Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Mizo women donate for famine victims

Aizawl, Apr 12 : The members of Mizoram Women Federation recently handed over Rs 1 lakh and 55 bags of rice to the State Home Minister and chairman of the Mizoram Famine Emergency Committee.

The members of federation, known as Mizoram Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl said the relief fund and materials were collected by the Aizawl city branches of the organisation. District headquarters of the MHIP were also collecting donations to be handed over to the district authorities.

PTI

Naga teachers call off strike

Kohima, Apr 14 : The teachers of Nagaland University have decided to resume classes from tomorrow following an assurance from the Centre to constitute a fact-finding committee to probe the alleged anomalies and irregularities in the institution.

All the three campuses of Nagaland University, Lumami, Kohima and Medziphema, have remained closed since April 7, after the teachers decided to go on a ceasework to protest financial irregularities in the university.

They charged vice-chancellor K. Kannan with siphoning of crores of rupees and demanded that he be removed immediately.

The Nagaland University Teachers’ Association (NUTA) president, Rosemary Dzuvichu, today said they have accepted the assurance of the ministry of human resource development officials and decided to resume classes from tomorrow.

Dzuvichu said the ministry of human resource development officials would request the chief rector of the university, who is also the Governor of Nagaland, K. Shankaranarayanan, to arrange a visit for the fact-finding committee.

The committee will be constituted within a month’s time.

Kannan, on the other hand, today warned the agitating teachers of penalty if they continued with the indefinite strike on the university campuses.

Resorting to strikes by ignoring the “legitimate processes” would be regarded as illegal and the teachers would be penalised under civil and criminal consequences, he said.

“The Nagaland University cannot and must not be made subservient to anybody,” the vice-chancellor said.

If the impasse continued, the university authorities would have no other option but to invoke the appropriate provision of law in the interest of the students, he said.


Telegraph India

Manipur civil bodies impose curfew

Imphal, Apr 14 : Several Zeliangrong civil organisations have imposed a night curfew in the headquarters town of Manipur’s Tamenglong district since Friday following escalation of clashes between the two NSCN factions.

An official source in the district headquarters said the “public curfew”, effective from 6.30pm to 5am, had been enforced jointly by the various civil society organisations.

Four militants have been killed in as many days as the NSCN factions stepped up their offensive in the Naga-dominated district.

Members of the NSCN (Khaplang) attacked a camp of the rival faction at Bunning in Tamei subdivision on Thursday. A rebel of the NSCN (Isak-Muivah), Shimreishang Tangkhul, was killed in the offensive.

The outfit retaliated the next day, killing three rebels — Keithannang Panmei, Zachiah Rongmei and Gianthanlung — of the rival faction near Duigailung village, 3km from Tamenglong police station.

The army has asked both the factions to rein in their members.

Tamenglong is under the operational control of the 57th Mountain Division.

Telegraph India

Assam reverberates with Bihu drumbeats

Guwahati, Apr 14 : Sounds of drumbeats and cymbals were echoing in the hills and dales of Assam on Monday with the state heralding the Assamese New Year or Rongali Bihu with tremendous enthusiasm.

People in their hundreds were thronging Bihu pandals across the state with dancers in their traditional fineries performing gyrating Bihu dances to the accompaniment of dhols or the traditional drums and flutes made of buffalo horns.

“The mood is festive and we hope Rongali Bihu ushers in a new dawn of hope and peace to the state,” Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said.

And enjoying the festivities are the many foreign tourists currently scattered across the state.

“The dancers are simply mind-boggling and the music is too sensuous…the experience is just unbelievable,” said Mark Cook, a tourist from Australia.

Singers and musicians are working extra hard trying to keep their dates in various community cultural shows organised across Assam on Bihu.

“It is great fun performing live before thousands of people… I have composed some new numbers for the people of Assam on the occasion of Bihu,” said Zubeen Garg, well known singer of “Ya Ali” fame.

“This is the time of the year when people tend to forget all worries. What matters now is how best to enjoy the spirit of fun and bonhomie,” said Arun Pratap Sharma, a young doctor.

For the moment, it’s not the burst of staccato gunfire, but the pulsating beats of drums and cymbals that are reverberating in Assam.

IANS

Mass immunisation to check Meningitis in Meghalaya

Shillong, Apr 12 : The Meghalaya government has ordered a mass immunisation programme to check the spread of meningitis which is wrecking havoc at various places across the state, official sources said.

In the first phase, the health department would carry out the immunisation in Jaintia Hills district where some 70 people are suspected to have been affected by the deadly disease, sources said.

Director of Health Services K H Lakiang said so far 21 people were suspected to have died of the disease and over 180 others have been affected.

However, unofficial sources peg the toll much higher.

Lakiang said around one lakh chemo-prophylaxis tablets have been air-dashed to the state.

Experts from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases are also camping in the state to give training to doctors and other health officials.

The situation has aggravated following reports of cerebral malaria affecting different places of the Garo Hills region.

PTI

Caterpillar outbreak in Mizoram

Aizawl, Apr 12 : There has been an outbreak of caterpillar at Tawipui village in south Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district, the village council president C Manchianga said, reports PTI

Manchianga said that the outbreak was first experienced on March 29 and continued unabated in some localities of the village like Minpui Veng where eight families were forced to moved out of their respective homes.

He said that the caterpillars were around two inches long and invaded a number of houses in the villages.

PTI