Manipuri New Year with no ‘Kombirei’

Imphal, Apr 7 : The New Year day of the Manipuris, “Cheiraoba,” will be celebrated across the state tomorrow but without “Kombirei” the flower which signaled the arrival of the new season.

Cheiraoba being celebrated on the first day of the month of Manipuri calendar Sajibu usually falls in March and April is a sacred and socio-religious festival of the people of Manipur and it culminates with the arrival of a new season, which marks rekindling of the spirit of life.

It is an occasion for introspection and also for searching and evolving new resolutions for the coming year. The two flowers kombirei and kusumlei have special significance on this occasion. But even though kusumlei is still available in plenty in market but there is no kombirei.

Unable to find kombirei in the market when this correspondent asked a women vegetable vendor in Ema (mother) market, she said as the significance of the kombirei has dipped into the jaw of time not a single kombirei could be available for sale she added observing that it may be due to the shrinking of wetlands in the state. This kind of flowers usually grows in the wetlands and lakes.

Known by the Manipuri name kombirei, Iris flowers have a special significance in the Manipuri New Year, or the festival of Cheiraoba. On this day, Iris flowers are given as offering to god. Flowers of this kind are usually light to deep blue and in bloom during spring season.

There are many stories that build up with the flowers mostly based on the love story of youngsters.

Stories and songs indicated that this very flower grows in Yaralpat which is located in Imphal east district and now no more like a lake. In the story of Mainu-pemcha it is said that Pemba brought the flower from Yaralpat as gift from her lover Borajaoba and planted at Lamphelpatmnow in Imphal west. Since the kombirei started blooming at Lamphelpat.

Whatever may be Cheiraoba will be celebrated tomorrow in the state, on this occasion married women would gift their parents and brothers gifts on this occasion and every Meitei family will have a feast. The youths will seek the blessings of the elders. The Khwairamb and Keithel at Imphal are usually packed on this occasion with thousands coming to buy gifts and food items.

After Cheiraoba a new Cheithaba is selected. The Cheithaba is the one who records the major events in the Cheitharol Kumbaba. The uninterrupted line of Cheithaba since the reign of the 15th century king Kyamba could be found recorded in the Cheitharol Kumbaba. The major events since 33 AD are recorded in the Cheitharol Kumbaba under royal patronage. But it seems that kombirei will have no more place on this occasion.

NP

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KSO condemns UGs for threatening RIMS officials

Imphal, Apr 7 : The Kuki Students` Organization, KSO Imphal branch while stating that the charges leveled by KCP(MC) against the RIMS director Dr. L Fimate were unfounded has said that it was for want of money.

The students body while strongly condemning the constant threat to the RIMS director, said in a statement that working under such conditions are unbearable for the director.

“Accusing the director on unfounded grounds just for the sake of getting their hands on some easy money is very shameful and a matter of great concern for the general public,” the statement of the KSO said.

It also added that the body would not remain a mute spectator to the multiple attempts on the life of Dr. Fimate by certain “money minded underground elements”.

Reacting to the allegation of KCP(MC) of Fimate engaging in communal based appointment in RIMS, the KSO said that it was an attempt to rake up communal feelings by a section of people. It is unfortunate, KSO said stating that it does not happen in RIMS but the rampant violation of recruitment norms against the tribal community is there in the Manipur University.

“Dr. Fimate is a man of integrity who has genuine love for RIMS and strives for development of healthcare in the state,” it said adding that the charges were only to tarnish the image of the director “just for want of money.”

Its a shameful thing on the part of revolutionary groups such as the KCP(MC) to engage in such activities, it said.

While urging all concerned to allow the RIMS director and staffs to work peacefully by restoring normalcy in its functioning and administration, the students body cautioned that the RIMS could be shifted elsewhere if such threats persisted and the losers would be the people of the state only.

The statement also called upon the people of Manipur to fight tooth and nail against injustices constantly committed by each and every of the so-called revolutionary groups in the state.

IFP

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Doctors camping at Parbung

Imphal, Apr 7 : Following the death of 11 children due to infections by an unknown disease in Tipaimukh sub-division of Churachandpur district, a medical team is currently camping at Parbung to identify the disease and to control the same.

According to information received from district administrations, the 11 children who died of the unknown disease at Lungthulien, Parbung, Leisen and Potnimon villages showed symptoms of chest infection, viral fever and gastroenteritis.

After medical teams have been sent to the sub-division to ascertain the exact nature of the disease and its origin three times earlier, the district administration sent a fourth medical team there and the doctors are currently camping at Parbung.

Even as Chief Medical Officer, Churachandpur has approached the Health Department to provide medicines needed to control the disease twice, no medicine has been provided to the CMO till date, disclosed sources.

TSE

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Anti-extortion chorus gets louder in Manipur

Imphal, Apr 8 : More transporters in Manipur joined the chorus against extortion by militant outfits with bus operators deciding to suspend operations along the Imphal-Churachandpur Road from tomorrow.

“Passenger buses affiliated to the Tiddim Road Motor Owners Cooperative Society will stop plying buses from tomorrow as militants’ demand for money has ‘become unbearable,’” a spokesman for the society said today.

The transporters’ decision came after vehicles stopped plying between Imphal and the border town of Moreh in neighbouring Chandel district yesterday.

Tata Sumo and jeep owners, who were on strike from April 4, were joined by bus and van operators.

This led to the closure of border trade through Moreh since yesterday.

The transporters said more than 20 militant groups were demanding money from them.

The militants allegedly threatened the transporters that they would burn the vehicles if their demands were not met.

A spokesman for the joint action committee of transport operators plying on the Imphal-Moreh Road said they would not resume services until the militant groups withdrew their demands.

The Imphal-Churachandpur Road is part of National Highway 150 linking Imphal with Aizawl via Churachandpur.

Though this national highway does not serve as a supply route for the state, it is a major link for people living in Manipur with Aizawl.

The Tiddim Road transporters’ body also appealed to all the other transport providers along the road to suspend operation to show solidarity with the society.

The transporters said though they were paying the militants regularly, the situation has spun out of control.

The transporters said the Okram Ibobi Singh government had not been able to check extortion by militant groups along the national and state highways.

The government, however, blamed the transporters.

“We are protecting the highways with central and state forces. But the transporters are paying the militants on the sly,” said a senior official in the home department.

He said two transporters were arrested recently on charges of paying militants. The transporters countered that the situation in Manipur had reached such a stage that they did not feel safe even staying at home.

“Can the government prevent militants from targeting us?” a transporter asked.

In 2004, the joint action committee of transporters in Manipur braved a government threat of punitive action in form of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) and decided to go ahead with their indefinite strike. The truckers were protesting against the killing of one of their colleagues by criminals on the night of June 27.

Telegraph India

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Journalists from the northeast write to PM, seek safety

New Delhi, Apr 7 : Alarmed at the rise in number of attacks on journalists working in northeastern India, the North East Media Forum (NEMF) has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure their safety in the region.

The NEMF, a group of journalists from the northeast working in the capital, pointed out in the letter that time and again scribes in the region have been targeted for carrying out their duties truthfully and fearlessly.

The letter to the prime minister said: ‘As you must be aware, media persons in the entire northeast work under highly-adverse conditions of low salaries, lack of insurance and risk of bodily injury by those whose misdeeds they expose through their writings.

‘As the head of the Indian state, we appeal to you to ensure that media personnel in the northeast can carry out their professional duties without fear of physical harm’.

The letter comes in the wake of the brutal killing of a journalist working for the Assamese daily Asomiya Pratidin, Mohammad Muslimuddin, April 1 in Nagaon district.

He was killed for allegedly reporting on instances of criminal-politician nexus in the area, the letter said.

‘Since 1987, about 20 media professionals have been killed in Assam and most of the cases have remained unsolved, putting a question mark on the so-called freedom of the press in the region,’ the letter said.

In Manipur, all media had stopped operations since March 21 following threats to four journalists from a faction of the banned People’s United Liberation Front (PULF).

The threat from PULF to abduct media persons had come with the demand that newspapers must overturn their decision not to publish PULF press releases.

IANS

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Teachers close down Naga varsity

Kohima, Apr 8 : Teachers of Nagaland University today forced the closure of all its three campuses in protest against the non-fulfilment of their charter of demands, including the recall of vice-chancellor K. Kannan.

The teachers said they had served several representations and ultimatums to the university authorities and the Centre. When their appeal failed to move the authorities, they were forced to close down academic activities on the Kohima, Lumami and Medziphema campuses.

Nagaland University Teachers’ Association president Rosemary Dzivichu said they would continue with their agitation till the vice-chancellor was removed and their other demands were met.

She charged Kannan with several irregularities in running the nascent Nagaland Central University. She also accused him of flouting rules and ordinances of the university with his autocratic style of functioning.

The association has been on a pen-down strike since March 18 which has hit the students hard.

The students have also launched an agitation, calling for immediate resumption of classes on the three campuses. They alleged that the impasse in the university since its inception in 1994 had crippled the institution and the government had remained a mute spectator.

Since the days of the first vice-chancellor, Yanger Ao, students and teachers have been protesting against the authorities for one reason or the other. The protests continued during the tenure of his successor, G.D. Sharma, and spilled into Kannan’s term.

Dzivichu said the teachers would not remain silent spectators to violations of the University Act and that of the basic rights and principles of the people.

Representatives of the association have met Governor K. Sankaranarayan and President Pratibha Patil, seeking an inquiry into the irregularities. Dzuvichu said Patil had asked the human resource development ministry to constitute an inquiry committee.

Kannan was not available for comment.

Telegraph India

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Assam Rifles to get more firepower

New Delhi, Apr 8 : The Assam Rifles, hailed as the ‘Sentinels of the North East’, has embarked on a vigorous modernisation drive to give it more firepower.

The modernisation plans of the senior-most paramilitary force of the nation include procuring state-of-the-art weapons and latest gadgets to boost operational efficiency of the troops, Assam Rifles spokesman Lt Col Shashank Ranjan said ahead of the 173rd anniversary celebrations of the force beginning on Saturday.

Also known as the ‘Friends of the Hill People’, the Assam Rifles has 65,000 troops at present, having grown in strength of just 750 combatants at the time of its inception in 1835.

The force, raised as a ‘militia’ outfit by the name of ‘Cachar Levy’ to protect and safeguard British interests in the region, saw a change in its role over the years and came to be known as ‘Frontier Police’, ‘Assam Military Police’ and finally ‘Assam Rifles’ in 1917.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil will be the Chief Guest at the anniversary function on Saturday.

The Assam Rifles is not only entrusted with the task of maintaining internal security, but also makes a lot of contribution towards uplift of the people of the North East as it believes that development is the only remedy to various woes of the people of that region.

With the region prone to calamities like floods, earthquakes and famine, the Assam Rifles also plays a key role in providing succour to victims in the most inhospitable and remote areas, that are also hit by insurgency.

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Opium cultivationOpium cultivation worth Rs 36 cr destroyed in Arunachal

Itanagar, Apr 8 : In a major operation, the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) has destroyed 450 hectare of opium (Kani) cultivation in three districts- Upper Siang, Lohit and Tirap of Arunachal Pradesh , bordering Myanmar. The operation carried out by the CBN in association with the Arunachal Pradesh Government took nearly 10 days to complete it.

The CBN’s move came in the wake of increasing opium trafficking along the Indo-Myanmar border. Altogether 1,000 families were involved in the cultivation in the three districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The destroyed opium will be around Rs 36 crore on the international market. Last year also a similar kind of operation was carried out in Wakka and Pangchau in which nearly 1000 hectare of opium cultivation were destroyed.

Opium is cultivated in Arunachal, Nagaland and some parts of Manipur in the region. As the demand for opium has been increasing gradually among the people in the North East and Myanmar, more and more people are now involved in opium trading. The people are involved in opium cultivation and business to earn their livelihood as they are not at all economically sound.

According to a rough estimate there are about two lakh opium addicts in the North East. Singpho community is said to be worst affected by opium. Moreover, Adi and Mismi people also consume opium. Since opium cultivation is a traditional practice for which they do not want give it up.

Highly-placed official sources who did not wish to be named told this correspondent that opium is a big menace in the region as cultivation area is increasing gradually. Citing reasons for involvement of more people in opium, they said that the opium has a big market in the entire South East Asian countries that is also encouraging the people to cultivate more. “The people who are involved in opium trade should be provided alternative source of income to cope with the menace,” they opined. In this context, they said that drug enforcing agencies have been carrying out operations since 2,000, but they have not been able to eradicate the problem. “We are of the view that the respective Governments should provide employment to the people , otherwise it will take a serious turn,” the sources added.

Another important fact is that the difficult terrain in the region is also helping the people to cultivate opium. The area is infested by underground groups and therefore the drug enforcing agencies are facing hardships to launch full-scale operation.

AT

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New Year sun shines on Manipur

Imphal, Apr 8 : Prayers for peace and protection were on every lip as violence-hit Manipur celebrated Cheiraoba or the Meitei New Year’s Day today.

“I prayed to the gods to take away all the bad things from Manipur and shower all the good things this New Year,” said Rani Devi, a young housewife, after the Cheiraoba prayer ritual.

The message of peace started circulating on mobile phones since early morning as family, friends and even strangers exchanged text messages.

“I received 35 messages, all calling for peace, from friends and unknown persons,” said Abungcha Meitei, a teenager from Sagolband in Imphal West.

As people prayed for a peaceful and prosperous New Year, every household appeased the godswith a sumptuous feast.

Married women visited their parental homes to present gifts to their relatives and wish them prosperity.

The festival comes at a time when the state is reeling under the impact of recent incidents of uninterrupted violence.

Slogan-shouting women on Saturday marched through the streets of Imphal demanding state protection following the recent spurt in violence against women in Manipur.

The killing of 15 non-Manipuris on the eve of Holi and during the Yaoshang festival last month and the subsequent imposition of night curfew had restricted the five-day-long celebrations.

The 9pm-to-5am curfew also spoiled the exhilaration of the Thabal Chongba dance, an important part of Yaoshang and Cheiraoba.

Extending greetings and good wishes to the people of Manipur on Cheiraoba, President Pratibha Patil said: “May this festival bring happiness, prosperity and well-being to you all.May the celebrations promote values of tolerance and acceptance and strengthen traditional bonds of amity, understanding and harmony.”

She is the first President to send greetings to the people of Manipur on Cheiraoba. Manipur. Governor S.S. Sidhu and chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh also wished peace and prosperity to the people troubled state on the occasion.

Telegraph India

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Scientists probing mushroom deaths in Assam, toll rises

Guwahati, Apr 8 : The Assam government has ordered a probe by scientists into the deaths of about 20 people after they ate mushrooms, officials said Tuesday. State Agriculture Minister Pramilla Rani Brahma has constituted a probe panel headed by Assam Agriculture University (AAU) Vice Chancellor S.S. Baghel to ascertain the causes of the ‘mushroom deaths’ that have triggered panic in parts of Assam.

“The toll was 13 till Sunday but fresh cases have been reported in the past 48 hours and the number of deaths following consumption of apparently poisonous mushrooms could well be 20 now,” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said.

Scientists at AAU probing the deaths say that the mushrooms consumed by the affected people, at least in the eastern Golaghat district, was of a highly poisonous variety called Amanita Phalloides Vaill.

“AAU scientists have said that this particular mushroom variety that is very poisonous grows and flourishes under the season’s first showers,” an official at the State Agriculture Department said.

On Monday, a three-year-old girl died after eating mushrooms in eastern Tinsukia district. Five other members of the family have been admitted to a speciality hospital in the area.

So far, around 30 people are being treated at various hospitals in the state.

Local media reports said those affected after eating mushrooms grown in the wild are extremely poor people who lack other food.

The state government has however denied such reports.

“We are sure poverty is not the reason for those people to consume mushrooms because the areas from where such cases are reported grow vegetables in abundance. But we have called for a socio-economic survey of the affected people,” the health minister said.

IANS

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Acute food shortage in Mizoram villages

Bamboo flowers again attracting rats; paddy crop destroyed

Rice stock must be transported before monsoon: official

“The State has been declared as disaster-affected”

Hualtu (Mizoram), Apr 8 : Residents of this remote village in Mizoram’s Serchhip district, about 90 km off capital city Aizawl, are facing food shortage of the worst kind, after hordes of rats destroyed their jhum paddy and other crops for the second successive year.

Granaries of all the 172 families of the village are virtually empty and their only source of food now is the rice supplied by the government through the fair price shop in the village.

This and more than 700 other villages spread over all the eight districts of Mizoram are currently gripped by ‘Mautam’— the phenomenon of gregarious bamboo flowering that occurs at an interval of 47-50 years and subsequent destruction of crops by rodents and other insects.

Locals believe that flowering of bamboo results in famine as the rats after feasting on bamboo fruits multiply in large numbers and when the rats have no more bamboo fruits to feed on, they attack paddy and other crops.

Insurgency

When bamboo flowered last time in 1958-1959, it resulted in famine in the Mizo hills, then a district of Assam. The famine gave rise to the Mizo National Famine Front which was later rechristened the Mizo National Front (MNF).

It led a two-decade long insurgent movement and finally signed a peace accord in 1986 with New Delhi paving the creation of the State of Mizoram. According to records, Mizoram experienced Mautam in 1910-1911 and 1958-1959.

Forty-year-old Lalrinmawia, the Village Council president of Hualtu, and other residents said if the rice stock at Chhingchip was not replenished well ahead of monsoon, they might have to starve.

Road in bad shape

“Even if the government creates the buffer stock for the monsoon months, the villagers will still have to carry the rice on headloads through the entire 14.5-km road up the hills that connects Hualtu with the National Highway 54 at Chhingchip. Because, one monsoon shower and our road becomes inaccessible,” Lalrinmawia told The Hindu.

Commissioner and Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, T.B.C. Rozara said if the Food Corporation of India failed to bring in 15,000 tonnes of rice well ahead of monsoon, then the situation may “turn very critical.”

He said the State government had impressed upon the FCI authorities that the movement of goods was impossible in monsoon due to heavy landslips and that the rice stock should be transported fast.

“Mizoram is facing famine following failure of harvest for the last two years in succession. There is shortage of rice and many people are facing starvation in the rural areas,” stated a note on “Food Crisis in Mizoram” prepared by the Food and Civil Supplies department.

The Secretary, Disaster Management, government of Mizoram, K. Riachho, said: “The State government has declared the entire State as disaster-affected following crop destruction due to rodent attack that led to famine.” He said that there was no report of any starvation death so far and added that adequate relief measures had been initiated.

According to an estimate of the Agriculture Department, as on February 11, Mautam phenomenon has affected 1,30,621 families in 769 villages. Rodents and insects have damaged 16,132 hectares of wet rice cultivation and 1,25,345 hectares of jhum paddy cultivation in the State.

Against the expected yield of 12,93,476 quintals of jhum paddy, the harvest was only 2,66,469 quintals and against the expected yield of 3,22,570 quintals of wet rice paddy actual yield was only 67,084 quintals. The department has estimated the losses at Rs.411.38 crore. While the loss in paddy was 89.76 per cent, the loss in other crops such as maize, vegetables was about 60 per cent.

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Foreign NGO help for Mizoram

Aizawl, Apr 7 : Several charitable institutions, moved by the distress of Mizo villagers in the aftermath of the crop loss, will mobilise food relief for them.

The flowering of the bamboo plants in Mizoram is a queer ecological phenomenon that takes place every 48 years. The drove of rats, which feed on the fruits of the bamboo plants during this season, attain a sudden increase in their power of libido. As a result, they tend to give birth to more litters of their progeny, which rampage in the agriculture pastures, thus giving rise to crop failures.

Already two such overseas relief agencies are in Mizoram to render food supply to the villagers, who are now reeling under the famine. .

According to official reports from Aizawl, the Salvation Army, an evangelical body, has decided to set up 10 fair-deal centres in the remote areas of the state. The members of a Canadian NGO, Canada Norlyn Audio Vision Service, are already in the state scouting for the ravaged habitats there to distribute packaged food among the famine victims.

Stuart Roger Spani, a director of this NGO, who has arrived with four other volunteers, said their food relief articles, would be brought from Montreal and Ottawa.

Mike Cafful, a field operation specialist from the London headquarters of the Salvation Army, is already in the state to oversee the charity drive. He said the relief food materials would be distributed at half the price of their prevailing market rates.

Food and civil supplies minister Sangthuma said such foreign and national relief NGOs are welcome in his state in times of crisis.

Mizoram Governor M.M. Lakhera also expressed his concern at the food crisis looming large in the state in the wake of the mautam.

He said the Centre had reduced the rice quota of the FCI from its earlier monthly level of 6,810 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes at present, even as 90 per cent of the state’s rice harvest was lost last year because of this rat rampage.

He said the state government has decided to release Rs 12.93 crore from the state’s calamity relief fund.

The Mizoram government has also taken the decision to hike the weekly ration quota of rice from 2kg to 3kg in view of the crop loss.

Chief secretary Haukum Hauzel said the Mizo National Front government has also decided to distribute rice among the distressed families on credit, which would later be realised through manual labour in the government-sponsored infrastructure projects under the national employment assurance schemes.

Telegraph India

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2,497 people found HIV-positive in Mizoram

Aizawl, Apr 8 : As many as 2,497 people in Mizoram have been found to be HIV positive after conducting tests on 50,042 blood samples since October 1990 to February this year.

Official records registered 150 AIDS-related deaths during the 18-year period while presently there are 235 cases in which AIDS patients are in their advanced stages.

However, unofficial sources as well as the patients claimed that the actual number of people suffering from AIDS could be much higher, even double or triple the number in the official records.

“The actual number of HIV positives is certainly much higher than the official record, which is evident from the number of new members enrolling in our organization,” the Mizoram People Living with AIDS (MPLAS) leader, who is himself an HIV-positive, said. He was speaking at a meeting of the Mizoram Legislators’ Forum on HIV/AIDS, organized by the Mizoram State AIDS Control Society here today.

Speaking as the chief guest at the function, state Health Minister R Tlanghmingthanga stressed the need for more awareness on HIV/AIDS, particularly among the rural folks.

“It is high time that we, the MLAs, spread AIDS awareness from the political platform,” the minister said.

However, only nine MLAs out of the 40 attended today’s meeting. Since the blood tests had been targeted only at the high risk group, there was also a possibility of promiscuous married men transmitting the virus unaware to their spouses.

Consequently, a number of women were found to be positive of the Human Immuno Virus as they underwent a prenatal blood test which is compulsory in all government hospitals, MSACS officials said.

“As the chances of transmission of HIV from mother to child can be reduced from 20-30 per cent to three per cent by providing proper treatment, the Prevention of Parent-to-Child Transmission Centres (PPCTC) and Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC) have been set up in eight civil hospitals, one sub-divisional hospital, seven CHCs and one PHC across the State,” MSACS officials said.

Of the 2,497 HIV positive cases, including 1,008 females, 96 have been found to be transmitted from parent to child while 1,432 were attributed to sexual contact.

As many as 847 of them were said to be Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) while the remaining 122 cases were transmitted through other modes.

UNI

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