10 Dead as Floods Wreak Havoc in Assam and Meghalaya

Two men wade through flood water looking for a safer location at Goalpara in Assam on Monday

Heavy rains across northeast India wreaked havoc triggering flash floods in several districts of Assam and Meghalaya, killing ten people and leaving scores homeless in the two states.

Seven persons were killed in Meghalaya's South West Garo Hills district after heavy rains lashed the area inundating over 100 villages and affecting over one lakh people, district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ram Singh said.

"Seven persons have lost their lives in the floods with over 100 villages inundated and more than one lakh people affected," Singh said, adding the rains have led to flooding in the Ganol River badly affecting crops and livestock, besides hampering relief activities in the area. In the West Garo Hills district of the state, several villages have been inundated by the flood waters of Jinjiram River, the DC said.

The MeT department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains at a few places with extremely heavy rains at isolated places in Meghalaya in the next 24 hours. In the meantime, heavy rainfall caused severe floods in the state claiming three lives and leaving several villages in Goalpara, Dhubri, Lakhimpur and Kamrup (Rural) districts, besides Guwahati inundated. The Army, BSF and NDRF were assisting the district administration in rescue operations.

Hatsingimari and Mancachar in Dhubri district were the worst-hit with the BSF, NDRF and SDRF personnel evacuating over 5,000 marooned people to safer places, a Chief Minister's Office (CMO) spokesman said. A landslide claimed the life of a child in Hatsingimari area, district administration officials said.

In severely water-logged Guwahati, which is under Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, a body was recovered from Bharalu river flowing through the city, while a 71-year old man identified as Ashib Bhattacharjee was electrocuted in the waterlogged Netaji Road in Lalganesh area here, they said.
Kamrup Metropolitan district Deputy Commissioner M Angamathu said a relief centre with food and water has been set up for the succour of the people of Guwahati's Anil Nagar.

All education institutions in Guwahati have also been ordered to remain close tomorrow in view of the water-logging and the exams to be rescheduled, Angamathu said.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is closely monitoring the situation, asked the Chief Secretary and the Deputy Commissioners of Dhubri and Goalpara to take all measures and evacuate the marooned people and move them to safer places with the help of personnel from NDRF, SDRF and other agencies, a CMO release said adding helplines with numbers - 0361-2733052; 0361-2237042 and 8811007000 have been set up for assistance to flood affected people in Guwahati.

Flood waters have also marooned over 30,000 people of 30 villages in the Kharkati and Borsola area in Lakhimpur district, the officials said. Forecasting no let up in the rainfall in the next two days, the MeT office said the south-west monsoon has been active over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya since Sunday.

Light to heavy rains have occurred in several areas in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura since yesterday, it said. A report from Aizawl said the Mizoram government has issued a warning in all the eight districts saying there is a possibility of extreme weather conditions in the state and neighbouring states during the next two days. The warning said heavy rainfall could hit northeastern states like Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura during September 23 and 24.

Indefinite Strike in Meghalaya From Tuesday Against NGT’s Coal Mining Ban

The ban was issued following a complaint by the All Dimasa Students’ Union of the adjoining Dima Hasao district of Assam, which contended that rat-hole mining in Meghalaya had polluted the Kopili river.

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, Sep 23 : Four months after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered a ban on ‘rat-hole’ coal mining in Meghalaya, an organization called Movement for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Livelihood-Meghalaya (MIPRL) has called for an indefinite economic strike from Tuesday demanding withdrawal of that order.

The NGT had on April 17 issued orders to the state government to immediately stop rat-hole and other illegal coal mining, as also transportation of coal extracted through such methods. The ban was issued following a complaint by the All Dimasa Students’ Union of the adjoining Dima Hasao district of Assam, which contended that rat-hole mining in Meghalaya had polluted the Kopili river and turned its water poisonous.

While this ban has been opposed by various organizations including political parties on the ground that it had affected livelihood of thousands of people out of job, the MIPRL also complained against lack of response from the Meghalaya government to this major economic issue.

MIPRL spokesman Erwin K Syiem Sutnga said in Shillong that while said that the group had submitted a list of ten issues to the Meghalaya chief minister with a 10-day deadline, there was no response from him. “The state government even failed to make any proper presentation during the NGT’s hearing on September 16 despite demand by so many organizations to it to pray for relaxation of the guidelines,” he said.

The MIPRL has also demanded implementation of Para 12 A Sub Para (b) of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India to protect the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Peoples’ inalienable and absolute rights over tribal land. Its other demands included modification of all central laws applied to the state of Meghalaya done without recourse to the mandatory provisions of Para 12 A Sub Para (b) and (d).

“The government of Meghalaya continues to play with the lives and survival of thousands of people who have bee rendered jobless. We had no option left but to call an economic strike,” Sutnga said.
The MIPRL has asked all transporters of goods in and outside Meghalaya, all petroleum product tankers, limestone exporters and traders, all passenger transporters, carriers, transporters of timber, cement, clinker and coal, among others, to support the economic strike call. The strike will however not affect private and small commercial vehicles within Meghalaya, Sutnga said. It would also not affect schools, colleges, offices, markets, he added.

Meanwhile, an expert committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has permitted transportation of coal already extracted before issue of the ban order, but under strict 21-point environmental guidelines in six districts of Meghalaya. The MIPRL however is not agreeable to it.
Accordingly, a maximum of 9 metric tones of coal will be allowed to be transported by each 2-axle truck. The transporter will have to ensure that the truck is loaded to permissible load of 9 MT or less, the committee had said on September 1. Traffic will be regulated by the state police and a speed limit of 40 kmph should be enforced for these trucks, it said.

To prevent over assessment of extracted coal, the committee has also maintained that all coal owners should maintain registers of declared quantity, assessed quantity, date wise sale, date wise loading and date wise dispatch of coal which will be subjected to the verification of the district administration.

Probe against Ahmedabad hotel for asking northeast Indian staff to stay away during Xi Jinping's visit

Its a too little too late...Its the mainland Indian attitude...

Ahmedabad's Hotel Hyatt which hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping.

NEW DELHI: The Union home ministry on Monday ordered a probe into allegation that employees of northeast origin at an Ahmedabad hotel were asked to stay away during Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to the city.

Sources said the ministry asked the Intelligence Bureau to find out the veracity of the order and, if so, who issued it and why.

There were also reports that northeast-origin employees at a mall in Ahmedabad were asked not to come for duty on the day Xi visited the Gujarat capital last week.

The IB has been asked to send its findings by Tuesday after probing the allegations in both the incidents.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Sabarmati riverfront. (PTI photo)

The sources said that the home ministry ordered the probe taking serious objection to the allegations.

Last week, taking umbrage at the reports, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had said, "It is an insult to the northeast. They doubted us as if we are not patriots. Are we not citizens of India? This is not good for the region."


Prime Minister Narendra Modi (2nd from left) with Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) and first lady Peng Liyuan (2nd from right) at Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Verdict Due in 2010 Gang-Rape of Mizoram Woman

By Aditi Malhotra


Women held placards placards during a peaceful protest in New Delhi

Two years before the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012 shook India and shocked the world, another young woman in India’s capital was gang-raped in a moving vehicle, this time at gunpoint. The verdict in the trial of the men accused of the crime is expected Monday.

On November 24, 2010, a 30-year-old woman from the northeast Indian state of Mizoram was allegedly picked up at gunpoint on Delhi’s southern ring road at about 1 a.m. The woman was returning from work at a call center in Gurgaon, a satellite city in the National Capital Region, police said.

The five men abducted her in a goods carrier and assaulted her before throwing her out of the vehicle in an industrial neighborhood in Delhi’s west, according to the prosecutor.

They face charges including kidnapping and rape. All five have pleaded not guilty. They were arrested soon after the incident from a northern Indian district called Mewat in the state of Haryana.

On Monday, a fast-track court in southwest Delhi will hand down a verdict to the five men, lawyers involved in the case said. The case was shifted to a fast-track court in April, more than a year after New Delhi cleared dockets to set up special courts for quick disposal of cases relating to sexual assault following the 2012 Delhi rape.

Although they are being tried in a new court, if the defendants are convicted, they will face punishment under old provisions of the legislation on sexual assaults, which were in place before punishments were toughened up in response to the 2012 gang rape.

If found guilty, the maximum punishment for the five men who all take single names – Usman, Shamshad, Kamruddin, Shahid and Iqbal- is life imprisonment.

Under the new law, death is the maximum penalty in extreme cases of rape. In September 2013, a Delhi court sentenced the four men guilty of the December 2012 attack to death. The men are appealing that conviction.

In the case of the 30-year-old victim from Mizoram, the court has heard testimony from 58 prosecution witnesses and 10 defense witnesses, and has recorded hundreds of pages of evidence.
The crime threw light on to the treatment of people from India’s north east who come to the capital for work, especially women.

An estimated 15,000 people travel from the India’s north east to New Delhi every year for better education and employment opportunities. The seven northeastern states share closer ethnic and cultural links with Southeast Asia and migrants from India’s northeast often end up being the targets of casual racism because of their appearance.

According to the results of a 2011 study by New Delhi-based Northeast Support Center and Helpline, 78% of northeasterners in New Delhi said they faced racial discrimination. Of the crimes against northeastern women recorded by the helpline, molestation counted for 34%.

The Indian government has acknowledged several instances of discrimination against people from the northeast and taken steps to ensure their safety. In 2011, the federal ministry of home affairs, made the use of the derogatory slur “Chinki,” a punishable offense with a maximum punishment of five years in jail.

Then earlier this year, after the murder of a 14-year-old boy from the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh- an alleged hate crime- the Delhi police introduced a special helpline to address issues relating to people from the region.  At the time, campaigners also pushed for the introduction of an anti-racism law, a suggestion also put forward by a government committee established to look into the issues of racism against people from the northeast. So far, the requests have not been granted.

Activists say people from the northeast continue to have a hard time in the capital, particularly women. Binalakshmi Nepram, a rights activist, said women from the northeast “become victims of a multifold challenge of racial profiling combined with the increase in crimes against women and lack of quick justice.”

“Women from the northeast are still stereotyped as being ‘morally loose’ and ‘easily available,’” said Ms. Nepram.

Lovers by the lake: Why Rih Dil is a must-visit for newlyweds from Mizoram

The water’s lovely: Newly-weds at Rih Dil in Myanmar (Source: C Lalmuanzova)

By Adam Halliday

A day after their mid-January church wedding in the eastern Mizoram town of Champhai, Merlyn Lalrinpuii and her husband Duhawma packed their wedding outfits and boarded one of several hired maxi-cabs with about 20 close relatives, friends, make-up artists and a wedding photographer in tow, and crossed the international border into Myanmar, heading towards Rih Dil, a heart-shaped lake surrounded by forested hills.

That afternoon, having slipped back into her gown, and her husband into his suit, the newlyweds posed for the camera in front of the placid lake, strolled hand-in-hand in the surrounding meadows, rode a small blue boat, and held each other tenderly in the soft winter sunlight that sweeps over Rih Dil.

For many other newlyweds in eastern Mizoram, crossing the border into Myanmar and taking wedding photographs at the natural lake is one way to capture the most important day in their lives. Apart from its stunning beauty, its allure not only lying in its unusual shape, a wedding photograph at Rih Dil is of cultural significance as it is the “most important lake in Mizoram” — except that it is 22 km away from the nearest Mizo town and in a different country.

A bride and her groom walk towards the lake (Source: C Lalmuanzova)

“We in Champhai are very lucky. We get to shoot our wedding photographs abroad,” laughs Lalrinpuii. “It’s a beautiful setting, and a great place for a post-wedding picnic with family and friends. Many of our friends from different towns were guests, so for them, it was a treat because they had never been there. And most of all, its heart-shape makes it unique,” she says. Her younger brother, Victor Ralte, got married in April and his wedding photos at Rih Dil featured rare wild flowers in bloom, she adds with a twinge of envy.

Before the border trade began in the mid-1990s, there was no formal border crossing into Rih Dil. It is not much of a hassle these days. Those who cross the border have to register at the Myanmarese immigration post after reaching the eastern bank of the Tiau river that separates the two countries. There’s no need for passports or visas as nationals of either country are allowed to enter till a certain distance into each other’s territories. The western parts of Myanmar, particularly the Chin Hills, were historically inhabited by tribes that now make up the Mizo community. Even today, the dialects spoken by those settled on either side of the Tiau river are fairly similar, with customs and even traditional attire only varying slightly.

The historical and cultural linkages remain strong more than eight decades after the British separated India from present-day Myanmar, so strong that this November a massive cultural program is being planned for ethnic Zos in the eastern Myanmar city of Tahan.

In his community, C Chhawngliana, 56, was one of the first to take pictures of the lake. In his youth, he lived in Rihkhawdar, a village near the lake. The lakeside was a favourite with lovers even then.

“Once, two friends and I took our dates there. We went swimming and afterward the girls were changing in a shack that was open towards the lake. We boys stripped completely and dived into the water with a great shout just where they could see our naked bottoms. They screamed and shouted and cursed us for that,” he recalls, chuckling at the memory.

Back then, the new nominally-civilian government had just been formed, and the Burmese military government kept a close watch on what was photographed within their borders, for fear military sites may be secretly photographed. Chhawngliana would use an old Minolta to secretly take pictures of the lake. In 1998, he and a friend took the negative to Rangoon and secretly got a shop to print 5,100 poster-sized copies of the photo, which they smuggled into Mizoram inside carton boxes in the back of a jeep. He has sold all but 20 of the posters, which he keeps in his brother’s shop in Champhai.

And though the lake lends itself to photoshoots of everlasting love today, historically and culturally, Rih Dil is associated with a far less happy occasion: death. In the pre-Christian Mizo belief system, the soul departed from its body and headed straight to Rih Dil, where it wandered with other souls for a few lonely days before returning to the deceased’s village and home. There, relatives would keep a place at the table for the wandering spirit and offer it a plate of food every time they sat down for a meal, and ask the soul to partake of the food.

After three months of this vagabond afterlife, the soul would once again depart for Rih Dil, and from there on wander towards a mythical mountain called Hring Lang Tlang. After reaching the peak, the soul would pluck a mythical flower, Hawilo Par and would long for the past no more. It would then drink the pure and clear waters of a nearby spring, called Lungloh Tui or the water of forgetfulness, and the water would quench it of all desire to gaze back. Only then would the soul proceed towards the land of the dead.

According to Mizo historian B Lalthangliana, there was a reason behind this belief that Rih Dil was where the soul went to after death. The story goes that a group of warriors were hunting on the lakeside one day, and as night fell, one among them could not sleep.

As he lay awake, he heard voices. “He listened carefully and clearly and distinctly, he heard the voice of his wife saying regretfully, ‘When I departed from my children, I did not tell them that I had hidden some dried meat in the new earthen pot not yet used for cooking, and that I had put some eggs in the bran in a bin behind the inner wall. And their father is away hunting big game’. He listened to the chatter of the spirits of the departed as they approached Rih Dil. When he went home, he found that his wife had died, and he also found the dried meat and the eggs exactly where she said she had hidden them,” writes Lalthangliana in his book History and Culture of Mizo in India, Burma and Bangladesh.

Even today, a line of tall shrubs stand on the lakeside, its reflection on the still waters is referred to as Mitthi Pal – a fence for the dead. A rare wild bird, Mitthi Ar or the dead man’s fowl, is said to be found only in that region. And though the Mizo community now is almost entirely Christian, the myth is referred to in Mizo songs and poems as the passage to the land of the death, and as a reference to dying and the afterlife.

But till that day arrives, Rih Dil and its heart-shaped banks promise new beginnings and, hopefully, eternal love.

Mizoram Court Issues Arrest Warrant Against Bru Leader

Aizawl, Sep 22 : An arrest warrant was issued against A Sawibunga, President of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF,) by a Mamit district court after the police failed to produce him before it.

Senior Civil Judge of Mamit district court also directed the district police yesterday to produce the Bru leader before him on October 14.

The judge had earlier issued an arrest arrest on August 28 and instructed the police to produce Sawibunga on September 19.

The police had claimed that the MBDPF chief could not be arrrested as he is residing in a relief camp in Tripura.

The court’s orders came after Young Mizo Association filed a petition alleging that Sawibunga had, in a newspaper report in January this year, falsely accused Mizo people of assaulting Bru people and driving them out from their homes.

A Special Gift With Love From Mizoram

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

inShare

The female gibbon in Delhi zoo. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Hoolock gibbon, highly endangered species, is listed in wildlife protection act.

The Delhi zoo has a new addition which has come here all the way from Mizoram. Currently under quarantine, the 6-8-year-old female hoolock gibbon is a highly endangered species and is listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act, 1972.

“She is getting used to the climate and change of diet at the Delhi zoo and will be introduced to the two other hoolock gibbons (a male and female) on display by the end of this month,” said zoo veterinary Dr. Paneer Selvam said.

The animal has been brought in as part of the zoo’s breeding programme and is from the wild. “This gibbon was in the Mizoram zoo for over four years and was transported to Kolkata by road and then brought here by air. The animal, which weighs about 12-15 kg and has an average life span of 30-35 years has been brought in for our breeding programme. The female that we currently have is very old and we hope that this female will be able to thrive in this Zoo,” added Dr. Selvam.

The animal is currently coping with a change in diet and “is getting used to a new variety of fruits and other supplements being provided to her”.

“We are giving her bananas, apples and other fruits along with egg, bread and milk which are new to her. She is slowly adapting to the change and is currently doing well,” said Dr. Selvam.

Meanwhile, the zoo has suspended two animal keepers after a badly-decomposed carcass of a stump-tailed macaque was found in its enclosure. The animal whose body was found unfit for post mortem had died in the last week of August, according to zoo officials.

Rights Group Alleges Racism in Champions League Ad

New Delhi, Sep 22 : The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) has called for immediate stopping of the broadcast of one of the ‘Champions League T20-T20 Nights Are Back’ advertisements for promoting stereotypes and racial prejudices against the Nepalese who are considered as the same people as of the Northeastern States because of Tibeto-Mongoloid features.

In its interventions with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Broadcast Content Complaints Council, International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, ACHR alleged that it in one of the advertisements, “Champions League T20-T20 Nights Are Back!”, one of the Nepali looking youth says, “Wo Raatein Bhi Kya Raatein Thi, Nach te teh, gaate teh, chilla te teh, purra mohalla ko, haami toh jagate teh” (what nights were those nights, used to dance, used to sing, used to shout, we are the ones who used to wake up the entire locality)”– implying that Nepalese work as night guards and wake up the residents of the locality. The same is being repeatedly broadcast with distinguishable heavy, Nepalese accent in various TV channels and FM radios, the ACHR stated.

“In North India where Nepalese and Northeasterners are considered being the same people because of their same physical features, such stereotyping only promotes racism and acts of racial violence.

Though unconnected to the advertisement, on September 14, two Manipuri boys were attacked at Munirka village, New Delhi after they protested when some local youths made fun of them. In fact, the Northeasterners being called Nepali or “Bahadur” derogatively often leads to such incidents.

The Bezbaruah Committee set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs in its recent report stated that 86 per cent of the Northeasterners living in Delhi had faced some sort of racial discrimination while crimes against Northeasterners have gone up by 270 per cent in the last three years,” stated Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

“Though Nepalese serve in various sectors including in the film industry, they are often stereotyped as night watchmen/guards in mass media and this creates inferior impression about the Nepalese and by implications the North- easterners among the viewers. These acts of stereotyping are reprehensible and justify the need for a law against racism in India,”further stated Chakma.

Sports has consistently been used to combat racism across the world but cricket, which is the most popular sport in South Asia, is being used to promote stereotyping and racism. The advertisement reflects extreme lack of sensitivity which is one of the root causes of racism in India, the ACHR added.

Source: Newmai News Network