Man Posts False Information About PM Modi on Facebook, BJP Lodges FIR

Aizawl, Jan 22 : Mizoram unit of BJP has lodged an FIR with Aizawl Police against a person who allegedly posted false information against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, police said today.

Officer-in-charge of Aizawl Police Station, Vanlaltluanga told PTI that a case under section 66(A) of IT Act and Section 500 of the IPC were registered in this connection. BJP lodges FIR for false info on PM Modi.

He said that investigation has been launched to nab the accused person. BJP Mizoram Pradesh General Secretary Chhanhima today said that the FIR was registered on Tuesday against a person who had a Facebook account in the name of 'Harry Beth Ce'.

He alleged that the person was spreading baseless and false information about the prime minister on the social networking website.

Mizo National Front Rally in Various Mizoram Towns Against Price Rise

Marchers in capital Aizawl numbered between 1000 to 1200, according to police. (Source: Express photo)

Aizawl, Jan 22 : Thousands turned up Thursday to take part in the Mizo National Front’s “People’s March” in more than a dozen towns against the rise in prices of state-supplied services and commodities in Mizoram.

Marchers in capital Aizawl numbered between 1000 to 1200, according to police, as the state’s eight district headquarters and several other towns also witnessed sizeable turnouts.


The protest marches were peaceful although it disrupted traffic in various places, and MNF leaders poked jeers at the Congress government’s “financial mismanagement” that they said led to between a 50% to 300% increase in prices of various government-supplied goods and services including water supply, subsidised PDS rice and land taxes.

The rally at Aizawl culminated in leaders submitting a memorandum to Governor Aziz Qureshi.

Court Rejects Attempt to Suicide Charge Against Irom Sharmila

By Alok Pandey

Irom Sharmila

Imphal, Jan 22 :  For the second time within a year, a court in Manipur's Imphal has ruled that activist Irom Sharmila is not trying to commit suicide through her indefinite fast against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA. The latest court order in her favour means that Irom Sharmila will be released from judicial custody; she has been confined to a room at a government hospital in Imphal for the last 15 years.

The Imphal court today refused to accept the Manipur Police's chargesheet over a 2014 case, charging her with an attempt to commit suicide

On August 19 last year, a court in Imphal, while ruling on a case lodged against the activist way back in 2000, had ordered that she be released from custody. The court had also observed that the Manipur government and the police had "failed miserably" to demonstrate that she had intended to commit suicide through fasting.

Just three days after her release, the Manipur Police re-arrested Irom Sharmila and charged her with another case of attempted suicide. She was also charged under Section 353 of the Indian penal Code, for stopping a public servant from performing his duty, was also brought in.

Today, the court dismissed both the charges.

An anguished Sharmila told the judge today, "I am tired of this cycle of release and re-arrest. Please put my case to trial once and for all. Let the case be decided".

Babloo Loitongbam, an activist from Imphal and part of the Save Sharmila campaign, says, "She has been released by the court. All of us value her liberty and we hope she will not be criminalised further."

Neither the Manipur government nor the police have reacted on the court's verdict yet.

Manipur Director General of Police Shahid Ahmad told NDTV over the phone that he would only be able to speak later this evening.

Mizoram Tipplers On A High

Aizawl, Jan 22 : More than 20,000 people across Mizoram, which had banned liquor in 1996, have collected application forms to get a card which will allow them to purchase alcohol. With the new liquor law coming into effect from January 2015, wine shops will make an entry in Mizoram from March 2.

The new liquor law -Mizoram Liquor Prohibition and Control Act, 2014 - was passed by the state assembly in July last year. The new law replaced the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act, 1995.

Though the newly-enacted law is still a 'Prohibition act', consumption of liquor is no longer an offence. Anyone, who is above the age of 21 and wishes to drink, will have to apply for a card which will enable him or her to purchase a maximum of 6 bottles of liquor every month.

Long queues were seen outside the Aizawl excise and narcotics department office, near Congress Bhavan. Each application form costs Rs 20.

Three PSUs, the Mizoram Food and Allied Industries Corporation (MIFCO), the Mizoram Agriculture Marketing Corporation (MAMCO) and the Zoram Industrial Development Corporation (ZIDCO), have already submitted applications to the state government to man the wine shops.

The shops are expected to help the PSUs tide over financial problems, state excise and narcotics minister R Lalzirliana said.

Meanwhile, a number of people have been arrested since January 15 for violating the MLPC Act, 2014. Most of them have been convicted and sentenced to do public service by cleaning places like the compounds of the Aizawl Civil Hospital, Aizawl district court and the state excise and narcotics department office.

Others have been sentenced to undergo month-long prison terms or pay a fine of Rs 1,000.

Opposition Plans “People’s March” To Protest Against Price Rise

Aizawl, Jan 22 : Leaders of Mizoram’s main opposition party, the Mizo National Front, have said it will carry out a “people’s march” against price rise in the state at more than a dozen towns on Thursday.

At a press meet to announce the planned marches, the party’s senior vice-president Dr R Lalthangliana spelled out the reasons for the planned simultaneous marches in all eight district headquarters, including capital Aizawl, and several other towns.

These include the upward revision of subsidised PDS rice from Rs 9.50 per kilogram to Rs 15 per kilogram for APL families, the doubling of government water-supply connection charges to Rs 200, the tripling and more of the “Zoram chhiah (tax)” from Rs 15 to Rs 50, and the end of free blood transfusions for patients and the institution of a Rs 550 charge per unit of blood.

The MNF leaders explained that this introduction of charges for blood transfusions has come about because the state cannot meet its 25% share vis-avis the Centre’s 75% share in providing transfusions of blood, which is regularly donated by various volunteer groups.

They also recalled how when the then MNF government mulled an increase in taxes a decade ago, Congress leaders who were in opposition then had vandalised the revenue department offices at Aizawl, but that the same party is now increasing taxes.

The Congress responded almost immediately with a statement, pointing out the increase in prices of subsidised rice does not include those for BPL and AAY families.

The party also alleged it was the MNF’s establishment of two extra police battalions and the “provincialising” of more than 300 schools (which meant they would be eligible for government funding) that has led to a dent in the state exchequer ever since, saying maintaining these entities cost Rs 116 crores per month.

Nevertheless, that the state’s finances are in the doldrums and the need for increasing the government’s revenues has been an oft repeated theme mentioned by government heads including the Chief Minister, who last week presided over a meeting to kick-start various austerity measures to be followed by different departments.

The current controversy over the hike in prices of services and commodities offered by the government comes as elections to local bodies are due in a few months, and also in the wake of the NITI Aayog demanding a detailed explanation over allegations the Congress government is diverting money from various central funds to feed its flagship livelihood program.

Film on Naga folk music invited to US again

New Delhi, Jan 21  : “Songs of the Blue Hills”, a documentary on contemporary Naga folk music, has been invited to the North Carolina Global Film Festival in the US.

Directed by National Award-winning film critic and filmmaker Utpal Borpujari, the 2013 documentary will be screened this weekend at the fest, read a statement.

“Songs of the Blue Hills” takes viewers on a journey of contemporary Naga folk music practices and brings under the focus both the music and debate between purists and those who believe in experimenting with folk sounds.

Produced by the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) of Union Ministry of Culture, the film has already been screened at many prestigious film festivals, including Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (China), Parma Internatonal Music Film Festival (Italy), 11th Eyes and Lenses Ethnographic Film Festival (Poland).

It has also been screened at New York Indian Film Festival, Gothenberg Indie Film Festival (Sweden), Visions du Reel (Nyon, Switzerland) and the World Music and Independent Film Festival (Washington).

The 96-minute film was part of the Indian Panorama at the 45th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa, in November last year.

Jan Dhan Scheme Enters Guinness Books

New Delhi: Appreciating the Jan Dhan scheme for setting a Guinness record of opening most number of bank accounts in a week, BJP today lauded the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the achievement and for inclusion of 11.5 crore poor with country's economy.

BJP also accused the Congress of keeping such people out of the economic reform process for last many decades for their own vested interests and for their "corrupt" practices.

"This shows that 11.5 crore poor have reposed their faith in the Prime Minister and deposited their 9,000 crores in zero-balance accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme, whom Congress kept out of the financial system due to their own vested interests and corrupt practices," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

He said this is a clear indication of the Prime Minister's intent of weeding out corruption and not allowing it to flourish, as during the previous Congress regime.

"A certain section of society was deliberately kept out of the financial system due to Congress' 'mission corruption' and its vested interests of leakages in subsidies and benefiting brokers and middlemen to siphon off public money," he said.

Sharma also lauded Prime Minister's efforts in helping those sections kept away from the financial system to be included now under the scheme, through which the poor will benefit largely.

"This is the result of Modi's vision, good governance and commitment that even World Bank is now predicting that India's economy will grow faster than China's in the coming times," he said.

Financial Services Secretary Hasmukh Adhia earlier said that Guinness Book of World Records has recognised the achievements made under Jan Dhan scheme.

In its citation, the Guinness Book said: "Most bank accounts opened in one week as part of the Financial Inclusion Campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by the Department of Financial Services, Government of India from August 23 to 29, 2014."

Announcing the financial inclusion scheme in his first Independence Day speech last year, Modi had set a target to open bank accounts for 7.5 crore poor persons by January 26, 2015. The target was later increased to 10 crore accounts

Mizo Govt Shelves Rice Import Plan

Aizawl, Jan 21 : The Mizoram government has temporarily shelved its earlier scheme to import 50,000 tonnes of rice from Myanmar to deal with the shortage in the wake of the six-month project to lay broad-gauge railway tracks, which began last October.

This decision was taken when the Mizoram government had reviewed its rice stock position with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) recently during a meeting with that state government's consultative committee attached to the FCI, a central undertaking, in Aizawl, and found it "satisfactory".

Ronald Sapa Tlau, the state's lone Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and the chairman of the state government's consultative committee to the FCI, said in Aizawl today that as on January 1 this year, this undertaking, despite the difficulty in transporting food by road from two railhead points in Assam in Changsari and Baihata - both near Guwahati - to Aizawl, had "overstocked" its rice import from other states.

Tlau said the rice stock in Mizoram is "very much comfortable" with the FCI reporting that as on January 7, it has 2,5939 tonnes of rice as against its capacity of storage at 2,5490 tonnes a month.