Friday, December 7, 2007
Nagaland town rises from ashes
Former MLA R Lisen Ao shudders recalling Mokokchung’s “trial by fire”, but he, like others in the town, would rather dwell on the “brighter side” of this 117-year-old town. More so, because it is the golden jubilee year of Mokokchung district. The district was carved out of the centrally-administered Naga Hills Tuensang Area on December 1, 1957.
Dominated by the Ao tribe, Mokokchung was the launch pad for Baptists in the Northeast. Christianity entered Nagaland through Mokokchung in 1872, but it was not until 1937 that the first Baptist church was established here.
“The church here organised the first Christian Naga marriage, triggering a craze for western fashion in Nagaland,” Ao said.
Most of Nagaland’s top officers and politicians are products of schools here. The town also became a centre of the Naga nationhood movement with A.Z. Phizo and Imkongmeren laying the foundation for sovereignty that the NSCN championed later.
If the district had given birth to Naga militancy, it also resisted militants “who cross the line”. In August 2003, residents of Mokokchung revolted against “overbearing” NSCN (Khaplang) members and flushed them out.
Neither faction of the NSCN, the other being the Isak-Muivah faction, has been able to gain a toehold here. “Mokokchung is returning to its old glory,” said former district magistrate Imkongtemsu Ao.
NIMHANS neurology centre to come up in Northeast soon
Soon, NIMHANS will be having the Neurology and Neurosurgery facility in Meghalaya.
It will cater to the treatment of patients in the North - Eastern States, Director Dr D. Nagaraja has said.
In an interview with this website’s newspaper, he said the number of patients arriving at NIMHANS has increased 10 - 15 per cent every year. It has attained saturation with its capacity having stretched to the limit.
In Karnataka, he said, NIMHANS has proposed a District Mental Health Programme with the active participation of the State government.
It facilitates for a nodal officer in each district with psychiatrist, psychologist and a social worker. It will also take care of the mental health of schoolchildren.
To pump in more resources into mental health and care in the nation, the Union Government has allocated Rs 1000 crore.
The State has chalked out a detailed policy in consultation with the NIMHANS to upgrade the infrastructure in district hospitals across the country and impart training in manpower.
In addition, the Global Fund has funded Rs 76 crore to set up counselling and activity centres for HIV - AIDS patients.
The NIMHANS is the principal recipient of the fund - which is vested with the responsibility of executing the plan, he said.
“Our doctors are involved in training medical officials in psychiatric treatment in post-earthquake Kashmir and in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Philippines after tsunami,” he says.
To meet the demands of psychiatrists, the institute is conducting short-term courses to train the physicians, he said.
