iMizoram : Blog Title the same as above

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Salary hike robs state's exchequer

Aizawl, Dec 20 (UNI) Even though Mizoram has not been doing bad in tax collection during the last ten years,the hike in salaries of government employees has eaten up major portion of the state's revenues.

State finance minister H Liansailova,in his written reply to a question in the one-day Assembly winter session on December 11, said that the Mizoram Revision of Pay 2010 robbed the state's exchequer of Rs 377.86 crore from January to July 2010.With another Rs 159.10 crore during August 2010 to March 2011,Mizoram spent an additional amount of Rs 536.96 crore for salaries,he said.

On the other hand,the 13th Finance Commission has not made even an additional rupee while making fund allocation to the state.Saying that similar problem was faced by a number of states,Liansailova blamed it on the 13th FC's "failure to understand the states' problems." He hoped that the problem would be gone under the 14th Finance Commission.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Mizoram Church wants Mizo custom abolished

Aizawl, Dec 8 : Synod, the highest body of the Mizoram Presbyterian Church, has passed an agenda for abolition of Hlamzuih death from the Mizo Christian customary law. In the pre-Christian Mizo society, if a baby died before attaining one year of age, it was regarded as Hlamzuih and did not deserve full funeral rituals.

The dead body would not be buried in a village cemetery but within the premises of the deceased’s house. The custom still exists in the post-Christian Mizo society with a little modification. Today, Hlamzuih happens when a baby dies before completing 90 days. However, the dead body is to be buried in a local cemetery without community funeral.

As per Mizo Customary Law and funeral guidelines laid out by the Young Mizo Association, the state’s largest community-based organisation, the death of an infant before attainting three months or 90 days should be treated as Hlamzuih.

The YMA, in its general conference in 1982, passed a resolution to this effect which remained unchanged when the general conference in 2006 reviewed the guidelines. The Synod’s resolution came after an increasing campaign for total abolition of the custom since the last few years. The Synod assembly at Chanmari Presbyterian Church here today, decided to put up the resolution to the Synod executive committee. More than 50 percent of the state’s population is members of the Presbyterian Church.

However, leaders of the central committee of YMA said today the organisation still stood by its guidelines.

” The YMA’s rules and regulations on Mizo funeral rituals remain unchanged. If any amendment is to made, it will not be until the next general conference, ” one of the central YMA leaders was quoted as saying. The YMA conducts funeral in every Mizo village and town. As the Synod’s resolution involves modification of Mizo customary laws, major NGOs in Mizoram will have to be consulted, sources said today.

Lone Mizoram MP not to vote for govt

Lone member of the Rajya Sabha from Mizoram Lalhming Liana on Friday said he would not support the United Progressive Alliance government when voting takes place in the upper house on Foreign Direct Investment in retail.

Liana told PTI that the Congress being the main opponent of his Mizo National Front and he could not support the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Though the MNF, the main opposition party in Mizoram, had snapped ties with the National Democratic Alliance five years back because of differences on secular issues, it continued to oppose the UPA government in Parliament.

Former chief minister and president of the MNF Zoramthanga had said on Thursday that Liana was free to cast his vote according to his conscience.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Mizoram district police takes custody of 3 Bru militants

The police in Kolasib district on the Mizoram-Assam border has secured the custody of three Bru militants, wanted in the state for murder and abduction from the jail in neighbouring Assam's Hailakandi district prison.

The police said that one of the militants, arrested by the Assam police earlier, was Doino Ram Reang, self-styled president of the United Democratic Liberation of Barak Valley.

The trio was wanted by the Mizoram police for a murder case at Thinglian village and the abduction of three executives of the Assam-based road construction company - Anupam Bricks and Concrete Industries Limited (ABCIL) on June six, 2011.

A team of the Mizoram Police commando rescued the three captives after a shoot-out with the abductors a few weeks later.

Doino Reang denied that his organisation was involved in the abduction while some senior police officials also suspected that the kidnapping was done by United Democratic Liberation Army (UDLA) a breakaway faction of the UDLFB.

Monday, December 3, 2012

One-day winter session of Mizoram assembly on Dec 11

The coming winter session of the Mizoram assembly summoned by state governor Vakkom Purushothaman from December 11 would be held only for a day, state assembly secretariat officials today said.

The officials told PTI that the business advisory committee (BAC) which met here today under the chairmanship of the speaker R. Romawia decided that the winter session would begin in the morning of December 11 and would be adjourned sine die the same day.

They said that the BAC decided the session to be a one-day affair due to the absence of government business to be taken up during the proposed session.

The BAC could make another decision on the length of the session if the government submits official businesses, they added.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Appeal for fair treatment

Aizawl, Dec 3 : Mizoram health minister Lalrinliana today appealed to the people to stop discriminating against HIV-positive people, echoing the words of Malsawndawnga, an HIV+ peer educator, at a World AIDS Day function.

Malsawmdawnga, secretary of Mizoram People Living With HIV Group, an NGO, said their attempts to set up a short stay home (SSH) for HIV-positive people from the rural areas at the ART centre here had been blocked so far by locality authorities. "This is discrimination against people like me," he said.

Echoing the appeal, the state minister emphasised that churches, village authorities and society in general should embrace HIV-positive people without fear, should not stigmatise them and should support them in every way. Without this, there is no way to tackle the menace, he said.

The number of HIV-positive people may be declining from the epidemic proportions a few years ago in the state, but the appearance of the dreaded virus in "general" population blood samples is alarming, said Dr Lalchhandama Ralte of Grace Home, a care-giving facility for such patients.

A study by Mizoram University, sponsored by Mizoram State AIDS Control Society, found that 70 per cent of the patients contracted the disease through sex.

"Earlier people thought that only the so-called high risk group (HRG) needed to be targeted but we, who are involved in this work, know for sure that the virus is spreading in the so-called normal society," Ralte said at a function to observe Worlds AIDS Day.

HRGs (intravenous drug users, commercial sex workers, etc) have been replaced by high-risk behaviour in the state, he warned. The sign that men are indulging in high-risk behaviour is the increasing percentage of pregnant HIV-positive women.

The total number of HIV-positive people registered in the three ART centres of Aizawl, Champhai and Lunglei is 5,628, while those opting for treatment is only 1,889.

Mizoram to get Rs 81-cr projects

Aizawl, Dec 3 : Union Minister for the Development of the North Eastern Region Paban Singh Ghatowar has flagged off a number of projects at a cost about Rs 81 crore, to be implemented with funding from his ministry in Mizoram.

The projects are located in Lawngtlai, Saiha and Lunglei districts, Ghatowar told reporters after laying the foundation stone of these projects.

In Mizoram, sex workers are many, Little protection

Tripura insurgents using Mizoram soil: Minister

Agartala, Dec 3 : The outlawed insurgents of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) are trying to enter Tripura ahead of next year's assembly elections through Mizoram, a minister claimed today.

"The NLFT insurgents are trying to enter Tripura before the elections and the Mizoram government despite knowing everything is not taking any step against them, PWD minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters here.

He claimed that insurgents based in Bangladesh unable to enter Tripura because of barbwire fencing and watch kept at night by tribals in villages but are trying to enter through Mizoram, which has a Congress government.

Chowdhury said, the people in villages neighbouring Mizoram had told him that unknown people were active on the other side.

"Now it is clear that the ultras are using the soil of the neighbouring state and the state government there led by Congress is giving indulgence to them," he alleged. He referred to the kidnap for ransom of Rs 30 lakh of two timber traders from Tripura kidnapped by NLFT insurgents from Rajibnagar village in Mizoram's Mamit district on November 25. "The incident of kidnap also makes clear that the ultras are using Mizoram soil," he said.

Duhlian tawng hmang chauh Mizo an ni lo, ti

Azl; 1 Dec: Home Minister Pu R Lalzirliana’n Mizorama cheng Zohnahthlak zawng zawngte inpumkhata awm chu thil pawimawh ber a ni a ti. Nizana Aizawl Thakthing Veng Branch YMA Platinum Jubilee lawmna a hmanpuinaah he thu hi sawiin, Mizoramah Duhlian tawng hmang chauh Mizo an ni lova, Duhlian tawng hmang ve lo- Lakher, Pawi, Hmar leh midangte chu Mizo hnam an ni tih hriata inpumkhat a pawimawh tih sawiin, ‘enga’ tih pui theihte chauh inpumkhat pui an nih chuan Mizoram chu tah leh hathialna ramah siam a ni mai ang a ti a ni.
HM chuan mipui ten Krismas leh Kumthar hlim taka an hman theih nan halpuah leh halmawi lam chi sorkarin a khap chu kumdang ang bawka tha taka zawm a nih leh a beisei tih a sawi a, mipui ten sorkar thupek an zawm thin chu lawmawm a tih thu sawiin, Hindu te eng kut Diwali-ah pawh thawm liantham hriat a ni lo chu thil chhinchhiah thlak a ni a ti.