Manipur News

IMPHAL June 20: The Andro Kendra Development Organization is organizing the fourth edition of the Pineapple fair cum youth festival at Yairipok Thambalnu Market in Andro constituency starting from July 3 till July 7. 

A press conference was held this afternoon at the Imphal branch of AKDO in connection with the fair.

Talking to the media persons, Md Fakarudin, president, of the organisation informed that it is organizing such a festival to give an economic impetus to the local pineapple growers by giving opportunities to showcase and sell their product during the festival.

Keeping in view of the increasing number of participants in the previous years, Fakarudin said that the organisation is preparing to host the largest pineapple fair cum youth festival in the state. He appealed for support and encouragement from the concerned government authority and civil societies in the state for such function as a mark of support to the local farmers. Talking to the media persons he added that last year more than 3000 tons of pineapples were produced by the farmers and is hoping to increase the yield this year.

On the other side, Md. Fakarudin, during the press conference said that on June 23 AKDO will be organizing a felicitation cum prize distribution programme to all the first divisioners from Andro A/C in the examination conducted by BOSEM , COHSEM and CBSE for year 2011.The prize distribution ceremony will be held at the Top Chintha community hall under Andro constituency.

Fakarudin said that till this evening 285 students had already given their name to the association for the felicitation.

During the festival cash prizes will be given to farmers who bag the top three spots and also consolation prizes will be accorded to all participating farmers.

The festival was started in 2008 with only 62 participants, however, the following years saw a sudden surge in the numbers of participants with 98 participants in 2009 and 138 participants in 2010 respectively, which were vying for the top spot during the festival.

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IMPHAL, June 20: The villagers of Nungba has strongly urged the government to remove former secretary of Nungba Village Authority, Dimthaorei Gangmei from the government gazette alleging that the former secretary has misappropriated huge amount of funds under MNREGS.

A press meet was held in this connection at Nungba area jointly organised by the Nungba Village Authority, Nungba Bazaar Board and customary court Nungba Sub-division Head Quarter.

Speaking at the meet Bandai Kamei, secretary of the customary court alleged that a huge amount of fund was misappropriated by Dimathaorei Gangmei, for works taken up under MGNREGS, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Bandai Kamei also informed that the former secretary had withdrawn an amount of Rs. 15.80 lakhs for construction of five sub-standard culvert along the Burma Road (inter village circular road) without the knowledge of the concerned organization within the area. He said that the incident happened during the tension surrounding the appointment of the Nungba Village Authority chairman.

Bandai maintained that under the construction scheme 40 percent of the fund was meant for material components which also includes skilled labours but the Dimathaorei manipulated it by entrusting job card holders to do the construction work instead of the skilled labours.

He further alleged that even though the funds allotted include construction of tanks and for water pipes, the tanks were never constructed.

On May 16 Dimthaorei was expelled by a general body meeting of the various Nungba unit organisations for his failure to give his statement on the alleged misappropriation and lack of transparency. A social audit public hearing was also conducted before his expulsion, said Bandai.

Alung Kamei was elected by the people of Nungba as the secretary of the village authority however the government did not removed Dimthaorei from the gazette of the government, further revealed Bandai Kamei. He urged the government to remove the fraud immediately in the interest of people which has created a sense of confusion between the people and may result in unwanted disturbances in the area.

Ngankeilak Kamei, member of Bazaar board stated that usually the culvert constructed by Dimthaorei cost below Rs one lakh.

He said the work was implemented without maintaining any transparency and knowledge of the people or the various social bodies of Nungba. The people here including the social bodies have no idea how the culvert should be build per the work provision as no one has been informed of it, Ngankeilak maintained.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/vKkgr18XLPE/

In Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” a novel which traces the fortune of a Pashtoon family in the backdrop of war ravaged Afghanistan, the protagonist Amir Jan whose talent as a creative writer began showing early in his boyhood, in his first attempt at writing a story as a schoolboy, thinks of a situation in which a man who was blessed that his tears would become pearls, kills his beloved wife so that his sadness would make him weep endlessly and thus reap a harvest of pearls. In the end the man is indeed found sitting on a mound of pearls, obviously richer than he imagined he could ever be, with wealth he cannot hope to use in a lifetime, but profoundly sad and lonely than he ever was. The budding sense of irony, a vital ingredient of any good story teller was unmistakable, and the boy after the war at home made him a refugee in America is to become a successful writer. He would also then return to Afghanistan to atone for a deep sense of guilt at having betrayed his boyhood friend, someone who never ever failed to stand by him through thick and thin, and who eventually turned out to be a half brother, born of a servant’s wife his father had a sexual relations with.

The child imagination, undoubtedly informed by the turmoil at home and fanatical insistence with which the Taliban were self-inflicting endless and meaningless injuries on Afghanistan, in what they called would ultimate be the deliverance of Afghanistan through “the path of God”, was telling in many ways. It spoke of skewed values and aspirations, ones that have slowly but surely been divested from essential humanity by consistent abuse of individual dignity by the fanaticism all around, and the impossible living conditions in the country at the time. What is important for us is the question, is Manipur heading the same direction? From evidences all around us, it does seem to be so. The all pervading violence has gone far beyond sane limits. Even when there is no overt mayhem, the undercurrents still spell nothing but violence. Nobody is free to be himself or herself. The uneasy and uncanny sense of being watched and monitored has come to intimidate practically everybody into not just silence, but also to be zombies with no independent will. They act as they believe they are expected to only. They also are increasingly, though unconsciously, being forced into shrinking into their individual shells. Look at the current state of home architecture for instance. Walk into any middleclass home in Imphal and what would be noticed is a disturbing sense of insecurity the ordinary citizenry are suffering from. With the exception of a few, most live in homes that resemble a jail, with iron gratings on the portico and every other possible places intruders could barge in from; windows are fortified with sturdy iron bars etc. As a thumb rule, the richer the owner of the house, the more would be the unflattering resemblance his house has to a jail. Those who can afford it would for instance gift themselves with 12-feet or more high retaining walls all around their homesteads. Steel fortified gates which are always kept tightly shut would also greet visitors to these homes. Probably most would say this is the need of the hour for the times are bad. But what most far too often fail to question is, what would be the psychology of children growing up in such an oppressive atmosphere. Undoubtedly their minds and aspirations would also have been skewed as Amir Jan’s. Redemption from such a state of mind would also undoubtedly not be easy. Amir Jan found his, but the unasked question is how many other of his peers would not have.

When will Manipur ever become an open society “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”? A lot of commitment from all sane thinkers of our society is essential for this to come about, and it is time they all began thinking the situation is desperate. Otherwise, the spiral of insanity that the society is plunging into would touch a critical point of no return. The values of our society are already distorted monstrously and nothing absolutely nothing remains as sacrosanct space revered by all. It is not a surprise at all that recent news report in local dailies announced there has been a sharp rise in mental illness in the state in recent years. The situation must not be allowed to sink any further, lest whatever sanity which managed to survive too would be gone, and like in Amir Jan’s story, in the hunt for false notions of achievements and success, people begin to sell even their own souls as well as those of their near and dear ones.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/BKAABf0q7Ys/

IMPHAL, June 19: A joint official team of the Imphal East district administrator, officials of PWD and state settlement department will be conducting an official assessment and valuation of the standing properties at the village No. 25A Kabaw Leikai Nongpok, North AOC, in and around Imphal Hotel under Imphal east district tomorrow morning under tight security arrangements in regard to the land acquisition meant for the expansion of the Hotel Imphal into a 5 Star Hotel.

According to an official source the formal assessment and land valuation of the standing properties of the said area will start from 9 am tomorrow, in this regard an official notification was issued by the District Magistrate Imphal East yesterday, in view of the assessment and valuation of the standing properties tomorrow there will be detailing of tight security from the Imphal East district police led by the Addl. SP and comprising of civil police, women police, VDF and commando teams to prevent any form of disruption from any section of the society during the official conduct of assessment.

It may be mentioned that various sections of the society and residents of the Kabaw Leikai had initiated their agitation against the state government plan to set up a 5 Star hotel after acquiring the lands presently occupied by the pattadars of the area.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/HVfEzPMnenA/

In 2006 Literature Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk’s “The Black Book” there is a passage describing the relationship between Turkish Jews and the Turks, dominantly Muslims. Both are the same people, yet both are so different in their outlook to life, for reasons unfathomable. Describing the situation he says: “And wasn’t it amazing, just amazing, to watch these two peoples through the twentieth century swaying to the rhythm of the same secret music, never meeting, always at a tangent, forever linked, forever condemned, like a pair of hopeless twins.” The great thing about great quotes is, they seem so uncannily applicable to similar human situations everywhere. Pamuk’s quote hence may just as well have been about Manipur and the relations between different ethnic groups and different geographic regions of the state, in particular the much hyped hill-valley divide.

Yesterday this tangential show of interests was up for show. While in the valley, the June 18 uprising anniversary was being observed, an extraordinary event in which hundreds of thousand people took to the streets of Imphal in 2001 to protest what they believed was a move by the Central government to dismember Manipur’s historical territory, elsewhere the United Naga Council, UNC, dispatched a letter to the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, seeking an administrative arrangement separate from the Manipur government for the Nagas in what they consider as their traditional territorial domain. It may be recalled, the June 18, 2001 incident that followed the Government of India’s unilateral decision to extend the NSCN(IM) ceasefire into Manipur under the blanket clause “without territorial limits”, resulted in the death of 18 protestors and the burning down of several important government infrastructures, including the Manipur State Assembly building. It is pertinent to note here that one of the main demands of the NSCN(IM) is the formation of a Greater Nagaland by merging territories of Manipur and other neighbouring states which it considers as part of a traditional Naga homeland with the state of Nagaland. In 2010 May 6 again there was another confrontation when the Manipur government did not allow the NSCN(IM) chairman, Th. Muivah to enter Manipur to visit his village Somdal in Ukhrul, leading to agitations at Mao gate in which two protestors ended up killed. At the time, the Manipur government was pushing ahead with the election to the autonomous district councils, ADCs, in the hill districts, which for reasons of their own, the UNC and some other Naga organisations objected, and the government was apprehensive Muivah’s visit was timed to coincide with the agitation, among others. It may also be recalled that while sections of the Nagas objected to the ADC elections, other hill communities welcomed it.

What can anybody make of this friction, other than what Pamuk described as “always at a tangent, forever linked, forever condemned, like a pair of hopeless twins”? If the problem seems intractable and irreconcilable, think again. It just requires for all caught in this senseless trap to distance themselves a little from the immediate and from a detached vantage, take a more dispassionate look at these same issues. From such a vantage, these frictions would suddenly begin to appear extremely limited, and this is probably also why so many observers from outside this conflict theatre are unable to comprehend how these conflicts manage to sustain for so long, for the reasons behind them appear to them as easily reconcilable. Those of us immersed in these frictions know very well how very far the truth this observation is. However, the question worth considering is whether it is these observations which are limited in vision, or else it is the inability of parties in these frictions who are incapable of rising above the immediate and mundane, to see and think outside the box. While we have always been of the opinion that there has to be a balance between the objective and subjective visions for a more accurate assessment of any conflict situation, it must also be acknowledged this also implies that either of these visions can come to overbear on the other thus skewing up these assessments. At this moment, it does seem there is an excessive and indeed unhealthy tilt towards a myopic subjectivism dominating the professed logics behind these conflicts.

Read more / Original news source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Kanglaonline/~3/eB68O0pAI4E/