Manipuri officer awarded Kirti Chakra

IMPHAL, Aug 14: Two young Army officers, Maj. N Buddhimanta Singh and Maj. Rajender Kumar Sharma, both attached to the 32 Assam Rifles now posted in Manipur, were among five recipients of the prestigious Kirti Chakra for gallantry this year.
The awards were announced this evening on the eve of Independence Day to be celebrated throughout the country tomorrow.
The Kirti Chakra is the second highest peacetime military gallantry award after Ashok Chakra, equivalent to the Maha Vir Chakra, the wartime military gallantry award. Ashok Chakra likewise is equivalent to the wartime Param Vir Chakra.
Maj Buddhimanta Singh, is a local lad and is the son of inspector general of police N Shyamananda Singh, IPS, of the Government of Manipur.
He is the first from Manipur to receive this award.
When contacted by IFP, an elated commander of the 32 Assam Rifles, Col Deepak Sharma, said this is one of the happiest moments in his entire career.
“There has never been a precedent in the history of the Indian Army in which a single battalion received two Kirti Chakras in the same year” is said.

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Technology Institute Brings Hope For Assam Silk Weavers

Once known for weaving magic, the artisans of the silk town of Sualkuchi in Assam have fallen on bad days unable to face competition from modern technology.

The silk woven in the town, situated some 35 kms from here on the banks on Brahmaputra, was once a craze not only in the country, but various parts of the world, particularly the European market.With the fast-growing modern weaving techniques having revolutionized the industry in other centres where silk production had flourished, the produce of the Sualkuchi town, depending on age-old and traditional methods of weaving, started to see its downfall.

Considering the potential of the industry, the authorities of Kamrup district in Assam decided to set up a fashion technology institute in collaboration with the North Eastern Council (N.E.C.) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (N.I.F.T.), Kolkata.

The Sualkuchi Institute of Fashion Technology (S.I.F.T.) is providing a common platform for fashion and design education, research and training.

Weavers here have hardly been successful in finding a market for the products.

According to officials, resistance to using modern technology was the main reason behind the decline. Despite demands for silk attires in the European market, the weavers failed to meet the growing demand due to technological stagnation and lack of interest to introduce innovations.

The main objective of the institute was to enhance the livelihood of the weavers and to create a new brand for Sualkuchi silk in the market.

District administration sources said the institute would cover areas of conducting intensive integrated training program on fashion and textile designing and exploration of a design bank specific to Sualkuchi through computer-aided designing programs.

The construction of lecture rooms, seminar hall and separate hostel facilities for boys and girls is over.

P.S. Barbora who has been appointed the first principal of the institute said the duration of the program has been initially fixed for six weeks per batch which will have 25 trainees.

The N.I.F.T., Kolkata, will implement the integrated training program on fashion and textile design by deputing experienced faculty members and experts.

Sushma Baishya, a 60-year-old weaver who has been throughout her life working on her loom in the backyard of her house in central Sualkuchi said the project has injected fresh lease of hope for the weavers.

“I hope my children will not have to suffer like me because traditional methods of weaving have become redundant and production was less while cost was more,” she said.

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Manipur police medals for 25 personnel announced

Imphal, Aug 16 : The state government has announced the names of 25 police personnel who have been awarded this year’s President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and Police Medal for Meritorious Service on the occasion of the Independence Day, 2008, a DIPR release said.

The President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service has been awarded to A Romenkumar Singh, Addl DG of Police (Int.), Manipur while the the Police Medal for Meritorious Service has gone to Laxmi Prasad Chhetry, Commandant of the 6th IRB, E Priyokumar Singh, Commandant of the 1st Bn Manipur Rifles, and L Ishwarlal Sharma, Asst Commandant, 2nd Bn Manipur Rifles.The Police Medal for Gallantry has been awarded to 21 police personnel. They are Sub-inspector P Sanjoy Singh, Sub-inspector K Dineshkumar Singh, Constable Th Sunil Singh, Rifleman M Ingocha Singh, Constable Th Hemanta Singh, Sub-inspector Ningombam Sadananda Singh, Constable E Joykumar Singh, Constable Yumnam Sharatchandra Singh, Constable T Jiten Singh, Jemadar I Khaba Singh, Havildar L Rameshwor Singh, Rifleman M Akaton Singh, Constable Th Dilip Singh, Sub-inspector K Bobby, Head Constable M Premkumar Singh, Constable Y Sharatchandra Singh (1st Bar to PMG), Constable L Naba Singh, Assistant Sub-inspector Th Phulchandra, Rifleman Laishram Surchandra Singh, Rifleman Yumnam Robish Kumar Singh and Rifleman Naorem Budha Singh.

Manipur Police received the second maximum number of Police Medal for Gallantry on the occasion. Only Andhra Pradesh Police received more.

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London, New York, get set to savour northeast Indian delicacies

Kolkata, Aug 16 : The West may be high on tikka and tandoori, but here come meat with bamboo shoot, cooked wild herbs, banana stems and more. Dishes from India’s northeast are set to invade palates in London, New York and Paris through a new restaurant chain.

Guwahati-based master chef Atul Lahkar is hoping to put northeastern cuisine - which is low on oil and boasts of herbal and organic fare - on the world food map by opening eateries abroad.“It has been my dream to take the region’s cuisine to the global market. I am glad that through support from friends and food connoisseurs spread across the world, my dream will soon materialise,” Lahkar, 42, told IANS.

“The best part about northeastern cuisine is that it is not only mouth-watering, but is quite healthy and simple to cook,” he added.

He is planning to open the restaurant chain exclusively serving ethnic northeastern dishes in global cities like London, New York, Paris and even in exotic Athens by next year.

Over a period of eight years, Lahkar has ventured into every nook and cranny of northeast India and documented over 200 recipes. The chef now wants to make delicacies from the northeast as popular as Chinese, Continental and Mughlai cuisines.The idea to go global was fuelled further when three of Lahkar’s eateries in Guwahati serving ethnic cuisine gained enormous popularity - not only among locals but also among foreign tourists.

“Due to the introduction of global food habits across the region in the last two decades, the new generation has almost lost interest in the food prepared by our grandmothers. But the three eateries started by Lahkar in the last few years have revived the lost glory of northeastern food,” said Guwahati-based food critic Husina Salam.

Lahkar said: “After visiting my eateries in Guwahati, many Assamese NRIs have asked me to popularise Assamese cuisine in the global market. To gauge the response to northeastern delicacies outside the region, I visited Bangkok, London and Paris, to name a few.”

Everywhere he carried his food, the response was overwhelming.

“Less of oil and lots of herbs and organic food products is the secret behind the taste of ethnic cuisine from the northeast. Moreover, our dishes are very innovative and quite different from usual Indian dishes, which is its USP,” said Lahkar.

The chef developed an interest in cooking various dishes of the region from his grandmother when he was a teenager.

Some of Lahkar’s recipes form part of the everyday menu in a typical household in the northeast. Be it khar (alkaline), khorika (barbecued dishes), or pork cooked in bamboo shoot, Lahkar’s inspiration has always been the simple and healthy food habits of the region.

“If chicken, beef, pork and mutton form the integral part of the northeastern food spread, then vegetarian fare can have various items such as kosu shak (Egyptian arum), dhekia shak (a species of fern), bon shak (wild herbs), posolar khar (banana stem), to name a few,” added Lahkar, who has written two cookery books.

Alaska-based entrepreneur Jayashree Khataniar, during a vacation in her hometown Guwahati, said: “Whenever I am in Guwahati, I make it a point to visit one of Lahkar’s eateries to taste authentic cuisine of northeast.

“He is surely helping the cuisine to gain popularity.”

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Ban on Mizoram tobacco product likely

Aizawl, Aug 15 : Mizoram Pollution Control Board on Monday said that the distillation and manufacturing of ‘tuibur’, a unique tobacco-based nicotine liquid should be banned, as the process, undertaken in the streams polluted the water and surrounding forests.

The MPCB said the streams used for distillation of ‘tuibur’ in and around the State capital and other big towns are the sources of traditional community water holes from where nearby families collected water for domestic consumption.The water in the water holes thus become polluted and cause harm to humans and other creatures in water bodies, the Board warned. “The foul smell, which originated from the distillation of ‘tuibur’ itself is also distasteful to the public,” the release said.

Tuibur is one of the traditional tobacco products of Mizo tribals, earlier manufactured by older women in a smoking pipe, but now produced for large-scale consumption.

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