north east online - north east india news: May 28, 2008

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

History for Manipur as army team scales Mt Everest

A Manipuri has scaled the Mt Everest for the first time, making history for the tiny and strife-torn state.

Nongmaithem Suraj Singh, who hails from Palace Compound of the state's Imphal East district, was part of the army team christened "Snow Lion," which scaled the peak last Thursday.

Thirty-five-year-old Suraj, son of late N Jamini Singh and late Nongmaithem ongbi Khumanleima, is a Central government employee and posted in Sikkim.

All 10 members of the team, including two women, made it to the summit at 7.10 am on May 22. They safely returned to the base camp in Nepal yesterday afternoon.

"We climbed from the Nepal side and it was a wonderful experience to be on the top of the highest point on the planet," Suraj said briefly from the base camp.

An earlier attempt by a Manipuri climber, G Anita Devi on May 5, 1993, was beaten by harsh weather conditions. Anita was just 72 m short of reaching the summit.

Nepal had restricted climbing from May 1 to 9 to prevent the disruption of the torch relay as per China's request ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, Mt Everest has been ascended at least 3,000 times.

Lok Sabha Speaker to inaugurate NERCP at Aizwal

Aizawl, May 26 : Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan are to arrive in Aizwal tomorrow to attend the 11th North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (NERCP).

Mr Chatterjee will inaugurate the conference at the state Legislative Assembly hall. He will be accompanied by Lok Sabha Secretary General PDT Achary and Rajya Sabha Secretary General Dr V K Agnihotri. The conference will last till 30th of this month.
Mizoram Assembly Speaker Lalchamliana said the NERCPA had been established in tune with the CPA formed by former colonies of the British Empire. Speakers, Deputy Speakers and MLAs each, besides concerned officials from the Northeastern states, were expected to attend the conference .This is the second time that Mizoram will host the conference,the first being in 1998.

Anthurium flowers give hope to Mizo famine

Aizawl, May 26 : If bamboo flowers and the related rodent multiplication have brought about catastrophic famine in Mizoram, the Anthurium flower is the hope of Mizo farmers to uplift their economic condition. The state horticulture department had introduced anthurium in Mizoram in 2002 for commercial cultivation under the Technology Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture in the NE states.

”The first consignment sold to neighbouring states was dispatched in October 2003, 11 months after sowing the seeds, which proved that the state had the ideal climatic conditions for the flower,” Horticulture Director Samuel Rosanglura said. Now, with its moderate climate has become the largest anthurium producer with the state-produced best quality anthurium in high demand both in the country and abroad.

”The month of June sees anthurium at its peak. Our monthly export is likely to increase to 1,00,000 cut flowers during June,” Zo-Anthurium Growers’ Society secretary Lalhmangaihi told UNI here yesterday. She also informed that about half of the total anthurium flowers produced in Mizoram were consumed in the state and the metropolitan cities, including Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi.

”Dubai is the biggest destination of Mizoram’s anthurium and the exporters are now eyeing New Zealand and Australia. However, the main problem is that we are yet unable to meet the demand within India and abroad,” Lalhmangaihi said. Presently, more than 70 varieties of anthurium were cultivated and more than 400 growers were engaged in it, the Horticulture director said, adding that under the technology mission programme more areas were being covered to be able to meet the global market’s demand.

The export of anthurium was being undertaken by the Bangalore-based Zopar Export Limited. Official sources said the monthly income of an anthurium-grower varies from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000. ”This venture has not only brought about a change in the horticulture scenario of the state, but also uplifted the living standard of the farmers,” he said and attributed the success to the cordial relations between the department and the growers.

To promote anthurium flowers among Mizo farmers and attract tourists, the state horticulture and tourism departments initiated a colourful Anthurium Festival a few years ago. Under the sponsorship of the Centre, the state is gearing up for another Anthurium Festival, scheduled on June 20 and 21. ”The Anthurium festival-cum-exhibition aims at promoting the market-friendly flower and attracting tourists to the scenic beauties of Mizoram,” the officials said.

The festival would also serve as an exhibition for various local products — fruits, vegetables, handloom and handicrafts. The organisers hoped that large number of tourists would be attracted by this year’s Anthurium Festival. Following the gregarious bamboo flowering and its related boom in rats’ population last year, rural Mizoram is reeling under acute rice shortage. In the wake of the famine, the Congress slammed the state government for organising such an ”extravagant” festival. The party further alleged that the anthurium flower did not benefit the rural poor, but only the rich people in the urban areas.

UNI

Cong soul-search after ‘bad defeat’

Shillong, May 27 : A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Agatha K. Sangma won the Tura bypoll by a resounding margin, a dejected, despondent Congress admitted that it was indeed a “bad defeat” and “unexpected”.

With Lok Sabha elections only a few months away, the Congress is worried that the party might not win both the seats — Shillong and Tura — in the present state of affairs.

Senior Congress leader and Union tribal affairs minister P.R. Kyndiah is currently representing Shillong Lok Sabha constituency.

Meghalaya PCC president O.L. Nongtdu today said the party expected over a lakh votes for the Congress candidate, Zentih Sangma, the brother of senior Congress leader Mukul Sangma.

“It was a bad defeat for us and we never expected this,” Nongtdu said.

The party also did not expect that the candidate would be defeated in his Rangsakona constituency. In the just concluded Assembly elections, too, the NCP’s Adolf Hitler Marak defeated Zenith, a former minister.

Of the total 24 Assembly segments, the Congress candidate could perform better than Agatha only in three constituencies, the plain areas of Rajabala and Mahendraganj, besides Ampati which is Mukul Sangma’s constituency. Though the Congress had raked up the Meghalaya Board of School Education issue and dynasty politics, those could not influence the voters.

The Congress will meet soon to assess what went wrong, Nongtdu added.

According to the NCP and other alliance partners in the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA), the victory of the NCP candidate would further strengthen the unity of the party.

After a thin margin of only one vote secured by the MPA candidate Sanbor Shullai in the election to the deputy Speaker’s post, Mukul Sangma had predicted that the government would fall within two months.

However, playing down the comments of Sangma, president of the NCP’s Meghalaya unit, W.R. Kharluki, said MPA was committed to complete the full five-year term. He also said the victory had brought more unity to the MPA and the dream of the Congress to form a government in the state would never be fulfilled in this term.

Telegraph India

Tripura tribals taking up rubber cultivation

Agartala, May 26 : Septuagenarian Kripasadhan Chakma, a landless tribal living in remote Tabidapara of Tripura’s South district is not a worried man today as he is now earning a living from his own rubber garden with the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council coming to his aid.

Tabidapara is a picturesque tribal hamlet on a hill surrounded by forests, hit by acute food crisis and no jobs.

“I only had a hut on khas (government land) land to live on and sometimes worked in other people’s fields. We faced poverty and food scarcity every day. But those days are gone with work available in rubber gardens,” Kripasadhan, a resident of a village under Karbuk block, said.

“Now I work in my own garden and get wages from the tribal council,” he said.

The TTAADC is motivating the hill people to settle down in rubber cultivation. The council has provided each family one hectare of land and paying wages at the rate of Rs 87 per day for developing the garden which would continue for seven years,” said Development Officer of the Council, Ratnajit Debbarma.

Debbarma said, seven years from now the rubber trees would start producing latex which could be sold in markets at a high price and one hectare of land would earn about Rs 5,000 per month which would gradually rise to Rs 12,000 per month.

After twenty five years the rubber trees, numbering about 400, could be sold at Rs 4 lakh, while with an investment of Rs 1,50,000 a new garden could be prepared.

The State Forest department introduced rubber in Tripura as a part of afforestation in 1963. The first rehabilitation scheme for tribal shifting cultivators or ‘jhumias’ began in 1977 and at present over 12,000 families were resettled in different rubber plantation schemes.

PTI

Sangma’s daughter wins Tura Lok Sabha seat

Tura, May 25 : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Agatha Kongkal Sangma won the Tura parliamentary by-election in Meghalaya Sunday by a record margin, crushing Zenith Sangma of the Congress. An election official said the NCP candidate, daughter of former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma, won by a margin of 181,760 votes.

“I am very happy and thank the people for their overwhelming support. I am committed to keeping my poll promises of working towards the overall development of the region,” Agatha told IANS after her victory.

Elections were held Thursday with an estimated 65 percent of the total 400,000 eligible voters exercising their franchise.

The Tura seat fell vacant after nine-time MP Purno Agitok Sangma resigned as MP to contest the Meghalaya assembly election earlier this year. Agatha is the youngest daughter of the veteran parliamentarian.

With Agatha’s win, the entire family of Sangma, barring her mother, is in politics.

The senior Sangma launched his two sons - Conrad and James - into politics earlier this year. The two brothers contested the assembly elections as NCP candidates.

Both won. Conrad is now a cabinet minister in charge of finance, tourism, power and a few other departments. James is the parliamentary secretary for home.

The senior Sangma, after winning the Tura assembly seat, is now the chairman of the Meghalaya Planning Board although he is literally the de facto chief minister of the state.

The only person not interested in active politics is Sangma’s wife.

Tura, dominated by the Garo tribe to which he belongs, has been Sangma’s bastion. It has elected him to parliament nine times since 1977 and twice to the state assembly.

Agatha is a lawyer by profession and was practicing in New Delhi before she was initiated into politics. She is also a Masters in Environmental Management from School of Geography, Nottingham University, Britain.

Prior to the assembly elections in March, the senior Sangma decided to quit national politics.

Sangma left state politics 22 years ago but made a mark nationally by getting elected to the Lok Sabha as many as nine times from Tura.

He was earlier Meghalaya’s chief minister on two occasions before being toppled by a political veteran. He became nationally well known after being the Lok Sabha speaker.

IANS

Doctors under rebel fire in Manipur

Imphal, May 27 : After security forces and politicians, doctors are on the firing line of separatist rebels in northeastern India’s Manipur state, affecting healthcare in the area bordering Myanmar, hospital authorities said Tuesday. The Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the state’s best-known speciality healthcare facility, has been closed since Monday doctors and paramedics refusing to work after a bomb explosion within its premises late Sunday.

The bomb attack, set off by a timer device, was carried out by the Kangleipak Communist Party-Military Council (KCP), one of Manipur’s 17 or more active insurgent groups. There was no casualty. The KCP has since claimed responsibility for the attack but gave no reason for hitting out at a medical facility.

The RIMS staff had staged a sit-in Monday to protest the attack.

“Doctors and nurses will attend to the in-house patients but not admit fresh patients during the strike,” RIMS Medical Superintendent Y. Mohen Singh said. RIMS authorities have decided to perform only emergence life-saving surgeries.

The blast took place near the Institute’s Microbiology department which is close to the director’s office.

RIMS sources said a caller identifying himself as a KCP member made an extortion demand a week ago. RIMS authorities would not confirm this immediately.

Only last fortnight, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who became the country’s first health minister to visit Manipur in 30 years, had said: “I promise to make RIMS the best in the region and one of the best in the country in two to three years.”

Ramadoss also announced free treatment at RIMS for people living below the poverty line. The minister said MBBS seats at the institute would be increased from 100 to 150 this year and a 100-bed fully-equipped cancer centre would be set up at RIMS.

However, morale among the institute staf has dropped precipitiously since the bomb attack.

IANS

RIMS blast strongly condemned

Imphal, May 27 : In protest against the last evening’s bomb blast at RIMS, the functioning of the OPD, Casualty and Operation Theatre of the hospital has been suspended for three days with effect from today.

However, all indoor health care services and emergency operations shall not be affected during this period.
Meanwhile, Director of RIMS Prof L Fimate, while decrying the bomb attack which come at a time when efforts are being made by the Centre to develop RIMS as unfortunate, has urged all the social organisations in the State to raise their voice to ensure against such violence incidents do not recur.

Condemning the incident, a joint meeting of the Head of Departments, president and secretaries of Teachers and Medical Officers’ Associations, Junior Doctors’ Association, Non-Teaching Employees’ Welfare Association, Trained Nurses Association of India, RIMS Branch and RIMS Students’ Union held at the conference hall of the medical institute in the morning today has decided to suspend the OPD and Casualty services for period of three days with effect from today.

All the indoor health care services and emergency operations, however, shall be continued unaffected and Casualty shall re-open on May 29 at 8 am.

The meeting also decided that all classes shall be cancelled during the period, however, the examinations shall remain unaffected.

Furthermore, the meeting decided to submit a memorandum to the RIMS authority to improve security chain and also to restrict vehicle entry for patient party inside the campus and issue an appeal to all underground organisations operating in Manipur to make RIMS a ‘free zone’ and to refrain from repeating such act of violence in future in the larger interest of patients, staff and students.

After the meeting, a relay protest demonstration led by the Director of the Institute has also begun from today.

Placards with slogans like ‘Bomb attack in Hospital is an act of terrorism’, ‘Don’t carry out terrorist activities inside Hospital area’ ‘We condemn bomb blast inside RIMS compound’ etc were seen being put at the site of the protest demonstration.

Talking to The Sangai Express in connection with the bomb attack, Director of RIMS Prof L Fimate said that the bomb attack which come at a time when the Centre has been paying serious attention for development of RIMS was very unfortunate as it may give out wrong signal.

So, all the social organisations in the State should raise their voice so that no such violent incident do not recur in the future.

Pointing out that even in times of war, hospitals are spared, the Director urged all concerned to refrain from attacking RIMS.

TSE

Bomb Blast at RIMS, KCP (MC) accuses, Dr Fimate rubbishes

Imphal, May 27 : Stating that the last night’s bomb attack near the office of RIMS Director Dr Fimate was carried out by the 5th Laljaba Unit Demo special team of KCP (MC) under the instruction of its Central Security Council, secretary military affairs of the outfit Lanheiba Meitei has explained that the attack was carried out as part of KCP (MC) ‘Amotpa Sengdongpa Operation’.

In a statement, Lanheiba Meitei appealed to the people not to be taken aback by the attack at a hospital as it was not directed on the premier medical institute as such but to teach a lesson as a last warning to Dr Fimate, Medical Superintendent Dr Mohan and their cronies who have indulging in corrupt practices, thereby belittling the noble profession of doctors.

The attack was in no way related to activities of RIMS or the contract works, Lanheiba asserted.

However, on the other hand, RIMS Director Dr Fimate has categorically refuted the charges levelled against him by KCP (MC) as ‘concocted and baseless’.

‘It is nothing but character assassination and defamation’, Dr Fimate said, adding that interested persons may confirm the truth of the matter from the candidates concerned.

Dr Fimate felt that KCP (MC) has come up with such false charges as RIMS authority has turned down its monetary demand.

Levelling a series of charges, Lanheiba said in the recent appointment to the posts of attendant and nurse, Dr Fimate had taken Rs 10 to 3 lakhs from each of the candidates besides Rs 8 lakhs from one Dr Ranjana (Microbiologist) and Rs 7 lakhs from one Dr Pratima (Gynaecologist) for the post of Senior Resident Doctors.

Rs 10 lakhs had also been taken from one Dr Romeo (Medicine) for promotion to Assistant Professor.

Because of such corrupt practices, Senior Dr Sudha, who cannot grease the palm of Dr Fimate had to take voluntary retirement from RIMS.

Moreover, Dr Ibomcha, one of the most qualified doctors, had been sidelined from an interview recently in favour of an ST candidate who is nonspecialist MBBS citing ST quota for the selection.

If the seat was reserved for ST quota, then interview fee should not have been charged from the general candidates and allowed them to participate in the interview in the first place, Lanheiba reasoned.

On top of this, without displaying the list of the panel on the notice board, various appointments are being made on the sly, Lanheiba said, citing reinstatement of one Dr James who was under suspension in Gynaecology Department and appointment of five MBBS doctors whose names were not even featured in the waiting list in the Anaesthesiology Department of RIMS, Lanheiba alleged, warning that KCP (MC) would not spare Dr Fimate and his corrupt cronies even if they were dying on their sick beds.

TSE

Probe into NC Hills anomalies

Guwahati, May 27 : The Assam cabinet today constituted a one-man inquiry commission to probe the alleged corruption and financial anomalies in the ASDC-BJP led North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council.

Government spokesperson and health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said Raj Bhavan had brought to the notice of the state government how funds were diverted by the council to help DHD (J) rebels.

Justice (retd) R.K. Manisena Singh has been asked to probe the charge. Sources said the commission has been given two months to wrap up the probe. Singh was earlier entrusted with the job of probing the violence that broke out during an Adivasi rally at Beltola last year.

At a marathon meeting tonight, the cabinet also approved the modalities prepared by the cabinet sub-committee headed by Bhumidhar Barman to update the National Register of Citizens.

It also cleared the decks for giving cabinet status to Bhupen Hazarika and Vaishnavite scholar Sonaram Chutia.

In another development, Dispur tonight dissolved the elected council body of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation following advice from advocate general A.K. Phookan.

Sources said the decision was taken since the term of the sitting mayor, Dolly Bora, expired on May 22. Besides, 27 of the 54 councillors have already resigned.

Telegraph India

ULFA recruiting Bangladeshis, rebel arrested

Shillong, May 26 : The recruitment of Bangladeshi nationals by the outlawed ULFA came to light on Monday with the BSF arresting an ultra, a native of the neighbouring country, from Meghalaya.

Troops of the BSF’s 35 battalion nabbed Parameshwar Chandra Kotch near the Chandabui outpost in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills district today.

A resident of Sherpur district in Bangladesh, Kotch has been working for the ULFA since 2001 under the direct guidance of ULFA leader Ranju Chowdhury at the Baragajni camp of the group in Bangladesh, the BSF quoted Kotch as saying during investigation.

Kotch said he used to collect information for the ULFA from the Indo-Bangla border areas.

The BSF claims that Kotch was instrumental in recruiting youths of Meghalaya and Assam into the outfit.

He has ferried youths in groups of three-four at least 15-20 times from Assam and Meghalaya to the rebel camps of Bangladesh, he said during investigation.

The arrest comes in the backdrop of India pressing on the neighbouring country to dismantle the ULFA camps working in its territory and flush out the militants. Dhaka has been denying about the presence of Indian militants in its territory.

Agencies

north east online - north east india news