Month: September 2013

IMPHAL, Sept 9 NNN : The 72-hour Manipur hill districts bandh called by All Tribal Disabled Students’ Union (ATDSU) gets underway, partially affective.
The volunteers of ATDSU were seen today enforcing the bandh in the Imphal-Ukhrul district bandh. Traffic along the route was barren but it was not that affective in the Imphal-Dimapur road.
Volunteers of ATDSU were seen burning tyres near Litan area under Ukhrul district this afternoon.
It is not clear how affective the bandh was today in other districts.
Anguished over Manipur Government’s negative response on its series of demands, the All Tribal Disabled Students’ Union (ATDSU) has called the 72-hour bandh in the hill districts of Manipur from September 8 midnight as the August 30 dateline set by the union to the Government ended.
ATDSU said the Government is not responding to the union’s legitimate demands that prompted it to take up the agitation.
Due to lack of education, the tribal disabled people are unable to claim their rightful job quota in the Government establishments and these post vacancies have remained filled up by general candidates, it accused.
ADTSU had also on July 19 last sought an appointment from Social Welfare minister for discussion on its demands, but no positive response has been given till date, it said.
It has urged the state Social Welfare minister to realize the decentralization of the authority for issue of disability certificates and to set up a special school with hostel facility for tribal disabled students in one of the hill districts in the state, the union added.
It said that physically challenged persons are first examined and treated at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) Imphal and then related medical documents are submitted to the office of the Social Welfare which issues disability certificates to them after taking about four months time in the process.
This procedure adopted by the state Government has denied disability certificates to more than 70 percent disabled persons residing in far flung areas of the hill districts, it alleged.
At the same time, the union has demanded for setting up of a special school with hostel facility for the tribal disabled children and students in one of the hill districts of the state, it added.
It further said that there are a number of tribal disabled children in the hill areas intending to go to school, but they have failed to do so since they have certain problems of physical inactivities and the society at the same time discourages them to get education. There is only one school in the state located at Takyelpat in Imphal West district, especially for the blind, deaf and mute persons, but still there is not a single school for Locomotor Disabilities (LD) and mentally retarded persons.
It added, therefore, it is quite necessary to set up a school for LD and mentally retarded persons in the state so that they can get proper education.
“Time to rethink traditional practice of funeral rites”- Mizoram Chief Minister.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/atdsu-bandh-going-on/

Mail News Service
New Delhi, Sep 8 : A two day National Executive meeting of IT cell of BJP which started from 6th to 7th September concluded , empowering the party and Mission 2014. The inaugural function was chaired by Rajnath Singh, National President, BJP and Mahendra Pandey, National Convenor of BJP Cell and Morchas. More than 20 states participated in the two day brainstorming sessions under the leadership of Dr. Arvind Gupta, National Convenor, IT Cell, Vinit Goenka and Sanjeev Singh, National Co-convenors of IT Cell, BJP.
Manipur also presented the achievements, plan of action, vision for future and wish list by the State IT cell Convenor, Naorem Mohen Singh. Issues and problems faced by the party due to lack of hi-end technology were discussed to the Central leaders.
Mohen has also submitted the role of IT cells of the state party in disseminating the news and activities of the party to regional and National level for wide coverage of events and poll campaign.
The absence of news and issues of the state will now be carried by the IT cells of the Central BJP through Yuvai TV and various channels of the media, making state issue a National concern like border fencing, corruption and law and order etc.
Rajnath Singh stressed the role of IT cell of the party to come to power through social media by educating the voters, living in far flung areas about the anti incumbency of the ruling Congress government and also by promoting the good factor of BJP rule states like Gujarat, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.
Mahendra Pandey gave his valuable suggestions on application of It on governance of BJP at Central and State office for smooth functioning and transparency of the party workers. During December-January next year, there must be a National level Conference of IT cells which will be represented by state level IT cells, District levels and Mandal It cells to kickstart Mission 2014.
Nitin Gadkari, Former President of National BJP lamented on Congress for making IT sector of the country in a pathetic condition which was once a booming industry during NDA rule and IT cell of BJP must produced a vision documents for the IT professionals and Intellectuals to regain our IT industry back on track. E governance will surely reduce by 80% of the present corruption by making IT application for transparency in Judiciary and Administration of the government. S P Muralidhar Rao, General Secretary of the Party stressed on recruiting more IT cadres to fight Mission 2014

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/bjp-it-cell-empowering-party-meeting/

IMPHAL, Sept 8 NNN : A team comprising of Tangkhul Shanao Long Delhi (TSLD), FXB India Suraksha, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), Indigenous Women Forum, North East India (IWFNEI) visited Ukhrul as a follow up of the 23 children rescued from Jaipur from two ‘illegal homes’ run by Pastor Jacob John and also from his house. The team met the children, families, DC of Ukhrul, civil society organizations, CWC and others.
Of the 53 children, 23 were from Manipur and they were handed over to the state Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on April 19. The children are currently under the care of the Ukhrul CWC and SSA and undergoing residential bridge course.
According to these organisations, they have found out that detail inquiry report of the child under JJ Rule 28(3); 33(3) (g) (ii) and (4)(f); 87 (1)(a) and (2) is yet to be finalized by the CWC Ukhrul. The report is an assessment of the family situation of the child in detail and to explain in writing whether it will be in the best interest of the child to restore him/her to his families, they added.
These organisations also found out that no plan how medical assistance will reach to children once they are repatriated to their parents. The visiting team has also found out that the state authorities has not given any standard guidelines to deal with rescued children nor specified any budget towards this.
The government despite their assurance has not considered the special circumstances and denied eligibility to pursue higher education for the senior children. The then Deputy Commissioner had written to the concern authority but the matter remains unaddressed till date.
The team is disappointed at the irresponsibility and lack of commitment on the part of the Chief Minister and the Social Welfare Department in extending support that is due to the children, which was aggressively highlighted in the media in the initial period.
Meanwhile, i (TSLD), FXB India Suraksha, (NPMHR), (IWFNEI) have recommended that a thorough home investigation of each child be done at the earliest and based on the findings individual care plan for each before restoring them to their respective families.
They also recommended that the rehabilitation plan must include all children who were in the same home but returned before the rescue owing to health problems. The list of the children has been submitted to the DC on 9th May by the Ukhrul District Alliance for Child Rights (UDACR) and on 6th June to Nina Nayak,NCPCR.
These organisations demanded that s medical team be constituted and all the children be examined and given medical attention on time to time basis.
The team further demanded that the State of Manipur need to immediately develop standard guidelines to deal with similar situation of rehabilitating the rescued children from different part of the state in consultation with different stakeholders. The state protection of child rights, Manipur should be pro actively engaged in safeguarding the rights of the children in compliance with ICPS, ICDS and RTE, they further demanded.
“As per the request made from ACP, Jaipur, Rajasthan and direction given by Session court Imphal to CJM Ukhrul to record the statement of the children under CRPC 164, there has been no progress in the matter.
The team then said the state should have a rigorous plan on prevention of child trafficking in close collaboration and consultation with stakeholders across the board and the state failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s guidelines where children below the age of 12 should not go out for education. The state so far have no operational guidelines to check the incidence of children getting trafficked on the pretext of education, the team stated.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/ngos-reach-out-to-rescued-children/

Mail News Service
Imphal, Sep 8 : The press hand out of the state Home Deptt. regarding the proposed home coming ceremony to Kuki National Liberation Front (KNLF) is a bit distressing since the said organization is ridden with faction and the two leaders – the chairman and the C-in C, are still active in Myanmar and receiving some cadres and bringing them into SoO agreement without the knowledge of the top leaders will not achieve the intended target said JM Thadou, Information and Pub Secy, United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) in a press hand out today.
The KNLF cadres who are supposed to be part of the home coming ceremony are mostly fake cadres (just pick up from Moreh area) organized by some people purposely for the home coming ceremony it was alleged.
The attempt of the government to bring all armed revolutionary groups into SoO agreement is laudable but inclusion of factions and bogus cadres/groups will not add any feather to the grand scheme of the govt. Indeed this will only encourage more and more people/groups to organize more and more new cadres/groups in future and the whole scheme of thing will be messed up instead of solving the problem.
UKLF/UPF suggested to the government that not only the said KNLF, all other faction ridden groups are also not to be given a chance to come into SoO agreement became the whole plan of things will get no where .

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/uklf-against-surrender-of-bogus-groups/

IMPHAL, Sep 8 NNN : Opposition political parties in Manipur have demanded to immediately halt the ongoing border fencing work in the Indo-Myanmar border.
Trinamool Congress MLA Dr I Ibohanbi Singh while briefing the media at Moreh Trade Centre said the border should not continue unless the matter is amicably resolved between Myanmar and India.
He also said vast land of wild life sanctuary has been affected due to the faulty fencing work.
It can be noted here that a six-member team of Manipur Opposition visited border villages on Saturday along the Indo-Myanmar border to make an assessment of the international line in Chandel district, neighbouring Myanmar.
The MLA team led by Opposition leader Dr I Ibohalbi arrived in Moreh town in Chandel just before midday. From there they went to Holenphai, Govajang and other border villages to oversee them. The Opposition has claimed that huge portion of Manipur’s border land areas hve been ceded to Myanmar in the border fence construction.
Dr Ibohalbi then asked whether the authorisations have been obtained from the departments of forest, revenue or for that matter, the deputy commissioner of Chandel and other concerned authorities before the fencing began.
MLA Shyamkumar joining the press meet said the security force personnel are doing nothing while the Myanmarese army recently constructed a temporary camp near the disputed Border Pillar number 23.
Meanwhile, sources said the team is likely to submit a report on the visit to the Centre soon and put pressure for addressing the issue.
The Opposition team led by Dr Ibohalbi included MLAs Th Biswajit, M Kunjo, Th Shyamkumar, O Lukhoi and K Sharat. The Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing Committee headed by Principal Secretary (Home) Dr J Suresh Babu had earlier made a spot assessment of the international border fencing in Manipur’s Chandel district on August 26 last.
During the visit the Committee inspected Holenphai and Govajang villages, and Tamil Sangam area located between Moreh Gate No 1 and 2 which have been apparently affected by the Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing.
However, the Principal Secretary (Home) during the trip had claimed that the current Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing was just a “security barrier.”

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/halt-border-fencing-works-trinamul/