Bru Refugees Likely To Return To Mizoram

Aizawl, May 7 : Despite uncertainties among refugees, the Mizoram government has agreed to resume the rehabilitation of over 40,000 tribals who had sought refuge in Tripura for about 16 years, a home ministry official said Monday.

In view of the growing ethnic troubles, the Tripura government has been repeatedly telling the centre that the long stay of the immigrants was causing socio-economic and law and order problems.

In contrast, refugee leaders have been insisting that without a formal agreement between the governments of the states of Mizoram and Tripura, the union government, and tribal leaders, the rehabilitation of refugees would remain uncertain.

"Mizoram government's core committee on refugee repatriation headed by Parliamentary Secretary for Home Lalrinmawia Ralte last week held a meeting and decided to resume return of refugees this month-end," a Mizoram home department official told IANS.

The official said: "The core committee has asked the district administration of the Mizoram's Mamit district to finalise the schedule of the return after discussion with counterparts in Tripura."

The official said the union home ministry has asked the Mizoram to re-start the stalled rehabilitation of refugees, in coordination with Tripura.

The issue was also taken up at the chief ministers' meeting with union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi last month.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told the meeting that the continuous presence for over 16 years of about 41,468 tribal refugees from Mizoram has been a matter of concern for his state.

"The long stay of the refugees in Tripura has its own socio-economic and law and order implications. The state government is providing necessary support for early repatriation of these families. However, the process has been extremely slow," Sarkar told IANS.

According to an official report of the union home ministry, the central government had sanctioned Rs.17.86 crore to the Mizoram government during the past two years for the rehabilitation of refugees in their original areas in Mamit district, western Mizoram.

Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) president A. Sawibunga said: "We would not create any impediment in the repatriation process, but a large number of common refugees are not fully influenced by the verbal assurance of the central and Mizoram governments."

The refugees, lodged in camps in northern Tripura, 180 km north of Agartala, have sent several memoranda to the prime minister and union home minister and occasionally organised protest rallies in support of their 18-point demands.

The 18-point demands of the refugees include a written agreement between the Mizoram, Tripura and the central governments and refugee leaders, ensuring livelihood to the Reang tribals in Mizoram, and constitution of a monitoring committee to supervise the settlement of home-bound refugees.

Since October 1997, over 41,000 Reang tribal refugees, locally called Bru, have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura's Kanchanpur sub-division, adjacent to western Mizoram.

After continued persuasion by the Mizoram and union home ministry officials, around 4,500 refugees of 850 families have returned to their villages in 2010 and 2011. After that, the process of return of refugees stalled.

The tribal refugees had fled their villages in Mizoram after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official 16 years ago.

MBA Takes Exception To Burning Down of Mizoram Hamlet

Aizawl, May 6 : Mizoram Bar Association (MBA) has taken strong exception to the burning down of Mizoram-Myanmar border Saikhumphai hamlet in Champhai district on April 29 and intended to file charges of criminal contempt of court.

A top leader of the MBA told PTI that the villagers of Vaphai village not only took law into their own hands while ravaging Saikhumphai, but also acted against the verdict of the Gauhati High Court Aizawl Bench.

The lawyers also questioned the 'inaction' of the state government in preventing violence in Saikhumphai where more than 40 houses were completely gutted.

"It could be perceived that the state government instigated the Vaphai villagers to take law into their own hands against the inhabitants of Saikhumphai," the MBA leaders alleged.

Condemning the threatening letter sent to their colleague J C Lalnunsanga, an advocate who represented the Saikhumphai villagers in the Gauhati High Court, the MBA demanded that the person who sent the threatening letter should be found and punished.

Meanwhile, Aizawl-based Human Rights and Law Network also condemned the 'barbaric' acts of Vaphai villagers against the inhabitants of Saikhumphai and blamed the state government for the incident.

Mizoram Asked To Boost Industry Through Local Resources

Aizawl, May 6 : The Planning Commission has asked the Mizoram government to create an investor-friendly environment to promote handloom, handicrafts, food and bamboo based industries in the northeastern state using locally available resources, an official said here Saturday.

The suggestion was made during a meeting between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in New Delhi Thursday.

"Ahluwalia told Lal Thanhawla that Mizoram's industry sector is at a nascent stage now. To promote industrial growth, state government should create an investor-friendly environment to push investments and industrial growth for the creation of job prospects, besides better using of the local resources," a Mizoram planning department official told reporters.

Quoting Ahluwalia, the official said: "Emphasis must be given on village and small enterprise sectors comprising handloom, handicrafts, food and bamboo-based industries for which raw material and skill is locally available."

In the meeting, the annual plan size for 2013-14 fiscal for the state has been finalised at Rs.2500 crore, Rs.200 crore more than last year.

The Planning Commission deputy chairman said that the state has performed satisfactorily in various social sectors including health, education and agriculture.

The official said that the plan panel has appreciated Mizoram government for its achievements under NULP (New Land Use Policy) scheme and was assured more support to carry forward the programme.

The Mizoram government launched the Rs.2,873 crore NLUP in 2010 to solve food scarcity by moving away from 'Jhum cultivation' (slash and burn method of shifting cultivation) to permanent farming.

The NLUP aims to support 120,000 "Jhumia" (shifting cultivators) families over five years to settle in stable agriculture.

The planning commission has pointed out that irrigation coverage of net sown area is found to be very low and asked the state government to accelerate it.

"Bench terracing may be a viable alternative towards water management under agriculture enhancement strategy. There is a need to develop a horticulture hub in the state to revamp the sector. Animal husbandry, veterinary and dairy sectors including fisheries and aquaculture may be promoted through Self Help Groups," the official said, quoting Ahluwalia.

According to the official, the Mizoram Chief Minister has sought the Planning Commission's financial support in evolving a workable rain water harvesting programme for the mountainous state.

Welcome to Delhi, The New Drug Trafficking Hub

By Suhas Munshi

Drug addicts wait for traetment at National Drug Dependence Treatment


The National Capital is witnessing a boom in drug trafficking. A Mail Today investigation has found out that foreign drug cartels are smuggling in thousands of kilograms of narcotics through Delhi's porous borders even as the anti-narcotics forces grope in the dark for leads.

On April 3 this year, the Delhi Police seized drugs worth Rs.15 crore from a storehouse in the Capital. Two Myanmar nationals, two persons from Mizoram and one from Delhi were found in possession of 140 kg of pseudoephedrine tablets and 50 kg of pseudoephedrine powder. The consignment was to be smuggled out to Myanmar through Mizoram and brought back after being processed into a consignment of high-end party drugs such as Ecstacy, ICE and Crystal Meth.
A few days later, another international drug cartel in possession of several kilograms of psychotropic drugs and fake currency notes, was busted by the Delhi Police.

Low on priority

A senior Delhi Police officer, on condition of anonymity, said better financial prospect in the national Capital is attracting new narcotics suppliers from within and outside the country.

"Almost all the drugs seized by law enforcement agencies are smuggled into the Capital through airports or by surface transport. While everyone knows about this, we have been told to focus on our top priority, which is to go after terrorism and not drugs," said the officer.

He said most officers, from the narcotics branch and the special cell division of the Delhi Police, are hesitant to go after the source of drugs because not many understand the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).

Trouble for cops
The officer said several precautionary clauses reserved in the NDPS to prevent unlawful arrests actually invoke fear among the police, who haven't been sufficiently trained in antinarcotics laws. "Many a time our investigation comes to a deadend because no drugs are found from the suspects' place. There have been cases when NDPS has questioned the policeman's intent of going after a suspect. This creates trouble for all investigating officers," said the officer.

"As soon as we seize the supply, chaos ensues. Rate of drugs spikes, suppliers adulterate narcotics with impurities because of which the number of fatalities also shoots up. Being resource-constrained, we try to nab mainly the sources of drugs and leave the footmen alone," said a narcotics officer.

Mail Today investigation also found that a 'set' comprising certain tablets along with a syringe can be procured over the counter for Rs.80. Chemists report the stock as having been misplaced or damaged due to exposure to heat.

While the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has just 70 men for the city, Delhi Police's narcotics division is just 55-personnel strong. There are also an increasing number of children who are being absorbed into the drug trade.

"Children are first being addicted to drugs and then being forced to work for the traffickers," said Vinod Kumar Tikoo, member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Addicts who are trying to find their way back

Manjeet Luthra (Name changed)

He had a family business in Tilak Nagar before he started snorting smack with friends. It started as a party recreation but soon changed into a regular habit.

Luthra had inherited a building and store-houses from his ancestral business of agricultural. As an addict he began selling his property, his wife's jewellery and their savings off to buy smack.

A smack addict consumes around one gram or less smack each day, but Luthra's addiction had peaked to more than five grams every single day, inform his doctors.

The three friends who passed on the habit to him died shortly afterwards from drug overdose. After 20 years of snorting heroin Luthra says he's finally given up. It has been one year and he hasn't touched the powder yet.

Amit Kumar (Name changed)

Kumar started abusing medicines as soon as the girl he had eloped with refused to marry him.

A few days after their escapade the girl returned to Delhi to join her family. Kumar took recourse to cannabis, alcohol, painkillers and later heroin to help him overcome the grief.

Drugs, as he later realised, distanced him further from his former beau and the vicious cycle of inebriation reduced the 21-year-old Kumar to a 40 kg skeleton. Today, Kumar commutes 50 km once every week from his home in Mongolpuri to NDDTC(National Drugs Dependence Centre) in Ghaziabad. He hasn't consumed drugs for the past four months.

Bittoo (Name changed)

He has been addicted to tobacco, both smoking and chewing and paint thinners for the past two years.

He started consuming alcohol one and a half years ago. He has also been addicted to weed for the past one year, and recently started heroin.

He is only 16 years old.

His family based in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, found out about the addiction when Bittoo thrashed his brother who demanded to sniff what his elder brother was sniffing.

Bittoo's mother says their family was ostracised, and her husband gave up on their son when they found out about his addiction.

The child in a strained, hoarse voice now claims to have rid himself of all addictions.

Gurinder Singh (Name changed)
Like many youths, Singh got addicted to drugs as a result of peer pressure.

Heroin which was being smuggled from Pakistan was easily available in his village at Wagah Border.

His grandfather was a senior retired military man, and his father and mother were employed in the service sector.

Addiction forced him to drop out of college and spend his days looking for money to buy drugs. When cash dried up Singh fled to Dubai and started bootlegging liquor there. Police found him and deported him back to India. He is now trying to get back on the path of recovery. His application to Punjab police force has been accepted.

US Film 'Explores The Power' of Baseball in Manipur

By Arun Kumar

Washington, May 6 : It was amazing enough that in cricket-crazy India, America's national pastime baseball has found a foothold in the northeastern state of Manipur.

And now two American women, one a critically acclaimed director and the other an Academy-Award winning actress, have come together to make a movie that they say "explores the power" of the game for "people in a troubled, distant place."

Featured at the 13th New York Indian Film Festival ended Saturday, "The Only Real Game", a new documentary by Mirra Bank ("Last Dance", "Nobody's Girls") tells the story of how baseball has nurtured a dream for healing a wounded society and connecting it to the wider world.

This dream moves toward reality when First Pitch, a small group of baseball-loving New Yorkers, and two Major League Baseball Envoy coaches, join Manipuri men, women and children to "play ball."

"Baseball is a team sport and everyone on the team has a particular position and a job to do within the team" Melissa Leo, Academy-Award winning actress (The Fighter, Frozen River, 21 Grams), who narrates the film told IANS on phone from New York.

"So win or lose, at the end of the day everyone can go home happy at playing in a team," she said explaining how the game nurtures a team spirit. But, "I think the real impetus of the film is what ties people quite a lot in pretty dire circumstances" she said.

Leo said she happily went along and joined Bank because "we both have interest and respect for each other's work" and "If she was making a film that she thought was terribly important for the people in it, I had a suspicion she would be treating them in a really brighter kind of light."

Although on the one hand it is entertainment, it can also "shed light on the dilemmas of these people," she said. "A lot of time atrocities are happening because they are happening in the dark."

Some American soldiers brought the game to Manipur during World War II and started a tradition that has lasted all these years handed down from family to family, making it perhaps the only place in India where baseball is played.

"I know that there are several women who are involved from one generation to the next over the years to keep it alive," Leo said, "because "it really seems to help especially the youth to direct their energies and have a healthy outlet for them."

This brings out a spirit of pulling together, she said and so "women in Manipur, who have recognised that it's a very important part of their social structure, work very hard to keep baseball alive."

Leo does find it "quite amusing", though that baseball is played there in Manipur" when kids all over India are playing cricket even in parking lots and backyards. "It's funny, but you know, cricket is not for everyone."

The Golden Globe and Academy Award winning actress, who currently features in the action thriller "Olympus Has Fallen" as well as the Tom Cruise helmed Sci-Fi adventure "Oblivion" has never been to India and is hoping "The Only Real Game" will help her go over there.

"If it's something that recognition of me can help to shed light on things then that's a good thing," she said. "And if an individual can do anything that will be better for people who have less, I'll give it a shot," added the actress, who has always had quite a draw to India and its "quite beautiful" aesthetics.

Nagaland Governor Releases Book on Northeast Cuisine

Dimapur, May 6 : The variations in cuisine from region to region in India is quite staggering. In a major boost to exploration of the food culture of different tribes and communities of northeast, Nagaland Governor Dr. Ashwani Kumar recently released a book titled 'Food Trail- discovering food culture of NE India.'

A first-of-its-kind anthology, the book written by Aiyushman Dutta, offers a peek into the life and culture of the people of the region through the prism of their food.

It includes more than 30 insightful narratives by prominent writers from the Northeast and researchers.

"I feel that food is the most important element in creating human identity, identity politics and identity determination. I feel that food is the most crucial element," said Dutta

The book deals with cuisines of all the northeastern states. Smoked meat, fish, pork, meat, bamboo shoots, Vunenuo or special stew chicken, Akhuni are some of the special dishes of the region.

"When we go outside people often ask what type of food you eat? So it's not only about how we sing and dance but food is important so we have started taking our cuisine expert so that people will also taste food and they will appreciate it," said Som Kamei, Director, NEZCC.

" Through this book people will come to know about our rich culture, tradition and about our food culture," said Jyoti Das, writer.

"Food Trail" is a highly unusual book and a first-of-its-kind. It will help people from across the country learn more about the culture, traditions and people of the northeastern states.

Did Mizoram Govt Allow Mob Violence?

Aizawl, May 2 : Even as the people of Vaphai unreasonably blamed Gauhati High Court for the torching of Saikhumphai Bawk, an alleged illegal settlement near the Mizoram-Myanmar border, the state administration was held responsible for the heinous crime.

Severely criticising the government's inaction to contain mob violence, the Mizoram Bar Association today asked if the government instigated Monday's incident in which the entire hamlet, except for church buildings and an anganwadi centre, was torched by an irate mob from Vaphai village, under whose jurisdiction falls Saikhumphai Bawk.

The high court's verdict on April 26, which nullified the Mizoram government's order for evacuation of Saikhumphai Bawk, directed the concerned Champhai district deputy commissioner to provide housing materials and financial assistance to residents of Saikhumphai Bawk whose houses had been dismantled in the earlier evacuation process within two months, and also to maintain law and order to contain possible mob violence. "Despite the clear instructions of the High Court, the district administration allowed the mob to burn down the village.

Deployment of adequate police forces could have evaded the mob incident," said C Zoramchhanga, assistant secretary of MBA, in a press conference here today. Defying the high court's order, the mob, comprising more than one thousand people from Vaphai, torched all the 40 houses in Saikhumphai Bawk on Monday and organised a rally at Vaphai on Tuesday where they accused the high court of "burning the village."

"The incident of a breach of administration of justice and accusing the High Court of burning the village was baseless and insensible. We will file contempt of court case," said the advocate.

No one has been arrested in connection with the torching of the village, which according to the bar association, was a clear indication of the government's apathy. The lawyer also strongly condemned the death threat served to the advocate and member of the association, who had pursued the case in the High Court, and vowed to stand in solidarity to defence their profession.

The association demanded arrest of sender (s) of the threat letter and appropriate action against the residents of Vaphai who involved in the mob incident. Advocate J C Lalnunsanga has filed an FIR against the death threat and sought police protection. Dismissing allegations that the residents of Saikhumphai Bawk are Myanmarese nationals, the advocate maintained that they are genuine Indian citizens who possess EPICs.

According to the advocate, Saikhumphai Bawk was inhabited from 1963, but was evacuated following Mizoram insurgency from 1966, and was re-inhabited with the permission of Vaphai village council from 1987 when peace returned to Mizoram in 1986. He showed documents to prove these claims.

Mizoram Restricts Pork Sale As Fever Kills Over 600 Pigs

Aizawl, May 2 : Over 600 pigs have died from swine fever and about 12,200 have been infected in the past two months in Mizoram, officials said here Wednesday.

“The endemic swine fever caused the death of as many as 470 pigs in Aizawl district alone while remaining 130 died in other districts. Over 12,200 pigs have been infected with the disease,” a Mizoram animal husbandry and veterinary department official told reporters.

The northeastern state shares border with Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Over 300 piglets, given to the people under the new land use policy, a Mizoram government flagship scheme to rehabilitate the poor people in permanent cultivation, have also died from swine fever, also called hog cholera.

The animal husbandry and veterinary department had earlier in March asked all the deputy commissioners of the state’s eight districts, specially those adjoining Myanmar, to issue orders banning import of pigs from neighbouring Myanmar.

According to the official, the PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome), which was much more dangerous than the swine fever, also hit Mizoram and was spreading in Myanmar and there has been an epidemic-like situation in that country.

“After preliminary positive test of swine fever in Mizoram laboratories, the samples have been sent to the Bhopal-based High Security Animal Disease Laboratory for final confirmation,” the official added.

Restrictions of the past two months by the administration on selling “affected pork” would continue in the mountainous state until the situation normalises, officials said.

The sale of pork also dropped rapidly. Chicken and beef have been substituting the menu in marriage parties and other feasts in the Christian-dominated state.

Taking advantage of the situation, the dealers and meat vendors have almost doubled the prices of chicken and beef.

Mizoram has international border of 404 km with Myanmar and 318 km with Bangladesh.