Now Assam Asks ONGC, Oil India for Higher Royalties

By Siddhartha P Saikia

ONGC and the Gujarat government are embroiled in a legal battle following the latter’s demand for additional royalty.

SummaryState-run hydrocarbon explorers ONGC and Oil India face the grim prospect of having to pay additional royalties to states.

State-run hydrocarbon explorers ONGC and Oil India face the grim prospect of having to pay additional royalties to states. Assam, taking a cue from Gujarat, has sought royalty on the pre-discount price of crude oil produced in the state, rather than the actual price the fuel is sold by the two firms, effective February 1.

ONGC and the Gujarat government are embroiled in a legal battle following the latter’s demand for additional royalty of R10,000 crore from the PSU for crude production in the state since 2003.

Gujarat’s rationale for the move is that royalty needed to be paid not on the subsidised price crude oil is sold by ONGC to oil marketing companies, but the pre-discount price.

Sources said Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to direct the oil PSUs to change the royalty payment mechanism, as demanded by Gujarat.

Thankfully for ONGC and OIL, the northeastern state hasn’t demanded that the new norm be applied from an earlier date. This is despite the fact that Assam had an estimated cumulative loss of revenue to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore since 2008-09 because of the current system of determining royalty.

The apex court had directed ONGC to start paying royalty to the Gujarat government on the pre-discount price from February this year, while the state’s demand for arrears since 2004-05 is yet to be decided on.

Sources added that Gogoi urged Modi to “advise the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to give appropriate instructions to ONGC and OIL to pay royalty, VAT and other state taxes to the government of Assam also at pre-discounted price of crude oil with effect from February 1 2014 as ordered by Supreme Court in case of Gujarat”.

This comes as a dampener for ONGC as its bottom line is expected to be impacted by more than Rs 2,000 crore (for Gujarat and Assam alone) every year (see chart). Gogoi has pointed out that ONGC and OIL are liable to pay royalty on crude oil at 20% of the well-head price, in addition to VAT at 5% and other state taxes.

Other states that could potentially follow suit include Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

I’m ready to Kermit to this relationship: Desperate villagers in Indian region hit by droughts hold wedding ceremony for frogs in bid to appease rain gods

The ritual took place in Dibrugarh in the north eastern Indian state of Assam

Villagers perform the ceremony to try and bring rainfall during dry spells

Ritual began by catching a male and a female frog from two different villages

The two frogs were dressed up and adorned with traditional colour

After ceremony the frogs were taken to a small pond nearby and let go

By Tara Brady

Desperate villagers in an Indian region hit by droughts have held a wedding ceremony for

frogs in a bid to appease rain gods. 

The amphibian ritual took place in the village of Dibrugarh in the north eastern Indian state of Assam.

Villagers perform the ceremony to try and bring rainfall during dry spells.

Villagers perform a wedding ceremony between two frogs to pray for rain and good harvest

Ranjan Das, one of village leaders who attended the wedding, said: 'Our region had not witnessed much rain this year so far. 

'So we arranged the wedding of two frogs to please the rain Gods.' 

The ritual began by catching hold of a male and a female frog from two different villages.

'We have to make sure that the frogs have been brought from two different villages. Only then will the rain Gods accept our plea,' said Das. 

Bizarre: Villagers who took part in a wedding ceremony of frogs in the village of Dibrugarh, India

Villagers said there had not been rain in the area this year so they arranged a wedding ceremony for frogs

Pukka up: The male frog during the wedding ceremony in India where there has not been any rain

The two frogs were dressed up and adorned with traditional colour. The female frog was even gifted a chain

'After that, we sit for the ritual and perform the wedding just like we do our own.'

People from around four villages attended the bizarre marriage ceremony on Sunday, 27 June, which

lasted six hours.

Das said more than thousand people were present at the wedding, which was held in the local park.

The two frogs were dressed up and adorned with traditional colour. The female frog was even gifted a

gold chain by the villagers. 

More than s thousand people were present at the wedding, which was held in the local park

People from around four villages attended the bizarre marriage ceremony yesterday

After the ceremony was over, the frogs were taken to a small pond nearby and let go

'Traditional prayers were recited by the saints who conducted the wedding. It was a joyful affair,' said attendee Paromita Gogoi.

After the ceremony was over, the frogs were taken to a small pond nearby and let go.

Villagers then proceeded to eat dinner, where more than 900 plates of food were served.

'We let the frogs go, so that they can live their life and convey our message to the rain Gods,' added Gogoi

'This ritual is performed as a last resort measure. And thanks to God, our wishes come true,' said Gogoi.

It seems the prayers of the villagers were answered - it began raining across Dibrugarh this morning.

Man from Manipur Beaten Up by Two People in Gurgaon, Admitted to Hospital

Gurgaon, Jul 28 :  Just a few days after a man from Manipur was beaten to death in Delhi, another person from the state has been beaten up in the national capital's suburb Gurgaon.

The 35-year-old victim was reportedly attacked near his house by two men and has been admitted to hospital. The motive of the attack is still not clear.

Last week, Salouni - a former call centre employee from Manipur - was severely beaten up by five men in a road rage case. The police took a badly injured Salouni to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or AIIMS, where he was declared dead.

Activists from the North East have alleged that his death was a "hate crime" and another in a long list of cases of racial discrimination in the capital.

Earlier this year, Nido Tania, a 20-year-old student from Arunachal Pradesh died after being beaten with iron rods and sticks by a group of men in a market in Delhi's Lajpat Nagar, not far from where Shaloni died.

Nido's death had led to street protests and a national debate on discrimination against Indians from the North East.

YMA To Conduct Headcount of Chakmas

Aizawl, Jul 28 : Young Mizo Association (YMA) will soon conduct a census of the Chakma community living in Mizoram.

Vanlalruata, general secretary of the central committee of the YMA, said the census would be conducted in the Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) areas and also in other parts of the state.

He said efforts would be made to ensure that Mizos were able to own land inside the CADC. "It is extremely unfair that the sons of the soil are barred from owning land in CADC," the YMA leader said.

Earlier a study on the Chakmas was conducted to find out about the growth of the Chakma population in the state.

Their rise in population in Mizoram has been attributed to the displacement of a large number of people from the community after construction of the Kaptai Dam in Chittagong Hill Tracts in the erstwhile East Pakistan between 1957 and 1962. A large number of Chakma refugees were also sent to Arunachal Pradesh. More Chakmas came to the state after the Centre created the CADC in 1972 without consulting the people or leaders of Mizoram.

Dhaka Lets FCI Ship Food To Northeast Using its Key Port

By Zia Haq

New Delhi, Jul 28 : India has begun using a new trade route via a Bangladeshi port as well as land terrain to ship foodgrains to the Northeast India, as the NDA government steps up ties with the neighbour on the back of foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s recent successful visit.

In a trial run, the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the country’s main grain agency, has successfully shipped 10,000 tonnes of rice to Tripura from its Vishakhapatnam silo via the Ashuganj port in the neighbouring country under the “Indo-Bangladesh protocol route”.

The new sea route reduces distance between some south Indian states and the Northeast by about 900 km, potentially cutting down transporters’ operating costs and opening up possibilities of greater commercial traffic.

Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan told Hindustan Times that after the trial run, the FCI would now scale up rice quantities transported using this route to the Northeast to 35,000 tonnes. “Since North-East is a rice-consuming region, this new route will help us reach rice from major southern states faster and more economically. Moreover, this route holds a lot of potential for commerce.”

With the India-friendly Awami League Party’s Sheikh Hasina in power in Dhaka, India and Bangladesh have enjoyed closer ties, although trickier issues, such as the Teesta water sharing pact, are stuck.

The route using the Ashuganj port holds strategic importance to India in reaching all kinds of equipment to the Northeast - including heavy equipment needed to construct border infrastructure. The Northeast, where several militant groups are active, is linked to the rest of India by a single highway running through a corridor known as the “Chicken’s Neck”.

For the food ministry, the new route has come in handy, as railways are about to shut down a major rail route used by the FCI in Assam for conversion to broad gauge. This would have sharply increased time and costs for the food agency.

Under the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route, inland vessels of one country can transit through the specified routes of the other country.

Delhi is Northeasterners' Favourite Job Destination

By Natalia Ningthoujam

New Delhi, Jul 28 : Abhijit K. Borah moved here from Guwahati in search of a better future. He says Delhi has a lot to offer and he has no plans to leave the capital, despite it being tagged as the country's "most racist city".

"I won't mind shifting base to another city, provided there are good opportunities. But Delhi always offers opportunities; so till now that thought has not crossed my mind," Borah told IANS.

Sagarika Dutta from Tinsukia, Assam, too calls the national capital her dream destination.

"After completing my 12th grade, I knew I would study here as the northeast isn't good for higher education. My cousins are also here, so I was excited," said the 25-year-old.

A study by the North East Support Centre & Helpline (NESCH) has revealed that 78 out of every 100 people from northeastern India living in Delhi face some sort of racial discrimination, with crimes against women, discrimination, verbal slurs and assault against people from the community emerging as major concerns.

Ever since a 30-year-old man from Manipur was thrashed to death during a brawl with a group of locals in the Kotla area of south Delhi, concerns have once again been raised about the safety of people from the region.

But there are always two sides to every story - if on one hand the capital spells fear and unease, on the other it offers hope and prosperity, northeasterners say.

Luckily for Dutta, she hasn't faced "any discrimination" so far and has no plans of turning her back on the city.

"It depends on your friends circle and the environment you are in. I am a career-oriented person and always wanted to settle down outside my hometown as there is less scope in the northeast for public relations professionals," she said.

Borah says the capital has worked as a magnet for people from the northeast as it offers a plethora of options for them.

If in the beginning BPO jobs worked as the biggest draw, now people from the northeast - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim - are getting opportunities in industries like media, hospitality and advertising, among others because of their education, ability to speak in English, smart appearances and willingness to work hard.

"Gone are the days when it was believed that the BPO industry drove northeasterners to the metros. Nowadays, in most of the creative fields like media, advertising, marketing or entertainment, you can see people from the northeast," said Borah.

Over 200,000 people, of whom around 50 percent are females, from the eight northeastern states are in the capital, another NESCH report said.

Worthing Kasar from Nagaland, a partner in a law firm, shifted to the capital to study law. The fact that part of her family was in the city made things smoother for her, but she wouldn't mind living on her own.

"I got through law college and then started working. Even if my family were not here, I would've moved to the city as it has a lot of opportunities," said Kasar.

Kasar added that the preference for people from the northeast is greater in her field.

"I've heard many lawyers saying that they prefer people from the northeast as associates because they feel we are hardworking and honest. In my profession, people run away with clients. So, these qualities are required to avoid this from happening," said the 36-year-old.

Despite disturbing news from the capital, Jenny Thingshung, now a radio jockey and a travel writer, left Manipur and joined a private media institute in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, around five years back.

"Delhi gives great exposure and my sister was already here. But even if I didn't have anyone here, I would've chosen Delhi as it is the best for media," said Thingshung, who worked with a channel as a reporter and then joined a radio station.

For the time being, she wants to earn and build a successful career; so she has no plans of returning to Manipur. But she hasn't completely shut the door.

"There will be a time when I would like to go home, but not right now. When I retire or get settled I would love to go back," she said.

(Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at natalia.n@ians.in)

Northeast Village Buys Burari Plot To House its Own in Comfort, Safety

By Shreya Roy Chowdhury

New Delhi, Jul 28 : The village of Yaikongpao, in Senapati district, Manipur, has acquired 100 square yards at Burari. When the village chief manages to raise enough funds, a hostel-cum-guesthouse will be constructed for students and families coming to Delhi from the state.

Dzukou House too was built this way—villagers on the Manipur-Nagaland border clubbed together to invest in infrastructure here. Villages, communities and groups from the northeast are pooling resources to set up cheap accommodations for students and families coming to the city. Though an unlikely choice, this north Delhi area is perhaps the only one where they can have landlords from their region.

Rocky Angumei, a youth pastor from Yaikongpao, says, "When I learnt about this place in 2007, I convinced the villagers to invest here. The village used its own development funds. The elders are here but they've entrusted me with the project." That land was bought, he says, in 2008-09.

"All educated young people are leaving Manipur and going to other states, mainly Delhi," says Angumei. "They work wherever they can—at beauty parlours or call centres—and pay exorbitant rents. The elders create a sense of security."

A single lane with about a dozen houses owned by people from the northeast offers the comfort of familiarity. Peichun Kadimna's family—her father's a pastor too—was the first to put down roots in 2010. "We were the only ones from the northeast here then," says the Miranda House student. Around that time, Ramo Chothe, a physics teacher at SGTB Khalsa College, was building his home. Chothe is now constructing more floors. "I can accommodate 10-15 students. Two will share a room, there'll be a common room with a television, and I'll serve meals. It'll be like home," he says.

The Kadimnas are ready to open their hostel—for 15—in August. "We're asking our friends to also chip in and set up hostels or guesthouses. Four to five families can together buy a 100 square-yard plot and build on it," says Chothe.

The interiors of Burari hardly inspire the confidence Chothe shows—there are virtually no roads leading to their lane, lanes aren't paved properly, streetlights come on well after it's dark and venturing out of the colony can invite racist comments. When Chothe moved in, "it was like a jungle". But this little throng is trying to make Burari home with a few light touches.

Last year, they had a badminton tournament in an empty parking lot. Angumei started the Church of Hope and is now working on "a barbecue culture". "The dream is there'll be a properly colony here with shopping complex, gymnasium and open area," explains Chothe. He convinced homeowners on his row to contribute "one foot from their plots for a few shops". These are yet to come up.

The community has the option of staying in Dhaka village or Gandhi Vihar in accommodations sublet to them. But, despite the inconvenient location, all the rooms available in Burari are taken. "Students started coming about two years ago," says Chothe, "About 15 came last year. Another 15 joined this time." It takes Kadamlung Gonmei two hours to get from Burari to Dyal Singh College on Lodhi Road but he decided to shift.

"Local landlords charged us more and we'd never get our security deposits back," says DU graduate Joseph Phaomei, who's preparing for competitive exams.

They can eat fermented fish in peace, there's no curfew and the elders to manage the kids. Having other migrant families as immediate neighbours also helps. "It's a mixed group here," says Angumei, "There are several families from Uttarakhand. They are simple. Like us."

The Onus To Integrate

India’s capital city has been deeply disturbed by several violent attacks on young men and women from the North-East

By Dipankar De Sarkar

In most cases of violence against people from NorthEastern states, police have come up with an “anything but racism” explanation.

On Boxing Day 2011, a student from Pune was shot and killed in the suburbs of Manchester for no apparent reason. Anuj Bidve, along with a group of friends—all Indians, visible minorities—happened to be in a housing estate known for its lawlessness. A man who called himself Psycho Stapleton walked up to the group, asked the time, and then took out a gun, placed it on Bidve’s left temple and shot him dead with a single bullet.

It was a numbing act of violence that led to an outpouring of shock and outrage in both India and the UK. After complaints from the grieving family, Manchester Police dispatched an officer to Pune to try and explain and apologise for delays in informing them of the tragedy. The unrepentant killer was found, arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was a blot on Britain, a nation that to my mind has grown up embracing people of other races, religions and cultures. There was the determination not to allow such things to happen. In New Delhi this week, a former call centre worker called Shaloni, like Bidve in his 20s, was beaten to death by five men.

The man was from Manipur, one of eight states that are lumped as the North-East. Ignored for years by central governments and punished for rebellious insurgencies, the people of the North-East—visible minorities in most parts of India—have long complained of racism, especially in Delhi.

“Why don’t you people learn to integrate with your host communities?” ask some residents of Delhi in sentiments that are often heard in settings of conscious and unconscious racism, almost always from majority communities. I wondered what integration meant here: would they have to stop speaking English, stop listening to and playing Western rock music, swap skirts for saris?

India’s capital city has been deeply disturbed by several violent attacks on young men and women from the North-East. A 19-year-old student named Nido Taniam from Arunachal Pradesh got into an argument with some men in a South Delhi shop last year and they beat him to death.

A young woman was raped for four hours, another man was stabbed. Years ago in Delhi University, I discovered some fine musicians among students from the North-East—Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

I never thought to ask them about their experiences of Delhi—this after all was nobody’s town and it was everybody’s. No one gave a second glance. Or maybe they did. Things have changed now. Young men and women from the North-Eastern states are a much more abundant presence in Delhi.

They are university students, as well as workers in the service industry—call centres (partly because of their better English), shopping malls, hotels and restaurants. Forced by the poverty of their homeland to try and seek a living in the city, they have contributed to the economy and diversity of Delhi.

Puzzling about this spike in violence, I turned to Tungshang Ningreichon, a human rights activist from Manipur who has been a long-time resident of Delhi, to ask for her experiences. “This has always been there,” she said.

“But the trend is changing. Earlier we had regular abuse and harassment. Now it is much more violent. The record of the past few months shows people are being randomly attacked. Every day is a struggle for us.

“The daily racism comes out in small and subtle things people say. You feel disturbed. But you don’t want to pick a fight because you don’t want to spoil your day. “A lot of boys and girls live in rented houses.

Getting a gas connection is so difficult. If you go to Munirka, or Kotla where the killing (of Shaloni) took place, you will find variations in house rents within the same building. It’s Rs.12,000-15,000 for us but a little cheaper for the others.

We let it go.” Could she have integrated more? “There’s never been the space for us to integrate. It begins with your own teacher, right? ‘Where are you from?’ ‘Nagaland, Manipur.’ ‘Where is that?’

Now people are much more aware of this place called the NorthEast. The onus to integrate is not on us, the onus is on everybody.” Teenager Nido’s killing triggered a committee to “examine the causes behind the attacks/violence and discrimination against people from North-Eastern states” and suggest measures to be taken by the government. Its report has not been made public yet but if it doesn’t tackle the national capital’s notoriously uncaring police, it would have failed in its task. In most cases of violence against people from NorthEastern states, police have come up with an “anything but racism” explanation.

• When Kawilungbou Chawang, a 28-year-old man, was found dead in a drain, police said it was an accident, although locals saw him running before jumping or falling into the drain. • When 21-year-old Reingamphy was found murdered in her flat, a non-government activist said, “We have been told by the station house officer (a police officer)… that these girls from North-East work in spas and that’s why these incidents take place.”

• The explanation for Shaloni’s murder—so far—is road rage. The worst fear: “Maybe there’s a group of people who may think we don’t deserve to be here,” said Ningreichon. “How do I describe you,” I asked. “Oh just say another chinky, someone with a snub nose.”