06 June 2013

Mizoram Opposition Demand Lalthanhawla's Resignation

Aizawl, Jun 6 : All three major opposition parties in the state have demanded the resignation of chief minister Lalthanhawla, who also holds the public works portfolio, and his younger brother, Lalthanzara, parliamentary secretary of the public works department (PWD). The parties hold the duo responsible for the "manmade disaster" that claimed 17 lives in northern Aizawl on May 11.

Mizo National Youth Front (MNYF) president PC Laltlansanga, Mizoram People's Conference Youth (MPCY) president V L Zaithanzama and Zoram Nationalist Party Youth (ZNPY) president Joseph L Ralte issued a joint statement on Wednesday.

They alleged in the statement that Lalthanhawla and his brother were responsible for the deaths as it was an abandoned PWD office building in Laipuitlang locality of Aizawl that swept away nine houses, killing 17 people.

The statement also alleged that the PWD did not act even after cracks appeared on the ground near the building in October 2012, despite repeated warnings from local council leaders. This eventually resulted in the disaster.

"If transport minister P C Zoramsangliana submitted his resignation following an accident of a Mizoram State Transport bus and education minister Lalsawta resigned over mistakes in the technical entrance examination, the chief minister and the PWD parliamentary secretary should also resign," the statement said.

"The delay in dismantling the PWD building and the complacency of the Congress government led to the disaster and people looking after the PWD must own moral responsibility," the statement added. The opposition youth wings demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.

Mizoram To Ensure Maximum Sportsmen to 2016 Olympics

Aizawl, Jun 6 : Mizoram would work to ensure that maximum number of sports persons from the state represent the country in the 2016 Olympics, its Sports Minister Zodintluanga said today.

Young talents from the rural areas would be harnessed to the maximum and nine sports disciplines have been identified by the government as the priority ones, he said at a meeting 'Olympic Vision 2016" here.

The nine disciplines are archery, boxing, badminton, hockey, shooting, weight lifting, table tennis, taekwondo and judo.

Sports persons, who were from outside Aizawl would be provided all facilities and brought here for coaching and training.

Northeast India home To Legless Amphibians

In the deep recesses of the forest in northeast India, three new species of legless amphibians, evolved from the caecilians, spend their lives.

This discovery, carried out in collaboration with The Natural History Museum in London, and the University of Delhi, revealed three new species of amphibians, which have now been named Chikilidae. This rare discovery, done by professor SD Buju, an amphibian research professor from the University of Delhi, and his PhD student Rachunliu Kamei, was described as the 'discovery of the year' in February 2012.

Buju, who was popularly known as Delhi's frogman, discovered this new family of tailless amphibians, which seem to have evolved from other caecilians more than 140 million years ago.

Their findings, which involved the discovery of more than 40 additional new species of amphibians, were published in the international journal ZOOTAXA.

The three new species of amphibians discovered, were named as Chikila alcocki, Chikila darlong and Chikila gaiduwani. The results from this study were based on checking several morphological traits and molecular DNA markers, which is by far, the most systematic surveys conducted on caecilians for far, and the first ever in northeast India.

ZOOTAXA, which is an International Journal of Zoological Taxonomy, describes the discovery as the 'Discovery of three new blind-legless amphibians from northeast India' and highlights that northeast India may actually be a treasure trove for more unknown species.

There may be less than 200 species of caecilians in the world, according to Biju. They came across these tailless species during a fieldwork of soil digging survey carried out between the years 2006 to 2010 in many different parts of India, particularly northeast India, including Manipur, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura.

This study, which has managed to introduce two new members to the Chikilidae family, is unique and one-of-a-kind, mostly due to the fact that this family has only one member- Chikila fulleri, till date, which was a broken museum species, over 100 years old.

What's even more surprising is the fact that Rachunliu, who is also popularly known as Chun, has named one of the species as Chikila Gaiduwani after her father- Gaiduwan Gaipuizei Kammai.

Given that there are millions of different animal species today, it seems that each of us may get the chance to name a species after ourselves, or someone close to us, in the near future.

Agro Economy Of Northeast Region To Face Flood Devastation Again

Despite many flood controlling authorities or their projects, flooding and inundation are likely to continue this year too.By Debasis Sarkar

Despite many flood controlling authorities or their projects, flooding and inundation are likely to continue this year too.

Siliguri, Jun 6 : Approaching monsoon has started ringing alarm bell in North East Region of India(NER) and Northern West Bengal, two of the worst flood affected areas of the country.

Bengal's latest initiative to form a special '(flood) combat force,' also could not increase the confidence level of perpetually victim areas in the sate. Despite many flood controlling authorities or their projects, flooding and inundation are likely to continue this year too badly hampering agro economy of the entire region.

"A special combat force is being formed to take up flood damage control activities. Specialized on the job, this force can be of great help to the disaster prone areas," said, Irrigation and Waterways Minister Rajib Banerjee. But the announcement could hardly generate any extra confidence in commonly victim areas.

Annual heavy erosion in East Bank of Farakka upstream is one of the largest threats in entire Ganga basin. "This will become violent this year too, be there any force or not," said Mr. M. Alam, senior member of Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Action Nagorik Committee. Large scale dredging of Ganga to give it strength to withstand 25Lakh cusec monsoon period hydroload was proposed earlier. But, "None is there to arrange the fund of over Rs 1,600 crore needed for the job," said Mr. Alam.

"Water retaining capacity of all foothills rivers has also gone down badly due to heavy siltation. Naturally, flooding of both banks, in case of heavy water flow, has become obvious. Dams or walls are minuscule relief only," said geologist from NBV University Dr. S Sarkar.

According to National Commission on Flood reports, contribution of NER is very high in national average loss of Rs 1,000 crore due to flood. And, frequency, intensity, spatial coverage or magnitudes of flood damage in NER and NB are increasing year after year.

As per the report of special task force of the Water Resources Development ministry, West Bengal suffered most due to flood in last 50 years. The overall loss was estimated as around Rs 15,000 along with loss of more than 8,700 human lives and over 6 lakh livestock. On an average, floodwater washes out more than 2.5 lakh heater agro land every year causing heavy loss.

To handle the situation, Government of India approved Rs 8,000 crore Flood management Program for 11th Plan period. There was GoI's Critical flood control and anti-erosion schemes worth Rs 305 crore, or scheme for anti-erosion projects in the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys worth Rs 225 Crore.

Another State Sector scheme of Rs. 166.68 crore for NER and West Bengal is tere. Above all, Brahmaputra Board has earmarked Rs 800 crore for NBFCC area for the period till 2017. But these all put together could hardly build up any extra confidence level for the victims.

University in Shillong Suspected in Fake PhDs Scam

Shillong, Jun 6 : Police are investigating an Indian university suspected of issuing fake PhDs after it awarded more than 400 doctorates in a single year, officers said Wednesday.

Police have arrested four senior officials from CMJ University in the northeastern state of Meghalaya on suspicion of fraud and forgery and are hunting for the chancellor, who has fled.

"We are not sure about his whereabouts, as he keeps changing his location frequently," senior state police official Sunil Kumar Jain told AFP.

The private university, established in 2009 in the state capital Shillong, handed out 434 PhDs during the 2012-13 academic year despite its small faculty, arousing suspicions a
mong local officials who filed a police complaint.

A PhD at CMJ University takes between two to five years and costs 127,000 rupees ($2,250), according to its website.

"In good faith, the universities were given permission to operate, but some seem to have taken this for a ride and this is distressing," said Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma.

Credentials fraud is a serious problem in India, fuelled by a huge demand for qualifications, endemic corruption and poor regulation of the ultra-competitive and fast-growing education sector.

In 2011 a racket in fake airline pilot licences was exposed, while in 2010 police arrested the head of the national body responsible for certifying medical qualifications for allegedly accepting a bribe.

The Times of India reported on Monday that PhDs from CMJ were on sale for between $4,000-10,000, with the amount paid determining how quickly the qualification would be granted.

SP Sharma, a lawyer for CMJ University chancellor Chandra Mohan Jha, accused the state administration of being "prejudiced" against the university.

Anguished CMJ students issued a deadline, set to expire Thursday, to the Meghalaya government to resolve the debacle and give them some clarity about their futures.
05 June 2013

Mizoram Pig Virus Detected in India For First Time

Aizawl, Jun 5 : For the first time in Mizoram and perhaps in the country, virus of a pandemic disease which causes reproductive failure in breeding stock and respiratory tract illness in young pigs has been detected in the samples of sick swines sent to laboratories for testing.

The samples of the sick swines were tested at the laboratories in the Veterinary College in Selesih, Mizoram and at ICAR Research Complex, Borapani in Meghalaya which detected the presence of 'artevirus', the virus that carries the disease porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRSS), Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Dr L B Sailo said.

The PRRS has never been detected earlier in the state and the country but was prevalent in some Asian countries including neighbouring Myanmar with which the state shares 404-km-long border, he said.

Sailo added that tackling the full blown pandemic PRRS would be extremely tough as the vaccine was yet to be manufactured in India.

The samples were sent to the laboratories following the death of hundreds of swines in Mizoram during the past few months, state AH and Veterinary department officials said.

Following the detection of the PRRS virus, the current ban on import of pigs from Myanmar would be in place for a longer time in the state, Sailo said.

District Magistrates of Mizoram's districts adjoining Myanmar had issued prohibitory orders banning import of pigs in May last.

Repatriation Of Bru Refugees From Tripura Hangs in Balance

Aizawl/Agartala, Jun 5 : The repatriation of over 40,000 tribals, who took refuge in Tripura about 16 years ago after ethnic disturbances in Mizoram, has not been resumed, officials said.

Although the union home ministry had issued instructions to resume the repatriation of Reang tribal refugees from northern Tripura to western Mizoram this week, both Tripura as well Mizoram government officials have blamed each other for the delay.

“The repatriation would restart after the Tripura government communicates its preparedness to the Mizoram government,” Mizoram home department Joint Secretary Lalbiakzama told reporters in Aizawl Monday.

“When we approached the Tripura government officials in May, we were told that the conduct of identification of the refugees jointly by the officials of the two governments could not be taken up due to unconducive situation in the areas around the relief camps in northern Tripura,” Lalbiakzama added.

“We have nothing to do except to wait for response from the Tripura government,” he said.

However, Tripura government officials Tuesday denied Mizoram’s claim and said they were always ready to cooperate in repatriation of the Reang tribals, locally called Bru.

“Our officials are always ready to extend all kinds of cooperation and logistical helps to Mizoram officials to send back the tribal refugees to Mizoram,” North Tripura District Magistrate Prashanta Kumar Goel told IANS.

Goel said: “There were some problems due to the murder of a tribal youth near the refugee camps but it would not have hindered the repatriation process.”

In view of the growing ethnic troubles, the Tripura government has been telling the central government that the stay of tribal immigrants from Mizoram was causing troubles in the state.

Refugee leaders, however, have been insisting that without a formal agreement between the Mizora, Tripura and the union governments and tribal leaders, the rehabilitation of refugees will remain uncertain.

The issue was also discussed at the chief ministers’ meeting with union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi in April. The matter is expected to come up again at the chief ministers’ meeting on internal security in New Delhi Wednesday.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had told the meeting that the continuous presence for over 16 years of about 40,468 tribal refugees from Mizoram had 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 had told IANS.

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 besides organising protest rallies in support of their 18-point demands.

The Reang tribal refugees have taken shelter in six camps in Tripura’s Kanchanpur sub-division, adjacent to western Mizoram, since October 1997.

After continued persuasion by the Mizoram and union home ministry officials, around 4,500 refugees returned to their villages in 2010 and 2011. However, the process has been stalled after that.

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.

Assam-Nagaland Border Still Tense, Forces Deployed

Guwahati, Jun 5 : The situation on the Assam-Nagaland border in Assam's Jorhat district continued to be tense Tuesday and forces were deployed after the killing of a labourer there Monday, an official said.

The man was killed at Naginijan area after suspected miscreants from the Nagaland side fired on a group of labourers.

Local groups, including the All Assam Tea Tribe Students Association (AATTSA), started an indefinite economic blockade Tuesday at three places along the Assam-Nagaland border in Jorhat, Sivsagar and Golaghat, protesting the killing.

The blockade left many Nagaland-bound trucks stranded on the Assam side.

The Assam government has deployed additional forces along the border in the area, particularly in Mariani area, to stop recurrence of similar incidents.

"There has been no fresh incident since yesterday (Monday). We have deployed additional forces in and around the area," said an official of Jorhat district.

The Assam government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.5 lakh to the next of kin of Sanjay Bhumij, who was shot dead.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the Nagaland government has assured the state government to book the culprits involved in the killing and that they would be handed over to Assam Police soon.

A delegation of Assam's opposition party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) visited the Mariani area Tuesday and took stock of the situation.

The AGP, which protested outside the office of Jorhat deputy commissioner Tuesday, submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor J.B. Patnaik demanding an inquiry into the incident and punishment for the culprits.