Teachers To Be Meal Testers in Mizoram

By Linda Chhakchhuak

Aizawl, Jul 26 : Jittery over the Chhapra school mid-day meal (MDM) horror, the Mizoram MDM Cell under the State Education department has ordered teachers to eat the MDM meal before serving it to their young wards.

The department has issued a circular asking the teachers to eat the MDM fare before serving the children every day. “Not that we expect the Chhapra tragedy to repeat at anytime, but accidents can always happen and this is one way we feel can protect the children who are under our care. Chhapra was a case of poisoning, ” B Lalchhuanliana, officer-in-charge of the State MDM Cell here said.

The DC Serchhip district has issued his own notice to implement this. Teachers have been assigned for the ‘job’ in rotation. Lalchhuanliana said that the MDM scheme started in Mizoram in 1995 with raw rice distributed to the students in Primary and Middle School level. Since 2004, a Supreme Court ruling directed school children be given cooked meals.

While quality wise, the MDM meal served here looked average, the continuing financial crunch in the State is affecting the scheme. It is learnt that while the Centre sanctioned Rs 521.79 lakh last April for the year 2013-14, the State is fumbling to put up its own share.

Kitchens have been set up with most schools being given Rs 2.50 lakh each, but kids are yet to be provided proper dining space, which Lalchhuanliana said is what is actually needed. “At the moment they are eating in the classroom or corridors,” he said.

A visit to one of the schools, Government Boys Primary and Middle School in Tuikhuahtlang, showed that the meals were fresh, hygienic and healthy. In the Middle section of the school, two cooks, Thiangi and Tluangi were busy cooking rice, dal and a vegetable dish of fresh pumkin leaves, a fare which is normal in most families in the State.

The headmistress, K Sanghnuni of the Lower primary school said that the school used proper cooking oil for the children’s food and it was cholesterol-free. K Lalbiakenga, from the Middle section of the school said that the government has not released money for the last four months. The cooks are yet to be paid the meager honorarium of Rs 1,500. “But this scheme is very important for our students. The health of the children has improved,” he said.

Under the scheme, Rs 4.60 is sanctioned per child in the Middle section while the primary section is given Rs 3.30 per meal. The rate has been revised from July 1, 2013 for primary to Rs 3.34 and to Rs 5 for upper primary. The total number of primary schools approved under the scheme is 1,484 with 1,23,981 enrolled students. The approved number of upper primary schools are 1,022 with 49,806 kids.

Mizoram Government Facing Financial Crunch

Aizawl, Jul 26 : State finance department officials said that the government availed overdraft four times since April one till June 30 this year despite availing Ways and Means Advance 23 times

The Congress government in Mizoram led by Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, facing attack from the Opposition for its alleged failure in fiscal management, has been saddled with a financial crunch in the current fiscal.

State finance department officials said that the government availed overdraft four times since April one till June 30 this year despite availing Ways and Means Advance 23 times and Special Ways and Means Advances 22 times during the same period.

Mizoram government was in overdraft on March 30 (Rs 46.70 crore), June one (Rs 78.83 crore), June 29 (Rs 83.79 crore) and June 30 (Rs 0.01 crore) this year, the officials said.

They said that the Mizoram government availed Ways and Means Advance for 23 times, the total amounting to Rs 182. 09 crore and Special Ways and Means for 22 times amounting to Rs 142. 57 crore .

'The Union Ministry of Finance so far released only Rs 29.6 crore to the Mizoram government till July 15 under the plan fund, of the total outlay of Rs 2,500 crore,' the officials said.

Finance Minister H. Liansailova also said that small and poor states like Mizoram having negligible amount of their own resources always face fiscal crunch.

Liansailova alleged that the present fiscal condition stemmed from the fact that the Centre released minimum amount of fund barely for payment of salaries of the government employees and administrative costs.

Brig Sailo Bids Adieu To Active Politics

By Linda Chhakchhuak

Aizawl, Jul 26 : At the ripe ‘young’ age of 91 years Brigadier (retd) Thenphunga Sailo, twice Chief Minister, and current member of the Mizoram Assembly (MLA), announced his intention to retire from active politics when this term of the Assembly ends. He is probably the oldest legislator in the country or even globally.

He made this announcement today in the Assembly which incidentally is the last session for this term which ends in November this year.

Leaving a poignant three-point formula for a brighter future for the State, he asked the MLAs to “have a party-less obsession with the development of the State, make the Assembly the headquarters in the fight against corruption and adhere to the traditional ethos of Tlawmngaihna, which represents the social ethics of honesty, transparency, justice and diligence.”

He said that he would not contest the next elections bidding farewell to the House in which he had played a prominent part in the State’s political history since 1977 in his checkered career as an MLA.

His die-hard fans still regard him as the toughest Chief Minister the State had and they wish he had been younger, in which case he would have won hands down at this moment of political flux.

He began his political career in 1974 after retiring from the Indian Army. He rocketed to prominence when he took up his former employer’s excesses in countering insurgency in Mizoram, particularly the bombing of the State capital and other areas by the Indian Air Force (IAF) setting up a Human Rights Committee then. Everyone is going to miss him, is the general comment all round.

Mary Kom Leads Road Repair

Imphal, Jul 26 : Magnificent Mary, when not fighting in the ring, is fighting for a cause at Langol Games Village. Led by Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom, the residents of the Games Village embarked on a project to repair the 3km Langol Games Village road, named after the boxer but which is wallowing in neglect by the government.

The local residents of zone II and III of the Games Village contributed money to fill the potholes with stones and pebbles, with the residents working for free.

Mary Kom and her husband Onkholer Kom (popularly called Onler) have become permanent residents of the Games Village constructed in the foothills of Langol Hills, nearly 5km from here, for the 1999 National Games hosted by Manipur.

After she became boxing world champion, the Okram Ibobi Singh government provided her with quarters there.

“The condition of the road is horrible. There are large potholes where waterlogging makes either walking or riding a two-wheeler or driving a vehicle very difficult,” Onler Kom, the boxer’s husband, told The Telegraph.

The government has not repaired the road for more than two years and it is dotted with huge potholes.

Besides the Kom family, many senior government officials and sportspersons, including Asian boxing gold medallist Dingko Singh, reside along this road.

The local residents had made repeated appeals to the government to repair the road.

Mary Kom also reminded chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh about the road whenever she met him.

The latest reminder was given on July 21 when she met Ibobi Singh at his office.

“I had requested the chief minister to get the road repaired. I will ask him again. The Games Village has many sportspersons and is frequented by people from outside the state. The bad road does not show the state in a good light,” said Mary Kom.

Onler added that the road posed a problem for children going to school.

After her Olympic bronze medal and delivering her third son on May 14 this year, Mary Kom is taking time off from sporting activities.

She is now playing the role of a homemaker, mother to her three sons, teacher to her boxing students and leader of the local residents.

The local meira paibis (women activists), led by Mary Kom, collected contributions from each house in zone II and III of the Games Village — at least Rs 500 each. The contributions ranged from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000.

“We have started the filling up the craters yesterday. Men and women are participating in the task. We will fill all the potholes. We hope the government will do something very soon,” Onler said.

India's Longest Bridge Coming up in Northeast

Itanagar, Jul 24 : India's longest bridge coming up across the mighty Brahmaputra at Bogibeel in Assam is not only expected to be a lifeline for the Northeast, but will also strengthen the country's security.

Scheduled to be completed in 2016, the 4.94 km rail-cum-road bridge, a product of the 1985 Assam Accord and being implemented by the North East Frontier Railway, will provide connectivity to upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and cut down the distance to the border with China by 10 hours.

Railway officials said that the rail link would connect two existing railway networks running at south bank and north bank of the river.

It starts from Chaulkhowa station and Moranhat station at south bank and joins in between Sisibargaon station and Siripani station of Rangiya-Murkongselek section in north bank.

Right now it takes one and a half hours to cross the river, but once the bridge is inaugurated, the travel time will be reduced to a few minutes.

Besides, movement of goods will also be possible on a larger scale.

Railway officials said the bridge would strengthen national security by way of truncating distance to reach the China border during movement of troops and supplies.

But not all are happy. As the completion of the bridge draws near, over 100 boatmen families are spending sleepless nights over fear that it will jeopardise their sources of income.

For Munna Singh, Brojen Doley, Rajesh Chowdhury and other majhis, it will be tough finding an alternative means of livelihood inheriting their profession from generations far into the past.

"I don’t know what to do ....The fear of closing my ferry service always haunts me. How will I manage a regular income?" Munna Singh, who owns two country boats and is presently earning around Rs 15,000 per month, despairs.

Similar is the condition of Brojen Doley who owns a boat that ferries private vehicles of people from Arunachal Pradesh.

"I have no permit of the Inland Water Transport department of Assam to ferry passengers. I only managed a permit to ferry vehicles for only once a day, enabling me to earn a paltry amount," Doley said.

However, the chief engineer of the bridge project, Ajit Pandit, said that the boatmen's fear was unfounded.

"Even after the bridge is complete the ferry service will not be discontinued because there are many local people who will prefer river route to the land route in order to shorten distances to their homes," Pandit explained.

Besides, he said, once the bridge is complete, the economy of the area will improve and employment avenues will be created for the local people.

Pandit said the bridge, situated 17 km downstream of Dibrugarh city, would be the lifeline of the Northeast by opening connectivity between the north and south of the Brahmaputra river in the eastern region of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The border of Arunachal Pradesh is just over 20 km from the northern bank. The foundation of the bridge was laid in 2002 and the project was supposed to be completed in six years, but lack of funds and attention kept it idle till 2007 when it was given national status.

The national status meant that the Union Finance Ministry provided 75 per cent funds for the project, while 25 per cent was to be borne by the Railways.

Pandit said that besides funds, rains also proved a big stumbling block.

"In the city of Dibrugarh in Assam, it rains eight months a year. So any construction activity, especially on the Brahmaputra River, is a challenge," he explained.

Practically, his team gets to work for only four months in a year - from November to March.

The project flows from the Assam Accord signed in August 15, 1985, between the centre and the representatives of the All Assam Students Union and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad that had spearheaded a decade-long movement against the influx of Bangladeshis into the northeastern state.

The construction work of the sub-structure of the bridge was awarded to Gammon India in April, 2008 while the work on the superstructure was awarded partially to Hindustan Construction Company, DSD, a German company, and Bangalore- based VNR.

Taste Northeast India in a Corner of Delhi

By Malavika Bhattacharya



Rosang Cafe The Manipuri Thali at Rosang Cafe.

In an uncharacteristically quiet corner of New Delhi’s ever-changing Hauz Khas Village, Rosang Café dishes out hearty, home-style flavors from India’s eight northeastern states.

The café, with wooden floors and framed photos of the northeast on its walls, seats around 25-30 people at six tables in its main floor. A private room upstairs fits 8-10 people on one table.

Regional documentaries and music videos are shown on a flat screen television in the café, which opened in March. A trip here, up three floors in a concealed alley, feels like a holiday in the hills.

With a range of dishes from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, Rosang specializes in cuisines that are hard to come by in the Indian capital.

Its owner, Mary Lalboi, sources special herbs and spices used in northeastern cooking from Manipur. “These aren’t available in Delhi, but I wanted to maintain the authenticity of this food, so I get these herbs from back home,” she says.

The “Rosang Special” appetizer – pork spare ribs – set the stage for our dinner. A crispy, deep fried outer layer coating fatty chunks of pork, served with slivers of veggies and a fiery chili sauce. I applied the sauce in generous amounts and soon realized what all the fuss was about: the “Raja Mirchi” is among the hottest chilies in the world and used generously in northeastern cooking. It is delicious. The ribs are a must-have.

Diners can wash down this spice with a glass of murky, fermented rice beer. It’s an acquired taste that I’m still aspiring to acquire.

For mains, we ordered chicken and pork curries and a vegetable stew, along with two kinds of rice.

The chicken Kukhura Masu from Sikkim is a fresh curry in a light gravy of tamarind and coconut with a distinct flavor of special herbs. The simply named “Pork” from Nagaland came with a gravy of dry yam and fresh mustard leaves, bamboo shoots and soya bean. The unconventional mix of flavors came together beautifully in a mildly spicy gravy with melting pieces of meat.

The wild red rice is coarse, heavy and rich in iron, while the Jadoh – a staple of Meghalaya – is rice cooked with meat broth and served with, yes, more meat. Rosang’s Jadoh is done with wild red rice and pork, and while I did enjoy the hearty biryani-like flavor, it differed from the version I’ve tasted in Meghalaya.

The Bai, a particularly spicy mixed vegetable stew from Mizoram, was a fairly ordinary mix of boiled eggplant, beans and peppers. It’s scant consolation for vegetarians, but the meat and rice sections make up for this minor pitfall.

Rosang’s menu has a special section dedicated to chutney. Most of these are extremely spicy as the chef uses generous amounts of the King Chili. Worth a special mention is the Masoden from Tripura, a knockout chutney of burnt eggplant and fish sauce, doused generously with that hot, hot chili.
For dessert, we ordered wild red rice kheer – a dollop of gooey rice topped with coconut shavings, served in a cutesy tea cup. Not to be confused with the kheer we are used to, this version is much drier and not half as sweet.

The dishes cost between 275 rupees and 300 rupees ($4.60-$5.05) and each portion feeds two. Go for the warm service, a chat with the cheerful staff and the wholesome food that makes you feel like you’re at a friend’s house.

Address: 35, Hauz Khas Village. Go down the lane opposite Kunzum Café.

Mizoram Group Approaches UN Over Indian Army Bases

Aizawl, Jul 24 : In a petition submitted to the United Nations, an indigenous rights group has protested against the upcoming Indian Armed Forces installations, ongoing oil and exploration activities and international border fencing work in Mizoram and its adjacent areas inhabited by ethnic Mizos.

The Zo Re-unification Organisation (ZORO) has protested against the setting up of three new Indian Army bases, an Air Force radar station and up-grading of the state's lone domestic airport to allow landing of fighter jets citing a provision under the UN's Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007 with India voting in its favour.

Article 30 of the declaration cites, "Military activities shall not take place in the lands or territories of indigenous people unless justified by a relevant public interest or otherwise freely agreed with or requested by the indigenous people concerned."

ZORO contends that the security situation in Mizoram, which has remained peaceful for 27 years after two decades of insurgency, does not warrant such militarisation.

Citing the same declaration, ZORO has also urged the UN to intervene in the ongoing oil and gas exploration activities by Indian PSUs and the work on several hydro-power projects.

The petition alleged that the Mizoram government's agreements with oil and gas PSUs and hydro-power companies under which the state will roughly get 10-13 per cent of the energy generated from the projects goes against the declarations' contention that such natural resources belong to the indigenous people who inhabit the land.

It has also demanded to stop the border-fencing work along the international border with Bangladesh, which it alleges will stop the movement of ethnic Mizos based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

ZORO is supported by locally active political parties, including the ruling Congress and the main opposition MNF. The group has also taken the initiative of getting joint resolutions signed to "re-unify" ethnic Mizos across Northeast states, eastern Bangladesh and western Myanmar.

Earlier in the year, ZORO had raised the issues with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the President of India.

The organisation's president, R Thangmawia, said there was no response from either the PMO or the President. This is why they decided to approach the UN, he added.

Mizoram Assembly Clears Liquor Prohibition (Amendment) Bill

Aizawl, Jul 24 : The amendment bill, introduced in the legislature by the state excise and narcotics minister J H Rothuama, was unanimously adopted

Mizoram Assembly today passed the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition (Amendment) Bill, 2013 authorising the state government to appoint officers as experts for the purpose of analysis or examination of liquor.

The amendment bill, introduced in the legislature by the state excise and narcotics minister J H Rothuama, was unanimously adopted.

Earlier Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla made obituary references on the demise of sitting legislator B Lalthlengliana, former Lok Sabha member Dr R Rothuama and former legislator Zoduha.

One minute silence was observed to pay last respect to the departed leaders.

The monsoon session which commenced from today would continue till tomorrow.