Zoramthanga admitted to have incorporated certain points from the ‘Six Basic Needs’, the 30-year-old policy of the Brig T Sailo’s party Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) which remained unfulfilled.“The SEDP has been drafted taking into consideration certain points in the Garden Colony (of the MPC), the New Land Use Policy (of the Congress) and the Mizoram Intodelhna Programme (of the MNF) which are yet to be fulfilled,” Zoramthanga said, and made it clear that the SEDP is just a part of the MNF’s policies and programmes.
“There are a lot more regarding administrative reforms, power decentralization, demarcation of district boundary, land holding system, information technology, e-governance, public sector undertaking, cooperative movement, eradication of corruption, health care, etc in the MNF’s policies and programmes,” Zoramthanga added. According to MNF vice-president and chairman of the policy drafting committee Dr R Lalthangliana, the other objectives of the party included re-unification of Mizo ethnic tribes scattered across the region and redrawing the boundary.

During the bandh there was not a single case of stray incident reported anywhere in Dimapur. Roads too looked empty save for few commuters on urgent cases.

The ACAUT said today’s bandh was just a pointer of things to come unless concerned organisations and authorities accede to our demands or put mechanisms in place to curb unabated taxation and ultimately price rise, namely, dealership and multiple taxations by underground organisations and price rise which is the prerogative of government to check.

Unable to bear any longer on the rampant imposition of ‘taxes’ on the business community and also on the general public, the denizens of Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland the bandh was called. Schools, colleges, shops, transport system, offices both government and private obliged to the appeal of the ACAUT to close for the day.

ACAUT wants that there should be only one tax payable to any one underground group. ACAUT also stated earlier that the ‘back-breaking’ multiple taxes on goods imposed by underground groups should be abolished immediately. ‘Irritants’ such as trade license tax, ID tax, registration tax, calendar donations, Christmas and New Year donations, etc. shall not be entertained anymore.

The ACAUT also wants that the yearly tax payable to different underground organisations should not be increased arbitrarily under any circumstances and therefore, amount payable shall be the same as in 2012.The creation of the new system of ‘dealership’ by underground groups has been strongly condemned. For instance, it was pointed out that under this latest innovation to milk businesses dry, there is only one poultry dealer/supplier in the whole of Dimapur district and no poultry can be sold in the open market without the consent of this poultry dealer.

It can be noted here that the ACAUT had met the NSCN-IM, the NSCN-Khole/Kitovi and others on the issue. Meanwhile, ACAUT has listed some other factors that cause to price rise which include DMC toll gates, police check gates, Deopani sand syndicate, Vegetable syndicate, Pan patta syndiacate, Cement and hardware syndicate, Fish and dry fish syndicate, Egg syndicate, Dry supari syndicate, Second hand clothes syndicate, Poultry product vendor union and Butcher vendor union.

The list is not exhaustive. To tackle taxation on a wider scale ACAUT will further pursue to form a fact finding committee to study and compare price of commodities in Nagaland and Assam. It will also meet the state chief minister and the governor and also submit representation to judiciary of Dimapur district.

The sale of all syndicate controlled poultry products including local chicken is henceforth banned throughout the state indefinitely, starting June 18. Anyone found selling poultry shall be doing so at their own risk. This ban shall stay in force till the price comes down to an acceptable level on par with neighbouring Assam, according to ACAUT.

Clarifying that the amount was meant for National School Safety Programme sponsored by Government of India under its national programmme, he said no one had embezzled it.

Ibobi made the clarification in the House after Opposition leader Dr I Ibohanbi moved a Calling Attention Motion asking whether any appropriate action has been taken against the two officials of the Government department who have been reportedly embroiled in misappropriation of the huge fund amounting to Rs 1.41 crore.

Ibohanbi raised the motion citing a report appeared in a local daily in Imphal. The Chief Minister made it clear that the allegations leveled against the two officials were false and baseless and said any reporter could come to the concerned department and see the account statement. He said, “Any member of the House can also come and see the statement of account of the fund.”

Assam recorded 13,544 incidents of crime against women during the last one year and was ranked seventh in the country. West Bengal tops the list with 30,942 such cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 28,171 cases, UP 23,569, Rajasthan 21,106, Madhya Pradesh 16,832 and Maharashtra 16,353.

In the Northeastern region, Nagaland was the most women- friendly state with only 51 incidents of crime against women reported, followed by Sikkim with 68 such cases. Tripura recorded 1,559 incidents of crime against women, Manipur 304, Meghalaya 255, Arunachal 201 and Mizoram 199.

In rape cases, Assam ranked sixth in the country with 1,716 such incidents. Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 3,425 cases, followed by Rajasthan (2,049 cases), West Bengal (2,046 cases), Uttar Pradesh (1,963 cases) and Maharashtra (1,839 cases). Among the other North Eastern states, Tripura registered 229 cases of rape, Meghalaya 164, Mizoram 103, Manipur 63, Arunachal Pradesh 46, Sikkim 34 and Nagaland 21.

The labourers who hail from Mawnai Village near Mairang were at Nongdron to work on the land that belonged to a person from Nongstoin. The reason for the arrest is yet to be ascertained. However, eyewitnesses claim that when questioned by police from the neighbouring state, the arrested duo could answer for lack of knowledge of either English or Hindi following which they were taken into custody.

Villagers believe that the labourers were taken to Boko Police station in Assam. Meanwhile, the FKJGP (West Khasi Hills) has condemned the arrest. Further on the incident FKJGP has also demanded that Home Minister Roshan Warjri should take immediate steps to ensure the release of the two innocent labourers.

At a meeting here, Mizoram’s chief secretary informed the OSD, Anil Goswami, that the SRE from the ministry of home affairs excluded Mizoram on the ground that it was a peaceful state. However, as Mizoram shares long porous borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and insurgency-hit states in the Northeast, the state is very much in need of the fund like any other state in the region, if not more. “The non-receipt of SRE has hampered security measures in Mizoram,” the chief secretary told Goswami.

In response, officials said, Goswami assured him about taking all steps to include Mizoram in the list of SRE recipients. Intelligence sources said that Mizoram is a route for cross-border trafficking of arms as wasa evident from a recent haul of 33 AK-47 rifles.

The Assam government had already instituted a one-man inquiry commission by the state’s Additional Chief Secretary P.P. Varma into the incident. The probe report is to be submitted to the state government in a month. On Monday, the state’s advocate general was asked to explore the legal option for initiating deterrent action against those found guilty for the serious lapse.

The chief minister also directed state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to head to Mangaldoi Civil Hospital in Darrang district, about 70 km from Guwahati, to take stock of the situation. The government had also suspended the in-charge of the Blood Bank of the Mangaldai Civil Hospital, the superintendent of the hospital and two laboratory technicians at the blood bank for negligence.

Sarma apologised for the mistake on the part of health department and said that he had asked the joint director of the health services to file an FIR with the district police against the four suspended officials, seeking a criminal investigation against them for their negligence on duty, which led to the spread of the virus through the blood bank.

Sarma also announced that from now on, the state government would reserve 2.5 percent of the grade III and grade IV jobs in the health department for people living with HIV infection.

He also said that efforts would be taken to bring all the blood banks under CCTV surveillance and also to prepare a database of all blood donors, which can be accessed by anyone in case of an emergency.

“Following a World Health Organisation advisory, the (central) government has asked all the border states of the country to carry out non-stop polio vaccination among the children entering the country,” Tripura Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty said

He said: “We have already started polio vaccination among the children aged up to five years. Permanent polio vaccination centres have been set up at various check posts along the India-Bangladesh border with Tripura.”

“Children coming into India with their parents or relatives would be administered the polio vaccine in border areas. Indian children would also be vaccinated when they enter India after visiting any country,” said Gautam Debnath, district immunization officer of West Tripura. “This year-long vaccination programme has been undertaken to declare India a polio-free nation by the next year,” Debnath said

Though the World Health Organisation (WHO) took India off the list of polio endemic countries in February 2012, it will declare it “polio free” only if no fresh case is reported till the end of this year.
Polio (poliomyelitis) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours.
“The polio risk in our neighbouring countries is very high. Since the disease is very infectious, the Indian children, who are free from the ailment, can be affected while visiting such countries,” the official added.

“The organizational method has been developed in such a way that no child up to five years of age can enter India through immigration unless he or she has been administered the polio vaccine,” Debnath added.

Quoting the directives of the union ministry of health and family welfare, the official said that permanent polio vaccination centres have either already been set up or being set up at all the check posts along the India’s border with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. India has a 15,106 km land border and a 7,516 km coastline.

Before his signing with Shillong Lajong, he was with Trinidad and Tobago’s top-level TT Pro League Club Caledonia AIA.

I hope that Glen will get along with the rest of the team and we look forward to him joining us and help the team put up a competitive performance in the upcoming I League,” said Larsing Ming, general secretary of Shillong Lajong Football Club.

“Shillong Lajong FC has always been one of the well known Clubs from India and to get an opportunity to play for them would be such an honour and something that would give me immense pride” Cornell Glen said.

Addressing a blood donation camp organised by LIC agents yesterday in the office premises of the TRTC, chief minister Manik Sarkar spoke on the length of risks and dangers involved in parking hard-earned money with deposit collecting companies. ‘While persuading people to register LIC policies you must also make them aware of the dangers and risks involved in keeping money with dubious deposit collecting companies for high interests’ said the chief minister. Even though he focussed on the importance of voluntary blood donation as a form of social service which, he said, had acquired the form of a movement in Tripura, Sarkar trained his guns on the dubious activities of deposit collecting companies.

‘We have taken action against many such deposit collecting companies through police and administration and this will continue ; but what is needed is awareness of people which alone can guarantee their safety’ said Sarkar.