India Mulls Deploying Missiles Near Border in Northeast

New Delhi, Aug 25 : India is considering deploying its nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in the Northeast close to its border with China in an apparent attempt to enhance its military preparedness.

The move comes close on the release of a report by Pentagon, which suggested that China has moved its new advanced longer range CSS-5 missiles close to its border with India and developed contingency plans to shift airborne forces to the region at short notice.

The government is considering the deployment of the 2,000 km range Agni-II and 350 km range Prithvi III surface to surface ballistic missiles close to the Chinese border, Defence Ministry sources said today.

The sources said that additional land was being procured by the Army in North-West Bengal and adjoining states for deployment of these missiles.

In the recent months, India is focused on upgrading its military infrastructure in the North-Eastern sector to counter any Chinese threat.

The measures taken by the government include the deployment of two squadrons of the Su-30 MKI fighter jets in Tezpur and Chhabua in Assam and raising of two mountain divisions for deployment in Arunachal Pradesh and adjoining areas.

The government also revised its old military doctrine of not developing roads along the border and is working on developing over 70 strategic roads on the Sino-Indian border.

6 Youths Arrested For Running Naked in Aizawl

Aizawl, Aug 24 : Six Mizo youths running around naked in public places here in inebriated condition were arrested for indecent exposure, police said here today.

"The youths, belonging to Zemabawk locality, were arrested yesterday," SP Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said.

The youths, completely naked, were accosting pedestrians at Zodin Square area and creating problems for women tea vendors at the Millennium Centre, he said.

They fled after the police arrived at the Millennium Centre, however, they were traced and arrested later, he said.

Cyber Forensic Lab to be set up in Tripura

Agartala, Aug 24 : With the growing incidence of cyber crimes and online money transaction sabotage, the Tripura government has decided to set up a Cyber Forensic Laboratory with all modern equipment in the state.

According to a report, following the request of Tripura Police, the Union Home Ministry has given the nod for setting up the cyber forensic lab under CID wing of the state police.

''With the opening of the proposed forensic lab, the entire Northeast region can also seek the support of the cyber lab to detect any cyber crime,'' said officials here today. The laboratory will be built near state's forensic laboratory.

Selected police personnel would undergo special training to handle computers and online networks used in a cyber forensic laboratory.

They will also be trained to tackle all kinds of misdeeds committed during online banking transactions, the officials added.

As many as 16 cases of cyber-related crimes, especially forgery during transaction through ATMs and online lottery, had been recorded in Tripura in the past two years.

Vedanta Mine Project Rejection, A Major Win For Dongria Tribe: Survival Intl.

Survival International, an organization supporting tribals worldwide for over four decades, on Tuesday claimed a major victory for itself and the Dongria Tribe in India's eastern Orissa state after India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh blocked UK-based Vedanta Resources' controversial plan to mine bauxite on the sacred hills of the Dongria Kondh tribe.

Survival campaigner Dr. Jo Woodman, who experienced first-hand the atmosphere of intimidation in the Dongria's hills, said today, "This is a victory nobody would have believed possible.

The Dongria's campaign became a litmus test of whether a small, marginalized tribe could stand up to a massive multinational company with an army of lobbyists and PR firms and the ear of government.

Incredibly, the Dongria's courage and tenacity, allied with the support of many people in India, and Survival's supporters around the world, have triumphed."

Survival's Director Stephen Corry said: "The era when mining companies could get away with destroying those in their path with impunity is thankfully drawing to a close, though it remains significant that Vedanta fought for its plans to the end, repeatedly denying everything the tribes-people said.

The concerned public must remain vigilant about these so-called development projects - companies simply cannot be trusted voluntarily to abide by human rights standards, particularly when dealing with tribal peoples who can't know what they're up against."

Earlier in the day, Ramesh said Vedanta had shown a 'shocking' and 'blatant disregard for the rights of the tribal groups' and also questioned the legality of the massive refinery Vedanta has already built below the hills.

The rejection of the project is a crushing defeat for Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, Vedanta's majority owner and founder.

In recent years the project has come under unprecedented attack. The Norwegian and British governments, the Church of England, organizations such as Survival International, and even insurance giant Aviva have all criticized the company and its ethics.

The struggle had pitted the 8,000-strong tribe, nearly all of them illiterate, against the might of an eight billion dollar company and its founder, himself worth about six billion dollars.

Gegong Apang Arrested in PDS Scam Case

Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang was arrested by the Special Investigation Cell on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore public distribution system scam.

"Apang was arrested based on material evidence and statement given by the other accused," the cell's investigating officer M S Chauhan told.

Apang, who was summoned to the cell on Tuesday morning, was arrested under non-bailable sections.

He was booked under section 120b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 409 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC read with B-2 Prevention of Prevention of Corruption Act.

"We provided Apang with a set of questionnaires and despite three earlier summons he appeared before the SIC only today. He denied knowledge of facts or persons involved in the scam," Chauhan said on Tueday.

The case was forwarded to special session judge at North Lakhimpur in Assam for trial.

The Special Investigation Cell was constituted by the state government on the directive of the Gauhati High Court after a PIL was filed by the Arunachal Citizens Right Chairperson Bamang Anthony and Domin Loya on 13^th June, 2004 against the alleged over 1000 crore PDS scam in the state.

The scam relates to loss suffered by the public exchequer because of false and fraudulent hill transport subsidy bills, which were cleared without financial concurrence. Apang had been at the helm of affairs at the time.

Nagaland Tops in Contraband Drug Seizure

Kohima, Aug 24 : Nagaland has topped the northeastern states in seizure of contraband drugs, which are flowing into the state through porous borders with Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

This was revealed at the two-day Consultative Meeting of the Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) at Dimapur, which concluded on Saturday last.

Speaking at the meeting, the members of NSACS said, the Excise Department and the Narcotic Department of Nagaland Police topped the North Eastern States in seizure of contraband drugs, which are flowing into the state through the porous borders with Myanmar in Noklak, Kiphire, Mon, Phek and Tuensang districts.

The most common contraband drugs smuggled into Nagaland are Opium, Brown Sugar, Heroin, Ganja and life saving drugs used as narcotics like Phensydyl, Spasmoproxivon and others are coming from Assam and Manipur.

Since the pharmaceutical life saving drugs is cheaper and affordable than the contraband drugs, the uses of these are more.

With no mechanism to keep check at the porous border, the flow of drug trafficking is unabated despite all efforts of limited manpower of the Excise Department and Narcotic personnel of the State Government and only a few cases are only detected out of huge smuggling consignments, they opined.

Manipur Looks at Myanmar to Meet Essential Needs

Imphal, Aug 24 : Faced with a shortage of fuel and essential commodities, Manipur has sought permission from the central government to import fuel and rice from neighbouring Myanmar.

The move by the state government comes after the United Naga Council started a 20-day economic blockade in Manipur, starting August 3 — the second such crisis in about four months.

"The state government has approached us to import petrol and diesel from Myanmar since supplies from domestic channels are not reaching the state. However, we are not keen to allow it since Myanmar does not have fuel that meets the Euro III standard. The state along with several other regions is scheduled to move to Euro III norms from October 1," said a senior official at the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Earlier, Naga groups had blocked National Highways 39 and 53, which connect Manipur with the rest of the country, for nearly two months, starting April 11, to protest the Manipur government’s decision not to allow NSCN (I-M) leader Thuingaleng Muivah to visit his native village. The economic blockade led to severe scarcity of essential commodities, including fuel.

Replying to a Calling Attention Motion in the Lok Sabha today on the economic blockade enforced by Naga groups in Manipur, Home Minister P Chidambaram said the government would not spare any effort to ensure adequate supply of essential commodities. An Indian Oil official said the company was making efforts to supply petroleum products to Manipur through alternative routes.

Chidambaram said the National Highways 39 and 53 were open for traffic so that transportation of essential commodities did not get disrupted.

Manipur is expecting to get a consignment of 30,000 metric tons of rice in the next few weeks, with Manipur Industrial Development Corporation (Manidco) getting a formal approval from the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies to this effect.

Official sources in Imphal said the import would be carried out under provisions of the Foreign Trade Policy 2009-14, and the state government will also be getting exemption from any kind of import duty for the same. Once the transportation formalities are worked out, the rice would be brought in by NH-39 from Tamu in Myanmar to Moreh in Manipur, the sources said.

“Our Chief Minister has been pressing the Centre for permission to import rice and petroleum products directly from Myanmar for several months now. The Chief Minister also made a strong plea to the Prime Minister during the NDC meeting in New Delhi last month,” N Biren, Manipur government spokesman, said from Imphal.

Acute Power Crisis in Mizoram

Aizawl, Aug 24 : Landlocked Mizoram is now in the grip of an acute power crisis something which the border state has not experienced over the past few decades.

According to an official estimate, the power deficit in the state which is ironically endowed with enormous hydel power prospects with many rivers criss-crossing it from the south to the northern flanks, is estimated at 77MW at its highest and 52MW at its lowest.

The total demand as estimated by the state’s power and electricity department has been put at 107MW at its peak.

The engineer-in-chief in the power and electricity department in Aizawl, C.L. Thangliana, in a message had made it clear that there was no immediate prospect of improvement in the electricity-starved state’s power situation as there was no proposal of any adequate power grant from any of the plants outside the state.

He also blamed “weak and insufficient” transmission network.

The lingering power crisis in the state where power cuts at regular intervals have now become a ritual, is also accentuated by transmission and distribution losses in the state estimated at 41 per cent.

The intermittent power shutdowns, long hours of the loadshedding and occasional tripping in the transmission lines have now become the order of the day in Mizoram.

The Mizoram government had pinned its hope on the 460MW Kolodyne hydropower project near Saiha township in southern part of the state to bail it out of its recurrent power shortfalls. But it got a rude jolt when the Union power ministry’s Central Electric Authority (CEA) said the project required some more geological investigation.

Hope for this project which has the capacity to wipe out the power deficit not only in Mizoram but in some of its adjoining northeastern states, was ignited in October 2008 when the Central Water Commission submitted a detailed project report for the Kolodyne scheme and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) updated it last year.

The CEA, however, has found that the geological investigation component in the detailed project report was not “adequate enough” and asked the NTPC to conduct further studies.

It has now commissioned the Wadia Institute of Hydrology in Dehradun and the Geological Survey of India for another round of the geological study and mapping.

The CEA is apparently unhappy with the tardy pace of work by the Central Water Commission in preliminary drilling in the dam site for the Kolodyne scheme.

According to Thangliana, the Central Water Commission has till now drilled only one site.

The engineer-in-chief has recently submitted a set of a few schemes aimed to improve the dismal power situation prevailing in Mizoram to the CEA.