Thursday, October 15, 2009

China should accept 'reality': Arunchal CM

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runachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu on Tuesday took strong exception to China's objection to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the state, saying that country should "accept the reality" and refrain from laying claim to the state.

In a statement, Khandu hoped that China would accept the reality and refrain from laying claim on the hilly tribal state which graduated to electoral democracy in 1975.

"Between the two visits of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year and this year, several central ministers including then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony had reiterated that Arunachal Pradesh is an inalienable part of India and that no power on the earth can snatch it away from India," he said.

Khandu pointed out that President Pratibha Patil also visited the state to endorse the stand of the Union government.

The Centre had also reacted strongly to Chinese objection to Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, saying the comments were disappointing as the state is an inalienable part of the country and such remarks do "not help" the process of talks on boundary issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu had said that China is "strongly dissatisfied with the visit to the disputed region by the Indian leader disregarding China's serious concerns".

Centre to offer political package to Nagas by year end

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he Centre is contemplating a broad-based "political package" for Nagas for an "acceptable and honourable settlement" to the decades-old political conflict, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Tuesday.

Before finalising the "counter proposals" to the charter of demands submitted by NSCN-IM, the Centre wanted to know the views and opinions of the cross section of Naga society, Pillai told newsmen in Kohima.

Suggestions would be incorporated in the package to be submitted to the Union Cabinet for approval.

Pillai, who is in Kohima on a two-day visit to the state, held a series of discussions with Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, government officials and Naga civil society groups.

The home secretary, who has been dealing with northeast affairs for a long time in various capacities, clarified that the counter proposals or the political package is "not conditional" and the Centre is open to holding negotiations on it with the underground groups and Naga civil societies to arrive at a consensus.

The state government, political parties and various Naga NGOs have time and again told the Centre that the permanent settlement to the vexed problem did not lie with a single underground group, he said adding "the solution must be acceptable to all sections of the Naga society."

Voters better ’04, touch 72 pc mark

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here was heavy polling for the Arunachal Pradesh assembly elections on Tuesday, with 72 per cent of the 733,000 electors turning out to vote.

Elections were held in 57 of the 60 assembly seats, as the Congress has no opponent in three.

In the 2004 assembly elections, the voter turnout was 70 per cent.

“At least 72 per cent of votes were cast,” Chief Electoral Officer Yeshi Tsering said on the phone from Itanagar. “We can arrive at the exact figure only after reports from remote centres come in.”

He said the voting was peaceful except in 23 polling booths where there were reports of clashes between supporters of parties. Electronic voting machines were also damaged in these places. However, the reports will be verified and sent to the Election Commission (EC). Repoll, if ordered by the EC, will take place on October 16 or 17.

Polling was suspended temporarily in two booths — under the Kanobari constituency (700 km southeast of Itanagar) – because there were located in a place that both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh claim. Opposition to the elections came from local people and the police. However, the polling could be completed.

Of the 2,063 polling booths in the state, eight had nine voters or less. Two of them – Upper Mudoi Deep under the Bordumsa-Diyun constituency (600 km southeast of Itanagar) and Mramboo under the Anini constituency (400 km northeast of Itanagar) – had three voters each.

There were 154 candidates in fray in the elections.

Nagaland police vacate post in Ukhrul district

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MPHAL: Nagaland Police, who occupied a post in the remote Jessami area in Ukhrul district, vacated the place on Wednesday following intense
pressure from the Centre and Manipur government. A company of IRB (Manipur) has occupied it.

"After pressure from chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh on the issue, the ministry of home affairs intimated DGPs of both Manipur and Nagaland to carry out the occupation process," government spokesman and sports minister Biren said.
Trouble began after a joint team, including a group of Manipur scribes, visited the Jessami area bordering Nagaland recently and saw a police post and two rest houses set up there by the Nagaland government. The issue was published in the media and subsequently the post was vacated by BSF.

Biren added that there were no hard feelings between the two state governments over the issue and the Nagaland government had informed that the occupation of the vacated BSF post by Nagaland Police was not done with any intention of encroachment.

Ibobi Singh had already stated the same in his intimation and Union home minister P Chidambaram clarified that the Centre had not given any instructions to Nagaland Police to occupy the barrack left by the BSF.

The CM said efforts would be made to include Jessami villagers in the proposed recruitment of 300 Village Defence Force (VDF) personnel for Ukhrul district. Reacting to the Jessami issue, the United Committee Manipur (UCM) had expressed serious concern over the government's inactiveness in protecting against the state boundaries.

A conglomerate of social organizations campaigning to safeguard Manipur's territorial integrity, UCM said the state was unable to set up a boundary commission and put up boundary pillars in correct areas along the porous India-Myanmar border.

Anti-uranium stir gathers steam, govt jeep torched

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HILLONG: The anti-uranium stir in Meghalaya is getting murkier than ever. A government vehicle was set ablaze by miscreants on Wednesday, hours
ahead of a night road blockade called by Khasi Students Union (KSU), which begun at 7 this evening to protest against the proposed uranium mining project in the state.

A Maruti Gypsy, belonging to the health department's Pasteur Institute, was burnt down at Jaiaw locality in the city in the afternoon. "The vehicle was parked on the roadside when four men lobbed something burning at it. The driver was inside, but disembarked immediately after the vehicle caught fire," police sources said.

The East Khasi Hills district administration has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 (CrPC) restricting any person or group of persons from obstructing any vehicular movement or causing damage to any vehicle," East Khasi Hills deputy commissioner J Lyngdoh said.

KSU had called for night road blockade from 7 pm on Wednesday to 5 am on Thursday, which would resume at 9 pm on Thursday to 5 am on Friday. The blockade is in protest against the state government's decision to lease 422 sq hectares of land to Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) in the uranium-rich areas of the state for pre-project developmental work. The Union maintains that the project would lead to severe health hazards besides damaging the environment.

Government sources said Central paramilitary forces would be deployed, if required, to ensure that the blockade does not affect normal life. Principle secretary (Home) Barkos Warjri said the SPs of East and West Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills and Ri-Bhoi districts have been instructed to ensure free flow of traffic on the highways. "Orders have been given to officials to keep government vehicles in safe custody during the blockade hours," he said.

Repolling in 28 Arunachal booths

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TANAGAR: A day after the Assembly elections, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to conduct repolling in 28 polling booths of Arunachal
Pradesh. On Tuesday, the frontier state witnessed a voter turnout of 72 per cent.

Elections at these polling stations spread across 13 Assembly constituencies had to be suspended following incidents of damage and snatching of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Though the EC is yet to finalize the date for repolling, sources at the election office here said it is likely to be held on October 18. Reports from many interior polling stations, however, are still awaited.

"We are yet to get the final percentage of polling as reports from various remote and inaccessible polling stations are yet to arrive. The total number of booths where repolling would be conducted can only be ascertained after all reports reach our office," deputy chief electoral officer D Bhattacharya said.

According to reports so far, repolling would be conducted in booths spread across Chayantajo, Ziro-Hapoli, Palin, Raga, Dumporijo, Bameng, Mebo, Daporijo, Nacho, Nyapin, Basar, Nari-Koyu and Likabali constituencies.

At the Hari polling booth of Ziro-Hapoli constituency in Lower Subansiri district, the poll process was suspended abruptly following damage of EVMs by people after detecting a fake ballot paper pasted over the original ballot paper of the EVM. Only 38 persons had exercised their franchise when the machine was damaged. Three AITC workers suspected to be involved in the incident have been arrested. In Hija, also under under Lower Subansiri district, polling was adjourned midway after detection of fake ballot papers.

Strike by teachers evokes mixed response

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UWAHATI/SILCHAR: The 12-hour dawn-to-dusk state bandh called by the Assam Sikshak Karmachari Aikamanch, a forum for teachers and employees of
17,000 odd non-provincialized schools and junior collages, evoked partial response on Wednesday.

The strike was called to press for provincialization of schools and junior colleges. The bandh, however, remained peaceful but about 2000 picketers of the forum were detained by police in various districts of the state.

In some districts, vehicles were off the roads but shops, business establishments, government offices and educational institutions were open. However, attendance was thin in all the places.

At Mayong in Morigaon district, the picketers of the forum also gheraod state education minister Goutam Bora seeking fulfillment of the demands of the forum.

Joint secretary of the forum, Diganta Kumar Sarma, said, "The bandh was almost total in all the districts of the state, particularly in the Upper Assam districts. About 2000 of our picketers were detained by police during the bandh hors. Almost all of them were released, excluding 3 in Nalbari and two teachers in Dhubri.

Meghalaya dam deaths warning for Assam

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UWAHATI: Anti-dam organizations in the North-East on Wednesday said the disaster at a hydro-power project in Meghalaya in which nine people were
killed is a warning against mega dams coming up in the region.

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a farmer rights' organisation opposing downstream impact in Assam due to mega dam constructions in Arunachal Pradesh, termed the disaster in Meghalaya as an eye-opener of the potential danger from mega hydro-pojects proposed in the region.

"The mishap in Meghalaya should alert the Assam government on potential downstream impact from the slew of dams coming up in Arunachal," said KMSS secretary Akhil Gogoi said.

Recently, the KMSS held a mass rally here and demanded that mega dam constructions be stopped for the sake of the security of people living in the downstream areas.

The All Idu Mishmi Students' Union (AIMSU), which is opposing the 3,000 MW Dibang valley multi-purpose hydel project in Arunachal, too, considered the disaster in Meghalaya as a pre-warning.

"Dams are always induced with disaster. If it has happened in Meghalaya, it can happen anywhere in the region," AIMSU member Raju Mimi said.

KLO commander wants peace parleys with Centre

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OKRAJHAR: Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) zonal commander Dhananjay Barman, who is now in police custody, has appealed to the Centre for
initiating peace talks with the outfit.

Barman said this while speaking to the media in Kokrajhar on Wednesday. The militant leader, who was arrested along with his wife in Kokrajhar on August 30, told the Centre he would bring KLO chairman Jibon Singha to the negotiating table if talks were held. "I am talking to the media for the first time. I am appealing to the Centre to give us a chance to join the peace process. We want tripartite talks with the state government and Centre and our main issue would be "jatisatta", Barman said.

On Wednesday, a West Bengal Police team led by Coochbehar OC Bimal Kumar Mandal took Barman into custody. The KLO commander, who allegedly masterminded the blast on a passenger train at Belakoba in North Bengal's Jalpaguri district in 2006, is wanted in several cases.

The KLO commander said there was a close nexus among militant outfits from the North-East based in Bangladesh and that leaders of these groups often met to make strategies. He added that NDFB chairman Ranjan Daimary frequently met KLO chairman Jibon Singha. "Daimary met our chairman quite often. Ulfa chairman Aurabinda Rajkhowa also visited Singha," he said.

Barman said he used to help leaders of other outfits in co-ordinating intra-organization work. "We have also taken help from Tripuri militants led by Ranjit Dev Barman," he added. Talking about his hideout in Kokrajhar, Barman said, "I got shelter due to the help of some Rajbangshi youths belonging to our outfit."

Gogoi turns heat on dy commissioners

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UWAHATI: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi cracked the whip on deputy com-missioners on Wednesday making it clear he would not compromise on their
performance.

The yardsticks for gauging their achievements are fast-paced development and a fool-proof system to maintain law and order. Gogoi was speaking at a two-day conference of deputy commissioners here on Wednesday.

"I have ordered to set up a committee headed by the chief secretary to as-sess the performance of DCs and categorize them in A, B and C catego-ries. Those in C category will be shifted out of the district," he said.

The chief minister has asked all deputy commissioners to consider the ab-normal rise in prices of essential commodities and resolved not to allow traders to take undue advantage of the situation.

He also instructed the DCs to ensure full functioning of the public distribution system to benefit the people and to take steps to solve the "artificial" scarcity of cooking gas.

Gogoi, however, expressed unhappiness over unsatisfactory implementa-tion of NREGA in some of the districts.

The chief minister also called for pushing agriculture produce to meet the scarcity of fooditems and asked the DCs to remove middlemen in all government purchases.

Deepor Beel remains a dumping ground

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UWAHATI: Deepor Beel has turned from a pristine wetland to a wasteland. The city continues to dump municipal waste close to the water body
located on the outskirts despite a clear directive from the environment and forest ministry to the state government in 2006, urging it to stop dumping garbage near the Beel.

The directive, issued on October 4, 2006, by then director-general of forests J C Kala to Assam chief secretary S Kaliban, categorically asked the authorities to stop dumping waste matter near the wetland. The letter stated, "It is a very serious issue which needs immediate intervention at your level. May I request to immediately direct the authorities to stop dumping of wastes in the wetland and ensure that cleaning-up work of wetland is immediately taken up under the supervision of experts."

Ironically, a source in the forest department said dumping of municipal waste continued even after the instruction issued by the ministry about three years ago, putting the Ramsar Site wetland under great ecological risk. "Dumping garbage in a haphazard manner has come to such a pass that municipal waste has started spilling out of the wetland after the recent rains which left a swathe of Deepor Beel's surrounding areas flooded," the source said.

The 2006 directive stated that politician and environmentalist Maneka Gandhi had brought Deepor Beel's deplorable condition to the ministry's notice. She had said the wetland was being used for dumping solid waste and medical refuse by municipal authorities. The Guwahati Muncipal Corporation (GMC) had conceded that haphazard dumping of garbage and incompletion of a protective embankment at the dumping site has resulted in a spillover of solid wastes.

"The spillover is owing to the non-completion of an embankment to stop garbage from getting washed away to Deepor Beel. The embankment was supposed to be completed last year. Unfortunately, a portion of the embankment is still unfinished. Once the work is done, the problem of spillover will be solved," S Thiek, additional commissioner of GMC, said last week.

Traffic treasure

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llegal parking, biking without wearing helmets and non-renewal of vehicle documents might be giving traffic cops in Guwahati a hard time, but
they are royally adding to the state government's exchequer.

This may sound strange, but the traffic rule violations have been adding over Rs 7 lakh every month as fine to the treasury of Guwahati Traffic Police (GTP). According to data available with GTP, more than 100 cases are reported every day under the of Motor Vehicle Act. And, as the number of traffic norm violations cases increase by the day, so does the penalty amount.

GTP collected Rs 1.2 crore as fine during enforcement checking in 2008, which had been Rs 1.32 crore in the previous year. In 2006, the amount of fine collected was estimated to be Rs 66,40,210. Till June this year, GTP has already collected over Rs 50 lakh as fine in the city.

According to a senior traffic police official, the penalty amounts collected had even gone up to Rs 18 lakh in a few months during 2007 and 2008. "There has been a drastic increase in the number of traffic rule violations. This has led to the increase in the amount of fines collected by us. More than Rs 30,000 is collected as fine by our personnel from parts of the city. Most of the amount is collected from people who park their vehicles illegally in no-parking zones," the GTP official added.

The fast rising number of vehicles are choking city arteries and, coupled with a lack of proper parking space, is leading to a tremendous rise in traffic rule violations. A staggering 18 lakh Motor Vehicle Act violation cases has been reported by GTP since 2006.

In 2006, GTP reported that 50,331 cases have been registered while the number of cases went up to 71,157 in the next year. GTP registered 47,045 cases during 2008 and, till June in the current year, 18,000 cases have been registered.
The GTP official said the amount of fines has gone up after the traffic department tightened its noose against violators and pressed some recovery vans into service to check illegal parking.

"The fine amount went up as we accelerated our drive against the violations of traffic rules after the October 30 blast last year. The Guwahati Municipal Corporation has introduced 60 parking slots but illegal parking is still on," the official rued.