Manipur Still Facing Fuel Shortage

Imphal, Jul 1 : Manipur continues to suffer from fuel shortage.

Although the economic blockade has been temporarily lifted, Manipur is still reeling from an acute shortage of petroleum products, LPG cylinders and other essential commodities due to a boycott call given by operators of tankers and other freight trucks.

The truck operators, including fuel tankers, have refused to ply their vehicles along the NH-53 and NH-39.

Consequently, once again, the masses in Manipur are deprived of their fresh supplies.

"What can we do? If it continues, we will not be able to live. This is a very inhuman act. We all should join together and work out on a solution to end this issue. I suggest, people from all walks of life should come and jointly work to resolve this issue," observed Jibonmala Devi, a resident.

Transport operators have sought stringent action against the extortion and harassment by various entities such as NSCN-IM and several other militant factions along the national highways.

Meanwhile, the boycott by the transporters has resulted in steep hike in the cost of petrol with hoarders and black marketers capitalising on the plight of the locals.

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Mrs. James Conran, a.k.a. model Coco Rocha, has a new gig, other than being a wife: she's one of the faces for Victoria's Secret's Pink collection.

Rocha first announced her good news on Twitter, and images of her in Pink's fall fashions can already be found online.

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Larissa Riquelme, Lingerie Model, Will Run Naked If Paraguay Wins World Cup

Paraguay's success at the World Cup continued on Tuesday, with the country's soccer team beating Japan on penalty kicks to advance to the tournament's quarterfinals. Now, with only eight teams remaining, the Paraguayans may have a few more fans to help win it all.

Larissa Riquelme, a curvy lingerie model who loves her national team, has been cheering the Paraguay squad on from Asuncion, clad in revealing outfits. The 24-year-old beauty has pledged to run naked through the streets "with my body painted with the colors of Paraguay" if Paraguay wins the World Cup.

The gorgeous football fanatic is not the first person to promise to streak in the event of a World Cup win. Argentina's coach Diego Maradona was the first prominent person to issue such a guarantee, and his team has also made the quarterfinals. Scroll down for pictures of Riquelme cheering her team on. Are you rooting for Paraguay now?

Their Way or The Highway

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Once, two passengers on a train got talking. “I’m from Andhra Pradesh”, said one, to which the other said, “I’m from Bandha Pradesh.” He explained — “Assam. We call it Bandha Pradesh because most of the time there is a bandh!” Going by that norm, Manipur should by now be known or referred to Blockade-pur, especially after it went through a 66-day highway blockade, the effects of which are far from over.

For those still not familiar with the issue: two blockades affected Manipur in the past months. While the All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur (ANSAM), United Naga Council (UNC) and some other Naga organisations of the state on April 11 launched a blockade of the two crucial national highways within the state — NH-39 and NH-53, their demand was to put on hold an election to the autonomous district councils in the five hill districts. The other was a blockade by the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on NH-39 in Nagaland, which links Manipur to rest of India through Nagaland, and began on May 3. The NSF problem was that that a student delegation was refused permission to enter Manipur to attend a meeting of Naga student bodies at Ukhrul.

A landlocked state, Manipur is almost entirely dependent on the two national highways for its supplies as well as travel to the outside world. And, for any outfit, underground or overground, the best available mode of protest is to block the highways, more particularly NH-39. On any given day, at least 100 trucks and oil and LPG tankers drive up 115 kms of NH-39 through Nagaland into Manipur, which also happens to be a highway where militant groups almost freely collect “taxes” as the authorities pretend not to have seen them run their writ.

But, though on the surface the two blockades were for two specific reasons, there is no denying the fact that they were also connected to the much-hyped visit of NSCN(IM) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah to his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district of Manipur. Though the Union home ministry had specifically instructed the Manipur government to ensure Muivah’s visit to his native village, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh refused, contending that there were numerous cases against Muivah in the state, and the moment he enters, Manipur Police would arrest him. Muivah, also “ato kilonser” (prime minister) of the underground “Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim”, also gets Z+ protection from the government!

Muivah, in ceasefire with the government since 1997, is free to move about inside Nagaland. But he wants to also tour the Naga-inhabited districts — Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Tamenglong — because the NSCN(IM) wants a “Greater Nagalim” that includes “Naga-inhabited areas” of not just Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh but also Myanmar!

Thanks to the Centre’s intervention, Muivah temporarily put off his visit to Somdal. And thanks to civil society pressure, the student bodies also finally withdrew their blockades. But, by then, Manipur had already undergone a 66-day ordeal, with stocks drying up and prices — of whatever little was left — skyrocketing. The state government did move a few hundred trucks under heavy security through NH-53, a route that is not just longer than NH-39, but also nothing more than a dirt track in large portions. But, even as the blockades have been called off, truckers continue not to ply on NH-39 till the authorities ensured that extortions were stopped.

The NH-39 story, incidentally, also applies to several other national highways in the Northeast. Extortion, collection of illegal taxes, harassment over donations, blockades, damage to vehicles — these are common to highways especially in Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. An inquiry instituted by the government of Assam a couple of years ago had revealed how a nexus of corrupt officers, politicians and militants squeezed huge sums of money from truckers entering Assam from West Bengal. Three years after that inquiry report, trucks continue to be fleeced on the inter-state check gates.

Extortions apart, the condition of most of the so-called national highways in the Northeastern region is also highly deplorable. Take for instance NH-53 and NH-150, of which the former connects Manipur through the Barak Valley in southern Assam, and the latter through Mizoram further south via Barak Valley. While most of the 220-km stretch of the 320-km NH-53 between Jiribam (on the border) and Imphal is nothing but a dirt track, then 220 kms into the state, the 523-km stretch of the 700-km NH-150 that passes through Manipur is even worse, making it impossible to predict how long it would to take to cover those distances. (Leave aside the landslides that play havoc with roads: the Dibang Valley district in Arunachal Pradesh has been cut off since March 31, and nobody seems to be bothered.)

People in the region are now talking about who gained what out of the 66-day blockade. But the basic question is yet to be addressed — how long will highway blockades continue to be used to hold people to ransom?

'Ketchup Colonel' Runs From Pillar to Post to Prove Innocence

By Kingshuk Nag

It's one man's battle for honor and for erasing the stigma attached to his name. He is running from pillar to post but although those who should know are aware that he is innocent, they would not admit it publicly. This is the story of Harvinder Singh Kohli who as an Indian Army colonel refused to carry out the orders of his superiors to bump off in an encounter five militants that his men had taken into custody.

Instead, the militants — of the Assam Commando Group and captured in south Assam in August 2003 — were handed over to the civil authorities. But Kohli's bosses would not relent: his immediate superior, a brigadier, told him that "kills" in encounters were important and this is what mattered. If he could not kill anyone, then at least a "fake" encounter should be staged. An NDA cadet and brought up under the culture of obedience, Kohli made, what it seems now, the mistake of his life.

He dressed up five men and made them lie down on the ground. They were sprayed with ketchup and pictures were taken of them. The bosses were happy, so was Kohli. He did not have to kill anybody and his superiors were contented with pictures of the purported kill. Now the bosses, in order to keep the name of the regiment high, cajoled Kohli to recommend gallantry awards for his men (not for himself).

It was at this point that an anonymous complaint brought the lid off. An inquiry followed and then Kohli was court-martialled. At the end of it, he was dismissed. This was in November 2004, a little over a year and three months after that fateful night of August 17-18, 2003, when the fake encounter took place. Also dismissed was a junior of Kohli, the major for whose benefit the colonel had recommended a gallantry medal.

All through his court-marital proceedings, Kohli kept quiet and did not implicate his brigadier. It now transpires that plea-bargaining was going on through Kohli's 'defender', a lieutenant colonel. Kohli was told that if he pleaded guilty he would be left off with a two-year seniority loss. As a result of this, Kohli pleaded guilty, only to be dismissed. Actually Kohli was fooled: he was given to understand that there was plea-bargaining, but on the records of the court-martial proceedings there was no mention of this.

Now Kohli opened up: he contended that the fake encounter had been staged on the orders of his brigadier, S S Rao, and that this was in the knowledge of the brigadier's boss — Major General Ravinder Singh, general officer commanding, 57 Mountain Division. What is more, Kohli submitted taped transcripts of the conversation that he had with the brigadier. Following this, an inquiry was ordered and at the end of the investigation and general court-martial, Brigadier S S Rao was also dismissed from service. Kohli was happy because he had proven his point and looked forward to be reinstated.

But the then chief of the Army staff, who had to confirm the sentence of the general court-martial, let off the brigadier with forfeiture of five years of seniority and a severe reprimand. The major who had earlier been dismissed was also taken back to service after being reprimanded and loss of seniority of five years.

But funnily enough, Kohli was given no relief. The epithet of "Ketchup Colonel" had stuck on him and nobody wanted to reinstate him. After Kohli pleaded for many years, the Army headquarters decided to have a relook at the whole issue and take a holistic view. The matter has now been examined by the Army headquarters and the defence ministry.

The officials have agreed on file that Kohli's contention was valid and that it had been proven that the colonel had acted on the orders of his superiors. Moreover, Kohli had no personal interest in the matter. It also suggested that Kohli should be reinstated with five years' loss of service for the purposes of pension and promotion and a severe reprimand. But nobody is willing to bell the cat and actually order that he be reinstated, the stigma of "Ketchup Colonel" being so severe.

Law To Stop Misuse of Farmland in Assam

By Umanand Jaiswal

Guwahati, Jul 1 : Dispur is on the verge of finalising a legislation that will restrict the use of cultivable land for non-agricultural activities without the permission of “competent” authorities.

The draft of the proposed legislation, contents of which has been kept under wraps, was approved by the chief minister a few days back and has been returned to the legislative department for formal vetting before it is placed before the cabinet for its approval.

Efforts are on to table a bill to this effect in the ensuing five-day Assembly session from July 12 — if not, surely by the session that will follow.

Though an executive order prohibiting transfer of land ownership without the permission of the authorities exists even today, the order can be challenged in the court of law.

The proposed piece of law may not envisage a total ban, but it will have enough checks to ensure that its inherently objective is not defeated — keep cultivable land intact to ensure future food security.

A source said the proposed law would make its violation a criminal offence; impose heavy fines; make it mandatory for industry and education departments to seek clearance of the revenue department about the nature of the landholding before sanction is accorded for new industrial/educational ventures.

“It is still at the drafting stage. The final call will be that of the legislators who will also have something to add or subtract from the proposed law. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi is concerned about food security vis-à-vis depleting cultivable area because of rise in population, industrialisation and erosion by Brahmaputra in the state. Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore, which have a booming real estate sector, are other states working to save its agri sector,” a source said.

A close look at the agriculture sector suggests that Dispur’s worry is not unfounded.

Around 40 per cent of the total 78,438 square km area in the state is cultivable while eight per cent of the total area has been lost to erosion. Moreover, Assam is a major importer of foodgrain.

The Centre had even instructed Dispur to increase its growth in agriculture and allied sector from 0.27 in 2006-07 to two per cent during the 11th Five Year Plan.

The “growing” interest of investors is another reason to initiate the legislation.

“It is important from the industrial point of view as well. An investor, before buying a plot of land, will know beforehand whether it can be used for non-agricultural purposes or not. It will avoid last-minute inconveniences and bitterness between them, locals and the administration. Everyone will know what one is venturing into — no scope for blame-game if things go wrong,” a source said.

A source said there have been instances where residents have objected to setting up of industrial units in rural areas, mainly agrarian belt, at the last minute on various grounds like pollution.

“Since we are at a take-off stage, such situations are best avoided. Such a law will be of great help,” the source said.

Indian Govt Approves CPMF Scholarship Scheme to Attract Young Medicos

New Delhi, Jul 1 : Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said that the Centre has approved a scholarship scheme for medical students and institutions willing to serve in Central paramilitary forces (CPMF).

Presenting Union Home Ministry's June month's report card, Chidambaram said: "The scholarship scheme for medical students in selected medical colleges/institutions willing to serve in CPMFs was approved."

Central paramilitary forces will provide special scholarship of Rs 10,000 per month to 25 medical students from the next academic session who are willing to serve in the forces after completion of their studies. he scheme is aimed at attracting talented medicos to CPMF medical services.

The CPMFs --Assam Rifles, BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBPF, SSB and NSG have a vast network of 39 composite hospitals and about 550 unit or training institution hospitals to provide health care coverage.

The CPMFs provide medical service to over eight lakh force personnel and their families all over the country.

For the academic session 2010-11, willing and deserving candidates having confirmed admission can download the application form for scholarship from websites of any of the central police forces.

After selection, they will have to complete the course in time and thereafter serve in Central paramilitary forces for a minimum period of ten years for which they are required to sign an agreement.

Assam to Decide on ULFA Talks: Chidambaram

Guwahati, Jul 1 : Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday said it was for the Assam government to decide on the peace talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

'It is for the state government (to decide) when and in what manner the talks should be conducted,' Chidambaram told reporters.

Asked whether talks were feasible with many of the ULFA leaders behind bars, the home minister said: 'People in jail can also talk.'

Barring ULFA's elusive commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, the entire top brass of the outfit is in jail.

The imprisoned leaders include chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, deputy commander-in-chief Raju Baruah, self-styled foreign secretary Sasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitrabon Hazarika, cultural secretary Pranati Deka, and ULFA political ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain.

The ULFA is waging a war for independence since 1979 and has always maintained that talks, if any, should revolve around their main demand of sovereignty for Assam.