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The chief minister, also the new president of Cricket Association of Mizoram, lauded the efforts of the association in promoting cricket in Mizoram. ''Thanks to the association for the initiatives it had undertaken so far. Work for the stadium is in the halfway,'' he said.
Lal Thanhawla believed that cricket is the right game for Mizo boys who were good at throwing stone and catching. ''I strongly believe that Mizo boys can play cricket as well as football. This game should be popularized in Mizoram since it is also the game that makes the biggest money in our country,'' Lal Thanhawla said, and thanked the CAM for popularizing the game among the young boys.
A large plot of land at Sihhmui near here was donated by Rotluanga, a prominent citizen of Vaivakawn locality in Aizawl, for the cricket stadium in memory of his late father Suaka.
The CAM began its work on June 23, 2005 and has now transformed it into a large flat ground. The association received Rs 11.20 crore from DoNER ministry for construction of the stadium.
The CAM has been giving cricket coaching to about 70 kids below 14 years of age at Durtlang since 2008, before the sports minister launched his Catch Them Young policy.
The young boys are getting coaching classes from 0600 hours onwards in the morning session and from 1600 hours onwards in the afternoon session.
The CAM was formed by some cricket enthusiasts in Mizoram a few years back. The association is yet to be affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It had been striving hard to get the BCCI’s affiliation but to no avail till date, it was learnt. With the chief minister heading the association, it hopes to get the much sought-after affiliation soon.
''The BCCIs affiliation will go a long way in promoting and developing the game in Mizoram where a majority of young boys are crazy after football,'' a source in the association said.
Kim Kardashian takes all her clothes off in a Photoshop-free shoot for the May issue of Harper's Bazaar. She is not the first this week to get naked or forgo airbrushing. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
On her butt:
"I don't get why everyone is always going on about my butt," Kim tells the magazine. "I'm Armenian. It's normal. My butt is probably not as big as you might think, because I have small legs and a small waist, which makes it appear bigger."
On her boobs:
"I was wearing a C cup by the time I was 11," the star recalls. "I would go to bed and pray, 'Please, Lord, don't let my boobs grow any bigger.' I hated what was happening."
On her curves:
"The message [of this shoot] is embrace your curves and who you are. I feel proud if young girls look up to me and say, 'I'm curvy, and I'm proud of it now.'"
On Friday Kim tweeted about her empowerment.
By Nava Thakuria
The Asian Centre for Human Rights, a New Delhi based rights group in its report titled 'Torture in India 2010' released on April 13, argues that impunity is the root cause of increasing custodial torture in India. While the government fails to establish accountability for acts of torture perpetrated by the armed groups like the Maoists, both the Central government and the state governments also refuse to provide sanction for prosecution under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, it asserted.
"Taking 2000-2001 as the base year, custodial deaths have increased by 41.66% persons under the UPA government between 2004-2005 and 2007-2008. This includes 70.72% increase of deaths in prison custody and 12.60% increase of deaths in police custody," informed Suhas Chakma, director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.
He also added that it is only the common people who are facing the torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment. However, the UPA government has failed to address the violations of the rights of, mainly, the ‘aam aadmi’, Chakma added.
The ACHR welcomes the fact that the UPA government has taken a number of measures to address the economic rights of the 'aam aadmi' and problems of the vulnerable groups through enactment of various legislations such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the 'Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act 2008, the Right to Education Act, the Domestic Violence Act, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, the Forest Rights Act and legislation for 50% reservation for women in local bodies the panchayats and the current commitment on the Women's Reservation Bill and the Food Security Bill.
The UPA government has failed to show the same alacrity to legislate against torture. Though the Cabinet approved the decision to introduce the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 before the parliament and ratify the UN Convention Against Torture, the Bill is being treated as 'state secret'.
"If the Union government of India can hold public discussion on the Food Security Bill, why is it treating the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 as a secret document? It shows that the government has more to hide as its earlier draft, Prevention of Torture bill, 2008, contained only three operative paragraphs relating to definition of torture, punishment for torture, and limitations for cognizance of offences," Chakma stated further.
The ACHR lamented the responses of the Indian Home Ministry before the parliament that puts the responsibility only on the State governments on custodial deaths. The MHA repeatedly states, "Police and 'Public Order' are state subjects under the Constitution of India. It is for the state governments to take appropriate action in every crime."
The report mentions about the Union Territories which is governed by the Central government directly, where too, New Delhi has failed to take action against custodial deaths.
"In the decade 1999-2009, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ruled Maharashtra had the highest number of deaths (246 cases) in police custody followed by Uttar Pradesh (165 cases), Gujarat (139 cases), West Bengal (112 cases), Andhra Pradesh (99 cases), Tamil Nadu (93 cases), Assam (91 cases), Punjab (71 cases), Karnataka (69 cases), Madhya Pradesh (66 cases), Haryana (45 cases), Bihar (43 cases), Delhi (42 cases), Kerala (41 cases), Rajasthan (38 cases), Jharkhand (31 cases), Orissa (27 cases), Chhattisgarh (23 cases), Meghalaya (17 cases), Uttarakhand (16 cases), Arunachal Pradesh (15 cases), Tripura (9 cases), Goa (5 cases), Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh (4 cases each), Pondicherry (3 cases) and Mizoram, Sikkim, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Andaman & Nicober islands (1 each)," the report said.
The Central government also refused to implement the Law Commission of India's recommendations in its 152nd Report on 'Custodial Crimes' to amend the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (insertion of section 114b) to provide that in cases of custodial death, the burden of proof must lie with the police.
Among the armed opposition groups, the Naxalites or Maoists are the worst human rights violators and regularly resort to 'violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture' in blatant violation of the International Humanitarian Law.
"On 11 March 2009, the Maoists dragged Kedar Singh Bhotka (45 years) and his brother Ganesh Singh Bhotka from their house at Gurudih village under Katkamsandi police station in Hazaribagh district in Jharkhand. They were allegedly tied to a tree and tortured by the Maoists. Thereafter, while Ganesh was released, his brother Kedar, who was a government school teacher, was killed for being an alleged 'police informer'," Chakma claimed.
At the same time, Chakma further questioned, "Are we to presume that the Central government has no responsibility for the failures that led to the massacre of 76 Central Police Force Personnel in Chhattisgarh?
If that is the case why did Home Minister P Chidambaram offered to resign?" In December 2009, the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to explain why it had rejected the state Criminal investigation Department's plea to prosecute 10 officers of Mumbai Police in the Khwaja Yunus murder case. The Maharashtra government had sanctioned the prosecution of four minor officers but let off 10 senior officials despite the CID establishing their roles in the custodial death of Yunus in January 2003.
While the decision to introduce the Prevention of Torture Bill, 2010 is welcome, the ACHR director asserted that unless Government of India takes lessons learnt from the failure of the Supreme Court judgement (DK Basu judgement) and amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code and addresses these shortcomings, torture and custodial death will continue to rise.
The ACHR recommends New Delhi to hold public discussion on the Prevention of Torture bill, 2010 with all stakeholders including the civil society groups and enact the same in 2010 itself; implement the recommendations of the Law Commission of India to make consequential amendments to the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 (insertion of section 114b) to provide that in case of custodial death the onus of proving of innocence is fixed on the police; and repeal section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code to uphold the supremacy of the judiciary.
By Sujit Chakraborty
"This is a very slow pace of work. There is an urgent need to seal this stretch of the border, particularly the stretch with Manipur. Anti-Indian insurgents move freely and transport weapons through this route. Drug peddlers are equally at ease in trafficking drugs through this strategic route," he added.
Moreh town and its nearby areas were left out of the border fencing exercise, apparently to avoid the shifting of a very old Tamil temple, a portion of which has fallen on the other side of the demarcated boundary line. Initially, the priests were ready to shift the temple into Indian territory but vested interests have forced them to change their stand. Now they refuse to relocate the temple.
While the legal trade through the Moreh transit point earns about Rs 10-12 crore per annum, the volume of illegal trade is much higher. If the fencing is executed without any gaps, this illegal trade will receive a major setback, the sources highlighted.
However, the Assam Rifles and state police personnel, who are engaged in a relentless battle against the militants, are keen to seal the route. The two major insurgent groups of Manipur, the People's Liberation Army and the United Liberation Front of Manipur besides other groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) and NSCN (Khaplang) groups have their base camps in Myanmarese territory bordering India.
These militants use the Friendship Road along the border and transport weapons through the National Highway 39 which goes from Moreh to Dimapur. Myanmarese army officials are cooperative and share information and participate in joint patrolling and operations, but the lower rungs are believed to cause the problem. Their low pay and spread out deployment along this border stretch, combined with the fact that the militants allegedly pay cash ensures that the insurgents have a free hand in the region.
Drug trafficking is another menace that has become a source of concern for quite sometime now. The United Nations Drug Control Programme and the International Narcotic Control Board in their reports in 2001, identified Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram as the transit points for illegal drug trafficking from across the border. The report stated that these three states were fast emerging as the epicenter of the narco business.
The flow of drugs from across the border has already caused an AIDS epidemic in the region turning it into a high risk zone. The Konyak inhabited Eastern Nagaland border line with Myanmar, particularly Longwa, Noklak and the upper Konyak region of Tobu are known as 'silk routes' to drug peddlers.
Sources expressed concern over the lack of an effective mechanism to check this border stretch although it is a very sensitive zone because of the huge investments by China in Myanmar and the presence of most of the anti-Indian insurgent outfits just across the border.
The security issue and the effective joint patrolling along this border stretch was discussed in detail during the recent visit of Union Home Secretary G K Pillai to Myanmar. But the ground realities are yet to witness any substantial change on this matter, added the source.
The Northeast of India has been plagued by insurgencies since independence in 1947. Most violent amongst the armed movements had been the Naga National Council in the 1950s and today the NSCN (IM).
States like Assam and Manipur also witnessed armed organized violence since the 1960s and the 1970s.
At present, while violence levels have come down in Assam and Nagaland, Manipur continues to suffer from high levels of violence orchestrated by multiple insurgent groups inhabiting the state. This Issue Brief offers an assessment of insurgencies in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in 2009.
The author argues that Assam could well see the end of the 30-year old ULFA insurgency due to the arrest of its leaders in December 2009.
Nagaland's path to peace also appeared more hopeful in 2009 with a signed 'reconciliation' between rival armed groups mostly propelled by strong civil society movements for peace.
Manipur, however, continued to be plagued by insurgencies in 2009, although it can be argued that peace in Assam and Nagaland could have a 'domino-effect' for peace in this conflict ridden state.
He said at least 15 northeast insurgent camps are operating from Myanmar soil. These insurgents are fighting either for an autonomy or independent homeland in Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.
India and Myanmar are sharing 1643 km long porous border making it extremely difficult for the Juntas to launch operation against the insurgents.
Indian government fully supports the Myanmar junta government in providing all logistic supports, it further stated.
New Delhi, since long time back, has been requesting the Myanmar government to launch a strong military offensive against the northeast insurgents, namely, ULFA of Assam, UNLF, PLA, PREPAK and KYKL of Manipur that have bases in Sagaing Division and Chin State of Myanmar.
These insurgents have been fighting against India from Myanmar soil for quite some time and New Delhi has been complaining that the Myanmar juntas have not done enough to contain these anti-India activities operating from their soil.
Arunachal Pradesh Government also alleged that these insurgents used their territory as a safe corridor to organize their camps in Chinese territory.
It said the state government did not allow shelter Myanmar based rebel group-Kachin Independent Army (KIA).
But of late, cadres of KIA were reported to be in Arunachal's Tirap and Changlang districts to forge links with various militant groups active in the northeast India, mainly to help create safe corridor to China via Myanmar.
