April 15th, 2016

C M Y K

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

FriDAY • APriL 15 • 2016

DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 102 • 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

o F

T R u T H

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I’ve been closer to him for that reason — Elie Wiesel Modi launches campaign to boost rural development on Ambedkar anniversary

Familiarization Exercises in Nagaland underway

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PAGE 02

By Sandemo Ngullie

Morung Express News Dimapur | April 14

By government? Thut, young man. Our state is run by kerosene!!

Seen in this image is a dilapidated section of the Dzüza Bridge located on the National Highway between Kohima and Sechü Zubza. With more rainfall, the deteriorating sections of the bridge are likely to worsen, thereby posing greater risk to both commuters and vehicles. (Morung Photo by Chizokho Vero)

Wholesalers may contact

CITIZEN UMBRELLA MANUFACTURER LTD. H.O.: 147, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kolkata-7 Ph. No. 033-2268-1396, 2271-2152 Fax : (033) 2271-2151 E-mail : citizenkolkata@gmail.com

NMDA resolves on ‘tax’ DIMApur, AprIl 14 (Mexn): The Nagaland Medicine Dealers Association (NMDA) has resolved that it will not collect “any kind of taxes from any of its members for any N.P.Gs or other Organization.” Further, if “any kind of threat or intimidation” is perpetuated to any member of the Association, the NMDA resolved to take “all necessary action or protest including closure of all the Medicine shops indefinitely.” This was stated in a press release from the NMDA President and General Secretary. The decisions were made following an emergency meeting held on April 5 last. It alleged that NMDA office bearers were already receiving threat calls and letters in the name of “certain organisation” for payment of annual taxes. While requesting Naga Political Groups to “seriously deliberate and exempt” the medicine business from “any kind of taxes,” the NMDA noted that the particular business is “mostly for the cost of social service with limited income and high risk of expiry/damage/breakages etc, with fixed price margin.” According to them, some of the members in this business fraternity can “hardly make their living through this respectable yet risky business.”

Sumi Hoho resolves Zunheboto, AprIl 14 (Mexn): The Sumi Hoho, an apex body of the Sumi people, has passed a resolution that has ‘debarred’ the participation of one Luhevi Achumi from “active participation” in any Sumi social organisation for a period of six years with effect from April 2016.

The resolution was passed in an emergency meeting of the Hoho at Sumi Hoho Ki, Zunheboto, held on April 13. In a press release to the media, Sumi Hoho Vice President, Khehoshe Yepthomi, and General Secretary, Vihuto Achumi, stated that the house “deliberated seriously” on a speech delivered by Luhevi Achumi, GB of Luhevi village, during the Western Sumi Hoho Annual session held on April 5, 2016 at Chekiye Village, Dimapur.

The Sumi Hoho in its resolution stated that it viewed his remarks as ‘demeaning’ its “dignity and prestige” and was “detrimental to the Sumi ethos of inherent unity, integrity and classless society that prevails among the Sumi people.”

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Why no sHrc has been possible in nagaland yet

reflections

CITIZEN UMBRELLA

Bryant scores 60 points in final game of career

NPF suspends Imkong L Imchen

KohIMA, AprIl 14 (Mexn): The Naga People’s Front (NPF) has suspended sitting MLA from Koridang A/C, Imkong L Imchen, from active and primary membership of the Party with immediate effect until further orders.

This order was passed by the President of the NPF, Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu, in exercise of his powers under Article V Section 9 read with Article XIV of the NPF Constitution.

The order also stated that the MLA’s activities in the recent past have been “adversely affecting the fragile nature of the reconciliation process as well as mutilating the hard earned unity within the party.”

To this effect, Imchen had been issued a show-cause notice by the Party in February this year, to which he had responded the same month. As per the NPF, the response lacked ‘effective explanation’ for his activities. The Disciplinary Action Committee of the NPF during its “sitting” held in March last made a recommendation for Imchen’s suspension from the primary and active membership of the Party “after proper application of mind on the matter.”

It led to his eventual suspension for ‘substantively effecting’ the reconciliation within the Party, which is “still under way” in some areas.

The Supreme Court of India, on April 10, 2016 directed governments of the States of Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Delhi, among others, to set up State Human Rights Commissions (SHRC) within the next six months.

In keeping with this “time bound” exercise, the Nagaland State Home Department is on the job in “all earnestness,” informed Nagaland State Home Commissioner Neihu C. Thur, while speaking to The Morung Express.

In January this year, the Home Department had sent out a notification, following the approval of the State Cabinet, to set up an SHRC in Nagaland. The chairperson and members of the SHRC, the notification stated, shall be appointed by a Committee headed by the Chief Minister and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, the State Home Minister and Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly as members.

The homework for the

said Committee is currently being done by the Nagaland Home Department. “It is not a simple exercise. We have to search for suitable and willing candidates,” said Thur. The SHRC will be headed by a chairperson who has been a Chief Justice of a High Court, one member who has been a Judge (retired or serving) of a High Court and another member from amongst persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights.

While there may be no dearth of persons in the third category, it has become a task for the Home Department to find a “suitable and willing” candidate in the first two categories—Nagaland itself has no Chief Justice of a High Court who is eligible for the post and no Judge (retired or serving) in any High Court. Nagaland State itself does not have a High Court.

“We have received applications from the State for the first two positions but they are not eligible. Where do we get an ex chief justice from?” wondered an exasperated senior bureaucrat of the State, who has been

working closely to set up the SHRC. Nagaland State, he said, has been attempting to establish one for the past two years but many glitches have hindered the process.

“We have tried to contact relevant persons from other states to take up the posts but those who are eligible are not willing and those who are willing are not eligible,” the officer lamented. Most judges and justices from other states are engaged in various similar posts, also on other commissions, elsewhere in the Indian Union; many others prefer to be in their own State, while others don’t make the age cut off.

If the State is unable to find candidates, the bureaucrat suggested that a “remodelling” of the terms to hold such post in Nagaland State may be in order.

The Human Rights Commission is an autonomous high power human rights watch body which derives its authority from the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Till date, only 24 states in India have set up SHRCs. Apart from the above cited reasons, problems of fund-

ing and logistics have deterred many states from establishing their own watch body. In Nagaland’s case, for instance, if and when the “suitable and willing” candidates are found, the State will have to provide adequate infrastructure—least of all, a building for the operation of the SHRC, residential arrangements—apart from security which will have to be given and a full time Investigation Wing provided, headed by a Superintendent of Police.

Some bureaucrats of the Nagaland State Government had also suggested that one human rights commission for all of the North East be set up in Guwahati, but the proposition was declined.

In the region, Assam, Tripura and Manipur have established SHRCs. However, the office of the chairperson and member have been lying vacant in Manipur since 2010, making it a defunct body. According to the National Human Rights Commission website, the same situation applies to a handful of more states including Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

Nagaland imports animal husbandry Assam-NL border issue is political: GPRN/NSCN products worth Rs.214.74 crore: survey Our Correspondent Kohima | April 14

Nagaland produces 66.68 percent of the total requirement of livestock which is worth Rs 1673.35 crore and leaves behind a shortfall of 33.32 percent, according to the Sample Survey Report of 2014-15 published in the Nagaland Economic Survey 2015-16.

On the shortfall, Nagaland state imported animal husbandary products worth Rs 214.74 crore in monetary terms, the Sur-

vey which was published by the Economics & Statistics Department stated.

The value of import of meat, eggs and dairy products which stood at Rs 215.46 crore in 2013-14 registered a fall of Rs 0.72 crore in 201415. Production of milk, meat and egg in the state during 2014-15 was 75.92 thousand tonnes, 39.27 thousand tonnes and 706 lakh numbers respectively.

The report stated that there has been a decline in imports of animal husbandary products which has

been made possible due to implementation of various livestock and poultry programmes through the Department of Veterinary & Animal Husbandry, Nagaland.

The report maintained that livestock development in the state improved through adaption of various strategies.

Charting out of road map, Vision 2020, revival and improvement of the traditional backyard livestock and poultry farming, conversion of dem-

onstration farms into breeding and production units, setting up of private commercial and rural breeding farms on Private Public Partnership mode are some initiatives which have scaled up production in this sector, the report claimed.

It also maintained that increase in the level of production of animal husbandry products has positive impact on the availability and per capita consumption rate in Nagaland state.

DIMApur, AprIl 14 (Mexn): The GPRN/ NSCN has asserted today that the Assam-Nagaland border issue is political, not administrative.

In a press release issued by its MIP, the political group maintained that the particular boundary issue is “a result of British mismanagement” of indigenous Naga people and their land “without taking the landowners into confidence.” It pointed out that “arbitrary division of ancestral Naga lands did not matter to them so long as their administrative and political

objectives were met.”

It further stated that after (Indian) independence, successive Indian governments “failed to transfer Naga lands to Nagaland.” Quoting the Sir Akbar Hydari Agreement of 1947, the GPRN/NSCN stated that Clause 4 and 6 state that approximately an area of 4,974.16 Sq. Miles occupied by Assam “must be transferred back to Nagaland.”

Asserting that “ancestral land of the Nagas” cannot be used to “accommodate illegal immigrants and other landless people,” the group urged the Dima-

pur district administration to give “full co-operation” to United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA), which is “diligently working to educate both the Nagas and Assamese to live in peace recognizing historical facts about ancestral Naga lands.”

Stating that the historical facts “cannot be erased,” the GPRN/NSCN demanded the State government to “direct the district administration in all border areas to assist UNTABA in protecting and defending Naga lands against immigrants.”

Full text on page 10

‘Absolute power & absolute corruption’ in Nagaland implement food security Act: AcAUt nagaland urges

NPCC protest against undemocratic actions of BJP Morung Express News Kohima | April 14

The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) held a protest rally against what they termed as the “undemocratic and vindictive actions of BJP government against Congress ruled states,” at the Congress Bhavan premises here today.

The rally was chaired by Jonathan Ao, General Secretary NPCC, and attended by its representatives from various districts.

Pointing out the “vindictive activities” of BJP, Langpha, Ex MLA alleged the “forced conversions” to Hinduism in the country from 2014 to 2016 by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, “demolishing” of Churches, “intentional declarations” of working days on Christian holidays such as the declaration of Good Friday as Good Governance Day by the Prime Minister and declaration of Christmas as a working day. Langpha also cited the approach of the Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, to adopt the Gita as the National book of India, and Nagaland & Assam Governor PB Acharya’s pamphlets on Bharat mata distributed to delegates on Republic Day of 2015.

Takamasa Ao, ex-MLA, in his speech blamed the BJP government for their “prejudices and propagandas” which are “dividing” the country. Citing the many examples across the nation state, Ao accused the BJP of using the law in their own way to topple the Congress party.

“What will happen to India?” questioned Ao, while pointing out that in a democ-

Posters seen at an NPCC rally held in Kohima on April 14. (Morung Photo)

racy both the majority and the minority has to be respected. On a day when the birth anniversary of the Chief Architect of the Indian constitution, BR Ambedkar, is being commemorated, Ao stated that the rally is a “timely intervention” wherein the Constitution has been “misused” by the BJP government.

“They (BJP) are against the Constitution. They are anti-people. They have no respect for the public mandate. They have lost respect for the Republic of India and for the Constitution of India,” said K Therie at the rally.

Stating that the opposition-less government has led to “absolute power and absolute corruption,” he maintained that people do not even notice that the 14,000 crores budget is for the people but it has never reached the people. “Our roads, our schools, our hospitals, our rations, our salaries, where have all those gone?

I do not see any difference between NPF

and BJP anymore. They are one, hand in glove. They are one coin playing the game against Christianity,” asserted Therie.

Further asserting that the nation is no more secure under the Constitution of India, and that the rule of the BJP has led to a “breakdown” of the Constitution, Therie accused the BJP and NPF as having “no moral, no decency; they have no ideology or philosophy. They are all for money and power.”

“My appeal to the people of Nagaland and the nation is to restore the moral of the nation, to restore the Constitution and to restore the democracy,” concluded Therie.

The rally ended with slogans chanted by the participants “Down with Undemocratic and vindictive action of BJP against congress ruled states,” “BJPMurderer of Democracy” and “Oppositionless Government- Absolute power, Absolute Corruption”.

DIMApur, AprIl 14 (Mexn): ACAUT Nagaland has called for the Nagaland State government to immediately implement the Food Security Act (FSA) in the State. Whereas 32 states and union territories in the Indian Union have implemented the FSA, Nagaland and Manipur are the only states which have not done so, informed a press release from the ACAUT media cell today.

The urgency for FSA in the State, ACAUT Nagaland stated, is highlighted by the fact that “none of the State stockist” for PDS items has been appointed through tendering process (Notice Inviting Tender- NIT), thereby “clearly highlighting the illegality and arbitrariness in the PDS.” To get around this, ACAUT Nagaland expressed the opinion that the “only fool-proof model” would be to the Direct beneficiary Transfer (DBP) system, as already implemented in Puducherry and Chandigarh, where benefit or subsidy money is directly transferred to the beneficiary account. With this money, “the beneficiary should be able to buy the food items.”

The body alleged that the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the State has become a “looter’s paradise for a few corrupted people.”

The PDS, it stated, is “marked by rampant corruption whereby wholesome diversion of rice, wheat, kerosene, levy sugar, etc., meant for poor

beneficiaries is the order of the day, thanks to bureaucrats and politicians cohorting in criminal tandem with stockists, power of attorney holders and nominees,” ACAUT Nagaland accused.

Moreover, “almost all” the stockists, they stated, have “handed the power of attorney to non-local businessmen,” which, they asserted, is the “cog in the wheel” of the corruption system in the PDS. As per records found by ACAUT Nagaland, in levy sugar, for instance, there was “no tendering process” in the last 15 years except in the year 2014-15. Keeping this in mind, the body maintained that the “misappropriation” of Rs. 402 crores by the Food & Civil Supplies Department, as reflected in CAG report, is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Condemning this “blatant corruption,” ACAUT Nagaland resolved to continue to pursue this matter in the interest of the “thousands of hand-to-mouth Nagas who depend on subsidized dole-outs.”

While interacting with the ACAUT members, an F&CS official “divulged” that the system to implement FSA is already in place, only requires cabinet nod to start the process, stated the press release. Therefore, “there is no valid reason for the government to delay the implementation of the FSA unless it wants to continue with the old PDS for obvious reasons.”

2

friDAY 15•04•2016

NAGALAND

Bengali New Year greetings

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

St. Anthony’s School Zbto gets new building

DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): Dimapur Bengali Samaj president and members have wished every citizen of Nagaland a bright and prosperous future on the occasion of Bengali New Year, Baisakhi, Bihu and Ram Navmi. “May the almighty Lord bless everybody with peace and progress,” KK Paul, President, Dimapur Bengali Samaj Students of St. Anthony’s School new building presents an item during the inauguration of conveyed in a press note. the new school building on April 14.

Duncan Bosti Council informs DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): The Duncan Bosti Council has informed all the residents of Duncan Bosti under polling station no, 8, 9, 10, 30, and 64 that there will be detail verification and rectification of voters in electoral list such as inclusion of new bonafide voters, deletion, and transfer and correction of names, age etc. on April 16 from 9:30 am at the community hall.

ZuNHEbOtO, AprIl 14 (MExN): The long awaited dream of the Catholic Community of Zunheboto was realized when Most Rev. Dr. James Thoppil, Bishop of Kohima blessed St. Anthony’s School new building on April 14. Prior to the blessing, Paul Hoshiho, a public leader and a pioneer leader of the community, cut the ribbon and inaugurated new school building.

Bishop, speaking on the occasion said, “The Catholic Church gives all out effort to provide the best Education at the door step of our people at the lowest cost. The Church is here to serve with full and dedicated commitment. The Church is rich not because it has money and wealth, but because of the sacrifices and dedication the priests and religious.” He also expressed his hope that St. Anthony’s School will rise and shine and provide a good education

for the people of this area.

Rev. George Parackal, the parish priest and principal accorded the words of welcome to Bishop, fathers, sisters and parents and invited guests. He thanked diocese of Kohima for the generous help rendered to the people of Zunheboto.

The gathering was blessed by the presence of Rev. Sr. Dina, the councilor superior, Sr. Jancy, the provincial superior, the Fathers and Sisters from the nearby parishes and centers. Welcome Song, Hiphop dance, Traditional song, chorography, couple dance and action songs were the special items presented by the students of St. Anthony’s School, Zunheboto.

Nizheto Mathew spoke on behalf of the community and Sr. Bency proposed the vote of thanks. John, the Catechist said the concluding prayer.

Familiarization Exercises in Nagaland underway KOHIMA, AprIl 14 (MExN): The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Home Department along with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and logistic support from the District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMA) has been conducting Familiarization Exercises (FEMEX) in various districts of Nagaland.

The FEMEX was earlier conducted in Longleng district by a team of 32 personnel from the 12Bn NDRF, Arunachal Pradesh. Presently the exercise is being conducted in Wokha district. The same will also be conducted in Zunheboto district. The NDRF team consists of 46 personnel from the 12th Battalion.

The FEMEX features amongst others, basic first aid, search and rescue,

12th Bn NDRF in Wokha district during the Familiarization Exercises (FEMEX).

mock drills etc Besides this the NSDMA has conducted Community First Responder (CFR) in all the districts of the State. The CFR is based on the understanding that in times of disasters the community is the first to respond before external help arrives. The CFR train-

ing is aimed at empowering the community to help themselves and to be prepared for any disaster.

Mention may be made here that the NSDMA has also successfully rise the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) comprising of 240 personnel from the

Civil Defence and Home Guards. These personnel have been trained to handle any disasters that the State might face.

This was stated in a press release issued by Khrienuo Metha, Secretary to the Government of Nagaland.

‘Your Favourites Shop’ in Phek Town inaugurated India Terrain store in Dimapur

pHEK, AprIl 14 (MExN): ‘Your Favourites Shop’, an undertaking project of the Joyous Self Help Group (SHG) Phek Town, was inaugurated at New Market Complex, Hospital Road, Phek Town by Vechülou Kanuo, Executive Director, Chakhesang Women Welfare Society (CWWS), Pfutsero on April 13.

A press release stated that speaking during the inauguration programme, Vechülou Kanuo appreciated the Joyous SHG for expos- Executive Director, CWWS, Vechülou Knauo, (4th from right) CMA President, Zaposhelu ing the practical definition of Venuh (3rd from right) along with Joyous SHG officials during the inauguration of ‘Your FaSelf Help Group by accom- vourites Shop’ at Phek Town on April 13.

Rangali Bihu celebrated at Dimapur

Bihu dance is being performed during the celebration of Rangali Bihu at Dimapur Namghar premises.

DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): The Assamese Community of Dimapur celebrated Rangali Bihu at Dimapur Namghar premises with great enthusiasm with P. Bendang Jamir as the chief guest. A host of public from different communities attended the celebration.

A press note stated that the Bihu Flag was hoisted

by RS Paswan and Bihu

dance was performed by the Namghar Husori Dal. The chief guest said that Rangali Bihu should be observed and celebrated as it was done in the past. He encouraged keeping this tradition alive among the Dimapurians as a sign of love, peace and harmony.

Makhan Chetia, Chairman DNTB, spoke about the significance of Rangali Bihu,

emphasizing that Bihu is such a festival, it has neither castes nor creeds, it has no color, rich or poor, young or old.

Senior members were presented with Assamese Gamuchas as a token of love, regards and respect.

The function concluded with vote of thanks from

by T K Sarma, Namghar School Administrator.

Renault launches all new Duster in Dimapur

modating oneself being employed and appeals the other SHGs within and outside the district to carry forward this kind of innovative venture. Stating the CWWS always open door to assist these kinds of initiatives, she further urge the Joyous SHG to utilized the project as goodwill mission.

Joyous SHG Secretary, Hichulo Nusory in her brief report stated, to educate the people to be aware of how to become economically self reliant through local resources, imparting seminar and related train-

ing on local products and to expose the importance of god team work were some of the aims and objectives of the group.

Earlier, group President, Akhrole Chizo chaired the function, Tshulhi Khape, Head Deacon, Phek Town Baptist Church invokes God’s blessing, Vekuvolu Rhakho, Member Joyous SHG propose words of gratitude, while Zaposhelu DCCI President, H. Hokivi Chishi inaugurating Indian Terrain Venuh, President, Chakhe- showroom in Dimapur on Thursday. (Morung Photo) sang Mothers’ Association Morung Express News nities such as Marwaris, (CMA) pronounced closPunjabis etc.

Dimapur | April 14 ing prayer followed by a Hokivi underlined the luncheon.

Indian Terrain, one of the importance of properly trainleading brands in premi- ing salespersons and other um casual wear for men employees to render qualwas inaugurated on Thurs- ity service in the interest of day at Nyamo Lotha Road customers. According to the near Popular Bakery, Di- DCCI President, the success mapur by DCCI President, of any business depended H. Hokivi Chishi. on the customers and he Inaugurating the show- emphasized on the need room, Hokivi pointed out for salespersons to be disthat many business estab- ciplined and humble to the lishments set up by Naga customers. He extended best people could not sustain wishes for the success of the for long since they were Indian Terrain in Dimapur. primarily an agricultural During the programme, community toiling by their Rev. Tenga Seb, Pastor, Disweat and lacks adequate mapur Rengma Baptist knowledge in doing busi- Church pronounced the Students and the teachers of Police Unit School, Mon along with the Manager of Green ply, ness. He said Naga peo- invocation while the proTizit during a study trip to Green ply Industry and Paramount Tea Industry on April 9, 2016. ple being a non-business prietor of Indian Terrain, The School Managing board acknowledged both the Managers of the industry for giving new community has to learn a G.K. Rengma delivered the insights to both the students and teachers and for making the study trip a success. lot from business commu- vote of thanks.

NPF Dimapur Div conducts tree plantation drive

DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): NPF Dimapur Division led by its President Nungsang Jamir along with representatives from all the five Assembly Constituencies conducted a social work cum tree plantation in the Division's office compounds at Chumukedima on April 14.

Speaking on the occasion, Nungsang said tree plantation is an important global requirement to preserve the fragile ecology and that deforestation has been the main cause of global warming as is experienced even in Nagaland where we are experiencing rising temperatures over the years.

“Each tree that we plant today will remain long after we are gone and future gen-

Participants after the tree plantation drive at Chumukedima on April 14.

erations will thank us for our simple act of planting trees today,” he said. Not only will the trees provide shade and cool down tem-

peratures, it will also enhance the aesthetic beauty of the compound. He also went on to encourage participants in today's planta-

tion drive to plant trees in their compounds as well as their fields.

The President of the Division also expressed happi-

ness to see large participation even though notice was issued at a short time and thanked the participants for showing their support and solidarity to the NPF Party.

He also revealed that later in the year, the Division plans to hold a rally in Dimapur and requested the members present today to be mentally prepared for the occasion and also to extend full cooperation to ensure that the proposed rally is a resounding success.

Press Secretary to Chief Minister Nagaland, Sebastian Zumvu also participated in the plantation drive by planting the first sapling in the compound.

Around 150 party workers from the district participated in today's event.

IVR villagers informed DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): The villagers of Industrial Village Razhüphe paying their yearly house tax to the government have been asked to contact their Khel GB concerned and collect the Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLIN) issued by the government. This was informed in a press release issued by Kenei Angami, Council Secretary, Industrial Village Razhüphe and TL Angami, Head GB cum Chairman, IVR. Assistant general manager, SBI Dimapur, Vikash Das (2nd right) launching the new Renault Duster in the state of Nagaland at SK Automobiles Pvt. Ltd. Purana Bazar, Dimapur, on Thursday.

Morung Express News Dimapur | April 14

Renault India, one of the country’s fastest growing automobile manufacturers, launched the all new Duster range in Dimapur today. The New Duster range which was recently unveiled at the Auto Expo

2016 includes India’s first 6 speed Easy – R AMT and also boasts of more than 32 new changes along with superior engineering, styling, safety and comfort features.

Area sales manager, Renault India (East) in a power presentation highlighted on the unique features of the new Duster. The 32 new

features include new dual winged front grill, distinctive gun metal finish alloy wheels, signature waterfall led tall lamps, ‘kayak’ roof rail and ‘power and poise’ find balance, and, ‘4 WD Mode’ with incredible traction and balance, and, ‘4 WD Mode’ with incredible traction.

KGPO informs DIMApur, AprIl 14 (MExN): Kuhuboto Ghakhu Public Organisation (KGPO) office bearers and executive council held an emergency meeting on April 11 at KGPO Hall and decided that those representing Kuhuboto area to Kuhuboto Agunaqa Khaghaboto (KAK) Union should purely function on the border related issues only to prevent any confusion and misunderstanding. KGPO through its President Ghoshito further informed that no individual or organization should issue press release or representation without the consultation of KGPO for better and smooth functioning of the area.

Fire personnel of Mokokchung Fire and Emergency Services led by Atriba Sangtam, Subinspector(second from left) observed 'Martyrs Day' on April 14 along with other fire services across the country by paying homage to those fire personnel who lost their lives while on duty. Fire exigencies were announced at different points around Mokokchung town. Mass awareness campaign on fire hazards and safety measures will be conducted as a part of the Fire Service week from April 14-20. (Morung Photo)

friDAY 15•04•2016

NORTH-EAST

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Quake: Five injured, cracks appear in buildings in Mizoram AizAwl, April 14 (pTi): Five persons were injured while scurrying for safe places when an earthquake of 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked Aizawl Wednesday night.

Doctors at the Aizawl Civil Hospital and the Presbyterian Church Hospital in nearby Durtlang said that all the injured were discharged after administering first aid.

Meanwhile, cracks appeared in a number of buildings in Aizawl, including the Synod Conference centre belonging to the Presbyterian Church in Mission Veng locality.

The quake, which was felt twice in less than a minute, first took place at 7.25 PM and the epicentre of the tremor was on the Indo-Myanmar border at a depth of 134 km.

All north eastern states are categorized under zone V in the country’s seismological map and is considered to be highly active.

Centre finally intervenes in Manipur bills row

New Delhi, April 14 (iANS): The Centre has finally intervened in the controversy arising out of three bills passed by the Manipur state assembly in August last year that resulted in violence and the death of nine youths in the hills of the northeastern state.

However, it is not the union home ministry, but the tribal welfare ministry that has written to Manipur's social welfare department seeking information and action taken in the aftermath of the passing of the bills.

After the union tribal welfare ministry sent a letter on March 17, the state's social welfare department asked the home department for information "since the action is related to your department".

IANS has access to the official letter from the social welfare department to the state home department that was dated April 4.

Ostensibly to safeguard the rights of the indigenous people, the Manipur government, bowing to pressure from agitators from the state's valley, convened a special session of the assembly

on August 31 last year and passed three controversial bills -- the Protection of Manipur People Bill, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms Bill (Seventh Amendment) and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill.

The very day the bills were passed, protestors, mainly comprising tribal organisations, torched five houses belonging to Congress legislators. Among them were the dwellings of Health and Family Welfare Minister Phungzathang Tonsing and Lok Sabha member from Outer Manipur Thangso Baite in Churachandpur district.

The violence and resultant police action left at least nine people dead.

The nine bodies are still lying in a Churachandpur hospital mortuary with the families refusing to bury them till the hill peoples' demands are met.

The state government had passed the bills after a threemonth-long agitation spearheaded by the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) demanding the en-

forcement of an inner line permit system similar to those in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland to check the influx of non-Manipuris into the state.

The JCILPS says that according to the 2011 census, Manipur's population is 2.7 million. Of this, only 1.7 million are indigenous people while the rest are people who have their roots outside the state.

However, according to the tribes inhabiting the hills of Manipur, the three bills would directly undermine the existing safeguards for the tribal hill areas regarding land ownership and population influx, as the primary threat for the tribal people came not from outside the state but from the Meitei people of the valley itself.

Given that the hills of Manipur are inhabited by Nagas and Kukis among other tribes, Nagaland's lone MP Neiphio Rio in December pointed out in the Lok Sabha the anomaly in passing the bills saying these were passed without proper consultations with tribal leaders and elected members of the autonomous district council according to norms.

Rio sought the intervention of the central government in this context.

Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay also took up the issue in parliament stating that the agitating tribal people were the children of India.

The union tribal welfare ministry's letter was dispatched to the Manipur government following the interventions of these two MPs as the social welfare department's letter to the home department showed.

On the 227th day of an ongoing protest by the Manipur Tribals Forum Delhi (MTFD) in New Delhi on Thursday, April 14, its convenor Romeo Hmar expressed disappointment at what he called the Centre's reluctance to act.

"The tribal people of Manipur fail to understand the reluctance of the central government in upholding Article 371C of the Constitution," Hmar told IANS. "The tribal people of Manipur are the only tribal people in the northeast who are not protected under the Sixth Schedule," he added.

Manipur: Army Major, AR jawan killed, 3 hurt Our Correspondent Imphal | April 14

Family of armyman 'proud of martyrdom'

A Major of the 21 Para of GurGAoN, April 14 (iANS): The ised around noon. Deswal's father and the Indian Army was killed family members of Major Amit Deswal, grandfather were also in the army. The in an encounter with ZUF who died in a gun battle with tribal mili- army major got married in 2009 and his cadres at Lenglong under tants in Manipur, on Thursday said they wife and four-year-old son lived with him Nungba subdivision in were proud of his "martyrdom". in Manipur. His other family members Tameglong district.

Major Deswal of the 21 Special Force live in Sector 6 area in Jhajjar.

The slain Major iden- of Rashtriya Rifles who hailed from Deswal was commissioned on June tified as Amit Deswal lost Surheti village in Haryana's Jhajjar dis- 10, 2006 into the Regiment of Artillery. his life while battling heav- trict, 45 km from Gurgaon, died fighting "After his basic service, he recognised ily armed cadres of Zelian- militants in Manipur's Tamenglong dis- that his calling was somewhere more grong United Front (ZUF) trict on Wednesday. adventurous. He opted for the Special in the forested area yester"The braveheart breathed his last Group at first, but finally opted for the day, police said. in the true traditions of a warrior," said coveted Special Forces," Col. NarenMajor Deswal’s body Deswal's brother-in-law Sanjeev Kumar. der Chikara (retd), with whom Deswal His uncle Om Singh said: "The family served in the Regiment of Artillery based was brought here today by an Army helicopter around mourns his death but he died for the coun- in Gurgaon's Dundahera, told IANS. "He joined the elite unit in January 11 am. His body was being try, a commando, fighting till the end."

An Indian Army official said in Delhi 2011. He was physically robust which flown to his home in Jhajjar that the body will arrive on Friday at the was reflected in his performance. He got district of Haryana.

T h e A r m y h a d technical area of Palam airport, where a inducted in Manipur for an operation in launched operation in the wreath-laying ceremony will be organ- January 2016," Col. Chikara said. area to flush out ZUF militants when the gun battle combined team of 21 Para also killed in the encounter. exchange of fire. But he was "There is reliable informa- taken away by others," IANS ensued between the two and Rashtriya Rifles.

Army sources claimed tion that at least one mili- quoted an official as saying. sides. They said the operaSources also claimed tion was conducted by a that one ZUF cadre was tant was wounded in the

Rhino killed in Kaziranga in British royals' presence GuwAhATi, April 14 (iANS): In a mockery of the so-called tight security arrangements, poachers killed yet another onehorned rhino in Assam's Kaziranga National Park as British royal couple Prince William and Kate Middleton were spending the night at a resort near the national park.

"We recovered the carcass of a rhino from the Burhapahar range of the park on Thursday morning.

The poachers took away the horn," a park official said on condition of anonymity.

"There were about five poachers in the group last night (Wednesday).

Our guards heard gunshots from the range and launched an operation immediately," he said.

"The group of poachers fired and our guards retaliated. However, they managed to cut off the horn and flee," he said.

This was the seventh rhino killed in the national park this year.

Park director M.K. Yadav was, however, not available for comment.

The incident took place while the British royal couple was spending a second night at the Difflo River lodge, adjacent to the national park.

The Assam government had issued strict instructions to the park authorities to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during their stay.

On Wednesday morning, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had visited the Bagori range of the park, 30 km from the Burhapahar range.

They later interacted with forest guards on antipoaching measures. The royal couple left for Bhutan on Thursday morning.

that NSCN (K) took ZUF’s side during the exchange of fire. Both the NSCN (K) and ZUF are active in Tamenglong which is located around 110 km west of capital Imphal.

In a separate incident, an Assam Rifles jawan was killed and another three wounded when suspected militants triggered a powerful bomb close to a Transit Camp of the paramilitary force here on Thursday morning. The explosion took place around 7 am near Khuman Lampak in Imphal East. The bomb went off as the patrol party of the AR was passing through the area.

Personnel Bijendrakumar hailing from Rajasthan died on the spot. The injured were later discharged from Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) after receiving treatment.

Assam in celebratory mood as Rongali Bihu begins

GuwAhATi, April 14 (iANS): Celebrations began on Thursday in India's northeastern state of Assam as people took part in the state's most colourful festival of song and dance, Rongali Bihu, with gaiety and fervour.

Rongali Bihu or Bohag Bihu marks the beginning of the Assamese new year. It starts on the last day of the month of Chot (Chaitra), which was on Wednesday.

The first day of Rongali

Bihu is dedicated to cattle and is celebrated as 'Goru Bihu'. People, particularly the farming community, take their cattle to the rivers, ponds and other water bodies and give them a ceremonial bath, rubbing them with turmeric paste and other herbs. The cattle are tied with a new 'pogha' (rope) and fed brinjal and gourd.

The actual celebration started on Thursday, the first day of the Assamese New Year and the month

Over 30 injured in April 13 quake in Manipur

imphAl, April 14 (iANS): The earthquake that hit the Myanmar-India border region on Wednesday night damaged structures and left at least 30 people injured in Manipur, but there has been no report yet of any loss of life, officials here said.

At least 30 people, including women, were injured in the earthquake that measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, said the officials on Thursday.

Several houses, school buildings and markets in Manipur were damaged by the tremors, they said.

In neighbouring Assam, two persons were killed and over 70 others were injured in the quake.

One primary school building at Khekman in Thoubal district of Manipur collapsed completely, destroying the adjacent house of Jamir Khan.

Wednesday's earthquake exacerbated the damage caused to some structures -- such as the 150-year-old Ima Keithel or Mothers' Market complex here -- that had already been shaken by the January 4 earthquake.

Following the January quake, the government had declared the Mothers' Market complex unsafe for the vendors, who are exclusively women.

Officials told IANS on Thursday that the damage to the portions of the market complex has worsened.

The district administration has barred women vendors from doing business in the complex. Several houses in Nungba sub-division of Tamenglong district were also damaged by the tremors on Wednesday. There are reports that several persons have been injured.

The district administration is collecting information on the number of people injured and houses damaged in the hill district.

Police officials told IANS in Imphal that so far there is no report of any death in the quake-related incidents.

Health officials said that medical teams, medicine supplies and equipment have been kept in readiness in case any report is received of injuries in the far-off hilly and rural areas of the state which lack in proper medicare facility.

of Bohag.

The Bohag Bihu celebrations continues for at least seven days, and sometimes throughout the month of Bohag in many places.

People wear new cloths and the Gamocha -- the traditional Assamese towel which is either sported around the neck or tied around the head.

Younger people seek blessings from the elders and head of the family so that the year brings pros-

perity, health and good luck.

Musical concerts and competitions are organised across the state. In main city Guwahati too, song and dance competitions are held.

This year, over 150 such functions are being organised by clubs and cultural organisations in Guwahati.

People also take part in traditional games at the Bihutolis (venues where Bihu programmes are organised).

JUBILEE MEMORIAL SCHOOL (Affiliated to CISCE for ICSE(X) & ISC(XII) Exams, New Delhi) Salangtem Ward, Mokokchung, Nagaland

ADMISSION NOTICE

Admission Forms and Prospectus for Class XI (Arts) will be issued at the school office from 15th of April 2016 during office hours (9:00 AM to 2:00 PM). The following information may kindly be noted: 1. Last date of submission 13th May 2016 (Students coming from NBSE should submit duly filled admission forms within 3 days of HSCL result).

2. Direct Admission through oral interview for students scoring 55% and above.

3. Date of Admission 20th May 2016 4. Opening of class will be notified after ICSE results.

5. Candidates from Jubilee Memorial School will get direct admission in school.

6. For further information, please contact school office 0369-2226319 Sd/- S.K. Maiti, Principal, J.M. School

GOVERNMENT OF NAGALAND

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR ELECTRICAL INSPECTORATE NAGALAND: KOHIMA

NOTIFICATION

Dated Kohima the 14th April, 2016

The Nagaland Electrical Licensing Board (NELB) will be conducting Electrical Supervisor Certificate written examination & Electrical Workman Permit practical test on 14/05/2016 at 10 am onwards at I.T.I. Complex, Kohima.

Application from the interested persons are hereby invited in the prescribed format along with detail Guide lines, Rules and Regulation, Syllabus which are available in the office of the undersigned.

Last date of submission of forms will be on or before 30/04/2016.

(Er. I. V. Chishi) Chairman, Nagaland Electrical Licensing Board Nagaland: Kohima

Regd. No. 110/2016

AFFIDAVIT

3

Date: 08/04/2016

By this deed, I, Smti. Imtisenla Imsong (New Name) previously called Imtisenla (Old Name) solemnly declare that I wholly renounce/relinquish and abandon the use of my old name and shall be known/called as Imtisenla Imsong (New Name) for all official records and correspondence. Sworn before 1st Class Magistrate.

CORRECTION OF NAME Regd. No. 463.

Dt-13/04/2016

I, Mrs. KHRIEVINO, resident of Hebron-I Colony, Phek Town, DistrictPhek: Nagaland, do hereby solemnly affirm and state on oath as follows.

1. That I am bonafide citizen of India 2. That I am swearing this affidavit for the purpose of correcting my name.

3. That my name was inadvertently entered as KHRUVELU VERO in my SBI Pass Book, bearing A/C No. 31908519481, whereas my correct name was KHRIEVINO. 4. That KHRUVELU VERO and KHRIEVINO are one and the same persons.

5. That henceforth, my name KHRIEVINO will be used for all official and legal purposes That the statement made in Para 1 to 5 are true to the best of my knowledge and nothing material is concealed.

DEPONENT

Solemnly affirmed and declared before the court on this day the 13th April 2016.

1st CLASS MAGISTRATE, Phek: Nagaland

APPRECIATION

The Phek Town Chakhesang Students’ Union (PTCSU) conveys deep appreciation to the individuals/ departments who have selflessly contributed towards the success of the “Sanitation Drive-Cum-Awareness Programme” organized by PTCSU on April 9, 2016 at Phek Town under the theme “Clean Town, Happy Life.”

The PTCSU is indebted to Kuzholuzo (Azo) Nienu, Hon’ble MLA 19th Phek A/C, District Forest Officer, Executive Engineer PHED, Executive Engineer (Electrical), Chief Medical Officer, 46th Assam Rifles, District Public Relation Officer and Bible Hill Baptist Church.

Thuputo Venuh, President PTCSU

NAGA PEOPLE’S FRONT JAPU UNIT

MANGKOLEMBA:: NAGALAND

DECLARATION

The NPF Japu Village Unit unanimously resolve on this day the 14th of April 2016 to resign and dissolve the party unit in support of Mr. Monglu Jamir President, NPF 30th Alongtaki Assembly Constituency on his resignation from the party.

The unit also vents its displeasure towards our elected leader Dr. Benjongliba Aier on his negligence towards the NPF party 30th Alongtaki Assembly Constituency in particular and Shri. Monglu Jamir under whose presidentship He got elected.

Monglu Jamir

Nokchamedang

President, Japu NPF Unit

Secretary, Japu NPF Unit

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION! Specialists at CIHSR (Referral Hospital)

Doctor’s Name

Specialty

For Whom

Dr. Deepa Ramaswamy

Psychiatry Anyone with mental illness and psychiatric problems

Dr. Lionel Gnanaraj

Urology

Date 26 April to 7th May 2016 th

Anyone with kidney 9th to 14th May stones, urinary tract 2016 stones, prostate and other urological complaints

Book for appointments from now on.

Call 03862-242555,242531/32/33

C-Edge College

P.O Box – 250 Naga United Village (4th Mile), Dimapur Ph: 03862-242728 mob: 9436061688/9436602269

RECRUITMENT

If you have a passion for education and teaching, we have the following teaching (Asstt. Professor) appointments; 1. Department of: 1. Economics 2. Political Science.

Qualification: M.A with a min of 55%.

2. Preference shall be given to candidates with NET/Ph.D. Applications with resumè can be emailed to c.edge.college@gmail.com Last date: 25th April 2016.

NEW ADMISSIONS BA/BBA (2016-17): Prospectus & Application Forms are available at College office between 10:00a.m to 2:00p.m on working days.

Principal

4

FriDAY 15•04•2016

Business

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Farmers’ Fair 2016: Need to learn latest technologies underlined MedzipheMa, april 14 (MexN): The Farmers’ Fair 2016 organized by Farmers Cell, SASRD, Nagaland University in collaboration with Land Resources Department, Government of Nagaland which concluded with the valedictory programme on April 13.

D. Soukhrie, Director, Department of Agriculture, Government of Nagaland was the chief guest. The Director expressed appreciation to the organizers for conducting the Farmers’ Fair 2016 with the theme ‘agricultural technologies for economic upliftment’ saying that farmers need to learn the latest technologies.

Prof. N. S. Jamir, Pro Vice Chancellor, SASRD and Prof. M. Aleminla Ao, Dean & Chairperson Farmers’ Cell, SASRD, as well as officials from Departments of Agriculture and Land Resources Government of Nagaland and KVK, Nagaland University, Lumami attended the valedictory programme.

The two day Farmers’ Fair 2016 had an attendance of 96 farmers from 10 districts led by 10 officials as well as eight SHGs and two innovators. There were altogether 10 exhibition stalls.

On the second day, demonstrations were conducted by the

D. Soukhrie, Director Department of Agriculture gives away certificates, seeds and farm implement to the farmers on the concluding day of Farmers’ Fair 2016.

SASRD departments of Agricultural Chemistry & Soil Science on soil testing, demonstration of tools and implements by Agricultural Engineering, vermicomposting, straw mulching and weed control measures as well as

seed germination test and seed treatment by Agronomy, grafting techniques and management of black pepper by Horticulture. The AICRP-V, SASRD demonstrated on drip irrigation and walk- intunnel techniques.

Training on agri farm machineries at Wokha

Scientists-farmers interaction was also held. This was followed by the valedictory programme where farmers and innovators gave feedback. A farmer from Zunheboto district said that the simple technology of soil testing which was demonstrated was one of the best things he learned and hoped that such training would be conducted regularly and over longer periods so that they will learn better.

Another farmer from Socünoma, an adopted village of Farmers’ Cell, said that through the demonstrations and technical sessions she had learned many new things which she was not aware about and expressed her opinion that more training should be conducted more often. Nihokhu Chopi, a well known innovator, expressed his gratitude for the platform given to him to share his experiences and knowledge with fellow farmers as well as to exhibit his products.

The chief guest gave away the certificates, seeds and farm implement to all the farmers.

The Coordinator Farmers’ Cell, SASRD, and the Convener of Farmers’ Fair 2016, Dr. L. Tongpang Longkumer delivered the vote of thanks.

Wokha, april 14 (MexN): A one day training and demonstration on agriculture farm machineries and implements was organized by Department of Agriculture, Wokha on April 13 at KVK ICAR Wokha.

Resource person, Mhalo (SMS, KVK ICAR Wokha) spoke in detail on the importance of mechanized farming. She explained in brief about the role of technology for successful implementation of mechanized farming in the field of Agriculture.

Various tools and machineries are developed to help ease farming through increase work efficiency, reduce labour cost, decrease time consumption. However, one has to fully understand how this mechanism works.

She said that if one fully understand and accept the varied technology, to

to make the Phek town road to become one of the best roads in the state.

He called upon the other officers in the District to come out of ‘ism’ and called upon them to give their best effort for the development of the District.

He also announced that NVFA will be conducting their tournament in the early part of 2017 in the district HQ. For this different committees were constituted. One time contribution from the Government employees of Phek District will be collected:- a) Gazetted Officers : Rs. 2000, b) Semi Gazette : Rs. 500, c) Grade III : 300, d) Grade IV : Rs. 200. He appealed to all the members to co-operate since this is one time

BFAC Jakhama Block meeting held kohiMa, april 14 (MexN): ATMA Jakhama Block conducted Block Farmer Advisory Committee (BFAC) meeting on April 12 at DAO Conference Hall, Kohima.

During the meeting, BTT Convener Wabang Longkumer delivered an opening remark on the purpose of the meeting. He stated that the BFAC members are selected from each village concerning for the welfare of the farmers and highlighted on their responsibilities and encouraged them to bring up new agendas in the upcoming meetings for the benefits of the interested farmers, working in collaboration with the ATMA officials. A brief account on the functioning and activities under ATMA was also stated.

A revised guideline for BFAC members was shared

by Vimenuo Mere, BTM Jakhama Block. The nominated revised members of BFAC were recorded. A short record on the activities taken up under the block was also shared.

The meeting was followed by interaction among the members where they all actively participated and shared on their experiences and challenges faced by the farmers in undertaking new agricultural technologies.

They also suggested at the same time requested on the enhancement of any agricultural activities within the block especially in the field of upgrading various existing Farm Schools so that intense trainings can be conducted, motivating their fellow farmers. The year action plan for 2016-2017 were discussed.

The meeting ended with a short speech by BFAC Visede Kar from Phesama village where he advised his fellow members to be responsible as selected and work for the benefit of one another and also to select farmers of interest and who are reliable for any group formation and to participate in various agricultural practices within their respective villages.

Altogether 13 farmers along with 3 ATMA officials attended the meeting.

Birthday Greeting Dear, Sede Solo As you add another year to your life. We wish you the best of everything. May you always be a source of happiness to the people around you. We pray God bless you and May your wish come true.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Lots of Love: Sis, Dad, Mom, Aunties & Grandma

event for the district in 11 eleven years.

Speaker NLA Chotisuh Sazo encouraged all the Heads of offices in the district to remain proactive in implementing the policies and programme of the Government as they are the ears and eyes of the Government .Stressing on the importance of agriculture, he stated that apart from paddy cultivation, he called upon the farmers to take up cash crops, livestock production etc. as this will improve their economic livelihood.

Parliamentary Secretary for Higher & Technical Education Deo Nukhu called upon the members to motivate our students to take up Science stream as the state is likely to get

more seats in Engineering course.

While reviewing the last DPDB meeting, District Project Officer Phek, N. Kehie, presented their departmental activities.

The objective of the department is to conserve and develop natural resources and addressed the issue of land degradation with a vision to eradicate poverty. Currently, there are 7(seven) IWMP ongoing projects in four batches covering 56 villages.

The board agreed and recommended the following schools to the Government- Upgradation of Government High School Phusachodu to Higher Secondary level, Up-gradation of Government Middle School Rukizu, Pfutsero to

leisure

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STd COdE: 0370 100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202 08974997923

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KoHIMA NoRTH: 7085924114 (o)

CHUMUKEDIMA: 7085982102 (o) 8732810051 (oC) WOkhA: 03860242215/101 (o) 8974322879 (oC) MoKoKCHUNG: 0369-2226225/ 101 (o) 8415830232 (oC) PHEK: 8414853765 (o) 8413822476(oC) zUNHEBoTo: 03867-280304/ 101 (o) 9436422730 (oC) TUENSANG: 8414853766 (o) 9856163601 (oC)

kIPhIRE: 8414853767 (o) 9436261577 (oC) PEREN: 7085189932 (o) 9856311205 (oC) LONgLENg: 7085924113 (o) 9862414264 (oC)

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Available on 15th April 2016 (Today) From 7am onwards.

Contact:8575858059/ 9402731625

Post: Assistant Manager description: The Nagaland State EATACOL (Entrepreneurs Associates Thrift & Credit Cooperatives Federation Ltd.), is looking for high performing and committed professionals to fill the post of Assistant Manager for its Thrift and Credit operations at the Head Office in Kohima. A minimum of 3 years of relevant working experience in the Corporate and or Banking Sector preferred.

Interested candidates may submit their CVs/Resume with an Application addressed to the Managing Director, EATACoL on or before the 25th of April, 2016 to the Head Office: PWD Junction, Next to Traffic Point, Kohima Nagaland 797001(Ph:- 0370 – 2243123) or email at eanagaland.hr@gmail.com. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further personal interview.

6. Spirals 7. False god 8. Anagram of “destinies” 9. mayday 10. A small earphone 11. Cobbler 12. Prying 13. Visual organs 18. Top of a wave 22. Pig sound 24. Coral barrier 26. Piecrust ingredient 28. Startles 29. 500 sheets 30. Fathers 31. dirty air 32. Teller of untruths 33. Efficacious 34. Tearing up 37. On the left or right 38. Rope fiber 40. Bankrolls 41. Anagram of “merit” 43. Spay 44. Abandon 46. Ballet skirts 47. An edict of the Russian tsar 48. Washing machine cycle 49. Supplemented 50. A titled peer of the realm 51. double-reed woodwind 53. A single time 56. hasten 57. directed

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ACROSS 1. JAbsent Without Leave 5. Corrosives 10. Feudal worker 14. heavy cart 15. Cowboy sport 16. greeting at sea 17. Instructions 19. Thorny flower 20. French for “Summer” 21. Streamlets 22. Complies 23. Remedy 25. Site of the Trojan War 27. Eastern Standard Time 28. Norm 31. mixture of rain and snow 34. Avoid 35. New Zealand parrot 36. Annoy 37. Startled 38. A person who is in charge 39. Buffoon 40. Filaments 41. Conditions 42. Small explosive bombs 44. Not brilliant 45. handed over 46. Seafood dipped in batter 50. Water lily 52. drench 54. Child 55. death notice 56. Wilderness 58. Wander 59. Bring upon oneself 60. Being 61. A doe or stag 62. Excrete 63. Accomplishment DOWN 1. Venomous snake 2. Produce a literary work 3. Rowed 4. Alkaline liquid 5. A creative person

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PIANO TUNER

Admission for 2016 Batch:

High School level.

The Annual Report of Phek DPDB was presented to the house by DPO & Member Secretary, DPDB, Phek, Kezungupe Tsuhah.

The Board had twelve meetings and 17 departments presented their activities.

The Board made 38 recommendations out of which three recommendations besides grant-in-aid were approved/implemented by the Government. The attendance of all the members for the year was circulated to the members.

In the next DPDB meeting, Fisheries and Education department are requested to present their departmental activities.

Meeting concluded with vote of thanks from the Chairman.

CROSSWORD # 3563

bring about mechanized and implements were farming is not a problem. done by resource person But the problem increases and department officials. when one fails to adopt technology in farming.

Therefore, she urged the farmers to learn through experience by implementing what is proper (Tuning & Repairing) Recognised by the and bring about mechanized farming to bring govt. of S. korea about desirable change Ph: 8416089458 and better farming. Practical demonstration on various machineries, tools

EXCEL COACHING & COMPUTER CENTRE

Phek DPDB called to give best effort for development phek, april 14 (dipr): The monthly meeting of Phek District Planning & Development Board (DPDB) for the month of April was held under the Chairmanship of Parliamentary Secretary for Higher & Technical Education, Deo Nukhu on April 13 at DPDB’s conference hall.

While welcoming the members to the meeting, two new members namely Japra Swuro, BDO Sekruzu and Nuvotsolu, SDEO Pfutsero were also introduced to the house.

The meeting was addressed by Kuzholuzo (Azo) MLA 19th A/C who congratulated the District Administration, Police and PWD, R&B department for being able

Trainees with resource persons and others during the training and demonstration on agriculture farm machineries and implements on April 13.

STd COdE: 0369

Police Station 1:

2226241

Police Station 2 :

2226214

Civil Hospital: Woodland Nursing Home:

2226216 2226263

Hotel Metsüpen (Tourist Lodge):

2226373/2229343

TAHAMzAM (formerly Senapati) STD CoDE: 03871 Police Station: Fire Brigade

CURRENCY NOTES

222246 222491

BUY(Rs)

SELL(Rs)

US Dollars Sterling Pound Hong Kong Dollar Australian Dollar Singapore Dollar Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen

64.96 91.69 8.1 49.03 48.16 49.94 59.87

67.90 96.14 9.03 51.43 50.53 52.39 63.26

Euro

74.04

77.62

1.79

2.00

Thai Baht Korean Won UAE Dirham (AED) Chinese Yuan

0.0548

0.061

17.12

19.06

9.71

10.81

FridAY 15•04•2016

NAGALAND

One year of Dimapur Police Commissionerate ‘DC defying court order’ alleges Heralwa village • Demarcation of Dimapur district into two police zones • Enhancement of manpower to 1498 personnel • Creation of 7 police outposts • A Traffic Cell opened at Chumukedima to lessen the load of the City Traffic Control Room Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Dimapur Police Commissionerate completes a year on April 15. On this date in 2015, the erstwhile office of the Superintendent of Police was taken over by the Police Commissionerate with the Commissioner of Police as the head of the district police.

It was regarded as a move to streamline and strengthen policing in a district which has the highest crime incidence rate in the state in addition to frequent road related mishaps and disobedience.

It saw the demarcation of the district into two police zones and enhancement of manpower to 1498 personnel. It resulted in creation of 7 police outposts. A Traffic Cell was also opened at Chumukedima to lessen the load of the City Traffic Control Room, now known as Traffic Control (Zone I).

On account of the one-

year milestone, an overview of the changes affected and the performance of the Commissionerate was handed out to the media today by the ADCP/PRO, Dimapur Police.

Traffic “The condition of the vehicular traffic in Dimapur has drastically been streamlined and the parking organized,” stated the PRO, while adding “improvements in various avenues are still required and necessary steps are being initiated.”

The first major task was streamlining traffic management, which resulted in dividing the district into two traffic zones. The increased manpower allowed for more personnel to be deployed.

Enforcement was carried out in tandem with sensitisation campaign through peopleto-people contact, social media and media advertisements. A key feature of the traffic enforcement drive is the use of breath analyzers. crime The demarcation of separate zones has “resulted in closer supervision of the police stations and thereby the crime management.” It was informed that a total of 1003 cases were registered in

the year 2015 in the district, while 1018 persons arrested.

The numbers of cases registered was stated to be the highest in any calendar year so far. The registered cases included 142 NLTP offences. In terms of seizures, 117 arms of different calibres, 904 rounds of ammunition, 16483 kg of ganja, 1 kg of heroin, 92979 tablets of banned drugs, 54520 bottles of illicit IMFL during 2015.

A total of 34 stolen vehicles were recovered with the Anti Vehicle Theft Squad recovering 14 four-wheelers and 15 two-wheelers during January 2016 to March 2016.

PUBLic iNTerface “The Dimapur police Commissionerate have from the start aimed at getting closer to citizens and in these efforts introduced various interfaces.” Keeping in touch with citizens through social media and making acquaintances with stakeholders have been a crucial part of policing in Dimapur. The Dimapur police also launched its own website, while a ‘Single Window Help Counter’ was opened at the office of the Commissioner of Police.

Closed User Group mobile connection was introduced among the various branches of the Commis-

sionerate, which are published regularly for the information of citizens.

Dedicated crime Help Line numbers are also in service.

Besides installing CCTV in important intersections and check-gates, the Dimapur police have worked with business organisations for CCTV coverage of market places and business establishments.

OThers The Commissionerate has begun registration and issuing of licences with Arms licensing due to be taken over.

“The one year of the police Commissionerate has also seen its highs and lows.

Certain sensational and serious incidents have taken place. While some cases have been successfully solved, some continue to drag on. However, Dimapur police is working vigorously and is confident that justice will be done.”

It was further informed that investigation into the Ritika Mehta murder case is drawing to a conclusion with the PRO stating that investigators are in the process of filing charge-sheet. Investigation into the Charlie Hansing shooting was also stated to be ongoing.

Morung Express News Dimapur | April 14

In a clear violation of the order of Gauhati High Court, Kohima bench, the Peren district administration appears to be acting arbitrarily with regard to the case Heralwa Village Council versus the State of Nagaland.

Members of the Heralwa Lui Council (HLC) in a press conference on Thursday alleged that despite the two orders of the High Court to maintain “status quo” with regard to the case, the deputy commissioner, Peren district, was willfully giving orders in favour of a particular party (village).

It may be mentioned earlier the HLC filed a case in the High Court relating to land dispute between Heralwa village and Peren village.

According to HLC, Heralwa village located between Peren Village and Tesen Village was reportedly abandoned some five generations due to some external aggression. It was reported that before abandoning the village, Heralwa villagers in the old Naga traditional way presented an ox to Peren village and entrusted the latter the care of Heralwa village land till the Heralwa villagers returned.

“But now when we have returned to re-settle in the village, Peren villagers, the caretaker of our land are dishonouring the trust reposed on them and forcefully evicting us”, HLC told the media during a press conference earlier on June

MEx FILE

Village council alleges abduction

Kohima, april 14 (mExN): The Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) has informed that the monthly joint meeting of the Naga National Council (NNC) and the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) will be held on April 25, 10:00 am in Transit Peace Camp, Kohima. The meeting will mainly discuss the ongoing situation in Nagaland and connected matters to urgently work out, according to a release issued by FGN secretary Thihü Khamo. Khamo has requested all the concerned civil authorities and Naga Army officers of the “original NNC/FGN” to attend the said meeting.

AKM informs private tutors

ANTHU Dimapur Unit informs Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Executive Members and Officer Bearers of the All Nagaland Hindi Teachers Union Dimapur Unit will be convening for a meeting on April 16, at Maha Vidyalaya HSSPK Burma Camp, Banker residence from 10:00 A.M. The Union Secretary H. Daniel Sema, through a press note, has requested to All the Executive Members and Office Bearers to attend the meeting without fail.

NNC informs Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Naga National Council (NNC)’s Joint Working Committee (JWC) which was formed on February 15, 2016 to oversee the activities of the council stands defunct “with immediate effect,” a press statement from the Committee Convenor Thupushuyi S. Keyho stated today. “Henceforth, the JWC shall cease to function and exist,” it said adding that the press statement is issued for the information of all concerned.

KUWA executive committee meet Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Kuzhami Welfare Association (KUWA) will have its executive committee meeting on April 16 at 2:00 pm at the Community Hall, Sodzulhou Village, 6th Mile. All concerned members have been requested to attend the meeting without fail.

DDEO Dimapur informs Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Deputy District Education Officer, Dimapur has informed that the Teachers’ State Award forms will be issued during office hours. Therefore, any deserving candidates from both government and private schools have been informed to collect and submit the forms during office hours on or before May 10, 2016. Meanwhile, the DDEO, R Amongla Jamir informed that the Govt. Teachers’ Financial Assistance forms are also being issued. Therefore, the DDEO has informed to collect the forms (only for disabled/ ailment/ untimely death and natural calamities).

Training at Cornerstone College Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): Vocational Training was launched at Cornerstone College, Dimapur on April 13 by Er. Lanuwapang, Director, NEILIT, Kohima.

An MOU was signed between the Cornerstone College and NEILIT, pledging each other that some of the courses offered in NEILIT will be extended to the college. The programme was chaired by Sungtiben, Asst. Prof Department of English, invocation and special number by Along, followed by an introduction and welcome address by Dr. Sashimeren Aier, Chairman Cornerstone College, Dimapur.

but nonetheless, we make it abundantly clear that the deputy commissioner, Peren, shall ensure that status quo order passed by this court on 21-05-2015 should be maintained till the case is finally disposed of. Deputy Commissioner, Peren, shall ensure that no incident of violence or intimation (sic) of any kind takes place in the meantime.

Violation of the status quo shall be viewed seriously by the Court”, the High Court in its order dated October 7, 2015, stated.

“Despite the two clear standing orders of the High Court, police personnel accompanied by three DBs under the order of DC Peren on April 12 last around 11.30 p.m. came to the outskirt of Heralwa village and razed down one of our huts”, HLC alleged.

In the latest incident, HLC sources alleged that on Thursday evening, police and DBs under directive of district administration came and damaged all their huts and detained around seven of Heralwa villagers at Jalukie Police Station.

“Now HLC is ready to file an FIR against the DC Peren for violation of court order. Instead of protecting villagers who are obeying the court order, the DC is siding with those defying the court order. We also demand to know whether the three DBs of Peren (head DB Lungrai, Abam and Heiziedi) are acting on their own personal interest or on behest of the district administration”, HLC said.

Man from Sotokur missing for 3 days

NNC, FGN joint meet on April 25

Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Ao Student Conference (AKM) has called a meeting with of all the private tuition (both Home & Normal tuition teachers) on April 16, at AKM Conference Hall, 2 PM onwards.

A press note from AKM Education Secretary Pangnem said that the meeting would discuss the ongoing tuition system in Mokokchung Town. On this regard, all the private teachers both working and non-working school teachers in Mokokchung Town are informed to attend the meeting positively. “No special or personal information will be given regarding the meeting, it added.

26, 2015.

It may mentioned earlier the Kohima bench of Gauhati High Court in an order dated May 21, 2015, stated, “Till then, status quo as regards possession of the land in respect of Heralwa Village as claimed by the appellants shall be maintained.”

Despite the order, HLC alleged that Peren villagers forcefully evicted Heralwa villagers on June 20, 2015.

HLC alleged that even the Deputy Commissioner of Peren district was biased as reflected in a “Restraint order” issued by DC Peren dated July 3, 2015, copies of which were furnished to the media.

“Consequent upon the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court W.A. No. 27 (IC) 2011 order dated 27th May 2015 both Haralwa Lui Council and Peren Village are directed to maintain status quo till such time the Hon’ble High Court issue further direction/order. The parties involved are also directed to restraint themselves from any further works/ activities in the disputed areas”, stated the DC Peren “Restraint order.”

“The restraint order of the DC Peren was clearly in contravention of the High Court order and against the interest of Heralwa village. We again appealed the High Court on and also filed contempt of court against DC Peren for open defiance of the court order. Subsequently, the High Court passed another order on October 7, 2015”, HLC informed.

“At this stage, it may not be possible to ascertain the correctness or otherwise of the complaint made

The Notun Basti Council (NBC) undertook a road levelling initiative at the busy Notun Basti junction at Circular, Dimapur on April14. The junction, which hosts a daily evening market has been prone to water-logging for many years due to lack of drainage system. NBC fund was mobilised to procure sand and gravel to fill potholes as the authorities in concern has been neglecting the area. In the picture are seen volunteers at work led by NBC chairman, John Lotha and elders of the locality on Thursday.

Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): A man from Sotokur village, Tuensang district remains untraced after going missing on April 11.

The missing man, identified by the Sotokur Village Council (SVC) as one S. Kumcho, was serving as the Mission Secretary of the Sotokur Baptist Church and a former chairman of the Village Education Committee.

The SVC, in a press release, citing circumstantial evidence alleged it to be a case of abduction. According to the SVC, the man was abducted “by some unidentified miscreants

about two and half KM ahead of Helipong junction on April 11… while he was on his way to Tuensang on church duty on his motor cycle.”

An FIR was lodged in the evening at Tuensang Police Station after it was learned that the man did not reach Tuensang. Subsequently, search party was mobilised headed by the district administration and the police, the SVC said. During the search, the missing man’s motor-cycle and helmet were found allegedly pushed off below the side of the road.

Search for the man entered the third day on April 14 without success. Quoting eyewitness reports of

Citizens pledge to keep the Phek Town clean Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): In order to sensitise the people regarding the importance of sanitation and green environment, the Phek Town Youth Society (PTYS) organised a ‘Clean-Green Operation Phek Program’ on April 14 at Hospital Junction, Phek.

The Operation will carry on till the existence of PTYS, maintained a press note from Member Secy of initiative Kozote Akami. The Deputy Commissioner of Phek Murohu Chotso launched the program in the presence of Government Officers, public leaders various NGOs, all the colony chairman, GB’s, publics from the town and from the surrounding villages, it said.

Speaking on the occasion, Chotso stressed that if the surrounding are clean, the people will become healthier and informed the gathering that that the bad habit of smoking or spitting Paan

and Tamul anywhere will be banned.

Rongsenmenla Imchen IFS, Divisional Forest Officer Phek who spoke on clean and green environment, said that tree should be planted to absorb poisonous gases, at the same time one should maintained clean stream and nullahs. She also encouraged people to maintain Green Market i.e. free from poaching and urged for shared transport to prevent pollution and to save fuel. and extended the department full support and cooperation for fruitful implementation of the program.

The ADC and the Administrator PTC, Kuko Mero stressed on solid waste management and pointed out that it is everybody’s responsible to make 'Clean-Green Phek' into a reality.

Tackling the issue of cleanliness and public health, Dr. Wetshelo T Mero, Senior Specialist, District Hospital Phek elaborated on poor sanita-

tion and its effects and said that haphazardly disposing waste material and non-biodegradable substances such as plastics, bottle and rubbers causes health hazards to the people. Burning of plastic produces toxins infect our respiratory tract thereby causing cancer and may lead to death, he cautioned further informing that poor sanitation leads to common sickness like flu, diarrhea, pneumonia, cholera, dysentery etc.

Meanwhile, the PTYS further said that the program adopted certain resolutions which were read out by Nuyi Hoshi, Convener Clean-Green Operation for effective implementation of the operation. The program resolved to be totally cleaned within three months time and gathering also appended their signature in the banner as a sign of full support and pledge to keep the town and surrounding clean, it added.

Nagaland remembers Dr. BR Ambedkar’s legacy Morung Express News Kohima | April 14

Joining the rest of the country, Nagaland today commemorated the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B.R Ambedkar by pledging honour his legacy maintaining social harmony and equity.

The nation-wide campaign for celebration of National Panchayati Day was concurrently observed during the same event.

The State level celebration organised by the Social Welfare Department and Rural Development Department was held at Rural Development, Directorate Conference Hall Kohima.

Chairing the programme, the State Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar IAS administrated the Oath to the participants, where they made solemn pledge to maintain social harmony and equity in order to create an equitable so-

ciety, the dream of Dr. B.R Ambedkar.

Speaking on the occasion, CL John, Minister for Rural Development highlighted the contributions of Dr. B.R Ambedkar to the nation who visualized the socio economic and political transformation of the country through parliamentary democracy and rule of law, and gave the nation the idea of liberty, equality, fraternity.

He said that Nagaland is a pioneer in the grassroot development through the concept of Village Development Boards in the country.

While the existence of the village councils has exempted Nagaland from the purview of Panchayati Raj, the state should not be denied its due share of development from the schemes framed under the Panchayati Raj Ministry, he asserted.

“All of us must ensure that the Constitution is

strictly enforced. Justice delayed is justice denied and most of the time the weaker sections happen to be the victims,” he added.

He further articulated for peace and congenial atmosphere to usher in development. “To make a strong and progressive India as envisaged in our constitution, all of us must remain vigilant and guarded against forces and elements trying to destroy the unity and social harmony of our Nation.”

Kelei Zeliang, IAS, Secretary, Rural Development who spoke on the significance of 14th April the day of the Constitutional Amendment for Panchayati Raj came into force, stated that the Panchayati Raj Act was the foundation on which dignity and equality was bestowed upon to the poor and needy and the pillar of protection for the deprived.

While taking pride in the success of the VDB format of decentralization in Nagaland, Zeliang maintained that the format also contributed to the basic formation and concretization of the Panchayati Raj Act. Zeliang further briefed on the importance of decentralization and significance of the 73rd Constitutional amendment, and its Eleventh schedule which focus on land development programs, education and cultural activities, social welfare, provision of civic amenities, poverty alleviation and allied programs, maintenance of community assets, organisation and control of rural markets and village fairs.

A life sketch of Ambedkar was narrated by Delirose M Sakhrie, IAS, Secretary, Social Welfare while a short speech was delivered by Kiyaneilie Peseyie, Minister for Social Welfare.

the search operation, the SVC cited sightings of signs purportedly indicating that the victim was taken beyond a river (unnamed) below the road near which the motor-cycle was found.

“However, the search volunteers were not allowed by police personnel to cross and search beyond the river.”

While appreciating the response of the administration and the police, the SVC urged the Nagaland State government to intensify the search operation. The SVC further appealed the neighbouring villages to assist the search operation.

The Tuensang Police could not be reached to comment on the incident.

4 arrested for extortion Dimapur, april 14(mExN): Based on information from public, the Anti-Extortion Team under Zone-I of the Dimapur Police, on April 14, apprehended four persons from Chumukedima on charges of extortion. They were caught while handing out tax leaflets to the truck drivers, stated a press release from Addl. Dy Commissioner of Police/PRO, Dimapur.

The police identified the culprits as Selitre of Seyochung, under Kiphire District; and others as Katoshe, Toyeho Sumi of Litsami village and Khetovi of Shuhibo village, all under Zunheboto district. Presently, they are all residents of Dimapur and members of the NNC (NA), the police said adding that various incriminating documents along with two mode of conveyance were seized from their possession. A case was registered against them under Diphupar Police Station and the police are making further investigation, it added.

One arrested for robbery Kohima, april 14 (mExN): The Kohima Police, on Thursday, arrested one person for involving in looting of taxi drivers on two separate occasions.

The police identified the person as Vekhota Sapu (22 yrs) of Zapose-o Village – Phughwe, under Peren District. According to a press note from Sub – Divisional Police Officer & PRO Kohima, Atu Zumvü NPS the accused was initially produced by youth of Naga Hospital colony before the Kohima South Police Station and lodged an F.I.R alleging that he was involved in looting of taxi drivers.

An further enquiry, it was ascertained that the arrested person on two separate occasions (11th and 12th April 2016) had hired two different taxis and on reaching Jotsoma village snatched away cash and mobile phones of the drivers, the police informed. In this connection, a regular case vide Kohima South P.S was registered against the arrested person.

ZPO (N) denounces Dimapur, april 14 (mExN): The Zeliang People’s Organisation, Nagaland today voiced out its strong disapproval and condemnation over the proposed the inauguration of a Rongmei village under Jalukie in Peren district in the “name and style of Jalukie Rongkaidai Village” on April 15, 2016.

In a press statement issued by its Media Cell, ZPO (N) said, “For the manner the village is established on a procured piece, the sentiment of the native Zeliangs is never daunted nor suppressed but the shortsighted conduct of any section of the population who had gullibly succumbed to the influence of money and are continuing to act as achievers is vehemently denounced.” Land ownership is inherent and hence procurement never denotes natural right, ZPO (N) further asserted. In this regard, it maintained that ZPO(N) and the Zeliangs will stand by the truth for “it shall prevail” in the end.

6

friday 15•04•2016

IN FOCUS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express volume Xi issue 102

Indigenous people at risk

I

ndigenous people’ endeavors to survive, have their basic needs met and their fundamental rights honored has been complicated by compelling circumstances and exceptional challenges created by the State’s homogenizing and hegemonizing nature.

While State-formation has raised questions of legitimacy and democratic principles of consent, it continues to pursue its dominance and rule by pushing indigenous people to the margins. Many governments have created numerous ‘special privileges and reservations’ for indigenous people that are far from being implemented in the spirit of dignity and respect.

For the most part, countries continue to use hostile approaches when addressing basic human needs which raise questionable doubts of their intent and purpose.

In situations where various ethnic and national groups coexist, the State has, on one hand, drawn physical boundaries that coincide and complement the cultural values of its inhabitants to assert ‘internal pacification’ and ‘unity in diversity.’ Whereas, in cases concerning issues of ‘territorial security’ and ‘national interests’ arbitrary boundaries are created to negate the organic relationship of land as being inherent to identity. The State’s organization of territorial space and people has forced situations of dependency that limits indigenous people’s growth and desire for sovereignty.

The State relishes holding a pre-eminent position which defines and establishes the parameters of State-indigenous peoples relationships. For instance, the State has the capability of diverting a State-People conflict to a conflict between and among indigenous peoples. Such conflicts effectively create a situation that separates and divides. These circumstances deprive indigenous people of the practical means for communicating effectively with each other independent of the state.

Furthermore, the State always claims and projects itself as a ‘neutral’ and ‘impartial’ arbitrator expressing the necessity of self-auditing by instituting enquiry commissions.

Time and time again, structural violence that is institutionalized in State mechanisms, invisible and hidden has a far reaching and devastating impact on indigenous people. The State thrives on the basis of what it does, what it promises to do, and projects itself as sensitive with self-reflection through auditing mechanisms. This posturing projects the appearance of being more credible and legitimate. The unwillingness to acknowledge existing conflicts of interests and aspirations between State and indigenous people poses a problem when framing contentious issues themselves. This tactic effectively sets aside having possible and available options for addressing the situation.

Many conditions contribute to indigenous people’s distrust of the State’s efforts to address contentious issues and being conflicts to a peaceful end. These include the lack of having an inclusive and participatory negotiating forum with representative from all parties, in addition to failed peace accords. This distrust is validated by indigenous people when they see the State using negotiating opportunities to dominate rather than nurture understanding and participation. Past experiences have demonstrated that they will be forced to accept unwanted compromises in the face of vast power imbalances.

Almost all peace processes and agreement have caused resistance groups to disintegrate while their respective communities and societies simultaneously become dispirited and polarized. The State’s agenda to continually legitimize its hegemonic claim over indigenous peoples in a given space by way of ‘domination through negotiation’ has created an environment of suspicion. These conditions block any existing space that is conducive to and essential for reaching peaceful democratic settlements between the State and peoples.

lEfT WING |

IANS

Brazil's largest grocery chain pledges to chop deforestation, slavery from supply chain Chris Arsenault

B

Thomson Reuters Foundation

razil's largest grocery chain has pledged to stop selling beef produced on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest in what campaigners say is a victory for the environment and human rights.

Food retailer Pão de Açúcar also promised to stop buying beef produced by workers living in slave-like conditions, or cattle produced on land grabbed from local communities.

The grocery chain has hired consulting firms to audit their supply chains and the firm will cut ties with businesses causing deforestation in the Amazon, said a spokeswomen for Greenpeace Brazil which welcomed the new purchasing plan - to be implemented by the end of June - as a step in the right direction.

"To operate in the Amazon, companies must stop buying from farms involved in land grabbing, slavery or deforestation," Greenpeace's Adriana Charoux told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "They have a lot of work to do before June 30."

Representatives of Pao de Açúcar were unavailable for interviews.

"We have worked to mitigate the social and environmental risks of our supply chains," a company spokeswoman said in a statement issued last week.

The firm operates 832 stores across Brazil and has pledged to help its suppliers improve their practices ahead of the June deadline.

Cattle production is the main driver of Amazon deforestation, Charoux said. About 60 percent the land that was once rainforest is now occupied by cattle.

Once one of the worst offenders for deforestation due to land clearing in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil has seen major improvements in recent years, as the government and companies have tried to address the problem.

The rate of deforestation has fallen by nearly 80 percent since 2003, according to a study published last year.

But with South America's largest country in the midst of a recession, some rural politicians are pushing the government to relax environmental protection in an attempt to boost economic growth.

The cattle industry is one of the main industries employing enslaved workers in Brazil, Charoux said.

Between 1995 and 2015, nearly 50,000 people were freed from slave-like conditions in the country, with most working in the textile sector of the cattle business, she said, citing official figures.

Pao de Açúcar has pledged to be transparent in which businesses it buys beef from, making it easier for monitoring groups to track whether these suppliers are involved in slavery, deforestation or unfair land deals, Charoux said.

"This is a clear signal to all its suppliers, and the market as a whole, that the meat comes from deforestation is no longer accepted by society," Charoux said, crediting Brazilian consumers for pressuring the company to improve its practices.

C O M M E N T A R Y

Daniel Sullivan FairObserver

Ignoring the Plight of the Rohingya is a Mistake

The State Department’s minimization of the plight of the Rohingya is sending dangerous, mixed messages to Myanmar and its neighbors

T

he US State Department’s recent declaration of the Islamic State (IS) being responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims, captured headlines across the globe. The news came out of a congressionally mandated report.

However, the biggest story out of that report was not about IS, but rather the failure to find anything more than “discrimination” and “persecution” against the Rohingya in western Myanmar. Such a shockingly understated conclusion and downplaying of atrocities against Rohingya sends a dangerously mixed message at a time of important transition.

It is not so much that the State Department did not find that the Rohingya are facing genocide. Proving intent is always a difficult and controversial barrier for genocide determination. Rather, the greater damage is in the blatant minimization of the plight of the Rohingya and what it means for increasing the risk of further atrocities against them.

The Evidence The threat is real. The Early Warning Project at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, a sophisticated system of state-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative analysis, continues to place Myanmar at the top of its list of countries at the greatest risk of mass killings.

Multiple independent human rights group reports, including by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Fortify Rights, United to End Genocide, and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, have documented abuses and warned about the high risk of genocide and mass atrocities in Myanmar. Yale Law School’s Human Rights Clinic has found “strong evidence” that genocide is already taking place.

Even if one disagrees with such a determination, it is clear that the risks are high and that the Rohingya face much more than your run of the mill “discrimination” and “persecution.” United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng has warned about rising religious hatred and marginalization of the Rohingya and the need to address the situation “or face the risk of further violence and potentially, more serious crimes.” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in his last report on Myanmar to the UN General Assembly, cited no major improvements to “long-standing and institutionalized dis-

crimination against the Rohingya community.”

Even the State Department report itself lists a litany of abuses that beg for a stronger and more accurate conclusion. The report cites the deaths of over 200 people and the displacement of 140,000 in intercommunal violence targeted against the Rohingya in 2012. It states, “There have been numerous acts of violence against Rohingya over the last few years,” and cites the UN Refugee Agency’s estimates that 160,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by sea since 2012. The report finds that government policies continue to restrict freedom of movement, access to vital health care and education services, and rights to marry and have children. It further finds that the government “restrict(s) access for humanitarian agencies providing life-saving services” and that the government has “enabled discrimination and targeting of members of the Rohingya population.”

Blatant Minimization Yet the State Department findings leave out significant events and fail to add up to an adequate conclusion. Strangely, the crisis in 2015 that saw thousands of Rohingya and other migrants and asylum seekers trapped at sea gets no mention. Similarly, the fact that hundreds of lives were put at risk when the Burmese government expelled Doctors Without Borders in February 2014 goes unmentioned. While the group has been allowed back in, it is at a much reduced scale and with greater restrictions. UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee continues to report on “preventable deaths due to lack of access to emergency medical treatment.”

Exact estimates of deaths are difficult given the ongoing access restrictions, but the report’s authors do not seem to make the connection between the stated restrictions and the very real loss of life.

The minimization is particularly striking coming in parallel to the strong language on the Islamic State. Whereas the State Department’s report comes to the damning conclusion that IS has committed mass atrocities, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, the Rohingya are treated like an afterthought, getting the surprisingly low key summary sentence: “Meanwhile, we remain concerned about current acts that constitute persecution of and discrimination against members of the Rohingya population in Burma.”

While freely referring to atrocities committed

by IS, the report seems to go out of its way to avoid the use of the word “atrocities” in regard to abuses against the Rohingya. Key subheadings refer to “atrocities in the Middle East,” but just “the situation in Burma” (emphasis added). While the IS determination was rightfully deemed of such great importance that it required an address by US Secretary of

State John Kerry, the Rohingya determination came up only in a cursory exchange with the State Department’s spokesperson at the prompting of a reporter.

The Dangers of Minimization So what does this all mean?

First, such minimization sends a dangerous note to the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). Shortly, after the NLD’s historic electoral victory in November 2015, NLD Spokesman U Win Thein said the Rohingya would not be a priority and suggested talking to Bangladesh about returning them. Suu Kyi has answered questions about the Rohingya by saying their plight should not be exaggerated.

Many Rohingya are optimistic about their future under an NLD-led government, but with such statements, it is not at all clear that their situation will be any better. This is all the more reason for the US to clearly include treatment of the Rohingya as an essential part of US-Myanmar bilateral relations. The US State Department report muddles that message at best.

Second, the report sends a dangerous message to Myanmar’s neighbors, those who have taken in tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees.

The initial reaction by member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to the boat crisis in May 2015 was woefully inadequate, and the status of Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers in those countries remains tenuous. If Myanmar’s neighbors get the message that the situation faced by the Rohingya is not so dire, then why should they provide refuge?

Obama Must Speak Out Sadly, this appears to go above the US State Department. President Barack Obama had a perfectly good opportunity to emphasize treatment of the Rohingya not only to Myanmar, but to all of its neighbors when he hosted regional heads at the US-ASEAN Summit in February. But the Rohingya did not even make the agenda.

When Obama first visited Myanmar in November 2012, addressing the situation in Rakhine State was one of 11 commitments made by now outgoing President Thein Sein. In the final days of the Thein Sein administration, it is clear that the Rohingya situation has not gotten any better. The question remains: Will Suu Kyi and the NLD do anything about this? As long as that is a question, President Obama must be clear in his message that she must.

The bar for doing better in regard to the Rohingya is not high, but the consequences for not doing better may just be genocide and mass atrocities, the very threats that the State Department seems so intent on ignoring.

Islamic State, al Qaeda and nuclear madness John lloyd

T

Reuters

hose who complain that the news is depressing have a valid point. But it could get exponentially worse.

China, Russia, Egypt and Turkey are becoming even more authoritarian. The European Union is “on the verge of collapse,” according to George Soros, one of its strongest supporters. Global warming is worsening. The BRICS countries, which were to be engines of global growth, are all struggling with economic decline and political cul-de-sacs — with the slightly shaky exception of India. In every case, except those of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping (though not his extended family), the leader has been accused of corruption.

In the United States, both the number of jobs and the GDP are rising, but the bitterness of the political divide and the willingness of parts of the electorate to endorse prejudice as a political principle is itself a crisis, and will be for the next president. The determination of the rich to stay rich and get richer is vividly displayed in the leaks from Panama.

But the news can get more depressing. We might get blown up.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama invoked the need for world leaders to cope with “the danger of a terrorist group obtaining and us-

ing a nuclear weapon.” In his speech at the Nuclear Security Summit, he had much success to report: earlier commitments to secure or eliminate nuclear material had been followed by most of the world’s states.

A “but” was coming, and it was large: both al Qaeda and Islamic State actively seek nuclear weaponry, Obama said, and “there is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as possible.” That seems likely to be true: both groups have said so, and a member of Islamic State — which has already used chemical weapons — obtained surveillance footage of a manager at a nuclear facility in Belgium, with a view, officials say, of possibly developing a “dirty” bomb (a conventional explosive device packed with radioactive material).

The head of U.S. National Intelligence, James Clapper, told a Senate committee last month that “the threat of WMD is real. Biological and chemical materials and technologies, almost always dual use, move easily in the globalized economy, as do personnel with the scientific expertise to design and use them.” The veteran commentator on terrorism, Bruce Hoffman, wrote in March that Islamic State is moving

towards the “final Definitive Victory State… when the caliphate ultimately triumphs over the rest of the world.”

For that, it will need nuclear weapons.

Hoffman also believes that the two groups most hungry for global domination — Islamic State and al Qaeda — may merge, in spite of their leaders’ mutual hostility. This possibility, he said, quoting an unnamed senior U.S. official, “would be an absolute and unprecedented disaster for (the United States) and our allies.”

More cheer? Russia didn’t attend the nuclear summit. Moscow had said last November that it thought the United States was trying to “take the role of the main and ‘privileged’ player in this sphere” — so it didn’t show. Russia, Obama said to reporters, had made little, if any, progress on the Security Summit’s goals — because Putin has been pursuing a vision of of “emphasizing military might.”

The United States and Russia are estimated to have between them 95 percent of the world’s 15,000 nuclear warheads: the United States 6,970, Russia, 7300. The United States has been slightly reducing its stock; Russia has not. Obama, in a speech in Prague near the beginning of his first presidency seven years ago, called for a nuclear-free world — as Ronald Reagan had done before him.

WRITE-WING

By contrast, Putin has threatened to use nuclear weapons on Islamic State, on Turkey and as a response to Western protests when Russian forces seized Crimea. In the summer of 2014, in a more veiled threat, he told a youth group that “Let me remind you that Russia is one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers. These are not just words — this is the reality. What’s more, we are strengthening our nuclear deterrent capability and developing our armed forces.”

The United States, like Russia, modernizes and upgrades its nuclear forces continually, and is likely to sell Patriot interceptor missiles to Poland — much to Russia’s fury. But somehow, the widening gulf between the nations has to be bridged, or we face the largest problem of all: a widely-dispersed ability to annihilate much of the world.

The news should not just be “depressing,” but rather a prompt for greater engagement and understanding of its complexity. And with understanding comes the need to support those politicians, officials and organizations seeking compromise and solution. If the 20th was the American century, the 21st must be the world’s, in which the facts of multiple threats prompt a mutual response. Without it, the cocoons we seek to hide from bad news crumble more by the year.

Letters to the Editor should be sent to: The morung express, House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur - 797112, Or –email: morung@gmail.com All letters (including those via email) should have the full name and Postal address of the sender.

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

friday 15•04•2016

PERSPECTIVE

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

7

Global elites beware: The ‘Panama Honduras: Land grabbing Papers’ won’t be the last revelation is killing Indigenous Peoples Peter Apps

Andrea Reyes Blanco and Tim Shenk

Reuters

Truthout

O

n the surface, the release of 11 million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca tells us relatively little that was not already known — or at least, broadly suspected. Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a steady drip of information and evidence pointing to the worldwide network of tax havens, front companies and other financial vehicles that allow powerful individuals and corporations to avoid taxes and conceal ownership, often entirely legally.

The release, though, is the largest so far — and almost certainly not the last. Gradually, the opaque networks that helped a whole generation of the world’s most influential people amass their power and wealth — in both authoritarian and democratic states — are becoming more transparent. It’s a gradual process, for sure, but it may now be unstoppable.

That transparency is now intertwined with — and will most certainly further fuel — a much wider anti-elite backlash. It can be seen in the political process in almost every country, from the U.S. election to mounting political instability in Europe to the internal machinations of China, Saudi Arabia and 50 other nations.

The implications of that may be widespread — and perhaps far from entirely positive. The 2011 “Arab Spring,” after all, was in part produced by anger at just these trends — and it hasn’t turned out particularly well.

From the rise of Donald Trump to farright policies in Europe, we’re already seen what to many feel like worrying political shifts in the West as well.

There may be more beneficial consequences, too, however — a shaking up of political and other systems that is badly needed. With luck, it should bring in new blood while challenging and diluting some of the assumptions of the overlapping political, business and intellectual elites that gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos At the very least, it should provide new impetus to fix the worldwide tax system and make it harder for individuals and institutions to dodge their obligations.

In Iceland, still scarred by its 2008 banking crisis, the revelations have already brought down a prime minister.

Elsewhere, however, the consequences may be more complex.

In some cases — most notably in linking Russian President Vladimir Putin to roughly $2 billion in assets run by one of his friends — the latest release simply provides more of a paper trail

B

for something many people have long believed. Rightly or wrongly, many in government and financial circles have always believed Putin is amongst the world’s richest men, although they also believe much of that money is quickly passed on to others as part of the system of patronage that keeps him in power.

The more interesting lessons from the papers, I think, lies in the other cases — the many other members of the world’s rich and powerful using these tools. In these cases, they seem much less likely to cause outright resignations or seismic political change. British Prime Minister David Cameron will survive the revelation that his stockbroker father was heavily involved in legal offshore tax avoidance strategies — if anything, he is more threatened by the upcoming Brexit referendum.

Similarly, I suspect political elites in Argentina, Ghana, Egypt and many of the other countries mentioned will also ride out the storm.

That does not mean, however, that the release will have no effect.

What many of those involved clearly counted on was safety in numbers.

They did not feel bad about using these various offshore locations and other tax saving measures because so many others in the global economic and political elite were doing so. In fact, the opposite is turning out to be true.

If anything, I suspect this will supercharge a trend that is already becoming visible — the emergence of a new generation of political leaders from slightly

different backgrounds. In this environment, wealth and elite educations and careers may actually be a hindrance rather than a help.

That may not stop those bent on wealth alone from using tax havens — but it might well be a deterrent to those that also want political power.

It’s a trend already discernible in British politics, where three relatively mainstream candidates for the opposition Labour party leadership were beaten by Jeremy Corbyn, a 66-yearold socialist. His unexpected victory in many ways presaged the rise of Bernie Sanders. The other three candidates were longtime political operatives who had been making their way up within the profession since leaving university.

Corbyn himself is now somewhat struggling, accused by many within his own party of being too left-wing to be electable. If he falls, however, the MP considered to be his most likely successor is Dan Jarvis, a former officer in the notoriously tough Parachute Regiment who would himself be a departure from the relatively narrow elites that have dominated British politics in recent years. (Jarvis, meanwhile, has faced criticism of his own for accepting donations from hedge fund bosses.)

David Cameron’s Conservative cabinet has been amongst the least representative in recent history — several top figures, including the prime minister, went to Eton, most have several million pounds in the bank at least, many from careers in consultancy or fi-

nancial services. Until recently, the two most likely figures to replace Cameron were seen as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson, both clearly cut from the same cloth.

More recently, though, that has begun to change. There is growing talk of new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb — a working-class Welsh MP raised by a single mother on a council estate who later worked on building sites — as a potential Tory leader.

Such candidates have yet to seriously penetrate the U.S. political system — although that may only be a matter of time. Despite his recent primary wins, Sanders looks to have rallied too late to take the Democratic nomination. Clinton and Trump have long been members of the elite mainstream, for all the latter’s claims to outsider status.

Riding the anti-establishment bandwagon, however, will only achieve so much. Even if the next crop of politicians can avoid being implicated in some of the morally uncomfortable dealings revealed by the Panama papers, that will not itself fix the system.

For all its deficiencies, the current globalized financial and trading system has helped lift hundreds of millions from poverty in the developing world even as the wealth gap in almost every individual country has grown. Taming its worst excesses without breaking it entirely will be no easy task.

Meet the Australian Man Who’s Eating Nothing But Potatoes for a Whole Year Gigen Mammoser

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ment and that’s it. Everything else is covered in what I’m eating. I’m getting blood test results at the end of this week, so I’ll have a better idea.

But I feel amazing, and I think that’s a good indicator.

Munchies

ndrew Taylor—a 36-yearold teacher, husband, and father from Melbourne, Australia—is currently in his fourth month of a year-long plan to eat nothing but potatoes.

No butter. No onions. No kale. No beef.

Just potatoes. Well, and the occasional beer.

That seems like a shocking proposition, probably because somewhere in the dialogue of contemporary nutrition, we forgot that the potato is a vegetable of significant value. The humble spud has become something of a boogeyman, a strawman for angry PTA members demanding to know why their kid is getting a bit too chubby. Perhaps some of that also also goes back to the ongoing “is ketchup a vegetable” school lunch debate of the 1980s, and the ensuing conclusion that dipping fried potatoes in sweetened tomato paste was somehow healthy. But, again, the issue is not the potato itself, but its preparation. Yes, the North American fixation with potatoes typically involves drowning them in boiling hot oil, or mashing them up with cream, butter, and garlic—but just because we choose to make them unhealthy. Doesn’t mean they are inherently so.

Undoubtedly, it’s our own preconceived notions about potatoes, or more exactly, how potatoes are eaten, that have made Mr. Taylor’s endeavours so perplexing.

MUNCHIES spoke with him earlier, to hear from the man himself about his tater-only diet.

MUNCHIES: How is it going?

Andrew Taylor: I feel amazing. Everything is going real well. It’s come together. I’ve got a lot of energy. I’m sleeping better. I’ve lost a lot of weight.

How much weight have you lost at this point?

Let’s see… about 29 kilograms.

How did you choose potato to eat for a year, as opposed to something else?

I decided on potatoes because there

What was the hardest food for you to say goodbye to?

I don’t think that I really had a favourite food to eat; it was just any sort of junk food really. I think that the biggest difference to my health has come from getting rid of fats in general; I’m not eating any fatty foods.

was the most scientific evidence as well as historic evidence available to back them up. The entire Irish population thrived for centuries on almost only potatoes, before the potato famine. The Dutch did similar. Lastly, there are indigenous people around the world today who are in great health live on almost only potatoes. This combination of evidence and historic events gave me the confidence it could be okay.

Have you had to get more creative with how to cook potatoes?

Well, the point of this was to try to beat food addiction. Obviously, a drug or alcohol addict, the best thing they can do is to quit drugs and alcohol entirely, so that’s what I wanted to do with food.

Part of it is to keep food boring, and stop making it a way that I can get comfort and emotional support. I’m consciously making it uninteresting because I want to derive enjoyment from other parts of life. My staples are mashed, boiled, and baked potatoes.

You use the phrase food addiction as opposed to overeating—how do you differentiate those things?

I think overeating begets food addiction. It makes sense to me that anyone who is overweight does have a food addiction. So, I’m just calling it as I see it. You can’t lose weight long term and keep it off unless you deal with the cause of the problem, which is addiction to food, rather than just dealing with the symptoms.

How has your doctor reacted to this?

I saw my doctor when I started and it definitely wasn’t recommended by him to do it, but when I told him the plan, he was very supportive. He didn’t think my health would suffer. It wasn’t something that he would prescribe, but he was more than happy to supervise me through it and do my blood testing and checkups and all that.

Are you having to do any additional supplementation with your food?

I’m taking a vitamin B-12 supple-

How many kilograms of potatoes are you eating a day? Is it breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

It’s pretty fluid. I eat as much as I feel like eating, whenever I feel like eating, so there’s no structure to it. I don’t count calories at all. I don’t count how many potatoes I eat.

For the first couple of weeks, I was keeping track of the weight of potatoes, only because I bought them in two-kilogram bags, so I knew how many bags I went through, and at that point it averaged about 3.5 kilos a day, but that may have changed, because I don’t track that anymore. These days I’ve got a sponsor that’s providing my potatoes.

I get the potatoes in big boxes now and I don’t know how much weight I eat.

You have a potato sponsor?

I do, yeah. Since around the start of February, I’ve had all my potatoes provided to me, yeah. It’s a local fruit and vegetable shop.

Do you see “Spud Fit” as a brand or lifestyle?

Yeah, I don’t know. Lots of people have said that, but this is not my aim at all. It was just to deal with my own issues. I’m just sharing my experience with people. I’m just doing my thing. It would be cool if I could make money doing this at the same time, of course, but I’m really not sure how to do that.

Well, there’s a big potato industry out there and it’s not every day that a guy like you pops up.

A few people have said I should write a book or something. But it would have like one sentence: “Eat Potatoes.”

erta Caceres wasn't the first and, unfortunately, she won't be the last. The world-renowned Lenca leader, assassinated last month in Honduras for her opposition to government-backed megaprojects, is one of an increasing litany of fallen fighters for Indigenous and environmental rights in Honduras and around the globe.

The pattern of murder and criminalization of those who would defend land and the rights of rural people has only become more evident. We argue that this pattern responds to the land grab phenomenon that has intensified since the global financial and food crisis of 2007-2008.

On March 15 another Honduran environmental and Indigenous activist was murdered. Nelson Garcia was an active member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras or COPINH. His murder took place "when he came home for lunch, after having spent the morning helping to move the belongings of evicted families from the Lenca indigenous community of Rio Chiquito," said COPINH. Garcia was a colleague of the recently slain Caceres, working with communities opposing the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project. The Agua Zarca dam project, now on hold, would provide energy for the numerous extractive projects slated for Honduras in the coming decade. Since the 2009 coup d'etat against President Manuel Zelaya, 30 percent of Honduran territory has been allocated to mining concessions.

The eviction after which Garcia was killed was one of many recent violent evictions carried out by Honduran military police in Indigenous territories. Elevated levels of state violence and disregard for due process are business as usual nowadays in Honduras, according to civil society organizations.

In its February 21 report on the Situation of Human Rights in Honduras, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or IACHR expressed concern about the high levels of violence and insecurity in Honduran society, highlighting risks to Indigenous people. The report pointed out that violence against Indigenous people has emerged to a large degree from land grabs. The violence is exacerbated by a context of inequality and discrimination, in addition to the consequent barriers to access to justice. Official figures released in April 2013 by then Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi indicate that 80 percent of killings in Honduras went unpunished due to a lack of capacity on the part of investigative bodies.

According to the IACHR, the challenges that Indigenous communities face are mainly related to: "(i) the high levels of insecurity and violence arising from the imposition of project and investment plans and natural resource mining concessions on their ancestral territories; (ii) forced evictions through the excessive use of force and (iii) the persecution and criminalization of Indigenous leaders for reasons related to the defense of their ancestral territories."

Moreover, the IACHR has clearly stated that many of the attacks carried out against Indigenous leaders and advocates are specifically aimed at reducing their activities in defense and protection of their territories and natural resources, as well as the defense of the right to autonomy and cultural identity.

Harassment takes the form not only of targeted criminal attacks, as we have seen in the case of Berta Caceres, Nelson Garcia and many others, but a much broader net that has been cast against environmental and Indigenous leaders. Official state entities, enacting formal legal procedures, have used the judicial system to catch activists in false charges, resulting in months or years of preventive prison, bogus sentences, legal fees and often a permanent criminal record. In a context in which state violence intertwines with the violence of international economic power, corruption and unethical practices, hundreds of leaders have been prosecuted for crimes such as usurpation of land and damage to the environment.

What we see in Honduras is part of the global land grab phenomenon, a term that in the words of Phillip McMichael, professor of development sociology at Cornell University, "invokes a long history of violent enclosure of common lands to accommodate world capitalist expansion, but it sits uneasily with the 'free market' rhetoric of neoliberal ideology." Land grabs are a symptom of a crisis of accumulation in the neoliberal globalization project, which has intensified since the global financial and food crisis of 2007-2008. This in turn is linked to an acceleration of a restructuring process of the food regime as a consequence of a large-scale relocation of agroindustry to the global south.

According to the 2011 Oxfam briefing paper, "Land and Power, the growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investment in land," recent records of investment show rapidly increasing pressure on land, resulting in dispossession, deception, violation of human rights and destruction of livelihoods. It is a war on Indigenous peoples conducted in order to establish modern corporate capitalism.

Indeed, all around the world peasants and Indigenous people are being displaced from their territories in order to develop large-scale agribusiness, such as massive palm oil and soy plantations, mining projects, hydroelectric dams and tourist resorts, among other investments. State-sanctioned violence and impunity create the conditions for investors to acquire land that would otherwise not be for sale. The result is a serious threat to the subsistence and socio-ecological resilience of millions of people across the world.

One of the most dramatic examples of this process is the case of the Honduran Palm Oil Company Grupo Dinant, which has an extended record of violence and human rights abuses associated wutg the killing of more than 100 peasants in Lower Aguan Valley. Ghe Unified Peasants Movement of the Aguan Valley or MUCA waged a long battle to defend their land rights, sustaining many losses. In addition, international human rights groups such as FoodFirst Information and Action Network brought pressure to bear, and in 2011 the Honduran government was forced to convene MUCA and the company to negotiate a deal. Paradoxically, according to the deal, the farmers have to buy back the disputed land at market prices (Oxfam 2011).

Land grabbing in Honduras has a long and lamentable history, and related violence has increased dramatically since the 2009 coup d'etat. Despite regular violent evictions by state security forces, Indigenous and peasant groups continue to pursue their right to control their ancestral lands through land occupations.

Those who are incensed by the killing of Berta Caceres must understand that her assassination was not an isolated event carried out by those who had a personal vendetta against her. Rather, Berta, her colleagues at COPINH and other Indigenous organizations represent an obstacle for those who would further a vision of society that values profit over all else.

Readers may please note that, the contents of the articles published on this page do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

8

fridAY 15•04•2016

INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

India leads world In environmental conflicts Manupriya

IANS and IndiaSpend

There are more environmental conflicts in India than any other country, and more clashes are over water (27 perccent) than any other cause, according to the recently released Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas).

India has 222 listed conflicts - in proportion to population, there are many more - followed

by Colombia and Nigeria with 116 and 71 conflicts, respectively, according to the EJAtlas, an interactive map of 1,703 global ecological conflicts, categorised by cause, such as water management, waste management, fossil fuels and climate justice, and biodiversity conservation.

With India currently facing the worst crisis in a decade and on course to becoming “waterscare” within nine years, as IndiaSpend reported last month, the scale of the conflicts listed

in the Atlas further indicate a protesting bottling plants (one worsening situation. each in Jaipur, Dehradun and Plachimada (Kerala), and two in Most water conflicts in Mehdiganj, near Varanasi.

Himachal Pradesh, most Dams are persistent sites of over hydroelectric projects conflicts, especially when they The conflicts over water are being built and commisare most evident in Himachal sioned, said Sailen Routray, an Pradesh, and most are related independent researcher based to hydroelectric projects, often in Bhubaneshwar. He has planned without considering worked extensively on water isthe needs and consent of local sues and conflicts. communities.

Similar conflicts have been Other environmental recorded in Jammu and Kash- conflicts arise from an mir, Jharkhand, Manipur, expanding economy Mizoram, Orissa and Sikkim, Most Indian conflicts listed among other states. in the EJAtlas appear to be a There are other kinds of wa- consequence of the country’s ter-management conflicts. In expanding economy.

Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, loFor example, the raging uncals objected to a municipal cor- derground fires in the Jharia poration partnership with a pri- coal mines in Jharkhand - an vate company to build a pipeline exclusive storehouse of prime and augment water supply, be- coking coal - were first seen a cause prices were to be decided century ago, started spreadby the company. Another exam- ing in the 1970s and, currently, ple involves use of groundwater more than 70 mine fires are unby Coca-Cola, involved in five derway, polluting the air, water conflicts with local communities and land and devastating the

Do not harm civilians: Mehbooba Mufti orders SriNagar, april 14 (iaNS): Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday ordered that no harm be done to civilians while controlling crowds as an eerie calm prevailed amid curfew in parts of a tense Kashmir Valley after the killing of four civilians in alleged firing and tear gas shelling by security forces since Tuesday. Police said no violence or protests were reported from anywhere in the valley after two days of deadly clashes between protesting mobs and security forces in north Kashmir Kupwara district. But the streets were being patrolled by gun-toting police and paramilitary personnel to ensure that prohibitory orders were not violated and peace is maintained in more volatile parts, amid a valley-wide shutdown call by separatist groups in protest against the civilian deaths.

As a precautionary measure and to prevent trouble-mongers from spreading rumours, authorities also snapped cellphone internet for the day.

Three civilians were killed in Handwara on Tuesday when security forces fired at an angry mob protesting against the alleged molestation of a teenage girl by an army man. The army has, however, dismissed the allegation as a rumour to malign the force.

A day later, people in Kupwara took to the streets to protest the Handwara deaths. A burning tear gas canister fired by police hit a 25-year-old man on his head. The man later succumbed to the injury. Mehbooba, who was camping in the capital since Tuesday when the trouble began, returned to Srinagar on Thursday afternoon and held a meeting of top civil and police officials to review the security situation. According to government sources, the chief minister directed the state police to ensure that no civilian is harmed during crowd control. The meeting was held at her Fair View residence on upscale Gupkar Road in Srinagar. Also present in the meeting was Director General of Police K. Rajendra Kumar. She directed the state police to ensure that the Standard Operating Procedures of dealing with mobs were followed.

The authorities have ordered a probe into the deadly incidents amid allegations that police and army had not followed the laid down procedures to deal with agitated mobs. There were fears that angry protestors might return to the streets in other parts of the valley. But sensing possible trouble, the authorities made adequate security arrangements in other towns in south and north Kashmir “to ensure that miscreants are prevented from creating any law and order problem”, the police officer said.

Separatist leaders, including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik, have been placed under house-arrest as they had appealed to people to observe a protest shutdown against the killings and a neartotal response to the shutdown call as shops, schools, colleges, offices and other businesses in areas where restrictions had not been imposed remained closed. Public transport was also off the roads in the valley.

health of the locals.

Several conflicts centre around garbage dumping sites, such as Deonar in Mumbai, Sultanpur and Bandhwari villages near the national capital region, Kodungaiyur near Chennai, Eloor in Kerala and villages around Bangalore. Across India, more than three million truckloads of garbage is dumped without being treated, as IndiaSpend has reported, a manifestation of growing urbanisation.

Conflicts have also erupted at construction sites of new airports, seaports and other big infrastructure projects. The common theme running through most conflicts is loss of right to land or livelihoods of local communities.

Joan Martinez-Alier, Professor of Economics and Economic History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and director of the EJAtlas project. “India has more cases than any other country because good work has been done on the EJAtlas by our partners at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and also obviously because India is the country with the largest population in the world.”

He attributed conflicts to a growth in “social metabolism”, prompted by economic expansion. “Materials and energy are extracted from new places and transported far away. Mining expands and reaches new frontiers. Hydroelectricity expands and reaches villages in the Himalaya,” said Martinez-Alier.

More conflicts in India than the Atlas lists Although the EJAtlas lists 220 environmental conflicts in India, there are many more.

“You should realize that 220 is in proportion to population,” said

The high environmental costs in states that supply raw material Environmental conflicts are global, but India differs from other developing countries in South America or Africa on one crucial point: External trade.

“Despite being a large country, India does not import or export too much,” said MartinezAlier. “Most of the extraction of materials in India is for internal consumption. But there are conflicts between states.

Sometimes, about water rights.

And, sometimes because some states (like Odisha, Jharkhand) become providers of raw materials for the rest of the country at very high internal social and environmental costs.”

A comparison of the states shows that some of them have indeed borne a larger share of environmental conflict.

The national green tribunal’s successes aren’t enough to stem the tide In recognition of rising environmental disputes, the government established a National Green Tribunal in 2010 to serve as a fast-track court for such disputes, but the tide of environmental conflicts is not ebbing.

“NGT has played a good role

(in delivering environmental justice),” said Swapan Kumar Patra, one of the Indian contributors to the EJAtlas. In an unrelated paper, Patra and V.V. Krishna, professor at JNU and the other Indian contributor to EJAtlas wrote: “Since its inception, NGT has given many fast-track judgments in various cases and has passed several orders to the respective authorities like ban on illegal sandmining, against noise pollution in Delhi, preservation of biodiversity of Western Ghat Mountains, wildlife protection in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, suspended many environmental clearance and so on.” However, despite NGT’s intervention and rising participation from affected locals, environmental injustice in India is on the rise.

The question, however, is not how to avoid the conflicts, said Martinez-Alier, but how to profit from the awareness of so many conflicts “in order to move to an economy which is more sustainable and also more socially just”.

killed in Maoist Modi launches campaign to boost rural Policeman attack at Ambedkar event development on Ambedkar anniversary

Mhow, april 14 (iaNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the 'Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday' campaign to promote rural development on the 125th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar from his birth place here and said the late leader fought for equality and dignity in society.

"It is my privilege that I am here, on the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar. I bow to this land. He (Ambedkar) fought against injustice in society. His fight was for equality and dignity," Modi said. `Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan' (Village Self Governance Campaign) aims to generate nationwide efforts to increase social harmony across villages, strengthen Panchayati Raj institutions, promote rural development, and foster farmers' progress. It will continue till April 24, the Panchayati Raj Day. Modi said he was fortunate to be in Mhow, the birthplace of Ambedkar.

"Baba Saheb Ambedkar was the second name of determination. He never drifted away from his path of working for the Dalits and backwards despite facing insults. With his treasure of wisdom and degrees from some of the world's famous universities, he had several opportunities for his own growth but he left them due to his ambition to do something for the society," Modi said.

Modi laid stress for development of villages for the growth of the country and said the focus of this year's union budget

Nagpur, april 14 (iaNS): A policeman was killed when Maoists opened indiscriminate fire on him at a function on Thursday in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district to mark the 125th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution, police said.The attack came at the function which was addressed by former Maharashtra legislator Deepak Atram in Mauje Chhallewada village in Gadchiroli. His police bodyguard, Nanaji B. Nagose, who was posted on duty near the stage, was suddenly accosted by six heavily-armed Maoists who fired at several rounds at him before fleeing into the nearby jungles.The seriously-injured Nagose was rushed by a helicopter to Gadchiroli but succumbed during treatment at the district civil hospital.

Rohith Vemula's family embraces Buddhism MuMbai, april 14 (iaNS): The mother and brother

PM paying floral tributes to Ambedkar, at Bhim Birthplace Memorial (Bhim Janma Bhoomi) of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit scholar who committed suicide in Hyderabad, on Thursday embraced Buddhism in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. (Source: PIB/Twitter)

Plea to UN to declare Ambedkar Jayanti 'World Equality Day'

uNiteD NatioNS, april 14 (iaNS): As the UN celebrated B.R. Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary by examining the relevance of his legacy to its global development goals, the world body heard a plea to declare April 14, the birthday of the crusader against discrimination, as "International Equality Day".

"I believe Baba Saheb's lifelong struggle for equality was not only for the people of India but for people around the globe," Punjab Assembly Speaker Charnjit Singh Atwal. Therefore, as his "true tribute and honour", he said that April 14 may be dewas on villages and farmers. "All our development initiatives have to be centred around rural development." Modi also laid stress on digital connectivity in villages. "This is difficult to do, but we need to make a start somewhere."

Modi said he wanted

here, saying they were now "truly free from shame". "If my brother were alive, he would have been proud of us," younger brother Naga Chaitanya alias Raja Vemula told mediapersons after a brief initiation ceremony at Ambedkar Bhavan at Dadar, on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. "From today, my mother and I will start a life that Rohith always dreamt of. From today, my mother and I will be truly free, free from shame," he added. The duo was given the ceremonial 'deeksha' by Buddhist monks in the presence of Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of B.R. Ambedkar who similarly converted to Buddhism along with 600,000 followers in Nagpur in 1956.

clared the "International Equality Day" by the UN. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, the keynote speaker, said that Ambedkar's ideals were relevant today as the UN embarks on its ambitious programme of sustainable development goals (SDG).

Clark is now the head of the UN Development Programme and a candidate for Secretary General of the UN in the upcoming elections. The celebrations organised for the first time by the Indian Mission to the UN along with the Kalpana Saroj Foundation and the Foundation for Human Horizon.

KolKata, april 14 (pti): The Election Commission today issued showcause notice to Chief Minister and Trithe incomes of farmers hya Pradesh Chief minister namool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for violatto double in the next few Shivraj Singh Chouhan "for ing the model code of conduct, Chief Election Commisyears. "Purchasing power chalking out a comprehen- sioner Nasim Zaidi here said. "The Commission has issued of people in rural India has sive road map to double the a showcause notice to her," the CEC told at a press conto increase and this will income of farmers by 2022 ference here. "It was brought to our knowledge that she power India's economy. in the state."

Give our farmers adequate Modi said Panchayati made the promise of creation of a new district of Asansol water and see the wonders Raj institutions have to be after which a detailed showcause notice was sent to her," our farmers can do." made stronger and more he said. "She also made some other utterances which violated the model code of conduct," he said. "Upon receiving He complimented Mad- vibrant. reply from Banerjee, the future course of action will be decided," he said. An unfazed Banerjee, however, dared the Commission and said, "Do whatever you like". "I heard that Election Commission has showcaused me. What I have said I will say it again, I will say it thousand times. I will say it a lakh times. Do whatever you like. If anyone spread canards against me I will seek answers," she said during an election meeting in Birbhum district.

Election Commission issues showcause notice to Mamata

Prohibition: Reviving an idea whose time may have long expired Naga MLA says 'it was a mistake. We only helped the bootleggers of Assam’ New Delhi, april 14 (iaNS): Bihar's Nitish Kumar government should have been more pragmatic before announcing prohibition as this cost Nagaland dearly in terms of revenue and only helped "bootleggers of neighbouring Assam", a former minister from the northeastern state has said.

"I think the Bihar chief minister should have been more careful and done a more in-depth study. This prohibition idea is a folly. Prohibition has either failed as in Nagaland or Manipur or had to be withdrawn as in Mizoram," Thomas Ngullie, an Independent legislator and former information minister, told IANS here.

"We brought in the Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition Act in 1989. I was part of the Congress party that brought the law.

But that was a mistake. We only helped the bootleggers of Assam and cash-starved Nagaland lost huge revenue," he added.

Apart from bootlegging, spurious liquor too takes its toll on consumers.

The Naga politician's lament, though, is not in isolation.

Within minutes of the announcement that prohibition had been enforced in governance-starved Bihar, microblog-

ging site Twitter and social networking Facebook were on fire.

This striking oneliner went viral: Breaking news: Bihar announces massive investments in bootlegging industry.

This has generally been the outcome of prohibition laws wherever they have been imposed or tried.

An IANS report from Kathmandu said that at a recent meeting in Forbesganj in Bihar, Indian authorities sought help from their Nepali counterparts to curb the movement of people seeking alcohol from Nepal.

"Mizoram was reeling under Prohibition for 18 years and one of our governors said: 'Mizoram is the wettest dry state in the country.' Not a comment to be proud of. Let's not indulge in hypocrisy," wrote Hmar C. Vanlalruata from Mizoram capital Aizawl on Facebook on the day prohibition was enforced in Bihar.

Christian-majority Mizoram declared prohibition under the influence of church bodies but lifted this in July 2014 after 18 years of struggling with its failure.

In another northeastern state, Manipur, prohibition was brought in 1991 and for more reasons than one everyone seemed

to believe in its limitations.

There have been reports of bootlegging and also increase in drug abuse.

In July 2014, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh stated in the Manipur assembly that his government favoured exploring options of lifting prohibition. He also had suggested that the country liquor produced in Manipur by scheduled castes and tribes be sold in other states "for revenue".

While the state was declared dry, scheduled castes and tribes were permitted to brew liquor for traditional purposes.

This situation continues till today.

Prohibition had beeen in force in what is now Tamil Nadu since pre-Independence days and was lifted in 1971. It was again briefly imposed in 1974 before being lifted. Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha has promised to turn the state dry if she is voted back to power in the assembly elections later this year.

Prohibition was imposed in Haryana in July 1996 by the government headed by then chief minister Bansi Lal, who had ridden to power on the promise of a dry state. However, it remained in force only till March 31, 1998. One of the reasons is that neighbouring

Punjab has one of the highest per capita consumption rates of liquor, so it was always easily available.

Rajasthan briefly flirted with prohibition in 1977-79.

Bombay State - now Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat - briefly imposed prohibition from 1948 to 1950 and again from 1958 to 1960.

With Maharashtra and Gujarat created on May 1, 1960, today there is prohibition in only three of Maharashtra's 36 districts - Wardha, Chandrapur and Ghadchiroli.

Gujarat is quite a different story. Prohibition is as old as Independence and the fact that it is violated openly is also as old.

Just like home-delivered pizza, illicit liquor is just a phone call away and the industry has grown exponentially. There are scooter-borne small bootleggers in thousands delivering one and two bottles of your choice. Then there are the sophisticated ones by who come dressed like a guest to your home to ensure nobody notices their purpose and deliver stuff nearly packed in grocery bags and flower bouquets.

Some bigger suppliers have got tech-savvy: They keep lap-top computers and employ GPS to keep track of where the supplies have reached. The police is well

aware of this, and so are ministers and bureaucrats.

Gujarat looses Rs.5,000 crore ($750 million) in excise income to implement the dry law. The government tries to recover this from its 52 Permit Shops, where liquor is officially sold to 70,300 permit-holders.

Revenue loss is also what Kerala will have to deal with by deciding to impose total prohibtion by 2023 when all the 730 bars will shut down and liquor will only be served in 29 five-star hotels.

Kerala may be shooting its cash cow.

"Alcohol helps in giving Kerala's economy a good high - shockingly, more than 40 percent of revenues for its annual budget come from booze," a posting on the BBC website said.

In all these states, experience shows demand for prohibition is mostly guided by populism and surrendering to the pressure tactics of influential groups.

Little wonder then, that celebrity Rishi Kapoor retorted in the context of Bihar: "Any law which tries to stop the people from doing something is bound to fail."

But for the moment, more politicians are falling for prohibition policy's double-edged sword.

Mere suspicion cannot take the place of proof: Court New Delhi, apr 14 (pti): Mere suspicion cannot replace legal proof and the state is duty bound to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubts, a Delhi court has observed while acquitting a man in a murder case. "Court has onerous duty to ensure that mere conjectures or suspicion do not take the place of legal proof. State is dutybound to prove its case beyond shadow of doubt," Additional Sessions Judge Manoj Jain said while acquitting a Bihar-native, Veeru Kumar, facing trial for allegedly murdering a youth. According to the prosecution, the police had recovered the body of Pintoo, an employee in Veeru's shoe business, from Rama Vihar area in North West Delhi in March 2014 on the basis of telephonic information.

The police said the accused was arrested on the basis of the testimony of Umesh, who was Veeru's roommate.

It said Pintoo had threatened to quit his job as Veeru had refused to assist him financially and also asked him to settle the outstanding dues. This had led to a quarrel between the two and the victim's family members had even beaten up Veeru. During the trial, the accused had denied the allegations. The court, in its judgement, observed that the prosecution's story was filled with "infirmities and unexplained links". "Recovery of weapon of offence is not of unimpeachable and unassailable character. Motive aspect does not seem to be credible and compelling enough. Electronic evidence also does not come to the rescue of prosecution either," the court said. "I am persuaded to extend benefit of doubt to accused. Resultantly, accused is acquitted of all the charges levelled against him in the present case," the judge said.

FridaY 15•04 •2016

WORLD

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Rousseff pledges unity govt as impeachment momentum grows BRASILIA, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff pledged on Wednesday to form a government of national unity if she survives an impeachment vote in Congress this weekend, but the odds of that lengthened as allies continued to desert her.

A stream of defections from Rousseff’s coalition makes it increasingly likely she will lose Sunday’s ballot in the lower house of Congress on whether she should face trial in the Senate over accusations she broke budget laws.

Politicians have begun to flock this week to the residence of the man who would replace Rousseff if she is convicted, Vice President Michel Temer, to declare their support for him, his aides said.

Business leaders have also come out in support of Temer who promises market-friendly policies and less government intervention to boost the world’s seventh largest economy hit, by its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In a major blow for Rousseff, the largest centrist party remaining in the government’s coalition, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), instructed its members to vote for the president’s impeachment.

The party’s leader in

save her government.

“My first act after the vote in the lower house will be to propose a new pact among all the political forces, without winners of losers,” Rousseff told Estado de S.Paulo newspaper in a briefing for local media.

She voiced confidence that her supporters would deny the opposition the 342 votes, equivalent to twothirds of the lower house, needed to send her impeachment to the Senate.

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff attends a meeting with educators at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil April 12, 2016. REUTERS

the lower house, Rogerio Rosso, told reporters on Wednesday evening the vast majority of the PSD’s 38 deputies support Rousseff’s ouster.

The move comes on the heels of the defection on Tuesday of another crucial ally, the centrist Progressive Party, or PP. The party, with 49 members in the lower house, left her government and pulled its one minister from her cabinet.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party and the smaller National Labor Party (PTN) were due to meet on Wednesday, but members said most of their fellow lawmakers would vote

against Rousseff even as their leaders negotiated jobs offered by her government.

“They are running away from all parties except her own Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Brazil. It’s a herd mentality,” a leader of Temer’s Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) who is close to the vice president told Reuters.

He said the PMDB, which quit Rousseff’s coalition two weeks ago, projects impeachment will clear the lower house with 380 votes on Sunday.

Temer said on Tuesday he was ready to form a tran-

sitional government with other parties to lead Brazil out of the political crisis, raising speculation he was already forming a shadow government.

“Obviously, he will start thinking about a cabinet on Monday if the vote is for impeachment on Sunday,” Temer’s press spokesman Marcio de Freitas said.Battling for her political survival, Rousseff handed negotiations to win support against impeachment to her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s most influential politician despite a corruption investigation that has hampered his efforts to

ODDS OF IMPEACHMENT RISING Political risk consultancy Eurasia said Rousseff could still try to cobble together support from centrist parties, but it will be hard for her to stop the momentum for impeachment, with defections raising the odds of her removal to 70 percent from a previous estimate of 60 percent.

Rousseff’s opponents are 18 votes short of victory in the lower house, with 324 lawmakers backing impeachment and 124 opposed, and 65 undecided or declining to respond, according to a survey by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper.

The rift between Rousseff and her vice president reached breaking point on Monday over an audio message Temer sent his supporters calling for a government of national

unity. Rousseff accused him of leading a conspiracy to overthrow her.

In an interview with Globo News on Tuesday, Temer denied he was plotting to become president, calmly stating: “If destiny takes me to that position ...

I will be ready.”

Temer’s top economic adviser told Reuters that policies to gradually rebalance depleted public accounts, create jobs and raise income would be priorities for the vice president should he become the country’s next leader.

Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa stock index rose for a second consecutive day, closing up 2 percent on investor hopes a Rousseff impeachment will improve the prospects of an economic recovery.

The CNT transport sector lobby on Wednesday declared its support for impeachment saying Rousseff ’s government was incapable of drawing the investment needed to restore growth and lacked the political support to pass needed reforms.

In a letter to lawmakers, Brazil’s most powerful industry lobby, the CNI, described the country’s situation as “catastrophic” and blamed Rousseff’s mistaken policies.

“It’s time for change,” the letter seen by Reuters said.

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Philippines rejects Islamic State’s claim it killed 100 troops MANILA, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): The Philippines has dismissed as “purely propaganda” Islamic State’s claim that its militants killed scores of government troops in ambushes and said there was no evidence directly linking southern Muslim rebels to the group.

The Philippines has reported 46 people killed in battles this week between troops and rebels from a group known as Abu Sayyaf on the island of Basilan. Fighting raged for a sixth day on Thursday. SITE Intelligence, a U.S.-based group that tracks online activity of jihadi organisations, reported Islamic State had claimed responsibility for killing nearly 100 Philippine soldiers and had blown up seven trucks transporting them.

Philippine military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said the Islamic State claim was propaganda and its statement had “many gaps and inconsistencies”. “We lost only 18 soldiers but killed 28 Abu Sayyaf members since fighting began on Saturday. Our troops continued to pursue them and we will not stop until we achieve a decisive victory,” Padilla said.

Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, has posted videos on social media pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

The Philippine group has attracted foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the troubled south of the Philippines, home to a Muslim minority and several Muslim rebel groups in the predominantly Christian country. But Padilla said there was still no evidence that Islamic State had ties with the Abu Sayyaf.

“We are still looking for proof to make a link,” he said.

“There is no direct link as far as we know and based on our assessment.” Citing an April 13 statement carried by Islamic State’s Amaq news agency, SITE said the group reported only three of its fighters were killed and government forces suffered much heavier casualties.

“With the grace of god we were able to detonate seven trucks carrying soldiers,” Islamic State was quoted saying. The Philippines has pulled out the army unit that engaged the Abu Sayyaf on Saturday, replacing them fresh troops, backed by artillery, tanks and aircraft, in pursuit operations.

The army said it had attacked a rebel stronghold on Basilan led by an insurgent for whom the U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million. Security experts and some media have criticised the handling of Saturday’s initial encounter with the Abu Sayyaf, saying the military has repeatedly underestimated the rebels.

‘UN chief ‘inept’ on peacekeeper sex abuse’ Hepatitis C ups risk North Korea prepares intermediate-range missiles of head, neck cancers

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks at a rocket warhead tip after a simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic missile, at an unidentified location in this undated file photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on March 15. (REUTERS File Photo)

SeOuL, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): North Korea has deployed one or two intermediate-range ballistic missiles on the east coast, possibly preparing for launch on or around Friday, the anniversary of the birth of the country’s founder, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

A mobile launcher was spotted carrying up to two Musudan missiles, Yonhap said on Thursday, citing multiple South Korean government sources, following the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month, which led to fresh U.N. sanctions.

The Musudan missile, with a design range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles), is not known to have been flight-tested, according to South Korean defence ministry and experts.

Some experts said the North may choose to test-fire the Musudan in the near future as it tries to build an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to put the mainland United States within range.

U.S. intelligence believes North Korea’s ability to reach the United States is low, but its capabilities will increase, making continued investment in missile defence essential..

South Korea’s Defence Ministry spokesman, Moon Sang-gyun, declined to confirm the Yonhap report but said the military had been on high alert for any missile launch by the North since its leader Kim Jong Un’s vow to conduct more tests.

Kim said in March his country would soon test a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

North Korea, which regularly threatens to destroy the South and the United States, often fires missiles during periods of tension in the region or when it comes under pressure to curb its defiance and abandon its weapons programmes.

South Korean experts have said the North may choose to display a show of force ahead of a major ruling party congress in May where it is expected to declare itself a nuclear power or around the April 15 anniversary of the birth of Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung.

Isolated North Korea and the rich, democratic South are still technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

North Korea accused South Korea on Tuesday of abducting its citizens in China, four days after South Korea said 13 workers at a restaurant run by the North had defected.

uNIteD NAtIONS, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): An influential U.S. senator accused United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon of ineptitude on Wednesday for failing to halt sexual exploitation and abuse by bluehelmeted peacekeepers.

The criticism from Senator Bob Corker, a Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, comes as candidates to replace Ban when he leaves the post at the end of the year after 10 years have been holding town hall meetings with diplomats from U.N. member states this week.

Ending U.N. peacekeeper abuse has been a major topic of discussion during the meetings at U.N. headquarters in light of a slew of rape allegations levelled against international peacekeepers in Central African Republic.

Corker asked a committee hearing on ending sexual abuse

by U.N. peacekeepers why some recommendations included in a 2005 report on the problem to the U.N. General Assembly were only now being implemented.

“What is wrong with the

secretary-general of the U.N.?”

Corker asked at the hearing, which was broadcast live. “This report ... the one that you refer to, is 10 years old.”

“How do we put up with such inept leadership at the United Nations?” he said, adding that he was “disgusted” by the abuse.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ban was “determined to continue to shine a spotlight on the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers and hold those responsible accountable.”

“However, this is a fight that no one person can lead alone,” Dujarric added. “Member states are the only ones who have the power to swiftly bring to justice those who have committed crimes and to impose the strongest possible disciplinary and criminal sanctions.”

Ambassador Isobel Coleman, who oversees U.N. management and reform issues at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said countries that contribute U.N. troops were often unwilling to hold those who commit abuses accountable.

“I don’t think it’s ineptitude,” Coleman said. “I think it is a reluctance to take on the opposition of troop contributing countries that don’t want to deal with this issue in the transparent way that it must be dealt with.”

She added that the United States was monitoring followup actions in troop-contributing countries to ensure people accused of sexual abuse are prosecuted. Republicans are traditionally more critical of the United Nations than Democrats.

The United States contributes 27 percent of the U.N.’s $8.3 billion peacekeeping budget.

Ban has pushed the U.N. to “name and shame” countries whose troops are accused of sexual abuse. Some 800 Congolese peacekeepers were repatriated earlier this year over alleged sex crimes.

In December, an independent review panel accused the United Nations and its agencies of grossly mishandling allegations of child sexual abuse by international peacekeepers in Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014.

NeW YORk, ApRIL 14 (IANS): Individuals infected with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) may be prone to certain head and neck cancers, a new study has found, pressing the need for screening and treatment for the most common bloodborne virus infection.

The findings showed that people with hepatitis C are two to five times more likely to develop certain head and neck cancers.

The risk increased 2.4 times for oral cavity cancers, 2.04 times for oropharynx cancers, and 4.96 times for larynx cancers.

“The findings tell us that the association between hepatitis C and oropharyngeal and nonoropharyngeal cancers is as high as its link to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Harrys A Torres, associate professor, University of Texas in US. HCV was long associated with liver cancers and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and additional cancers, but there was no known association with a significant number of head and neck cancer.

For the study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer In-

stitute, the researchers identified 34,545 patients who were tested for HCV between 2004 and 2014.

The team included 409 head and neck cancer patients as case subjects (164 with oropharyngeal and 245 with nonoropharyngeal).

Also paramount to the research, said Torres, was to control for smoking, a major risk factor for head and neck cancers. Therefore, they identified 694 control subjects, all with a diagnosis of smoking-related cancers (378 with lung, 168 with esophageal and 148 with bladder).

The study revealed that 14 percent of patients with oropharyngeal cancers tested positive for HCV antibodies, compared to just 6.5 percent in the control group.

In those with nonoropharyngeal cancer, 20 percent tested positive for HCV antibodies.

It is important to screen for HCV because treatment with antiviral drugs may possibly prevent cancer from ever developing, as reported for liver cancers and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the authors suggested.

Chinese rights lawyer says he is formally disbarred BeIJING, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): Chinese legal authorities on Thursday formally disbarred a prominent rights lawyer who was handed a suspended sentence last year for writing Internet posts the government said incited ethnic hatred, ending his career.

Activists have said the three-year suspended sentence for Pu Zhiqiang would serve as a strong reminder to other rights lawyers that the Communist Party, currently engaged in a severe clampdown on dissent, would brook no challenge to its rule.

Pu has represented many well-known dissidents, including artist Ai Weiwei and activists of the “New Citizens’ Movement”, a group that has called on Chinese leaders to make their wealth public, and his case attracted wide concern in Western capitals.

Pu told Reuters he had received the formal notification from the Beijing City Judicial Bureau that his lawyer’s licence had been revoked. He declined further comment, saying he was not supposed to accept

US human rights report criticizes China’s ‘severe’ crackdown on lawyers

China’s rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang (L) speaks at a court session in Beijing in this still image from a December 14, 2015 video. (REUTERS File Photo)

interviews.

Calls to the judicial bureau seeking comment went unanswered. Fellow rights lawyer and friend Shang Baojun told Reuters the disbarment had been expected since Pu’s conviction in December, because a person found guilty of a criminal offence is not allowed to practice law.

“Unless one day his conviction is overturned, then he’ll never be allowed to practice law again. It’s

really the end of his career,” Shang said.

The charges against Pu were based on seven microblog posts that he had published online, criticising the government’s ethnic policy in the troubled western region of Xinjiang and several officials, according to his lawyers.

The news of the disbarment comes as the U.S. State Department criticised Beijing’s “severe” crackdown against lawyers

and law firms handling cases that authorities consider politically sensitive.

China has always strongly denied accusations of human rights abuses, saying people like Pu are punished because they break the law and that nobody in China is above the law.

China has also criticised the United States for ignored its own human rights problems, such as racism and police brutality.

WASHINGtON, ApRIL 14 (ReuteRS): The U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report on Wednesday criticized Beijing’s ‘severe’ crackdown against Chinese lawyers and law firms handling cases that Beijing considers politically sensitive.

The report, which describes human rights practices of governments in 199 countries, said repression and coercion in China against organizations and individuals involved in civil and political rights advocacy had increased.

“The crackdown on the legal community was particularly severe, as individual lawyers and law firms that handled cases the government deemed ‘sensitive’ were targeted for harassment and detention,” the report said.

Hundreds of lawyers and law associates were interrogated, investigated, and in many cases detained in secret locations for months without charges or access to attorneys or family members, the report added.

It said the authorities had resorted to “extralegal measures” such as enforced disappearances and strict house arrests to prevent criticism of the government.

Unveiling the report at a news conference, Kerry said the worst human rights abuses in 2015 occurred in the Middle East, fuelled by wars in Iraq and Syria that had caused immense suffering. He cited south Asian states, as well as Egypt and Cuba, as countries that the United States differed with over human rights.

Despite establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba and a historic visit to Havana by U.S. President Barack Obama, the report criticized the Castro government for its continued practice of arbitrary, short-term detentions of opposition members.

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T

FriDAY 15•04•2016

public discourse

he prevailing economic, political and social state of affair in Nagaland is taking an awfully worrisome turn of events towards a total infrastructural collapse. Are the once proud people known as the honest, honourable, brave Nagas becoming a spineless flock of unquestioning sheep being led to the slaughter? The multitudes of self-proclaimed paper tiger intellectuals, consisting of both young and old, silently roaring within the safe confines of their inner common room or within the restricted confines of social media groups... where AK 47 is not a threat...seems to be the fashion of the day while the general public slumber in total complacency, oblivious to their reality. The Nagaland Legislative Assembly, now having shed its accountable public responsibility and moral conscience in the absence of the Opposition Bench, has made an absolute mockery of governance by casually writing off the scathing CAG report on corruption against almost all the major Departments of the Government of Nagaland. During the Budget Secession, the serious charges of corruption graphically brought to light have been casually brushed aside without any substantive discussion or effort to redress the blatant anomalies pointed out therein. The message

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The UnsavoUry JoUrney is ominously clear. Rather than clean up the corruptive mess, our elected representatives have declared an open season to go on a free for all financial rampage to recuperate their election investments.

Their 'not very honourable' intent will gladly be facilitated by many a happy band of unquestioning, compliant bureaucrats/ technocrats patiently waiting like vultures perched on the fence for every questionable self-serving instructions floating down from the political table for them to execute and claim their own pound of flesh in the process. We are entering yet another year of possible 'development' of a very personal kind. In the absence of the Opposition Bench, the situation warrants an appeal to the Supreme Court to act as our conscience keeper by setting up SIT under its direct supervision to address the corruption charges brought out by the CAG report and clean up our financial mess. ACAUT should perhaps act as a responsible watchdog and seriously consider this option as the last bastion of public conscience.

Take a dispassionate look at the steady decline of our Naga prestige

and sensibility. In the theatre of Naga Political Movement, the canvas is smeared with utter irrational chaos. The tall yardstick pronounced by the NSCN (IM) for a negotiated settlement at the Prime Ministerial level in a 3rd Country has come down to the level of a negotiation between a political non-entity Mr. Ravi (Interlocutor) and the NSCN (IM) in India's backyard.

This is being followed by a mad mindless rush of our irresponsible elected representatives, Naga Ho Ho and other gullible Civil Societies blindly endorsing the "Framework Agreement" without knowing absolutely anything about its content.

The Party in Power harps on being a facilitator without facilitating anything substantial towards the peace process and carry on with their worthless debate on "Equi-closeness" and "Equi-distance" policy. Of course it must be said that 'equi-closeness' camp have been harvesting rich dividend in terms of crores of rupees through their close friendly disposition while ''equi-distance'' campers had only harvested bullets for their unapproachable policy. But none of the po-

litical parties have dared to take the initiative to conduct a true public consultation by getting back to our customary roots to resolve the real will of the people and deal with this cancerous problem of money driven disunity extenuated by egocentric madness within the NPG leadership.

Everything is boiling down to a crazy money power, be it in the overground set up or within the NNM. On the issue of imposition of unabated multiple taxation by our "sovereignty hunting" brothers and sisters-in-arms, the ground reality has taken a turn for the worst. In a recent market survey conducted by ACAUT to assess the ground reality impact in its campaign against unabated taxation, it was observed that there was a marked scaling down of various abominable taxation structures. For instance the mafia "Syndicate" and the "monopolistic dealership" system has now been dismantled.

The 'five-layered' taxation earlier being imposed on the same commodity starting from: (1) the State entry gates (Newfield & Delai Gates); (2) the godown (warehouse) tax; (3) the wholesaler's tax; (4)

the retail-end shop tax and finally (5) the annual tax have now been reduced to only a solitary "Annual Tax". However, despite this reduction, the fact on the ground does not indicate equivalent reduction in the price of commodities in the market. The simple truth is that there has been a dramatic overhaul in the rules of engagement in the 'tax collection game' being played by our NPGs. In the past each Faction had been protecting their 'tax turf' with absolute viciousness...eliminating one another in the process. If the readers recall, on 24th February 2016 five of the NPGs of Nagaland had issued a joint statement in relation to the "Framework Agreement" and the awareness campaign that our elected representatives were conducting in Delhi without knowing anything about the 'agreement'. Perhaps less attention was paid to what they had to say but the real focus was more on this collective initiative that had spawned a general hope that it would further lead to the ultimate unity of all the NPGs of Nagaland for a final stand. As it turned out however, this collective picture seems to have been intended for an entirely different purpose.

Earlier we had 7(seven) factions extorting "sovereignty tax". Now they seem to have all come to a working understanding not to fight one other in the matter of their respective factional tax collection. In the fertile land of Presidents and Prime Ministers, the tax collecting groups have mushroomed to 10 (ten) 'glorious' Factions : 1. NSCN (IM); 2. GPRN/NSCN (U); 3. NSCN (R); 4. NSCN (K); 5. NNC/FGN(Accordist Adino group); 6.

NNC(Non-Accordist Kiumukun group); 7. NPGN/ NNC(Non-Accordist Temjenyanger group); 8. NNC (Nagi group) and 9. FGN (Shingya group). Isn't it ironic?! The people of Nagaland have been crying out hoarse, desperately appealing to all the NPGs of Nagaland to unite and hammer out the final Indo-Naga solution together for all times to come. Well, at least in the common matter of their abnormal "sovereign greed tax"/ extortion, our National vultures are now united and strongly poised to strip off the flesh of the helpless beleaguered public.

Each Faction now has free access to all the tax zones in the commercial hub of Dimapur, unimpeded or

threatened by other factions. The sole "Annual Tax" has therefore brought no relief to the market due to complete lack of family planning within the NNM setup. The equally damaging 'joker of the pack', if not more, is the omnipresent Government of Nagaland which forms the 10th Faction. It has multiple subfactions within its fold like the Police faction, the Forest faction, the Excise faction, the Transport faction, the Veterinary & Animal Husbandry faction not forgetting the DMC faction, all playing hyper active role to raise their personal revenue at each State entry gates and everywhere else in one happy family.

Without doubt Nagaland is truly a "Land of Tax Festival" being celebrated every waking hour of the day.

In fact many are forced to celebrate even at nights.

This ruthlessly depraved 'tax tournament' between the NPGs and between NPGs and the State Government has devastated the economy of the common man in the State.

Even the fledgling young entrepreneurs struggling to set roots are not spared the brunt of this merciless taxation while their parents desperately scrape the earth to make ends

meet. Despite such dismal state of affair with extreme provocations on all fronts we the people opt to remain silent and allow evil to entrench itself deeper and deeper with each passing day.

On this subject of unabated tax issue, the High Power Committee (HPC) had worked sincerely and submitted its candid report/recommendations to the Government which would mitigate and minimise the financial burden of the citizens. The HPC has thus far maintained a dignified silence in the hope that the State Government will eventually act on it. It however is getting awfully apparent and clear that the Government has no intention of acting since this report has been left in a cold storage collecting dust for almost a year now. For the present here is a glimpse of one important recommendation made by the HPC which generally says: In order to keep the balance between right and wrong and the scale of justice on an even keel the HPC full heartedly recommend that Lokayukta be seriously considered for establishment in the State of Nagaland to tackle the rampant corruption in the governing system. It is now up to the right thinking people of Nagaland to stand up together and stop this unsavoury journey.

Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd) Upper Forest Colony; Kohima, Nagaland.

WatER scaRcity

Appeal to The Dimapur Is it contributing to social problems? Municipal Corporation

T

he weather in this current year is comparatively cooler couples with intermittent showers. It is, therefore, hoped that a near drought condition the denizens of Kohima and its peripheries annually witness would become a thing of past. Contrastingly, it was widely reported in various neighborhoods in Kohima that the owners of ponds, wells or other water sources experienced a relatively lesser volume and of fairly lower than the previously known storage capacity. The underlie assumption is that we are tapping ground and surface water far exceeding the carrying capacity of the nature that few showers that once replenish our surface and ground water within a few possible time has now become almost next to impossible, leaving us with longer time to wait to meet our everyday needs.

According to the leading consulting firm in water sector – EA Water – close to 70% of irrigation and 80% of domestic water use comes from groundwater, and is depleting rapidly. The firm has warned that India will become a water scarce country by 2025 due to demand-supply mismatch. With increase in per capita income, the demand for domestic and industrial water use will increase. The scarcity will, however, open up investment opportunities for well off countries like the United States, Germany, Israel, Canada etc to invest in country’s water sector.

Noting in advance the inevitable fluctuation of climate and its associated repercussion upon humanity, environmentalists, conservationists and leaders from across the globe held successive climate conferences from Rio Earth Summit to recent COP 21 in Paris in an attempt to keep the average global temperature well below the 2-degree Celsius rise. India, having had committed itself to limit its carbon emission by 33-35% of the 2005 level, would certainly need to minimize its dependence on coalbased power generation to other clean sources of energy. This switching-over will result in increase pressure on water usage.

As an early sign, the PM in a few days past, had asked the country’s farming community for diversification of cropping pattern so as to reduce dependence on irrigation and other water-based intensive cultivation.

Closer back to home, there

are unprecedented marked changes in farming system. Partially attributing to wrong policy formulation and unplanned developmental activities, in the name of better connectivity and mobility, widening of existing roads and fresh cutting of earth for new connection were executed while completely disregarding the peripheral and downhill areas with heavily clustered terraces and jhum fields. As the natural streams and depressions are either leveled or filled with cut earth, the course of flowing water are either disturbed or diverted towards a new direction.

The formerly free-flowing surface water is forced to percolate through the rough pores which thus diminish its availability. In some cases, the terraces are filled with debris of rocks, barks and roots that leave the owners with no alternative but to stake claim in other ventures involving risks.

Consequentially, the once fertile terrace and jhum fields are abandoned and left barren.

Also, as the erstwhile water sources and streams that feed the wet terraces are cemented by dumping of fresh cut earth, the wet terraces serving two purposes – as paddy fields and as seasonal fishery ponds that economically boost the marginal farmers – are disturbed. To a large extent, the economy of the local people is, therefore, categorically weakened. Even in normal condition where there takes place no developmental works, the last few years experienced near dry-up of water sources in various regions.

The present rate of deforestation further enhance water runoff during rainy season as thin vegetation effectively check infiltration. This lower rate of percolation hastens rapid depletion of groundwater amidst excessive exploitation of water resources to meet the rising agricultural demand. In addition, monsoon instability in the last few years had rendered many farmers to lose trust in unpredictable monsoon. Such a change in climatic pattern has dearly contributed to the ultimate abandoning of terraces and jhum fields in manifold in rural Nagaland.

As an inherent characteristic to the climate induced economic instability and development induced displacement, a bulk of the population flocked to the urban areas, particularly to Kohima and Dimapur, in search of better employment opportuni-

ties. Having observed that the majority of the migrating groups are of relatively younger age, only few lucky gets the job/work while the greater half continues to be partially without any job/work.

Continuous combat against starvation has become a necessity to keep one’s stomach full by crook or by hook and its rising incidences has consequentially contributed to the increasing rate of social maladies including thievery, gambling, excessive collection, extortion, illicit business outlets or as agents of outlawed syndicates.

The by-product of the presence of lesser work force in agricultural fields is the general decline in total productivity as opposed to previously known total agricultural output. Even the total productivity of domesticated vegetables, fruits, or other related horticultural products are significantly compact in quantity that the pressure now largely shift to wild edible species. With few resources to meet unlimited demands, the costs of such essential items in market skyrocketed. From village shed to urban market, both quantity and quality keeps on descending whereas its market price keeps on ascending.

While the value remains stagnant as the price retains its dynamism, a composite reaction is felt in public offices and in public undertakings. Surpassing all ethical considerations, one does not care enough to question what if one pocketed the funds meant for the old-age, the children, the women, the weaker section, the youth and the public. Stories of uncompleted developmental works, abandoned projects, fraudulent drawal from public accounts bearing fictitious names, clarification and counter-clarification between and within departments, siphoning of items under PDS and anomalies and mismatch in relation between fund utilization and physical works in most of developmental projects in Nagaland are all direct indications of maneuvering short term solution in arresting long term ramification. Instead of addressing the issue at hand, the problem is multiplying each day at the cost of those at the edge of the extremely unbalanced lower strata.

Taking advantage of the irregular water supply together with government’s inability to provide potable piped-water to meet the increasing domestic demand, mini-trucks loaded with water-tanks/sintexes emerge as

a profitable commerce in urban areas, especially in the state capital. Reserving least attention to the consumers amidst soaring water scarcity, the so-called private water suppliers, irrespective of its sources and disregarding safety concerns, indulge in water trade. With few exceptions, the quality of the supplied water is often unfit for human consumption but that does not discourage the suppliers from selling at unreasonably high price. In the absence of any urban local bodies to monitor and regulate private water supply, self-vested individuals/groups manipulate the situation as a direct license to indulge in unhealthy competition which itself is unhealthy for the lives of the vulnerable.

Inter-village and even intertribal disputes are frequently reported as a result of a taut contention over water sources mainly for ownership claims. Further, cases of litigation over water sources oblige clannish and familial relationships to undergo an intricate changes which otherwise act as a symbol of unity and mutual understanding. Hence, greed driven expansionist policy on territorial possession considerably for domestic supplies and irrigation has resulted in piling of cases of compounded land acquisition amongst private individuals and its associated unauthorized encroachment.

With recent studies pointing to the lack of access to clear water and poor productivity in foodgrains as one of the major factors of the crises in the Middle East including Syria, a situation look so grim here in our home state as the relationship between them and us is dismally the same in nature – a direct by-product of environmental mismanagement. Children are without potable water at homes, in schools, in hospitals while the women folk are forced to bear the brunt of the extreme temperature working day-long in fields. Simultaneously, the number of thirsty and hungry stomachs is doubling its figure. Still then, our drainages, our nullahs and streams in and around our towns are mostly perennial. Unless we mend our civic ways, tap the available water sources, employ scientific applications to treat our wastes, minimize the wastage of water and maximize its storage, as is environmentally popularly known, the “death of birth” is not far from being dawned.

I

am a Dimapurian, born and brought from Dimapur and i love my city. Sadly Dimapur is stink hell, filled with filth. Please provide Dust bins. Place dust bins in strategic places and make

peeing on the road side a crime with heavy penalty. Tetra packs, sweet covers, plastic, etc... are being thrown openly in the streets. Please make it mandatory for every shop to keep a waste bin.

Before I conclude, I appeal to the Dimapurians to maintain civic sense. Don't throw your wastes on the street or spit your pan or tamul in the street.

Kevitho Kera

Assam-Nagaland Border Issue Is Political, Not Administrative: GPRN/NSCN

T

he dangerous position adopted by the Nagaland state government and Dimapur district administration with regard to the status of Naga lands bordering Assam is disturbing. The boundary issue between Nagaland and Assam is a result of British mismanagement if indigenous Naga people and their land without taking the landowners into confidence.

Arbitrary division of ancestral Naga lands did not matter to them so long as their administrative and political objectives were met. After independence, successive Indian governments failed to transfer Naga lands to Nagaland.

There is a clear written document in the form of 9 point agreement also known as Sir Akbar Hydari Agreement signed after a prolonged discussion between Naga representatives and the Indian government from 27th to 29th June, 1947. Clause 4 and 6 states the fact. Approximately an area of 4,974.16 sq. Miles, occupied by Assam must be transferred back to Nagaland.

This issue will have to be corrected through reoccupation of the areas by the Naga people followed by political agreement for

formal transfer to Nagaland. The Naga political struggle is about the Naga people and their land, and therefore, GPRN/NSCN believes that Naga people reclaiming their ancestral land bordering Assam is inevitable. GPRN/NSCN appreciates the initiatives of the United Naga Tribes Association of Border Areas (UNTABA). It is unwise on the part of the Nagaland state government not to allow Nagas from occupying their ancestral land.

Ancestral land of the Nagas cannot be given out to accommodate illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and other landless people. GPRN/NSCN urge the Dimapur district administration to give full co-operation to UNTABA, which is diligently working to educate both the Nagas and Assamese to live in peace recognizing historical facts about ancestral Naga lands.

GPRN/NSCN also informs the village councils and elders of Indisen villages, Rilan, Aoyimkum and other Naga villages along the so-called disputed area to co-operate with UNTABA in their effort to salvage the common property. The state government has recognized the above mentioned villages which lie in the same belt, who has

the authority to prevent other Nagas from settling beyond these villages?

Village elders along disputed belt should avoid in petty politics such as informing the district administrations or Assam police to intercept fellow Nagas from moving beyond their village gates.

This kind of acts amount to treachery within the Naga family and therefore appropriate measures could be initiated.

In the 1840’s, Nowgong was the principle British administrative headquarters for the Naga lands. Samaguting (Chumukedima) was another British administrative centre\. Historical facts cannot be erased. Assam is today flooded with illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The floating population is pouring into neighbouring Nagaland unabated. The state government is blind to this phenomenon and instead, an effort is on to create a barricade against Nagas attempting to occupy their ancestral land.

GPRN/NSCN demands the state government to direct the district administration in all border areas to assist UNTABA in protecting and defending Naga lands against immigrants.

Nukhosa Chüzho

Readers may please note that the contents of the articles, letters and opinions published do not reflect the outlook of this paper nor of the Editor in any form.

Issued by: MIP, GPRN/NSCN

friday 15•04•2016

EntErtainmEnt

YRF comes up with new web series based on ‘Ladies Room’

Y

ash Raj Films (YRF) has come out with a new web series named “Ladies Room”. It’s a story about two best friends with questionable life skills boldly going where no man has gone before - the women’s washroom.

“Ladies Room” takes place in six different loos as characters Dingo and Khanna try to survive one disaster after another, and holds the singular feat of never showing any men in their entirety.

“It’s been quite a ride for Y-Films over the last four months with probably the widest range of original content for the internet, from web series to short films, and satires to transgender bands...YFilms is now launching its next original fiction series, ‘Ladies Room’,” said Ashish Patil, Head of Y-Films, producer of “Ladies Room”.

Talking about the fictional series Pa-

K

ate harrowing effect this disease can have on individuals, families and loved ones,” Naomi Campbell said of the campaign. “For the last twenty years Fashion Moss and Naomi Targets Breast Cancer has Campbell have paired united us all – scientists, up to recreate a cam- models, designers, mothers, paign that they origi- photographers, retailers – as nally starred in 20 years a powerful force against the ago. The supermodels, disease.” and close friends, are Kate Moss, addonce again support- ed: “It’s great to be ing Fashion Targets returning to supBreast Cancer, port Fashion Tarwearing simple gets Breast Cancer white tees with on this very spejeans in the latest cial anniversary campaign pho- year. Since its tographed by the UK launch in legendary Mario 1996, when Testino.

I first apThe initiative peared in was originally the camcreated by Amer- paign poster, ican fashion de- Fashion Targets signer Ralph Lau- Breast Cancer has ren after he lost his gone on to impact close friend, Wash- so many lives by ington Post fashion funding vital reeditor Nina Hyde search into this to cancer. This year devastating disa number of labels, ease.’’ including Marks & In its 20 years Spencer, Debenthe initiative has hams, Topshop, already raised over Laura Ashley, Sim£14 million to fund ply Be and Blow Ltd, are taking part breast cancer reby creating exclusive search, and has reproducts and collec- ceived support from tions with a minimum a number of high 30% donation going profile fashion stars, towards Breast Cancer including Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacpherNow’s research.

“I never could have son, Georgia May Jagexpected back in 1996 ger, Sienna Miller and Lily that I would go on to ex- Donaldson. perience first-hand the Source: Telegraph.Co.Uk

US

and D.B. Weiss have confirmed that Obama wanted advanced copies of upcoming season of the TV series, reports aceshowbiz.com.

“For both of us finding out that the President wanted advanced copies of the episodes, that was an

‘ah-ha moment’,” Weiss said at the premiere event of the series, adding that “was a very strange moment”. Asked if they granted his wish, Weiss replied: “Yes. He’s the leader of the free world.”

Beinoff chimed in, saying,

“When the commander-in-chief says, ‘I want to see advance episodes,’ what are you gonna do?”

“Game of Thrones” season 6 will premiere on April 26 in India on Star World Premiere HD.

Robert De Niro defends his support for anti-vaccination movie C M Y K

T

ribeca Film Festival co-founder and actor Robert De Niro has once again defended his decision to back “Vaxxed”, the controversial anti-vaccination documentary pulled from the movie gala’s schedule following a critical uproar online.

The 72-year-old actor, whose 18-year-old son suffers from autism, appeared on the “Today” show on NBC to re-state his belief that “Vaxxed” should have been shown at the annual film festival he curates, reported Entertainment Weekly. “I think the movie is something that people should see. There was a backlash I haven’t fully explored, and I will but I didn’t want it to start affecting the festival in ways I couldn’t see. But definitely there is something to that movie.”

“Vaxxed” is directed by

the British ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped of his practitioner’s license after an article he published in the Lancet in the late ‘90s argued that MMR vaccinations were linked to children developing autism as they got older.

Those findings were found to be based on false data, but Wakefield has continued to campaign on the matter.

De Niro said that he wasn’t against the principle of vaccination, but he argued that he “wanted to

Deepika teams up with Adriana for eyewear brand

A

ctress Deepika Padukone has teamed up with Brazilian supermodel Adriana Lima and

Chinese actress Liu Shishi for the communication campaign of Vogue Eyewear Spring-Summer (SS) 2016.

Source: IANS

CINTAA to take action against Dolly Bindra, Rakhi Sawant

Obama to watch ‘GOT’ season 6 before anyone President Barack Obama will get to watch season 6 of HBO’s popular fantasy drama TV series “Game of Thrones” before any die-hard fans are able to. Showrunners David Beinoff

til shared that the characters Dingo and Khanna will be essayed by Saba Azad, who was last seen in “Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge” and Shreya Dhanwanthary, who is making her fiction series debut with “Ladies Room”.

The comedy is directed by Ashima Chibber, whose directorial debut “Mere Dad Ki Maruti”, was a commercial hit.

“The series promises to be another game changer on the net and Dingo and Khanna are going to take you on the ride of a lifetime!” Patil added.

The comedy fictional web-series is slated to release in May. Y- Films has previously come up with short films including “Road trip” starring Nimrat Kaur and Tahir Raj Bhasin, “Koi Dekh Lega” starring Saqib Saleem and Shweta Tripathi.

know the truth” and had hoped to open the matter to debate by screening the film. “There is something there that people aren’t addressing,” he said, adding that part of him does regret removing “Vaxxed” from the schedule. At the end of March, the decision was taken by De Niro in consultation with the New York festival’s organisers to remove “Vaxxed” from its billing, despite the star’s vocal support for the film

Source: IANS

M

e mb e r s o f Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) have decided to take action against actresses Dolly Bindra and Rakhi Sawant for making insensitive remarks on Pratyusha Banerjee’s death.

“I fail to understand how can people be so insensitive. A child is no more and you are dying for publicity. We can’t ban these two people because they are members,” Amit Behl, chairperson dispute committee, CINTAA told IANS. “It’s such a shame peo-

ple are trying to make issue out of somebody’s death,” he added.

Pratyusha, who portrayed the character of the adult Anandi in the famous teleserial “Balika Vadhu”, was found hanging from a fan by her boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh and neighbours at her Goregaon residence on April 1.

She was rushed to the Kokilaben Ambani Hospital where she was declared dead.

Post her death, Dolly circulated her phone conversation with the late actress’ mother, in the media.

She also made a statement in the media that Pratyusha had vermillion on her forehead when she was brought to Kolikaben Hospital.

Rakhi, on the other hand, requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban ceiling fans in order to stop suicides.

Behl said that he also had a discussion with all members of CINTAA on the issue.

Source: IANS

Hillstar NOW SHOWING

Ticket Rates PlaTinuM - `320 Gold - `150 SilveR - `80

Source: PTI

The trio will embark on different journeys to three legendary cities around the globe — Dubai, Los Angeles and Paris — with Deepika exploring Dubai.

“It’s been an absolute delight to collaborate with Vogue Eyewear for its SS 2016 campaign. Dubai was the right setting for this collection that is a blend of femininity, modernity and aspiration,” Deepika said in a statement.

The “Bajirao Mastani” actress was accompanied by photographer Prasad Naik for the collection. “It was great shooting with Deepika Padukone for Vogue Eyewear in Dubai.

It was an interesting experience shooting in the desert and modern downtown area. Although the sun was blazing upon us, it created a lovely quality of light,” Naik said.

Source: IANS

15APRIL TH

Hillstar

11:00 Am

FAN

a thriller, narrates the story about fan’s journey from admiration to dark obsession. The latest offering from Shah Rukh Khan’s has him play dual role of a 50-year-old movie star and a 25-year-old mega fan.

The trailer has racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube and promises a lot of action sequences set in Dubrovnik (Croatia), London, Oxford, Mumbai and New Delhi.

02:00 pm | 05:00 PM | 08:00 pm

12

IPL 2016 | Today's MaTch

SPORTS

15/04/2016

Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab

Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi

FriDAY 15•04•2016

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

20:00

Kobe Bryant scores 60 points in final game of career Mark Lamport-Stokes

Bryant built Hall of Fame career with tireless work ethic

Reuters

C M Y K

Moments before starting the final game of his stellar 20-year career in the NBA, Kobe Bryant was described as "the greatest" ever to wear the purple and gold by fellow Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson.

Bryant, an 18-time All-Star guard who went on to engineer a thrilling, come-from-behind 10196 win over the Utah Jazz on his much anticipated league farewell, was given a lengthy video tribute before Johnson walked out to center court.

"We are here to celebrate greatness," Johnson, like Bryant a five-time NBA champion, told the sellout crowd. "For 20 years, excellence. For 20 years, Kobe Bryant has never cheated the game, he has never cheated us as fans. "He has played through injury, he has played hurt and we have five championships banners to show for it."

Huge roars then rang out as the Lakers fans gave Bryant thunderous approval. "For the last 20 years, this man has been the biggest and greatest celebrity we have had in this town," said Johnson.

"He is not only a great and unbelievable sports icon but he's also the greatest to wear the purple and gold.

"So right now we should put our hands together for the late great (former Lakers owner) Jerry Buss for trading for this man."

Bryant ended Wednesday's game with 60 points on 22-of-50 shooting as the Lakers fought back from a 15-point deficit at halftime and was again cheered loudly by the fans before he addressed them all from the center court. "Man, I can't believe how fast 20

years went by," he said, with a towel draped over his shoulders. "It's crazy, absolutely crazy to be standing here on the same court with you guys, with my team mates behind me. "All I can do here is thank you guys for all the years of support, all the years of inspiration.

This has been unbelievable.

I can't believe it has come to an end," he said, before gold and purple confetti descended from the ceiling.

Asked in his post-game news conference how he felt about Johnson labelling him as the greatest Laker ever, Bryant replied: "I refuse to believe it because Magic is my hero ... and so

he is, and always will be, number one for me."

Pre-game, another video tribute to Bryant was played on the Jumbotron suspended from the rafters at Staples Center, ending with the words 'Congratulations on 20 years in the Purple and Gold' emblazoned on the screen.

Individual tributes from former team mates and opponents such as LeBron James, Pau Gasol, Stephen Curry, Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony were played before longtime Lakers fan and Hollywood great Jack Nicholson wrapped things up. "You have been an inspiration

to us all and LA loves you," said Nicholson.

At that point, further chants of "Kobe, Kobe, Kobe" rang out from the crowd as Johnson walked across to embrace Bryant and share a few private words.

Bryant then walked out to center court, applauding the fans with his hands raised high, then lifted his right arm in tribute before blowing kisses to the crowd.

The 37-year-old Lakers guard has cemented his place among the pantheon of NBA greats with a career that also includes scoring titles, the third-most points in league history and a league most valuable play-

er award in 2008.

Though his beloved Lakers have spluttered this season to an embarrassing record of 17-65, the worst for a franchise that has won 16 NBA championships, his league farewell sparked huge interest at the box office for Wednesday's game.

Demand for tickets was as high as a pivotal Lakers playoff game, ranging in the secondary markets from $700 to $10,000.

According to Stubhub, owned by eBay and the largest online ticket resale site in the United States, the most expensive ticket sold for Wednesday's game went for $27,500.

lOs anGeles, april 14 (reuters): For 20 long seasons, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant lit up the National Basketball Association with a work ethic and closing ability matched by very few until he finally ended his stellar career on Wednesday.

At the age of 37, he realized that time was running out and last November he announced that the 2015-16 season would be his last as his battered body was no longer able to withstand the rigors of protracted campaigns.

Five-time NBA champion and future Hall of Famer Bryant was sidelined for nearly eight months in 2013 with a torn Achilles' tendon, then played just six games during the 2013-14 season because of a severe knee injury.

Last season, he played 35 games but increasingly suffered soreness in his knees, feet and back, prompting coach Byron Scott to cut back significantly on Bryant's playing time going forward while altering his on-court role.

His 2015-16 campaign has effectively been a farewell tour, his time on court significantly cut back though he ended up playing in 66 of 82 games, particularly on the road, to give fans one last chance to say goodbye.

Popularly known as 'Black Mamba', Bryant made a living by making the seemingly impossible possible for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Until age finally caught up with him, he made a habit of draining game-winning shots despite being double or triple-teamed, establishing a reputation for being one of the best ever closers in the NBA as a shooting guard.

At times, Bryant has been accused of being a ball-hog, though he has frequently excelled as a facilitator and is unrivalled in the modern game when it comes to basketball IQ. "Every night you played, I couldn't wait to watch knowing that I would witness an unbelievable shot or move that I had never seen on the court," fellow Lakers great Magic Johnson wrote about

Bryant on his website on Wednesday.

"I marveled at the skills and loved the energy you brought to the game wearing that purple and gold uniform.

You never disappointed the city, Laker fans and basketball fans worldwide. All you cared about was winning games and championships and that's why so many people love you.

"Very few people have changed the game of basketball but you will be recognized as one of them alongside my 'Dream Team' teammates, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan."

CUT OF BEEF Named Kobe by his parents after they spotted the popular Japanese cut of beef on a restaurant menu shortly before his birth, Bryant is a five-times NBA champion having won titles in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010.

He was drafted out of high school with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets but was traded shortly after the Lakers for Serbian Vlade Divac.

He has appeared in 18 All-Star games, was named the Most Valuable Player for the 2007-08 regular season and landed MVP honors in the 2009 and 2010 Finals when he led the Lakers to consecutive championships.

Bryant has also won gold medals with the U.S. basketball team at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Twice NBA champion LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is widely regarded as the best player currently competing in the league, pointed to Bryant's work ethic as a significant motivation for him.

"I knew I had to be better because of Kobe Bryant," said James. "I knew he was in the gym and I knew he was working on his game. And I knew he was great.

"So every day that I didn't want to work out or every day I felt like I couldn't give more, I always thought of Kobe. Because I knew that he was getting better."

Champions League: Barca stunned 17th LSU Martyrs’ Trophy begins at fortress Atletico, Bayern advances Madrid, april 14 (reuters): Holders Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League after being stifled by a brilliantly well-organised Atletico Madrid and undone by two goals from Antoine Griezmann in a 2-0 quarter-final second-leg defeat on Wednesday.

Bayern Munich, meanwhile, booked their fifth successive Champions League semi-final spot with a 2-2 draw at Benfica to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Griezmann headed home Saul Niguez's exquisite cross to give the home side the lead in the 36th minute and provide them with a platform from which they comfortably contained their uncharacteristically limp opponents

to seal a 3-2 aggregate win.

The France forward scored again from the penalty spot with two minutes remaining, following a handball from Andres Iniesta, to complete a 3-2 aggregate victory that eliminated Barca at the quarter-final stage for the second time in three seasons. Barcelona, who were bidding to become the first team to retain the Champions League, seem to have run out of steam at the end of the season, having won just one of their last five matches.

They have not looked the same side since their 39-game unbeaten run ended at the start of the month and they came into the Wednesday's match on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Real Sociedad.

The Atletico support-

ers created a fervent atmosphere and the noise at kick-off spurred the hosts into a strong start, with Gabi blazing over and Yannick Carrasco and Griezmann testing Barca keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Atletico took the lead in the tie on away goals when Saul carved out a cross with the outside of his boot towards Griezmann who headed into the top corner.

"We never stopped believing, we never give up what we want to do,” Atletico coach Diego Simeone said.

"It was lovely to watch from the touchline. These moments won’t come back because they are unique in football."

Bayern reach 5th Champions League

semi-final in a row

At the Lisbon, Bayern booked their fifth successive Champions League semi-final spot with a 2-2 draw at Benfica on Wednesday to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory that kept the Germans on course for a treble of titles.

Arturo Vidal's 38thminute goal cancelled out the hosts' early lead through Raul Jimenez's header and Thomas Mueller's volley early in the second half eased their nerves.

The Portuguese side, vying for their first semifinal in more than a quarter of a century, managed a late equaliser through Talisca but still suffered their fourth elimination in their fourth European tie against Bayern.

WOkha, april 14 (dipr): The 17th Edition of the Lotha Students’ Union Martyrs’ Trophy started today at Local Ground Wokha, with Director for Land Resources, Government of Nagaland, Mhathung Yanthan as the chief guest. All together 12 teams are competing for the trophy.

Addressing the inaugural function, the chief guest reminded the student community that student life is very short and as such urged them to make best use of every hour to learn as much as possible. He also encouraged them to target goals, be more focused, and sincere to become good leaders and responsible citizens.

Deputy Commissioner, Wokha, A. Robin Lotha who also spoke on the occasion, urged the players and students not just to play the game but to have one mind, one sentiment

Mhathung Yanthan kicks off the 17th edition of the LSU Martyrs' Trophy at Local Ground Wokha on April 14. (DIPR Photo)

as the game was a mark of paying tribute to the departed souls who made supreme sacrifices for the welfare of the students’ community. He also lauded the LSU for remembering the departed soul in the form of sports and wished them success in achieving their aspirations.

Short speech was delivered by President, Wokha District Football Association, Edward Ngullie and Father of Lt. Thungkhomo

Ezung.

KSU President, Amos Odyuo, gave a brief on the significance of organizing the tournament. The KSU organises this tournament annually in memory of Lt. Thungkhomo Ezung and Lt. Chumdamo Tungoe who were killed on April 14, 1977 during a rally organised by the Lotha Students’ Union to protest against the inhuman act of the Assam Police in manhandling the then SDO (C) Ralan.

GHC take on SSA in Altrura final MedZipheMa, april 14 (Mexn): Green Hill Club will take on State Sports Academy (SSA) in the final of the 4th Altrura Open Football Tournament after both teams registered wins in their respective semifinal encounters which were held at the Medziphema Town Local Ground Dimapur today.

S S A d e f e at e d Country Boys 2-1 in the first semifinal match while Green Hill Club edged Amateur SC 3-2 to register their entry into the final.

April 15 Final:

SSA vs GHC @ 1pm

Warriors romp to record 73rd NBA victory

Oakland, april 14 (aFp): The Golden State Warriors blazed to a record 73rd victory of the NBA season, thrashing the Memphis Grizzlies 125104 to eclipse the 72-win campaign of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.

NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry on Wednesday scored 46 points as the reigning champions broke the mark that seemed unassailable when it was set two decades earlier by that Michael Jordan-led Bulls team.

With their 73-9 record in hand and the confetti falling at a raucous Oracle Arena, the Warriors were already turning their attention to the playoffs and their larger quest for a title repeat.

"Now, let's go get this championship," Draymond Green exhorted the delirious crowd.

Green had been a vo-

cal supporter of the race for the record, urging his team-mates toward the feat even as some questioned whether the exhausting pursuit could cost them in the post-season.

"It's a great way to finish off what was an amazing regular season," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, a guard on that Bulls team 20 years ago. "I'd never in a million years have guessed that that record would ever be broken. I thought it was like (Joe) DiMaggio's hit streak. Really. And I was wrong."

NBA icon Jordan and US President Barack Obama offered their congratulations.

"I want to congratulate the Warriors on their amazing season," Jordan said in a statement. "The game of basketball is always evolving and records are made to be broken. The Warriors have been a lot of fun to watch and I look for-

ward to seeing what they do in the playoffs."

Obama, an avowed Bulls fan, tweeted his congratulations.

"Congrats to the @ Warriors, a great group of guys on and off the court.

If somebody had to break the Bulls' record, I'm glad it's them," he posted.

The chase for the record was launched by the Warriors' 24-0 start to the season -- achieved with interim coach Luke Walton at the helm as Kerr recovered from complications from back surgery.

But it came down to the final game of the campaign and fittingly saw Curry reach yet another once unthinkable milestone as he surpassed 400 threepointers for the season.

Curry, who had already become the first player to make 300 threepointers in a single season back on March 8, drained 10 from beyond the arc to

take his total to the season to 402 -- shattering his own previous singleseason record of 286 from last season.

Curry's 41st point of the night, late in the third period, ensured he would finish the season with a scoring average above 30.0 points per game, making him the only Warrior in history other than Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Rick Barry to hit that mark.

Curry also handed out six assists and four rebounds as the Warriors improved to 39-2 at home.

Curr y's backcourt team-mate Klay Thompson added 16 points which included four three-pointers.

The Warriors roll into the Western Conference playoffs as the top seed and in the first round will face the eighth-seeded Houston Rockets in a rematch of last season's conference finals.

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