After ward boy confesses, Assam medical student is held for ‘killing’ woman doctor

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Dipmoni Saikia has been sent to police custody for 7 days. ( source: PTI )

Summary

According to Dibrugarh SP Rana Bhuyan, ward boy claimed that Saikia had also sexually abused the victim.

Guwahati, May 15 : Five days after a first-year post-graduate student of the Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh was found murdered in the duty room of the gynaecology department, the police on Wednesday arrested Dipmoni Saikia, a final-year PG student, for allegedly killing her with the help of a ward boy.

“We have arrested Saikia on the basis of confessional statements made by Kiro Mech, the ward boy who was arrested within a few hours of the incident on Friday. We have booked him under Sections 302, 34 and 120(B) of the IPC, after which the CJM’s court sent him to seven days’ police custody,” Dibrugarh SP Rana Bhuyan told The Indian Express over the phone. The motive behind the crime, however, was yet to be ascertained, he said.

According to Bhuyan, Mech claimed that Saikia had also sexually abused the victim. “She tried to resist and in the process scratched the ward boy’s face and bit his thumb,” he said. “Saikia, however, has claimed he is innocent and is being framed,” he said.

Mech, a temporary ward boy, reportedly told the police that Saikia had assured him about a month back that he would get a permanent job if he helped him in “some work”. “When Mech asked him what work he would have to do, Saikia said he would tell him when the time came,” said Bhuyan.

On April 24, Saikia reportedly asked Mech to help him kill the victim. Both Saikia and the victim were on night shift every Thursday. “On May 8, Saikia did not turn up for night shift. Mech said Saikia had already instructed him to ensure that the night duty nurse left early. Accordingly, Mech convinced the night duty nurse to leave soon after 5 am on May 9.

Saikia then arrived, and the duo strangulated the victim while she was sleeping in the duty room,” said Bhuyan, quoting from the ward boy’s confessional statement to the police.

“A patient’s attendant reportedly heard some shouts coming from the duty room, but she found the door locked from inside. The duo first strangulated the victim on the bed and then pulled her down to the floor, where Saikia reportedly stamped on her chest. The two then lifted her and placed her on the bed, after Saikia used a stethoscope to check that she had died. The ward boy said he then used a knife to slit her throat. Going by Mech’s statement, everything was over within a few minutes,” said the SP.

The post-mortem report is yet to be submitted.

The victim was set to marry another final-year student of the same medical college on July 9, said Bhuyan.

Myanmar patients in India

Patients who suffer from tuberculosis and are HIV positive cross into northeastern state of Manipur for treatment.

By Bijoyeta Das

A doddering healthcare system pushes many from Myanmar to cross the Indian border into the town Moreh in the northeastern state of Manipur, to seek testing and treatment. Most patients suffer from drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and are HIV positive.

"There is no health system, it is broken. And private care is low quality and very expensive," Lei Than, who traveled for three days to reach the Indian border, told Al Jazeera.

Most patients cross the border to visit the Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) clinic which is right on the border, take their medication and return the same day.

There are a number of transitional shelter homes in Myanmarese town of Tamu, where patients stay at night before crossing the border at 7am local time. The drug-resistant TB patients stay six months to two years on the Indian side to complete the arduous treatment, which includes very strong drugs and many side effects.

"We hear that some of our patients from Myanmar travel from quite far to access the clinic, as they mention that they have difficulties finding testing and treatment facilities closer by," said Akke Boere, director of MSF India.

Some travel for four to five hours to Manipur's Churachandpur district, where pastor Rama runs Happiness Home shelter. About 100 Myanmarese patients, including children, are currently staying there as they seek treatment. Some children are stranded after their parents or relatives died during the treatment.

"This is a humanitarian crisis," the pastor says.

Sometimes Indians cross the border into Myanmar to seek treatment in Tamu, as there is no blood transfusion available in the town of Moreh. Pregnant Manipuri women say they would rather deliver babies at the hospital in Tamu than travel five hours to Imphal, the capital of the Indian state.


A Myanmarese patient receiving treatment from Médecins sans Frontières in Moreh for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

Myanmarese women crossing the Indian border. They come everyday to sell goods at the market in the border town of Moreh.

Two HIV positive patients at a shelter home in the border town of Tamu on Myanmar's side.

HIV positive children living in Happiness Home, a shelter home run by pastor Rama in Churachandpur district in India’s northeastern state of Manipur.

A Myanmarese patient weaving at Happiness Home.

A shelter home in the border town of Tamu in Myanmar. Most patients spend the night here before crossing the border into the Indian side. 

A Myanmarese multi-drug resistant patient, who has rented a house in Moreh, stays with her mother as she receives treatment from MSF.

A Myanmarese child at the Happiness Home. Pastor Rama conducts language classes for them so they do not forget their native tongue.

An Indian HIV positive patient in the Tamu hospital in Myanmar. Lack of blood transfusion in Moreh forces many Indians to seek treatment in Myanmar.

Indo-Burmese friendship bridge, which marks the border.

Source: Al Jazeera

Hoffenheim Win First Friendly in Mizoram

The visitors eventual won 3-0 in a game that was broadcasted to the whole of India

Hoffenheim coach Markus Gisdol (l.) and striker Roberto Firmino (r.) look on from the touchline as the Sinsheim side took on a Mizoram State XI

Die Kraichgauer received a warm welcome when they arrived at the stadium in Aizawl...

...as well as at the local airport

Hoffenheim travelled to India on 11 May and will make stops in Calcutta, Goa and Aizawl

The local transport and climate are rather different to what the players are used to in Germany...

...but they were immediately at home out on the pitch in Aizawl, taking a third minute lead in front of an 11,000-strong crowd

Aizawl - 1899 Hoffenheim began their trip to India on a positive note after beating a Mizoram State side 3-0 in a friendly match in front of approximately 11,000 supporters.

Anthony Modeste opened the scoring for Markus Gisdol’s team in the third minute, before Eugen Polanski doubled their advantage shortly before the half-hour mark. Jiloan Hamad sealed the victory five minutes after half-time in a game that was broadcast live nationwide in India.

'Wonderful experience'

“We gave a good account of ourselves,” said Gisdol after the final whistle. “The players had a lot of fun out there and our opponents deserve praise for the way they played. They were very active and had some good chances to score. The result isn’t important, it was just nice to feel the enthusiasm of the people here. This wonderful experience will live long in our memories.”

In partnership with the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), Hoffenheim are in India to promote the Bundesliga across the subcontinent. Furthermore, in close cooperation with the club’s main sponsor SAP, a German multi-national software corporation, the Sinsheim outfit will initiate four new projects. The team will also visit schools and football clubs in Calcutta, Goa and Aizawl and take part in training sessions with local children, amongst other activities.

Source: bundesliga.com

Taxation Goes Online in Mizoram

Aizawl, May 15 : Good news and great relief for tax payers, the Mizoram Taxation Department has extended its e-services by enabling payment of tax through the Internet, leaving behind the tradition of making long queue to pay taxes no matter on sunny or rainy days.

For the convenient of the people who pay taxes to the government, the Taxation department has launched a new version, of its e-payment facility since April 23 last.

By availing the convenient e-payment facility, people can now pay their taxes through Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)

The Taxation Department has taken active steps since it started its project of e-Governance, as a result of which a number of e-services have been launched, much to the ease and convenience of the people.

The E-payment facility, in fact, has been provided since 2012 through State Bank of India (SBI), the official release added, mentioning that 30% of the revenue of the state government from VAT in the last fiscal- 2013-14 had been paid using the e-payment facility.

The newly launched e-payment facility through Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) will greatly relieve the people as it would do away with the troublesome long queue for paying tax at the premises of Bank and Treasury.

The tax payers instead will easily log on to the internet from home and make the necessary payment.

Mizoram: Bamboozled By Land Use Policy

By T. R. Shankar Raman


BETTER LAND USE: The jhum landscape mosaic of fields, regenerating fallows, and forests (in picture) is a better form of land use and forest cover than monoculture oil palm plantations. Photo: T.R. Shankar Raman

Forest cover loss has occurred at a period when area under jhum cultivation is declining, suggesting that the land use policy has been counterproductive to forests

Two spectacular bamboo dances, one celebrated, the other reviled, enliven the mountains of Mizoram. In the colourful Cheraw, Mizo girls dance as boys clap bamboo culms at their feet during the annual Chapchar Kut festival. The festival itself is linked to the other dance: the dance of the bamboos on Mizoram’s mountains brought about by the practice of shifting agriculture, locally called jhum or ‘lo.’ In jhum, bamboo forests are cut, burnt, cultivated, and then rested and regenerated for several years until the next round of cultivation, making bamboos vanish and return on the slopes in a cyclic ecological dance of field and fallow. While Cheraw is cherished by all, jhum is actively discouraged by the State and the agri-horticulture bureaucracy. Although jhum is a regenerative system of organic farming, Mizoram, the first Indian State to enact legislation to promote organic farming, is now pushing hard to eradicate jhum under its New Land Use Policy (NLUP).

Labelling jhum as unproductive and destructive of forest cover, policy makers and industry now promote “settled” cultivation and plantations, such as pineapple and oil palm, claiming they are better land use than jhum. However, oil palm, rubber and horticultural plantations are monocultures that cause permanent deforestation, a fact that the India State of Forest Report 2011 (ISFR) notes to explain declines in Mizoram’s forest cover. In contrast, jhum is a diversified cropping system that causes only temporary loss of small forest patches followed by forest recovery. Understanding this is crucial to formulate land use policy that is economically, ecologically, and culturally appropriate for all the north-eastern hill States.

Organic jhum

Jhum uses natural cycles of forest regeneration to grow diverse crops without using chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Early in the year, farmers cut demarcated patches of bamboo forests and let the vegetation sun-dry for weeks. They then burn the slash in contained fires in March to clear the fields, nourish the soil with ashes, and cultivate through the monsoon. In fields that are one to three hectares in area, each farmer plants and sequentially harvests between 15 to 25 crops. After cultivation, they rest their fields and shift to new areas each year. The rested fields rapidly regenerate into forests, including over 10,000 bamboo culms per hectare in five years. After dense forests reappear on the original site, farmers return for cultivation, usually after six to ten years, which forms the jhum cycle.

Regenerating fields and forests in the jhum landscape provide resources for many years. The farmer obtains firewood, charcoal, wild vegetables and fruits, wood and bamboo for house construction and other home needs. The diversity of food and cash crops cultivated and ancillary resources provided by jhum fields complicate comparisons with terrace or monocrop agricultural systems. One-dimensional comparisons — such as of rice yield per hectare or annual monetary return — can be misleading, because one needs to assess the full range of resources from jhum field, fallow, and forest, over a full cultivation cycle, besides food security implications.

Comparing monocrops like wet rice paddies cultivated using chemical inputs with organic jhum is not just comparing apples with oranges. It is like comparing a pile of pineapples with a basket containing rice, vegetables, cash crops, firewood, bamboo, and more. Inter-disciplinary studies indicate that at cycles of ten years or more, jhum is, in the words of Prof. P. Ramakrishnan at Jawaharlal Nehru University, “economically productive and ecologically sustainable.”

In Mizoram, we only see jhum fires burning forests, we fail to see forests and bamboo regenerating rapidly after a season of cultivation. ISFR estimated that bamboo bearing areas occupy 9,245 square kilometres or 44 per cent of Mizoram. For every hectare of forest cleared for jhum, farmers retain 5 to ten hectares as regenerating fallow and forest in the landscape. Also, forests left uncut by jhum farmers contain bamboo species.

Yet, government policy tilts firmly against jhum. The State’s NLUP deploys over Rs.2,800 crore over a five-year period “to put an end to wasteful shifting cultivation” and replaces it with “permanent and stable trades.” Under this policy, the State provides Rs.1,00,000 in a year directly to households, aiming to shift beneficiaries into alternative occupations like horticulture, livestock-rearing, or settled cultivation. The policy has created opportunities for families seeking to diversify or enhance income. Still, NLUP’s primary objective — to eradicate “wasteful” shifting cultivation — appears misdirected.

Even before NLUP was implemented, despite decades of extensive shifting cultivation, over 90 per cent of Mizoram’s land area was under forest cover, much of it bamboo forests resulting from jhum. Recent declines in forest cover have occurred at a period when area under jhum cultivation is actually declining, while area under settled cultivation is increasing, suggesting that the land use policy has been counterproductive to forests.

Oil palm and forest loss

Oil palm, notorious for extensive deforestation in south-east Asia, is cultivated as monoculture plantations, devoid of tree or bamboo cover, and drastically reduces rainforest plant and animal diversity. In Mizoram, 1,01,000 hectares have been identified for oil palm cultivation. Following the entry of three corporate oil palm companies, over 17,500 hectares have already been permanently deforested within a decade. Promoting and subsidising such plantations and corporate business interests undermines both premise and purpose of present land use policies. As forest cover and bamboo decline, people in some villages now resort to buying bamboo, once abundant and freely available.

Detractors of jhum often concede that jhum was viable in the past, but claim population growth has forced jhum cycles to under five years, allowing insufficient time for forest regrowth, thereby making jhum unsustainable. Reduction of jhum cycle is serious, but evidence linking it to population pressure is scarce. In reality, jhum cycles often decline because of external pressures, relocation and grouping of villages, or reduced land availability.

Attempting to eradicate and replace shifting cultivation is inappropriate. Instead, a better use of public money and resources would be to work with cultivators and agroecologists to refine jhum where needed. The State can involve and incentivise communities to foster practices that lengthen cropping and fallow periods, develop village infrastructure and access paths to distant fields, and provide market and price support, and other benefits including organic labelling to jhum cultivators. Today, the State only supports industry and alternative occupations, leaving both bamboo forests and farmers who wish to continue with jhum in the lurch. Unless a more enlightened government reforms future policies in favour of shifting agriculture, Mizoram’s natural bounty of bamboos is at risk of being frittered away.

(T. R. Shankar Raman is a senior scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore.)

Kohhran Thianghlim believes that god has ‘shifted’ the site of the legendary building to Aizawl

Religious sect’s ‘Third Temple’ draws crowds

ZODIN SANGA

An image of the temple to be built in Aizawl. Telegraph picture Aizawl, May 14 : A religious sect in Mizoram has come to believe that god has “shifted” the site of the legendary Third Temple to the Mizoram capital. According to legend, King Solomon had built the First Temple on Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the current site of the Dome of the Rock. “For 2,000 years, believers of Christ have built temples, cathedrals and churches but not God’s temple that is worth being called Solomon’s Temple. Now, God has found a site for his temple in Mizoram,” said Dr L.B. Sailo, founder of Kohhran Thianghlim or the Holy Church, one of the many religious sects in the Christian-dominated state. Sailo, the director of the animal husbandry and veterinary department, claimed to have received a divine calling way back in 1983 to build the temple, which will be the third temple of King Solomon. “God provided me with all the detailed architectural designs and measurements,” he claimed. According to him, the change of site for the Holy Temple was clearly mentioned in the Old Testament. “It was foretold in the Book of Isaiah that there would be God’s ‘sought-out city’ in the region of the sunrise.” The “region of the sunrise” happens to be Mizoram and the Mizos are god’s “chosen people”, according to him. “As the people of Israel, whom God called to build the temple, have failed him, he has chosen this small tribe in Northeast India to rebuild the temple for him,” Sailo claimed, in stark contrast to the belief of most Christians worldwide and in the state. The sect began building the temple on December 25, 1996, setting a time frame of 20 years for its completion. Although the sect’s membership accounts for less than one per cent of the Christian population in Mizoram, it has set a budget of Rs 1,498.19 lakh for the temple. Counting of members is strictly prohibited in the Kohhran Thianghlim, so the exact strength of the group is not known. “Just like God did not want King David of Israel to count the number of soldiers in his kingdom, it is forbidden in the Kohhran Thianghlim to count the members,” one of them pointed out. However, the members are truly dedicated and have been putting in all their efforts and earnings to fulfil the “divine calling”, the member said. “Most of the funds are contributed by church members. Visitors also donate small amounts of money to the temple authority,” the member said. High-quality marble was imported for the temple, making it the first and only temple in Mizoram with a marble structure. The sect claims that it is being built exactly according to god’s instructions in the Bible. “There are four towers; each tower carries a crown symbolising salvation, righteousness, life and victory. The temple has four fronts with three doors on each front, as prophesised in the Book of Revelation,” the member said. There are two intersecting horizontal ridges crossing the middle of the pitch roof so that the ridges form a cross representing the new covenant. Standing on a hilltop, ironically called Kidron Valley, on the western outskirts of Aizawl, the temple has already become one of the most visited sites by tourists.

Unpaid media employees of Northeast India

By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati, May 14  : India's highest court on April 9 ruled that journalists and non-journalists of newspapers and news agencies are entitled to a pay hike under the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board. Dismissing pleas by various owners seeking a review of its earlier judgment, the Supreme Court directed publishers to implement the recommendations of the latest wage board from this month on.

The bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoiand Justice Shiva Kirti Singh ruled that the wages as revised and would be payable from 11 November 2011, when the Indian Union government notified the recommendations of the Majithia Board.

"All the arrears up to March 2014 shall be paid to all eligible employees in four equal installments within a period of one year and continue to pay the revised wages from April 2014 onwards," the verdict noted. The latest report of national wage board for working journalists and other newspaper employees under the leadership of Justice GR Majithia was presented to the Union government in New Delhi on 31 December 2010.

"A fine, fair and judicious balance has been achieved between the expectations and aspirations of the employees and the capacity and willingness of the employers to pay," said Justice Majithia in an interview.

He added that the report made suggestions for the consideration of the government on issues like post-retirement benefits, a forward looking promotion policy, measures to improve enforcement of the wage board etc.

As far as social security measures are concerned possibility of granting paternity leave to male employees, extension of retirement age up to 65 years, exploring pension scheme possibilities were suggested going beyond the mandated wage structure revision, he added.

The wage boards for newspaper & news agency employees including journalists, constituted under the working journalists and other newspaper employees (conditions of service) and miscellaneous provisions act 1955, are statutory. The prime responsibility for implementing the recommendations of the wage board rests with the concerned province governments and Union territories of India.

"Journalists are paid a lump sum without any welfare benefits and they can be dismissed at will. Except for some newspapers the mainstream publications had, ever since the wage board’s award came out in 2010, conducted only diatribes against the award," said an editorial of Economic & Political Weekly, a credible publication of India in its 29 March 2014 issue.

It also added, "The burden of opinion pieces by either the owners or top executives (usually in their own publications) was that small newspapers would be forced to close down while the bigger ones would be crippled. While five journalists’ trade unions and federations fought the challenges in court, there was nary a word from journalists or any form of public protest. The entire scenario illustrates well the working conditions of journalists in the country today."

Even the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional non-governmental organization that monitors human rights in Asia and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights, expressed concerns over the salary and working conditions of media persons in India.

In the last few years there has been a major change in the profile of media houses, with an increasing number of high profile businesspersons/organizations making an entry. Yet, working conditions for media personnel remain close to the same, said the AHRC statement issued on 14 April from its headquarters in Hong Kong, adding that the salary of newspaper employees is ‘minimal with no chance of raise no matter how many years one has been on the job.

Referring to India's apex court's decision to uphold the recommendations of Majithia Wage Board for journalists and non-journalists on their pay structure, the AHRC urged media houses to honor and implement the recommendations of the latest wage board as a matter of priority. It also called upon the State governments to ensure a safe working atmosphere for journalists and make provisions for social benefits like health and life insurance for the media employees.

The Assam Tribune group of newspapers based in Guwahati was the first media house in India to implement the recommendations of the latest wage board since January 2012. The 70 years old media house did not wait for the apex court verdict, as done by many big newspaper groups of the country while challenging the constitutionality of the Majithia Wage Board in the Supreme Court.
The editor of The Assam Tribune, PG Baruah, also the managing director of the media house that publishes an Assamese daily, an Assamese weekly and an Assamese literary magazine besides the English daily, was candid when he spoke about the wage board implementation, "We have given the employees their due. It is our duty and also the gesture."

All Assam Media Employees Federation (AAMEF), while addressing the matter of livelihood for media workers in northeast India has urged the newspaper house managements to show their respect to the Supreme Court by implementing the new wage board from this month.

Appreciating the Assam Tribune group for implementing the latest wage board recommendations for the first time in the country, the AAMEF declared, “It is now time for other media groups to show gesture to their employees.We have a model media house (Assam Tribune) that has successfully survived for two years with the new wage board facilities to the employees. Now we do not accept any logic that the Majithia recommendations are not implementable. You have to have the minimum commitment to the medium,” said Hiten Mahanta, president of AAMEF.

Speaking to this writer, Mahanta, also a veteran journalist of Assam, expressed dismay that most media groups in the country have made it a habit to show a loss-making balance sheet every year with an aim to avoid paying proper salaries to the employees.

"But except few, it's a common practice for all the media barons to divert funds from the collected amount of money from the advertisers to other non-media enterprises owned by their families,” he asserted adding that the newspaper owners continue siphoning away the essential resource of the media groups for their selfish interest only to establish the media business as an unprofitable endeavor".

Meanwhile, Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) has urged the Union government to facilitate the media persons engaged with the privately-owned satellite news channels with systematic pay hike as like their counterparts in the print media. The Assam-based scribes' body pointed out that nearly 70 per cent television journalists were still performing their duties with pitiable salaries (read monthly financial package), unlimited working hours and without any facilities recommended by the countries labor laws.

Moreover, we demand for a social media audit where the esteemed readers & viewers can find a transparent picture of the financial dealings involved with their favorite newspapers & news channels, said Rupam Barua, president of JFA adding that the exercise would ultimately help the media employees including the working journalists in getting their due benefits under the law of the land.

₹5,000-cr project to improve mobile connectivity in Northeast

By Thomas K Thomas/Abhishek Law

Telecom Commission gives in-principle approval

Delhi/Kolkata, May 14 :  The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is planning to extend basic mobile coverage, including voice calling, in far-flung areas of eight north-eastern States, at an estimated cost of over ₹5,000 crore.

According to TRAI, at least 20 per cent of the villages in the North-East do not have mobile connectivity.

The States include Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and Nagaland.

Better connectivity

The region has a strategic importance because of its proximity to the neighbouring countries of China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. Improving coverage is likely to help facilitate mobile surveillance, sources said.

In-principle approval for the project has already been obtained from the Telecom Commission — the highest decision making body of the Ministry, a departmental note states.

Under the project, new telecom towers (in uncovered areas) will be set up as greenfield installations; coverage along National Highways is to be perked up and, if required, optical fibre cables laid.

While approximately ₹2,400 crore will be spent as capital expenditure (tower installation and laying cables); the remaining ₹2,670 crore would be for maintenance and op-ex over a five-year-period.

Funding would be through the Universal Service ObligationFund.

Uncovered areas

Around 9,190 villages (as per 2011 Census) out of the 43,200 in the region still lack 2G voice calling facility, the report mentions.

Among those to be brought under the mobile loop, 2,886 villages are in Arunachal Pradesh, 2,885 in Assam and, 2,389 are in Meghalaya. Tripura only has two villages.

A detailed report by Telecom Consultants India Ltd, states that 6,673 towers will be set up.

In case of coverage along the National Highways, another 321 towers need to be installed at an estimated cost of ₹300 crore. Maximum sites need to come up along the National Highways in Arunachal Pradesh (149); followed by Manipur (53); and Nagaland (48).