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The Morung Express
Dimapur VOL. VIII ISSUE 212
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Suicide Cowell has attack no plans near Indian to marry consulate in Lauren Afghanistan [ PAGE 08]
reflections
By Sandemo Ngullie
Dimapur | August 3
‘Talk to the people, not the politicians’ DiMAPuR, August 3 (NNN): Every time a Naga organisation or leader calls on Central leaders, there is a stereotypical response the Government of India exhibits: “Naga solution will be settled at the earliest.” This “earliest settlement of Naga issue” has been going on for the last 15 years, i.e., since 1997 when the ceasefire was signed. The latest in a string of such assurance was given two days back on Thursday when Nagaland Congress leaders met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. “It has become a bureaucratic response of the Government of India. It cannot do anything beyond that,” rued Naga intellectual and peace activist Niketu Iralu while talking to Newmai News Network this evening. To kill this monotony, noted Iralu, the Nagas should go to the People of India instead of the Government of India and arm them with facts about the Nagas and their history. Iralu said politicians will come only for five years, will be too pre-occupied with their politics and will have no time for the Nagas. “So the Nagas should go to the thinking Indians and inform them of the facts about the Nagas and their history. The Indians are the most useful audience for the Nagas. No doubt, ultimately it is the Government of India who will execute the final work but once the Indians are armed with good knowledge of the Nagas, things will be easier,” expressed Iralu. “Nagas are not secessionists. We are not anti-India. We are not hostile to India. Let the Indians know these facts,” Iralu said.
Expect constructive monsoon session: PM
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New Delhi, August 3 (iANs): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he expected a “constructive and productive” monsoon session and sought support from all parties. The monsoon session is scheduled to begin August 5, and will continue until August 30. “We expect a constructive and productive session of parliament,” Manmohan said. “A lot of time was wasted in the previous two-three sessions, and a lot of legislative agenda is pending before parliament. I sincerely hope all sections of the house will cooperate in making this a very productive, constructive session,” the PM said. The list of pending bills with government exceeds 100.
Sunday, August 4, 2013 12 pages Rs. 4 –Winston Churchill
Stress on role of media India for peaceful development complete Zim [ PAGE 02] whitewash Over 2,200 World War II documents now online
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nagaland’s Dilemma with Prohibition Morung Express News
Church? Can I watch God Tv instead?
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If you’re going through hell, keep going
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The Nagaland state Excise Department’s record with regard to the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, 1989, is impeccable. In the month leading up to the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly election in February 2013, the Excise Department operating through its Commissioner, Maongwati Aier, and his team of 264 foot soldiers showed 364 arrests. 22,000 liters of alcohol was seized and destroyed. Three candidates were cornered. Since 1989, when the NLTP Act was promulgated, the Excise Department has raised decent revenue. In 2012-13, it showed a revenue receipt of Rs. 400 lakh, which had initially fallen to Rs. 110.09 lakh in 198990 (from Rs. 550.90 lakh in 1988-89). Concurrently, the Department increased the “seizure of liquor and fine amount realized.” If there were 88 such seizures in 1989-90, realizing a fine of Rs. 60,100, in 2012-13, the Department made 1627 such seizures, checking in a fine amount of Rs. 35 lakh. More than 1,20,000 bottles of liquor were seized and destroyed in 2012-13 alone. The NLTP Act, and Prohibition in general, is a success if these figures are studied in isolation. Alcoholism & Prohibition Yet evidence suggests
that alcoholism has not subsided in Nagaland, let alone wiped it out, and health concerns related to alcohol have become pronounced. While a prohibition is in effect, spurious liquor in the market increases as prices of genuine brands remain high. For a trader, the best way to maximize profit under such restriction is to give the buyer, especially a poor one, just about anything as s/he will buy it in the face of perceived scarcity. And that is what has happened. The market is flooded with questionable liquor. Bottles of MC Rum or MC Whiskey are easily adulterated with denatured (poisonous) spirits and distributed on a large scale, through shops selling cold drinks and mineral water, to maximize profit. Police have uncovered a number of “adulteration units” in Dimapur—as simple as a flat’s drawing room—but many more such organized units function across the border, in Assam, managed by syndicates. Since local bootleggers (and their business/ political masters) profit directly from this, having to pay no excise duty in Nagaland due to the prohibition, and the state itself gains little revenue, no one bothers with public health. 1,021 patients with serious alcoholic liver diseases have been admitted to Zion Hospital in the last 6 years. From April 2012 to July 2013, the Christian
to hoard more, drink more and drink whatever. This is only part true, as Excise Commissioner Maongwati Aier postulates, because liquor is freely available in Nagaland. Central military and para military forces are allowed to bring alcohol into Nagaland, and ‘defense’ bottles are easily leaked to the open market. Any household can sell liquor in the absence
of regulation. All of Aier’s efforts, in a way, have been put to waste as the law allows kingpins to continue trading while small bootleggers are caught in the net at intervals, and mostly released on a fine. The result? If there were 40 liquor stores in Dimapur in the 1980s, there are about 100 unauthorized shops today. In-sync with this, ac-
cidents have abnormally risen. “On an average there are five road accidents in Dimapur per day,” informs a senior police official. Data from the Dimapur City Traffic Control Station suggests that from 2007 to 2013, number of recorded road accidents have increased consistently. If there were 481 recorded road accidents in 2007, there were 625 such accidents in 2012. “Nearly 60 per cent of these are a result of drunk-driving,” admits the police official. The police have been unable to reduce drunkdriving incidents due to a lack of simple gadgets like breath analyzers. But accidents are not the only plague. “We notice more young people with liver damage these days. Over recent years, alcohol-related diseases have spread through a cross-section of society—children of reverends, pastors, underground and overground leaders are rampantly found to be suffering from alcohol-related problems,” informs an authority from Zion Hospital, Dimapur. Another health practitioner from Dimapur who did medical checks for 200 IRB Mahila personnel sometime last week claims that 20% of them consume alcohol after a tedious day, every day. Police men from rural areas visit him regularly with health problems from consumption of alcohol. Men and women in rural areas are known to
Parliamentary Secretary for Information Technology & Communication, Technical Education, Science & Technology and Taxes, Tovihoto Ayemi, today stated that Information & Communications Technology (ICT) is changing the economy, society and culture and has fundamental impact and influence on the human civilization. “This has led to the advent of e-governance, which is the use of ICT in the public sector with an aspiration to improve the quality of services to citizens,” Ayemi said while ad-
dressing the valedictory function of a three-daylong workshop on “Change management and capacity building of e-governance” here at The Heritage. The workshop, he said, discussed and deliberated all aspects of addressing issues and challenges to aid the acceleration of e-governance adoption in the state. He told the participants, numbering 51 from 28 departments, that the state government has undertaken the building of “core ICT infrastructure” in Nagaland. Under the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP), core IT infrastructures such as the State Data Centre (SDC) – to host state lev-
el e-governance application—and the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) – to establish connectivity down to the local level— are under implementation. Further, e-forms (Electronic Forms) on the State Portal and SSDG project have been formulated to make all government services accessible to citizens through a single window, while Common Service Centres (CSCs) are being set up in the state as frontend delivery points for government, private and social sector services to citizens. He said that other Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) such as Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System
(CCTNS), Treasury Computerization and Computerization of Public Distribution System are under various stages of implementation while MMPs such as e-District, which aims at delivery of high volume citizen centric government services to citizens by leveraging all existing NeGP infrastructure like SWAN, SDC, SP & SSDG and CSCs will be implemented soon. Encouraging all departments to come forward and participate towards building a “smart government,” Ayemi said the capacity building and workshop programme have been taken up to build capacities and skill sets for ensuring successful
New Delhi, August 3 (Pti): As violence continues to rock parts of Assam in support of demands for separate states, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday ruled out further division of his state saying people there want to live like a joint family. Gogoi also warned those indulging in violence saying action would be taken them. “No government wants to divide any state. In Assam, we want to live like a joint family,” he said at a press conference when asked his government’s stand on the fresh agitation and incidents of violence in Assam demanding separate states. Demanding separate state of Karbi Anglong and Bodoland, several organisations have stepped up their agitation leading to bandh, arson, removal of train tracks besides blocking of
highways and railway tracks connecting the Northeastern region. The Chief Minister said if anyone has any grievance, Assam and the central governments were ready to talk to them to resolve their problems. “But no one has any right to indulge in violence or take law into their hands. Else, we will have to take action against them,” he said. Gogoi said he had briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi about the situation in Assam. Admitting that the decision to create Telangana has given a fresh lease of life to the separate state demands in Assam, Gogoi refused to say whether it was a right or wrong decision All Bodo Students Union and other Bodo organizations sit on railway tracks during the twelve but said he had forewarned hours railway blockade demanding separate state of Bodoland in Kokrajhar town in lower the Centre about the situAssam on August 2. Several parts of India face similar statehood movements, but the govern- ation which would arise if Telangana was created. ment has not made any moves to create states there. (AP Photo)
•Public health suffers •Comparative data on ‘pre and post-Prohibition Act’ is missing
In this file photo, a can of beer along with other soft drinks is sold openly in a shop in Dimapur. The Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act came into effect in 1989. In these years, liquor trade has criminalized, encouraging adulteration. Public health has suffered in new ways in Nagaland but no comparative data exists to elucidate the relation between prohibition and deteriorating societal atmosphere. (Photo by Caisii Mao)
Institute of Health Science and Research (CIHSR), Dimapur, admitted 225 patients with alcohol related liver disease. That is one alcoholic patient for every working day. Why? The Trend Some policemen and doctors suggest that prohibition creates a “false sense of urgency” in the drinking population, pushing them
splurge MGNREGS earnings on cheap IMFL.
What to do? Lifting prohibition could triple consumption but cut out adulteration. Tightening prohibition could maintain status quo. Significantly, there is no actual data to suggest if alcohol consumption and related health or criminal afflictions have increased or decreased ever since Nagaland was declared a dry state. In the last quarter of a century, Nagaland has changed much and comparative data, then to now, is hard to come by. “An extensive and unbiased survey needs to be conducted to conclude the effect of prohibition on consumption of liquor, public health as well as corruption,” advices Dr. Sedevi Angami of the CIHSR. Instead of waiting on guess work (church says people now drink less, mothers say they drink more) to affect the review of the NLTP Act, Nagaland must first understand what has happened to its society in the past 24 years. The state is liable for letting hoards of its population slip into alcoholic stupor, or its negligence leading to drunken young people driving off the hills to their death. The state should acknowledge this and instate a study to utilize this chance opened up by the Nagaland Legislative Assembly to review the Act.
implementation and adoption of e-Governance initiatives. He implored upon all the officials representing various departments to leverage on the e-Government bandwagon, become “Change Ambassadors” and work towards adopting a collaborative mindset to provide and improve service delivery to citizens. The function was chaired by Akumla Aier, project engineer, Nagaland State e-Governance Society (which organized the training), Department of Information Technology & Communication in association with the National Institute for Smart Government, Hyderabad.
Home Minister ‘shocked’ by ‘ict changing economy, society, culture’ Congress take on law & order Our Correspondent
‘Instead of allegations, come forward with constructive ideas’
DiMAPuR, August 3 (MexN): Nagaland Home Minister, G. Kaito Aye, has expressed shock over the statement issued by the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) alleging that the NPF-led DAN government failed to maintain law and order leading to its total breakdown in the State. The Home Minister in a press note stated that such “wild allegation has come at a time when the people in the State have been appreciating the relative peaceful environment in the State.” According to him, apart from the public and mass based societies, the Prime Minister of India and the Interlocutor of the Indo-Naga political negotiation have appreciated the positive development in the talks as well as the peaceful environment prevailing in the State. “I would also like to remind the NPCC that several precious lives were lost during the Congress regime in the State but as a responsible political party, it should also appreciate when there is visibly relative peace prevailing in the State,” the Home Minister stated while reminding that the NPF Government had been performing its duties to “see that law and order is maintained and the lives and properties of the civilians are protected.” Aye further argued that
the Naga underground groups are engaged in ceasefires with the Government of India and they are under the purview of the Cease Fire Ground Rules (CFGRs). As such, wherever there is “underground related violence” taking place in Nagaland, the State Government cannot use force as “such action may lead to unwanted situation and it may even be a threat to the ceasefire,” he stated. However, the Home Minister also stated that the State Government will always discharge its bounden duties to protect the lives of civilians. The press note also stated that the NPF government has been appealing to all the factions to desist from fratricidal killings and that the Chief Minister has been “closely monitoring every development taking place in the State.” Aye reiterated that cadres of the various factions should be given proper counseling because most of them are not well versed with the ground rules of the mutually-agreed-upon ceasefires between the Government of India and the underground groups. “Cadres should be properly educated of the ground rules,” he stated and added that “the people of the State have also been seriously yearning for a permanent solution in our land.” Aye personally feels that the Congress, instead of making wild allegations against the State Government, should come forward with constructive ideas in bringing permanent peace and solution.
Kohima | August 3
tarun Gogoi rules out division of Assam
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