Repatriation of Bru Refugees To Resume from May

Aizawl, May 2 : Mizoram government's Core Committee on Bru refugee repatriation today tentatively set May last week as the date for their resumption, who are lodged in the relief camps in neighbouring North Tripura district.

The decision was taken at a Core Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Parliamentary Secretary for Home Lalrinmawia Ralte.

Ralte told PTI that the detailed programme and arrangement would be made by the district administration of the Mizoram-Tripura border Mamit district.

"The Union Home Ministry expressed the desire that the repatriation process be implemented by coordinating with the Tripura government and the Mizoram government officials led by Joint Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama would be meeting with the Tripura home department officials during the first week of May," he said.

When asked whether the refugees would now be willing to return to Mizoram and the anti-repatriation elements would refrain from obstructing the repatriation process, Ralte expressed the hope that all the refugees would now be willing to return to Mizoram.

He said that the refugees would be encouraged to return to Mizoram on their own while the facilitation camps would be upgraded and improved to ensure that those who returned would be properly identified and that they were bonafide residents of the state.

Traffickers Arrested For Selling Indian Girls As Brides

By Nita Bhalla

A girl looks on outside her mud hut in northeast India, on July 2, 2005.

REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Police have arrested seven members of a trafficking ring that kidnapped young girls from the Indian capital and sold them as brides to middle-aged men in other parts of the country, the Times of India reported Tuesday.

The four men and three women were arrested following an investigation into the abduction of two teenage girls, who were rescued from an area in southwest Delhi.

“Police said the gang charged rich landowners in (the northern states of) Uttar Pradesh and Haryana between 50,000 rupees ($921) to 100,000 ($1,842) for a girl, depending on her age," the report said.
Activists say tens of thousands of girls and women are trafficked in India every year, largely for domestic work, sexual slavery and increasingly marriage due to a lack of women in some parts of the country.

A strong preference for boys has resulted in decades of aborting female babies, leading to skewed male-to-female ratios in northern India and rising incidents of rape, trafficking and even "wife-sharing" - one wife shared amongst brothers.

The Lancet medical journal says up to 12 million Indian girls were aborted over the last three decades, resulting in a ratio of 914 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011, compared with 962 in 1981.

Meghalaya Varsity Gives 434 Ph.D. Degrees in One Year, Faces Probe

Advt says a dental clinic in Panchkula can be contacted for a Ph.D. from CMJ University

A private university in Meghalaya has created a record of sorts: it has awarded Ph.D. degrees to as many as 434 candidates in 2012-13 academic year, even as only 10 of its faculty members have doctorates. In fact, according to an advertisement put out by the CMJ University, Meghalaya's first private state university set up in 2009, one can even approach a dental clinic in Panchkula for applying for a Ph.D. degree from the varsity.

The university has come under the scanner of many, including Meghalaya Governor R S Mooshahary, who, in his capacity as the varsity's Visitor, has asked it to withdraw all degrees awarded so far.

Terming the admission of over 3,300 students as "illegal", the governor has directed the university not to take fresh admissions until a new Chancellor is appointed as per UGC regulations.

The Meghalaya Police have also registered a case against the university. "Yes, the CID has registered a case against CMJ University," Meghalaya DGP Prem Singh told The Indian Express over the telephone from Shillong Wednesday. He, however, refused to divulge any details.

None of the university officials were available for comment.

Observing that the university's current Chancellor, Chandra Mohan Jha, was appointed without his approval, Mooshahary, in a directive issued to the varsity yesterday, said: "Consequently all further actions of the CMJ University resulting from the appointment of the Chancellor are illegal and void ab initio".

Stating that the university had enrolled 3,379 students for various courses since 2010-11, the Raj Bhawan directive said all these admissions were illegal. It also said all the Ph.D. degrees awarded by the university were "in contravention" of the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M Phil/ PhD degree) Regulations, 2009. The Governor pointed out that only 10 of the university's faculty members have Ph.D. degrees.

While the university awarded 434 Ph.D. degrees during 2012-13, 490 more were enrolled for its Ph.D. programmes in the same period.

When the Assam government raised doubts about its Ph.D. programmes, the university issued an advertisement in a leading Guwahati-based daily on April 19 saying it had "not yet awarded any Ph.D. degree to any of the students enrolled from the state of Assam till date." The advertisement also said the university was currently not enrolling any student for its M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes.
Describing this claim as "false and misleading", the Governor said he has "reliable information" that the university has indeed awarded Ph.D. degrees to candidates from Assam.

Mob Torches Houses in Mizoram Village

Aizawl, Apr 30 : A mob from Mizoram border Vaphai village in Champhai district today burned down all the 40 houses in Saikhumphai hamlet.

Around five people were injured in a clash with the police who were deployed in the hamlet to enforce a High Court order.

Though a number of police personnel including three platoons of armed policemen were deployed, the police could not stop the mob from torching all the houses excluding three church buildings, an Anganwadi centre and a vacant house temporarily occupied by the police.

There were no villagers of Saikhumphai inside the hamlet when angry people from Vaphai village destroyed it, reports said.

The incident took place after Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of Aizawl bench of Gauhati High Court delivered a judgement on Friday quashing the orders of the State Local Administration department instructing all the inhabitants of Saikhumphai to migrate to Vaphai village.

Mizoram Government issued an order last year, declaring Saikhumkhai as illegal settlement and eviction of all the residents on or before October 31 last year.

The villagers challenged the order of the State Government in Gauhati High Court’s Aizawl bench and the court quashed the government’s eviction order and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Champhai to ensure the return of even those who had shifted to Vaphai.

The court also directed the Champhai district DC to pay adequate compensation to those villagers whose house were dismantled earlier and reconstruct their respective houses. – PTI

Reports said that Myanmarese nationals who had earlier settled in the hamlet were already deported but Vaphai village leaders could not accept the fact that ‘illegal’ settlement should spring up in a land under their jurisdiction.

Saikhumphai’s surrounding areas, located near the banks of Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiua are fertile and the villagers also prospered through hard work, sources said.

Nagaland, Mizoram & Tripura are Highest Tobacco Consuming States

Shillong, Apr 30 : Following the direction of the union government, Tripura and Meghalaya will ban the sale, manufacture and distribution of gutka (tobacco-laced areca nut pieces) and pan masala (a chewing mixture), officials said on Tuesday.

Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim have already banned such products.

The Supreme Court earlier this month directed 23 states and five Union Territories to file status report on the implementation of the notification issued by them banning these products and also asked the remaining states and Union Territories to explain the reasons why they have not imposed the ban so far and the time they need to do so.

“Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura have emerged as the maximum tobacco consuming states in the country. Incidence of cancer has been rising alarmingly in the hilly North Eastern region, almost half the cases being attributed to consumption of tobacco products,” Goutam Majumder, superintendent of Regional Cancer Centre in Tripura, said.

He said that people who use tobacco in public places should be punished and an awareness campaign should be launched about the cause of cancer.
According to official figures, the number of patients registered with the regional cancer centre in 2006 was 1,263. The figure increased to 1,386 in 2007, 1,444 in 2008, 1,524 in 2009 and 1,836 in 2010.

According to the Population-Based Cancer Registry (PCR) in Mizoram, cancer is on the rise in the mountainous state with 600 to 650 people dying of cancer annually in the state.

10 Manipur Cops Arrested For Drug Trafficking

Imphal, Apr 30 : Ten Manipur Police personnel, including two officers, have been caught red handed while transporting drugs to the Manipur-Myanmar border town of Moreh.

They were arrested on Sunday evening with the psychotropic drug, pseudoephedrine, worth approximately Rs 3.6 crore. The accused were produced before the court of the Thoubal district magistrate on Monday morning and remanded in police custody.

They were transporting drugs in two official vehicles. Police sources said that they were in full uniform and were also armed. Police sources added that the drugs were collected from one Mohammad Ali of Lilong Leihaokhong, Papal Lamkhai, in Thoubal district on April 28 at around 5 am.

All the accused, including a sub-inspector and a jamadar rank official, were posted with Moreh's Police Commando Unit. They were caught at Pallel on the Imphal-Moreh route by a team of Thoubal commandos. The accused told the court that drugs were collected from Papal Lamkhai under the instruction of R K Binodid Singh, who is presently posted as the Officer-in-charge of Moreh Police Commando Unit. Singh has been suspended.

In February, Defence PRO in Imphal Col Ajay Choudhury was arrested from Pallel while he was going to Moreh with a consignment of drugs worth Rs 15 crore.

More airports developed in Northeast

By Krupa Vora

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is developing more airports in Northeast India.

India to enhance connectivity to Northeast

The ministry has informed the Rajya Sabha that in order to connect the remote hills areas of the region, the Airport Authorities of India (AAI) is developing non-operational airports at Daparizo in Arunachal Pradesh, Tura in Meghalaya and Kamalpur in Tripura for ATR42 and ATR72 type of aircraft.
The AAI is also developing civil enclaves at Along, Passighat and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh and Rupsi in Assam. However, the proposals are subject to the land acquisition by the state government for these projects.
In addition to this, India will also construct greenfield airport in Pakyong and operationalisation of Tezu airport in Arunachal Pradesh. These airports will be able to handle ATR-72 type of aircraft.
The AAI had undertaken a study through Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) for improving the air connectivity in north east which includes air connectivity among state capitals and other important remote locations in the north-east region.
The Minister for Civil Aviation, K C Venugopal also informed Rajya Sabha that Air India is operating three flights/week on Aizwal-Imphal route through Airbus A 319 and eight flights on Aizwal-Kolkata route through Airbus A-319. Operations in domestic sector have been deregulated and flights are being operated by airlines concerned on the basis of commercial viability subject to adherence of Route Dispersal Guidelines laid down by the government with a view to achieve better regulation of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country.
According to these guidelines, all scheduled operators are required to deploy in the North Eastern region, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep (Category-II routes) at least 10% of their deployed capacity on trunk routes (Category-I routes). Further, at least 10% of the capacity thus required to be deployed on Category-II routes, is required to be deployed for connectivity exclusively within these regions (Category -II A).

28 New ITIs To Come Up in Northeast

New Delhi, Apr 30 : Seven northeastern states, including Assam, have proposed setting up 28 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the region, parliament was informed Monday.

The northeast now has 71 ITIs, affiliated to the National Council of Vocational Training, Minister of State for Labour and Employment K. Suresh said in a statement in the Lok Sabha.

He added that no unemployment benefit programmes for educated tribal youths of the northeastern region had been taken up as the "government of India is not in favour of such unemployment doles.

"However, the government has been imparting them skills to make them employable."