Meghalaya To Take Action Against Cement Plants On Forest Land

Forest and Environment Minister Prestone Tynsong said the union forest and environment ministry would take a final call on the penalties, including compensatory afforestation.

Shillong, Apr 24 : The Meghalaya government Thursday promised to take action against cement companies violating forest conservations laws. "The government is under process to initiate action against cement plants based on the findings of the Joint Inspection Team (JIT)," Forest and Environment Minister Prestone Tynsong said, while replying to a cut motion in the assembly on functioning of the forest department.

He, however, said that the union forest and environment ministry would take a final call on the penalties, including compensatory afforestation which the industrial units would have to compensate as per the provision of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

The JIT constituted by the Meghalaya government as per the direction of the Supreme Court has found nine cement plants in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district are being run on forest land as nearly 50 percent of the surveyed land under the nine plants was classified as forest.

The nine companies are Adhunik Cement, Amrit Cement Industries, Cement Manufacturing Company, Cosmos Cement, Green Valley Industries, Goldstone Cement, Hills Cement, JUD Cements and Meghalaya Cement. The JIT was constituted in July 2011 and the inspections were carried out between March and June last year.

Informing the assembly that the JIT are still inspecting the remaining forest areas where cement plants are being operated, Tynsong said: "We (government) would have a better picture on the total forest areas where the illegal mining operations by the industrial units are going on once the fresh inspection of the remaining forest areas is completed."

Assam: Preliminary Medical Report Finds No Rape Sign On Injured Minor

Assam minor was not raped: Medical test 

Silchar, Apr 24 : A day after angry protestors hit streets over alleged rape of 9-year-old girl in Assam, the preliminary medical report on Tuesday failed to confirm any sexual assault on the minor.

According to the police, the medical report confirmed that there was no injury in the girl’s private parts and there was no sexual attack on the girl.

"Preliminary medical tests conducted by the attending doctors at the Silchar Medical College Hospital have found no sign of rape or sexual assault on the girl, Cachar Superintendent of Police Digonta Bora said.

The final medical report of the tests carried out on the girl was, however, yet to come, Bora said.

The nine-year-old from Karimganj had gone to visit her grandfather in Pechachora village under Kallain police station of Katigora sub-division when she was kidnapped by two unidentified persons, with their faces covered, on Sunday evening, they said.

The girl was taken to a house in Section 9 of Kallain Tea estate and gang-raped before being abandoned in the tea garden outside the house.

Tea garden labourers returning from work found the girl crying and rushed her to a hospital in a critical condition from where she was later shifted to Silchar Medical College Hospital.

Injury marks were found on her neck and the police suspect that the rapists had attempted to kill her after raping her.

Angered over the incident, agitated villagers had demonstrated outside a local police station demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators. - See more at: http://post.jagran.com/assam-preliminary-medical-1366717076#sthash.aYcRIt6o.dpuf

Pork Consumption Decline in Manipur, Mizoram

Aizawl, Apr 23 : Consumption of pork in Mizoram and Manipur has become less in Mizoram and Manipur following the outbreak of swine flu. In Manipur, veterinarians are still investigating the reasons for the death of pigs in large number at Heingang Chonthabi and Luwang shangbam areas of Imphal East district following the reports made in local newspapers.

However, in the case of Mizoram, doctors have confirmed it as ‘Classical Swine Fever’.
Imports of pigs from Myanmar to Mizoram has been restricted following the outbreak of the swine flu. Restriction on selling of ‘affected pork’ by the administration continues in the state capital Aizawl for the past one month and this restriction will continue till May end.

Owing to the spreading of flu among the pigs in Aizawl area in the past one month which has been proved to be ‘Classical Swine Fever’, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Aizawl Sadar Sub Division, Aizawl here has been imposing certain restrictions regarding selling of pork in the market and related activities.

As the news of the spread of pig flu spread, the denizens of Aizawl have started avoiding their delicacy. The sales of pork also dropped rapidly. Chicken and beef have been substituting the menu in marriage feasting these days.

As reported earlier, taking advantage of the situation, the dealers have hiked the price of chicken. Prior to the detection of the swine flu chicken (dressed) was sold at Rs 180 per kilogram but these days it has risen to Rs 250 or more a kilogram in Aizawl.

The ‘Classical Swine Fever’ was detected after examination at Laboratory of College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry in Selesih last month.

India: No Country For Women

While violence against women continues unabated in India, our crime investigation and justice systems offer no comfort.

 

The Capital has erupted once again over the gruesome kidnapping and rape of a five-year-old girl child. This time, the protests are more political with the presence of volunteers from organisations such as the Aam Aadmi Party, the ABVP, etc. But matters have come to such a head vis-à-vis the gender front that help from any quarter is welcome.

Since the gang rape of the physiotherapy student in Delhi in December 2012, horrendous and continuing brutalisation and sexual assaults on women have continued. Western tourists have also not been spared, resulting in advisories by countries such as the US and the UK cautioning women tourists to take extreme care while travelling in India.

Erupting even amidst economic scams connected to 2G and 3G Spectrum and Coalgate, the debate on India being no country for women/girls has hogged media headlines. Grim-faced politicians, from the UPA as well as the Opposition, have expressed their pain and outrage at these developments, and voiced concern on the growing cult of violence against women.

In the latest incident of monstrosity on the tiny girl in Gandhi Nagar in Delhi, once again we saw the total indifference and callous attitude of the police. The child’s parents were made to wait for hours to file a “missing” complaint. The child, abandoned in a room in the same building in a serious condition, was found no thanks to the police but after her cries were heard by a neighbour.

The events that followed were even more bizarre when it comes to shaming and disgracing an already discredited police force.

A policeman offered the father a “bribe” of Rs 2,000 to hush up the matter! Hence it was nothing short of catharsis to watch continuous telecast of several protestors offering the police a “bribe” of Rs 2,000. The pained expressions on the face of the policemen facing this barrage was gratifying, to say the least.

Known perpetrators
At the core of the protests and demands from Opposition parties is the issue of Delhi, and the rest of India as well, being unsafe and insecure for women. This is not to defend the police force, which is more often than not found lacking when it comes to prompt filing of FIRs or investigation. But the fact remains that much of the violence — sexual and otherwise – that women and girls face is perpetrated by known people… a relative, a friend, a lover or ex-lover. If not in the womb, where foetuses are aborted, with the common consent of male and female relatives.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who addressed a press conference Monday afternoon, was quick to latch on to his point when questions were raised about his resignation.

At first he impudently asked the reporter, “When you do misreporting, does your editor resign?”
Later he pointed out the futility of expecting the police to prevent sexual assaults against women or girls that are carried out by their relatives. Quoting figures, he said that in several cases, fathers, stepfathers, brothers-in-law, cousins, neighbours, lovers and ex-lovers were guilty of rape. This doesn’t absolve those supposed to prevent crimes failing to do so in thousands of cases where young women are abducted on roads or raped in moving cars, as happens often in Delhi, but there is an element of truth in what he says.

The mighty climb down
But what I enjoyed the most while watching Kumar’s live press conference was his opening statement where he said the ACP who had slapped a woman protestor had been suspended. But the two policemen who had offered bribe to the father to hush up the case had not been identified because the father was busy in the hospital where his daughter was being treated.

And next followed a clear demonstration of what collective rage or mass protests can do. Delhi’s police force was ready, said its chief, to parade the possible culprits before the father at the hospital if he so desired!

Wow! How many ordinary people who throng our police stations for a modicum of action or justice can expect such a gesture from the top boss of the police?

No country for the poor too
But let us not fool ourselves. Whether it is the crime redressal dispensation, or our justice system, beginning with the lawyer who takes up a case, how many economically disadvantaged people have timely access to these? But for the protests which the media picked up and broadcast and wrote about, would the two men accused in this child’s rape been arrested so quickly?

The heavy wheels of our crime administration system move only on the application of lubricants such as bribes, influence, or public pressure. The ACP who slapped the woman protestor only displayed the habitual arrogance of our public “servants”. And why only suspend a senior officer who would dare to so impudently slap a young woman in full view of hundreds of others? Instead of a “departmental inquiry” in which the public has little faith, should he not be thrown behind bars?

Isn’t a man in uniform who is supposed to protect civilians a bigger criminal when he assaults a woman? And one who is well within her right to express her outrage over the plummeting record of the Delhi administration when it comes to making girls like her feel safe.

Juxtaposed against the way our creaky wheels of crime investigation and justice dispensation move, I watched in utter admiration the speed and efficiency with which the Boston police carried out operations to hunt down and kill one terrorist and capture the second one involved in the Boston Marathon bombing.

An entire township was shut down, the people responded and co-operated totally and within a week the perpetrators had been traced, challenged and one captured. You may find any number of faults with the US for its arrogance or its supercilious manner in dealing with the rest of the world.

But when it comes to rising as one to ensure public safety and security, they just do it…without any fear, favour or fuss. Now this is the kind of police force that inspires confidence. Not one which slaps protestors, or offers bribes to the victims to shut their mouths.

Or worse, derisively asks a middle-aged woman who goes to report her rape: “Tu teen bachcho ki maa hei; tujhe kaun rape karenga? (You’re a mother of three, who will rape you)?

Tension on Mizoram Border Over Death

Agartala, Apr 23 : Tension is mounting along the Tripura-Mizoram boundary following the recovery of the body of Sebaram Reang, 31, at Gangajaypara village in Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district yesterday.

Some firewood collectors saw the body around 1pm yesterday and the news spread like wildfire, till hundreds of angry villagers converged, ready to attack villages in Mizoram. Though police managed to quell the mob on time, the Reang village sardars refused to hand the body over for autopsy, forcing the police to stay overnight in the village.

According to sources, Mizoram police personnel had entered Damcherra unofficially last week in search of the victim, who was allegedly involved in a robbery in the Kanghmun police station area of Mizoram’s Mamit district. While Reang managed to flee, the policemen were cornered by villagers and had to be rescued by a police team from Damcherra police station led by officer-in-charge Swapan Debbarma, who assured them that Reang would be handed over as soon as he was apprehended. On Saturday, Reang succumbed to police pressure and surrendered at Kanghmun, only to be found dead yesterday.

This morning, only after superintendent of police (North) Abhijeet Saptarshi assured the villagers that he would talk to his Mamit counterpart, could Reang’s body be taken for autopsy.

Inspector-general of police (operations) Nepal Chandra Das today said tension being high in all Reang villages along the inter-state boundary, Tripura State Rifles personnel had also been deployed. “Village chiefs have been asked to prevent people from crossing the border,” he said.

Manipur Oil Tanker Drivers Stop Service

Imphal, Apr 23 : Oil tanker drivers in the state stopped services from Monday to denounce the abduction of their colleague in Nagaland by unknown gunmen, triggering panic buying by Imphal residents at fuel outlets.

This came amid a growing people's protest against the gunning down of another driver, S Babu, and torching of two loaded trucks at Charoi Pandong area along the Imphal-Jiribam highway by suspected rebels on last Wednesday night.

A motorcade of over 100 loaded fuel tankers escorted by CRPF men was going from Khatkhati in Assam to Manipur on Sunday morning, sources said, adding that when they stopped for a while at Khuzuma area in Nagaland, driver S Surjit was whisked away by unknown armed men.

Condemning the incident, the All Manipur Petroleum Tanker Drivers' Union on Monday afternoon announced they would stop plying fuel tankers till Surjit is freed by his captors.

There have been numerous cases of killing, abduction and harassment of drivers in addition to torching of their vehicles by miscreants along the highways leading to Manipur, lamented Y Bhupenchadra Ghosh, the union's president.

Urging the authorities concerned to secure safe release of the driver, Ghosh also appealed to the people, particularly civil bodies, to extend support to the union's 'democratic' stir.

Owing to a series of bandhs called on the Imphal-Dimapur and Imphal-Jiribam highways by different bodies on and off for the last few days, the stocks of many fuel outlets in the state have dwindled and many of them remained closed. The Union's sudden announcement triggered panic buying of fuel at some outlets in Imphal even as stocks ran dry.

In the meantime, the Transporters' and Drivers' Council ( TDC) donated Rs 50,000 to the bereaved family members of Babu.

The council's president, H Ranjit, handed over the amount to the late Babu's mother at their Samurou Awang Leikai residence in Imphal West on Sunday.

The joint action committee set up against Babu's killing has not taken his body from the mortuary of RIMS here as a token of protest even as deputy chief minister Gaikhangam assured to take stringent action against the culprits.

20 Fake ‘Open Schools’ in Aizawl

AIZAWL, Apr 22 : There are 20 fake 'Open Schools' in Aizawl, according to Mizo Students Union (MSU) that has expressed grave concern.

Fraudulent business by way of deceiving students under National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is reportedly prevalent in Mizoram.

Expressing grave concern over that development, Mizo Students' Union maintained that while there are only 7 Accredited Institution (AI)/Study Centres of NIOS within Aizawl district, there are many others who run NIOS illegally for sheer business. MSU said that it demands immediate cease of such deceiving activities and fake NIOS.

The MSU said it would take steps to ensure their closure soon.

In connection to the issue, Zodinpuia, president of Mizo Students' Union along with other leaders, interacted with media persons in Aizawl today and informed that they had lodged an FIR to Aizawl police against one NIOS co-ordinator who has created problems to the students.

The MSU president advised the Mizo students to be cautious over the alarming issue, saying there are many people who run 'Open Schools' outside the purview of NIOS Study Centre, which, he said, are illegal.

"Such fake 'Open Schools' charges high amount of money in admission fee, violating the rules of NIOS", he alleged.

While NIOS does not allow for monthly fees to be taken from the students, the fake Open Schools on their take a monthly fee of Rs.300 or Rs.400 per student, the MSU leader stated, adding, "These schools charge Rs.1,500 or Rs. 1,700 as admission fee per student."

Stating that steps are being taken to ensure penalty to the people who run the fake schools and outside the jurisdiction of NIOS, the MSU president warned, "If the people involved do not immediately close their fake open schools, MSU will take further steps."

Mizoram Bans Pig Import From Myanmar

Aizawl, Apr 22 : All the district magistrates of Mizoram, sharing international border with Myanmar, have issued prohibitory orders banning import of pigs from the neighboring country where a dangerous swine fever spreading as an epidemic.

Dr L B Sailo, Director of the state Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department said that while the endemic classical swine fever in the state was subsiding, especially in Aizawl city, measures must be taken to prevent the entry of 'Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome' (PRRS) from Myanmar.

"If the PRRS enters Mizoram, it would be much more disastrous than the classical swine fever," Sailo said, adding that import of pigs from neighbouring states, especially those sharing borders with Myanmar was justified.

Meanwhile, at least 101 pigs have died in South Mizoram's Lunglei district during the past few weeks due to the classical swine fever which hit at least four district out of the total eight districts of the state.

Though pork remained the staple meat of the Mizos, pork sellers were having a hard time as people were reluctant to eat pork while beef, chicken and fish sold like hot cakes replacing the booming pork market due to the prevailing swine fever.