Day: April 23, 2015

JNIMS nurses warn of non-cooperation

IMPHAL, April 22: The Training Nurses Association of India (TNAI) Jawahar Lal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Unit has threatened to launch a non-cooperation movement if the government fails to

IMPHAL, April 22: The Training Nurses Association of India (TNAI) Jawahar Lal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Unit has threatened to launch a non-cooperation movement if the government fails to fulfill their demands within five days.

A press conference was convened today with regards to the issue at the JNIMS complex, wherein S Rama, TNAI general secretary divulged that the unit had submitted a memorandum regarding their demands to the Chief Minister of Manipur on April 20.

As a mark of their protest, the nurses at JNIMS have started wearing black badge the same day of the submission of the charter of demands, she said.

Highlighting their plight, the nurses pointed out that the staff like faculty and residents of JNIMS were appointed after having fulfilled the minimum requirement prescribed by the Medical Council of India as with their RIMS counterparts.

Relatively, the faculty and residents of JNIMS are allowed to enjoy the scale of pay and allowances at par with their counterparts at RIMS considering their qualification, experience and nature of duties whereas extensive of or application of the same principal has been denied to the nursing of JNIMS which is nothing but a discriminatory treatment meted out towards the nurses.

It said that full pension scheme according to the entry point service as was given in the case of nursing employees of RIMS has been denied to the Nursing personnel of JNIMS.

The demands of the nurses include immediate framing of service rules for all the posts in various grades of nursing personnel; no direct recruitment against any nursing posts in all the grades except at the entry point of staff nurse after finalization of seniority list, due notification of recruitment rules of all the nursing posts in different grades.

The TNAI further demanded the regularization of the services of the 48 staff nurses who were appointed after undergoing the due process of appointment and representation of nurses before the executives committee of JNIMS society.

She continued that after the erstwhile JN Hospital has been recognised as JNIMS it created confusion for nurses either they are under Health Service, government of Manipur or JNIMS, central government.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/jnims-nurses-warn-of-noncooperation/

Health officials begin household survey

IMPHAL, April 22: As announced earlier, officials of Health Services, Manipur have started conducting survey on Bird Flu in households in Imphal West and East, situated within 3 km of

IMPHAL, April 22: As announced earlier, officials of Health Services, Manipur have started conducting survey on Bird Flu in households in Imphal West and East, situated within 3 km of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Lamphelpat from today following the confirmation of the highly contagious Bird Flu outbreak on April 18.

According to reports received by IFP, the survey is being conducted by health experts of 13 sectors under Health Services, Manipur with 10 members in each of the sectors.

The main objective of the survey which will be conducted for seven days is to check whether any person had been infected with the Avian Influenza virus which can be transmitted from birds to humans.

Areas in Imphal West where the survey conducted today are Thangal Bazar, Chingmeirong, Uripok, ICAR complex, Langol Tarung and Iroishemba while Mantripukhri and Khuman Lampak are the areas in Imphal East where the survey covered.

During the extensive survey, no one was found with symptoms of the Bird Flu.

However, Tami Flu capsules were distributed to 15 staff who work at the Poultry Unit of ICAR which is the epicentre of the Bird Flu outbreak.

Health officials of the 13 sectors will continue its survey tomorrow at the remaining households within 3 km of the epicentre, the reports said.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/health-officials-begin-household-survey/

Crossing AFSPA`s Boundaries

The letter by well known senior broadcast journalist, Bano Haralu, a resident of Dimapur, to the chief secretary of Nagaland, complaining of unwarranted harassment of her brother by the 29

The letter by well known senior broadcast journalist, Bano Haralu, a resident of Dimapur, to the chief secretary of Nagaland, complaining of unwarranted harassment of her brother by the 29 Assam Rifles, is unbecoming to say the least. According to the letter, her brother`™s house in the neighbourhood of her parental home she shares with her mother, was raided by a detachment of the Assam Rifles in the unearthly hour of 3am on April 16. Ostensibly the security men were looking for weapons which they believed were hidden in the house. Their brazen raid yielded nothing incriminating but the raiders went ahead to confiscate a licensed .22 rifles, on the plea the license had expired. They also took custody of her brother and drove him away in their vehicle. Later of course, upon the intervention of Bano, who alerted higher authorities of the Assam Rifles, her brother was released without any charges slapped on him, as if this was a favour done to the complainant considering her status in the society. Since the ceasefire with the NSCN(IM) still holds, it is only to be presumed that the security men were looking to flush out remnants of the SS Khaplang led NSCN(K) which has less than a month ago ended its truce with the Government of India.

We take up this issue here though it happened in Dimapur for it brings up certain larger questions pertaining to the application of the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA. There is no doubt about it that it is expected of the security forces to be on the hunt for insurgents not on truce with the government. Since this is empowered by the controversial AFSPA, though we do have reservation about the AFSPA, we will not fault the security men for doing what they are mandated by this draconian law. But the serious question that arises is that the security men jumped even the briefs of the AFSPA therefore were in effect breaking the law. As it turned out, the only thing they presumed was incriminating was the .22 calibre rifle with an expired license. This is an offence no doubt, but a different kind of offence, certainly not the kind that can remotely be associated with waging war against the nation. This is a routine kind of offence which the district magistrate`™s office is supposed to handle and the penalty for it is at the most a nominal fine. As it, the weapon in question is a .22 rifle, and not in the prohibited bore category for which special licenses are mandatory, therefore very much within the right of any civilian who can afford the cost, to own. The AFSPA does not anywhere in its clauses say the security forces are empowered by it to assume the responsibility of a gun licensing authority, nor are they given the charge to haul up people for such minor and routine infringements of law that result most probably out of oversights.

The problem here therefore is not so much the text of the AFSPA or its draconian nature, but of the climate of impunity the Act intoxicates security personnel operating under it. They presume they are free to assume any governance responsibility they wish. If it is screening gun license expiry in Dimapur, it is customs screening and duty levying of tradable goods on the Moreh-Imphal road. Next, who knows the security men might begin to unilaterally decide they can haul up and fine tax overdue vehicles on the roads, penalise electricity bill default cases, tax or fine gambling dens, raid illegal bars and brothels. Raids such as the one in Dimapur actually reinforce the popular belief that under the AFSPA anything the security personnel do can pass off as legitimate. The AFSPA has no place in a democracy, but even its prolonged promulgation can be excused by the often cited logic of meeting an extraordinary circumstance by extraordinary measures, it is still not in any way a blank cheque given to the security establishment. Draconian and anachronistic as it may be, it is still a law with definitely specified parameters, crossing with amounts to infringement of the law. If the Dimapur raid was a genuine case of mistaken intelligence, the least the raiders could have done is to offer an apology, instead of trying to justify the mistake by making an issue of what is a little more than a toy gun.

Leader Writer: Pradip Phanjoubam

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/crossing-afspas-boundaries/

Rally against Mapithel Dam taken out

IMPHAL, April 22: The Human Rights Initiative, Manipur in collaboration with the JAC for the Mapithel Dam Downstream Affected People, Imphal East conducted a public meeting cum mass rally on

IMPHAL, April 22: The Human Rights Initiative, Manipur in collaboration with the JAC for the Mapithel Dam Downstream Affected People, Imphal East conducted a public meeting cum mass rally on the `UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people and Mapithel Dam`™ at Moirang Purel, Imphal East today.

Around 500 villagers of Itham Moirang Purel, Nungram and Tumukhong participated in the public meeting and mass rally voicing concerns against the construction of Dam which they claimed will submerged the land of people living upstream while those living downstream will face water scarcity.

Addressing the public gathering, HRI executive director W Joykumar expressed that the dam has instilled fear among the immediate downstream residents along the Thoubal River. The people are afraid at the same time that the dam may break raising concern over the quality of main dam`™s construction, he said.

During the meeting, phamplets were also distributed to the participants highlighting that the Irrigation and Flood Control department had started blocking the Thoubal River for filling up of the mapithel Dam since January 10. It said the reserved water of the dam has already submerged an extensive portion of agricultural land, grazing ground, forest areas of Louphong and Chadong village.

The public meeting was also attended by Mapithel Dam Affected Village Organisation (Upstream) chairman RS Sankhan, JAC members Rabi and L Okendro, village elders Mani and W Lukhoi and Moirangpurel Meira Paibi member T Kaboklei.

Meanwhile, during a brief meeting with media persons on the sideline of the public gathering, one of the site engineer identified as assistant engineer L Tamocharoi said the construction of the dam was sanctioned in the year 1989, however, construction started only in 2000.

He said there is also an arbitrary case ongoing in the court against a previously involved contractor for incompetence and fund misappropriation. The construction was later handed over to Delhi based progressive Construction Limited, he said.

He said distribution of compensation for the affected upstream areas had already been completed through the Ministy of Tribal Affairs and had been handed over to through the concerned DC, however, there has been no compensation for people living downstream as of yet.

Sharing some facts about the dam, he said that Mapithel Dam will have a gross storage capacity of 176.38 Million Cubic Meters. He said that the dam is Homogeneous Earth Filled and has a length of 1074 meters and is 66 meter high.

The estimated cost of the dam is stated to be Rs 1387.85 crores. The dam is set to commence from early 2016 and will have three 2.5 Mega Watt turbines which will generate 7.5 MW of electricity, he said.

He continued that the dam is only for the state of Manipur and it will benefit 21862 Hectares of irrigational land which will boost 153% in the annual agricultural yield.

He further said that the dam will be able to supply enough water for irrigation and will be able to control flood erupting from Thoubal River.

He also said that Mapithel Dam will have the capacity to supply 5 million gallons of potable water for the twin districts of Imphal.

The engineer also expressed that the construction has faced stiff opposition and there has also been cases of staff of the company being attacked, tools worth crores of rupees damaged by UG groups for which a dedicated Thoubal Dam Police Station has also been opened.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2015/04/rally-against-mapithel-dam-taken-out/