Thursday, January 31, 2013

Land Customs station remains unutilized

CHAMPHAI, 31 Jan – The Zokhawthar Land Customs Station complex, meant to facilitate bilateral trade with Mynamar, is not yet functional as the premises have not been formally handed over to the Customs Department by the State Trade and Commerce Department.

Built at a cost of about Rs 700 lakh, the composite LCS complex is to house the telecom, State Bank of India, security, the Trade and Commerce Department, godowns and other offices. The total area of the complex is around 18.40 bighas.

Unofficial sources told this correspondent at Zokhawthar that the complex was ready but could not be formally inaugurated till it is official handed over.

Officials of the Customs Department are housed in a tiny room near the Zokhawthar-Tiau bridge. It is learnt that the Customs staffers are housed in tiny rooms nearby as they have refused to move into the staff quarters constructed for them at Melbuk, 8 kms from their check post.

A considerable amount of money was spent on the construction of the project as well as for the 126 acres of land for the township. The quarter complex at Melbuk with about 12 Assam Type quarters under the name of Indo-Mynamar Border Trade Township, is lying unoccupied for the last several years.

While the border is totally porous, no effort seems to have been made at rationalizing the entry of Burmese persons into the State.

While there are nearly a lakh of Burmese of Zo-Chin origin living or doing business in Mizoram, the register at the migration check post do not reflect this migration from Burma.
READ MORE - Land Customs station remains unutilized

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mizoram's Counter Insurgency School awarded

New Delhi, Jan 31 Army's prestigious Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Mizoram was today awarded a unit citation for its role in training the force to handle anti-terrorist operations.

"Training Command chief Lt Gen K Surendranath today conferred CIJWS in Vairengte with unit citation in recognition of its meritorious contribution in enhancing training ethos of the army," an army release said.

The award was received by its Commandant Major General Rajeshwar Singh.
READ MORE - Mizoram's Counter Insurgency School awarded

Four candidates so far for Mizoram bypoll

All political parties in Mizoram have announced their candidates for the by-election to the Chalfilh assembly constituency in Aizawl district slated for February 23, with the exception of the ruling Congress party which is still awaiting Delhi's approval. With the announcement of candidate by the biggest opposition party Mizo National Front today, there are four candidates so far for the by-election, necessitated by the death of parliamentary secretary Chawngtinthanga on September 16 last year. The MNF has fielded Lalvenhima Hmar, who had lost the seat in the 2008 state assembly elections to Congress candidate Chawngtinthanga, to make a second attempt to win the seat.

Hmar had contested the seat on Mizoram People's Conference ticket in the last assembly polls and won 33.19 per cent of the votes polled, to be Chawngtinthanga's nearest rival. Hmar's candidature for the bypoll came after his party People Conference, a splinter group of MPC, merged with the MNF recently. Meanwhile, the state chief electoral office today issued a notification for the by-election.

As the notification the last date for filing nomination is February 6, while scrutiny of nominations and last date of withdrawal of candidature are fixed on February 7 and February 9 respectively. Votes would be counted on February 28, while the entire by-election process would be completed by March 3.
READ MORE - Four candidates so far for Mizoram bypoll

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

CADC term extended by a month

Mizoram governor Vakkom Purushothaman today extended the term of Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) in south Mizoram for more than a month, an official statement today said.

The state district council affairs department, in a statement, said that the term of the CADC was to expire on March 10, 2013 and election to be held before the expiry of the term.


"However, in view of the examinations of the High School Leaving Certificate and Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate from February 22 till March 25, 2013 the governor extended the term of the CADC as conduct of election during the period would disturb the students," the statement said.

The term of the CADC was extended by the governor till April 30, 2013, the statement added.
READ MORE - CADC term extended by a month

Friday, January 25, 2013

Mizo Guv asks voters to exercise franchise

Mizoram governor Vakkom Purushothaman today asked all voters in the state to exercise their franchise in the elections and election officials to ensure that all eligible people be enrolled as voters.

In a function held on the occasion of Voters Day here the governor also praised the role of the Election Commission.

The day was observed in the headquarter towns of all the eight districts in the state.
READ MORE - Mizo Guv asks voters to exercise franchise

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

One killed in maxicab accident in Mizoram

 One person was killed and ten others injured when a maxicab plying between Churachandpur in Manipur and Aizawl rolled down into a deep gorge near Keifang village in Aizawl district today.

Aizawl district Additional Superintendnet of Police Lalruaia said that Lalthangkimi (46) of Zuangtui near Aizawl died on the spot while her husband Malsawma and two other persons were seriously injured.

Altogether ten persons were injured in the accident, he said.

The vehicle rolled down 100 feet from the road, Lalruaia said adding that the 63-year-old owner and driver of the vehicle Sapa of Churachandpur might have dozed off at the time of the accident.

All the injured were given first aid at Keifang village and were brought to Aizawl for further treatment, he added.
READ MORE - One killed in maxicab accident in Mizoram

Monday, January 21, 2013

AR nab foreigner with arms in Mizoram

Following a search operations, troops of 28 Assam Rifles under 23 sector nabbed a Myanmarese foreigner with arms at Saiha in southern Mizoram near the Myanmar border around 1830 hours on Saturday, a delayed report said.

Assam Rifles sources said Mungchina, 58, was arrested with one Chinese-made 9 mm Newin Stengun, one country-made AK 47 rifle and two air guns being converted into point 22 Caliber weapon. The troops also busted one makeshift workshop which was used for manufacturing arms.

The Myanmarese national is staying in Mizoram on fake identity and possesses an Indian voter ID issued in January, 2006. He was working as weapon transporter and used to maintain and modify the weapons.

He was handed over to Saiha police station along with the seized weapons.
READ MORE - AR nab foreigner with arms in Mizoram

65 Karimganj villages want merger with Mizoram

NILAMBAZAR, Jan 22 – Sixty five villages in the Charagi area in karimganj have expressed their interest to merge with neighbouring states of Mizoram.

The residents of these villages have blamed the State for turning a deaf ear to their woes. The villagers have also expressed their resentment for lack of proper infrastructure and developmental works in their villages.

The villagers of 65 villages have united under Cheragi-Jamuyang Sadak Unnayan Samiti and in a mass meeting held recently, they decided to merge their area with Mamit district of Mizoram. According to Abhimanyu Singh, the president of Cheragi Jamuyang Sadak Unnayan Samiti, these villages in greater Cheragi area had hardly seen any developmental work even after 63 years of independence.

“The resolution taken during the mass meating was also forwarded to the Deputy Commissioner of Mamit district of Mizoram, ” said secretary Sarful Ali, secretary of the village unnayan samiti. It is pertinent to mention that during the last Assam Assembly election in May 2011, the villagers of the area had boycotted the polls alleging govermment apathy to basic facilities like road connectivity, safe drinking water, electricity, health care and education. The Samiti leaders said that though Assam border Area devolpment Minister Siddique Ahmed is from Barak Valley, he had not visited their villages or tried to alleviate their conditions. The Samiti also alleged that apart from lack of infrastructure, Bru militants from Mizoram area also a cause of their concern.

The 65 vilages have a total population of around 16,000 residents. It is to be mentioned here that the villagers have decided to boycott the panchayat poll 2013 and accordingly they have submitted a memorandum before the Deputy Commissioner, Karimganj recently, but they have withdrawn their decision on the request of the Deputy Commissioner who has assured them to solve all the burning problems gradually.
READ MORE - 65 Karimganj villages want merger with Mizoram

HRD Minister, Rural Development Minister and Mizoram CM will visit Jamia

New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Dr. MM Pallam Raju will inaugurate the new premises of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamia Millia Islamia on January 22. Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development and Lalthanhawla, Chief Minister, Mizoram will also grace the occasion.

The new premises will house faculty offices and a library-cum-documentation centre which will double as a seminar room to accommodate Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research’s expanding programmes at the University. The space allocated to Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research at Jamia is located on the second floor of the MMAJ Academy of International Studies Annexe the university.

In the past three years, the Centre has initiated research studies, seminars, lectures and conducted workshops on a range of issues including better understanding of conflicts such as the Bodo-settler clashes in Assam, the movements in Nagaland and Manipur. One of its ongoing studies looks at challenges facing women from the NE in metros. It has also focused attention on independence fighters from the region and looked at questions of human rights, disaster preparedness and governance.

The first Centre for North East Studies in a Central University, it has hosted a number of prominent scholars and figures at its events. It is in the process of expanding faculty and staff.

HRD Minister Dr. Pallam Raju will release the Centre’s Publication and also address the audience.
READ MORE - HRD Minister, Rural Development Minister and Mizoram CM will visit Jamia

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Mizoram: A ‘silent’ state

A noise- and pollution- free Diwali, Christmas and New Year have become a reality in Mizoram, thanks to the endeavours made by the government
David M Thangliana | My earliest memories of Christmas and New Year festivities consist of presents and fireworks. My presents on Christmas morning would invariably include sparklers which were gradually upgraded to firecrackers and bombs as I grew older. I believe burning sparklers and firecrackers were one of the most enjoyable activities during these year-end and year-beginning festivities and, in fact, the smell of sulphur still brings out nostalgic childhood memories. My one regret is that with celebration of Christmas and New Year (and not forgetting Diwali as Mizoram has a sizeable Hindu community) with fireworks are things of the past now, my grandchildren would be deprived of the fun that goes with burning sparklers and firecrackers.
Let me elaborate on how fireworks have become a thing of the past in Mizoram. When the Congress party came to power in Mizoram in November 2008, the government decided that Mizoram could do without fireworks during festivals as these are not only avoidable expenditure for the public, but were also health hazards and pollutants. The first Christmas and New Year after Congress rule did have its share of fireworks as pleas by the government to the public to refrain from burning fireworks practically fell on deaf ears as nobody could imagine a Christmas and New Year without fireworks, nearly a century-old practice even in remote Mizoram. The next Christmas and New Year, however, saw a marked decline in noise and air pollution as the public realised, from repeated reminders by the government, that fireworks was not only a waste of money, but dangerous and unhealthy. Though the public, in general, felt cheated, it was more than compensated by the satisfaction and happiness expressed by senior citizens and heart patients who dread festivals because of the loud noises that customarily are part of them.
It would be bias on my part if I do not mention the Hindu community which obediently followed the majority Mizo community from doing without fireworks during their festivals, especially during Diwali. Last year, there was silence during Durga Puja and Diwali except for a few sporadic explosions and other crackers fired from security cantonments within Aizawl. It would be safe to say fireworks during Hindu festivals fell by 90% last year compared to the past few years.
Home minister R Lalzirliana was certain, as soon as he took office, that the public could enjoy festivals without the noise and air pollutions that went with them even though he knew he would be taking on an uphill task. Much to the surprise of his critics and the disbelievers, the public, including the merchants whose profits would have skyrocketed in illicit fireworks sales, became an obedient lot and within three short years, fireworks have virtually become a thing of the past.
However, the credit cannot go to the government alone in abolishing fireworks in Mizoram because it could not have done so without a little help from the powerful social organisation, Young Mizo Association (YMA). Even before the home minister decided to do away with fireworks during festivals, the YMA had been exhorting people from bursting crackers and bombs for many years. However, without government backing, the YMA, powerful though it may be, could not prevent people from indulging in a practice that has become customary and synonymous with Christmas and New Year. Only one YMA branch in a southern Aizawl locality, in fact, had been able to stop the practice of bursting crackers and bombs for some years and senior citizens and heart patients who had relatives or friends
living in this locality would flock to it during Christmas and New Year to avoid the disturbance caused by the loud noises of fireworks.
Another factor that made the task of banning fireworks a little easy was that though no research has been carried out, it was popularly believed that poultry and infants suffered heavily from the air pollution caused by fireworks. A few days after New Year every year, poultry reared in back gardens would die off by the dozens and pediatric wards of hospitals filled to the brim. This belief has been been proved to be true as chickens did not die and neither did babies become sick after Mizoram became a ‘silent’ state.
The reader may now begin to get glimmerings of why I decided to write about a silent Mizoram while they are so many other important subjects that I could touch on. I must confess that though I am not an active environmentalist, I am an environmentalist at heart and I do not approve of anything that could hurt the environment. As a matter of fact, I have been urging my relatives in rural areas to give up their guns and stop killing wild animals and birds. There is a need to keep the balance in nature and if this balance is destroyed, the world will be gone with all the things living in it, including us humans. So, in effect, we are preserving ourselves when we protect the environment.
I would like to urge our sister states in the Northeast, if not throughout India, to take a leaf out of the lesson book of Mizoram. As we all know, the states in the Northeast are the green belt of the country though development projects have slowly started to erode its environment stability. We have to accept that as much as we dislike it, we cannot do without hydropower as we cannot live without power in this modern age. So dams have to come up. But we can contribute towards conserving and preserving our environment in other areas and in things we can do without where the people can actually participate in. One of these areas, as the reader may have already guessed, is in controlling noise and air pollution. I don’t have any data with me, but I believe fireworks during festivals would contribute hugely to the already high noise and air pollution in the country. When Mizoram gave up fireworks three years ago, it did not lose out on anything. If anything, it gained.
When the Mizoram Government first brought out the idea of banning fireworks, I was among those who did not believe that it would work (and I secretly hoped that it would not work because I thoroughly enjoy bursting crackers!) because it had become an inherent part of Christmas and New Year celebrations in the Mizo society. I had even suggested to the government that it designate specific hours and place where people could go to burst crackers and fire rockets. The government, luckily, did not pay heed to my suggestion. I say ‘luckily’ because had such an area and time been designated by the government, people would still be spending hundreds and thousands (the affluent and more enthusiastic of revelers even spend tens of thousands) of rupees on frivolous and unnecessary fireworks while the air still became polluted. Instead, parents now save their hard earned money for more important things such as school bills and school uniforms for the new academic year which they would otherwise have squandered away on fireworks as a mindless festival mood always takes over the Mizo community during Christmas and New Year.
Within three short years, Mizoram has become accustomed to Christmases and New Years without fireworks. Senior citizens and heart patients now look forward to the festivals which they used to dread. Infants have become healthy and parents save money that they would have spent for medications and hospitalisation. In a nutshell, a silent Mizoram has become more beneficial for its citizens than a noisy one.
It is my fervent hope that our other sister states take notice of how one of its smallest sister is tackling the enormous expenditure incurred by the public during festivals and through it, how it is tackling the problem of the high noise and air pollution festivals bring about. If Mizoram can do it, so can they.
(The writer is former journalist based in Aizawl and a member of the media department of the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee)
READ MORE - Mizoram: A ‘silent’ state

Friday, January 18, 2013

Rs. 6.5 cr for Mizoram Peace Memorial

Mizoram art and culture minister P.C. Zoram Sangliana said that the Central government has allocated Rs. 6.5 crore for setting up a Peace Memorial Park in the state.

The detail project report is also being prepared, he added.The minister said this at the meeting yesterday at his office. The meeting was attended by government officials besides invited experts like C. Chawngkunga, Lalthangfala Sailo, B. Lalthangliana, Rev. V.L. Zawnga and others.

Zoram Sangliana said: “By setting up the Peace Memorial Park, we want to show to the world that we the Mizos had been great nation even before the arrival of the Gospel in the region, and also that we had the courage to fight back the British Company rule for more than 50 years.

Moreover, we also want to imbibe patriotism and cultural values in the minds of the younger generations. And also we want to set up memorial statues for the late Mizo patriots, kings and preachers.”

The Peace Memorial Park will be set up at Changsil Kai (shore); where, as per plan, Changsil Fort, Freedom Park, museum, and other recreational facilities will be built. Statues of the late patriots and kings who dedicated their lives for the Mizo nation long before the region was named Mizoram will be installed, he added.

Under the Peace Memorial Park project, Darkhuang Tlang (Gong Hill), Pukpui (Big Cave) will also be refurbished.

The meeting also set up a Study Group which will work out necessary things with regard to the plan of erecting statutes of the worthy kings and patriots as recorded in Mizo history.
READ MORE - Rs. 6.5 cr for Mizoram Peace Memorial

Cancer on the rise in Mizoram

Cancer is on the rise in Mizoram with 600 to 650 people dying of cancer annually in the state, according to the Population-based Cancer Registry (PCR) of the Civil Hospital here.

PCR officials said that around 1,300 new cancer cases were being detected in the state on an average every year.

The PCR officials have been conducting this research since 2004 and patients include who visit hospitals outside the state and those who are treated in their homes without going to hospitals.

The main reason behind the high incidence of cancer in the state which has a population of ten lakh was extensive use of tobacco products and smoking, PCB sources said.
READ MORE - Cancer on the rise in Mizoram

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mizoram rural areas still lack IT infrastructure: Zodintluanga

“Mizoram’s rural areas are lagging behind in all sphere of life due to lack of access to three essential resources necessary for development viz., Information, Infrastructure and Services,” Minister for urban development, poverty and alleviation Zodintluanga said here on Saturday. The reason for this backwardness cannot be exaggerated and the worst being in communication infrastructure in all villages.

The minister said this while speaking on step taken for Information Communication Technology and Rural Information Kisok- Village Level Entrepreneurs (RIK-VLE).

He said that several essential services cannot be done from the villages. For instance one cannot get tribe  certificate, residential certificate, birth certificate, income certificate, tax exemption certificate, utility bills, revenue tax, air ticket, train ticket, insurance, DTH recharge, mobile recharge, photo printing, passport  photos, internet ,e-mails, scanning and printing etc services.


“In order to solve these problems being faced by the rural people, the project aims to provide communication infrastructure through VSAT internet connectivity to reach out digitally all the villages in Mizoram, to set up Rural Information Kiosk in 300 villages for ICT-enabled service delivery outlets in all villages to provide a range of government and business services to the people in the village,” he said. He said this will reduction the inconvenience and costs incurred by the citizen.

“It is worth mentioning that as many as 136 Common Service Centre (CSC) has been set up out of 300 villages,” Zodintlunga added.
READ MORE - Mizoram rural areas still lack IT infrastructure: Zodintluanga

85 yr old woman burnt to death

An 85-year-old woman was killed when the two-storied building she was living in Mizoram-Assam border Kolasib district's Bukpui village was completely gutted yesterday.

The police said that the house belonged to Laibati and the only one staying in the house when the fire broke out - Laibati's mother Thuamnemi could not escape and was burned to death.

The cause of the fire was being investigated.

In another incident, the house of Chhunkunga of Ramthar locality in Aizawl was completely gutted last night and all the properties lost in the fire.

No one was killed or injured in the inferno.
READ MORE - 85 yr old woman burnt to death