Northeast Votes For the Status Quo

By Vibhuti Agarwal

Election results for India’s northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland were announced Thursday

Three states in northeast India – Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland – have voted in favor of the status quo, with ruling parties holding on to power.


Political experts say the results of the elections, released Thursday, did not come as a surprise.

In Tripura, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won an overwhelming majority of votes for the fifth local election in a row. The CPI (M) won 49 seats in the 60-member state assembly, according to the Election Commission of India. This is three more seats than the party won at the last state elections there in 2008. The Congress party, the main opposition party in the state, secured 10 seats, like in 2008.

Tripura is the only state in India ruled by Communists, who have been in power there for over two decades.

“The results in Tripura are on expected lines. We knew the left would come to power again,” said Kashi Nath Jena, professor of political science at Tripura University. “Economy in the state is yet to take off. But so far whatever little has been achieved has been successfully redistributed by the left government among masses. And this is the trump card to its success,” he added.

Mr. Jena said that Chief Minister Manik Sarkar helped secure a victory for the CPI(M). “He’s popular among locals,” he said. Mr. Sarkar, widely seen as an honest administrator, has held the top post in Tripura for the past 15 years.

In Meghalaya, the ruling Congress party-led coalition won 37 of the state assembly’s 60 seats. Congress alone secured 29 seats, four more than it did at the 2008 election.  Its coalition partner- the United Democratic Party – won eight seats, fewer than the 11 it won at the previous elections.
The National People’s Party, a local party set up recently by Purno Sangma, a former senior Congress politician, got two seats.

A.K. Baruah, a retired professor of political science at the Meghalaya University, said the separatist insurgency that has been plaguing the state for decades is “no longer the main issue” in the elections, though incidents of violence continue to take place from time to time.

In Nagaland, the regional Naga Peoples Front party that heads a coalition of smaller local parties, secured 38 seats in the 60-member state assembly.

The Congress party, the main opposition in the state, won eight seats, a significant drop from the 23 seats it won in 2008.

In Nagaland, where the separatist rebels are especially active, the “main election issues were development and integration of Naga regions,” said Monalisa Tase, who teaches political science at Nagaland University.The state’s local tribal population has long demanded carving out new states for different ethnicities.

Ms. Tase says locals trust the state’s chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, “under whose leadership they believe the rate of insurgency has gone down considerably.”

Tripura voted on Feb. 14 and people in Meghalaya and Nagaland went to the polls on Feb. 23.

FM stresses on waterways connectivity for Northeast India

Indian FM in his budget 2013-14 has announced the Lakhipur – Bhanga stretch of river Barak in Assam will soon be declared as the sixth national waterway. (Pic: BCCL)

GUWAHATI: In a move to restore the pre independence days glory of water transportation in Northeast India, Union Finance minister, P Chidambaram in his budget 2013-14 has announced the Lakhipur - Bhanga stretch of river Barak in Assam will soon be declared as the sixth national waterway.

Presently Northeast India faces tremendous problem for not exploring its waterways. Already the move to link the South East Asian countries through Northeast India is on. Kaladan multimodal transport project to upgrade the Sittwe Port connecting Paletwa in Myanmar's Chin State to Mizoram under way would boost trade and commerce.

The minister said, "Five inland waterways have been declared as national waterways. I am happy to announce that the Minister of Water Resources will move a Bill in Parliament to declare the Lakhipur - Bhanga stretch of river Barak in Assam as the sixth national waterway. Preparatory work is underway to build a grid connecting waterways, roads and ports. The 12 th Plan has an adequate outlay for capital works, including dredging, on the national waterways.,"

He elaborated that the objective is to choose barge operators, through competitive bidding, to transport bulk cargo on the national waterways. The first transport contract has been awarded in West Bengal from Haldia to Farakka.

Congress Wins Chalfilh Bypoll in Mizoram

Aizawl, Feb 28 : Ruling Congress nominee Ngurdingliana won the by-poll to Chalfilh Assembly seat, defeating his nearest rival Mizo National Front candidate Lalvenhima Hmar by a margin of 2,834 votes.

This is the highest-ever victory margin in the seat since 1972 when Mizoram began to have a separate legislature.

Ngurdingliana secured 7,005 votes out of the 13,703 votes polled while Hmar managed to bag 4,171 votes.

Polling for the seat was held on February 23.

Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) candidate Lalhmangaiha Sailo, son of former chief minister Brig Thenphunga Sailo and present chief of MPC got 1,274 to secure the third position while Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) nominee C Lalchhandama trailed behind with 976 votes.

BJP candidate C Ramkinlova secured 58 votes while Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)'s D.K. Thanga came last with mere 14 votes and the lone independent candidate R. Lalrohlua secured 205 votes.

Ngurdingliana is the son of former Speaker of the state legislature Dr H. Thansanga, who had won two times earlier from the constituency.

Mizoram Didn't Have a Single Woman Cop in 2011: Govt

New Delhi, Feb 28 : Mizoram did not have a single woman in its police force in 2011 while Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have the highest number of women in police ranks in the country, according to government statistics.

Out of the total 16.60 lakh police personnel in the country in 2011, 93,887 were women accounting for 13.3 per cent, Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullapally Ramachandran said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Maharashtra, which has the highest number of women personnel, has almost doubled the number of personnel in two years since 2009. It had 12,813 women in the force in 2009 but the number doubled to 24,219 in 2011, which is 13.2 per cent of the total 1.82 lakh-strong force.

Tamil Nadu followed Maharashtra with 15,864, also having doubled the woman personnel strength in the two year period.

The statistics showed that Mizoram had no single woman in its force of 10,861 in 2011. However, in 2010, it had 537 woman personnel while in 2009, there was none. The reason for the decline was not given.

There was also no woman personnel in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu which has a total police strength of just 351.

The national capital had 5,356 woman personnel in 2011.

Uttar Pradesh also had only 2354 women in its police force in 2011, down from 2406 in 2010 and 2411 in 2009. The total number of police personnel in UP is 1.87 lakh.

Manipur CM Sends-off BCIM Car Rally

Imphal, Feb 28 : Led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, Manipur gave a rousing send-off to about 80 BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) Car Rally participants in Imphal on Wednesday.

This historic Car Rally from Kolkata to Kunming (China), which was flagged off by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on Feb 22, is on its sixth stage from Imphal to Ka Lay in Myanmar.

The 12-day rally will end its journey in Kunming in the Yunnan province of China on Mar 5.

Earlier, 20 BCIM Car Rally cars had traversed through Jessore, Dhaka and Sylhet in Bangladesh before reaching Imphal on Feb 21 via Karimganj and Silchar in Assam.

Sponsored by Tata Motors, ONGC and Autocar, and supported by the governments of these four countries, the BCIM Car Rally comprising the participants from these countries, is being organised and coordinated by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with several government departments, agencies and industrial houses, chipping in with all kinds of help and assistance.

Speaking at a grand reception hosted by the Manipur Government, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said the BCIM Car Rally would spread the message of cooperation and foster friendship among the BCIM countries.

Singh also said restrictions in the movement of goods and services and people across the border need to be eased.

"We are looking at the opening up of road and rail passages to Bangladesh through Tripura so that our goods can be exported by using the ports of Bangladesh," the Chief Minister said at the send-off ceremony held at the Kangla Fort in Imphal.

"It would also highlight the potential of the north-eastern region in India and explore cross-border land trade.

Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam also wished the Rally a great success.

Hundreds of schoolchildren holding flags and flowers lined the streets leading to the Kangla Fort to greet the BCIM Car Rally participants. Many villagers had earlier come out in large numbers waving and cheering at the convoy along the route.

R K Agrawal, Chairman, CII Eastern Region, said the BCIM Car Rally would revive ancient links and also forge new ties.

“The BCIM Car Rally not only seeks to highlight the trade potential of the North Eastern Region of India and Kolkata as a whole but also stress the feasibility of freight movement through the land route,” Agrawal said.

“BCIM Car Rally will highlight the importance of North East and Imphal as hubs of trade and commerce not only to partner countries but also to the entire subcontinent. The Rally is taking a route which has not been used since World War II and the men and machine reaching China will be pioneers in this odyssey,” he added.

Karl Slym, MD Tata Motors, who joined the Rally here along with his wife, said since one Englishman and one English woman are also supporting the rally, the BCIM Car Rally is no longer an affair of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar.

"This is my first trip to the area and we are planning on a holiday out here. This is about an area of the world that has not witnessed the kind of growth that metros experience. We all are looking forward to driving," he said.

Also present at the Send-Off ceremony at the Kangla Fort in Imphal were O. Nabakishore Singh, Principal Secretary, Department of Commerce & Industries, Government of Manipur, and Saugat Mukherjee, Regional Director, CII Eastern Region.

The historic Car Rally, which has a motto of 'Building Bonds, Fostering Friendship', seeks to stimulate interest among all stakeholders in deepening BCIM cooperation.

The 3028-km rally's next stop is Ka Lay before heading to Mandalay, Ruili and then to Tengchong, Dali and Kunming in China where it is will culminate on Mar 5.

Alarming Rise in Child Abuse in Mizoram

Guwahati, Feb 27 : Child abuse and juvenile delinquency have increased alarmingly in Mizoram and the state government has failed to implement the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, a rights body said Wednesday.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), in its report, "State of Juvenile Justice in Mizoram", quoted a study undertaken by the Social Welfare Department of the Mizoram government, to say 630 cases of child sexual abuse were recorded in the 2003-2009 period.

"It is clear that children in Mizoram are not safe anywhere, as most cases of child sexual abuse were committed by relatives, friends and teachers of the victims," said the director of the ACHR, Suhas Chakma.

"Juvenile delinquency remains equally high in the state. During the last decade from 2002 to 2011, the National Crime Records Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs recorded a total of 1,699 cases of "juvenile delinquency" in Mizoram. These include 1,258 cases registered under the Indian Penal Code and 441 cases under the Special and Local Laws," Chakma pointed out.

He said that although the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act was enacted more than a decade ago in the state, the statutory support services - the Juvenile Justice Boards and the Child Welfare Committees in Mizoram - have been set up in all the eight districts only during 2010-11.

"Mizoram has failed miserably in providing institutional care. The lack of separate special homes, and the poor facilities in existing Observation-cum-special homes at Aizawl and Lunglei, overcrowding, and the lack of segregation of the juveniles on the basis of the nature of their crimes all severely undermine the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act", he said.

The observation-cum-special home at Lunglei is overcrowded and facilities are poor, he said adding that the Mizoram government had also failed to utilise grants under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

"Children are subjected to abuse and torture in many of the homes," he said, adding that 13-year-old Lalnunpuia was beaten to death by officials at the Herald for Christ's Children Home, a government-recognized children's home at Lungleng, about 15 km north of Aizawl, on July 13, 2009.

"The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has awarded compensation of Rs.3 lakh to the mother of the deceased, based on the complaint filed by ACHR. That particular case shows the level of violence against children who require the utmost care," Chakma said.

Mizo CM Urges Delhi To Begin Kuki Peace Talks

Aizawl, Feb 26 : Concerned with the long standing political problems of Kuki people in Manipur, Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to begin political dialogue with the Kuki National Organisation.

During a brief meeting in New Delhi, Lal Thanhawla also gave suggestions for permanent solution to the problems of Kukis, who have intensified their demand for a state in the neighbouring state.

An official statement here said the Prime Minister also sought advice from the chief minister on the Naga problems.

Earlier on Saturday, Lal Thanhawla had also brought up the issue of Kukis during a three-hour meeting with Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. He had blamed both the central and the Manipur state governments for not responsive to the Kuki problems which hurt their sentiments.

Thanhawla said at his initiatives, the Kuki National Organisation, the central government and the Manipur government had reached into a ceasefire agreement. While the KNO abided the ceasefire pact, the governments were not responsive and that hurt the Kukis, he was quoted as saying by official statement.

Heroin, Party Drugs From Myanmar Coming to Manipur

By Oinam Sunil

Guwahati, Feb 26 : Large quantities of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (PH) drugs are being smuggled into Myanmar from India to make heroin, WY (world is yours) and other party drugs in the infamous "golden triangle".

The joint director of Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS), Abhiram Mongjam, said, "PH drugs are not consumed in Manipur. They are used as one of the ingredients for making heroin."

Over 40,000 people in Manipur are HIV positive and the majority of them are infected with the virus because of sharing needles while injecting drugs. L Deepak, president of the Manipur Network of Positive People, said smuggling of tablets containing these drugs to different Southeast Asian countries help drug lords flourish in their trade.

Deepak explained the same drug returns to Manipur in the form of heroin. This has lead to an increase in substance abuse and cases of HIV and AIDS are on the rise. Since the late Eighties, smugglers have used the Manipur route to reach Indian cities. "We have almost checked the spread of HIV and are now combating transmission through sexual contacts. We are now getting to hear about PH drugs being smuggled into Myanmar. But the fact is they are returning in the form of heroin. Besides heroin, other drugs are also being smuggled into Manipur," said Deepak.

WY is popular in SE Asia and also consumed by goldmine workers as it enables them to work for longer periods. "It is also popular among party animals. They can go on partying for hours," said Deepak.

Pseudoephedrine is used as a nasal and sinus decongestant. Since it is a stimulant, athletes, miners and long-distance truck drivers use it to enhance their performance and alertness. It is among the banned substances listed by IOC and WADA. Many countries have also banned it. It is also listed in the United Nations Convention against Illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.