Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Church-NGO platform working for electoral reform in Mizoram


Aizawl, Jun 25 : After its initiative in ensuring that by-elections in Tlungvel and Chawngte assembly constituencies in late 2006 was relatively unostentious, an organisation in Mizoram is working to ensure that this could be replicated in the Mizoram assembly elections due later this year.

Allegations of use of money and muscle power by political parties in elections led to the formation of the Mizo People’s Forum (MPF), an organization floated by the churches and major NGOs, on June 21, 2006.The MPF is now led by Rev H Vanlalauva, moderator of the Mizoram Presbyterian Synod, the biggest and most powerful church in the state.

MPF leaders said that according to its suggestions joint public meetings could be organized on a common platform for all candidates which would bring down expenses and waste less time of the candidate and the people.

Also, expensive and noisy street concerts to make people attend public meetings and ostentatious feasts to attract voters could be done away with, they said.

The MPF, a leader said, investigated complaints of money being given to the people and made the findings public.

The MPF was formed by representatives of the conglomerate of churches and major NGOs like the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or women’s federation and Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders’ association to work for political and electoral reforms.

The objective of the Mizoram Presbysterian Church, the main proponent of the policies of the MPF, was to do away with the party system.

Synod Social Front activist Bonny Lalrindika said that fanatical loyalty to a particular political party prevented the voter from selecting the best candidate in the constituency.

The first political party in Mizoram, the Mizo Union, formed a year before the independence was extremely fanatical about abolition of chieftainship and the popular way of showing resentment to the chiefs was throwing stones at the roofs of their houses, he said.

Hardcore Mizo Union activists used to say, ‘I will vote for the party candidate even if he or she is a frog,’ he said.

However, though it seems to be a good approach, the Presbyterian Church’s Social Front is yet to make any headway on this line.

While many people hail the efforts of the MPF to reform politics and election process, many others, including intellectuals, were sceptical about its pragmatism.

“Unless there is a will to bring about a radical change in the election process without consideration to hurt the political prospect of major political parties, metamorphosis of the political and election scenario will never occur”, a journalist said.

He said, the reality was that even the powerful church, which forced the state goverenment to impose prohibition in the state and the YMA which launched anti-drug campaigns, dared not go so far as to antagonize all political parties.

The church and the NGOs have members belonging to different political parties, which was a hard reality that confronted the MPF, its critics say.

In order to effectively reform the electoral process, there was need for legislation so that criminals, including corrupt politicians would not be allowed to contest elections, university teacher Lallianchhunga said.

The constitution of the MPF was also the outcome of numerous allegations of the use of insurgent groups from across the border and money power during the state assembly polls in 2003.

‘Fake abduction’ of three candidates of Suangpuilawn constituency on the Mizoram-Manipur border, allegedly due to the intervention of armed insurgent group from Manipur, also contributed to the rise of the vigilante organization.

Media reports said that no major political party was free from using insurgent groups from across the border and money power.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the coming elections in the state will be free from malpractices.

Novice trekkers find lost US craft


Itanagar, Jun 25 : Two adventurous government employees without a clue about trekking scaled a Changlang hill to unearth the wreckage of a World War II aircraft that had eluded explorers for 60 years.

Tokong Pertin and Maksam Perme with tribal hunter L. Komrang for a guide ploughed through inaccessible jungles and found the US fighter plane wreckage nearly 600km from Itanagar last week.However, they could break the news of their feat to the media only on Friday after they returned to Itanagar.

The excited government officials immediately contacted the US consulate in Calcutta. A four-member team comprising US defence experts is scheduled to arrive in Arunachal Pradesh soon to visit the spot and retrieve the wreckage.

This is the first discovery after the US and India recently reached an agreement to co-operate in search operations for hundreds of US aircraft that had crashed in Arunachal Pradesh during the war.

The Allied Forces, of which the US was a part, had their base in Ledo in Assam from where the planes would take off to drop supplies to troops in Kunming in China.

“It was an arduous task for us. We had to trek nearly seven hours through dense forests. We lost our way on a number of occasions. It was really a challenge for us to locate the place,” Pertin said.

He had learnt about the “strange rounded objects” — the wreckage — from local Tangsa tribesmen during a visit to Changlang earlier.

“We had to cancel trips twice to the site a couple of years ago. This time, too, the weather almost played spoilsport but we decided to push on. We were determined to scale the steep peak nearly 2,000 metres above sea level.”

“It appeared that the plane had crashed headlong into the ground as its nose was buried deep,” he added.

The local Tangsa tribemen had warned the officials against venturing deep into the jungles, which they believe is home to an evil spirit, the jakhang.

The hunter, too, was not keen to venture into the forests and it took a lot of persuasion on the part of the officials to convince him.

The adventurers found damaged wings, the engine, and propellers with long blades. They even established the identity of the manufacturer after they found the word “TITEN” written in English.

“As a government employee with no training and equipment, we could not dig out the remains of the aircraft. On seeing the small-sized single turbo engine and propellers fitted in the nose of the aircraft, it can be presumed that it might have been either shot down or lost its way and rammed into the hilltop during the war,” he added.

World Bank grant for piggery project


Guwahati, Jun 25 : It’s soon going to rain money for Kokrajhar farmers and juicy steaks for pork lovers.

A pilot project funded by the World Bank will identify 50 self-help groups in the district and assist them to set up piggeries. Each of these groups would be given 10 piglets and enough fodder for one year.

The joint director of animal husbandry and veterinary department, Mrinal Das, said this is the first project of its kind and a challenging task.“If we could make the project a success in two years, the World Bank will assist us in establishing a major piggery in the district with a capacity of over 100 pigs at a time,” Das said.

A pig farmers’ association will be formed to look after the farms. The project will begin in three months and first priority will be given to women self-help groups, he said.

A Kokrajhar-based NGO, Discovery Club, will assist the department in the project.

The animal husbandry department is also planning a massive scheme to grow fodder to meet the shortage of farm food in the state, the joint director said at a seminar-cum-workshop at the Kokrajhar Basic Training Centre.

“The state at present has a huge scarcity of fodder. There is a short fall of over 35 lakh tonnes of fodder in the state. So we are planning to launch a massive cultivation scheme to meet the shortage.”

The council head-cum-joint director of the department, P.C. Karmakar, said the two-day seminar-cum-workshop was organised to motivate field functionaries, to discuss opportunities in the field and upgrade technical knowledge regarding artificial insemination.

“Agriculture and animal husbandry is the single largest employer and the highest contributor to the Net Domestic Product, which is about 40 per cent, and animal husbandry alone contributes 80 per cent. This explains the importance of the animal husbandry in the economy of this (BTC) area,” Karmakar said.

“The department is extending services to a network of 58 state veterinary dispensaries, 53 veterinary sub-centres, 38 stock centres and three key village centres in the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri,” Karmakar said.