Kachari Council to Oppose Naga Name For Dimapur

Kohima, Apr 27 : The state government’s decision to rename Dimapur could have wider political ramifications as any such move is likely to evoke strong protests particularly from the Dimasa community (Kacharis) who are settled in Nagaland, Assam and Tripura.

Nagaland Speaker Kiyanilie Peseyie said a move to rename Dimapur city in a Naga language was on the cards and a series of discussions was on between the 60 Naga legislators though a consensus was yet to be reached.

The Kacharis are also recognised as one of the non-Naga indigenous tribes of Nagaland.

Peseyie said the name “Dimapur” did not originate from any Naga language and it needed a Naga name.

The Kachari Tribal Council has warned the state government that it would oppose such a move tooth and nail, stating that the Kacharis have been kept in dark about the proposed renaming of Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland.

The council said it would not remain silent if the state government did not change its stand.

Dimapur has a historical significance, it said adding any attempt to change that would invite strong criticisms and opposition from the Kacharis across the Northeast. It said the Bodos, the Dimasas, Mechs, Rabhas and the Boroks are all communities of Kachari origin spread across the region.

Dimapur, once the capital city of the Dimasa kingdom up to the 13th century, has reminiscences of the Dimasa kingdom scattered around it. The Kachari Tribal Council said renaming of Dimapur would tantamount to erasing the history of the Kacharis. The council said they would resort to democratic way of protests to safeguard their history.

Among the Naga tribes, the Angamis still claim Dimapur as theirs, though mostly the Sumi Nagas inhabit in and around Dimapur.

The Dimasa outfits which are operating from Assam also claim Dimapur as theirs and that any solution with the federal government would include Dimapur.

The Nagaland government has also started renaming colonies, wards and villages in and around Dimapur which have non-Naga names.

The Naga Hoho has, however, supported the state government’s move. Its president Kevilietuo Angami said they would support the government’s move to rename Dimapur city. “That is a good move,” he added.

Everything changes, he said, and therefore there should not be a rift or disunity among the Nagas and the non-Nagas like the Kacharis.

“I do not think this will create disunity,” he said.

Angami said the state government was trying to coin a new name for Dimapur in consultation with the Naga tribes.

Sources in the Minority Forum, comprising indigenous people, said the move would have wider ramification.

[ via Telegraph India ]

Northeast Welcomes Right to Education Policy

By Peter Alex Todd

Guwahati, Apr 27 : The Union Government's decision to make education a basic right for each child has been widely welcomed by people in the northeast.

Padumai Paishya (60) of Assam's Jugashree Nagar village who has three children said she was happy that her grandchildren would be able to go to school, thanks to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

"We are happy about the implementation of the New Act (Right To Education). We are poor people, how can we afford education for our children? There are financial constraints. Somehow, we manage to buy rice. How can we even think about education? So I am very happy about it," Paishya said. n India, about crore children under the age group of 6-14 do not go to school.

The Centre and States will to share the fiscal load in the ratio of 55:45 and the Finance Commission has provided Rs. 25,000 crore to the States.
For the Year 2010-11, the Centre has given an outlay of Rs. 15,000 crore.

The people in rural and tribal areas will get the maximum benefit.

"Due to poverty we could not study or send children to schools earlier, but now they go to schools and get free meals there.

However, for sometime the quality of the food has not been good or it has not been available," said Dipan Saha, a parent, Tripura "Still what the government has decided is a great help for poor parents like us as under the Act our children are getting free education, text books and food," he added.

"We are poor people but we have been encouraged to send our children to school as the centre has made many things free for student's education," said Pratima Biswas, a Parent, Tripura.

In the northeast, the average literacy rate is between 60-70 per cent and, with the introduction of the Act, this will go up, especially in the rural areas.

"This is a very bright new chapter. Definitely, we are very much hopeful. Children of every family will get free education. We are happy with this. It's like an eye opener to the country to improve the quality of education," said Asa Khate, a teacher, Nagaland.

Militancy has badly affected development and education in the northeast region in the past and with gradual decline, the thrust is on development of the region and providing employment to the youth, besides educating them.

Assam in Darkness Due To Cyclone

ASEB network takes a beating

By Anupam Bordoloi

Guwahati, Apr 27 : The Assam State Electricity Board’s transmission and distribution network has taken a heavy pounding from the cyclonic storms over the past one month, resulting in losses to the tune to nearly Rs 35 crore, according to initial estimates.

“The figure could go up once we are done with making a full estimate of the extent of damage to our network. The initial estimate is based on a preliminary study,” power minister Pradyut Bordoloi told The Telegraph here today.

Other states of the Northeast, too, have faced nature’s fury with Meghalaya, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh’s power infrastructure taking a severe beating.

Assam, in particular, has witnessed an unusually stormy April this year, with powerful Nor’westers whipping up storms frequently over the past few weeks, resulting in heavy loss of life and property. The most devastating cyclonic storm occurred on Saturday evening across several places in lower Assam, including the capital where the wind speed crossed the 100km/hour barrier. Six were killed in the state on Saturday, two in Guwahati.

A senior ASEB official based in Guwahati said the storms have uprooted transmission towers, snapped cables with trees falling over them and damaged transformers. “Though we have restored power in almost all the affected areas, these are only on a temporary basis. We will need around two-three months to complete permanent restoration,” the official added.

While innumerable posts carrying 33KV lines have been uprooted across the state, big transmission towers of 120KV and 240KV, too, have been uprooted in places like Tinsukia and Goalpara.

In fact, the power minister’s home constituency, Margherita, is one of the worst affected areas. Arpan Saikia, deputy general manager of the Tinsukia electrical circle, revealed that nearly 150 poles have been uprooted in the Margherita division while in Digboi and Doomdooma, 100 and 150 poles have been uprooted.

In Karimganj district, too, cyclonic storms raging since April 19 have wreaked havoc, damaging the power supply system. District executive engineer of ASEB Dipankar Nath today said over telephone that a large network of transmission lines have been damaged in Patherkandi block in the Nor’westers during the past week.

The situation took another grim turn last night when another cyclone ravaged the Badarpur block on the Indo-Bangladesh border.

He added that though power supply to Karimganj town had been restored, many rural areas are still without power.

Goalpara deputy commissioner Prafulla Kumar Goswami said extensive damage had been caused to electricity posts and cables, disrupting power in the entire district since last night. “It will take another 48 hours to restore normal power supply,” he added.

In Dhubri, two major transformers and a 33KV tower have been damaged in the Gouripur police station area.

In Arunachal Pradesh, two 750KV and 500KV power cables snapped when the towers were uprooted in Dibang Valley on Saturday during a severe cyclonic storm. A power department official said supply to the district headquarters town of Roing has been severely affected and it would take a couple of days to restore power. Saturday’s storm also lashed parts of Lower Dibang Valley and Lohit, snapping power cables and posts.

In Meghalaya, the areas bordering Bangladesh have been affected badly by the series of storms raging through the state. “It will take a few days to restore power to the interior areas,” E.B. Kharmujai, a spokesperson for the Meghalaya State Electricity Board, said.

In Manipur, a 12-year-old boy was injured when he touched a live wire, which snapped after a severe storm on April 20 at Kumbi in Bishnupur.

Storm devastates Cachar and Hmarkhawlien kills three

SANTANU GHOSH

Silchar, Apr 27: A severe storm swept through Sonai and Dholai blocks of Cachar district in south Assam at a wind speed of 100km per hour last night, killing three persons and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. Two more persons died in adjacent Hailakandi district when lighting struck them.

Another storm raged through the lower Assam districts of Goalpara and Dhubri last night, leaving imprints of destruction everywhere.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi today announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of storm victims. Taking stock of the situation with high-ranking officials, he directed the departments to speed up relief and rehabilitation and asked the power and PHE departments to restore electricity and water in the affected areas.

In Sonai and Dholai, on the southeastern flank of Cachar along Assam’s border with Mizoram, hundreds of dwellings, trees, power posts and telephone poles collapsed in the storm that started around 7.45pm and pummelled the “granaries of the district” for half-an-hour.

Putul Rani Das, 34, her eight-month-old son, Mona, and Harendra Nath Roy, 42, a resident of Shuktala village, of Dholai died as their houses, made of wood, bamboo and corrugated tin roofs, were razed. Over 60 people were injured in the two blocks.

Sarabala Nath, 45, of Shuktala village could not stop crying as she surveyed her razed three-room dwelling, a district official, who visited the storm-affected areas this morning, said while narrating the distressing scenes he found everywhere. Official reports reaching here said a vast network of rural roads is also in a shambles with rubble of houses, trees and power poles blocking them.

In neighbouring Hailakandi district, Tajel Shah, 38, and his daughter, Rabia Begum, 14, were struck by lightning at Uttar Narayanpur village under Algapur block while scanning the cloud-covered sky from the verandah of their house last night.

With these, storm-related deaths in Barak Valley since April 19 have mounted to six. Harish Chandra Das, 22, of Katlicherra block in Hailakandi died when his house collapsed during a Nor’wester on April 22.

Storms, accompanied by heavy rain, also caused extensive damages in Karimganj district on April 19, razing about 700 houses and injuring about 50 people. At least three big landslides, triggered by rain, have blocked National Highway 44, which links south Assam districts, Mizoram and Tripura with the rest of the country via Meghalaya, and the rail link in these areas as many times since April 21. The metre gauge track in the hill section of the NF Railway, blocked since Saturday’s landslide, is likely to be reopened by tomorrow.

The season’s first wave of floods inundated Dullavcherra in the district on April 22, washing away at least 50 houses following a breach of an embankment of the Longai.

The lower Assam districts of Goalpara and Dhubri also bore the brunt of storms last night. Goalpara deputy commissioner Prafulla Kumar Goswami said extensive damages were caused to electricity posts and the main power line, plunging the entire district in darkness since last night. Forest guards and ASEB staff are working round-the-clock to restore power supply. “It will take another 48 hours from now to restore normal power supply in the district,” he said.

Goswami said the monetary damage had not been worked out yet as all the ASEB officials and staff were in the field to restore power supply. An ASEB official, however, said the estimated damages so far amounted to Rs 2 crore. It might increase after a detailed ground survey.

Dhubri deputy commissioner Jatindra Lahakar said there was little hope of restoring power supply within a couple of days. Two major transformers and a 33kv tower have been damaged at Dumordoh and Laokhowa Beel in Madhusoulmari area under Gouripur police station and extensive damages have been caused to electric posts and the power line in Bilasipara and Dhubri sub-divisions, he added.

He alleged that poor quality of work executed by ASEB in many places had caused such extensive damage to the power line. He has urged senior ASEB officials to take stock of the damages in the district and issue spot instructions to restore the power line at the earliest. A hurried estimate prepared by the Gouripur ASEB division pegs the damages to around Rs 4 crore. The figure might shoot up after ground survey, sources said. Restoration of power supply is being done on a war-footing.

The director of the Regional Meteorological Centre at Borjhar, Hara Govinda Pathak, said the occurrence of thunderstorms in the state in this season was normal, but it was unprecedented this time.

“The RMC has undertaken a study to find out the exact causes of intensive thunderstorm activities by compiling and comparing data of rain and storm during March and April in the last 10 years. Such abnormal activities might be a side effect of global warming. The intensity of atmospheric instability and moisture in the air is also more this time, resulting in bursting of cumulonimbus cloud and heavy downpour with high speed storm,” he said.

Cops Haid Home of Gizmodo.com Editor Jason Chin After he Posts Inside Info on Next-Gen iPhone

By Bill Hutchinson

Apple officials said last week a super-secret iPhone was lost in March by one of its researchers.

Don't take a bite out of Apple.

California cops raided the home of a prominent tech Web site editor after he posted inside info about a next-generation iPhone left in a bar.

Gizmodo.com editor Jason Chin came home Friday to find cops in his house, looking for evidence of a felony linked to an online expose about the new iPhone.

"They then made me place my hands behind my head and searched me to make sure I had no weapons or sharp objects on me," Chin wrote on his Web site Monday night.

Chin said a detective told him it search stemmed from "a misunderstanding that could be cleared up if I answered some questions." He refused to be grilled.

A search warrant signed by a San Mateo County Superior Court Judge indicated detectives were searching for evidence connected to lost Apple device.

The warrant allowed sheriff's detectives to seize all records, "including digital photographs and/or video of the Apple prototype 4G iPhone."

Apple officials said last week the super-secret iPhone was lost in March by one of its researchers.

Chin said someone found the iPhone in a bar and contacted Gizmodo, which paid $5,000 for the opportunity to take the device apart and photograph  it.

Detectives seized four of Chins computers, his digital camera and several external hard drives.

Gaby Darbyshire, chief operating officer of Gizmodo's parent company, Gawker Media, said the raid was a blatant violation of Chin's First Amendment rights as a journalist.

[ via Nydailynews ]

New Delhi Becomes Unsafe For Burmese Refugees

By Nava Thakuria

New Delhi, Apr 27 : The Indian capital city has increasingly become an unsafe place for the Burmese refugees. In the recent past, three incidences of attack on Burmese were reported. As the victims are identified as Chin, a major community of Burma, the Chin Refugee Committee has taken the pain to lodge FIR in the local police station.

The last attack by miscreants on Chin people took place on April 23, when Fung Ling was targeted on his way to residence at around 6.30 in the evening at Uttam Nagar of Delhi. Mr Ling, 37, is a recognized refugee (UNHCR No.08IND01388) in India and he was challenged by two youths on motorbike.

Mr Ling replied that he could not follow Hindi language. Meanwhile, a fellow Chin (Burmese) refugee, Than Sang approached and tied to intervene that Ling did not understand Hindi. But Than Sang (UNHCR No.08IND01410) received a slap from one of the two bikers.

The situation turned worse, as the youths started beating both the refuges. Ling was hit by a brick on his head and he got fainted. Then arrived another refugee Van Lal Lian (UNHCR No.08C00279) and more other people at the location and it was finally over.

“We have lodged an FIR (MLC. 7715) at Bindapur police station, Uttam Nagar regarding the assault to Fung Ling and other,” informed Ro Mawi, president of Chin Refugee Committee, India. Speaking to this writer from New Delhi, he however expressed dissatisfaction that the doctors examining the victims had reported only simple injuries to them.

Mentionable that Fung Ling and his family (wife and five minor children) arrived in New Delhi in 1998. They are now working as daily wage earner to earn at the most Rs. 2,000 per month.

Similarly, Than Sang and Van Lal Lian with their families also arrived in New Delhi in the same year.

Earlier another assault case was reported from Sitapuri in the same locality where another Chin refugee, Zo Ram Thang (BU-491) was targeted by the unidentified miscreants on April 21. Zo Ram Thang and his family arrived in New Delhi in 1999 and they are surviving with a very few amount of money earned as private factory workers.

[ via Narinjara ]

National Minority Panel on Recce

By Daulat Rahman

Guwahati, Apr 27 : A high-powered team of the National Commission for Minorities, headed by its vice-chairman H.T. Sangliana, will arrive here tomorrow to review the status of various welfare schemes for the minorities in the state.

Sources told The Telegraph that the commission’s visit has assumed significance as it would investigate the causes of failure of various welfare projects and draw a futuristic plan for overall development of the minority communities before the Assembly election in the state in 2011.

Allen Brooks, the acting chairperson of the Assam State Commission for Minorities, said the commission would discuss with the parent body various issues, including setting up of quality educational institutions in minority-dominated areas.

“The NCM is deeply concerned over the fact that the state has failed to execute majority of the minority welfare projects sponsored by the NCM. Of the 38 projects approved by the NCM for various projects in the last five years, Assam could execute hardly 8 projects till this date. The important projects like free IAS coaching for minority students, setting up of technical and professional institutes in minority-dominated areas to enhance employability of minority youths were not even taken up by the state government for execution,” the source said.

An Assam government official associated with minority development said the Assam Minority Welfare Board and Assam Minority Development and Financial Corporation Ltd have conver-ted into political bodies where the ruling party rehabilitates its disgruntled leaders.

He said the National Minority Development and Financial Corporation Ltd recently wrote to the Assam government saying the corporation’s interest-free loans were given to relatives of politicians instead of deserving beneficiaries from the minority communities by the AMDFCL.

“All these issues will be taken into account during the three-day visit of Sangliana. He will meet chief minister Tarun Gogoi, his council of ministers and representatives of various minority groups, including Muslim religious and church leaders during his stay in Guwahati,” the source said.

Sangliana, a former police commissioner of Bangalore, will also hold a separate meeting with the state chief secretary Naba Kumar Das, DGP Shankar Baruah and various minority groups on the issue of atrocities on religious, linguistic and ethnic minority communities in the state.

He will focus on welfare of minority ethnic groups in Assam’s twin hills districts — Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.

Apart from investigating the causes of failure of minority welfare projects, the NCM team would also draw a futuristic plan for development of the minority communities.

A source in the minority cell in the Assam PCC said the party would bank on an attractive project to win the loyalty of the Muslim community, which plays a big role in deciding who sits in Dispur.

 

[ via Telegraph India ]

The Dangers of Digging Up the Truth in India

By Daniel Pepper

The Supreme Court Building in New Delhi, India

Last autumn, when New Delhi resident Ajay Kumar saw that private buildings were encroaching on government land under the aegis of a local politician, he asked the city authority to look into the matter. He was just being a law-abiding citizen. He couldn't imagine his query would put him in the hospital.

Using India's 2005 Right to Information (RTI) Act, which empowers any citizen to ask for information from any level of government, from village leaders to the Prime Minister's office, Kumar asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) why homes and shops were built on land not zoned for private construction. The MCD's public information officer stonewalled. But Kumar persisted. He appealed to a higher-level public information officer and then to the federal Central Information Commission, which ordered the MCD and the police to inspect the property. But when Kumar arrived on the site in early January, he was attacked by a mob of two dozen that allegedly backed the politician.

"Neither the police nor the people helped me," says Kumar, who was struck in the head with an iron rod, blood covering his face and shirt. And yet despite the attack, Kumar still believes that "RTI is the only tool that can bring an end to a corruption in India." His optimism belies a frightening trend: physical attacks on 'information activists' who seek to root out corruption by making government documents public. In the recent months, two respected activists have been killed, and many others have been threatened, bullied, and intimidated.

The RTI Act presents a cultural sea change in India, where for more than 60 years state bureaucrats have acted more like colonial masters than servants of the people. The Act is among the most robust such laws in the world. In rural areas, the act is often utilized to uncover scams involving politicians, bureaucrats and contractors who siphon off funds from employment programs, housing, food and other services to the poor. The way it works is "you ask for a list of beneficiaries," says prominent New Delhi-based RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal. "Then you check that list and find out that many people are dead and the list is bogus."

According to a study published last July by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information, and funded in part by the Google Foundation, in the first two and a half years since RTI went into effect approximately 400,000 RTI applications were filed from rural areas and 1.6 million from urban areas. While much of the information RTI applicants request ought to be public in the first place, like the size of a budget for a school or road, government bureaucrats in India habitually keep such matters under lock and key.

The law's strength is becoming clear in the backlash against people who are using it. "What has happened with the RTI Act is that it is threatening people in power," says Colin Gonzalves, a Supreme Court lawyer and director of the New Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network. "RTI empowers people to say that the administration is the servant of the people that you are answerable to us. The physical attacks on the people I think are going to increase."

On Feb. 14 in the north Indian state of Bihar, a well-known RTI activist was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles at the entrance to his home. He had been working to expose corruption in local welfare schemes. A month before in Pune, a western Indian city about 77 miles (125 km) from Mumbai, another activist, Satish Shetty, was killed while out for his morning stroll. Shetty had a record of exposing land scams in his area and had received threats on his life. He had requested police protection, though none was provided.

What does the violence mean to Shailesh Gandhi, a commissioner with the Central Information Commission, the country's highest authority on RTI applications? "It tells me that the rule of law is almost absent. The truth is that powerful people feel there is no law." Gandhi and his interns, whom he pays out of his own pocket, went through almost 6,000 files last year. In the past 14 months, he has penalized 120 public information offices for not providing information in a timely fashion, or at all.

Despite the attacks, Kheema Ram, a member of India's Dalit or "untouchable" communities, is undeterred. He has filed over 400 RTI applications. "I am a Dalit, I have been discriminated against," says the 35-year-old father of three, who lives in rural Rajasthan. "I want to use the law to fight this discrimination." Using RTI, Kheema has outed the manager of a cooperative bank who embezzled funds and fought for equal pay of male and female manual laborers. But it hasn't been without risk. Kheema Ram has been attacked over two dozen times. "Filing an RTI is like walking on the edge of a sword," says Ram. "There is always some sort of violence."

[ via Time ]

First Pill To Stop Premature Ejaculation Goes On Sale In U.K

Priligy, First Pill To Stop Male Premature Ejaculation

The UK is bracing itself for the release of the first pill designed to end premature ejaculation.

Medical trials have shown that just one tablet of the drug Priligy can make men last up to three times as long during sexual intercourse.

Priligy contains the active ingredient dapoxetine, which regulates serotonin levels in the brain. With the use of the drug, men can have more an active role over when they climax.

Up to 30% of men have reported problems with premature ejaculation. The pills are already on sale in some European countries.

Nitin Makadia, head of male sexual health at British pharmacy chain Lloyds, said, "Priligy has the potential to do as much for men's sexual health as Viagra."

The pill is not without side effects however, with warnings of dizziness, headaches and feeling restless.

Also, unfortunately for booze hounds, the pill is not supposed to be taken with alcohol - which makes sense, at $118 for 3 pills, you probably can't afford to drink anyway.