Mary Kom Gives Birth To Baby Boy in Imphal

Imphal May 15 : And it’s a boy! Supermom and superfighter Mary Kom this afternoon had her third baby, a bonny boy, six years after her twins were born in 2007.

A C-section arrival, the boy is yet to be named, said Onler Kom, Mary’s husband and proud father of three.

“Both the mother and newborn are doing well. The boy is very healthy,” Mary Kom’s doctor N. Purnima Devi said after the operation at Public Hospital in Imphal’s Hatta area. Like mother like son. As compared to 3.1kg, the average weight of the average baby, Mary’s littlest one weighed in at 3.81kg as he arrived at 3.10 this afternoon.

The procedure took the “usual 45 minutes to an hour”, doctors said. Mary had been admitted to the hospital yesterday. Her older twins, Rechungvar and Khupneivar, who complete six years in June, were also C-section babies. “Because of the size of the third child we didn’t want to take chances and opted for surgery,” a doctor said.

“The baby was extra healthy because she followed the doctor’s advice to the letter,” Onler said. “We were worried, though. Thank God, both our child and Mary are safe.”

Her doctors didn’t allow Mary, who was recuperating, to speak to visitors.

Their two elder sons were away at their home at Langol Games village in Imphal, waiting for the kid brother to come home.

And the littlest will learn the family way soon, says Onler. “Till he grows up it’s going to be the usual baby food, but once that’s done, he gets on to the staple —that would be rice.”

And now that she’s had another baby, will Mary, our London Olympic boxing bronze medallist, come back even stronger and win another world championship?

After all, hadn’t she won one after Rechungvar and Khupneivar came?

“Well, she will rest for six months and we will see how she recovers. Once she is okay, she is back in the ring,” said Onler, who was once her manager.

And timing is everything. Weren’t the London Olympics in August of last year? And the baby comes in May, just nine months after the games.

“She wouldn’t be allowed to fight had she been pregnant then,” said the husband. “Mary went the family way just after the Games.”

Timing surely matters. And no, whether the sons will become boxers, too, isn’t under consideration now. It will be only once they grow up.

Just one more thing. The Magnificent one isn’t throwing in the towel in the ring all right, but when it comes to size of the family, now that they’d crossed the “hum do hamare do” line, will they wait for a daughter?

“No, we are planning to stop at three,” said Onler.

26.03% Growth in Arunachal Population

Women outpace men
By PRANAB KUMAR DAS

Tezpur, May 15 : The population of Arunachal Pradesh according to Census 2011 is 13,83,727, a decadal growth of 26.03 per cent.

The highest decadal growth in population has been recorded in Kurung Kumey district.

Papum Pare occupies the first position in population density, followed by Tirap district. The lowest density of population has been recorded in Dibang Valley district.

The data was revealed in the Primary Census Abstract (PCA) Data, Census of India, 2011, for Arunachal Pradesh, released by the directorate of census operations, government of Arunachal Pradesh, at the press club in Itanagar today.

The PCA data included 16 districts, 188 circles, 26 statutory towns, one census town and 5,589 villages in the state.

The number of literate people in the state has been recorded at 7,66,005 in 2011 as against 4,84,785 in 2001.

Papum Pare recorded the highest literacy rate with 79.95 per cent followed by Lower Subansiri with 74.35 per cent, while Kurung Kumey recorded the lowest literacy rate with 48.75 per cent.

The growth rate of females (29.30 per cent) is higher than males (23.10 per cent) during the decade.

Releasing the PCA data, Bharati Chandra, joint director of census operations, gave the data highlights on PCA 2011, which showed decadal increase of total number of households by 25.51 per cent.

She said the PCA data was the first set of final data from the population enumeration exercise held in February 2011.

MZP To Carry Out Census Of Chakmas in Mizoram

Aizawl, May 13 : The Federal Council meeting of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the Mizo apex student body, resolved to conduct an elaborate census of the Chakmas in Mizoram.

The Federal Council comprises not only the leaders of the general and district headquarters, but also leaders of ethnicity-based student associations like the Hmar Students' Association, Siamsin Pawl Pi (SSP - Paite Students Organization), Lai, Mara and other ethnicity-based Mizo student organizations.

Student leaders maintained that after the then East Pakistan government constructed the Kaptai dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, many people belonging to the Chakma community were displaced and resettled in India's northeastern states, especially Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

A separate autonomous district council - the Chakma Autonomous District Council - was created for the community by the Centre in 1972.

This encouraged more Chakmas to migrate to Mizoram, one of the student leaders participating in the meeting said, adding that this was the first time a separate autonomous council was created in the country for the Chakmas.

"There are many Chakmas who are Indian citizens who have been in Mizoram since before Independence and these people welcome our proposed census," said a Mizo student leader.

The MZP Federal Council meeting also resolved that the student body should make concerted efforts to ensure that Mizoram has a high court on its own as provided in the historic Mizo Accord signed between the Centre and the erstwhile underground Mizo National Front on June 30, 1986.

Cyclone Mahasen Headed For Mizoram; Northeast India

Bangladesh Issues Warning As Cyclone Mahasen Approaches

Dhaka, May 13 : Maritime ports in Bangladesh were Sunday advised to take adequate precautionary measures as cyclone Mahasen originating in the southeast Bay of Bengal, moved slightly towards the northwest.

"Depression which has already turned into cyclonic storm would likely move initially northwestwards during the next 36 hours and recurve thereafter northeastwards towards the Bangladesh-Myanmar coast," Xinhua cited the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) as saying in a special weather bulletin.

The bulletin said the cyclone was centred about 1,455 km south-southwest of Bangladesh's Chittagong seaport.

It said maximum sustained wind speed within 54 km of the storm centre has risen from 62 km per hour to 88 km per hour in gusts/squalls.

A BMD meteorologist said caution has been sounded for all ports and all fishing boats have been advised to remain close to the coast.

They were also advised not to venture into the deep sea.

You can track the cyclone here:

India Of A Thousand Dreams!

By Ibu Sanjeeb Garg

I am from the North-East — a paradise unexplored as those grandiose “Incredible India” campaigns would spell. I belong to the land of the rhino, the national parks and the dances. But I also belong to the land which is on the wrong side of the “looks” discourse. Where I come from people don’t have long noses and sharp big eyes; we have flat noses and small eyes. Colloquially, my brethren from my home are lumped together as one big racial group, “chinkis.”

We, the people of India, have never had problems with sweeping generalisations such as the loud Jats and Punjabis or the silent Tamilians, good or bad generalisations adorn our social discourse. Yet, never are they so vivid and as socially offending as with the “chinkis” and very often it spills over to those who don’t have the “chinki looks.” I must admit that never in my life have I been referred to as an exotic breed unlike my friends — that is because I share a more “mainlander” look. So the question is: why this necessity for a mainlander look to be called an Indian?

Recently, a close friend visited the Taj Mahal. He wanted to see the beauty that made India a global tourist hotspot. He had his Afghan friend along with him. They had a minor altercation with the security guards over entry for the Afghan student. Soon, the guards demanded identification proof of my friend. When he showed them his identity card, they did the unimaginable! They asked him to take a foreigner’s pass. Imagine the surprise and disgust of my friend. He had studied in Delhi almost all his college life and now he had to get a foreigner’s ticket because someone decided that he was not Indian enough to be Indian; or, perhaps, he was on the wrong side of the country.

This is not just one story. We hear thousands like this everyday. We hear of Bodo students being harassed during the Tibetan monk protests (since they looked Mongoloid). If you are a Mongoloid and girl, Delhi suddenly turns dangerous for you because there is a popular discourse that “NE girls are cheap.” This negative perception is endorsed by even neighbourhood aunties who argue that these “thin girls with short clothes” are always on the lookout for “easy money.” Sometimes, I wonder if this is really concern or disgust or merely jealousy since most of the aunties got the wrong part of the deal in the weight debate! Yet, the question remains: what does this mean for my friend and many others like him who face harassment everyday? It seems the idea of “India” still does not include them or others like them.

On the other hand, there is no denying the discrimination that runs counter in the North-East. The recent declaration of a bandh in Meghalaya against a “non-tribal” getting the Speaker’s post in the Assembly points to the bias that exists in the “egalitarian” tribal milieu. If anything, tribal society today is not egalitarian — it is mostly an exclusivist society where anything non-tribal (non-Mongoloid) is seen with suspicion and contempt.

So the story of India is one of conjoining these two systems (mainland and NE) — one which thrives on discrimination and an idea of India which is either speaking in Hindi or a south Indian techie, and the other which is inherently distrustful and exclusivist in character.

When one looks at the root of the problem, it is not the clash of these two systems but one which has a “trust deficit” in essence. The problem is both sides have not been able to bridge the trust gap.

The solution will be found when someone from Uttar Pradesh/Bihar/Tamil Nadu stands up for my friend the next time he or she is stopped at the Taj Mahal and called non-Indian. The solution will be found when a non-tribal is declared Speaker of a tribal State the people rejoice. This is very much our India, an India of a thousand dreams they may come in all shapes and sizes but one whose destiny is shared.

(The author is working with the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank based in Delhi looking into multilateral policy of objectives. Email: pabloo8690@gmail.com)

Behind Fall Of A Meghalaya Univ, Rise And Rise Of A ‘Chancellor’

By Samudra Gupta Kashyap

Guwahati, May 13 : If PhD degrees in one year to 434 candidates is a "feat" for which CMJ University in Shillong now finds its doors sealed, the growth of its chancellor in the field of academics has not been any less exponential.

Till the early 1980s, as far as anyone can remember, Chandra Mohan Jha was a petty government contractor. By the time he moved on to his first educational ventures, the North East India Trust for Education and Development (NEITED), in 1999-2000, he had managed to rope in former CM D D Lapang as a chairman. The trust landed in a controversy over use of funds and Lapang resigned soon after.

The official website of CMJ University (named by Jha for himself) talks of the 'CMJ Group' having earlier promoted Shillong Engineering and Medical College. In 2003, the engineering and medical college affiliated to North-Eastern Hill University got permission to use two government hospitals in Shillong for the purpose of practical training of its medical students. It was later de-recognised by North-Eastern Hill University (it is now affiliated to CMJ University).

None of which appears to have come in his way as Jha set up CMJ University in 2009 and went on to admit over 3,300 students. Its 434 PhD degrees in one academic year also stand out for the fact that only 10 of its faculty have doctorates. It offers PhD degrees in 79 different subjects. Even a trip to Shillong wasn't needed for the PhD degree. One dental clinic in Panchkula advertised offering its degree. "I have been told that there are such agents all over UP and Bihar facilitating PhD degrees and other degrees from this university," says Meghalaya Governor R A Mooshahary, who as Visitor, filed an FIR against the university on April 30.

Since the FIR was filed and Jha went on the run, local media has been reporting about his "high connections", and how these have helped him for the past several years if not decades. "I remember him as a government contractor in the early 1980s," recalls Patricia Mukhim, a well-known social activist and editor of Shillong Times. "I also remember Jha sending us a press note claiming that a foreign university had awarded him a PhD degree."

Lapang admitted being associated with Jha, but says it was brief. "I soon resigned," Lapang told The Indian Express, adding "The law will take its own course (in the matter of the university)." The four-time CM of Meghalaya incidentally is currently chief advisor to the government of Meghalaya.

Reports are also emerging about Jha having been briefly arrested in 2011 in connection with a case filed by HUDCO; he was released on bail soon after. Another report says the CBI had filed a chargesheet against Jha, then secretary of NEITED, for "misutilisation" of funds released by the North Eastern Council for implementation of a scheme called 'Integrated e-education and tele health programme for 10 schools in Meghalaya'. He is accused of having filed false utilisation certificates.

While Jha himself remains missing, CMJ University authorities refused to comment. Registrar Mrinal Kanti Deb was arrested Saturday while Deputy Registrar Premlal Rai fends off all queries saying: "Wait till he (Jha) returns." Officially, the Meghalaya Police CID have been told by the university that Jha is away in Bihar, his home state, for a wedding in the family.

Aizawl Landslip Toll On The Rise

Aizawl, May 13 : The toll in yesterday’s landslide at Laipuitlang in Aizawl mounted to 14 today, spurring the Mizo National Front to demand the resignation of chief minister Lal Thanhawla, who is also the state’s PWD minister.

As the rescue efforts entered the second day today, four more bodies were located in the rubble. One of them, that of Zakir Hussain of Karimganj, was extracted. Another squall stalled efforts to extract the other three bodies.

Hussain was alive yesterday and even talked to friends and relatives over his mobile phone. Later he complained of having difficulty breathing and couldn’t be contacted again. Rescue workers pulled out his body from the rubble around 2 this morning.

Another youth, Lalrinsiama, was rescued alive from the rubble. But his sister Lalthafeli and brother Lalrindika were not so lucky. While Lalthafeli’s body was found, Lalrindika is still missing.

“‘I love you’ were my brother’s last words. The phone went silent after that,” Lalrinsiama said, remembering those few minutes after the landslide when his brother called him from another room of their collapsed house.

“Keep shouting for help no matter what,” Lalrindika had told him moments before that and he did exactly that, till rescuers heard his voice and came looking.

Another survivor, Lalhlimpuii, was also rescued today with serious injuries.

The director of the department of disaster management and rehabilitation, Lalpeksanga, told The Telegraph that five persons had been rescued since yesterday and 11 bodies recovered till 2 this afternoon. Three more bodies had been located but these could not be extracted as another squall stalled rescue efforts. He said six persons were still missing.

There is, however, no official word yet on how many people may have been there in the affected houses at the time of the disaster.

L.R. Sailo, press secretary to the Mizoram chief minister, said the state government had so far sanctioned Rs 40 lakh — Rs 25 lakh for Aizawl and Rs 15 lakh for other districts — to compensate those who had lost their property in the landslides. He said the government would decide on the quantum of aid within the next couple of days and then make a formal announcement.

A police official in Aizawl said personnel of the State Disaster Response Force and the Mizoram Armed Police had been engaged in the rescue efforts, while the Young Mizo Association (YMA) is supervising the work. The association’s Laipuitlang, Chaltlang and Ramhlun branches have set up notice boards and information booths to help relatives locate the victims.

Aizawl citizens are seething with anger, as they know yesterday’s tragedy was far from being a “natural disaster”. The imposing five-storied PWD building, which doubled as quarters for some staff, had been in a precarious state since last monsoon, when earth below its foundations had broken away and the subsequent landslide had blocked the road in the area.

The building’s residents immediately shifted out and neighbouring house-owners also moved to safer places, as no one knew when the unstable structure would come crashing down the hillside. Though it was expected that the PWD and other authorities would immediately dismantle the building, nothing happened till heavy rain made the inevitable happen yesterday.

Sources said local council officials had even written to the PWD and the Aizawl Development Authority to dismantle the building, but action came too late. The government ordered a magisterial inquiry yesterday, after the damage was done.

The youth wing of the Mizo National Front today demanded resignation of Lal Thanhawla, who holds additional charge of PWD, for der-eliction of duty and for not do-ing anything to dismantle the damaged PWD building.

A pall of gloom has shro-uded Mizoram, with news of death and loss of property in four days of rains and landslides trickling in from various parts of the state. According to reports, over 500 houses have either been partially or fully damaged in the eight districts in the past four days, as heavy showers triggered major and minor landslides.

People in Aizawl today mourned the victims of the Laipuitlang tragedy during Sunday church service while a section of the state’s facebook users posted images of similar disasters waiting to happen.

Northeast Students Body Demands Separate Time Zone

NESO members at the news conference in New Delhi on Friday. Picture by Yasir Iqbal

New Delhi, May 11 : The Northeast may have been dubbed backward but the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) is convinced the region is “ahead” in time.

A delegation of the student organisation told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a meeting this week that the Northeast should have a separate time zone, an hour ahead of rest of India.

The delegation, which also called on BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh and election commissioner H.S. Brahma in the national capital, believes that demands put up a year before elections “can put pressure” on political leaders.

They also presented an eight-point charter to Singh that also opposed the India-Bangladesh land swap deal, while demanding special constitutional status for the Northeast, an education commission for educational reforms in the region and restructuring of the DoNER ministry.

“We are seriously pursuing the time zone demand. The sun rises one hour ahead in the Northeast; so we do need a separate zone,” NESO adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters today. “Persons of eminence like filmmaker Jahnu Barua has taken an initiative and so have others.”

The Northeast is linked to the rest of India by a sliver of land just 26km wide. The entire region is located beyond Bangladesh, where the standard time is half-an-hour ahead of India. Yet, to Dhaka’s east, the Northeast is half-an-hour behind the neighbouring country. In a meeting with Singh and Opposition leaders, the organisation said a separate time zone was a must if the region was to develop. States like Nagaland even have shorter working hours owing to the “early sunset”, raising questions on productivity in government jobs.

Elsewhere in the world, there is the “daylight saving time”, which in the United States starts at 2am on the second Sunday of March every year. On the first Sunday of November, areas on daylight saving time reset their clocks one hour behind at 2am and return to the standard time. Daylight saving time is prevalent in Europe too.

Unlike the United States, which has nine standard time zones, India has a uniform time zone: Indian Standard Time or IST, that extends from the westernmost point on the Gujarat coast to Dong in Arunachal Pradesh, where the sun first rises for India.

Bhattacharya said the region was an hour ahead of Delhi and even further ahead in time than Mumbai.

Though the government finds “no merit” in the demand, the student organisation, which has held several meetings on the issue, feels that a separate zone is possible. Its leaders insisted that there was merit in this: “It can be and will be logically proven.”