HIMALAYAN MIRROR
GANGTOK, FRIDAY 23
NORTHEAST
JANUARY 2015
New Assam cabinet to be
sworn-in Friday
N’land Guv expresses concern
over insurgency situation
Kohima , Jan 22 :
Governor P B Acharya on
wednesday
expressed
concern over insurgency
in Nagaland, which is an
obstacle in the way of
development.
Inaugurating a seminar
on ‘Nagaland: A Way
Forward’ organized by the
Inspector General of
Assam Rifles (North),
Acharya said a strong
government at the Center
ANVC-B
chief as
Nokma
faces
opposition
Tura , Jan 22 : The
Chambugong
Mahari
(clan) to which belongs
the Danakgre A’king
land has declared as illegal the recent appointment of ANVC-B chairman Bernard (Rimpu) N
Marak as the town
Nokma.
The appointment of
Rimpu Marak as the
Nokma of Danakgre
A’king was declared as
an illegal act by the
Chambugong
Mahari
Association after a meeting at its headquarters in
Selbalgre village, near
Rongram.
It was pointed out by
the elders of the clan that
the appointment cannot
be legal since the consent of the Chras of the
Chambugong clan were
not taken and also the
fact that a new Nokma
of the clan is appointed
from the same bloodline
as that of the last recorded Nokma, in this case a
Chambugong.
The ANVC-B leader
belongs to the N Marak
clan while the Danakgre
A’king is under the Ch
Marak (Chambugong)
clan.
“From time immemorial, as far as Mahari
A’king is concerned, the
decision of the Chras
prevails. It is an accepted fact that the Nokma
of any A’king is only the
custodian and the A’king
land being a community
land belongs to the clan
in which the actual
authority lies with the
Chras and the Nokma
has to act as per the decision of the Chras
Depantes,” said the
Chambugong
Mahari
A s s o c i a t i o n .
“Appointing someone
from outside the clan to
perform the duty of
Nokma is not acceptable
by the Chras Depante
and is grossly illegal,”
informed
the
Chambugong Mahari to
which
belongs
the
Chokpotgre, Danakgre,
Megonggre, Sangsang
Nawalgre,
Wadagre,
Rangmal
Badamgre,
Depa Dorachae A’kings.
Tura town on its part
falls under the jurisdiction
of
Danakgre,
Megonggre and partially
Sangsang
Nawalgre
which are all under the
Chambugong Mahari.
is willing to solve the
Naga political problem
along with the insurgency
in the North Eastern
Region.
The Centre has CeaseFire Agreements with
three NSCN groups, but
how the problem could be
solved with so many
insurgent groups, he wondered. He appealed to all
to come together unitedly
to solve the Naga political
problem.
On the development
front Acharya said there
was lack of initiative from
all quarters. He emphasized on the need of ‘3
Es’, Education, Electricity
and Employment.
He said Nagaland has
over 100 schools, three
universities, yet students
are going outside the
state, even in primary
level in the metros.
Guwahati,
Jan
22
(IANS) : Assam Chief
Minister Tarun Gogoi will
Friday reconstitute his
council of ministers, a
Congress leader said
Thursday.
Gogoi Thursday sent a
list of 14 Congress legislators to the governor and
the swearing-in ceremony
will be held at 10.30 a.m.
Friday, state Congress
president Anjan Dutta told
the media outside the
chief minister's official
residence.
Assam Governor (incharge) P.B. Acharya, who
is also the governor of
Nagaland, arrived in the
city Thursday for the
swearing-in ceremony.
Girindra
Mallick,
Chandan Sarkar, Sumitra
Patir, Sukur Ali and
Bismita Gogoi will be the
new faces, Dutta said.
The rest of the names
are Bhumidhar Barman,
Sarat Borkotoky, Nazrul
Islam, Rockybul Hussain,
Basanta Das, Ajit Singh,
Etuwa Munda, Ajanta
Neog and Kharsing Ingty,
he said.
Fourteen ministers had
resigned Monday during a
meeting of the council of
ministers to facilitate the
reshuffle.
Gogoi had last year
dropped
ministers
Ardhendy Kumar Dey and
Siddeque Ahmed for dissidence, while then health
and education minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma
had
resigned
and
Bodoland Peoples' Front
Destination Meghalaya is our
agenda: Mukul
Imphal , Jan 22 :Chief Minister
Mukul Sangma has said that his
government will focus on the three
important sectors — education,
healthcare and hospitality — to
attract investors to the state.
“Destination Meghalaya is our
agenda and we will focus on these
three important sectors,” Sangma
said while addressing the official
function organized to celebrate the
43rd Statehood Day here on
Wednesday.
Sangma stressed on the need to
invest more on roads, rail connectivity and inland water ways.
“Meghalaya needs to create a
positive environment and make
Meghalaya a destination of positive
happenings,” he said adding, “Our
objective is to create a state where
every one will have a sense of wellbeing.”
According to him, Meghalaya has
a rich legacy where the founding
fathers of the state achieved their
goal through peaceful movements.
“Peaceful movements are best
form of movements,” he said
adding that there is a need to send a
strong message to those who are
engaging in futile exercise that
peaceful movements are much more
powerful.
Earlier, Chief Advisor to
Meghalaya
Government
DD
Lapang recalled the works of
great leaders like
Captain
Williamson Sangma and others who
undertook the journey of 16 years to
achieve Meghalaya.
Information and Public Relations
Minister AL Hek also spoke on the
occasion.
The Chief Minister and his colleagues in the government gave
away the Meghalaya Day awards
and also distributed prizes to the
winners of various events organized
as part of the celebration which
included the folk song and dance
competitions, marathon, flower
show and host of other events.
Modi greetings: Meanwhile,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
assured ‘opportunities’ and ‘fulfill-
ment’ of dreams to the youth of
Meghalaya on the occasion of the
state’s 43rd statehood day.
“I am committed to leaving no
stone unturned to ensure that the
dreams of Meghalaya’s youngsters
are fulfilled and they get opportunities to shine,” Modi tweeted.
While extending wishes to the
people on the occasion of
Meghalaya Day, the Prime Minister
termed himself as fortunate to have
inaugurated the first train that
brought Meghalaya on India’s railway map even as he said that this
will add tremendous impetus to
Meghalaya’s progress.
India, Bangladesh officials, border
guards to work jointly
Aizawl, Jan 22 (IANS) :
The district administrations and border guards of
India and Bangladesh
would deal jointly with
various border issues and
crimes, officials said here
Thursday.
District magistrates and
other
officials
of
Mizoram's two districts Mamit and Lunglei -- met
the deputy commissioners
of Bangladesh's districts
of
Rangamati
and
Bandarban
(under
Chittagong division), and
discussed border crimes,
setting up of more border
outposts (BOPs), erection
of border fencing and better coordination between
the district administrations of both sides.
"We would like to sort
out local issues between
us. The border related
crimes and problems
would be dealt with jointly," said Rangamati
Deputy Commissioner
Shamsul Arefin, who led a
nine-member Bangladesh
team to the meeting.
He told reporters:
"Officials of the district
administrations,
Border Security
Force and the
Border
Guards
Bangladesh would
work mutually to
curb crime...and to
resolve other problems."
An official of the
Mizoram
home
department said
that the district
magistrates
and
other officials of
Mizoram's Mamit
and Lunglei districts told their
Bangladeshi counterparts that northeast militants take shelter
in Bangladesh territory,
occasionally kidnapping
people from Mizoram.
India and Bangladesh
had decided to hold district
magistrate-level
meetings to resolve various issues.
District magistrates and
other officials of Tripura's
four districts -- Sipahijala,
Gomti, South Tripura and
Dhalai - met in Agartala
Jan 9-10 with the deputy
commissioners
of
Bangladesh's five districts
of
Comilla,
Feni,
Rangamati, Khagrachari
and Chittagong.
They discussed border
crimes, sharing waters of
common rivers, setting up
of more 'border haats'
(markets), border fencing
and better coordination
between the district
administrations of both
sides.
Similar
conferences
would be held in the other
northeastern states of
Assam and Meghalaya to
sort out border issues.
India is erecting a
barbed wire fence and
putting up floodlights
along the 4,096-km IndiaBangladesh border in
West Bengal (2,216 km),
Tripura (856 km), Assam
(263 km), Meghalaya
(443 km) and Mizoram
(318 km) to check transborder movement of militants and curb border
crimes.The mountainous
terrain, dense forests and
other hindrances make the
unfenced borders between
India's northeastern states
and Bangladesh porous
and vulnerable, letting
illegal immigrants and
intruders cross over without any hurdle.
legislator
Chandan
Brahma also quit after his
party ended the over 10year-old alliance with the
Congress.
The state Congress
chief, however, made it
clear that there was no
dissidence or discontent
among the party legislators over the reshuffle,
and everyone has decided
to work together for the
assembly polls scheduled
for 2016.
This will be the first
reshuffle in the last 14year rule of the Congress
in Assam under Tarun
Gogoi.
Although the first two
terms saw success, the
third term has been turbulent with many party leaders demanding a change in
leadership.
Assam Cong readies
to fight polls on
Modi’s failures
Guwahati , Jan 22 :
Getting ready to fight the
next Assembly election in
Assam in 2016 on the “Uturns’ made by the BJP
government in the Centre
on state issues, ruling
Congress is has brought
out a handbook for
its party workers highlighting ‘failures’ of
Naren-dra Modi government to fulfil promises
made to people of Assam
before the last Lok Sabha
polls.
Unveiling the handbook, which will be distributed through the 24,280
booth committees of the
party, Assam CM Tarun
Gogoi said, “It is a document of the failure of the
Narendra Modi government. The promised
‘acchee din’ has not materialised.”
Alleging that the Modi
government has failed to
keep its pre-poll promises
to the people of Assam,
Gogoi cited that BJP government’s made a U-turn
and support to the land
swap
deal
with
Bangladesh after coming
to power after Lok Sabha
polls. He also pointed and
Lower Subansiri Hydel
Power Project after coming to power was such
instances.
He also criticized Modi
of failing to keep his
promise that Assam will
be free of all ‘illegal foreigners’ from May 17 last
year, if the BJP came to
power.
“The BJP government
has not only not done anything for the state, they
have also cut allocation
under Central schemes for
the state, suspended the
North East Industrial and
Investment
Promotion
Poli-cy and stopped fresh
recrui-tment to government jobs, among others,”
Gogoi said.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC)
president Anjan Dutta,
accusing the Modi govern-ment of doing a Uturn on all issues, said,
“There is no Modi wave
blowing any longer. The
socalled Modi-tsunami is
leaving a trail of destruction like all tsuna-mis.”
He said the handbook was
an attempt of the Congress to make the people
aware how their trust on
the BJP and its promise of
deliver has been betrayed.
The Congress will be
seeking people’s mandate
for the fourth consecutive
term in power in Assam in
the next Assembly elections, apparently an uphill
task for the party as on
date given the drubbing at
received in the last Lok
Sabha elections in the
state at the hands of the
BJP and the AIUDF.
3
Opp
parties’
youth
wings back
Nongrum
Imphal , Jan 22 : The
youth wings of the
Opposition parties in the
State have come together
in support of KHADC
Chief Executive Member
Adelbert Nongrum and
have slammed the Mukul
Sangma- led government
for not clearing the
Village Administration
Bill, 2012 of the
KHADC which clearly
specifies the powers and
function of the Rangbah
Shnong.
In a joint statement on
Wednesday, the youth
wings of the opposition
parties extended their
support to the KHADC
chief who is slated to
appear before the High
Court of Meghalaya on
Jan 27 as per the court’s
directive.
“The
State
Government should not
have delayed in approving this very important
bill. We all understand
that the passing of this
bill is very critical in
view of the court ruling
which had questioned the
role of the Rangbah
Shnong,” the joint statement read.
The statement also
urged the legislators
from Khasi and Jaintia
Hills to persuade the
State Government to
approve and clear the bill
at the earliest.
The FKJGP, meanwhile, maintained that
the high court’s decision
to dis-empower the
Rangbah Shnong will in
no way weaken the institution of the Dorbar
Shnong or demoralize
the indigenous population belonging to the
Hynniewtrep community.
“I strongly urge the
indigenous Khasi population not to lose hope
even at this crunch situation,” FKJGP president
Joe Marwein said in
statement on Wednesday.
He also asserted that
‘no outside force’ can
interfere with the powers
and functions (law of the
land) bestowed upon the
Rangbah Shnong since
time immemorial.
The FKJGP president
also reminded that even
the Union Government
shows respect to the customary laws of any community.
“It is for this simple
reason that the Centre
has never tried to disturb
the ongoing practice of
the Dorbar Shnong by
attempting to bring in the
Panchayat system,” he
said.
Vodafone foundation drives
inclusive growth through world
of difference programme 2015
New Delhi , Jan 22 : Devendra Rathor, a
Vodafone India employee, got out of his
regular job for 8 weeks last year to lend
technical expertise to a NGO for developing a cell phone-based payment system that
allows people to support millions of fellow
citizens who live with disability. He was
one, amongst the 33 World of Difference
(WoD) Champions of last year who made a
difference. Since 2011, 78 skilled employees have donated over 38,500 man-hours
working on 73 different social projects
with diverse NGOs on defined projects.
While working with NGOs, the employees
continued to receive their salary and all
related benefits from Vodafone India and
came back richer with the experience
gained of working first hand with communities, trying to address real social issues
and challenges. In 2015, the 4th edition of
the WORLD OF DIFFERENCE, a flagship
programme of the Vodafone Foundation
will have 50 qualified Vodafone India
employees, drawn from different work
streams, working with 26 diverse NGOs
for a period of 8 weeks to enhance capacities, address technology gaps and resolve
issues impairing women empowerment.
Operating in 22 countries worldwide, the
WOD programme is Vodafone's unique
way of corporate giving which goes
beyond the traditional 'cheque book'
approach. The WOD programme in India
runs in partnership with Dasra, India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation.
Dasra's role in this program is to analyze
and match the skills & acumen of the participants with the nonprofit organizations.
Dasra also plays a pivotal role in orientation of the employees to ensure positive
outcomes.
Introducing the team volunteering concept, selected WOD volunteers this year
will be divided in smaller groups to work
on parallel projects at the assigned NGO.
The projects and NGOs are selected basis
the gaps identified from research on
mGovernance and mHealth. Vodafone
Foundation has also designed an 'Annual
Sustainability Programme' to ensure continued engagement between the NGO and
WOD volunteer beyond the tenure of the
project. Speaking about the initiative,
Marten Pieters, Managing Director and
CEO, Vodafone India said, "The World of
Difference
programme
exemplifies
Vodafone India's commitment towards
leveraging the skills of its employees and
its learning as an organization for larger
good.