Inner line permit issue causes furore in northeast

Aizawl, Jul 27 : A court ruling permitting non-domicile Indians to settle in three northeastern states without obtaining a permit has created a furore in the region, with the affected states saying they would appeal against this.

The Guwahati High Court, while ruling on a public suit against the Inner-Line Permit (ILP) system, had barred the Mizoram government from arresting or deporting any Indian nationals on the ground that they did not possess the document.
Now, the governments of Mizoram, as also of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh - the other two states where the ILP is in force - plan to move a division bench of the high court and even the Supreme Court to get the verdict overturned.

‘The three states have decided to move the high court division bench or the Supreme Court, besides appealing to the central government to ensure its continuation,’ Mizoram Law Minister H Rammawi told IANS.

He had led a delegation earlier this month to Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to meet the chief ministers and law ministers of the two states to discuss the matter.

Nagaland Chief Minister Nephiu Rio, Home Minister Imkong Imchen and Arunachal Pradesh Law Minister Tako Dabi ‘told us that the three states should go any extent to continue the ILP,’ Rammawi said.

The ILP, or the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, has been in force in the region since 1873. The tribal-based Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and the Khasi Students Union (KSU) of Meghalaya have also demanded that the ILP be promulgated in their states to protect the indigenous people.

‘The ILP does not affect tourists and other visitors, but the states must have some regulations for outsiders, particularly for suspected foreign migrants, to protect the ethnic and indigenous tribes of the northeast,’ said Arunachal Pradesh Law Minister Tako Dabi.

The high court’s June 12 order has triggered massive resentment in the three northeastern states.

Christian-majority Mizoram June 26 observed a dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by the Young Mizo Association (YMA) against the high court order.

Supported by various political parties, YMA, which is a powerful and non-political organization, also organised protest demonstrations across the mountainous state bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh. It also unfurled black flags over buildings throughout the state.

‘The state government has appealed to the people not to be panicky and has assured that no stone would be left unturned to fight the court’s order legally even up to the Supreme Court,’ Minister Rammawi added.

Protests by NGOs, students’ organisations and regional political parties have also been staged earlier this month at different places in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

The North Eastern Students Organisation (NESO) also vehemently condemned the high court order.

‘The court took a condemnable decision undermining the sentiments of the people in three (affected) states,’ NESO said in a statement.

Share

Blogger Widgets

Mizoram facing famine again, rats devour rice and maize

Aizawl, Jul 27 : After feasting on paddy in the fields and inside granaries, armies of rodents in Mizoram have started targeting maize, devouring the crop by the tonne and leading to an acute food shortage, officials and aid agencies said. The paddy harvest in the state was 736,253 quintals in 2005. It came down to 196,535 quintals in 2006 and just about 85,000 quintals in 2007 due to rats devouring the crops,” Mizoram Agriculture Minister H. Rammawi told IANS Sunday.

The Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has said Mizoram was facing a famine after rats destroyed most of the rice crop in the state.“Aid agencies have reported that many people have been forced onto a diet of wild roots, yam and sweet potatoes,” the institute stated in its quarterly journal Rice Today published last week.

IRRI said the rodent population increased manifold after the flowering of a native species of bamboo, an event that occurs once every 50 years.

Rats have played havoc with the maize harvest, devouring it during the night. This is sad news for the farmers hit by the rat menace, an official in the state agriculture department said.

Official statistics say nearly 150,000 agrarian families have been hit by the rat menace in Mizoram.

“There is scarcity of food and people are unable to get two meals a day. Rice being the staple food, Mizoram is facing a real danger of starvation deaths in the very near future,” said S. Sailo, a church leader.

Bamboo flowering and the subsequent invasion by rats on granaries and paddy fields in the region is a phenomenon that signals an impending catastrophe or a famine.

According to tribal legend, when bamboo flowers, famine, death and destruction follow. Behind the superstition lies some scientific truth, as blooming bamboo triggers an invasion of rats that eat away food supplies.

Rats multiply at a very rapid pace after eating the protein-rich seeds that appear soon after bamboo flowering, said James Lalsiamliana, an expert. When the seeds are exhausted, armies of rats chomp their way through rice and potato crops and granaries, causing a famine.

Bamboo grows wild in 6,000 sq km of Mizoram’s total geographical area of 21,000 sq km with the state, bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar, harvesting 40 percent of India’s 80-million-tonne annual bamboo crop.

In 1958-59, a famine in Mizoram resulted in the death of at least 100 people, besides heavy loss to human property and crops.

The famine, locally known as Mautam, broke out after the state witnessed the rare phenomenon of bamboo flowering and an increase in rodent population that started emptying granaries and destroying paddy fields.

Historical accounts say Mizoram recorded a famine in 1862 and again in 1911 after the state experienced similar bamboo flowerings.

Share

Blogger Widgets