Tripura asks for repatriation of tribals

AGARTALA/AIZAWL, Feb 3 (IANS): The Tripura government has again asked the central government to take steps to send back to Mizoram Reang tribal refugees, who have been in the state for 14 years. The Mizoram government, on its part, cites non-availability of funds from New Delhi.

The issue was brought up again when Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar visited New Delhi for the conference on internal security Tuesday and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

"He requested the prime minister and home minister to ask the Mizoram government to take back the refugees," a senior Tripura government official told reporters in Agartala Thursday.

"The presence of over 34,000 tribal refugees for more than 14 years has been a matter of concern. The long presence of these Reang tribals creates serious financial, social and law and order related problems," the official said, quoting the chief minister.

The Reang tribals, locally called Bru, have been living in six camps in north Tripura's Kanchanpur sub-division since 1997. They fled western Mizoram after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos following the killing of a Mizo forest official.

The Mizoram government says it has its own problems.

"The process of repatriation of the refugees could not be started by the Mizoram government due to non-availability of funds from the centre," a Mizoram home department official told IANS on condition of anonymity.

The union home ministry had sanctioned funds for the repatriation and resettlement of the refugees in their villages in Mamit district of western Mizoram, but the central grant was yet to be released to the state government, he said.

"The state and district officials have completed the identification process in the relief camps in Tripura but we could not proceed with the repatriation process due to non-availability of funds for the purpose," the official stated.

He added that the Mizoram government would push back the refugees to Tripura if they failed to prove they were bona fide residents of Mizoram.

The home ministry last month broadened the economic package for homebound refugees following mediation by the New Delhi-based rights group Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR).

ACHR director Suhas Chakma told IANS on phone from New Delhi: "Apart from Rs.80,000 cash assistance to each refugee family and free rations for one year, the home ministry will support self-employment schemes to be initiated by the Reang tribals."

A special development project for the western region of Mizoram where the Reang refugees are to be resettled is also under consideration of the Mizoram government and the development of north eastern region (DoNER) ministry, Chakma said.

Naga youths visit Dhubri district

Correspondent
DHUBRI, Feb 3 – Under the Youth Club Exchange Programme (YCEP), a new Government of India programme being implemented by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) under the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, a 10-member team of youths from Zonheboto district of Nagaland visited Dhubri district for 10 days as guests of a host youth club selected by the NYK, Dhubri, recently.

The visiting team led by Unice H Achand comprised seven boys and three girls. The NYK, Dhubri, entrusted ASHROM (A Society for Human Resource Overall Management), a local youth club of Nayahat under Bilasipara subdivision, with hosting the visiting youths from Nagaland. The guests camped at Suryakhata in Bilasipara town under the supervision of Sankar Sarkar, YC, NYK, Dhubri.

The Youth Club Exchange Programme is aimed at helping the youths to appreciate the living conditions of people living in other States, their day-to-day life, customs and traditions and emulate whatever progressive they find in them. Besides mutual understanding through interactions, the tour programme also includes sightseeing which may cover religious places, historical places, tourist spots, etc.

According to sources at the Nehru Yuva Kendra, Dhubri, the Naga youths were taken to the Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary, Dudhnath Temple, Brahmaputra Char, Florican Garden, Mahamaya Temple, Snanghat Temple, Panbari Mosque and various other places in Dhubri town. The Naga youths were also introduced to top officers of the Dhubri district administration before they were given a warm welcome at the NYK office.

‘Films should be catalyst of social change’

Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 3 – Despite changes sweeping across the State and transforming the age old ethos and the very concept of existence, certain genres of art and entertainment here have failed to mirror the transitions in the society, thus losing out in the way and compelled to struggle for survival.

Noted actors Nipon Goswami, Biju Phukan and Baharul Islam on Thursday agreed that one of the major reasons for the present predicament of the Assamese film industry was its inability to act as a catalyst of the changing society that wanted to see it captured in its true colour through sound, light and camera.

Participating in an open interactive session of the 3rd CineASA Guwahati International Film Festival organized by the Cine Art Society, Asom, these celebrated actors pointed put that in keeping with the changing times, the film industry across the country was experimenting on all fronts of film making. “But regrettably, the Assamese film industry is yet to get tuned to these changes and reflect the aspiration of the society in reel,” said veteran actor Nipon Goswami, while speaking at length on film and stage acting.

Sharing his experiences with the young participants, Goswami said that like every vocation under the sun, acting too was a life long process of learning.

This actor who credits his family support for his entry into the profession of acting added that the basic skill requirements for acting in film, on stage and radio were the same. “To be a good actor, one must have imagination, good observation power and a yearning to learn,” he said.

On the other hand, actor Biju Phukan touched on the constraints in the Assamese film industry that is looking for a panacea. Though the effort to revive the golden days of the industry when films like Dr Bezboruah, Buwari, Kokadeuta Nati Aru Haati etc could pull up a full crowd is on, it is still to bear fruit. Phukan stressed the need for the staggering industry to go along with the changes so that a new breath of life could be infused into it. “There is no dearth of talent in Assam. We need a change,” he asserted.

Baharul Islam dwelt considerably on the uncertainty of the times, the angst of the young generation, the loss of faith and the unpredictability of relationships and called for portrayal of the actual picture of society in reel and on the stage. “We need to experiment on the thematic front as the society is changing. The actors have to be professional and they need to build up their capacity of self assessment,” he said.

It needs to be mentioned here that the organizers had arranged for three interactive sessions on the occasion of the film festival that began on January 30 and will continue till February 5. One of the venues of the festival Rabindra Bhawan has been attracting cinema lovers of all age group and profession. The films that have been screened here till date could delight the cine lovers. Crimson Gold, The Japanese Wife, Offside etc, are just a few names that could touch the emotions of the audience and leave them with a feeling of satisfaction.

Corruption issue rocks Assembly

Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 3 – The issue of corruption continued to rock the Assam Legislative Assembly for the third day today with the Opposition members virtually stalling the proceedings of the House with noisy protests leading to several adjournments. The Opposition members have been demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should be entrusted with the responsibility of probing into all the financial irregularities in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council and the Ministers allegedly involved in the irregularities should be removed to facilitate impartial probe.

As soon as the House assembled, the Opposition members jumped to their feet and started their noisy protests. The Opposition members asserted that they would not allow the House to function till their demands are fulfilled. Unable to pacify the Opposition members, the Speaker, Tanka Bahadur Rai adjourned the House for the entire duration of the Question Hour. It may be mentioned here that for the second day, no question was discussed in the House.

As soon as the House re-assembled at 10 am, the Opposition members started their protests, but the Speaker tried to continue with the proceedings of the House and allowed Mohibul Haque to move two zero hour motions and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dr Nazrul Islam and Water Resources Minister Prithibi Majhi gave their replies. But nothing could be heard in the din amidst slogan shouting and thumping of the desks by the Opposition members.

The Speaker also continued with the debate on the motion of thanks on the Governor’s address amidst noisy protests by the Opposition members. As the Opposition members did not take part in the debate, Wazed Ali Choudhury, Rana Goswami and Bhupen Bora of the Congress and Karendra Basumaraty of the BPF participated in the debate but their speeches were not heard by anyone amidst slogan shouting by the Opposition. In between Independent legislator Jiten Gogoi went to the well of the House twice and was engaged in a war of words with the Opposition members, but on both occasions, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bharat Chandra Narah escorted him back to his seat.

Revenue Minister Dr Bhumidhar Barman faced an embarrassing moment as he came into the House amidst noisy protests by the Opposition and sat down on the chair of the Chief Minister by mistake, which prompted the Opposition members to ask whether there was a change of the Chief Minister in the State.

Unable to control the situation, the Speaker adjourned the House for the second time at 10.45 am. The Speaker had to adjourn the House once again at 12.16 pm till 1 pm following the pandemonium during the debate on the Governor’s address.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi rose to read out his prepared speech in reply to the debate at 1.05 pm and he could read only the first and last paragraphs of his four page long speech.

The Chief Minister criticized the Opposition for its “trampling the democratic values” with their refusal to take part in the proceedings of the session in a constructive manner. The Opposition has also missed the chance to reach out to the people with a democratic approach, he said.

His Government is not indulging in corruption, or else, it would have been unable to pay regularly its employees and to initiate developmental works, he claimed. The improvement its finance has enabled the State today to initiate developmental schemes in areas of education, road connectivity, rural development, health , social welfare, tourism among others, said the Chief Minister.

Census 2011 will cover illegal migrants too

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 – The Census 2011 will cover all people living in India, including illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, reports PTI.

Registrar-General and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli today said the exercise will cover anyone living in India and enumerators would not ask their nationality.

“Everybody will be counted even if he has illegally entered (in India),” he told reporters at a function organised for unveiling of the logo of census enumerators by Home Minister P Chidambaram. Chandramouli was asked whether illegal immigrants from Bangladesh will be counted.

He made it clear that the information collected about individuals will be kept absolutely confidential. In fact, this information is not accessible even to courts of law.

Chandramouli said except the foreign embassies and consulates, all houses, religious and public places will be counted during the massive exercise.

The vital part of Census 2011 — the population enumeration — will be conducted across the country simultaneously between February 9 and 28.

Kalam stress on value based education

GUWAHATI, Feb 2 – “Learning leads to creativity, creativity to thinking, thinking provides knowledge, and knowledge makes you great,” remarked former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam while addressing students, teachers and research scholars in Gauhati University today.

Delivering the 7th V Venkat Rao Memorial Lecture to a packed audience, the eminent scientist and educator spoke on a range of issues, targeted especially at students and young researchers.

Paying tributes to Prof VV Rao, Dr Kalam appreciated him as a teacher extraordinary, who contributed both to welfare of students and to institutions of higher learning. He wondered how many such teachers would be there in the country at present. “Young people should be inspired by the life and work of Prof Rao… so unique and noteworthy,” he mentioned.

His speech made a strong appeal in making education more value based, favouring a process that laid emphasis on research and teaching. He said that creativity in learning and an interdisciplinary approach would act as keys to open new opportunities.

In his inimitable style he involved young students in his address by asking them to repeat inspirational words. In one instance, he quoted the 13th century poet Rumi: “…You were born with goodness and trust, You were born with ideals and dreams,

You were born with greatness, You were born with wings…” Not surprisingly students joined him with great enthusiasm.

Dr Kalam emphasised the importance of value based education, asserting that parents, teachers and a harmonious environment played critical roles in shaping a student. Among teachers, he referred to primary school teachers as the most important and added that they should be well paid.

Education, in his view, should bring in synergies among different faculties and should be a breeding ground for creativity. Such an environment should have space for values and spirituality.

The well- travelled scientist briefly alluded to his experiences at retail major Wal-Mart and mentioned its founder Samuel Moore Walton, saying that Walton was able to create a new business model by being intrepid and transparent. He wanted young Indians to “work with integrity and also succeed with integrity”.

In an interactive session with young students, the former first citizen revealed a positive outlook and urged them to act with courage and conviction. The interaction included questions and answers that ranged from development to terrorism, along with issues related to technology and education.

Earlier in his address, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi offered his tributes to Prof VV Rao and said that he was not just a brilliant academic but a good human being. He further appreciated Prof Rao’s contribution as a philanthropist and his role as a mentor to many students.

Today’s function also witnessed the release of a book on Prof VV Rao written by G Saharia, which was formally released by the Chief Minister and the former President. Gauhati University Vice Chancellor, Prof OK Medhi delivered the welcome address.

CPI bid to forge poll alliance

Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 2 – The Communist Party of India (CPI), Assam State Council on Wednesday stated that the change which the people of Assam are wishing for can be ushered in only by the combined effort of all left, democratic and secular political parties.

Addressing media persons here, Promode Gogoi, member, national executive of CPI said that under the prevailing conditions, only an alliance of like minded parties can fight the battle against corruption and misuse of power.

“But the trend amongst political parties in Assam is that of contesting the forthcoming Assembly elections single handedly,” said Gogoi, adding that the CPI was open for forging an alliance with like minded parties.

It needs to be mentioned here that the party has already held several round of discussions with the AGP, AIUDF, NCP, etc on this issue of alliance but hasn’t got positive response as yet.

Gogoi said that the answer from the AGP camp was that it would not join hands with a national party. The BJP has already hinted on several occasions that it was ready to fight the elections all alone. “All the major political parties are publishing their candidate list. We too have come up with a candidate list and it will be finalized by the end of this month,” informed Gogoi mentioning that as time was short, the party would finalize the election relation matters by the end of February.

The CPI has prepared a list of candidates from 13 districts comprising 33 constituencies. “We are still hopeful of an alliance, and our list will be finalized on the response we get from other parties,” said Gogoi.

The list of CPI candidates will be decided by its State executive committee.

On the other hand, Gogoi said that popular support for the CPI was still strong and the young generation had respect for the ideology of the party.

The party has called upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do the needful for inclusion of Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Moran, Mottock, Chutia and Tea community in the list of ST (P) in Assam before the Assembly elections.

AT

Army pays homage to Patharughat martyrs

Correspondent
MANGALDAI, Feb 2 – ‘In the history of the freedom struggle of India, the massacre of Patharughat is no less important than that of the Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab. In fact it happened well before the freedom movement and thus the poor farmers of Patharughat paved the way for the Indian freedom movement. But the people of the nation have very little knowledge about it. Fortunately things have now changed and people have started exploring this historical development,” said Maj Gen Nav Kiran Santosh Ghei, GOC, Red Horn Division of the Army while paying homage to the 140 peasant martyrs at Patharughat in Darrang amid full military honours on January 29.

Speaking at the function organised by the 65 Field Regiment under Red Horn as the chief guest, Maj Gen Ghei further said that Patharughat is a symbol of freedom, sacrifice and unity and so we must take a promise that we would not let the rare sacrifices of the brave peasants for the noble cause of our freedom be forgotten.We should maintain this tradition of remembering these martyrs with more and more enthusiasm and involvement.

Earlier Maj Gen Ghei offered floral wreath on the martyrs’ memorial tomb constructed by Indian Army a decade ago. Later talking to mediapersons, he informed of their future plan to construct a children’s park at Patharughat in memory of the peasant martyrs under Operation Sadbhavana.

While addressing the august gathering, Kumud Chandra Kalita, Deputy Commissioner, Darrang appealed to the GOC, Red Horn Division of the Army to extend cooperation to the proposed national-level seminar on Patharughat Peasants’ Uprising in New Delhi which is to be organised under the initiative of the Darrang district administration.

The ceremony was also attended by the Brigadier of 21 Mountain Artillery Brigade, VK Tiwary, Thaneswar Malakar, Deputy Commissioner, Udalguri, Superintendent of Police, Udalguri, Debojit Deori, Dr Nagendra Nath Sarma, president, Darrang Zila Sahitya Sabha and higher Army officials of Darrang and Udalguri along with hundreds of local people. Various patriotic cultural programmes were also performed to the mark the occasion. An all religious prayer meeting was also held at the beginning of the function.

Raja, 2 officials arrested by CBI

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 – A Raja, who as Telecom Minister had allegedly manipulated procedures in allocation of 2G Spectrum that has dented UPA government’s image, was today arrested along with two officials by CBI, a week before it has to file its final investigation report in the Supreme Court, reports PTI.

Retired bureaucrat, Siddartha Behura, who was Telecom Secretary in 2008 when the controversial decision to give licenses was taken, and Raja’s Personal Secretary R K Chandolia were also arrested with the former Minister, all of whom were called to the CBI headquarters this morning.

“Based on the facts disclosed so far during the investigations regarding their role in allocation of Letter of Intent and resultant Unified Access Services Licenses and Spectrum to certain companies ahead of others, the CBI has today arrested the then Telecom Minister, the then Telecom Secretary, the then Private Secretary to the Minister,” a brief statement issued by the CBI said.

It recalled that it had earlier registered a case under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against unknown officials of DoT, persons and companies on the allegation of conspiracy and abuse of official position in order to give pecuniary advantage or favour to the applicant companies in the processing and allocation of letters of intent for UAS Licences and resultant spectrum allocation to launch telecom services.

Behura belonged to the IAS while Chandolia is still serving in the Indian Economic Service.

The arrest of 47-year-old Raja, the dalit face of DMK, a crucial ally of the Congress at the Centre, comes almost two months after his resignation as minister in the wake of a Parliamentary storm over his continuance and Supreme court breathing down the government’s neck on investigations in the scam.

The 2G scam paralysed the entire winter session of Parliament on opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe to go into it. Unless a way is found on the issue, the forthcoming Budget session could again be in trouble.

CBI sources said that the decision to arrest Raja was taken after one of those questioned by it had reportedly given details of some financial transactions of the former minister between 2007, when the process for giving the new licences began, and January, 2008 when the actual licences were given.

They said the person who had ‘spilled the beans’ could be made an approver during the trial.

Raja, a lawyer and five-time MP, was forced to resign in November last after embarrassing details of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report of a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer in the allocation of Spectrum in 2007-08 became public.

The arrest also comes two days after DMK Chief M Karunanidhi held discussions with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to firm up the alliance between the two parties for the coming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

Both the parties have ruled out Raja’s arrest having any impact on the political tie up between the two parties. “What has happened is law taking its course and it has nothing to do with the political alliance,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters at the daily AICC briefing.

However, the opposition parties are unimpressed with the CBI action describing it as “too little, too late” facing the Supreme Court deadline and made it clear that they would not not resile from their demand for constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into scam.

DMK’s arch rival AIADMK went a step further and demanded the arrest of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and family members of Karunanidhi who had conversations with Radia. Party chief Jayalalithaa said the arrest was well-timed for the elections.