March 17, 2015 – Page 3

Bird poachers land in jail

IMPHAL, March 17: Four bird poachers namely Haobijam Megha Singh, 44, s/o (L) Maimu Singh of Karang ward-C; Potsangbam Temba Singh, 60, s/o (L) Thambalngou Singh of Mayang Imphal Konchak

IMPHAL, March 17: Four bird poachers namely Haobijam Megha Singh, 44, s/o (L) Maimu Singh of Karang ward-C; Potsangbam Temba Singh, 60, s/o (L) Thambalngou Singh of Mayang Imphal Konchak Yangbi; Ningombam Thoiba Singh, s/o N Ibotombi Singh of Thoubal Leisangthem Khong Manung and Khoiyengdem Deben Singh, s/o (L) Narhari Singh of Mayang Imphal Konchak Yangbi were produced before the CJM Bishnupur today and has been sent to jail after being prosecuted.

A release of Global Science Club, Khoijuman said the four mentioned persons were apprehended from the Loktak lake by Langol Sabi area`s fishermen along with the volunteers of Global Science Club, Khoijuman on March 12.

The poachers were later handed over to the Bishnupur PS for further legal action along with the two unauthorised SBBL guns and nine live ammunitions, it said.

It has warned every persons intending to poach or hunt wildlife at Loktak lake of legal actions with the help of competent government authorities if found by the volunteers of Global Science Club, Khoijuman who routinely patrols the areas in Loktak lake reported to be frequented by such poachers.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/bird-poachers-land-in-jail/

Multi crores rupees misappropriated while ferrying FCI goods

IMPHAL, March 17: The FCI regional officials and a contractor presented false data on the distance between Jagiroad to FCI FSD Sangaiporou route in a well organised fashion to siphon

IMPHAL, March 17: The FCI regional officials and a contractor presented false data on the distance between Jagiroad to FCI FSD Sangaiporou route in a well organised fashion to siphon off huge amount of money from the government, the Transporter and Driver Council said today.

In the press meet held at the office of the TDC MG Avenue, President Ranjit said the TDC has been suspecting the FCI contractor`™s conductsfor a long time.

Ranjit further said that on May 26, 2014 a tender was called for lifting FCI goods by the FCI GM Assam Region and the tender was rewarded to GB Chowdhury Holding Private Limited Panbazar Guwahati on July 24, 2014.

As per reports the FCI official along with the transport contractor prepared a plot to misappropriate huge amount along the Jagiroad to Sangaoporou route.

Transporter Contractor GB Chawdhury, Basker Hazarika GM Assam Region and former Executive Director Zone Basumatri together changed the FCI MTF (model tender form) of rate quotation to per MT per Km into their own formulation to manipulate the distance of this route for huge gains on ferrying goods, he said.

They claimed distance from Jagiroad to Sangaiporou is 631 Km and charged at the rate of Rs. 5999 per trip.

But an RTI application revealed that there have been atrocious misrepresentations of facts of the distance of the route used by the contractor.

In their reply to the RTI application, they again mentioned that the distance between the two points is 631 km, and justified their rate of Rs. 5999 per trip. They claimed they did not use NH-37 for ferrying their goods and instead ferried the goods by the Jiribam route.

This however was found untrue and the TDC has obtained an official statement from the Jiribam Police Station, in which the Jiribam OC wrote on February 22, 2015 that during the months of June and July 2014, there were no FCI goods loaded vehicles passing through Jiribam, Imphal East district.

Ranjit said the FCI GM Assam region, ex-Executive Director and Contractor GB Chaudhury sent their vehicle only along NH-2 Imphal-Dimapur roiute and not Imphal-Jiribam route.

But the contractor has been pretending he has been using the Imphal-Jirabam route so he could claim a bigger distance travelled and charge more from the Manipur public and government.

Ranjit said the Imphal-Dimapur route is a distance of only 421 Km and through their manipulation they charged for 210 Km more, which amounts to about Rs. 30,000 gain per trips of their trucks.

In this regard the TDC lodged an FIR against the culprits at Lamphel police station on February 27, 2015 under criminal misappropriation the public money.

Unfortunately, the TDC said the Lamphel Police has not taken up the FIR case the culprits as yet. The TDC then took the matter to the Court on March 3, 2015 and court has directed the Lamphel Police to furnish reason for the not taking up the case, Rajit told the press conference.

The Lamphel Police is scheduled to appear before the court on April 9, 2015 said Ranjit said.

He further said that the RTI was filed by T Jibankumar member of TDC.

The TDC demands a thorough investigation on the matter and book the culprit for misappropriating money belonging to the Manipur public.

The involved FCI official and the contractor must reward befitting penalty, Ranjit said.

Climate Change Awe

Winter in Manipur has been severe and rather extended this year. It is only a day or two since the chill lifted. It would have been a lot harsher for

Winter in Manipur has been severe and rather extended this year. It is only a day or two since the chill lifted. It would have been a lot harsher for the poor, for indeed, as it is, winter months are cruel even for temperate climes as ours, when much of life hibernate, expending the least energy so as to last out till the nourishing showers of spring herald nature its wake-up call. Imagine how miserable life would be if winter temperature were to drop a few more degrees Celsius, and extended a few more months. But the disturbing fact is, such projections of a changed climate scenario are no longer remote or restricted to science fiction writing. Seeing what has been happening even in the past few years, climate change seems now almost an inevitable future the world is heading into. There are scientific evidences that there have been radical shifts in climates in the history of the earth, almost at regular intervals. The Ice Age for instance is supposed to follow a cyclic pattern, the last minor one having retreated 12,000 years or so ago, but in between these cycles, there have also been many sudden freak shifts, as scientist now claim there had been an unexplained cooling of the globe 5,200 years ago, not because of anything anybody did, but out of changes in solar activities. In 1991, hikers found the preserved body of a man trapped in an Alpine glacier and freed as it retreated. Later tests showed that the human `“ dubbed Oetzi `“ became trapped and died around 5,200 years ago. Scientific evidences elsewhere in the world corroborate the theory of a sudden chill wave at about the same period. In prehistoric times, 245 million years ago, the collision of continents to form a single land mass known as Pangaea caused one of the biggest extinction of life from earth, with 96 percent of marine life going extinct in about 3 million years span.

The point is, earth`™s climate has changed in the past and probably will change again in the future. While there is nothing very much we possibly can do to alter the meta-narratives of the cosmos, what is also certain is, man can hasten these changes locally on earth, all to his own detriment. To look at it more positively, this also means man can delay or even avert some of these climate shifts by controlling the factors that disturb the earth`™s climate system. At this moment, man seems to be doing very little to this effect. Hence, if this year`™s winter has been harsh, scientist are now predicting a hotter than usual summer to follow. Being warm-blooded creatures, all mammals, to which category of living things humans belong, can tolerate a wide range of temperature conditions. But the danger is not so much about how weather resilient the human body is, but of how life would cope with a radically changed living environment. If winters get harsher, summers more scorching, monsoons unpredictable, the first casualties would be crops. We all know the kind of human misery a year of crop failure can cause, but imagine a scenario in which this happens in a stretch for a couple, or even many years. Life would be put at great peril then. It is such thoughts that make one realize, inspite of all its strengths and resilience, life is extremely vulnerable. Human life is no exception. It is also not a surprise that in life`™s history of over 500 million years (so says scientists), whole species have routinely gone extinct for unfathomable reasons.

There are many cosmic factors behind climate changes that we can do nothing about and only God can explain why. But there are also an equal number of factors that we can do a lot about. Likewise there are a number of overwhelming environmental issues that must have to be tackled at the global level. But there are also again localized ones that all individuals, regardless of where they are, must put in their mite in tackling. Hence, while those of us in the developing world can contribute little towards controlling automobile fume emissions that induce greenhouse effect in the earth`™s atmosphere, precisely because the number of automobiles we own is minuscule, we can help in the global effort by retaining green covers of our forests etc. Let us not ever forget the slogan of the global environmental campaign `Think Globally, Act Locally.` After all it is also our own lives, together with that of the rest of the world that we are called upon to protect.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/03/climate-change-awe/

Govt to keep directory of empanelled educations institutes

IMPHAL, March 17: The Director of University and Higher Education, Manipur has informed that the Government of Manipur will be further updating its list of empanelled Universities/ Colleges/ Institutions/Engineering Colleges/ Technical Institutions/ Institutions offering general/ professional courses duly recognised by UGC/NCTE/AICTE/DCI/INC/PCI, etc., with full details of courses offered, fee structure, hostel facilities, prospectus, etc, of their Universities/ Colleges/ Institutions, a release of the Directorate of Higher Education said.

This with an aim to enable the State Government to ensure that students of Manipur intending to pursue higher studies outside the State are facilitated with required information pertaining to proper recognition/ affiliation, etc. of the Higher Educational Institutions and keeping in the public domain for the information of the people of the state to apply for admission in the duly approved institutions only and to nominate adequate number of eligible students of the state, as and where applicable, the release said.

According to the release the government proposes to go for empanelment of Higher Educational Institutions through checking of the credentials and proper verification from UGC/ NCTE/ AICTE/ DCI/ INC/ PCI, etc., and also conducting inspections of their Higher Educational Institutions by a team of officials from the Dept. to verify the adequate availability of hostel facilities in proper conditions, proper and decent boarding and fooding arrangements, safety issues for the students in terms of local atmosphere and outlook towards NE Students.

The team will be meeting the concerned authorities to sensitise them of the safety concerns in addition to concerns for quality education, impressing upon the authorities of the concerned Higher Educational Institutions that Government of Manipur is taking all necessary measures to ensure protection of related interests of the NE students as was done in 2014, the release further said.

The Directorate has already requested detailed information from the authorities of the Indian Universities/ Colleges/ Institutions so as to reach the Director of University and Higher Education, Government of Manipur, Imphal-795001, within April 10.

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Maharaja Bodh Chandra: The last ruler of Manipur – The Sangai Express

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