iMizoram : i Mizoram

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Meeting on Bru families in Tripura held

Aizawl: Union Home Ministry convened a meeting on the several issues regarding Bru families lodged in the six relief camps in North Tripura district to be held in New Delhi on January 30, Lalbiakzama, Additional Secretary for Mizoram Home department on Tuesday said.

Lalbiakzama told PTI that a meeting held Tuesday in Aizawl of Home department officials chaired by state chief secretary Lalmalsawma deliberated the forthcoming Delhi meeting.

“The Union Home Ministry convened the meeting, which would be attended by Mizoram and Tripura officials, to discuss the recent instructions of the Supreme Court,” he said.

The apex court apparently instructed the Centre and the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura hold consultations within four months to formulate plans to continue repatriation of Bru families from the Tripura relief camps.

State Home department officials, however, opined that the proposed renewed repatriation would again be a futile exercise as the Brus in the relief camps refused to return to Mizoram despite repeated attempts and road maps for their repatriation during the past half-a-decade.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, speaking in the North Eastern Council (NEC) plenary session recently held in Shillong, proposed that those Brus who refused to return to Mizoram till date despite concerted efforts, should be settled permanently in Tripura.

Chakma quits Congress

AIZAWL, Jan 29 – Mizoram’s first Minister from the Chakma community and veteran Congress leader Nirupam Chakma today resigned from the primary membership of the party.

Chakma submitted his resignation as the senior adviser of the Chakma Autonomous District Council Congress Committee (CADCCC) and as primary member of the Congress party.

He sent the copies of his resignation letter to AICC President Sonia Gandhi and Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Lal Thanhawla.

Chakma first contested the State Assembly polls in 1987 from Chawngte seat and was elected. He again won from the constituency in 1989 and was sworn in as a Minister of State on January 25, 1989 to become the first-ever Chakma Minister in the State. He was again inducted as Minister of State after winning the Assembly polls in 1993.

Four, including Myanmar national, arrested for heroin possession in Mizoram

Investigators from Mizoram’s chief anti-narcotics agency have arrested four suspected heroin peddlers — among them two women of which one is a Myanmar national — in as many seizures over the past two days.

Wednesday’s arrests by the Excise and Narcotics Department were both made in eastern Champhai town.

Vanrammawii, 30, of southern Lunglei town was caught around 10.30 am at New Champhai with 10 grams of heroin.

Zohmingliana, 37, of nearby Khawzawl town was caught 45 minutes later with a “container of heroin” at Champhai’s Vengthlang locality less than an hour later. A spokesperson did not specify the weight of the latter seizure.

On Tuesday, investigators had arrested Samuel Lalthanhruaia, 21, of Mizoram capital Aizawl’s Ramhlun South locality with 10 grams of heroin in the same area an hour and a half past noon.

About an hour later, sleuths arrested Lallianveli, 37, a resident of Tahan township in Myanmar’s Sagaing Division, with 29 grams of heroin in Aizawl’s Vaivakawn locality.

All four suspected peddlers have been booked under the NDPS Act.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Meeting on Bru families lodged in Tripura

Union Home Ministry convened a meeting on the several issues regarding Bru families lodged in the six relief camps in North Tripura district to be held in New Delhi on January 30, Lalbiakzama, Additional Secretary for Mizoram Home department today said.

Lalbiakzama told PTI that a meeting held today in Aizawl of Home department officials chaired by state chief secretary Lalmalsawma deliberated the forthcoming Delhi meeting.

"The Union Home Ministry convened the meeting, which would be attended by Mizoram and Tripura officials, to discuss the recent instructions of the Supreme Court," he said.

The apex court apparently instructed the Centre and the state governments of Mizoram and Tripura hold consultations within four months to formulate plans to continue repatriation of Bru families from the Tripura relief camps.

State Home department officials, however, opined that the proposed renewed repatriation would again be a futile exercise as the Brus in the relief camps refused to return to Mizoram despite repeated attempts and road maps for their repatriation during the past half-a-decade.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, speaking in the North Eastern Council (NEC) plenary session recently held in Shillong, proposed that those Brus who refused to return to Mizoram till date despite concerted efforts, should be settled permanently in Tripura.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Make Mizoram a place to live with prosperity, peace: Guv

Aizawl: Mizoram Governor Aziz Qureshi on Monday appealed to the people to give their best to the state so that Mizoram could be a place where all could live with dignity, peace, prosperity and happiness.

In his first address after unfurling the tricolour at Assam Rifles ground here, Qureshi appealed to the people to resolve to work for peace and harmony, growth and development and for the unity and integrity of the nation.

"I am confident that with your continued support and taking together the traditional Mizo values and traits of honesty, respect for elders, perseverance and above all the sacred ethics of 'Tlawmngaihna' (Mizo value of selfless service to others), we can soon propel ourselves foreward and become a model state that can be emulated by others," he said.

The governor said that his government was committed to continue the flagship programme of New Land Use Policy (NLUP) and the government has decided to extend the project this year for which preparation of supplementary plan was underway.

He said the state government, under the NLUP umbrella, signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations on October 16, 2014 called 'Joint Initiative on Eco-System based Livelihood Promotion in Mizoram'.

"Farmers and people engaged in agriculture and allied sectors were being empowered with new technologies and harvest methods to increase crop production and productivity, he said, adding that jhumming or slash and burn way of destructive traditional cultivation in the hilly areas was also at a decreasing trend.

Qureshi, talking about education, said that KG-I and KG-II classes would be introduced in government schools from the 2015-2016 academic session.

On the rural development sector, he said that 1,94,686 job cards were issued under MGNREGS and 1,52,519 households have been provided wage employment during the current fiscal.

Security beefed up in Aizawl

Aizawl, Jan 26 : Security has been beefed up and in and around the capital here as Mizoram prepared to celebrate the Republic Day tomorrow.

Bomb disposal squad and special branch personnel checked the Assam Rifles ground here, the venue of the Republic Day celebrations before handing it over to the district police authorities yesterday, Aizawl district SP C Laldina said.

Additional security personnel were deployed in important offices of both the central and the state government and vital installations, he said.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

India, Bangladesh officials, border guards to work jointly

Aizawl, Jan 23 : The district administrations and border guards of India and Bangladesh would deal jointly with various border issues and crimes, officials said here Thursday.

District magistrates and other officials of Mizoram's two districts - Mamit and Lunglei -- met the deputy commissioners of Bangladesh's districts of Rangamati and Bandarban (under Chittagong division), and discussed border crimes, setting up of more border outposts (BOPs), erection of border fencing and better coordination between the district administrations of both sides.

"We would like to sort out local issues between us. The border related crimes and problems would be dealt with jointly," said Rangamati Deputy Commissioner Shamsul Arefin, who led a nine-member Bangladesh team to the meeting.

He told reporters: "Officials of the district administrations, Border Security Force and the Border Guards Bangladesh would work mutually to curb crime...and to resolve other problems."

An official of the Mizoram home department said that the district magistrates and other officials of Mizoram's Mamit and Lunglei districts told their Bangladeshi counterparts that northeast militants take shelter in Bangladesh territory, occasionally kidnapping people from Mizoram.

India and Bangladesh had decided to hold district magistrate-level meetings to resolve various issues.

District magistrates and other officials of Tripura's four districts -- Sipahijala, Gomti, South Tripura and Dhalai - met in Agartala Jan 9-10 with the deputy commissioners of Bangladesh's five districts of Comilla, Feni, Rangamati, Khagrachari and Chittagong.

They discussed border crimes, sharing waters of common rivers, setting up of more 'border haats' (markets), border fencing and better coordination between the district administrations of both sides.

Similar conferences would be held in the other northeastern states of Assam and Meghalaya to sort out border issues.

India is erecting a barbed wire fence and putting up floodlights along the 4,096-km India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Assam (263 km), Meghalaya (443 km) and Mizoram (318 km) to check trans-border movement of militants and curb border crimes.

The mountainous terrain, dense forests and other hindrances make the unfenced borders between India's northeastern states and Bangladesh porous and vulnerable, letting illegal immigrants and intruders cross over without any hurdle.