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Regional/District News
IMPHAL SUNDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2015
Brief News
Surveillance
stepped up in
Mizoram for
swine flu
AIZAWL, Feb 14: Mizoram
stepped up surveillance in
view of Swine flu (H1N1)
cases detected and a number of
people killed in some parts of
the country, state health department officials on Saturday
said.
Dr
Pachuau
Lalmalsawma, Nodal Officer of the state Integrated
Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) said that
vigil has been maintained
since last year and stepped
up after the spread of the
dreaded disease in Delhi and
other states.
Passengers arriving at the
lone Lengpui Airport near
Aizawl, especially from high
risk areas would be screened
at the airport premises,
Lalmalsawma said.
Rapid Response Teams
in all the other seven districts were also alerted to
maintain strict vigil and also
be prepared for any eventualities.
A special laboratory was
arranged at the Aizawl Civil
Hospital where samples
could be collected and a reporting desk at the
Emergency department of the
hospital.
It was also decided that
the State Referral Hospital at
Falkawn near Aizawl was
being prepared to treat any
case of H1N1 if any. ––PTI
Saradha scam
KOLKATA, Feb 14:
Former Trinamool Congress
MP Srinjoy Bose, who was
arrested by the CBI in connection with the Saradha scam and
later granted conditional bail,
on Saturday visited the CBI
office here for further interrogation.
CBI sources said Bose
was interrogated for more
than three hours.
It was his first visit to the
CBI office after getting bail.
He was given bail by the
Alipore district sessions and
judges court on February 4
on the conditions that he
would appear before the CBI
whenever called for interrogation and would not leave
the country.
Bose had resigned from
TMC and also as its Rajya
Sabha MP a day after he
was released. ––PTI
Huge explosive
haul recovered in
Jharkhand
LOHARDAGA, Feb 14: In
a huge haul, 6000 kg ammonium nitrate and 20,000
detonators were recovered in
Jharkhand's Lohardaga district in the early hours of
Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, the
police raided a place at
Kalehapat village and seized
the explosives and 550 metre of codex wire around 2
am, Superintendent of Police Manoj Ratan Chouthe
said here. The consignment
was meant to be sent to
Naxalites, he said, adding
one person was arrested in
this connection.
Five new swineflu cases
detected in Kolkata
KOLKATA, Feb 14: Five new cases of swine flu have been detected in the city since yesterday taking the total number of persons
in the state affected with the virus to 27, a senior health official said.
However, there was no death because of the disease since
last evening, state Health Secretary Malay Kumar Dey told
PTI.
Talking about the situation in the districts, Dey said "infected people in the districts have been brought to Kolkata for
treatment. But we do not have any information about anybody
being treated in district hospitals."
Patients from districts of Hooghly, Howrah, North 24
Parganas, Nadia, Birbhum were being treated in different city
hospitals, he said.
Meanwhile, the state government has airlifted 'Tamiflu'
tablets from Mumbai and Hyderabad to meet the demands in
the state.
The disease has so far claimed two lives in the state.
"We are monitoring the situation closely and do not think
there is anything to be tensed with. The situation is under
control," he said. ––PTI
Teenaged girl's body found
TEZPUR, Feb 14: Body of a class seven student, who was believed to have been raped before being killed, was recovered from
a jungle today in Sonitpur district, police said.
Superintendent of Police Sanjukta Parasar said the girl had
been missing since Wednesday.
The body was recovered from a jungle near Bhalukpong
railway station under Chariduar police station in the district.
"The hands were tied up with rope and we suspect that she
was raped before being murdered. But we can confirm that
only after medical examination of the body," the SP added.
Police have detained some persons in connection with the
incident, Parasar said but did not specify the exact numbers.
––PTI
Parties in power at
Centre, WB not enemies
but political rivals: Naidu
KOLKATA, Feb 14: Stating
that the parties in power at the
Centre and West Bengal were
not enemies but only political
rivals,
Union
Urban
Development Minister M
Venkaiah Naidu today said the
two should work together for
development.
"We should not consider
one another as enemies. We
may be political rivals. We
are all given the responsibility to develop the country, the
state, the urban local bodies,"
Naidu told a conference on
'Urban Governance' here.
"Prime minister Narendra
Modi, Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee, (state urban development) minister (Firhad)
Hakim, chairmen of municipal bodies, we all should
think in terms of giving attention to development," he said.
Naidu's statement came in
the wake of Sunday's Niti
Aayog meeting which was
not attended by Mamata
Banerjee.
"No one from the West
Bengal government has come
to the meeting," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said
after the meeting.
Naidu said there could be
competition but, "It should be
healthy. Each one of us
should have proper understanding, cooperation and
coordination. This is the need
of the hour."
State Urban Development
Minister Firhad Hakim said
that the state government was
not getting funds for projects
which were sanctioned.
The state government
should get Rs 1,500 crore
from the Centre for projects
which were cleared, he added.
––PTI
BJD MP urges Orissa HC to
dismiss writs challenging her
nationality
CUTTACK, Feb 14: BJD MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh has
filed a written statement before Orissa High Court stating that
she is an Indian and urged it to dismiss all petitions questioning
her origin.
The statement of the Lok Sabha member from
Kandhamal was filed yesterday in response to a notice
issued to her by the HC last month pertaining to an
election petition filed by BJP leader and former MP Rudra
Madhav Ray.
Ray, who had lost to Singh in the October 2014 byelection, had challenged the BJD leader's election stating
that she automatically disqualifies to be a member of
Parliament as she is a Nepalese and has not accepted
Indian citizenship yet.
Singh refuted Ray's contention and claimed that she is
an Indian born in India to a Nepalese father and Indian
mother.
She said she was born in Ranchi in 1971 when her
parents were staying there for a brief period.
In another application to the High Court, the BJD
parliamentarian has urged the court to dismiss the petition
of Ray at threshold as it lacks merit.
To this, Ray's counsel Gopal Agarwal sought to file a
rejoinder following which the single-judge bench of Justice
Biswanath Rath adjourned the matter to March 4.
––PTI
Rajnath visits Bangladesh
border in Tripura
AGARTALA, Feb 14: Union
Home Minister Rajnath Singh
accompanied by his deputy,
Kiren Rijiju, Saturday visited
the India-Bangladesh border
in Tripura and discussed
issues with officials and BSF
troopers.
The two ministers also
met Tripura Chief Minister
Manik Sarkar.
"Rajnath Singh with Rijiju
(minister of state for home
affairs) and home ministry
officials visited Khantlang in
Tripura along the IndiaBangladesh-Mizoram
border," a Border Security
Force (BSF) officer said.
The home ministers interacted with the BSF officials
and troopers at the Khantlang
border outposts (195 km
from Agartala), along the
Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill
Tracts (CHT).
The militants set up camps
in CHT and used the unfenced borders for their
trans-border movements.
"Senior BSF officials
briefed both the ministers
about the border issues and
militancy related problems,"
the BSF official said on condition of anonymity.
The home minister appreciated the BSF troopers for
their role in maintaining security in the mountainous
areas.
Earlier both the ministers
accompanied by senior home
ministry officials arrived
here from Manipur, capital
Imphal and left for the bordering areas by an Indian Air
Force helicopter.
After visiting the border
areas, the union ministers
met Sarkar and senior state
government officials in
Agartala to chalk out a plan
to repatriate the tribal refu-
gees to Mizoram.
Mizoram Chief Minister
Lal Thanhawla was scheduled to attend the meeting but
could not make it.
About 32,000 Reang
tribals, locally called "Bru",
are staying in seven camps
in Tripura since October
1997 after fleeing their villages in Mizoram, following
ethnic troubles after the killing of a Mizo forest official.
Home Ministry's Joint
Secretary Shambhu Singh
Jan 30 held a meeting in
New Delhi with Tripura and
Mizoram officials and discussed the repatriation of
Mizoram's tribal refugees.
The Tripura government
has been asking both
Mizoram and the union home
ministry to repatriate the
tribal refugees to their homes
in Mizoram.
Agencies
India successfully test-fires BrahMos
missile from INS Kolkata
KOLKATA, Feb 14: India on
Saturday successfully testfired its 290-km range
BrahMos supersonic cruise
missile from the Navy's newest
destroyer INS Kolkata.
The launch off the Goa
coast was "flawless" and the
missile met all its designed
parameters.
INS Kolkata, which was
commissioned by the Indian
Navy on August 16, 2014,
has the capability of firing the
highest number of BrahMos
missiles. While a ship normally has the capacity to fire
eight missiles, INS Kolkata
can fire 16 BrahMos missile
in salvo mode, defence
sources said.
This is the first ship of this
class, with two more in the
pipeline.
All the three ships are
equipped
with
vertical
launched BrahMos missile
system as the prime strike
weapon.
The Universal Vertical
Launcher (UVLM) being
used in these ships has a
unique design, developed and
patented by BrahMos Aero-
space.
The UVLM has the benefits of stealth and permits
launching of the missile vertically in any direction, an
official statement said.
BrahMos chief Sudhir
Mishra congratulated his team
and Indian Navy on the successful mission.
The two-stage missile, the
first one being solid and the
second one ramjet liquid propellant, has already been
inducted into the Army and
Navy, and the Air Force version is in final stage of trial.
Hindus worship Buddhist
idols in Odisha's villages
BHUBANESWAR, Feb 14:
Entire villages in Odisha have
been worshipping Buddhist
idols believing them to be those
of Hindu deities for centuries.
This came to light during
explorations in the lower Ganga
basin to Godavari by the
government-run
Odisha
Institute of Maritime and Southeast
Asian
Studies
(OIMSEAS).
"This is particularly true in
Balasore, Bhadrak, Boudh
and Jagatsinghpur districts,"
said secretary of OIMSEAS
Sunil Kumar Patnaik, who
along with his team, explored
127 villages in Balasore,
Bhadrak,
Jagatsinghpur,
Kendrapara, Boudh, Jajpur,
Puri, Khurda and Nayagarh.
Such practices have been
found
in
Jayarampur,
Bhograi, Ayodhya, Kupari,
Khaira and Nilagiri villages
in Balasore district, Kaupur,
Solampur and Dhamnagar
villages in Bhadrak, Nagaspur-Kalyanpur in Jagatsingpur district and Boudh,
Paragalpur and Shyamsundarpur in Boudh district.
"Most of these images are
of Buddha, Tara, Bajrapani
and Avalokitesvara. Villagers
believe the images to be that
of the rain god Indra and the
creator Brahma," said Patnaik,
at the third international conference on Buddhist heritage
of Odisha.
Throwing light on the discovery, Patnaik, who is part
of the exploration going on
for around two years, said,
"Villagers perform rituals
near these images out of religious
emotion.
Being
researchers, we know that
these are Buddhist images but
they are ignorant of the fact.
They also worship these images before weddings," he
said. People have even kept
these images at the Raghunath
temple in Solampur village of
Bhadrak district, he said. It is
an influence of Buddhism
that was practised for 1,500
years in Odisha, he added.
He went on to say that
there are four villages, where
all the people are Buddhists.
These are Maniabandh village, famous for its sarees,
and Nuapatna, Ragadai and
Mahamadpur in Cuttack district. "The people shun
non-vegetarian food, but none
of the locals know how they
have come to practise the religion," said Patnaik.
The explorers also came
across Mauryan structures,
inscriptions and a terracotta
Buddha head at Radhanagar
near Langudi hill in Jajpur
district. It has been sculpted
according to the central Asian
style clearly indicating
Odisha's connection with
Gandhara and Taxila, he said.
Buddhist sites were also
found along the banks of the
Mahanadi from Cuttack to
Siripur in Chhattisgarh. Besides, many sites have been
found in Puri district, particularly Kanas, between the
Daya river and the Bay of
Bengal, said Patnaik.
Naveen announces Rs 1600 crore
pre-poll sop for Sambalpur
BHUBANESWAR, Feb 14: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced development projects worth Rs 1,600 crore for
Sambalpur in what was seemingly an expensive pre-poll sop as the
ruling BJD on Friday soft launched its campaign for the upcoming
civic body polls in Rourkela and Sambalpur.
Elections to both civic bodies, which got corporation status
in 2013, are likely in April, official sources said. The BJD's
youth wing, meanwhile, held its executive committee meeting
in the steel city and will organize a two-day training camp
there during the weekend.
BJD MLAs and MPs have been asked to attend the camp.
On Sunday, Naveen will address a large gathering of youths
in Rourkela.
The BJD's bid to go all-out in the two major cities of
western Odisha comes at a time when the state government is
facing severe flak over the recent outbreak of jaundice in
Sambalpur and BJP's Rourkela legislator Dilip Ray, an archrival of Naveen, is trying to strengthen his grip on the steel
city.
DISTRICT DIGEST
Chandel, Feb 14
Potato plantation cum
training programme
Potato plantation cum training programme was organised by
Kadai Mawl Farm Chandel and Krishi Vigyan Kendra(KVK)
Chandel at Khoibu village, Chandel district, reports our correspondent.
During the programme, GP Kabui, programme coordinator, KVK Chandel, Th Motilal, assiatant chief technical
officer spoke on ways of planting potatoes and to increase
its productivity and how to control pests.
Proprietor of Kadai Mawl Farm, Heimoibong Khaling
said that the training programme was organised with an aim
to help farmers in increasing their productivity.
The training programme was participated by farmers of
Kadai Mawl Farm and Khoibu village.
Jiribam (Imphal East), Feb 14
AMSU Jiribam extends wish
The All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU), District Committee, Jiribam extended best wishes to all the students appearing
the forthcoming Board and Council Examinations, according to
a press statement issued by the general secretary of AMSU, District Committee, Jiribam.
The statement also appealed all the students not to use
unfair means during the examination.
Expressing hope that the teachers and controllers of the
examination centres would perform their duties vigilantly,
the statement further said that necessary actions would be
taken up if any individual is found violating the rules and
regulations of the examination.
Senapati, Feb 14
Truck Owner's Association,
Drivers' Union urge
Senapati District Truck Owner's Association and Senapati District Truck Drivers' Union in a joint press statement urged the
State Government to clarify the number of authorised police
check-posts established between Mao gate-Sekmai.
Citing incidents of assaults and atrocities on drivers along
the National Highway, the statement asserted that the State
Government must look into the matter and ensure safety to
the drivers.
The statement said that the established police check-posts
collect 'taxes' at an uninformed rate which ranges from
hundred to five hundred rupees.
It stated that memorandums have been submitted to the
Director General of Police and Deputy Chief Minister regarding the matter.
The statement said that rigorous agitation would be initiated in case their grievances are not addressed by February
20.
Maram Students’ Union condemns
The Maram Students’ Union, Hqs Senapati, in a statement, has
strongly condemned the detention of RD/PR Minister Francis
Ngajokpa and his convoy by Assam Rifles officers at
Khudenthabi check post while on his way to inspect PMGSY
road development programmes at the border town of Moreh on
February 9.
The union, it added, observed the incident as an insult to
the State functionary whose credential and integrity is well
known to the people. ‘Such incidents are black spot on the
face of Indian democracy,’ the union expressed.
The union has demanded apology from the officials to
the Minister for the misconduct.
Thoubal, Feb 14
Awareness programme held
Leishangthem Thoudam Senior Citizens’ Forum (LTSCF),
Thoubal held a one day awareness programme on health care for
older persons at Leishangthem Bazar community hall yesterday.
The programme was graced by Social Welfare Minister
AK Mirabai, Khangabok A/C MLA O Landhoni, social
worker Th Upendro Singh as chief guest, president and
guest of honour respectively.
Resource person of the event Dr RK Lenin Singh, Professor, Department of psychiatry, RIMS spoke on ‘Health
care for older persons’ during his speech at the awareness
programme yesterday.
Later, Leishangthem Thoudam Senior Citizens Forum
distributed blankets to senior citizens of the area as part of
the programme.
Minister AK Mirabai and MLA O Landhoni also distributed a total of 66 blankets to aged persons during the
programme yesterday.
Awareness cum training prog
A one day "Awareness raising and screening camp on preventing of diabetes among school children with parents and teachers’’
cum three day training programme for teachers on "Diabetes and
Lifestyle Modification’’ organized alternatively at the same
venue by the Rural Development Society,Wangjing under the
sponsorship of World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Denmark
has kicked off at ANK English Academy, Langmeidong,
Thoubal district today, reports our correspondent.
Altogether, 50 teachers,120 students and 40 parents participated in the programmes.
Trinamool organisational
shake-up leaves Mukul Roy
out in the cold
KOLKATA, Feb 14: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee today carried out a major reshuffle in the party set-up,
giving additional responsibilities to her close confidants and elevating former union minister Dinesh Trivedi to vice-president's
post in an exercise that left her close aide Mukul Roy out in the cold.
"Trinamool Congress has appointed Subrata Bakshi, a party
MP, as additional all-India general secretary. He is a foundermember of the party," party secretary-general Partha Chatterjee
told reporters after the meeting.
Mukul Roy, who has been made to share responsibility as
all-India general secretary with Bakshi, a staunch Mamata
loyalist, was conspicuous by his absence from the closed-door
meeting convened at Mamata's residence to discuss the party’s
preparedness for the coming civic polls.
Roy, a Rajya Sabha member who was recently quizzed by
CBI in the Saradha chit fund scam, not being given additional
responsibilities that were given to some of his party colleagues, came amid media speculation of strained ties between
him and the party supremo.
Asked to explain the absence of Roy, a key party organiser,
Chatterjee said "he (Roy) is busy with political activities and
has been absent at the meeting by taking prior permission from
the party".
Roy had recently said that he was part and parcel of the
party, when asked if there was a rift between him and the party
leadership.