unborn baby holds doctor’s hand from inside womb

An image posted by a mother of her then unborn daughter reaching out of her womb and grabbing the finger of one of her attending doctors has gone viral on the web.

The mother who had posted the picture to Facebook, wrote, "This was 10 weeks ago when I was having my c-section and Dr. Sawyer broke my water and my daughter reached up out of my stomach and grabbed the Dr.'s finger and my hubby caught this special moment.

Truly amazing. I am in awe of this photo. Something to remember forever."

Since the publication of the photograph it has garnered 15517 likes, over 1000 comments and 9000 shares.

The couple has also been featured on a number of prominent newspaper and television channels.

Ahmedabad Couple Helps Lost Mizo woman find her home

Ahmedabad, Jan 8 : After you read this story, probably you will be proud to be in the same city which is home to good Samaritans like Bharat Sata and his wife. Setting a positive example for others too, this noble couple rose above the general tendency to avoid legal hassles that come from helping people in distress to help a young woman from North-east trace out her PG accommodation in the city.

 

Businessman from Maninagar, Bharat Sata and his wife spent more than 4 hours for Juliana, a 30-year-old woman from Mizoram, who was lost in Navrangpura after she had left her PG accommodation in the morning. With their help and determination, the couple finally found the address of her accommodation located near Gujarat College. 

 

Sata, who deals in quartz stone, had come to the Tibetan market behind Navrangpura bus stop along with his wife for shopping on Sunday afternoon. While entering the market, the couple spotted a girl from North-east surrounded by auto drivers. “I saw that the girl looked confused and lost. Auto drivers surrounded her after she asked one of them to help her. However, she soon became an object of amusement for them,” said Sata, who decided to help the girl. “I saw my own daughter in her face and decided to help her out at any cost” said a concerned Sata. 

 

Talking to the couple, the girl told them her nickname is Juliana and that she hails from Mizoram. However, her voter ID card had her real name which is HL Thangilazgi. She claimed to be a therapist and a fashion stylist. 

 

The confused and utterly lost woman kept speaking in English and Mizo, and from what he could understand from her broken English, Sata could gather she had come to the city only two days ago, as she wanted to take admission in some management course and had put up in a PG accommodation. “But, after leaving her residence, and coming to Navrangpura, she forgot the address and couldn’t recall the name of the area too. Thus lost, she couldn’t go back to her place,” said Sata, who took her to Navrangpura police station for further help. 

 

From the police station, Juliana was referred to the women police station at around 5pm. However, no one understood her language and she was once again sent back to Navrangpura police station. Finally at 6:30pm, cops called an interpreter and learnt that Juliana was staying in a PG accommodation near a church on Gujarat college road. Cops them took her along and was finally successful in finding her residence going according to her directions. Cops learnt that Juliana shares a room with a girl from Italy and doesn’t know anything about the city.

Road Accidents Casualty Rising in Assam

Guwahati: The number of deaths in road accidents rose by over 14 per cent from 2010 to 2011 in Assam, according to the latest data released by the union government.

A total of 2,854 people lost their lives in road accidents in 2011, up from 2,498 in 2010, as per the ‘Statistical Year Book, India 2013′ released last week by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in New Delhi.

Altogether 2,499 people were killed in road accidents in the state in 2009.

Overall, 7,851 people were killed in road accidents during the three year period of 2009-11 in the state.

As per the data, in 2011 Assam witnessed an overall casualty figure of 4,773 from “accidental deaths” including road accidents, stampede, poisoning, death by firearms or animals, fire, factory mishaps, explosions, electrocution, drowning, lightning, avalanche and building collapse.