Manipur News

IMPHAL, Sep 9 NNN : Manipur Health minister Phungzathang Tonsing today said the Manipur AIDS Control Society (MACS) cannot fight HIV/AIDS in the state without collective support.
Tonsing was delivering a speech during a one day state level convention on mainstreaming HIV/AIDS for Autonomous District Councillors, Manipur at the Jubilee Hall, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here.
The minister said the state and Central Governments are seriously taking the HIV/AIDS issue in the state and taking various measures to curb it.
He appealed to the NGOs and concerned departments of the Government to properly utilize funds meant for controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS in the state.
Tonsing said MACs alone cannot fight the HIV/AIDS threat and control it, but need collective support of the public and political leaders as well.
At the convention organised by Hill Areas Committee (HAC) and sponsored by MACS, members of the ADCs resolved to undertake various steps and contribute their mites in controlling the disease.
They resolved to create an autonomous district councillors’ forum on HIV/AIDS in Manipur to facilitate, review and monitor the state response to the epidemic at least once every six months in a year.
To draft policies guaranteeing universal access to information, prevention, treatment, care and support for the alleviation of HIV/AIDS related impact and ensure its passage, they decided.
Also decided that they will support strengthening of the infrastructure of the testing centres and blood banks including care, support and treatment needs of TB, STI and other co-infection and the 2nd Line ARV drugs considering the drugs resistant cases of ART roll out in the state.
They also resolved that they will support allocation of funds for HIV/AIDS control activities at all levels and encourage contribution from ADCs, MLA Local Area Development Funds as a role model. The ADC members further decided that they will encourage the participation of general public, health staff and other social workers, especially at the village and ward levels by instituting state awards of excellence.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/collective-struggle-needed-to-fight-hiv-phungzathang/

MNS: Three day long Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign on the flagship programmes of the Central Government will be held at Town Baptist Church Hall, Tamenglong from 11th to 13th September 2013.
J. Panmei, MLA, will inaugurate the function. The main highlight of the campaign are creation of awareness among the public on the flagship programmes like National Rural Health Mission (NHRM), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), Rural Drinking Water Supply, Rural Housing (Indira Awaj Yojna), Rural Telephony, Total Sanitation Campaign, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Aadhar, Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme and Food Security Bill etc.
On the first day Aadhar, Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme, Rural Telephony, National Rural Health Mission; on the second day Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Health Mission (MGNRHM), Rural Housing (Indira Awaj Yojna), Total Sanitation Campaign, Rural Drinking Water Supply, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS); and on the last day Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid-day meal and Food Security Bill will be the topics discussed during the campaign. It will be explained by the experts from the concerned departments. There will be interaction with the public after the speech followed by a quiz.
A one-day free medical camp will also be held during the campaign at the venue as a part of the campaign. Around seventeen departments will put up exhibition stalls and display their office activities. Song and Drama Division (S&DD), Government of India, will perform theme based cultural programmes in the form of song, dance, drama and martial art.
Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP), Government of India Tamenglong and Senapati units will organize field programmes from 9th September up to the end of the PIC in different villages in Tamenglong District.
It will be jointly organized by Press Information Bureau (PIB), All India Radio (AIR), Door Darshan Kendra (DDK), Directorate of Field Publicity (DFP), Song & Drama Division (S&DD) in collaboration with District Administration, Tamenglong, different departments, Government of Manipur and Government of India of Tamenglong district under the sponsorship of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/bharat-nirman-campaign/

IMPHAL, Sep 9 NNN : The Manipur unit of Janata Dal-United (JDU) on Monday said it would launch sustained agitation if the National Highway-37 (Imphal-Jiribam) road was not repaired by second week of next month.
Addressing a simple function welcoming minister T Hangkhonpao, who has joined the party at the state JD-U office here, party president N Tombi explained the party’s concerns about the NH-37, the second most important lifeline of Manipur, and the Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing that has become a political issue in the state.
Tombi, who is also the convenor of Non-Congress All Political Party, said the state unit will launch sustained agitation if the Government fails to restore the Imphal-Jiribam road within second week of October.
He further strongly criticised the Centre asking the intent of the Government in ceding massive border land areas of Manipur to Myanmar after erstwhile Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru in the past had ceded Manipur’s Kabow Valley to the neighbouring country in exchange of Andaman and Nicobar Island.
The Centre and state Governments should come out with a white paper on the border issue and bring it to the public domain soon, the JD-U leader demanded.
He also announced that the Non-Congress All Party has decided to visit the border line for a spot assessment at the end of the current month.
He pledged the party will not compromise on the boundary issue and recounted that the Non-Congress All Political Party has already sent memorandums to the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Home Minister calling for a halt to the Indo-Myanmar fence construction and bring an unambiguous solution in this regard.
Despite the appeal the Centre has not given a positive response on the matter and Myanmar Government has recently set up an army camp at Pillar No 23 inside Holenphai village of Manipur’s Chandel district deploying its 40-50 army personnel there, Tombi said.
He warned that both the Central and state Governments should own up responsibility for any eventuality that could come out of the flawed boundary fencing.
A six-member team of the state Opposition had visited the Indo-Myanmar boundary to oversee it on September 7 following that it has demanded the state and Central Governments to take steps to immediately stop the fence construction and pillar erection on the international line.

Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/jdu-to-launch-stir-on-highway-issue/

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/