Monday, September 29, 2008

Five NLFT insurgents arrested

Agartala, Sep 29 : Five insurgents of the outlawed National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) have been arrested by security forces from two different places, police said on Monday.

Acting on a tip-off, a contingent of Assam Rifles raided Sailut, a remote tribal hamlet in North Tripura district on Sundaynight and nabbed four insurgents of the outfit with arms.
Police said the insurgents were forcibly collecting subscriptions from the villagers adding the Assam Rifles personnel recovered three guns and one grenade and some subscription receipts.

In a separate incident, jawans of the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) arrested one insurgent of the same outfit during a raid at Dhumjakarai, a tribal hamlet in Dhalai district yesterday. No arms were recovered from his possesion.

Police said they stepped up their patrolling in the remote and insurgency hit areas to ensure peaceful celebration of Durga puja.

India Post to disburse micro-credit in the Northeast

India Post is now poised to disburse micro-credit to Women Self Help Groups in 8 states and the NorthEast in a tie-up with NABARD. The states are Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. The scheme was so far operational in five districts in Tamil Nadu on a pilot basis. Post Offices in Tamil Nadu have successfully disbursed credit to the tune of Rs. 1.35 crores to 165 Women SHGs. No default has been noticed in the repayment.
Around 2,900 groups have so far been formed for credit linkage with the post offices in the districts of Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Tiruvannamalai, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur. 2000 Post Offices in 9 postal divisions are involved in this operation. Post Masters have been specially trained in nurturing SHGs and making inspections. 9% simple interest is charged on the loans out of which India Post has a share of 3% and the remaining 6% goes to NABARD.

The scheme helps the Postal department in cross selling its financial and insurance services to the members of the Self Help Groups, thus strengthening their financial & life security. It also underlines the continuing relevance of rural Post Offices and their closeness to the public.

The success of the scheme reinforces that among the rural people, the Post Office remains the preferred office for financial services, a fact that has come out in successive surveys. Post Offices in the country have already disbursed about 2900 crore rupees as wages to the beneficiaries of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The total number of accounts opened for NREGS payments is about 1.5 crores. The number of Post Offices disbursing the wages across 21 states is over 70 thousand (including Head Post Offices, Sub Post Offices and Branch Post Offices). Andhra Pradesh has the maximum number of over 94 lakh accounts.

An important concern of the NREG Scheme is that every worker is paid his/her wages for the work done expeditiously and correctly. With a view to address this concern, the Government had decided that payment of wages to the workers will be done only through Banks or Post Offices. Starting with the Andhra Pradesh Postal Circle in 2005, payment of wages under NREG Scheme has now been extended to 19 Postal Circles in 21 States.

India Post and the State Bank of India have launched a unique joint project in Punjab to provide banking facilities in the unbanked areas. The rural masses in the state can now access the loan and deposit schemes of the State Bank through post offices. The facility has already been set up in 43 post offices. The target is to extend the arrangement to 600 more post offices. Post Masters of rural postal branches have been specially trained for this purpose.

The joint venture mainly focuses on rural customers who are in need of loans but unable to reach banks. The post offices will carry out all the front office jobs for the State Bank relating to loans and deposits, including disbursement of loans. The loans will, however, be sanctioned by the SBI.

Besides delivery of mails, the basket of services being offered by Post Offices in rural and remote areas has been growing all the time.

Assam ready to invite Black Widow for talks

Guwahati, Sep 29 : Following the green signal from the Centre, Asom Government is going to invite the Dimasa militant outfit, Black Widow, for discussion to work out the modalities for ceasefire, intelligence sources said.

According to sources, the State Police Department has already had a telephonic conversation with Black Widow “commander-in-chief” Niranjan Hojai, who is reportedly in Kathmandu along with the outfit’s chief Jewel Garlosa. Sources said the formal letter to the Dimasa outfit for talks will be handed over to its emissary within three days.
Both Garlosa and Hojai, according to sources, will be present at the meeting the venue of which has not been finalized as yet.

After the last Unified Command meeting on August 29, the State Government had sent a proposal to the Centre seeking its approval for discussion with the Dimasa outfit that has been in a unilateral ceasefire since March 29.

According to intelligence sources, the approval from the Centre for talks with the Dimasa outfit reached Dispur on Tuesday last.

Sources from NC Hills, on the other hand, link the latest move taken by Dispur and New Delhi on the terror front in the hill district with the forthcoming general election. According to sources, of late the Congress and its betenoire ASDC have been inching towards each other with the latter’s relationship with the BJP in the NC Hills Autonomous Council turning sour.

This development ahead of the Lok Sabha election has much to do in the political equation in the hill district.

Mizo students ask Myanmar migrants to leave

A
izawl, Sep 29 : The Young Mizo Association (YMA), an influential students’ body in Mizoram, has served quit notices to Myanmarese migrants for allegedly harassing girls in a village, YMA leaders said Monday.”We have asked Burmese migrant workers to leave by Oct 4,” YMA leader Lalrinsanga told reporters.

The immediate provocation for the quit notice was a brawl at Thanhril village, about 20 km north of capital Aizawl, between villagers and Myanmar nationals over the alleged harassment of some Mizo girls by migrants.
There are about 30 Myamnar nationals living in Thanhril.

“The Burmese migrants also physically assaulted a local Mizo boy who came to the rescue of the women,” Lalrinsanga said.

The YMA leader, however, said there were a large number of law-abiding Myanmar migrants in various parts of Mizoram.

“We have to decide on whether or not to allow the other migrants to stay in Mizoram,” the YMA leader said.

Most of the Myanmar nationals in Mizoram are engaged in stone quarries, farms, road construction works and other odd jobs.

From time to time the Mizoram government evicts migrant workers who enter the state illegally although similar physical features makes it difficult to identify them. There are no exact figures available about the number of migrants residing in the state. Mizoram shares a 510 km long unfenced border with Myanmar.