Day: June 9, 2014

NEW DELHI, June 9 (MIC): Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh who also holds the Finance portfolio has stressed upon the importance of Central Assistance for State Plan for development of Manipur.

Speaking at the Union Finance minister’s Pre-Budget Consultations with Finance ministers of all States and Union Territories in connection with the forthcoming Union Budget 2014-15 held at Banquet Hall of Hotel Ashok here today, he said, “With the State’s own resources constituting just about 10 percent of the total revenue receipts on account of reasons peculiar to the State as also the NE Region, Central Assistance for State Plan has always occupied a pre-eminent position in financing our developmental needs.”

“Given the almost complete absence of large private sector investment in the State, you will agree with me that Central funding is the only way out to meet the growing aspirations of our people.”

The meeting was chaired by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The Chief Minister elaborated that the Special Plan Assistance (SPA) and Special Central Assistance (SCA) constituted an important plan resource base for the State of Manipur.

He said “With SPA funds, we are implementing several key projects in the State for road connectivity, health infrastructure, administrative infrastructure, agricultural productivity, irrigation potential, etc. To complete these projects and to undertake new ones, the present annual allocation of Rs. 450 crore needs to be raised to Rs.600 crore.”

He stated that due to the need to provide State matching share for CSS/Flagship programs, the SCA funds were getting earmarked for the purpose leaving limited scope for utilising them for State run programmes. He drew the attention of the Union Finance Minister to increase the allocation under SCA to Rs. 1000 crore from the present Rs. 800 crore.

Referring to the State’s resource crunch, he said, “The finances of my State are passing through an extremely critical phase. In two of the last three fiscals, we closed with overdrafts in our account. That we experienced repeated overdrafts indicate that there are underlying structural imbalances in the State’s finance, with expenditure commitments exceeding our receipts. We have rationalized our expenditure and initiated concrete steps to generate additional resources. However, as our resource base is very narrow, we continue to suffer on account of huge gap in our resources. We need your support and assistance to overcome this challenge.”

The Chief Minister mentioned that the resource crunch largely arose following implementation of the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations.

“This got further compounded as our unavoidable security and developmental imperatives necessitated fresh appointments in Police, Education and Health departments and in the Tribal Autonomous District Councils in the hill districts.”

He also highlighted the grossly inadequate Non-Plan Revenue Gap Grant provided by the 13th Finance Commission and requested the Centre to allocate a sum of at least Rs. 1000 crore during 2014-15 as interest free advance to partially bridge the resources gap left uncovered by the 13th Finance Commission and to compensate for the developmental resources displaced by the rising non-plan expenditures.

Referring to the constitution of the 7th Central Pay Commission by the Union Government, Manipur Chief Minister expressed his hope that the Union Government would adequately support fiscally weak states for any shortfall in resources arising out of the implementation of another pay revision.

Talking about the infrastructure projects taken up under Central Sector, the Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh stated, “The State Government has made sustained efforts for timely completion of critical projects taken up under Central Sector.”

“The construction of the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal Railway Line Project, a National Project, is expected to lead to a paradigm shift in our socio-economic polity on its completion.”

He appealed to the Union Finance Minister to provide the required funds in the Budget 2014-15 for timely completion of the National Projects.

He placed the information that the expansion of Imphal Airport to International Airport was another Central Sector project.

The project was integral to the success of the “Look East Policy”. It was taken up in 2008 at an estimated cost of Rs. 128.79 crores. The State Government acquired 690 acres of land and handed it over to Airport Authority India in 2008, he said.

A sum of Rs 97.04 crore was spent on the project. However, works had suffered considerably because of lack of funds, he continued.

He further urged the Union Minister to provide adequate funds for its timely completion.

The Chief Minister said, “An efficient road network is essential to maintain national integration and socio-economic development. To reap the benefit of the Golden Quadrilateral network of highways, there is an urgent need for up-gradation and expansion of NH-2, NH-37 and NH-202 that passes through Manipur. Furthermore, Manipur is today poised to be the “Gateway to South East Asia” and keeping in mind the Look East Policy, it would be necessary that due attention is focused at upgrading the road connectivity to Moreh.”

He further stated, “Moreh is the border town for development of trade between India with Myanmar and other South East Asian nations. The existing town is small, unplanned and undeveloped and does not measure up to the requirements of a vibrant trading hub.” He proposed to have a New Moreh Township to develop a habitation with necessary infrastructure for setting up export oriented units and trading centres /facilities for which 3000 acres of land had already been identified. The State would need funding for this Township to the tune of Rs. 1647 crore.

The Chief Minister also drew the attention of the Union Finance Minister to continue funding and support the important Central Sector Projects like Construction of the Rail-Fed Oil Depot at Imphal by the Indian Oil Corporation for increasing the storage capacity of POL products; Construction of Foodgrain Godowns by the FCI at all outlying District HQs.; Priority and full funding of the NIT, Manipur; and Expediting and full funding of India’s only integrated Check Post (ICP) at Moreh on the border with Myanmar. He underlined that those projects were vital for the State’s development and inclusive growth of all ethnic communities in the State.

Barun Mitra, Principal Secretary (Finance), accompanied the Manipur Chief Minister in the meeting.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/cm-pushes-aggressively-for-increase-in-central-assistance/

IMPHAL, June 9: Even though the construction work of Sanjenthong is going on a war footing, by all appearance meeting the deadline to complete work before the Sangai Festival slated in the month of November as announced by the government would be next to impossible.

A spot inspection conducted by IFP revealed that dismantling work of the old bridge is still in the initial stages, with just about 10 percent completed.

As the construction process was set in motion on April 30, 2014, it has taken 41 days till date to make this much progress.

The construction company has 143 days in hand till end of October before the Sangai festival which is slated to be held in November as every year.

Construction of a stage under the bridge to collect the debris of the bridge from falling in the river remains incomplete, leave alone the process of dismantling the bridge which has technically taken around a month.

When enquired for the reason behind the delay, an official of the PWD who was present at the construction clarified that it was affected due to the recent rain that had increased the volume of the river.

When IFP further tried to extract more information from the concerned officials, one of the liaison officer of the Simplex Project Ltd. left the site on the pretext that he had urgent work at Mantripukhri.

Of the total 44 pillar (22 on each side) that would sustain the platform of the bridge, only eight pillars have been completed. Sadly, the drilling process to install the bridge pole has stopped due to failure of the machine (MAIT).

One of the engineers told IFP that an engineer of the company will soon arrive in Imphal to restore the machine.

In case if the machine, weighing 105 tons, cannot be restored a new machine has to be ordered from Kolkata by truck.

Against this backdrop, a worker engaged in the construction was operated at RIMS today after sustaining serious injury in a mishap at the construction site.

After having inspected the work progress recently a high profile team led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh accompanied by Works minister, Ratan Kumar Singh, had assured the people to deliver the bridge functional before the Sangai festival.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/sanjenthong-construction-running-against-time/

Adulterated oil worth Rs 30 lakhs seized
IMPHAL, June 9: Adulterated edible mustard oil and betel nuts worth around Rs 50 lakh were seized this early morning by a joint team of the Food Safety and Narcotics and Affairs of Border from a private godown at Khambam Lamkhai.

The owner of the seized consignment has been identified as Mulchand of Rajasthan and presently staying at Thangal Bazar operating under the name ‘Ajay Traders.’

The team was told that the process had been going on at the godown for the past more than seven-eight months. Mulchand had taken the godown on rent about a year ago from the owner identified as Momon Singh, an employee of the FCI.

Food safety officer in charge, Imphal East Satrajit called a press conference in this regard today.

He said the labourers revealed that the original oil tins were opened, adulterated and then resealed at the godown.

The Food Safety team was informed by the NAB this morning about the operation , he said.

The unearthed adulterated edible oil include 100 numbers of 15-litre Neeraj Mustard Oil tins, 90 tins of Ruchi Gold Soya Bean oil, 300 empty tins levelled Shivam, Tagore, Neeraj, Ruchi Gold, etc, 7200 numbers of 500 ml Neeraj bottles, 1000 packets of one litre Ruchi Gold packets, 1200 bottles of Neeraj 200 Ml bottles, 1200 bottles of one-litre Neeraj and 150 tins of various other brands, according to the food safety officer in charge.

A NAB team led by SI M Jiten, SI Y Shamu and Premchand and Abung had raided the godown on receiving intelligence inputs that some NDPS item was being prepared in the area around 11.00 am today, said Satrajit.

The information they had proved correct and the team found labours involved in the process of adulterating edible oil in very unhygienic and unsafe conditions, he said.

The food safety officer said his team was then informed about the adulteration process by the NAB team.

His team which also included Th Sunit, food safety officer, Churachandpur and others rushed to the spot and found two labourers inside the godown along with the oil containers.

The total amount of edible oil is worth around Rs 30 lakh, he said.

At the same time, the team on checking the next room found sub-standard betel nuts in several gunny bags worth around Rs 20 lakh, he said before adding, this sub-standard nuts were to be mixed with the normal nuts and sold off.

The items have been seized and the godown sealed under the Food Safety Standard Act, 2006 under RR 2011, he said.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/oil-adulteration-operation-unearthed/

Imphal, June 9: Three MLAs of Manipur Pradesh Trinamool Congress (MPTC) were suspended while showcause notices were served to the remaining three others on Monday.

Thangmeiband MLA Khumukcham Joykishan, Thongju MLA Th Bishwajit and Wangoi MLA O Lukhoi were suspended from MPTC as action against them for defying the instructions of All India Trinamool Congress and MPTC over the last few days.This was stated by the newly elected president of MPTC, Thounaojam Shyamkumar, a legislator from Andro assembly constituency.

Briefing the media, Shyamkumar said that he was appointed the new MPTC president by a written order from AITCC general secretary, Mukul Roy on June 2 after Kim Gangte was terminated from the post of the president. According to him, he was informed of his appointment as the new president by MP Derek O’ Brien.

“During the recent 16th LS polls, six MLAs of MPTC worked against the party by supporting candidates of other political parties. They didn’t work for the party’s success but for other parties breaking the rules and regulations of the party. They violated form A and B which they signed while enrolling to the Trinamool Congress,” Syamkumar said, adding that the suspended MLAs often used unconstitutional languages such as ‘MPTC has no relationship with AITC’ and defied the official directive of Derek O’ Brien.

Three MLAs including self-styled MPTC president Khumukcham Joykishan of Thangmeiband A/C, Thongju MLA Th Bishwajit, Wangai MLA O Lukhoi were suspended from primary membership of the party for anti- party activities with effect from Monday under rule nos. 6 (A) I, II, V of the party’s constitution, he said. The remaining three Trinamool Congress MLAs were also served show cause notices. The suspension order will also be sent to the Assembly Speaker, he added.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/three-mlas-suspended-from-mptc-three-served-show-cause-notices/

IMPHAL, June 9: In a landmark judgement, the High Court of Manipur directed the Manipur Public Service Commission to re-fix the qualifying mark in the General English paper for the Manipur Civil Services combined competitive examination 2010 by treating it to be the “pass mark” keeping into consideration the intent and purpose of the rules and the norms followed all over the country for such civil service competitive examinations including the UPSC.

It is learnt that the common judgement and order was passed on March, 24 last and the High Court of Manipur had granted five weeks time to the MPSC and the State government from the date of the order to comply with the directions.

However, it is learnt that the MPSC has already filed Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order.

The court has also directed the MPSC to re-fix the said qualifying mark in respect of candidates belonging to the physically disabled persons.

The court has further directed upon such re-fixation of the qualifying mark in general English paper. Necessary recommendations are to be made to the state Government if the petitioners are found to have scored marks higher than any of the private respondents, and for this, the state Government has been directed to create supernumerary posts for affording their appointments with retrospective effect.

The verdict came in response to the writ petitions filed by two unsuccessful candidates namely Hanjabam Boby Sharma son of H Kunjakishor Sharma of Brahmapur Thangapat Mapal (an OBC candidate who scored 45 percent in the general English paper) and Tongbram Shyamkumar Singh son of T Dhananjoy Singh of Utlou Makha Leikai, Nambol (a visually impaired candidate who scored 41.5 percent in the general English paper).

Allowing the writ petitions WP (C) No.31 of 2013 and WP(C) No. 150 of 2013, Justice N Kotiswar Singh has held that the fixation of 50 percent as qualifying mark in general English paper by the MPSC is found to be unreasonably high, manifestly arbitrary and hence illegal.

The court has observed that the purpose of invoking the qualifying mark in general English that the other subjects in the mains examination would be evaluated and no otherwise.

The paper on general English is of qualifying nature and matriculation standard. Therefore, the nature of the qualifying mark as contemplated for general state and at the mains stage in respect of the remaining papers for the purpose of calling for the interview, the court observed.

The court observed that the purpose of determining the qualifying mark in general English paper is not to select the best candidates but for the limited purpose of determining the minimum standard required of a candidate to be able to discharge the public functions and duties efficiently as required of a public servant.

The aim of the paper is to test the candidates’ ability to read and understand serious discursive prose and to express his ideas clearly and correctly in English language. That’s the reason the marks obtained in English has not been counted towards ranking, the court observed.

The qualifying mark as mentioned under the rules has to be read as “passing mark”. It need not vary from examination and will be of a determinate nature as its purpose is only to test the basic in English, the court asserted.

Giving strong observation, the Court opined that the result of the said examination would be vitiated and rendered illegal.

Consequently, the appointments made on the basis of the result of the said examination cannot be held valid.

However, inspite of making such observation, the court has refrained from declaring all the appointments invalid as it will consequently result in administrative disruption and chaos and therefore, the court has held that the recommendation and selection made by the MPSC by acting upon the said qualifying mark need to be disturbed in public interest.

Noting that the UPSC and other states public service commissions have fixed the qualifying mark in English between 20 percent-40 percent, the Court questioned the rationale behind the MPSC which has fixed 50 percent.

As per the records available, it is only the MPSC in the entire country which has fixed 50 percent as qualifying mark in English. The MPSC has also failed to satisfactorily explain as to how they have fixed such a high mark of 50 percent for stating that it was so fixed in previous examination of 2006.

Apart from this precedence, there is nothing on record either in the affidavit in opposition filed by the MPSC or by way of producing relevant records to show that the MPSC had given due consideration to various factors including the practice or norm prevailing in other States or even in UPSC while fixing the qualifying mark.

This is in contrast to the subsequent affidavit filed by the MPSC on January 20, 2014 in which it was stated that MPSC has consulted the UPSC and after taking into consideration the various factors including the practice or norm prevailing in other State public service commissions, the relevant factors and present situation, changed the qualifying mark of general English to 40 percent for general, 38 for OBC, 35 percent for ST&SC and 30 percent for disabled candidates.

The court has also relied on the decisions of two cases by the Supreme Court including the Arunachal Pradesh Service Commission versus Tabe Habung (2013) 7 SCC 77, in which the Supreme Court had held that fixing the cut off mark as 40 percent in English as qualifying mark was unreasonable and unjustified.

The other case was between Sanchit Bansal and Joint Admission board (2012) 1 SCC 157, in which the Supreme Court has held that where the procedure adopted is arbitrary and capricious, the Court can interfere in the academic & policy matters.

The counsel of the MPSC contended that an unsuccessful candidate cannot challenge the recruitment process after participating in the same.

The Court also rejected this contention on the ground that the qualifying mark of 50 percent was not made known to the candidates beforehand and hence, the petitioners were entitled to question the validity of the fixation of the qualifying mark.

Senior advocate Ibotombi Namoijam appeared for the petitioner and advocate L Shyamkishore Singh appeared for the MPSC.

It may be noted that the petitioner Hanjabam Bobby Sharma stood fourth position in the overall written test of the said examination but he was deliberately denied interview call on the pretext that he did not qualify in the general English paper.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/hc-directs-mpsc-to-re-fix-qualifying-marks-for-english-in-mcscce/

IMPHAL, June 9: The Government of Manipur, Secretariate Home Department has stated that to ensure better quality of post mortem and video filming in cases of custodial death and encounter deaths, the National Human Rights Commission had on March 19, 2014 informed the State Government to follow certain guideline to help better analysis of cases.

In case of death in police action, while conducting post-mortem examination of the deceased, the aim of video-filming and photography of post-mortem should be to record the detailed finding of the post-mortem examination, especially pertaining the marks of injury and violence which may suggest custodial torture, to supplement the finding of post-mortem examination (recorded in the post-mortem report) by video graphic evidence so as to rule out any undue influence or suppression of material information and to facilitate an independent review of the examination at a later stage if required, according to the guideline.

It also said that precautions should be taken that both hands of the deceased are wrapped in white paper bags before transportation and the dead body afterwards will be covered in Special Body Bags having zip pouches for proper transportation, clothing on the body of the deceased should not be removed by the police or any other person as it must be collected, examined as well as preserved and sealed by the doctor conducting the autopsy and it will be sent further examination at the concerned forensic science laboratory, a detailed note regarding examination of the clothing will be incorporated in the post-mortem examination by the concerned doctor, in case of alleged firearms death, the death body should be subjected to radiological examination (X-ray/CT Scan) prior to autopsy.

Further according to the guideline of the National Human Rights Commission, at the time of video-filming and photography of the post-mortem examination, the voice of the doctor should be recorded and must narrate his prima-facie observation while conducting the examination.

It also said that a total of 20-25 coloured photographs covering the whole body should be taken and some photographs should be taken without removing the clothes. The photographs should include profile photo-face (front, right lateral, left lateral views), back of head, front of body (up to torso-chest and abdomen) and back, upper and lower extremity-front and back, focusing on each injury/lesion-zoomed in after properly numbering the injuries, internal examination findings (two photos of soles and palms each, after making incision to show absence/evidence of any old/deep seated injury).

However, for firearm injuries while describing, the distance from heel as well as midline must be taken in respect of each injury which will help later in reconstruction of events, it said.

The photographs should be taken after incorporating post-mortem number, date of examination and a scale for dimension in the frame of the photographs itself and the camera must be held at right angle to the object being photographed and the video-filming and photography of the post-mortem examination will be done by a person trained in forensic photography and videography with a good quality camera with 10X optical zoom and minimum 10 MP will be used.

All post-mortem examination done in cases of custodial deaths or in encounter deaths should be video-filmed and cassettes be sent to the National Human Rights Commission along with the post-mortem reports, it said.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/nhrc-issues-guidelines-for-post-mortem-video-filming-of-custodial-deaths/

IMPHAL, June 9: Inspite of being one of the silk producing States, with the ability to produce all four types of silks, Manipur is unable to supply any kind of silk outside the State, said Sericulture, Commerce & Indstries minister Govindas Konthoujam today.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the closing function of the 10-day long Post Cocoon Technology and Cocoon Crafts training program organised by the Eramdam Cocoon production Centre.

The program was held at the centre’s office at Khurai Chingangbam Leikai.

The Geographic Information System, GIS will be launched in the State this year in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre, said the minister who also holds the Veterinary & Animal Husbandry portfolio.

The launched of GIS will help in understanding what is happening in the fields (geographical space) and help in visualizing, analysing and interpreting the actions in the fields, he said before adding as such employees cannot neglect their work.

GIS will help gain a clear cut monitoring of the fields without field visits, the minister added.

The introduction of GIS in the State will further aid in increasing silk production and help in supplying silk to outside the State, Govindas said.

In order to meet the country’s silk demand, a total of 13000 megaton silk are being imported from China and while, Jharkhand will be supplying another 8000 megaton soon, he said before adding that Manipur with all the potential is unable to supply any.

Govindas Konthoujam identified the suitable districts in the State for silk production as Imphal West, Imphal East and Ukhrul districts.

He continued that the Manipur Sericulture Project Phase II, under the North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme amounting to Rs 400 crore for the promotion of Sericulture is in the pipeline.

He continued that some funds will be provided to the Eramdam Cocoon Production Centre under the Catalytic Directive Program, 2013-14.

He further lauded the initiative taken up by entrepreneurs in establishing small scale industries which will generate employment.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/govindas-laments-states-failure-in-silk-production/

IMPHAL, June 9: The United Kuki Liberation Front, UKLF has today clarified that it has nothing to do with the shooting of Chungjalen Haokip near his home at Tuibong, two days back.

A press release of the outfit has said, “Chungjalen Haokip is the elder brother of Tonglenlal alias Lalmoi, gen. secy., KNLF, and indeed the UKLF and KNLF had problems but that is not a valid reason to target a victim who is a civilian.”

“UKLF knew this part very much. Thus, the false and random allegation of KNLF upon UKLF is very unfortunate.”

UKLF, being a SoO signatory, never indulge in anything which is against the SoO ground rules, it said while clarifying, “We are strictly following the set rules and none of our cadres is out there to carry out action on Chungjalen Haokip who is in Churanchanpur.”

The UKLF does not believe in internecine bloodshed but believe in peace and social harmony and had even raise this particular point many times at different levels of meeting between the UPF and KNO, it said.

“UKLF have no personal vendetta with anybody or group. KNLF is like a new born baby (ngarang gi nga kha) for the UKLF and have nothing equal with us.”

It has also continued that instead of trying to tarnish the good image of UKLF, the KNLF should mend its ways and stop indulging in extortion, threatening and warning public leaders.

“Govt must be careful while dealing between the SoO groups and surrenderee group like KNLF. Surrenderee groups be send home with appropriate rehabilitation packages and not be treated at par with the SoO groups. This kind of action of the govt left hazy picture and will create more problems.”

Instead of simply accusing and blaming the UKLF directly, the KNLF should investigate and find out by themselves who is /are the persons/group behind the incident, it said while adding in fact the UKLF condemn the shooting of Chungjalen Haokip and demanded the perpetrators to come out in public and clarify their action immediately.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/06/uklf-denies-charges/