Fifth Left Govt Takes Oath in Tripura

Agartala, Mar 7 : Mr Manik Sarkar was today sworn in by Governor D Y Patil for a fourth straight term as Chief Minister to head the fifth consecutive Left Front government in Tripura along with 11 ministers.

The other ministers who took the oath of office and secrecy at the Raj Bhavan were Aghore Debbarma, Badal Chowdhury, Tapan Chakraborty, Manik De, Jitendra Chowdhury, Khagendra Jamatiya, Manindra Reang, Bijita Nath, Shahid Chowdhury, Bhanu Lal Saha and Ratan Bhowmick. Saha, who was the deputy speaker and Bhowmick, were the two new faces in the ministry.

Information and Higher Education minister in the earlier government, Anil Sarkar, who was elected uninterruptedly since Tripura was declared a full fledged state in 1972, was dropped this time because he will be made the vice-president of the planning department of the state.

CPI-M Politburo members Sitaram Yechury and Surjya Kanta Mishra, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal were present at the swearing-in ceremony. The chief minister told reporters later that the portfolios will be distributed after a meeting of the council of ministers tonight.

Congratulating the people for the victory of the Left Front, Sarkar said, “There will be no wall between the people and the government. “The Left Front government will be a people's government,” he said, adding he expected cooperation from the Opposition.

Panel For Dlution Of Army Act

By Nishit Dholabhai

New Delhi, Mar 7 : The worldwide attention attracted by Manipur activist Irom Sharmila and the failure of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, to resolve militancy has prompted a high-level panel to recommend dilution of the legislation.

The Naresh Chandra committee has recommended disallowing of "continuous promulgation" of the army act in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

Dilution of the act has been recommended in separate chapters on Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast in the report that was submitted to the government in July last year after a year of work. The report may be made public this year "after editing", the sources added.

The recommendations are vital in the light of India pushing for a bigger role in the United Nations.

Besides its composition, its mandate too lends credence to the committee. It was mandated in 2011 to make recommendations for reform of all security aspects of the country, including nuclear security. The committee includes the likes of Air Chief Marshal (retd) S. Krishnaswamy, General (retd) V.R. Raghavan and former department of atomic energy chief Anil Kakodkar.

However, despite a rising demand for the army act's repeal ' the Justice Jeevan Reddy committee had recommended its repeal in its 2005 report ' there is stiff opposition from the army to any such move.

Leading the band of anti-act proponants in the Northeast is activist Sharmila who has been fasting for the past 12 years demanding repeal of the act. Her non-violent protest has mobilised the support of human rights activists throughout the world.

Sharmila began her fast in November 2000 after the "Malom massacre" in which 10 civilians waiting at a bus stop in Imphal West were allegedly mowed down by Assam Rifles jawans in retaliation to a rebel attack on a convoy of the paramilitary force.

"A government must be in control of its army," Sharmila had said on Monday after being produced in a court here. She lashed out at any "administration of a government who uses violence as a means of governance".

Sources said the committee, too, had used a similar argument to recommend amendment to the draconian act. The committee is understood to have argued that India, as a democratic state, could not grant right to its security forces to kill.

Section 4(a) of the army act grants security forces the liberty to "fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death" at anyone they feel is violating the law. Section 6 of the act then grants immunity to the army personnel who may have caused death of a citizen.

To remove arbitrariness in army action, the committee has suggested that the words "causing of death" should be removed from the act. Section 6 may also be amended if the committee's recommendations are accepted.

In the Northeast, the act has been imposed for years now in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, 22 police station areas of Tripura, in Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh in a 20-km belt along their borders with Assam and in Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The committee has, therefore, recommended that the act should not be "continuously promulgated", sources said.

From 1980 onwards, it has not been lifted from Manipur, except for seven Assembly constituencies of greater Imphal area, since 2004.

Chandra and his team have felt that after decades of unresolved militancy, the act's continuous promulgation could not be justified either in Jammu and Kashmir or in the Northeast.

If the committee's suggestions are accepted, the act may not be extended beyond two years if the situation is said to have improved. "If there is no improvement, then the law is ineffective," argued a senior official.

The committee's argument, therefore, cuts both ways.

On January 23, Justice J.S Verma committee had recommended whittling down of the act. It said uniformed personnel, if accused of sexual assault, should be tried under ordinary law.

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Crackdown for non compliance with Central excise on Coal miners in Northeast India

Central excise has launched massive crackdown on coal miners from Meghalaya for allegedly evading payment of central excise duties.

Guwahati, Mar 7 : Central excise has launched massive crackdown on coal miners from Meghalaya for allegedly evading payment of central excise duties.

Coal is leviable to central excise duty since March 2011. According to a statement from the department coal miners, traders and dealers particularly from Meghalaya continue to evade the central excise duties by way of clandestine removal, without payment of the leviable duty from the mines and depots leading to a huge revenue loss to the government.

The statement added that extensive persuasive efforts by the central excise authorities to bring about compliance have met with resistance and evasion continues with impunity.

"In view of reluctance of the coal miners in Jaintia and West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, the department launched anti evasion drive and has a result 82 trucks containing around 1188.97 MT of coal valued around Rs 5.69 Crore was seized. Similarly nine trucks containing 81 MT were detained near Badar pur in Assam," the statement added.

A senior official said that investigation is on to identify the evaders and bring them to book.

APJ Abdul Kalam to teach students of IIM-Shillong

Shillong, Mar 7 : Former president APJ Abdul Kalam will teach students of the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong a course titled "Societal transformation bio-technology and its application".
"I am a teacher. As a professor, wherever knowledge takes me, I go. I like meeting young people and I would like to contribute to their knowledge," Kalam told reporters here.

The "Missile Man", as Kalam is called for his background in aerospace engineering, was in Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya, and inaugurated the third international conference "SUSCON" organised by IIM-Shillong on Wednesday.

Kalam will start his lectures to a class of around 110 students from July.

Kalam will start his lectures to a class of around 110 students from July, IIM-Shillong Director Kaya Sengupta told reporters.

"The students and faculty of IIM-Shillong are elated that Kalam has consented to our invitation to teach in the institute. I am sure his lectures would benefit not only our students, but even faculty members," Sengupta said. Kalam will guide the students individually as well as in groups. He had earlier taught at IIM-Ahmedabad.

After the initial lectures, students will be required to submit project proposals for creating scenarios based on multiple options for specific policy and institutional changes.

The faculty would comment on these proposals and project teams would be enabled to consult subject matter specialists through invited lectures and interactions - the students could even visit the experts.
IIM-Shillong follows a unique concept of winter internships, in which students undertake work in the months of January and February.

Not many outside India's northeast probably know that there is an IIM in the Meghalaya capital named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. This IIM started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility.

Surrounded by pine trees and lush green lawns with mountains in the backdrop, the institute functions from the Mayurbhanj Complex - the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa. The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.

"Our goal at IIM-Shillong is to constantly nurture and develop the personality of the young and dynamic leaders who could shape the future business landscape and achieve excellence by synergising complementary competencies within the team," Sengupta said.

Facebook Helps ‘Midwife’ Deliver Baby in Mizoram

Church worker manages feat following tips by expert over social networking site

By Linda Chhakchhuak
 
Harsing Teron and his wife Romoni Engtipi with the baby boy in her lap. Telegraph picture

Aizawl, Mar 5 : Aamir Khan and the other two “idiots” had Kareena Kapoor online through video-conferencing to help them with midwifery efforts in the film 3 Idiots.

Caught in a similar situation, Hmahruaii Chhakchhuak, a Christian mission worker in Japong, a remote village in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, had to fall back on Facebook when summoned to help deliver a baby.

It was around 4pm on February 26 when the family of 40-year-old Romoni Engtipi, wife of Harsing Teron, called Hmahruaii as Romoni had gone into labour.

Caught off-guard, as she had no knowledge whatsoever about midwifery, the mission worker tried calling a colleague living in a distant village for instructions but the call wouldn’t go through. She tried calling several other people but could not connect with them either. “The phone network is always bad around here,” she said.

“Then I remembered that there are some nurses and doctors in my Facebook group and sent out an urgent appeal for help, asking for their mobile phone numbers so that I could call them up,” she told The Telegraph, again over Facebook, as she could not be reached on her mobile phone.

She immediately got a call from a group member, Joicy Ralte, a nurse who had settled in Calcutta with her husband Rev. P.C. Lalropuia. But the line disconnected after a few seconds.

At a loss, with a kerosene lamp to light up the room, as the power, too, was playing truant, Hmahruaii was beginning to panic.

“But when I glanced at my phone that was logged on to the Facebook group, I noticed that Joicy was sending instructions on the group site. I was so relieved, as Romoni was in severe pain and getting exhausted,” she said.

She somehow remembered that a sugar solution with water works as an energiser for the very weak. She got some sugar and fed the solution to Romoni.

In the meantime, another Facebook group member, R.K. Hnamte started removing all other comments from other group members under that topic so that Hmahruaii at ground zero could see only the instructions from Joicy.

“I followed Joicy’s directions diligently right from helping the mother push the baby out and then getting a fresh blade to cut the umbilical cord. I followed them to find the correct way of holding the baby and clearing its mouth,” she said.

She had helped deliver a healthy baby boy.

“Thank God that at least Facebook was working and that the Internet network was available, or else we would all have been in deep trouble, especially me, as the people there had placed their entire faith in me,” Hmahruaii said.

Their Facebook group is aptly called Chhangchheness, an anglo-Mizo retronym that refers to an emotional state in life equivalent to the bothered status of the parents of an energetic brood of children.

Rio Begins Third Stint as Nagaland CM

Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. File photo

Neiphiu Rio will be sworn in as the hief minister of Nagaland for the third consecutive term, on March 5 at the Raj Bhavan in Kohima, official sources said on Sunday.

Governor Nikhil Kumar will administer oath of office and secrecy to Mr. Rio, who was earlier elected as leader of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) legislature party.

The list of 11 Cabinet Ministers is likely to be submitted to the Governor by Monday, the sources said.

The Naga People’s Front (NPF)-led DAN having 40 elected members along with the support of seven Independents had staked claim to form the government on Saturday.

Mr. Rio is the only leader to have led the regional party to victory in the Assembly elections for the third time in the 50-year history of Nagaland.

Bypoll on March 23

Polls to the Tuensang Sadar-I Assembly constituency in Tuensang district of Nagaland will be held on March 23.

Election to the seat had to be countermanded due to the death of Congress candidate P. Chuba Chang a day before the state went to polls on February 23.

Filing of nominations will end on March 6, election office sources said, adding, the date of scrutiny of nomination of the INC sponsored candidate will be on March 7 and the last date of withdrawal on March 9.

Tuensang Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Returning Officer, T. Mhabemo Yanthan, in an official notification has reminded political parties that the Model Code of Conduct will continue to be in force within the jurisdiction of Tuensang Sadar-I Assembly seat till the process of election is completed.

Mr. Yanthan said the date of re-poll, if any, will be taken up on March 25 and counting of votes will be on March 26.

Other two candidates already in the fray are NPF’s L. Elam Chang and Poyang Changkong Chang (Independent).