August 24th, 2016

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

wednesdAY • AUGUsT 24 • 2016

DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 232 • 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

o F

T R u T H

The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better — Gloria Macapagal Arroyo BAN for ‘immediate improvement’ of roads and power supply in Nagaland

BSNL launches ‘Experience Landline 49 Plan’ PAGE 05

PAGE 05

By Sandemo Ngullie

If our boss finds out we have not spoken against corruption, extortions, or stood up for the unpaid teachers. We had it!

Quake hits North East AgArTAlA/AizAwl, AugusT 23 (iANs): A 5.5-magnitude earthquake in the Myanmar-India border region on Tuesday rocked Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and some other parts of northeast India, but there was no report of major damage, officials said. “The 5.5-magnitude quake hit various states of the northeastern region of India at 7.41 a.m. on Tuesday morning,” a meteorological department official said in Agartala. “There is no report of major damage in Tripura, Mizoram, Assam and adjoining areas of the northeast yet. Only some cracks developed in a few old buildings in Assam and Mizoram adjoining Myanmar,” disaster management coordinator Sarat Das told IANS, citing reports from District Magistrates across the region.

According to the meteorological department, the quake rocked India’s northeastern states and adjoining Myanmar and Bangladesh. Seismologists consider India’s mountainous northeast region as the sixth major earthquakeprone belt in the world. The northeast has seen some of the biggest quakes in history. In 1897, the Shillong-epicentred quake measured 8.2 on the Richter scale. In 1950, an earthquake in Assam measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale forced the mighty Brahmaputra river to change its course. In September 2011, Sikkim underwent heavy damage after a quake hit the Himalayan state.

Ripun Bora appointed Assam Congress chief

C M Y K

New Delhi, AugusT 23 (iANs): Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday appointed Ripun Bora as president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC). Bora has been appointed following the death of former Congress state unit president Anjan Dutta, who died following cardiac arrest in New Delhi on June 16. “Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the name of Ripun Bora as president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) with immediate effect,” said a statement released by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi. Bora was the acting president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee. He is a former minister in Assam government and currently a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.

PAGE 12

Goi told to show intent for peace by removing AfsPA

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Students dance as they participate in celebrations ahead of the Janmashtami festival, which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna in Mumbai on August 23. (REUTERS)

NTC files PIL over ‘arbitrary’ SVC resolution

kohiMA, AugusT 23 (MexN): The Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has taken the Government of Nagaland to court over a resolution it passed in June this year that, according to the NTC, “blatantly and subjectively divested the legal powers and jurisdiction” of the State Vigilance Commission (SVC), the only investigative establishment of Nagaland State.

In clause 3 of the resolution passed on June 8, 2016, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland has been given “overriding authority” over the Commission, noted NTC. More-

over, the resolution kept Political Executives and All India Services and others “outside the purview” of the SVC. The Suo Moto power of the SVC to investigate cognizable offences were also “withdrawn,” stated the NTC. “It has further made mandatory for the SVC to ascertain from the Chief Secretary, whether parallel investigation into similar offences is not being carried out by other investigation agencies, and to submit a sealed covered information to the Chief Secretary, from the time of investigation,” it informed.

“Such dilution of the

powers of the Commission will definitely hamper the efficiency of the investigative authority,” noted the NTC, terming the resolution “totally illegal, arbitrary and without jurisdiction.”

In this regard, the NTC has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court on August 22 challenging the validity of the said Government resolution. The case, heard by Justice LS Jamir, has been listed for hearing on September 26 with an assurance from the Justice that the Court will attempt to “dispose of the matter on

the next returnable date keeping note of the matter being urgent and of public importance.”

A press release to this effect was issued by petitioners in the case, namely Theja Therieh, Chairman, Media Cell & Convenor, Committee on SVC, NTC, Zhovehu Lohe, Advisor, NTC and Member, Committee on SVC, NTC and Er. Talituba Sanglir, President, Kohima Ao Senden and Member, Committee on SVC, NTC. The case is represented by Sr. Advocate Taka Masa Ao, Advocate Arenlong and Advocate Khrievono.

kohiMA, AugusT 23 stated the APO in its press lates the Universal Declara(MexN): The Angami Pub- release from its President tion of Human Rights (the lic Organisation (APO) has Dr. Vilhousa Seleyi and Sec- ‘UDHR’), the International noted today that India is a retary Information & Pub- Covenant on Civil and Polit“strange country” where licity, Neisakholie Ziephrü. ical Rights (the ‘ICCPR’), the AFSPA was passed in Convention Against Torture, in some parts the Government makes provision for 1958 when the Naga move- the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Ofoffenders to be “punAPO says, “In light of the ficials, the UN Body ished and imprisPrinciples for Prooned” for the slaughter human rights violation, of tection of All Persons of cows and possession of beef while in equality and justice, AFSPA Under any form of Detention, and the UN other parts “justifies is a law that has to go” Principles on Effective and protects” the killing of innocent life through ment for independence Prevention and Investigathe Armed Forces (Special had just taken off; AFSPA is tion of Extra- legal and suma bare law with just six sec- mary executions.

Powers) Act (AFSPA).

Noting that “AccountThe Naga people have tions. In its fourth and sixth suffered enough over six sections, it enables security ability is a facet of the rule decades and countless forces to “fire upon or oth- of law,” the APO reiterated innocent lives lost on ac- erwise use force, even to that AFSPA “violates this count of AFSPA, stated the the causing of death” where basic understanding and APO in a press release to- laws are being violated and principle of the law.”

“No one could be above day while extending sup- allows no criminal prosport to the Naga Students’ ecution against any person the law; everyone must be Federation and other Naga who has taken action un- equal before and under it.

In light of the human rights apex organizations in pro- der this act.

“India is popularly con- violation, equality and justest of the extension of the Disturbed Areas Act and sidered as a nation which tice, AFSPA is a law that has gives due importance to to go,” it affirmed.

AFSPA to Nagaland.

Nagaland today is not “The present situation the rights and liberties of demands measures no less its citizens. It has absorbed the Nagaland of 1958, Nasignificant than the Prime the ideals of democracy in galand today is peaceful, Minister’s intervention, its truest sense. However, it the APO said. “It is not free who must decide that AF- is difficult to imagine that in of intimidation, extortion SPA needs to be reviewed. a country like ours, exists a or factional killings, but it is This is the voice of the Naga law which makes a mockery not worthy to be deemed as people to the Government of the basic human rights,” a disturbed area under the Indian Constitution.” of India (GoI) that if the maintained the APO. It also informed that A perusal of the proviGoI is serious about peaceful negotiations and settle- sions of AFSPA, it observed, the State government has ment, show the Naga peo- “illuminates the extent of been asking, since 2005, ple that intent in actions unchecked power in the for the removal of the DAA and deeds and not with big hands of the armed forces.” It but in showing its “double hollow speeches in press violates Indian Law and In- standards,” the GoI “refusconferences and meetings,” ternational Law. AFSPA vio- es to listen.”

Juvenile care home under scrutiny NCSU demands open tender system in all contract & supply works Morung Express News Dimapur | August 23

A Dimapur-based juvenile care home has come under scrutiny of authorities following allegation of negligence. The allegation emerged after 6 minor children of the facility (name withheld) were reportedly apprehended for shoplifting at a colony in Dimapur on the night of August 21.

Following the report of the incident on August 21, child rights activists intervened and placed the children under protective custody. The activists stated that since the incident involved minors, the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Dimapur, has taken cognizance of

the case and launched an inquiry.

The CWC further directed the District Child protection Unit and the Childline to “rescue” the other remaining children. The CWC order, a copy of which was shown to the media, held the case as “serious in nature.”

Negligence and under-feeding was alleged to have compelled the children to look for foodstuff from other means. The District Child Protection Officer, Dimapur while confirming the incident, stated that 7 more children were later removed from the facility on August 22 bringing the total to 13. He added that there were four more, 2 boys and 2 girls, remaining in the care home.

Our Correspondent Kohima | August 23

The Nagaland Contractors’ & Suppliers’ Union (NCSU) today appealed Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang as well as to all the concerned department to issue open tender in all the supply & contract works as per the standing order of the state government for free and fair competition among all the local contractors to bid for the tender, “which will ultimately achieve desired quality works.”

In a representation addressed to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, NCSU President Pele Khezhie and General Sec-

retary John Kath stated that the NCSU has been demanding for open tender system of all supply & contract works in the state “but the state government has turned a deaf ear to our plea.”

NCSUhighlightedthatinspite of constant submission of representation to the state government and all the departments for strict and proper implementation of the government memorandum issuedvideorderNo.(1)AR-12/85 dated 13th Dec 1985, (2) GAB-1/ Com/43/86 dated 30th June 1986 (3) BUD/8-7/95-96 dated Oct 1995 (4) No. CE/R&B/GenCORR/2013-14datedKohimathe 26th May 2014, (5) No. CE (H) TB/ NCSU/2006-10 dated Kohima

the 15th April 2014 for awarding all types of government contract & supply works to only registered member holding NCSU Identity Card, “our genuine demand is left asidebymanydepartmentswhile only the police and medical departments are following the government memorandum.”

In this, the NCSU made earnest request to the Chief Minister to “kindly notify to all the departments to implement the government standing order while inviting tender for the convenience of all.”

“In the event of failure to comply with our genuine demand the NCSU can no longer be silent spectator but resort

to our own course of action as deemed fit,” the NCSU stated.

Moreover, the NCSU while upholding its motto “Dignity for self-reliance” opined that it is high time for the local contractors to justify the genuineness and compatible works completed by them. It appealed the Chief Minister to constitute a special committee or invite CBI to verify the two years table tender works along with the abnormal enhancement of rate.

Meanwhile, the NCSU conveyed appreciation and gratitude to NGRC-1CU for demanding open tender system for all supply and contract works in the state.

ZBn hopes for Govt. & naga Hoho to YAA re-registers complaints with DoSE Math, Science teachers; remain resolute on tribe recognition No teachers transferred with post JAlukie, AugusT 23 (MexN): The Zeliangrong Baudi Nagaland (ZBN) has denounced the “ultimatum” given to the Government of Nagaland and Naga Hoho for withdrawal of the recognition of the Rongmei peoples as an ‘Indigenous Tribe’ of Nagaland.

In a press statement, signed by its President Rangsam N Hau and General Secretary Meijiang Gonmei, the ZBN also appealed to the State Government and the Naga Hoho to “remain resolute” with their decisions so that “people can have faith in your credibility and leadership in the years to come.”

The ZBN stated that it was constrained to issue such a statement given the reactions to the said issue. It reminded that the Baudi is the apex body of all Zeliangrong tribes and made a “clarion call to all Nagas that the Rongmei tribe is very much a kin-

dred brother of Zeme and Liangmai which was recognized on the consent and recommendation of all Zeliangrong civil societies in Nagaland, Naga Hoho and senior leaders of various political parties in Nagaland.”

The ZBN remained surprised that “certain organization” has given an “ultimatum” to the Naga Hoho, the apex body of all Naga tribes, for “withdrawal of the endorsement given to State Government to recognize Rongmei as one of the tribes in Nagaland.”

Reminding people of how Rongmei people have been living peacefully since before Nagaland statehood with “solid foundation of history,” the Baudi narrated how Rongmei people in Dimapur were amongst those “who rallied in support of merging Dimapur land with Naga Hills to make Nagaland state carved out from As-

sam in early 1960’s.” They were also the first to demonstrate Naga culture and dance during the Statehood function and represented Nagaland cultural troupe to Delhi in early years, it noted.

“It is very unfortunate to see certain Naga brothers from Nagaland now showing ingratitude and opposing the recognition of Rongmeis as one of the Naga tribes living in Nagaland prior to India’s independence,” stated the ZBN, affirming that the Zeliangrong people are “inseparable from each other.”

The “historic decision” to recognize the Rongmei Naga tribe was finally taken after “several years of examinations, surveys and legal opinions from experts and Naga organisations during the time of Neiphiu Rio’s government,” maintained the ZBN. However, it said, “some sections of people” are

bent on opposing the decision “during TR Zeliang’s government at the cost of destroying the children’s future of Rongmei tribe which is against human rights.”

In that, the Baudi appealed to these sections to “reconsider their decision and extend all support to the government’s democratic decision to grant Indigenous Naga Tribe status to Rongmei tribe of Nagaland who have settled prior to statehood.”

It further stated that the Naga Hoho has the “authority to decide and direct all the Naga tribes in the right direction for and in the interest of the common welfare of the Nagas.”

“If a Naga tribe is found to be oppressed and suppressed by a major tribe/s, the matter must be addressed by Naga Hoho on the ground of equality and human rights,” the ZBN reiterated.

TueNsANg, AugusT 23 (MexN): The Yimchungrü Akherü Arihako (YAA), the apex students’ organization of the Yimchungrü community, has revealed today that a Government High School (GHS) in Chessore under Tuensang district does not have a Science and Math teacher since earlier this year.

In a reminder to their representation to the Commissioner & Secretary, Department of School Education (DoSE), the YAA stated that they had intimated the DoSE of the problem in May this year as well as in June. Yet, Science and Math teachers have not been posted at GHS Chessore.

“It is to be mentioned that with just couple of months left for exam and academic session to end, not a single portion of lesson about math and science is taught to the students as prescribed in the NBSE syllabus for current academic year whereas the schools in other parts of districts are about to complete the syllabus. It is highly questionable and sad as the schools located in remote areas like GHS Chessore, the class for the said subjects are yet to begin as the Government had neglected in deploying the required Teachers timely, and the students will be compelled to sit for the board exams scheduled on the same date with the rest of the other students in Nagaland,” the fresh representation, signed by YAA

Acting President T Solumba and General Secretary L Akhang, stated.

TheYAAthusremindedtheDoSEthatthe saidsubjectteachersshouldbepostedbefore September 2016. If the State Government is unable to appoint the teacher, then “students should be exempted from appearing science and math subjects in the forthcoming board exam and their results and career should not be hampered. Failing to meet the above demands, the YAA would shut down the school and the department shall be solely held responsible for any consequences,” it noted.

Issue of transfer In another reminder, the YAA stated that it had requested for the cancellation of the post of a Vice- Principal who was “randomly transferred out without any reliever” from GHSS Shamator in April this year.

While the DoSE was informed of this in May 2016, stated the YAA, no action has been taken upon this yet. The YAA reminded that the GHSS Shamator is the lone Higher Secondary School under Shamator Sub- Division. The YAA felt instead of deputing more faculty for uplifting schools in the backward region, the Government is transferring them with post for reasons “best known to them which can no longer be tolerated.”

In that, the YAA urged the DoSE for “immediate cancellation of transfer order of Vice- Principal or immediate deployment of reliever at GHSS, Shamator before September, 2016.” Furthermore, the YAA urged the Department to “ban the transfer out of any teacher with post” from the all schools “under Yimchunger jurisdiction.”

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wednesdAY 24•08•2016

NAGALAND

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Umang Festival for differently abled children Book on Ao customary law

and practices released Morung Express News

Mokokchung | August 23

(Left) Kavita Acharya speaking at the Umang Festival in Kohima on August 23. (Right) Students of Tabitha Enabling Academy, Kohima perform dance at the festival. (Morung Photo) Our Correspondent tive to provide opportunities to bring and to provide opportunity to interKohima | August 23

The North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC) in association with Tabitha Enabling Academy, Kohima today organized Umang Festival for differently abled children here at North Field School.

Speaking on the occasion as the guest of honour, Kavita Acharya, wife of Nagaland’s Governor said Umang Festival is dedicated to differentlyabled children in the north eastern states as part of Government of India’s national policy for persons with disabilities.

She said the festival aims to create awareness about issues facing the differently-abled persons, and also to provide them with a platform to interact with other children in a very healthy and congenial atmosphere.

“Umang is a commendable initia-

the differently abled children closer to the mainstream society through cultural interactions,” she said.

50 differently abled children from Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland along with teachers joined the festival.

She was optimistic that the festival will not only create awareness and appreciation of the lives, stories and artistic expressions of the differently-abled people, “but it should most importantly remind all of us, that we are all created in the likeness of God.” NEZCC Joint Director, Talinokcha said that Umang is a special scheme under the Ministry of Culture, GoI, and NEZCC as a nodal cultural centre implements the scheme in the north eastern states.

The basic objective of Umang Festival is to encourage the differently abled children to exhibit their talents

Post Matric Scholarship deadline extended

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): The Directorate of Higher Education, Nagaland has informed all the eligible students of Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) that the Central Ministry has extended the deadline for filling of forms online till September 30, 2016.

Excise personnel seize drugs

Dimapur, august 23 (mExN): The Excise personnel manning the inter-state check gate at Khuzama seized 10,000 tablets of banned Nitrosun drugs from an Imphal bound Guwahati bus. In this connection, one Md Mukandar (37) was arrested and forwarded to judicial custody and booked under relevant section of Drugs & Cosmetics Act 1940. In another incident at the same check gate on August 23, Excise personnel seized 11,518 capsules of banned spasmo proxyvon drugs from an Imphal bound Dimapur taxi. One person identified as Md Irfan Khan (28) was arrested with regard to the incident. This was informed in a press release issued by Deputy Commissioner of Excise (NC), Visedelie Mepfuo.

Acharya wishes happy Janmashtami

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): On the occasion of Sree Krishna Jayanti (Janmashtami), Governor of Nagaland, PB Acharya has conveyed warm greetings and good wishes to the people of Nagaland. In his message, Acharya stated that Lord Krishna's message of performing one’s duties with sincerity and devotion, without attachment to the results of our actions, remains a pertinent principle for salvation of humanity. He further wished that this Janmashtami will bring happiness in one’s life. Acharya also urged to enjoy the festival with love in one’s heart and good wishes for others. “On this joyous day, let us resolve to rededicate ourselves to the teachings of Lord Krishna in order to build a peaceful and enlightened society.”

act with other similar children.

He pointed out that seven more of such festival is being celebrated in North Eastern states – Ziro (Arunachal Pradesh), Jorhat (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Tura (Meghalaya), Aizawl (Mizoram), Gozing (Sikkim), and Agartala (Tripura).

The function was chaired by Vekutilü Vese.

Earlier, a dance was performed by students of Tabitha Enabling Academy, solo song by Kevivor from G. Rio School, dance by Meren, Imtilong and Yoyo, Shad Shoh Kba by Roilang Vocational Training Centre, Meghalaya, modern folk song from Assam, and group song by Visually Impaired Institute Dimapur.

Umang Festival, which will culminte on August 25 in all the respective states, will also be celebrated at G. Rio School Kohima on August 24.

A book on Ao customary law and practices titled “Aor Temzung Ozüng” published by the Mokokchung District Dobashi was formally released by Prof Sangyu Yaden, former Ao Senden president at the District Dobashi Customary Law Court here today.

Dobashis from all over Mokokchung district and also the officials of the Ao Senden attended the book release function.

Prof Sangyu Yaden, while congratulating the Mokokchung Dobashis for the successful publication of the book, termed the publication of the book as “magnificent spectacular achievement by the Dobashis and the Aos as a whole.” He said that the Bristishers had observed the Naga customary laws as good practices and even India has accepted the Naga customary laws because of which it was safeguarded by the Article 371 (A) of the constitution.

Pointing out that Mokokchung District Dobashis celebrating 125 years of existence was a great feat, Prof Sangyu said the publication of the book was another

Former Ao Senden president, Prof Sangyu Yaden releasing the book on Ao customary law and practices at the District Dobashi Customary Law Court, Mokokchung on August 23, 2016. (Morung Photo)

great achievement. He expressed hope that the documentation of the customary laws will help and strengthen the district administration through the proper usage of the age-old and noble customary practices of the forefathers.

Ao Senden president, Imolemba, while exhorting the Dobashis, lauded them for their wise decision to document the Ao customary law and practices and asserted that it will greatly help the future generation.

He urged the Dobashis to willingly interpret the laws

Villagers encouraged to open bank account

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): A financial literacy programme was organised by State Resource Centre for women (SRCW) and Mission Poorna Shakti (PSK) in collaboration with Nagaland State Co-operative Bank Ltd. at Seiyhama village on August 19. It was supported under Financial Implication Forum (FIF) managed by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

Kevi Hibo, Assistant Branch Manager and IC Nodal Centre, Kohima in his keynote address

gave introduction about NABARD and its functions. He opined that rural people should be aware of banks and maintain close relations with them in order for the banks to help improve their agricultural development and raise the living standard of BPLs (Below Poverty Line). Kevi further informed that every household should have at least one account and a person can open their account through general account or zero account.

Cerina Belho, Call Responder-181, gave brief introductions

on Women Helpline-181, Kohima; Sakhi- One Stop Centre, Dimapur; and Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA). She explained that Women Helpline-181 is a 24hour toll-free service provider for women affected by violence and seeking support, as well as for enquiries on schemes for women, a press release informed. SakhiOne Stop Centre is a centre for providing counselling services to women in crisis and emergency responses which can be referred to NGOs or other shelter homes.

Sukanya Samriddhi Account

under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) in collaboration with the Postal Department is a small savings scheme for girl child. The account can be opened anytime between the birth of a girl child and the time she attains 10 years of age by the guardian for the child’s education.

Meanwhile, Bendang Aier, Assistant General Manager from NABARD advised the people of Seiyhama village to be aware of the importance of banking and financial planning. He said that the motive of the banks is to bring

the public under one umbrella through different means, so that the quality of their lives can be improved.

Earlier, interactive session was held where participants raised queries regarding various schemes available.

Ruokuosalie Rulho, Block Coordinator, PSK, chaired the programme while Neizonuo, Village Coordinator, PSK invoked God’s blessings. Welcome address was given by Rheituolie Metha, Village Council Chairman, Seiyhama.

Demonstrations on water harvesting

pErEN, august 23 (mExN): Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Tening Block conducted various demonstrations on water harvesting under PMKSY in different locations of Peren’s Tening block. The six demonstrations covered low cost water harvesting through Jalkund method, rain water harvesting through contour bunds, and roof top rain water harvesting, informed a press release from Imti Walling, BTM, Tening Block. The resource persons were Imti Walling, BTM, Tening Block; Bendangnaro, A.O and BTT Member, Tening Block; Alex Meyase, A.I and BTT Member, Tening Block. Apart from the demonstrations, Heulia Farm School was inaugurated on August 18. The Farm School will deal with water harvesting through Jalkund method under PMKSY. Heulia was appointed as the Farm School teacher. Under PMKSY, Donkhang Farmer Interest Group was also mobilized under ATMA Tening Block.

1 DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF st

M. IMTILA JAMIR 24th AUGUST 2015

LYO informs

Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) team called on the Governor of Nagaland, PB Acharya to submit memorandum on inclusive solution to the Prime Minister of India through the Governor at Raj Bhavan, Kohima on August 22. The NTC team comprised of Theja Therieh, Secretary, Kethozhapu Sahu, Yesonu Veyie, Vimedo Hibo, and Zhovehu Lohe.

Demand to transfer SDO, PHED Mangkolemba

moKoKchuNg, august 23 (mExN): Mangkolemba Ao Lanur Telongjem (MALT) has written a complaint letter against the SDO (PHED) of Mangkolemba for his alleged irregularity and insincerity.

In a letter to the Chief Engineer, Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Nagaland, MALT stated, “it has been almost 3 (three) years that he (SDO) has been very irregular and insincere in his duty without any valid reason thus neglecting his official duty and commitments.” As such, the letter issued by MALT Media Cell said, there are serious loopholes in the working sys-

tem of the department and the delivery of duty by the staff is inconsistent in the sub-division. A letter of complaint has already been submitted to the Executive Engineer, PHED Mokokchung on June 17, 2016, it mentioned, adding there is no result with regard to the letter till now.

The MALT questioned the concerned officer’s “lackadaisical attitude and concern towards the people, area and the department.” In this light, MALT demanded immediate transfer of the SDO, PHED Mangkolemba on or before September 30 “or else the MALT will take drastic steps to bring positive change in the PHE department in Mangkolemba.”

Govt mulls district audition for Hornbill Festival

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to those who come to them for interpretation so that everyone would understand the laws and practices.

PA to DC Mokokchung, Temsumeren (DB), while giving a brief highlight of the book, said that the institution of Dobashis was started by the Britishers in 1889 and the Dobashis have been assisting the administration in the dispensation of justice and also in other fields too.

However, all the customary laws and practices were handed down orally and it was not in written form.

Therefore, while celebrating the 125 anniversary in 2014, a resolution was adopted to document the same.

Thus, after close consultation with the Ao Senden, it was approved to bring out the book, said Temsumeren DB. He also said that in this 21st century, with most of the youngsters living in towns and cities, there was a great danger that the present and future generation will forget the customary law and practices of the forefathers. He therefore said that the book was published with an aim of preserving the rich customary practices of the forefathers.

The PA to DC, Mokokchung also urged the people to appreciate the noble works of the Mokokchung District Dobashis and at the same time said that rectifications, if any, will be done in the next editions of the book.

The MTBA Associate Pastor, P Toshi dedicated the book and district Head DB Chubatoshi welcomed the audience. The programme was chaired by Limanungsang DB, while another PA to DC Mokokchung, Zulunungsang delivered the vote of thanks.

The 62 page book, written in the Ao vernacular language, is priced at Rs 150.

You Taught a Little Bit By what You said But You Taught most By what You were!

Fondly Remembered All Loved Ones

Kohima, august 23 (Dipr): To infuse and generate more interests, bring rural Nagaland to the fore, and invoke a sense of belonging and inclusiveness, the State Government has proposed to conduct district audition for interested participants who desire to be a part of Hornbill Festival 2016. This concept stems from the fact that rural Nagaland is yet to feel and taste the benefits the Hornbill Festival is offering.

Taking the audition to the districts will not only offer an opportunity to those in the villages who may have some fascinating stories to tell, but also curtail expenditure of the participants. It will also make the Hornbill Festival evolve for the better with the changing times and eliminate any

redundancy that may have crept in over the years.

The audition is proposed to cover any array of entertainment, crafts, sports, food, indigenous games, music etc that best portray and encapsulate the rich cultural heritage of the State's unique identity and fascinate the visitors coming to the State.

Besides, all proposals for participation in any capacity at Hornbill Festival 2016 Naga Heritage Village Kisama will be entertained, where time will be slotted for presentations/interactions on the same. It will invite ideas/concepts to improve the premiere festival of the state.

The district auditions will be tentatively held in the month of September 2016 and the panel of judges in every district will

include Secretary (Tourism)/ representative, Deputy Commissioner/ representative, Project Director MTF, District Public Relations Officer, District Cultural Officer, District YRO/ Sports Officer, President Tribal Hoho and representative of district partner.

Hornbill Festival also known as "Festival of Festivals", since its inception in 2000, has grown from strength to strength and is presently running into its seventeenth edition. It has provided platforms to the young and old to showcase their talents, culture, art, music etc and today, it is one of the premiere festivals of North East India gaining worldwide popularity. This year too, the Hornbill Festival will be a ten-day affair from December 1-10.

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): Lerie Youth Organization (LYO) has informed that the vigilance of "anti-social activities" carried out in its jurisdiction is done in consultation with the Lerie Panchayat members and not by individual members. Stern action will be taken against any individual who act as vigilante under the pretext of LYO, stated a release from LYO president, William Koso.

Meetings & Appointments TPO to deliberate on Dikoi issue The Tenyimi Peoples' Organisation (TPO) has convened a meeting on August 25, 10:00 am at Niathu Resort, Dimapur to deliberate on the issues of Dikoi village.

Therefore, a press release from E. Krelo, Secretary, Publicity & Information, TPO has requested all constituent and subordinate organisations of TPO and the stakeholders of Dikoi village to attend the meeting.

Zeliangrong Baudi Kohima The Zeliangrong Baudi Kohima has convened a consultation meeting with the Kohima Liangmai Welfare Society, Zeme Council Kohima, and Rongmei Council Kohima on August 27 at Ura Restaurant, near Red Cross Building Kohima, at 11:00 am to discuss the 2016 Zeliangrong Festival for Kohima citizens. All the office bearers and executive board members have been requested to attend the consultative meeting with their constructive ideas for the welfare of the Zeliangrong people.

PDVCO executive council meeting The Peren District Voluntary Consumers Organisation (PDVCO) will have its executive council meeting at Forest Rest House Jalukie Town on August 27 at 11:30 am.

Therefore, all the executives, advisors and former executives have been asked to attend the meeting without fail.

NNC, FGN joint meeting A joint meeting of the Naga National Council (NNC) and the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) will be held on August 29, 10:00 am in Transit Peace Camp, Kohima. The meeting will discuss the ongoing situation and self-governance of the nation, informed a press release from Thihü Khamo, Secretary, FGN. All the Central and Regional authorities of the NNC/FGN and eligible Naga Army officers have been requested to positively attend the meeting.

NPC to commemorate Peace Day The Nagaland Peace Centre (NPC), Kohima will commemorate the Peace Day on September 6 on the occasion of 51st Ceasefire anniversary. A thanksgiving service will take place at 11:00 am on the day in the office premises of NPC, Kohima. All the members have been requested to attend the same without fail.

WednesdAY 24•08•2016

NORTH-EAST

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Irom Sharmila faces identity crisis Guwahati, auGust 23 (ht): She may be India’s best-known rights activist with millions of followers across the world but back home in Manipur, Irom Sharmila has no legal identification document.

The 44-year-old broke a 16-year fast earlier this month, saying she would fight elections to continue her campaign against a controversial law (AFSPA) shielding armymen from prosecution against even rape and murder charges.

But she has no documents to establish even her citizenship- no permanent account number (PAN) card, bank account or voter identity card – which are necessary for her to fight the polls.

Her friends say they have begun the legwork to get Sharmila the documents she needs to prove

'Fasting didn't help, I have only changed strategy' imphal, auGust 23 (iaNs): Irom Sharmila said on Tuesday that she had only changed her strategy against a law which gives sweeping powers to security forces as years of fasting against it had not helped.

"I have learned the hard way that my fasting has not had the desired result," the activist told the media after coming out of the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West, L. Tonsing. her citizenship and subsequently enter electoral politics.

“Her campaign, if at all she ends up in politics, needs to be crowd-funded. And for that she needs a bank account and a PAN card while it is unimaginable for anyone without a voter ID to be a people’s representative,” one of her friends said.

Sharmila broke her fast

Sharmila ended 16 years of fast on August 9, inviting criticism from many of her supporters.

"I have supporters at the national and international level. I plan to continue my campaign. I have not given up my campaign. I have only changed my strategy," she said.

In the court, some persons displayed handbills with slogans like "I support Sharmila".

on August 9, saying she wanted to become chief minister and repeal Afspa. Her decision angered many in Manipur- including members of her family--who shunned her. But four of her friends stood by the 44-year-old, cooking simple meals for the frail Sharmila and marshalling resources to get documents for the “new chapter” in her life.

"We know she is strong, but even the strongest need reassurance that he or she is not alone,” Nandini Thokchom, one of Sharmila’s friends, said. The other three--Ranjita, Monica and Reetika--have been staying with Sharmila in her hospital ward since August 9. They say support for Sharmila has been swelling after the initial animosity.

Most of her well-wishers

Mizoram govt worried over rodent attack in fields aizawl, auGust 23 (tNN): The state agriculture department is concerned over a massive rodent attack in the crop lands at Rengdil, a village in the Mizoram-Tripura border and its neighbouring hamlets in Mamit district in the past few weeks.

Over 10 families have lost their entire paddy harvest, deputy director (plant protection), state agriculture department, J Rokima said The enormous infestation was reportedly because of the flowering of two bamboo species, locally known as 'Rawnal' (a Dendrocalamus species) and Rawthing (Bambusa Tulda), Rokima added.

Over 159 families have been affected because of the attack in 'Tai' or

early paddy, the harvesting of which starts in the latter part of August, he added.

A team from the agriculture department visited the area and undertook an operation of mass poisoning of rats.

The outbreak came as a surprise as the next 'Thingtam' or flowering of Bambusa Tulda is not due till 2025, an agriculture department official said and added that the last 'Thingtam' occurred in 1977 and is expected to recur after 48 years.

Rokima said while different bamboo species died and regenerated in a cycle of around 48 or 50 years, some older Bambusa Tulda plants were probably dying in the north western

area of the state before the mass flowering.

He said no such bamboo flowering was reported from anywhere in the state during the past few months. 'Mautam', famine caused by gregarious flowering of 'Mautak' or Melocanna Baccifera hit the state in 2007-08 when swarms of rats ravaged paddy fields across Mizoram, triggering famine-like situation.

Timely financial assistance from the Centre and massive preparations by the state saved the people and no one died during the famine.

It might be recalled that 20-yearlong insurgency since 1966 was caused by 'Mautam' that hit Mizoram in 1958.

Majuli grapples with familiar erosion problem Guwahati, auGust 23 (the iNdiaN express): The floods have almost totally receded and almost all 2.25 lakh people who had taken shelter in relief camps since July — barring 60 in Jorhat — have returned home and begun repairing their houses.

But Biren Das, Himeswari Das, Robison Das, Bhakatram Das and Madan Das of Samaguri village of Majuli, the island on the Brahmaputra, saw their homesteads disappear into the river Friday.

Since the floods, Majuli has been facing fresh erosion. At least 19 families of Samaguri village have lost all their land. Unless it can be checked, the erosion is set to affect over 80 more families in addition to three primary schools and a high school.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who incidentally represents Majuli in the assembly, asked the water resources department and the Brahmaputra Board Saturday to send a team of senior officers to Majuli, make an assessment of erosion and come up with an action plan in the next 10 days. “Now that the floods have receded, the water resources department and Brahmaputra Board must immediately identify all erosion-prone areas and take immediate steps before a long-term plan is taken up,” Sonowal said.

Majuli, one of the worst erosion-affected places in Assam, has seen its area shrink from 1,256 sq km in 1891 to 421 sq km today.

About 450 km away, the Aie river that comes down from

'Wanted tag' against Ratan to be cancelled Newmai News Network Imphal | August 23

A High Court of Manipur judgement today quashed the 'wanted tag' declared against former JCILPS convenor Khomdram Ratan by Manipur Police, saying the charge cannot be justified. A division bench of Justice N Koteswar and Justice K Nobin ruled that the 'wanted tag' on the JCILPS leader should be cancelled.

Earlier, Khomdram Ratan filed a petition in the state top court challenging the criminal charges against him.

After the final hearing in the case, the court had reserved the judgement on August 16.

The respondents in the case are the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), DGP of Manipur Police, Superintendent of Police, Imphal West, Manipur Police PRO and Officer in charge, Singjamei Police Station.

The petitioner's counsel Khaidem Mani said, "The court's judgement has favoured him (Ratan). It has also rejected the charges against him that he is a criminal and an absconder." Mani said the High Court further directed the Manipur Police Department to remove the wanted tag announced against Ratan, while cautioning that the correct procedure should be followed while announcing wanted tag against someone and publishing press notes on such cases.

20 injured in Agartala clashes aGartala, auGust 23 (iaNs): At least 20 people were injured, a few seriously, here after activists of a tribal party attacked civilians and traders without any provocation, police said on Tuesday. Tension erupted after hundreds of tribals belonging to Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) took out a rally and indiscriminately attacked passersby and vehicles, triggering retaliation by people of different communities, police said. The unruly IPFT members also set afire some shops and vehicles.

The IPFT has been agitating for the creation of a separate state, carved out of by upgrading the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council area. Tribals constitute a third of Tripura's four million population.

Bhutan changed course four weeks ago, in the process taking away the entire Chota Nilibari village and about half of Dababeel in Sidli constituency, rendering at least five families homeless. Mahesh Basumatary lost 14 bighas with 700 betelnut trees and 40 mango and jackfruit trees apart from his house.

The authorities have managed to divert the river temporarily by engaging half-a-dozen excavators and bulldozers for about a week. Landless people are still out in a relief camp about 4 km from the village that has disappeared.

Since 1954, erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries has destroyed and removed more than 4,270 sq km productive farmland, leaving over

50,000 families landless and homeless. This would be about 7.5% of the state’s area.

Experts from the water resources department, Brahmaputra Board, IIT Guwahati, Asian Development Bank and World Bank took part in a twoday brainstorming session in Guwahati recently but could not come up with any concrete solution. While some experts suggested “alternative technologies” and structural and non-structural measures in optimal combination, others called for building stable riverbanks by using appropriate technology like porcupine screens and corrective dredging of the river.

Till then, people living along the river-banks will continue to live an uncertain life.

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2. All the former DLSU executives, elders and well wishers are cordially invited.

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are those who would be first-time voters in Manipur’s assembly election next year.

The four friends have been cleaning Sharmila’s room and helping her switch from liquid to semiliquid and solid food.

Sharmila, attendants at Imphal’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences said, appears more cheerful than she was soon after Manipur reacted to her breaking the fast. “The meeting with her mother (84-year-old Irom Sakhi) in her ward on August 19 could have been a reason,” an attendant said, adding that Sharmila was responding well to her new diet.

L Ranbir, the medical superintendent, said Sharmila was fit, physically and mentally. “The adaptation of her body is remarkable.”

3

10 protesters hurt in police action; indefinite Manipur bandh called Newmai News Network Imphal | August 23

Intensifying their agitation, "Successful Candidates of Manipur Police Constable (Male) 2013" has announced an indefinite Manipur statewide bandh beginning Tuesday midnight after ten members of the group were injured, one of them critically, when they clashed with police here on Tuesday.

"The police brutality has prompted us to intensify our stir. Until the government withdraws its order cancelling the recruitment process, there will be no let up in the stir," a spokesperson said.

One goods-laden truck was torched last night near Keithelmanbi along NH-2 by suspected economic

blockade supporters. The constables have been enforcing an indefinite economic- blockade along the two highways connecting Manipur to push for their demand disrupting goods supply.

Earlier in the day, the police constable candidates organised a meeting at the Singjamei community hall before taking out a rally.

When the demonstration, which was participated by around 1000 protesters, reached Super Market, Singjamei, a large number of police barred them from moving further resulting in a violent confrontation between the two sides.

The protesters were planning to march towards the Chief Minister's Bungalow when they con-

fronted the strong police team who fired several round of tear gas canisters and mock bombs to disperse them.

Ten protesters were injured, one of them critically, in the police action. Two injured protesters were rushing to hospital.

The constable candidates numbering about 2000 took part in the recruitment process completing the physical efficiency test, written test and viva- voce.

They had been demanding the Home Department to declare the results being withheld.

But now the government has issued a fresh order to cancel the entire recruitment process which prompted them to launch the stir, as per media reports here.

Tribal bodies oppose granting ST status to six communities in Assam Guwahati, auGust 23 (pti): Opposing the centre's move to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities in Assam, 16 tribal organisations today announced to launch a series of agitation programmes including bandh and blocking of national highways.

The Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organisations of Assam (CCTOA) held a national convention in Guwahati, where the organisations vowed to undertake different forms of protests including giving call for an indefinite Assam bandh and blocking the National Highways and railway routes.

"If the proposed reservation is given to the six communities, which do not fulfill the criteria at all, then the existing 14 ST tribes will move further backward," CCTOA Coordinator Pramod Boro said at the convention.

He informed that the organisation has been requesting both the centre

and the state to hold a bipartite meeting with the existing tribal communities, but nothing has happened.

"In 2014, we also supported (Narendra) Modi for

lation as per 2011 census.

"These communities have been following the Hindu caste system and have been rightly listed in 'Other Backward Caste'

Coordination Committee of the Tribal Organisations of Assam warns of indefinite Assam bandh and blocking the National Highways & railway routes 'achche din' (good days).

Yes, achche din is coming for the six communities, but it will be 'bure din' (bad days) for the 14 communities," he added.

Boro, who is also the President of All Bodo Students' Union, said Moran, Muttock, Tai-Ahom, KochRajbongshi, Sootea and Tea-Tribes comprise 56 per cent of Assam's total popu-

or 'More Other Backward Caste Status'. They do not possess characteristics of tribals," he added.

A joint resolution by all the 16 groups representing the 14 ST tribes said if the six communities are included in the list along with them, then the political representation of the existing genuine Scheduled Tribes will be de-

GOVERNMENT OF NAGALAND

DIRECTORATE OF TOURISM NAGALAND: KOHIMA

NO.TOUR/NHK-1(Pt)/2005-06/ 276

LOST NOTICE I, ALO SEMY am applying for duplicate copy of Nagaland University Regd.

Card No. 13010878 of B.Sc 4th Semester as I have lost it.

DOB: 18-06-1994 Roll No.: SH13010041 College: St Josephs' College, Jakhama

NAME CORRECTION I declared before the court that my name shall be HIAREUZINBE and not HIAREU which is mentioned in my bank pass book as my official name for any correspondence etc.

stroyed once and for all.

"The National Convention unanimously decided to oppose any 'detrimental' political move of the government to include six advanced and populous communities in to the ST (Plains) list of Assam," the resolution stated.

The groups resolved to take legal recourse and file writs before the Supreme Court if the centre and State governments go ahead with granting ST status to the communities.

"The National Convention also decided to organise awareness drive and launch vigorous democratic mass movement, including National Highway blockade, rail blockade and indefinite Assam bandh if the six communities are granted ST status," the resolution stated.

Dated Kohima, the 22nd Aug 2016

ADVERTISMENT In pursuance of Communitization of Public Institution and Services Act 2002, the Department of Tourism Govt. of Nagaland is leasing out 6 (six) Nos of permanent food stalls/restaurants at Naga heritage Village, Kisama.

Interested local entrepreneurs, individual, groups are, therefore, invited to submit applications with necessary details such as the menu, rate, past and present experience in the catering trade to the Addl. Director of Tourism (HoD) Nagaland; Kohima during the office hours on or before 20th September 2016.

Security deposit in the form of Fixed Term Deposit Receipt (TDR) drawn in favour of Addl. Director of Tourism, Monthly rent will be formalized during the execution of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to the selected applicants.

As per the approval of the Government 4 (Four stalls) are already reserved for the former land owners. Therefore, applicants from the Phesama and Kigwema villagers are informed to enclose recommendations duly agreed and approved by former land owners Union, Kisama.

(K.T.Thomas) Addl. Director (HoD)

JUDICIAL INQUIRY COMMISSION (Regarding Wuzu Firing Incident, On 16.07.15) CAMP: CIRCUIT HOUSE, OPPOSITE ANCIENT RAJBARI DIMAPUR: NAGALAND

NO. JIC-WFI/NS/2016/055

PUBLIC NOTICE

Dated: Dimapur, the 22nd August, 2016

Whereas, the Government of Nagaland has constituted a One Man Inquiry Commission vide Notification NO.CON/LOR-3/2012 Dated 13th November 2015 called ‘Wuzu Firing Incident Inquiry Commission’ as provisioned under the sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, (60 of 1952) with Shri Veprasa Nyekha, District & Sessions Judge (Retd.) as the single member Chairman.

On 16th July, 2015 while 46 Assam Rifles and 12 Para Commandos returned from Avankhung area under Meluri Sub-Division, Phek District after encounter with NSCN (K) cadres in which 2 (two) NSCN (K) cadres were killed and the dead bodies were being taken to Meluri Police Station for legal formalities and on the way near Wuzu village the village leaders of Wuzu, Old Phor and New Phor requested the dead body of SS Capt.

Puhachu of Wuzu village to be handed over to them to which the Commander of the Security Forces refused after which incident of firing took place resulting in the death of two civilians both Class 7 (Seven) students namely - Tiizali, Son of Siikhaho of Phor village and Miss Aso, daughter of T. Yeteli of Wuzu village and injury to one woman Mrs. Vitsiirho Esther, Wife of Riitu of Wuzu village.

The Commission is to make an inquiry into the causes and source of firing which led to the death of two minor children and injury to one woman, the person/s responsible for firing and whether the incident could have been avoided.

Accordingly, the Inquiry Commission invites Written Statements from the Police Department (DEF), Phek as well as the 12 Para Commandos who was/were directly or indirectly concerned with the incident that took place at Wuzu on 16/07/2015. Written Statements should be filed before the Inquiry Commission, whose office is situated at the Circuit House, Opposite Ancient Rajbari, Dimapur fixing on or before 20th September, 2016 (Tuesday).

The Written Statements should be accompanied with affidavits, documents and evidences in any form, in possession of the individuals/authority filing the Written Statements.

(K. NABEN) Secretary to the Wuzu Firing Incident Inquiry Commission Camp: Circuit House, Opposite Ancient Rajbari, Dimapur.

Dimapur: Nagaland.

Contact No: 8794509341 / 9862340278 Email: - judicialinquiry@gmail.com Issued by: DIPR

4

WednesdAY 24•08•2016

business

Black money: Banning cash deals over Rs 3 lakh under consideration New Delhi, August 23 (Pti): The government is examining Special Investigation Team’s (SIT’s) recommendation of banning cash transactions of over Rs. 3 lakh in a bid to clamp down on black money in the economy, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said on Tuesday.

The move follows Supreme Court-appointed SIT on black money recommending banning cash transactions of Rs. 3 lakh and above and restricting cash holding with individuals and industry to Rs. 15 lakh to curb illegal wealth in the country.

“These recommendations have come. It (banning cash transactions over Rs. 3 lakh) is under examination.

SIT recommendations are under consideration,” she said on the sidelines of an Assocham event in New Delhi.

The Income Tax Department, she said, has already put a 1 per cent tax collection at source (TCS) on cash transactions and made quoting of PAN mandatory.

“All these aspects are part of SIT recommendations to stop use of cash in the economy. Suggestion on Rs. 3 lakh and above is under consideration,” she said.

The SIT, headed by Justice M.B. Shah (retired), last month submitted its fifth report to the Supreme Court on steps needed to curb black money.

Noting that a large amount of unaccounted wealth is stored in cash, the SIT said, “Having considered the provisions which exist in this regard in various countries and also having considered various reports and observations of courts regarding cash transactions, the SIT felt that there is a need to put an upper limit to cash transactions.”

It recommended a total ban on cash transactions of Rs. 3 lakh and above and that “an Act be framed to declare such transactions as illegal and punishable under law.”

Suggesting an upper limit of Rs. 15 lakh on cash holding, SIT had stated that special permission of the Commissioner of Income Tax of the area should be taken in this regard.

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Cellular denies report Illicit gold: India’s smugglers onIdea merger talks with Vodafone shut out refiners and banks

MuMBAi, August 23 (ReuteRs): Indian gold refiners just months ago were ramping up capacity and struggling to secure enough ore from miners. Now, they are suspending operations as a surge in smuggled bullion wipes out wafer thin margins. Gold importing banks and big jewellers have also been hit by the growing entry of illicit gold, which avoids import duties and makes its way on to the so-called “grey market” where it is sold to end-users at a discount.

Smuggled gold could account for more than a third of demand this year in India - the world’s second-biggest buyer of the metal after China - potentially costing the government over $1 billion in lost revenue.

The upsurge will lead to pressure for a reduction in the 10 percent import duty and a rethink on recently introduced levies on gold jewellery, which critics say are boosting the unofficial trade the government has been trying to curb. “Gold refiners have less than a 1 percent margin. If smugglers offer 4 or 5% discounts, then we have no choice but to close our operations,” James Jose, secretary of the Association of Gold Refineries and Mints told Reuters.

All 32 refineries in the country have stopped buying dore - a semipure alloy made by miners - in the past few months and are relying on

treating scrap gold until market con- price this year which has discourditions normalise, he said. aged overall buying and made smuggled gold available at deep discounts.

SMUGGLING GROWS India’s official gold imports fell 57% India raised the duty on gold im- in the first seven months of 2016 to ports to 10% three years ago, aiming 215 tonnes, and could fall more than to dampen buying and narrow the 60% for the year to 350 tonnes to 400 current account deficit in a country tonnes, the lowest level in two dewhere gold is seen as a store of wealth cades, said Sunil Kashyap, managing for rich and poor alike.Smugglers director, Global Banking and Markets evade the duty and offer cheap gold at Scotiabank. to buyers such as bullion dealers and Banks, which until last year were small jewellers, who can pay up to the main source of gold supply, are $100 an ounce below official domes- losing their market share quickly. tic prices, currently around $1,340 an “Since there were hefty discounts ounce. in the grey market, consumers shiftFalling gold prices deterred the ed from banks to grey markets,” Arinillicit trade last year but smuggling dam Sarkar, senior vice president at has surged in recent months amid Axis Bank, the biggest bullion imrising prices and the reintroduction porting bank in the country, told Rein March of a 1 percent local sales uters. “So far in 2016 our bullion busitax on gold jewellery.Smuggled gold ness is down nearly 75%,” he said. into India could double to as much as Bigger, more reputable jewellers 300 tonnes in 2016, said Bachhraj Ba- are also suffering. “Small jewellers malwa, director at All India Gems and buy gold at 4 or 5% discount and then Jewellery Trade Federation, although sell jewellery at 1 or 2% discount,” the World Gold Council (WGC) has said Aditya Pethe, a director at Waput the figure at 160 tonnes. At 300 man Hari Pethe Jewellers in Mumbai. tonnes, the government would forego But jewellers buying from the grey about $1.3 bn at current gold prices. market say they have little choice. “I The finance ministry did not respond wasn’t buying gold from grey market to requests for comment on gold for months, but others were buying smuggling. and doing business,” said a Mumbaibased jeweller, who declined to be BANKS HIT identified. “In the last two months The legal trade is also facing head- I’ve also started buying as I have to winds from a 26% rise in the gold survive. I have to pay employees.”

Snapdeal lines up Rs 200 cr marketing blitz

Loan against securities

K

ashubhai preferred walking to his office at Barabazar, Kolkata. With his trademark safari-suit in gray and a man-purse under his arm, he reaches his office by 8:30 every morning, Monday to Friday. During my Kolkata days, Kashubhai was my mentor and was the one who introduced me to the capital market. A carrier stock-broker from the start, we met quite accidently in a chartered accountant’s firm in BBD Bag. Those days, in Nineties, I was fresh out of University and found myself misfit in my profession of selling insurance products. Our friendship grew and his son became my partner in our new farm. During that time, I learned straight from the master that no MBA could teach me in any University, which I tell you know confidently.

Kashubhai was typical, and both I and his son, Sunil, used to joke about him all the time. The story was that he kept a suitcase full of money under his bed, but he never bought a car or property in his life. He was a diehard trader in the stock market and was visibly upset when his son bought a new car with our first profit. His mantra was simple. Make investments, not liabilities. So to say, Kashubhai hardly kept any money with him, apart from that suitcase for emergencies, and invested or traded everything in the stock market. Once, I met him for lunch in his office (which is typically at four p.m.) after the closure of the stock market.

“What if tomorrow you need money for your daughter’s marriage?”

“Arrey beta, LAS hain na.” he answered.

So, what is LAS? How will it help Kashubhai when he needs money? To know more, read on: • LAS stands for loan against securities. When a person mortgages his securities and avails a loan, it is called loan against securities. There are thousands of people who have invested only in shares, bonds, deposits or mutual funds and not in conventional instruments like properties or gold. When they need money in an emergency or otherwise, they can either liquidate some of their investments or can take a loan against such instruments from banks or non-banking financial companies.

• Normally banks or non-banking financial institutes will have a prior list of approved shares or deposits with them against which loans are available. This implies that well-traded stocks of the approved list are only eligible as collaterals. Normally, a 50 per cent value of the stocks or up-to 90 per cent of the value of bank deposits is approved as loan amount.

• What the bank will do, it will open a current account with an overdraft facility. The amount of overdraft is the approved loan amount. The customer can withdraw his/her required amount whenever he/she chooses and can repay it into his account whenever he/she can or choose to. An interest will be levied on the withdrawal amount for the duration of withdrawal as the interest by the bank or the non-banking financial company. The process is much simpler than a normal loan from a bank or NBFC. • The interest rate charged by the bank or NBFC is lower than that of a personal loan or a credit card, because of the backing of the collaterals provided by the customer. Interest is calculated monthly on the daily outstanding balance of the overdraft account.

• ATM and internet banking facility can also be availed for the smooth running of the transaction from the account.

• Normally an amount of 5 lakhs to 10 crore is approved to resident individuals. LAS is usually not approved to NRIs and Hindu undivided families.

• Processing fees vary from bank to bank and are normally charged at 0.25 per cent and sometimes it goes up to one per cent.

• It is easier to apply for an LAS if you already have a demat account at your bank or NBFC. One last word of caution. An LAS should be used for an emergency or other short-term needs. It should never be used for farther investment in the capital market under any circumstances.

The writer is a financial adviser based in Guwahati.

Reach him @ 99541-39393

JOB VACANCY

New Delhi, August 23 (Pti): E-commerce major Snapdeal will spend more than Rs 200 crore on marketing, ahead of the festive season this year.

The city-based firm, which faces strong competition from rivals like, Amazon and Flipkart, will run a 360-degree marketing campaign over the next 60 days.

“The new campaign, where we will spend more than Rs 200 crore, will be launched next month on TV, YouTube, print, digital and social media, and will also be seen outdoors on billboards and external installations,” Snapdeal Vice President Marketing Kanika Kalra told PTI. The company said the spend is “significantly higher” than the last year, but declined disclose those numbers.

The campaign is designed to drive traffic and increase consumer awareness about the offers that will be hosted by brand partners and lakhs of sellers on Snapdeal, she added.

The later half of the year is important for consumer product companies as most Indian festivals are concentrated around that period. The festive season sees a spurt in both offline and online purchases.

Like offline retailers, online players too offer deals to woo customers during the season.

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ACROSS 1. Jargon 6. Raindrop sound 10. Circle fragments 14. Keen 15. Liturgy 16. Filly’s mother 17. Crown 18. Arab chieftain 19. Decorative case 20. Tumbling 22. Mortgage 23. Notch 24. American songbird 26. Grumble 30. Fury 31. Prefix meaning “Modern” 32. Wings 33. Children 35. Pretentious 39. Goddess of healing 41. Modern sing-along 43. Genus of heath 44. Found on a finger 46. Identical or fraternal 47. Barely manage 49. Consumer Price Index 50. Terminates 51. Boil slowly 54. Type of sword 56. Dogfish 57. Apparent 63. Savor 64. A swinging barrier 65. Large tropical American fish 66. Curved molding 67. Sea eagle 68. Previously 69. Unit of pressure 70. Sow 71. Pairs of oxen DOWN 1. Bristle 2. Nonclerical 3. Food thickener 4. Roman emperor

Answer Number # 3677

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SUDOKU

MuMBAi, August 23 (ReuteRs): India’s No. 3 mobile phone carrier, Idea Cellular, strongly denied a news report on Tuesday that it was in exploratory talks about a merger with larger rival Vodafone India.

A spokeswoman for Idea’s parent, conglomerate Aditya Birla, called the CNBC TV18 report of talks between Idea and Vodafone “baseless and absolutely false”.

“This is absolutely untrue and preposterous,” she said in an email. “There is no such intent.”

Shares in Idea closed 6.9 percent higher on Tuesday after the TV channel said the two sides were in talks, citing unnamed sources.

A spokesman for Vodafone India, India’s No. 2 operator by market share and the local arm of Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc, declined to comment on the report.

India is the world’s second-biggest mobile phone market by subscriptions, behind China, but high competition in the crowded market has kept profits under pressure.

Adding to the competition, Reliance Jio - a telecom venture backed by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani - is set to launch commercial operations in the coming months.

Any such deal would also face tough regulatory scrutiny and analysts say approvals would be unlikely, as the companies would breach the 50 percent revenue market share limit in many regions of the country if they did try to merge.

“It’s very unlikely,” PhillipCapital (India) analyst Naveen Kulkarni said, citing the regulatory hurdles.

“I’m doubtful whether this can go through but there could be some other form of merger, such as spectrumsharing deals,” he added.

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5. Seizes 6. Relating to a Roman praetor 7. Not excessive 8. Ear-related 9. An individual 10. Improve 11. Relative magnitudes 12. Barbarous 13. A river through Paris 21. Same 25. Back 26. Superhero accessory 27. Winglike 28. Hindu princess 29. Mediator 34. Captained 36. Small city 37. Slip 38. Cravings 40. Birthday or cheese, for example 42. Extraterrestrial 45. Polish remover 48. Wears away 51. Wooden shoe 52. Insect stage 53. Cheapskate 55. An analytic literary composition 58. Achy 59. Data 60. A novel 61. old stories 62. Anagram of “Seek” ANSwER TO CROSSwORd 3691

dImAPUR Civil Hospital:

STd COdE: 03862 232224; Emergency229529, 229474

MH Hospital: Faith Hospital:

227930, 231081 228846

Shamrock Hospital

228254

Zion Hospital:

231864, 224117, 227337

Police Control Room

228400

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232106

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227607 232181

CIHSR (Referral Hospital)

242555/ 242533

Dimapur hospital

224041, 248011

Apollo Hospital Info Centre:

230695/ 9402435652

Railway:

131/228404

Indian Airlines

229366

Chumukedima Fire Brigade Nikos Hospital and Research Centre

282777 232032, 231031

MoKoKCHUNG: 0369-2226225/ 101 (o) 8415830232 (oC)

Nagaland Multispecialty Health & Research Centre

248302, 09856006026

PHEK: 8414853765 (o) 8413822476(oC)

kOhImA

Police Control Room: North Police Station: South Police Station: Fire Brigade: Naga Hospital: oking Hospital: Bethel Nursing Home: Northeast Shuttles

R

C

H

zUNHEBoTo: 03867-280304/ 101 (o) 9436422730 (oC)

MoN: 03869-251222/ 101 (o) 9862130954 (oC) kIPhIRE: 8414853767 (o) 9436261577 (oC) PEREN: 7085189932 (o) 9856311205 (oC) LONgLENg: 7085924113 (o) 9862414264 (oC)

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wE4wOmEN hELPLINE 08822911011

A

CHUMUKEDIMA: 7085982102 (o) 8732810051 (oC)

TUENSANG: 8414853766 (o) 9856163601 (oC)

ChILd wELFARE COmmITTEE

Police Station 2 :

KoHIMA NoRTH: 7085924114 (o)

wOkhA: 03860242215/101 (o) 8974322879 (oC)

100/2244279 2222222 2222111 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202 08974997923

Police Station 1:

KoHIMA SoUTH: 0370-2222952/ 101 (o) 9402003086 (oC)

DIMAPUR: 03862-232201/ 101 (o) 9856156876 (oC)

STd COdE: 0370

mOkOkChUNg:

FIRE STATIONS

STd COdE: 0369

9485232688 9485232689

Police Station Kobulong :

9485232690

Police Station Tuli :

9485232693

Police Station Changtongya :

9485232694

Police Station Mangkolemba :

9485232695

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

65.5 85.84 8.17 49.81 48.55 51.00 65.02

68.62 90.23 9.13 52.38 51.06 53.62 68.85

Euro

74.08

77.86

Thai Baht Korean Won UAE Dirham (AED) Chinese Yuan

1.83

2.04

0.0566

0.0633

17.26

19.27

9.52

10.63

WednesdAY 24•08•2016

NAGALAND

BAN for ‘immediate improvement’ of BSNL launches ‘Experience Landline 49 Plan’ roads and power supply in Nagaland Morung Express News Dimapur | August 23

Dimapur, august 23 (mExN): The Business Association of Nagas (BAN) has demanded the immediate improvement of roads and power supply in the state.

Bringing to attention the problems faced by businesses and industrial establishments because of the erratic power supply, the BAN in an open letter to the Chief Minister, Power Minister and Nagaland state Power Department, on behalf of the business community stated, “The business community is grappling to run our businesses due to chronic erratic and fluctuating power supply to earn our daily bread for our families.”

Citing a recent report on The Morung Express where it pointed to archaic distribution system and equipments, BAN stated, “The univocal rhetoric of the Power department of Distribution loss and Theft are disgraceful excuses put forth by every successive Govt. and Department over the years

for the poor electricity in Nagaland.”

In this regard, BAN posed a few questions before the CM and the Power minister demanding that they publicly answer why MOU with the Center for “24X7 Power for all” was signed. “Was it to fool the Central Govt. to beg for more money?” the association asked.

Insisting that the aggregate of money spend on Power by the state government since statehood will be highest in the country per capita, the association mentioned The Morung Express report and construed that the equipments and distribution system in the state “is fit for antique museum”. “So the question is where has all the money gone?” it asked.

Stating that there has been increase in power tariff over the years, the association demanded to know why there has conversely been an increase in power failure.

Further informing that a Sales Tax department

source had mentioned that the revenue from the business community has been increasing “by leap and bound” over the last few years, the association demanded to know where its money is, stating “increase in revenue has not yet converted into developments in terms of Electricity and Roads”.

Further, the existence of several NPGs, it stated has made it “impossible to sustain business.” Citing the recent incident in Kohima when one Naga businessman was assaulted, the BAN lamented that the business community is left to fend for itself despite it contributing to the government its share of taxes. It further asked if the state government “has any moral authority to impose taxation on Business community when it cannot even provide security and basic facility like electricity and roads.”

In this regard, the Business community advised the State Government to stop talking about “hi-fi in-

ATMA Kohima exposure tour to ICAR, Barapani

Farmers and ATMA officials during their exposure tour to ICAR Research complex, Barapani, Shillong. (DIPR Photo)

Kohima, august 23 (Dipr): ATMA Kohima conducted an exposure tour to ICAR Research complex, Barapani, Shillong from August 17-19 under PMKSY. 15 farmers along with 3 ATMA officials participated in the tour.

The team visited the ICAR research complex, various farming units which were under study, where resource persons Dr. Pankaj Kumar Sinha (Scientist Agricultural Extension) and Dr. Subhash (Scientist Agronomy) shared on various models for integrated organic food production to sustain income for low and marginal farmers with land holding less than a hectare both in low land and up land areas.

The importance and advantages of land rotation for various vegetable crops and intercropping of cereal, pulses, oil seeds were also shared to the farmers. The farmers were also briefed on vertical farming in dry terrace called Agro-pastoral based farming system, which is under study to reduce soil erosion and runoff water.

Agri-Horti-Silvi pastoral system to study the diversification of crops was also explained.

Encouraging the farmers to go for local variety fruits, the resource persons told them that every piece of land is potential therefore not to let it remain fallow. All the above mentioned models are purely based on integrated organ-

ic food production where nutrients cycle is balanced without any requirements or procurements from outside the farm.

Another objective of the trip was to learn about water harvesting. The group got hands on experience on various models for water harvesting system such as water harvest pond in up-land area and low cost system called “Jalkund” to collect maximum runoff water for various agricultural practices. The advantages and benefits of such models were discussed in detail by the resource persons. The farmers also got to see various agricultural implements and learnt how the machineries were operated both in up-land and low land areas.

ternational things” but go to basics and try to catch up with other North-Eastern states.

“The talk of Nagaland being progressive and developed state and vision 2030 leaves business community red faced as all those rhetoric are to fool the voters/public just on the mere fact that we do not even have a single road or electrified town at par with other north eastern states not to mention international standard,” BAN stated.

“In the event of hundreds and thousands of family running out of business due to bad electricity and road, what consequences and impact it will have on socio-economy of the state?” the association asked.

The BAN further expressed appreciation of Power department field workers, who are giving all their efforts, working overtime for no fault of theirs, and requested them to continue their good work for the society.

BSNL Nagaland SSA today announced a slew of promotional offers and packages for the state of Nagaland including the newly launched ‘Experience Landline 49 Plan.’

Addressing a press conference here at GMTD BSNL Nagaland SSA, General Manager, J Lunkim, informed that the promotional offer for acquiring new Landline connection at the rate of Rs. 49 per month has been launched for a period of 90 days with

effect from 15.08.2016.

The installation charge for the new connection has been “waived off and a free BSNL prepaid SIM card will be provided”, the GM said.

Lunkim informed that with effect from August 15, BSNL has launched ‘Unlimited Free Calling’ on all Sundays from BSNL landline phones to all networks to promote its landline phones.

“Optimization process of 3G BTSs are under progress in Kohima and Dimapur city including Kohima-Dimapur highway to

MUK: The Mezoma Union Kohima has also condemned the alleged assault on one of its members in Kohima town. “The atrocities committed by Naga Political Groups towards their own people will have serious ramifications in that; they would have lost their own status, mandate and people's trust,” the MUK stated in a press release.

Questioning the credibility of such national workers, the MUK termed them as “anti-social elements” trying to sabotage peace and also discouraging locals from being selfreliant.

Towards this end, the union called for immediate deliverance of justice to the victim and a befitting punishment to the perpetrators.

NKU: The Naga Kuotsu Union has expressed shock to learn of the alleged physical assault meted out to one of its members Pelevilie Kuotsu, S/o Kevichulie Kuotsu, at Seven Six provisions store, near Minister Hill, Kohima on August 19 last, at around 7:10 pm.

Terming the act “inhumane”, the union stated that it is “unimaginable” that such incident resurfaced at a time when people are constantly yearning for peace and unity amongst the Nagas.

“It was more shocking to learn that physical assault was meted out to him with a pistol right after revelation of his identity, tribe, village and payment of taxes already handed to the

group, the receipt of which is verifiable,” the NKU stated.

Instead, more wounds were added to the already bleeding injury by kicking, “trying to whisk him away”, and threatening him with dire consequences to the entire family, the NKU claimed wondering if the cadres are actually working for the Naga Nation or for collection of money and wealth “in the guise of Nationalism.”

Asserting that threat to innocent citizens can no longer be tolerated, the union maintained, “It is time for us to realize our follies and now forge ahead with dignity and work culture if we are to survive as a Nation or people.”

The union urged upon the law enforcing agency to immediately bring to book the culprits and award befitting punishment.

Voicing out against the presence of such "money minded" cadres enrolled in any organization or group, the Naga Kuotsu Union also urged upon the concerned group authority to co-operate with the law enforcing agency in handing the culprits for trial.

helped BSNL to increase its market share. BSNL is cheapest in data tariff”, the company claimed.

BSNL officials also informed that the telecom company has launched ‘New Student Plan’ of Rs. 118/- w.e.f. 20.06.2016 which allows 1 GB data for 30 days with call rate of 10 paisa per minute.

Further, BSNL informed that the stability of media between Kohima and Dimapur has been ensured with introduction of new equipment and working quite satisfactorily at present.

Financial Literacy Camp held at Yisemyong village moKoKchuNg, august 23 (mExN): To promote the cause of literacy / inclusion, a one day Financial Literacy Camp (FLC) supported under FIF managed by NABARD was conducted at Yisemyong on August 23. The camp was organized by Care and Support Society, Mokokchung in collaboration with Nagaland Rural Bank (NRB), Mokokchung and

sponsored by NABARD. During the camp, S. Amarjit Mangang, DDM, NABARD shared the importance of financial inclusion and the role played by NABARD in financial inclusion. He highlighted the importance of saving and financial planning and further shared the objectives of NABARD and schemes such as KCC, SHG/JLG, Farmers Club programmes

and other various initiatives of NABARD. Changkimenla, Branch Manager, NRB shared about various facilities available with Nagaland Rural Bank and explained in detail about PMJDY, PMJJBY,PMJSBY and APY etc.

During the interactive session, doubts of participants in regard to opening of saving accounts, insurance scheme and services

offered by the bank were cleared by the resource persons.

Altogether, 51 persons participated in the programme out of which 20 participants opened saving account, 10 enrolled in PMJJBY, and 8 in PMSBY with NRB, Mokokchung Branch, a press release from the Care and Support Society, Mokokchung informed.

Award tender to lowest ATMA Phek exposure visit to Meghalaya bidder: KDCC demands RMSA Kohima, august 23 (mExN): The Kohima District Congress Committee (KDCC) has demanded that the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) issued by the Nagaland Education Mission Society, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, published in local dailies on August 18, be awarded to the lowest bidder.

While expressing delight at the notice for “Strengthening of 57 Government Schools in various districts of Nagaland”, KDCC made known its apprehensions with the 23 terms and conditions for the bidders/contractors issued by the State Mission Director RMSA, which has not been published in the newspapers, except the tender fee, date for bidding and last date for submission and date for opening the bid.

Citing Sl. No 12 of the terms and condition, which states that “Acceptance of the lowest tender is not obligatory”, the KDCC maintained that such a clause will

encourage manipulation and favouritism while the actual lowest bidder will not win the tender and the Department will utilize the said clause in choosing its own favoured contractor. “Moreover, a Class-I contractor will certainly not quote lower rate and incur lost to do the work,” it insisted.

Warning that it will be compelled to initiate further course of action even after the contract is awarded, KDCC urged the concern authority to remove the said clause and also demanded that the tender be awarded to the lowest bidder.

Meanwhile, KDCC also extended its appreciation to the Nagaland Contractors’ and Suppliers Union for standing firm on ‘Open Tender System’ to deliver quality works. “Unless manipulation and favouritism with commissions for those on the helm of affairs is stopped development and progress of our state will always remain at stake,” it stated.

phEK, august 23 (mExN): The Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Phek District led by Dr. Keviu Shuya, Dy. PD, undertook an exposure visit (under PMKSY) to Meghalaya from August 17 to 19. The purpose of the visit was to enable the farmers to gather more field experience and learn better practices in different farming system, especially on water conservation, management and utilization. The team visited ICAR-NRC Barapani,

Water Harvesting Farm School at Longra

where Dr. Subhash Scientist, ICAR led the farmers to the farm and showed how Lowland & Upland Integrated farming system been practice for self sustained. S.N. Talukdar

(Technical Officer) ICAR, also showed the visiting team on how water harvesting structures and low cost project can be practice. 10 farmers with two officials participated.

Tangkhul Union, Kohima condoles

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): The Tangkhul Union Kohima has expressed sorrow over the sudden demise of Late Malungring Shimrah (80) who passed away on the evening of August 21 at Referral Hospital, Dimapur.

Late Malungring Shimrah, known and called by everyone as “Awo Ring”, served the Tangkhul Hoho Nagaland as President during a very crucial period (2008-

2010) and tirelessly sacrificed his best for the community, a condolence message from the union stated. “He was a man having the qualities of humbleness, meekness and sincerity,” it added.

Extending heartfelt condolences, the Union prayed that God give strength and courage to the bereaved family and also prayed that the Almighty give a “Peaceful Eternal Rest” to the departed soul.

Two more stolen vehicles recovered

CoNdemNAtioNs WASU: The Western Angami Students’ Union (WASU) has vehemently condemned the alleged “assault and threat” meted out to Pelevilie Kuotsu on August 19 by one Pitovi, Regional Commander, and two of his accomplices of the GPRN/NSCN. Such “barbaric assault” and cowardly act against an innocent businessman cannot be tolerated, WASU stated in a press release.

The Union demanded the State Government and District Administration to arrest the culprits at the earliest and urged upon the law enforcing agency to stringently award befitting punishment. WASU further expressed collective sympathy and solidarity with the family of the victim.

attend the call drops and to increase the data sped comparable to 4G”, stated a press release issued to media persons.

The release also informed that BSNL has increased the download speed for Fair Usage Policy (FUP) quota under unlimited broadband plan from existing 512 kbps to 1 Mbps.

“In the last few months, BSNL has been consistently providing highest growth with respect to subscriber addition in mobile segment. The aggressive and competitive tariff has

Dimapur, august 23 (mExN): The ATMA Tuensang Noksen Block inaugurated a “Water Harvesting Farm School” and conducted Kisan Ghosti on “Cultural management practices for higher yield of Horticultural crop-Ginger” at Longra village and Noksen Town on August 19 and 20 respectively.

The main innovation behind the Farm School is to promote extension activities relating to water harvesting, water management and crop alignment for farmers and grass root level field functionaries, an ATMA press note informed.

It is also aimed at enhancing the physical access of water on the farm

and expand the cultivable area which will benefit the farmers by increasing the agricultural production, productivity and generate farm income, the release added.

M Chongshi was appointed as the Farm Teacher and altogether 25 farmers attended the inaugural programme, it said.

Kohima, august 23 (mExN): The Anti-Vehicle Theft Squad (AVTS) of DEF Kohima while conducting routine checking at NH-29 detained one Mahindra Pick-Up and one Minitruck bearing registration number NL03A2831 and NL03A3199 after enquiring the vehicle status from the NCRB database.

According to a press release from Kohima Police PRO, the above mentioned Mahindra Pick-up B/R No. NL03A2831 with

Chassis No. MA1ZN2GHKE1J68400 and Engine No. GHKE1J49051 is confirmed to be stolen vide Assam, Sonitpur, Rangapara Police Station Case No. 0121/2015. The original R/ No. is AS12AC3850.

The Mini-truck B/R No. NL03A3199 with Chassis No. MAT457403D7D12577 and Engine No. 497TC92DWY820380 is stolen from Dimapur, and is wanted in connection with Dimapur East P.S case No. 0305/2015. The original R/ No. is AS01EC7460.

Meetings & AppointMents Special NLA Session on Aug 26 A Special Session of the 12th Nagaland Legislative Assembly will be held on August 26 at 9:30 am to ratify the Constitution (122nd) Amendment Bill 2014. In this connection, there will be a meeting of the DAN Legislators on August 25 at 3 pm at the State Banquet Hall, Kohima. A press release from the Chief Minister’s Office informing this has requested all members to make it convenient to attend the meeting without fail.

AAUD

Master Ruokuo John and Master David Keningutuo along with the Shaolin Kung-Fu students of St. Joseph Orphanage Home, Burma Camp and Don Bosco Hr. Sec School demonstrating at the alumni meet of Don Bosco Hr. Sec School, Dimapur recently.

The Aghunato Areami Union Dimapur (AAUD) will hold an important meeting for the forthcoming general session at its Banker’s residence of Akashe Zhimomi in Eralibill, Dimapur at 3:30 pm on August 28. In this regard, a press release from the union has requested all the office bearers and executive members to make themselves available for the said meeting.

6

Wednesday 24•08•2016

IN FOCUS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express volume Xi issue 232

By Dr. Asangba Tzüdir

Is the Govt. Waiting for the Power Catastrophe?

I

n a function commemorating 50 years of service of Nagaland power department in 2014, the Nagaland Chief Minister spoke about formulating a comprehensive power policy where he pointed out the “need for a coordinated approach to augment and improve generation, transmission and distribution of power.” To this end, the government funding to the power department was 7 crore in 2015-2016 which increased marginally to Rs 12 crore for 2016-2017 and this makes up for just 5% against the requirement of Rs 265 crore. The Association of Power engineers Nagaland have expressed disappointment at the deficit fund allocation with the apprehension of major breakdowns without any capacity addition. The reality is being witnessed today and with no ‘back-up’ in every sense of the term, of capital and infrastructure, our State will soon witness the worst.

Beyond repairs at a struggling pace, there is also the growing demand for electricity every year and with no equipment up-gradation, the state has been a witness to a series of transformer breakdowns owing to aging and overloading. How long can the department go on repairing the transformers against an increasing number of transformer breakdowns? What warranty does it hold regarding the durability of the ‘repaired’ transformers? Within the constraints of fund allocation, the department is also in a ‘helpless’ position doing best to repair the transformers, and that too is being done by outsourcing it to private parties for quicker service delivery. But, the present approach is like putting make-up on an old woman, which is just a temporal measure that has no guarantee.

This paper has, through a series of reports, minutely highlighted the woeful tale of our power sector and its impending danger, but the sad reality is that, nothing has been done and the people have become frequent witnesses to the transformer breakdowns – a potential danger that is going to turn into a catastrophe; and going by the apathetic response of the government, ironically, it seems like the Government wants to witness the looming catastrophe in waiting for the ultimate – a total ‘systems failure.’

Today, Nagaland needs not just a comprehensive power policy on paper but one that is practical in its approach in order to address the problems related to the core issues of power generation, transmission and distribution in tune with the demands of the times. An assessment of the present crisis and a possible way out also needs to be worked out in detail beyond temporal measures. There is also need for better management of all forms of resources in tune with potentiality and capacity. Measures that are more stringent also need to be adopted to generate the desired revenue. The government should also instil a sense of ownership, to have care and concern for government properties towards a responsible change. (Government properties’ getting ‘privatised’ is also a major concern).

With rapid urbanization and expansion of township, but nonetheless, the demand for power will only increase. It has also brought in a shift in the culture of work for livelihood from agriculture to other means. This shift also reinforces the challenges to the industry sector in generating economy and employment; and if industry is to grow adequate power supply is a necessity.

Having ‘submitted’ the concerns in writing is not the end of the solution. The present government and the way it ‘functions’ in a ‘non-functional’ manner only makes one wonder in distress finding it difficult to ponder upon the predicament that makes it difficult to prick the consciousness which is a necessary condition to affect the desired praxis. Maybe it is beyond our limited human capacity or the present condition itself has so limited our capacity in order to either re-work or restart afresh to change the present ‘Naga condition.’

For now, the breakdown of transformers is a tragic reminder that a total systems shutdown is looming large.

(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir is Editor of Heritage Publishing House.

He contributes a weekly guest editorial to the Morung Express.

Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)

lEfT wiNg |

IANS

Antibiotics may up Type 1 diabetes risk in children

P

arents need to be extra careful while giving antibiotics to children as new research has found that the commonlyprescribed drug can significantly increase the risk for Type 1 diabetes.

In Type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly destroys the islet cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

Without insulin, patients cannot properly control their levels of blood sugar (glucose), which builds up to damage nerves and blood vessels.

A study conducted on mice found that antibiotics changed the mix of gut microbes in their young ones and dramatically raised their risk for Type 1 diabetes.

"Our study begins to clarify the mechanisms by which antibiotic-driven changes in gut microbiomes may increase risk for Type 1 diabetes," said Martin Blaser, Professor at New York University (NYU) in the US. In the study, the team examined the effects of exposure to either continuous low-dose antibiotics or pulsed antibiotic therapy (PAT), which mimics the doses used to treat many infections in children.

Short pulses of antibiotics caused non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice -- that are more susceptible to Type 1 diabetes -to develop the disease more quickly and more often than mice not treated with antibiotics.

Specifically, male NOD mice exposed to PAT were found to have twice (53 per cent) the incidence of Type 1 diabetes as control NOD mice (26 per cent incidence) that received no antibiotics. PAT did not significantly increase disease risk in female mice in one set of experiments, but did so in a second set of tests.

"This is the first study of its kind suggesting that antibiotic use can alter the microbiota and have lasting effects on immunological and metabolic development, resulting in autoimmunity," said Jessica Dunne, Director at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) which is a US-based research organisation.

As children's exposure to microbe-killing antibiotics has increased in recent decades, the incidence of autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes has more than doubled, said the paper published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

For the research, the team collected samples of gut bacteria from NOD mice to determine the effects of antibiotics.

Using genomic and statistical techniques, the team found that three-week-old PAT males had a nearly complete loss in their intestines of certain bacteria shown in past studies to normally train the immune system.

The diversity of species in PAT-treated microbiomes was lower than in control mice, and the composition of the bacterial communities differed greatly, the researchers concluded.

C O M M E N T A R Y

Fania Davis

This Country Needs a Truth & Reconciliation Process on Violence Against African Americans America has a long history of violence against black citizens. What response can disrupt patterns set by centuries of racism?

I

am among the millions who have experienced the shock, grief, and fury of losing someone to racial violence.

When I was 15, two close friends were killed in the Birmingham Sunday School bombing carried out by white supremacists trying to terrorize the rising civil rights movement. Only six years later, my husband was shot and nearly killed by police who broke into our home, all because of our activism at the time, especially in support of the Black Panthers.

As a civil rights trial lawyer, I’ve spent much of my professional life protecting people from racial discrimination. In my early twenties, I devoted myself to organizing an international movement to defend my sister, Angela Davis, from politically motivated capital murder charges aimed at silencing her calls for racial and social justice. Early childhood experiences in the South set me on a quest for social transformation, and I’ve been a community organizer ever since, from the civil rights to the black power, women’s, anti-racial violence, peace, anti-apartheid, antiimperialist, economic justice, political prisoner movements, and others.

After more than three decades of all the fighting, I started to feel out of balance and intuitively knew I needed more healing energies in my life. I ended up enrolling in a Ph.D. program in Indigenous Studies that allowed me to study with African healers.

Today, my focus is on restorative justice, which I believe offers a way for us to collectively face this epidemic, expose its deep historical roots, and stop it.

The killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York have sparked a national outcry to end the epidemic killings of black men. Many note that even if indictments had been handed down, that wouldn’t have been enough to stop the carnage. The problem goes far beyond the actions of any police officer or department. The problem is hundreds of years old, and it is one we must take on as a nation. Truth and reconciliation processes offer the greatest hope.

TruTh ANd recoNcIlIATIoN IN FerguSoN ANd beyoNd A Ferguson Truth and Reconciliation process based on restorative justice (RJ) principles could not only stop the epidemic but also allow us as a nation to take a first “step on the road to reconciliation,” to borrow a phrase from the South African experience.

A restorative justice model means that youth, families, and communities directly affected by the killings—along with allies—would partner with the federal government to establish a commission. Imagine a commission that serves as a facilitator, community organizer, or Council of Elders to catalyze, guide, and support participatory, inclusive, and community-based processes.

We know from experience that a quasi-legal body of high-level experts who hold hearings, examine the evidence, and prepare findings and recommendations telling us as a nation what we need to do won’t work. We’ve had plenty of those.

To move toward a reconciled America, we have to do the work ourselves.

Reconciliation is an ongoing and collective process. We must roll up our sleeves and do the messy, challenging, but hopeful work of creating transformed

relationships and structures leading us into new futures. Someone like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who headed up South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, might come to Ferguson to inspire and guide us as we take the first steps on this journey.

And the impact wouldn’t be for Ferguson alone. Unfolding in hubs across the nation, a Truth and Reconciliation process could create safe public spaces for youth, families, neighbors, witnesses, and other survivors to share their stories. Though this will happen in hubs, the truths learned and the knowledge gained would be broadly shared. Importantly, the process would also create skillfully facilitated dialogue where responsible parties engage in public truth-telling and take responsibility for wrongdoing. geTTINg To The rooTS Today, teenagers of color are coming of age in a culture that criminalizes and demonizes them, and all too often takes their lives.

I work with youth in Oakland, where it’s gut-wrenching to see the trauma and devastation up close. Black youth in the U.S. are fatally shot by police at 21 times the rate of white youth. Children of color are pushed through pipelines to prison instead of being put on pathways to opportunity. Some make it through this soul-crushing gauntlet against all odds. But too many do not.

Defining how long- and far-reaching a process like this would be is difficult because, sadly, the killing of Mike Brown is only one instance in a long and cyclical history of countless unhealed racial traumas that reaches all the way back to the birth of this nation. Changing form but not essence over four centuries, this history has morphed from slavery to the Black Codes, peonage and lynching, from Jim Crow to convict leasing, to mass incarceration and deadly police practices.

Bearing in mind its expansive historical context, the Truth and Reconciliation process would set us on a collective search for shared truths about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of extrajudicial killings of black youth, say, for the last two decades. Through the process, those truths will be told, understood, and made known far and wide. Its task would also include facing and beginning to heal the massive historical harms that threaten us all as a nation but take the lives of black and brown children especially. We would utilize the latest insights and methodologies from the field of trauma healing.

This is urgent. Continued failure to deal with our country’s race-based historical traumas dooms us to perpetually re-enact them.

Though national in scope, the inquiry would zero in on the city of Ferguson and several other key cities across the country that have been the site of extrajudicial killings during the last decade. Specifics like this are best left to a collaborative, inclusive, and community-based planning process.

The process will create public spaces where we face together the epidemic of killings and its root causes, identify the needs and responsibilities of those affected, and also figure out what to do as a nation to heal harms and restore relationships and institutions to forge a new future.

TruTh ANd recoNcIlIATIoN workS There are precedents for this approach: Some 40 Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have been launched worldwide to transform historical and mass social harms such as those we are facing. Their experiences could help light a way forward.

The best-known example is the 1994 South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was charged with exposing and remedying apartheid’s human rights abuses. Under the guidance of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission elevated apartheid victims’ voices, allowing the nation to hear their stories. Perpetrators had a means to engage in public truth-telling about and take responsibility for the atrocities they committed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission facilitated encounters between harmed and responsible parties, decided amnesty petitions, and ordered reparations, and it recommended official apologies, memorials, and institutional reform to prevent recurrence.

With near-constant live coverage by national television networks, the attention of the nation was riveted on the process. Although South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was far from perfect, it is internationally hailed for exposing apartheid’s atrocities and evoking a spirit of reconciliation that helped the country transcend decades of racial hatred and violence.

There are North American examples as well, including the 2004 Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission in North Carolina, the first in the United States. This effort focused on the “Greensboro massacre” of anti-racist activists by the Ku Klux Klan in 1979.

In 2012, Maine’s governor and indigenous tribal chiefs established a truth commission to address the harms resulting from the forced assimilation of Native children by Maine’s child welfare system. It is still in operation.

And Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also still functioning, addresses legacies of Indian residential schools that forcibly removed Aboriginal children from their homes, punished them for honoring their language and traditions, and subjected them to physical and sexual abuse. geT To The TruTh, geT To heAlINg Like South Africa’s and others, the Ferguson Truth and Reconciliation process would draw on the principles of restorative justice. Rooted in indigenous teachings, for some 40 years the international RJ movement has been creating safe spaces for encounters between persons harmed and persons responsible for harm, including their families and communities. These encounters encourage participants to get to truth, address needs, responsibilities, and root causes, make amends, and forge different futures through restored relationships based upon mutual respect and recognition.

Restorative justice is founded on a worldview that affirms our participation in a vast web of interrelatedness.

It sees crimes as acts that rupture the web, damaging the relationship not only between the individuals directly involved but also vibrating out to injure relationships with families and com-

munities. The purpose of RJ is to repair the harm caused to the whole of the web, restoring relationships to move into a brighter future.

Applied to schools, communities, the justice system, and to redress mass social harm and create new futures, restorative justice is increasingly being recognized internationally. In Oakland, California, where I co-founded and direct Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), school-based programs are eliminating violence, reducing racial disparity in discipline, slashing suspension rates, dramatically boosting academic outcomes, and creating pathways to opportunity instead of pipelines to incarceration. These outcomes are documented in a 2010 study by UC Berkeley Law School and a soon-to-bereleased report by the school district.

Oakland’s RJ youth diversion pilot is interrupting racialized mass incarceration strategies and reducing recidivism rates to 15 percent. (Based on discussions with folks who run the program— no studies as yet.)

Police and probation officers are being trained in RJ principles and practices. Youth and police are sitting together in healing circles, and creating new relationships based on increased trust and a mutual recognition of one another’s humanity.

It’s impossible to predict whether similar outcomes would emerge from a Truth and Reconciliation process in Ferguson—and the United States. But it’s our best chance. And, if history is any guide, it could result in restitution to those harmed, memorials to the fallen, including films, statues, museums, street renamings, public art, or theatrical re-enactments. It might also engender calls to use restorative and other practices to stop violence and interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and mass incarceration strategies. New curricula could emerge that teach both about historic injustices and movements resisting those injustices. Teach-ins, police trainings, restorative policing practices, and police review commissions are also among the universe of possibilities.

In the face of the immense terrain to be covered on the journey toward a more reconciled America, no single process will be enough. However, a Ferguson Truth and Reconciliation process could be a first step towards reconciliation. It could put us on the path of a new future based on more equitable structures and with relationships founded on mutual recognition and respect. It could also serve as a prototype to guide future truth and reconciliation efforts addressing related epidemics such as domestic violence, poverty, the school-to-prison pipeline, and mass incarceration. A Ferguson Truth and Reconciliation Commission could light the way into a new future.

Fania Davis is a civil rights attorney and co-founder and executive director of RJOY, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth. She also has a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. She wishes to acknowledge discussions with Professor Jennifer Llewellyn, the Viscount Bennett Professor of Law at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Professor Llewellyn has worked with the South African and Canadian TRC’s and writes and researches on restorative justice and truth and reconciliation processes.

How to Break the Power of Money David Korten

O

Yes Magazine

ur current political chaos has a simple explanation. The economic system is driving environmental collapse, economic desperation, political corruption, and financial instability. And it isn’t working for the vast majority of people.

It serves mainly the interests of a financial oligarchy that in the United States dominates the establishment wings of both the Republican and Democratic parties. So voters are rebelling against those wings of both parties—and for good reason.

As a society we confront a simple truth. An economic system based on the false idea that money is wealth— and the false promise that maximizing financial returns to the holders of financial assets will maximize the wellbeing of all—inevitably does exactly what it is designed to do: 1. Those who have financial assets and benefit from Wall Street's financial games get steadily richer and more powerful.

2. The winners use the power of

their financial assets to buy political favor and to hold government hostage by threatening to move jobs and tax revenue to friendlier states and countries.

3. The winners then use this political power to extract public subsidies, avoid taxes, and externalize environmental, labor, health, and safety costs to further increase their financial returns and buy more political power.

This results in a vicious cycle of an ever greater concentration of wealth and power in the hands of those who demonstrate the least regard for the health and well-being of others and the living Earth, on which all depend.

Fewer and fewer people have more and more power and society pays the price.

A different result requires a different system, and the leadership for change is coming, as it must, from those for whom the current system does not work.

Awareness of system failure is widespread and growing. We see it in the rebellion against the establish-

ment wings of the major political parties. We see it as previously competing social movements join forces to articulate and actualize a common vision of a new economy. We see it in varied and widely dispersed local citizen initiatives quietly rebuilding the relationships of caring communities. We see it in millions of defectors from consumerism, who by choice or necessity are living more simply.

Analysis of the sources of the system failure, however, rarely goes beyond vague references to capitalism, neoliberalism, Wall Street, and immigrants.

Most of us have been conditioned by corporate media and economics education—along with the basic fact that we need money to buy the things we need or want—to accept the pervasive, but false, claims that money is wealth and a growing GDP improves the lives of all.

It rarely occurs to us to challenge these claims in our own thinking or in conversations with friends and col-

wRiTE-wiNg

leagues. So they persist and allow the corporate establishment to limit the economic policy debate to options that sustain its power.

To build a truly coherent movement with the necessary strength to replace the failed system with one designed and managed to self-organize toward a world that works for all, we must challenge its bogus claims as logical and practical fallacies. And simultaneously affirm the self-evident truth that: We are living beings born of and nurtured by a living Earth. Life exists— can exist—only in living communities that self-organize to create the conditions essential to life’s existence. Money is just a number, an accounting chit we accept in exchange for things of real value because we have been conditioned to do so almost from birth.

We who work for peace, justice, and sustainability have the ultimate advantage. Truth is on our side. And the deepest truths, those on which our common future depends, live in the human heart.

Let us each speak the truth in our own heart so that others may recognize and speak the truth in theirs. Together we will change the human story.

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.

WednesdAY 24•08•2016

Morung Express Learning

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

7

Pochury Folktales

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is the Erratic Electricity Supply Affecting Students Performance?

ES! Looking at the hardships faced by the students particularly in sultry places, the erratic electricity supply must surely be a contributing factor in the bad feat of the students. A student wish to burn the midnight oil but because of the erratic power supply, one feels restless, tired, loss of concentration etc and end up with work half done. It causes him/her to be the same even at School/College (Class). At the end of the day the irregularity of power supply is to be blamed for draining his/her energy. It surely is affecting their academic performances.

Nagaland has celebrated its 50 years of Statehood, still 79 more villages to be electrified. 24x7 power supply?

Implausible! Far-fetched! Let's give another 50 years.

Thujonieyi (Jojo) Khamo Billy Graham Road Kohima

e

lectricity supply as of now is not as bad as it used to be some years ago. There should be no reason why electricity at the present rate at least in Kohima will affect the students’ performance. To do well in studies/academically, regular electricity supply is not the only requirement. It is the amount of effort one gives to do well in studies, the more effort the better results. If at all there is irregular power supply, then the students can study before dark. Also there are different forms of chargeable lamps at very reasonable costs, those can also be made use of.

Avitso Lcho

Lower Chandmari , Kohima

Best Comment:

Thujonieyi (Jojo) Khamo

This wEEk’s quEsTion:

Do you support 33% women reservation in urban local bodies?

Send in your comments to The Morung Express Office (address given below) or email to morunglearning@gmail. com or WhatsApp @ 8794005039/7085976283 The best comment will win a book, ‘Cross Section: Reflections on Christian Faith and Society’ by Sao Tunyi from Heritage Publication House, Dimapur

'How Yeast came into existence' his is a story from times immemorial, about Tsheyeysü and her husband, Müleytsü. The couple went everywhere together - fetching water, collecting firewood, going to the field and so on. Having lived together already for a long time, the wife, Tsheyeysü suddenly decided that she really wanted to know where the sky ended. She wanted to go out and have an adventure and try to find the end of the world, so she set off one day all on her own.

On her long journey she passed many villages but no one could tell her

t

anything, until she reached one village, where some men caught her saying, “How can an unknown woman come to our village all by herself?” (For women did not travel alone). They wanted to kill her, but she said, “Wait, wait! I will show you something”.

The men were curious and wanted to know what it was. She had kept a bit of yeast in the fold of her mekhla (sarong) and she took it out, telling the men to cook some rice. She powdered the yeast and mixed it with the cooked rice, explaining, “Keep this mixture in a container for two days and on the third day you can remove it and have it. If you do that, the taste will be very sweet.”

Next she explained the process of making yeast to them: You put rice in water and in about an hour the water should be drained off. After this, the rice should be ground up into a powder and mixed with the kanza fruit (a small bitter berry found locally). After two days this mixture is taken out and dried in the sun.

When they tasted her brew, they found that it was very good and they started to think of her as a god, and they

said to themselves, “Why should we kill a god?” Claiming her as one of their own they made her welcome and she stayed in that village as a god.

But Tsheyeysü always remembered her husband and would command the strong harsh wind and diseases to avoid Müleytsü’s village. That village was Leruri, and from that day onwards the village was protected from strong wind and epidemics that affect nearby villages. So our forefathers say that the knowledge of yeast originates from our village, Laruri.

Storyteller: T. Kamsang Thüvüri , Laruri Village Translated by: Lalhmangaiha, Sütsü

'The Story of the Shapi (Hollocks Gibbon)' n our forefathers’ time, people would go to the field together in groups, and these groups would take turns tilling the fields. This is a story of a group of females from our village who went to work in the field. Amongst this group some of them were orphans and one day, on the way back home, the group stopped and started talking about mothers. They asked each other, “Does your mother love you? Does she care for you? “ One woman replied, “ Yes my mother loves and cares for me”.

The others told her to carry the

i

bamboo basket used to hold the tools and the midday meal to the village and to give it to her family. Those that were not loved and care for by their parents, or didn’t have parents at all, took off their leggings (used to protect them from mosquitoes while working in the field) and tied them around their heads as headbands and then they climbed up into a tree and together they began to sing, and their song goes like this: “Tsaso king matri nvüso king matri, kang kang lopepe he tra tra”, ending the song with “trülak trülak”. This translates as “I have no fear of the spear, I have no fear of the dao, I only have fear of the sound of the cross bow”. (At the end of the song they call the shapi or hollocks gibbon which makes the sound “trülak trülak” when they jump from tree to tree).

We believe that the shapi monkey, the hillocks gibbon, is related to this group of girls who had no parents. This type of monkey does not destroy our crops.

Storyteller: Tampingtsü Thüvüri Translated by: Lalhmangaiha, Sütsü Source: Adivasi Arts Trust, for more folktales stories, visit http://www.talleststory.com/ adivasiartstrust/index.html

Youth Voters’ Fest essay contest

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s per the directive of the Election Commission of India, the State Election Department in collaboration with government departments of the state and central government, partnering agencies and the educational institutions of Nagaland to promote voter education and increase the qualitative electoral participation among the young generation.

In this regard, Youth Voters' Festival will be celebrated with the following categories of students from September 5 to 9 as follows: essay competition on September 8 (international Literacy Day) Topic: Ethical and Informed Voting for All- Round Development. eligibility: All Universities/ Campuses in the State 1st Prize: rs 10,000, 2nd Prize: rs Heritage Club of Christian Higher Secondary School, Dimapur visited Chumpo Museum at Sovima Village, Dimapur for an off-campus study on Saturday, August 20.

7,000, 3rd Prize: rs 5,000.

Topic: Solution to Electoral Malpractices begins with me. eligibility: All Colleges in the State.

1st Prize: rs 6,000, 2nd Prize: rs 4,000, 3rd Prize: rs 2,000.

Topic: Multiple Registration as a voter and furnishing wrong particulars are Illegal, Unethical and Immoral eligibility: All Hr. Sec Schools of 11 districts and High Schools of Pughoboto sub-division.

1st Prize: rs 5,000, 2nd Prize: rs 3,000, 3rd Prize: rs 2,000.

Time allotted is one hour and full score is 100. In addition to cash prizes, commendation certificates shall be awarded to the above winners on the National Voters' Day 2017.

Army Public School Recruitment 2016

a The Morung Express Learning seeks to engage, inform and create space for young people - in or outside the spectrum of formal education. It is our earnest desire for this page to be interactive as well as educative, and we sincerely seek your feedback and contribution. Send us your opinion, poems, campus news and photos or any other suggestions to morunglearning@gmail.com or Text/WhatsApp @ 8794005039/ 7085976283

Quiz #23

r my Public School has issued a notification for the recruitment of 8000 Teacher vacancies in PGT/ TGT/ PRT categories.

Eligible candidates can apply online from 17-08-2016 from 09.00 AM to 1309-2016 till 05.00 PM. Other details like age limit, educational qualification, selection process, application fee & how to apply are given below. total no. of Posts: 8000 age Limit: Candidates age should be below 40 years for fresh candidates & below 57 years for experienced candidates as on 01-04-2016. educational Qualification: Candidates should possess post graduation for PGT, Graduation for TGT & PRT. Selection Process: Candidates will be selected based on screening, written

ParticiPate & win

As we celebrate Women’s Equality Day, let us reflect upon the immeasurable contributions made by women across the world. Many courageous women, throughout history, have stood and championed against all odds for women’s political and socio-economic equality. Yet, there are many more unsung and equally worthy heroes who, though inconspicuous in their deeds, have been the foundations of every society. Every woman—mothers, sisters, aunties, grandmothers, and wives—in every society are the unsung heroes. It is these fearless and courageous women, unwavering in their love, that inspire and carry societies forward.

2. who has been appointed as the new Governor of the reserve Bank of india (rBi)?

[A]R Gandhi [B]Urjit Patel [C]S S Mundra [D]N S Vishwanathan

4. who has been appointed as the new Governor of assam?

[A]Loknath Mishra [B]A K Singh [C]Nikhil Kumar [D]Banwarilal Purohit 5. who became the first indian woman to enter a 3,000 metre steeplechase final in the recently concluded rio Olympics 2016?

[A] Aditi Ashok [B] O P Jaisha [C] Tintu Lukka [D] Lalita Babar Send in your answers to the Morung Express Office (address given below) or email to morunglearning@gmail.com or WhatsApp @ 8794005039/7085976283 Answers to Quiz#22 1-A; 2-D; 3-C; 4-A; 5-D Winner of last week’s contest:

c Ba-ie, Kenuozou Colony, Kohima Consolation prizes:

tiatoshi, GHSS United Colony, Dimapur & Perangheing, Dimapur First Prize- Rs. 300 + T-Shirt Two Consolations – Rs. 100 + T-Shirt each Winners may collect the prize money from The Morung Express Office, H/No.4 Duncan Basti, Dimapur T-Shirt to be collected from G-Sports, Shop No 11, Joyce Complex, 2nd Gate, Chumukedima *Winners should bring along a valid ID to claim the prizes

The 7-member team from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan who came to Mopungchuket village, Mokokchung district planted a Japanese Cherry (Sakura) sapling each on August 22 at Longrangtenem Park. The team reached Mopungchuket on August 18 and will leave on August 24.

Women = men

1. The 2016 Youth Voters’ Festival will be held in which state of india?

[A]Assam [B]Odisha [C]Nagaland [D]Andhra Pradesh

3. india has recently signed a short-term route agreement with which neighboring country for the movement of petroleum goods?

[A]Myanmar [B]Bhutan [C]Bangladesh [D]Sri Lanka

test & interview. application Fee: Candidates should pay Rs.600/- (non-refundable) through Debit/ Credit Cards/ Net banking/ Bank Challan.

How to apply: Eligible candidates may apply online through the website http://aps-csb.in from 17-08-2016 from 09.00 AM to 13-09-2016 till 05.00 PM. instructions to apply Online: 1. Before applying online candidates should have valid e-mail id & contact no.

2. Log on to http://aps-csb.in 3. Click on “Recruitments” & select the desired post.

4. Submit the form and take print out of online application for future use. important Dates: Starting Date for Online Application: 17-08-2016 from 09.00 AM. Last Date for Submission of Application: 13-09-2016 to 05.00 PM.

a

s I write an article on Women’s Equality Day, which is celebrated on the 26th August of each year since 1920, I realize the reason as to why I am able to jot down my pen to work is because of the real fight fought by many brave souls over the years. This day marks a turning point in the history of the struggle for equal treatment of women, and their rights.

Women’s Equality Day commemorates 26th August 1920, when the right to voting was won by women in the US It was at the behest of Congresswoman Bella Abzug in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” Abzug could introduce the bill in the Parliament based on decades of activism by suffrage activists like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott.

Prior to movements like these, even respected thinkers such as Rousseau and Kant believed that woman’s inferior status in society was completely logical and reasonable; women were ‘beautiful’ and ‘not fit for serious employment’.

According to such opinions, all women could be understood as “Nora” of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play A Doll’s House. In the play, Nora is a homemaker, wife, and mother. The play traces the awakening of Nora Helmer from her previously unexamined life of domestic, wifely comfort.

Having been ruled her whole life by either her father or her husband, Torvald.

Nora, who has been manipulated to live

- Dr. nonlih chohwanglim, asst Professor, Department of english a life of a doll in the name of ‘protection’, realises the truth, the truth about her husband, her marriage, her subjugation as a woman; she breaks the tradition and walks out of her husband’s life to find her true self, her true identity.

Over the last century, great women have proven these views (inferiority of women) wrong as the world has witnessed just what women are capable of achieving, from the likes of Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt fighting for civil rights and equality to great scientists such as Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, and Jane Goodall (to name a few). The last century has shown more than ever what both women and men are capable of achieving, “given the opportunity”.

In the Indian context, we can declare with pride that its society has successfully done away with many of the social evils; yet cannot claim that India is free from gender biases. Are we really treating genders equally? The concern here is how they are treated even when they are on the same horizon. Ranging from celebrities to daily wage earners, women face the challenges of differential treatment based on gender. Lower salaries, unwillingness to hire married women, reluctance to appoint them to higher posts, it’s all a sad reality.

From the likes of the Indian poet Kamala Das, who explored female sexuality fearlessly, to personalities such as Barkha Dutt, who bravely reported from the precarious conditions of the Kar-

gil War, from words to action, Indian women have come a long way, proving the myth of female inferiority to be a farce. Despite the massive progress and achievements, women living in modern India are still challenged with many issues of identity and discrimination.

I remember a discourse that had unfolded in one of my classes recently.

The discourse was about a woman being ‘independent’. One of the students remarked that I was a strong independent woman, and the other student stopped the sentence with an attempt to rectify (done with good intention, but gone haywire) that Ma’am cannot be addressed as ‘independent’ because Ma’am is ‘married’! I had a caesura time there! Would they have the same opinion about a male teacher who was married? It set me to ponder if it was the voice of one male student alone, or of the society as a whole. I was a daughter and a sister, and then I became a wife and a mother. Yet in this transition, the ‘I’, my being, my essence, my individuality remains the same. Then is the society eyeing me from a different perspective because of the ‘transition’?

Am I now just the ‘other half’, and not a ‘complete being’, am I now ‘dependent’ because of the social duality based on my biological existence?

The male/female hierarchical dichotomy and the fight against it is not a localised issue. Every woman, from every angle, is one through their stance and will to annihilate this dichotomy

which prevails in different forms. ‘Nora’ has walked out, and today we even have a woman as a Presidential candidate of USA (from where the concept of Women’s Equality Day germinated), marking the journey from ‘Let Us Vote’ to ‘Vote for Me’. A wonderful transition indeed!

Yet the journey of ‘Nora’ does not end with the walking out. As we observe the day, the larger concern should be the journey and the destination that ‘Nora’ is supposed to reach. Women’s Equality Day is not confined to voting right alone, rather slips into every aspect. The observance calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality.

I, however, believe that the most important part of this struggle is women realising their own right to fight for equality.

Women have to let go of age-old cultural norms which place them behind the menfolk. I cannot but help wonder how many ‘Noras’ have to walk out of their houses before we stop shrouding their existence in stereotypes and age old norms. Have we progressed but at all?

Let every Nora be a guiding ray for every other Nora!

Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr. Hewasa Lorin, Anjan Behera, Dr. Salikyu Sangtam, Nivibo Yiki, and Kvulo Lorin. For feedback or comments please email: dot@tetsocollege.org.

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

WednesdAY 24•08•2016

INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Despite sporting glory, Indian women struggle to rise Saumya Tewari

July 2016. This is a decline of up to 8 per cent percentage point over 14 years; in 1999, up to 34 per cent of women were a part of India's workforce.

IANS/IndiaSpend

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, shuttler P.V. Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal; Sakshi Malik the first Indian female wrestler to win a medal (bronze), gymnast Dipa Karmarkar became the first Indian woman to feature in a gymnastics final, finishing fourth in the vault, and Lalita Babar became the first Indian woman to enter a 3,000 metre steeplechase final, finishing 10th. Eighteen-year-old Aditi Ashok -- the youngest golfer from India -- also entered the final round of the women's individual golf event.

Women saved the day for India at Rio, and their growing presence was reflected in the 54 female Indian athletes -- the largest number ever -at an Olympiad.

While those rising numbers indicate the progress made by Indian sportswomen -- many from small towns and poor families -- in particular, and Indian women in general, a quick look at five key parameters -- working women, education, maternal health, age of marriage and abortion rates-reveals

that India's women are routinely denied opportunities at education, work and even being born.

1. Working women: Lowest in BRICS, 25 million women leave workforce over a decade Women's workforce

'1,012 rapes in UP in last 5 months' luckNow, August 23 (Pti): In the past five months, 1,012 cases of rapes and 4,520 of harassment of women have been registered in Uttar Pradesh, the UP government said today. "From Mar 15, 2016 to Aug 18 this month, 1,012 cases of rapes, 4,520 cases of women harassment, 1,386 of loot and 86 cases of dacoity have been reported in the state," the government said in a written reply to a question by BJP member Satish Mahana in the state assembly. For effective check on such crimes, crime branch has been constituted in every district under Additional SP (crime), it said.

Guj journalist murdered in office

participation in India is the lowest among BRICS nations. A host of other countries, such as Bahrain (39 per cent), Malaysia (45 per cent) and Somalia (37 per cent), do much better, as IndiaSpend reported in March 2015, using World Bank data from 2014.

No more than 26 per cent of India's women in India participated in the workforce, according to a 2013 Labour Bureau report.

The rate improved to 27 per cent in 2014, according to a 2015 International Monetary Fund (IMF) study that IndiaSpend reported in

Even fewer women sign on for PhDs and only 40% of PhD candidates are female.

In 2016, girls were more successful than boys in clearing 10th-standard exams of a national educa2. Higher education: More tion board, a trend that has women enrolled, outper- held over seven years, we form men, but drop out reported. later While more young 3. Maternal Health: Best women are enrolled in ever, but worse than poorhigher education than ever er countries before -- and apparently India's maternal mormore successful in clearing tality ratio was 167 in 201010th-standard board ex- 12, according to the latest ams than young men-they government data available, are either marrying early a steady improvement. or not finding or not lookIndia's maternal moring for jobs, according to tality ratio -- 174, according an IndiaSpend analysis of to World Bank estimates -various data. is worse than countries in The enrolment of girls in the neighbourhood, such higher education increased as Sri Lanka (30), Bhutan from 39 per cent to 46 per (148) and Cambodia (161). cent from 2007 to 2014, but India does worst among as data above show, female the BRICS countries: Russia participation in India's la- (25), China (27), Brazil (44), bour force declined to a low and South Africa (138); acof 27 per cent in 2014 from cording to the World Bank's 34 per cent in 1999. latest estimates, which difAlmost 12 million fer somewhat from Indian women are enrolled in un- sources' 167 but confirm dergraduate courses, but the trends. few continue to professional courses; 600,000 women 4. Median age of marwere enrolled for diploma riage: Rising, but 61 per courses, according to 2013 cent married before 16 data, the latest available.

The average Indian

in 60 years India's child sex ratio is the worst in 60 years, indicating that girls continue to be aborted, killed or otherwise fatally neglected.

If India's child sex ratio does not improve, there will be 23 million fewer women (aged 29-40) than there should be by 2030, according to a United Nations Population Fund projection.

Sex selection was introduced in India to control population growth, based on the premise that since girls are hardier, all else being equal, more survive childbirth than boys. In 1975, a paper in the journal Indian Paediatrics argued that this excess of girls was “unnecessary fecundity and that elimination of girls would lead to population control”, wrote Sabu M. George -- a member of a committee to monitor a 1994 law that banned sex selection -- in his February 2016 Indian Express column.

But despite the law, rising education levels -- and more female role models, such as India's latest Olym5. India's missing girls: pian medallists -- the child Child sex ratio lowest sex ratio continues to fall. woman is married at 21.2 years, according to Census 2011, an improvement from 19.3 years in 1990, according to a government report.

The mean female age at marriage in rural areas is 20.7; in urban areas, 22.7, according to the latest census data from 2011.

While education is an efficient contraceptive -Indian women with a college degree have 1.9 children during their lifetime, against 3.8 for illiterate woman -- it appears to only marginally slow the inevitability of early marriage.

Nearly 12 million Indian children were married before the age of 10 years, as IndiaSpend reported in June 2016; 7.84 million (65 per cent) married children were female, reinforcing the fact that girls are significantly more disadvantaged. Eight in 10 illiterate children who were married were also girls.

Also, as many as 1,403 females never attended any educational institution for every 1,000 males who have not, IndiaSpend reported in November 2015.

Over 300 dead in India as floods force villagers into relief camps New Delhi/BhuBANeswAR, August 23 (thomsoN ReuteRs FouNDAtioN): At least 300 people have died in eastern and central India and more than six million others have been affected by floods that have submerged villages, washed away crops, destroyed roads and disrupted power and phone lines, officials said on Tuesday.

Heavy monsoon rains have caused rivers, including the mighty Ganges and its tributaries, to burst their banks forcing people into relief camps in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and

Uttarakhand.

Government officials in Bihar, which has seen some of the worst flooding this year with almost 120 dead and more than five million affected, said the situation was serious."The flood waters have engulfed low-lying areas, homes and fields of crops," said Zafar Rakib, a district magistrate of Katihar, one of 24 districts out of Bihar's 38 districts which have been hit by the deluge.

"We have shifted people to higher ground and they are being provided with cooked rice, clean drinking water, polythene sheets," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

JuNAgADh, August 23 (iANs): Unidentified assailants barged into the Junagadh office of leading Gujarati daily Jai Hind on Monday night and stabbed to death its bureau chief Kishore Dave, police said. Dave, 53, was alone when the three attackers broke into the bureau office of the newspaper located on the fourth floor of a commercial complex around 9 p.m. Police said the assailants stabbed him to six to times and he died on the spot. His body was found in a pool of blood by an office assistant.

He is survived by two children and wife. Dave's inconsolable family and relatives alleged that the son of a former minister from the Junagadh district was responsible for wAshiNgtoN, August 23 the murder. Police investigation was on. (iANs): The United States has backed Amnesty International after a sedition case was registered against the global rights group in Bengaluru for hosting a Kashmir event where alNew Delhi, August 23 (iANs): External Affairs leged anti-India slogans were Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday urged Indian raised. State Department Depworkers retrenched by three Saudi companies to re- uty Spokesperson Mark Toner turn to India latest by September 25 after filing their said that US supported the right claims. In a series of tweets, she said that those who to freedom of expresson for anydo not return by September 25 will have to arrange for one, including the Amnesty. their accommodation, food and return tickets to In"With Amnesty Internationdia on their own. Sushma Swaraj said that Minister of al, I'm sorry. Well, we obviously, State for External Affairs V.K. Singh visited Saudi Arabia as we do around the world, suptwice to solve the problems of the distressed workers port the right to freedom of exand was now back in India. “My advice to workers who pression and assembly, includhave been retrenched by the companies is that they ing through civil society," Toner should file their claims and return to India,” she tweet- told reporters here on Monday. ed in Hindi. “When Saudi Government settles with the He was asked about the sedicompanies, the worker's claims will also be settled,” tion charge against the group in she said in a separate tweet in English.

India after they staged an event

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where 43 people have died and over one million are affected, schools were closed in the cities of Varanasi and Allahabad as both the Ganges and Yamuna rivers crossed danger levels and flood waters continued to rise.

The holy city of Varanasi, where thousands of Hindus flock daily, was also forced to halt cremations along the banks of sacred Ganges river -- forcing families to cremate their relatives on the terrace roofs of nearby houses, officials said.

Television pictures showed villagers wading

waist deep in floodwaters with their livestock, mudand-brick homes collapsing and people climbing into wooden boats to get to relief camps.

In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, where at least 70 have died since the onset of the monsoons in June and more than 40,000 homes partially or fully destroyed, almost 20,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps. Officials said villagers would return home when water levels receded, although the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast Men sit on the roof of a partially submerged shop in a floodmore rains for central India ed residential colony in Allahabad on August 23. (REUTERS over the next two days.

Photo)

US backs Amnesty International over India sedition case

Retrenched Indian workers must return by Sept 25: Sushma

called "Broken Families" on the situation of different families in Kashmir.

Toner said the State Department was aware of the reports that police in Bengaluru have "initiated preliminary investigation into allegations of sedition” against Amnesty International.

"I direct you to the police for more details into this investigation, but certainly we, as I said, respect the right for Amnesty and others to express themselves freely."

The remarks came a day after Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara said he had "not given any clean chit" to the rights group. He had earlier said the group was not involved in antinational activities though some anti-India slogans were raised

by some participants at the event at United Theological College in the city on August 13. Amnesty organised the programme that had an interactive discussion on peace and justice in Kashmir and where three families from the strife-torn valley shared alleged human rights violations back home.

Police registered the complaint after Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) alleged that Amnesty representatives and other participants had indulged in anti-national slogans.

ABVP is the student wing of the BJP, which leads the National Democratic Alliance government in New Delhi, and has been at the forefront of several protests against perceived antinational activities.

Now actress Ramya in sedition row BeNgAluRu/New Delhi, August 23 (iANs): Kannada actor-turned-politician Ramya on Tuesday defended her comments praising the people of Pakistan, even as a private complaint was filed accusing her of sedition. Responding to a question asked at a programme in her former constituency Mandya about her recent visit to Pakistan as part of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) delegation of young lawmakers, Ramya had said that she doesn't agree with Parikkar's view that going to Pakistan is same as "going to hell" and the Pakistani people are nice.

Following her comments, a complaint has been filed against her for sedition by a Karnataka

Govt's Track II initiative: Civil society team to visit Kashmir New Delhi, August 23 (iANs): The central government has started an apolitical initiative, involving civil society members -- mostly prominent nonKashmiri Muslim personalities -- to help bring peace in Kashmir and a delegation is likely to visit the valley soon.

The initiative comes after two meetings of civil society activists with Home Minister Rajnath Singh here. Some of the activists who met the Home Minister said possible solutions to the present Kashmir situation were discussed at length in a "very open environment".

However, the day of the proposed visit has not been decided as yet. Neither is the composition of the delegation. The last meeting with Rajnath Singh, held on Sunday, lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, and was attended by over a dozen people, including former Rajya Sabha MP Shahid Siddiqui, former Jammu and Kashmir inter-

Rajnath to visit Kashmir on Wednesday New Delhi, August 23 (iANs): Home Minister Rajnath Singh will on Wednesday visit Jammu and Kashmir where restrictions continued in many parts of the valley for the 46th consecutive day on Tuesday.

Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi will accompany the minister during the twoday visit, official sources said.

The Home Minister will take stock of the situation in the Kashmir Valley.

Rajnath Singh's visit to the state, the second in a month, comes after Opposilocutor M.M. Ansari, defence analyst Qamar Agha, and Milli Gazette editor Zafarul Islam Khan.

The first meeting was held on August 18 and was attended by some 10 people, some of whom also attended Sunday's meeting.

Delhi-based social activist M.J. Khan is said to have coordinated the meetings with the Home Minister.

"It was a long and comprehensive discussion and

tion legislators of Jammu and Kashmir held several meetings in Delhi including with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Nardenra Modi and demanded a "political solution" to the ongoing unrest.

Modi told the opposition parties that there had to be a dialogue to end the weeks of unrest in the valley but any solution to the problem would be within the Indian Constitution. Rajnath Singh on Monday reviewed the situation in the state with officials of security agencies.

a lot of things were discussed. We have to take forward Atal (Bihari Vajpayee) ji's doctrine (of Insaniyat, Jamhooriat and Kashmiriyat). The government needs to restore confidence of Kashmiris and be sensitive to their needs and sentiments," Siddiqui told IANS. The Kashmir Valley has been on the boil for over six weeks now after the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan

Wani. The cycle of violence in Kashmir has claimed at least 68 lives and left thousands injured in clashes with security forces.

Hundreds of the injured have partially or fully been blinded after being hit by pellets fired by police and paramilitary forces.

One of the participants, who didn't wish to be named, blamed the situation in Kashmir on "a chain of broken promises by the

centre". But Agha argued that the first priority must be to somehow break the logjam and provide humanitarian relief to the people of the valley.

"We are asking the government to stop pellet guns and lift the curfew. But they say that if curfew is lifted the youth would resort to stone-pelting and arson.

This is a Catch 22 situation.

We have to come out of it," Agha told IANS. "Our foremost concern is to provide medical and humanitarian aid to the injured and others. The violence has to be stopped somehow."

However, civil society is faced with a unique problem -- who should it speak to in the valley?

"It is a leaderless and faceless agitation. The (separatist) Hurriyat has been left behind and the angry youth are just doing it spontaneously and on their own. The situation is far worse than 2010," Ansari, who was one of the three interlocutors

appointed by the previous government after the 2010 Kashmir unrest, told IANS. He argued that all stakeholders, including Pakistan, should be included in any peace talks on Kashmir.

Another point the civil society activists raised was that not all Kashmiris should be dubbed as antiIndia or pro-Pakistan, or that the Indian state is at war with Kashmiris.

A few of the participants in the meetings with the Home Minister, however, pitched for a long-term solution instead of just a respond-when-there-isviolence approach. "There is no long-term plan in the government's mind. It is just a fire-fighting attempt," said Zafarul Islam Khan, who edits the English fortnightly Milli Gazette in Delhi. Activist M.J. Khan said the government should find a solution that works on the ground rather than taking populist measures in Kashmir.

lawyer named K. Vittal Gowda, Asked whether she would apologise for her comments, Ramya said: "No, not at all... you know I'm not a person who has an ego, I don't mind apologising for whatever reasons, but in this particular instance, I don't think I would apologise. I think everybody in this country is entitled to free speech, I think that's how a democratic country should function."

A court at Somwarpet in Karnataka's Kodagu district has admitted a private complaint charging Ramya with "sedition" for praising Pakistanis, a Congress spokesman said in Bengaluru. Judicial Magistrate First Class Shyam Prasad posted the case for hearing to August 27.

UN lists 3 Dawood addresses in Karachi uNiteD NAtioNs, August 23 (iANs): Spelling out at least 14 latest aliases used by wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the UN Security Council has listed three addresses under his name -- all of them in Karachi in Pakistan, with one even in a defence colony.

Three of these addresses are a part of the dossier which India had furnished to both the UN and Islamabad.

Three others, also purportedly provided by India, find a mention in the amended list, but have been struck down.

Islamabad has all along denied Dawood's presence in Pakistan.

Under other information, the powerful UN organ said his father's name is Sheikh Ibrahim Ali Kaskar, mother's name is Amina Bi and wife's name is Mehjabeen Shaikh.

"International arrest warrant issued by the Government of India," it said.

The aliases and the addresses are part of what the UN says is one single amendment that has been carried out in its sanctions list, pertaining to the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda. The Committee's IS and Al Qaeda Sanctions List is updated regularly on the basis of relevant information provided by member states and international and regional organisations, according to the Security Council press release.

The three Karachi addresses of Dawood listed are: White House, Near Saudi Mosque, Clifton; House No 37 - 30th Street - defence, Housing Authority; and Palatial bungalow in the hilly area of Noorabad. Among the aliases used by Dawood that are listed are Abdul Hamid Abdul Aziz, Anis Ibrahim, Aziz Dilip and Shaikh Mohd Ismail Abdul Rehman. The Indian dossier was listed by the UN Security Council on November 3, 2003. It has been amended six times since then, the latest being on Monday.

wendesdAY 24•08•2016

WORLD

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

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In Iraq, Nigeria & now Turkey, child bombers strike ISTANBUL, AUgUST 23 (ReUTeRS): The boy looked scared and younger than 16 when Iraqi police grabbed him on the street in the northern city of Kirkuk. Pulling off his shirt, they found a two-kilogram bomb strapped to his skinny frame.

That was last Sunday.

Less than a day earlier, Turkey was less fortunate: a teenage bomber detonated his suicide vest among dancing guests at a Turkish wedding party, officials say, killing 51 people, nearly half of them children themselves.

Saturday’s attack at the wedding in Gaziantep marked not only Turkey’s deadliest this year, but also the first time in Turkey that militants may have deployed a child bomber in a way already used to deadly effect in wars from Africa to Syria.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has long used children.

One 14-year-old bomber on a bicycle hit the Kabul NATO base in 2012 killing six people; two years later a teenager blew himself up at French cultural centre in the Afghan capital.

Researchers and officials say Islamic State and other militants are now increasingly using the same tactics, perhaps to build ranks depleted by losses, preserve adult fighters or

Turkey’s prime minister was more cautious on Monday, saying it was too early to say who carried out the attack, though security sources say witnesses reported the bomber was a child.

Turkish authorities are also investigating whether militants may have placed the explosives on the suspect, without his or her knowledge before detonating them long distance.

That tactic has been used before in Iraq, where children or even mentally disadvantaged adults have been dispatched as unwitting bomb couriers into markets and checkpoints before they are blown up from afar.

Iraqi security forces remove a suicide vest from a boy in Kirkuk, Iraq on August 21. (REUTERS Photo)

simply catch security forces off guard.

In West Africa, Boko Haram has preyed on displaced children or young girls it kidnapped to force them to become bombers.

In Iraq and Syria, activists say Islamic State took in children from towns it captures or recruited families to its territory, and indoctrinated their children in its schools and camps.

Islamic State in particular, highlights its child recruits for its “Cubs of the Caliphate” brigades, publishing images and videos on social media of children receiving training and indoctrination, and carrying out bombings or executions.

“Child recruitment across the region is increasing,” said Juliette Touma, a UNICEF regional spokes-

person. “Children are taking a much more active role ..., receiving training on the use of heavy weapons, manning checkpoints on the front lines, being used as snipers and in extreme cases being used as suicide bombers.”

Little has been publicly released about the attacker in the Gaziantep bombing.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday

that the bomber was between 12 to 14 years old, and said Islamic State was probably responsible.

The blast tore into celebrations at a Kurdish wedding on the street late at night. As many as 22 of the dead were under the age of 14. No one claimed the attack, but Islamic State in the past has targeted Kurdish gatherings to stir ethnic tensions.

TEENAGE RECRUITS In the failed attack in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk a day later, local television images and photographs showed the boy crying and screaming as he was grabbed by Iraqi security forces near an interior ministry building.

Security officials said the boy is 16 years old, though local media reports said he was much younger. He is an Iraqi national from Mosul, the largest urban centre still under militant control, which Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces backed

by U.S. air strikes are mov-

ing to liberate.

Hisham al-Hashimi, an analyst and author who advises the Iraqi government on Islamic State, says militants this year had reactivated their Heaven’s Youth Brigade, in reaction to the group’s battlefield losses in Iraq and Syria.

“Teenagers are easier to recruit for suicide missions, especially in moments of suffering or despair having lost loved ones,” he said.

“They also attract less attention and less suspicion than male adults.”

Child recruits who have escaped from Islamic State ranks in its base in Syria’s Raqaa have described how they were taught to handle weapons, and also how to detonate suicide belts.

A study in February for Combating Terrorism Center at West Point military academy that examined Islamic State propaganda on child and youth ‘martyrs’ between January 2015 and 2016, found three times as many suicide operations involving children over the year.

“They represent an effective form of psychological warfare—to project strength, pierce defenses, and strike fear into enemy soldiers’ hearts,” the study said. “Islamic State is mobilizing children and youth at an alarming rate.”

Those tactics are mirrored in West Africa where U.N. officials have tracked a rise in attacks like the one carried out by a girl as young as ten who last year exploded a bomb in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing 16 people.

Security sources at the time said the explosive device was wrapped around her body.

In an April report, UNICEF said attacks involving child suicide bombers between 2014 and this year rose four-fold in northeastern Nigeria, where militant group Boko Haram is based, and neighbouring Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

A 12-year-old Nigerian girl captured with explosives in Cameroon in March told police she had been abducted by Boko Haram after the group overran her village a year earlier.

According to the UNICEF report, nearly two thirds of all the child attackers they tracked were girls. In the first six months of this year alone, UNICEF says it has also noted 38 child suicide bombers in West Africa.

“This is one of the defining features of this conflict,” said Thierry Delvigne-Jean of the agency’s west and central Africa office.

What are the origins of life? Lee’s health scare exposes Singapore’s leadership uncertainty There’s a rocket for that CAPe CANAVeRAL, AUgUST 23 (ReUTeRS): NASA scientists are putting the finishing touches on a spacecraft designed to rendezvous with Asteroid Bennu in 2018 to find clues about the origins of life.

“We are days away from encapsulating into our rocket faring and lifting this spacecraft on to the Atlas V vehicle and beginning the journey to Bennu and back,” Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of the mission told Reuters at the Kennedy Space Center.

The $1 billion mission, known as OSIRIS-REx, is scheduled for launch on Sept. 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The solar-powered robotic spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin <LMT>, is set to rendezvous with asteroid 1999 RQ36, nicknamed Bennu, in two years’ time for mapping and surveys, then use a robotic arm to collect samples for return in 2023.

Scientists are interested in studying what minerals and chemicals the asteroid contains. Similar asteroids crashing into Earth are believed to have provided the organic materials and water needed for life to form.

“We expect to find materials that pre-date our solar system,” said Lauretta, adding that physical samples from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo

moon missions are still bearing scientific fruit to this day.

“To understand the chemistry down to the molecular level we have to get a sample back and take them to the best labs in this country and around the world now and for generations to come,” added mission project scientist Jason Dworkin.

In 2010, Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft was the first to bring back physical samples of an Asteroid to Earth.

Along with sample retrieval, the Orisis-Rex spacecraft is equipped with a suit of cameras and sensors designed to study what forces influence the asteroids orbit.

Even planning the spacecraft’s flight plan for rendezvous with Bennu was difficult because the physics of asteroid trajectories isn’t a perfect science, said Lauretta.

“This turned out to be a much larger challenge than we originally anticipated because other forces like solar radiation pressure, even thermal emission off the asteroid itself will push the spacecraft around,” Lauretta added.

The mission, Dworkin said, will give astronomers new insights into how heat from the sun influences the movement of space rocks, data critical in protecting Earth from potential asteroid collisions in the future.

SINgAPORe, AUgUST 23 (ReUTeRS): One of Singapore’s greatest strengths is its predictability: in a region where coups and economic meltdowns are not uncommon, it has long been a haven of stability for investors and businesses.

But when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong almost collapsed during a National Day speech on Sunday, it brought into focus concerns that have been simmering for months about the future of the wealthy city-state.

The economy has lost some of the zest it had under the open trade-oriented model created by founding father Lee Kuan Yew, whose death last year for many marked the end of an era.

Doubts have also started to emerge about Singapore’s position as one of the world’s leading financial capitals.

Singapore is vulnerable to attacks by Islamist militants: just this month, two Singaporeans were detained before they could join Islamic State in Syria and Indonesian police foiled a plot to attack the island nation with a rocket.

And, now, Lee’s stumble at the podium has exposed

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. (REUTERS File Photo)

the apparent lack of a chosen successor, a remarkable state of affairs for a country where politics has been carefully managed since independence half a century ago under one powerful party.

Lee Kuan Yew’s successor, Goh Chok Tong, was identified at least five years in advance. Lee Kuan Yew’s son Lee Hsien Loong was groomed to become the next leader long before he took office in 2004.

“Singapore is indeed going through one of the toughest times with the economy

faltering and the threat of terrorism,” said Inderjit Singh, a former lawmaker for the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled without interruption since 1965. “It is a concern that we are quite late in putting in place the fourthgeneration leadership.”

Few see Singapore heading into a crisis, however. In last year’s election — held months after the death of patriarch Lee Kuan Yew — the PAP won almost 70 per cent of the popular vote and swept all but six of parliament’s 89 seats.

SUCCESSION QUESTION Doctors say that Lee, 64, has no serious health concerns. Still, when he returned to the stage an hour after his turn, Lee said: “what just happened makes it even more important” to talk about succession.

Lee then mentioned Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who he said would soon resume his duties following a stroke earlier this year. Heng had been touted by local media as a potential successor, although doubts remain about his long-term health.

Gillian Koh, deputy director at the Singapore thinktank Institute of Policy Studies cited other candidates, including: Chan Chun Sing, a minister in the prime minister’s office; Tan Chuan-Jin, a former army chief and now minister for social and family development; Ong Ye Kung, acting minister for education and senior minister of state for defence; and Lawrence Wong, the newly appointed second minister of finance.

Other analysts mention combinations of the same names. What qualifies them for this unofficial shortlist is their experience in key roles in

finance, education or defence as well as a track record of community work - much like the prime minister himself.

Another potential successor is Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, some analysts said, though he has repeatedly denied interest in the job. Tharman is an ethnic Tamil and few believe that despite its multi-culturalism Singapore is ready for a prime minister who is not ethnic Chinese.

UNCERTAINTY Singapore’s political stability is key to investors’ trust in the country. “A smooth succession and policy framework is particularly creditrelevant for our assessment of the country’s susceptibility to event risk, given that Singapore’s political stability has never been tested through a transition away from the ruling PAP,” said Moody’s analyst Anushka Shah.

With growing use of social media, Lee’s government has come under more criticism than his father ever allowed, including from his younger sister, who has called his cabinet “authoritarian”.

Trump calls for special prosecutor to investigate Clinton Foundation AKRON, AUgUST 23 (ReUTeRS): Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump urged the Justice Department on Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate if donors to the Clinton Foundation got special treatment from the State Department when it was run by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Trump made the appeal at a rally before thousands of cheering supporters in Akron, Ohio, as he tries to rebound from a slide in national opinion polls with little more than two months to go until the Nov. 8 election.

Trump accused former President Bill Clinton and his wife of turning the Clinton Foundation charity into a “pay-for-play” scheme in which wealthy donors, foreign and domestic, got favors from the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s 20092013 tenure as the country’s top diplomat.

Trump faulted both the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation for not indicting Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

FBI Director James Comey

Clinton says US presidential election an “alternative reality”

A combination photo shows US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump. (REUTERS Photo)

cited her careless handling of classified emails but opted not to prosecutor her.

“The Justice Department is required to appoint a special prosecutor because it has proved to be, sadly, a political arm of the White House,” Trump said.

“Nobody has ever seen anything like it before.”

Trump’s appeal came the same day a conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, released 725 pages of State Department

documents, including some it said were examples of preferential treatment provided to donors at the request of former Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band. Trump’s call for an independent investigation followed an announcement by the Clinton Foundation that it would no longer accept foreign donations should Clinton be elected president.

The Clinton campaign fired back at Trump, say-

ing the foundation had already laid out “the unprecedented steps the charity will take if Hillary Clinton becomes president.”

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement that Trump “needs to come clean with voters about his complex network” of businesses that are in debt to big banks, including the state-owned Bank of China, after a New York Times report on the subject.

LOS ANgeLeS, AUgUST 23 (ReUTeRS): Democrat Hillary Clinton said on a late-night television show on Monday that sometimes she feels she is in an “alternative universe” in the U.S. presidential race against Republican Donald Trump.

“I do feel sometimes like this campaign has entered into an alternative universe,” Clinton said on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I have to step into the alternative reality, answer questions about am I alive, how much longer will I be alive.”

Clinton was for the first time respondingtoallegationsmadebyTrump and some of his backers that she is suffering health problems that could be “Donald Trump should stop hiding behind fake excuses and release his tax returns and immediately disclose the full extent of his business interests,” Podesta said.

SEEKING TO EXPAND BASE While keeping up the attack on Clinton, Trump in his speech also outlined some agenda items, as Republicans have been urging him to do for months.

The more disciplined

problematic in the White House should she win the Nov. 8 election.

Both Clinton and Trump have released notes from doctors declaring them physically fit for the presidency. Kimmel asked Clinton to open a jar of pickles as a test of her strength.

She did so successfully. “This has become one of their themes. Take my pulse while I’m talking to you – make sure I’m alive,” Clinton said to Kimmel of the health rumors.

Clinton said that sometimes Trump’s remarks about her – such as a recent charge that President Barack Obama and Clinton co-founded the Islamic State, which he later said was sarcasm – go beyond personal attacks

Trump followed a campaign shake-up last week that brought in veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager.

But in a sign that organizational challenges remain, Trump canceled a rally planned for later this week in Las Vegas and postponed an immigration speech in Denver. Earlier on Monday, Trump insisted he was not “flip-flopping” on immigration, despite a comment by Conway on Sunday that his

and become harmful to U.S. national security. “There’s enough evidence now that when Trump talks the way he talks it actually helps the terrorists,” Clinton said. “I think it’s crazy, but I think it’s also harmful.” Clinton said she had begun preparing for the three presidential debates scheduled in September and October.

“I want to take it seriously,” Clinton said. “But you’ve got to be prepared for, like wacky stuff that comes at you and I am drawing on my experience in elementary school.” Clinton brushed off the possible release of an additional 14,900 emails that the FBI found when investigating her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants was still under review.

In his Akron remarks, Trump, struggling to broaden his support beyond the white workingclass voters who have been his base of support, again urged blacks and Hispanics to give him a chance, saying: “What the hell do you have to lose?” repeating a line he delivered on Friday that was criticized by Clinton as “ignorant.” Trump

said Democratic politicians had not been able to stem crime and poverty in inner cities despite pledges to do every election year.

“I say it and I’m going to keep saying it and some people say: ‘Wow that makes sense’ and some people say: ‘That’s not very nice,’” Trump said. “And I say it with such a deep-felt feeling, what do you have to lose? We’ll bring jobs back.

We’ll bring spirit back. We’ll get rid of the crime.”

10

wednesdAY 24•08•2016

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

sponsors drop swimmer lochte after rio scandal

Washington, august 23 (aFP): Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte has lost four sponsorship deals -- a major financial hit for the embattled gold medalist stemming from his spurious claim of being robbed at gunpoint in Rio, a story later discredited

by Brazilian police.

Global sw imw ear brand Speedo and US fashion label Ralph Lauren topped the list of companies that ended their relationships with the 32-yearold Lochte, with the former noting his actions had not reflected the "values" it wished to promote.

Mattress company Airweave and Syneron Candela, the parent company for a laser hair removal system that Lochte promoted, quickly followed suit.

Lochte claimed he and three of his teammates -- all of them gold medal winners

in Rio -- were mugged by robbers pretending to be police after a night out, but the story quickly unraveled as new witness testimony and surveillance video surfaced.

Police said the group had been detained over the vandalization of a gas station bathroom, apparently led by a drunken Lochte -- a major embarrassment for Team USA, an Olympic swimming powerhouse.

"Speedo USA today announces the decision to end its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte," the company said in a statement, noting that the company will donate $50,000 of Lochte's fees to Save the Children, to go towards helping Brazilian youths.

"While we have enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone

behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for," it said.

"We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience," Speedo USA said of Lochte, who has won a total of 12 medals in Olympic competition during his career, six of them gold.

In a statement to E! News, Lochte said he was "grateful for the opportunities" afforded to him by his ties with Speedo -- a 10-year deal that was due to end this year, according to ESPN. Ralph Lauren, which outfitted Team USA for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies in Rio, said it too was finished with Lochte, noting that their agreement was specific to the Rio Games and his contract would not be Speedo says it will donate $50,000 of Ryan Lochte's fees to Save renewed. "Ralph Lauren the Children, to go towards helping Brazilian children. (AFP Photo)

Penalty Shootout tournament in Medziphema

MedziPheMa, august 23 (Mexn): The Medziphema Village Students’ Union is organizing its 2nd Penalty Shootout tournament at Medziphema Town Local Ground on September 3.

Interested teams and clubs Nagaland football coach Kevilebei and others pose for camera at the ongoing football coach- can contact 9856206003/ ing camp of Victorious Club Phek led by Muramo Venuh at Phek village ground. The Club 9615656106/ 9615940994 for is planning to participate in the forthcoming Capt Kenguruse, MVC All Nagaland Memorial further details.

Football tournament at Kohima by September this year.

VYO annual shooting competition

KohiMa, august 23 (Mexn): The Viswema Youth Organization (VYO) is set to hold its annual shooting competition for muzzle loading gun on August 26 at John Govt. Higher

Secondary School Ground.

This competition is held every year on the third day of its traditional ‘Binyi’ festival. Vimezhol Theyo, former president VYO & ex-pastor will declare the

competition open at 10 am.

An entry fee of Rs. 150 will be charged from each participant. Meanwhile, VYO has extended invitation to all the people of Viswema to attend the event.

55th Annual Sports Week of GHSS Pfutsero held

PFutsero, august 23 (Mexn): The 55th annual sports week of the Government Higher Secondary School (GHSS), Pfutsero was held today at the school ground in Pfutsero with Wonthungo Tsopoe, Additional Director (HOD), School Education as the chief guest.

Speaking on the occasion, Tsopoe congratulated the school for improvements in administration,

academics, and also in the enrollment of students after up-gradation of GHS to GHSS and urged the staff to keep up the good work and win the trust and confidence of the local populace.

While emphasizing on the important of sport, he said Naga boys and girls can excel in different field of sporting activities. To this end, the department has recommended the govern-

ment to open sports training in the state, he said.

Tsopoe also inaugurated the CCTV and Resource Room at GHSS. The CCTV has been installed in the class room to monitor the students and teachers, while the Resource Room has been design for the benefits of both teaching faculty and students to boost their knowledge, said Principal GHSS, Vechikhoyi Lohe.

continues to proudly sponsor the US Olympic and Paralympic Team and the values that its athletes embody," it added in a statement.

Airweave said on Twitter it was ending its partnership with Lochte, which was also limited to the Rio Olympics.

And Syneron Candela said in a statement to ESPN: "We hold our employees to high standards, and we expect the same of our business partners. We wish Ryan well on his future endeavors and thank him for the time he spent supporting our brand."

- 'Overexaggerated' After issuing a written apology that was widely ridiculed online as halfhearted, Lochte admitted in an interview with NBC aired Saturday that he had "left details out" and "over-

exaggerated some parts of the story."

He also admitted he was still intoxicated when he gave his initial account of the incident, adding: "I let my team down."

Following the incident, Lochte flew back to the United States, while the other three -- Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen -- stayed in Brazil. On Thursday, police released closed-circuit TV footage and other evidence about the events at the gas station.

The athletes, who appeared intoxicated, stopped in a taxi at the gas station to use the bathroom during the early hours of the morning.

Lochte and the others then vandalized the area near the bathroom and, according to the manager, urinated on the walls.

Confronted by a se-

curity guard, they tried to leave. When the confrontation escalated, the security guard took out his pistol and made them sit on the ground. After paying about $50 in compensation for the damage to the station, they left unharmed and returned to the athletes' village.

"There was no robbery of the kind reported by the athletes," the head of Rio's civil police, Fernando Veloso, told a press conference.

Lochte's claims caused the Olympic authorities huge embarrassment, highlighting security worries at a Games where Brazil deployed 85,000 police and soldiers -- double the number used in the 2012 London Games. He could yet face disciplinary action over the incident -- both USA Swimming and the International Olympic Committee could sanction him.

pakistan cricket celebrate 'incredible journey' to No.1

State to host 4th NE Zone Shooting Championship diMaPur, august 23 (Mexn): Nagaland will host the 4th North East Zone Shooting Championship from August 29 to September 3 at Aries Sports Complex, Bamunpukhuri-1, Dimapur. A first of its kind to be held in the state, those qualifying in the prenational event will be eligible to compete at the national level, organizing committee chairman Andrew Ahoto announced at a press conference.

Shooters and officials from five NE states - 21 from Mizoram, 45 from Assam, 50 from Manipur, 21 from Meghalaya and 11 from Nagaland, will be taking part in the championship.

There will be three main events viz., 10 metres, 25 metres and 50 metres, under which 80 matches of various categories will be played, Proprietor of the sports complex and President of Nagaland Rifles Association Merang Jamir informed. Star shooters currently playing at the national level from the participating states will compete in 18 matches under International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF). This, Jamir hoped, will help some beginner shooters learn the trade.

Pakistan celebrate their win. (Reuters)

Karachi, august 23 (aFP): Cricket-obsessed Pakistanis were Tuesday celebrating their national team's "incredible journey" to the top of the Test rankings after a turbulent seven years in which they were forced to play home matches on neutral venues.

Pakistan supplanted arch-rivals India to become the world's number one Test side on Monday, after India's final Test against the West Indies ended in a rain-hit draw at Port of Spain.

It capped a remarkable rise under captain Misbah-ul-Haq's leadership for a team which was nearly thrown out of the international arena over a spot-fixing scandal on their tour of England in 2010.

Pakistan have also been forced to play their home matches in the United Arab Emirates since an armed attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009, a significant disadvantage.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan branded the rise "historic".

"The ascension to the top of the ICC Test rankings culminates an incredible journey for Pakistan crick-

et," he said.

"This is a historic moment in our rich Test cricket history and the credit for this great achievement goes not only to this team but to all the players, coaches and support staff members who have represented Pakistan in recent years."

New coach Mickey Arthur stressed that the work was just beginning.

"It's a fantastic achievement and a lot of people deserve the credit for that, but the top of them all will be the players who have worked hard and been outstanding," said Arthur, who coached Pakistan to a 2-2 draw in the four-Test series against England.

"I am just the lucky coach who has been with the team now but others have done wonderfully well," he added, singling out his predecessor Waqar Younis.

"People may say that its easier to get there than to remain there so we need to keep that momentum, and improve in one-dayers."

Under Younis, Pakistan plummeted to number nine in one-day international rankings -- a slump which they need to address in the

five-match series against England starting on Wednesday.

Younis, who coached Pakistan in two stints from 2010-11 and 201416, was also delighted said it was a "proud moment".

"The hard work has paid off...

We as a nation are all proud of this achievement."

Misbah, who has led the side in 46 Tests since the spot-fixing scandal while keeping the off-field image clean, echoed the comments.

"It's the greatest moment of my career," he told AFP, thanking "everyone involved in the game".

Fans on the street are also savouring the occasion.

"We cannot bring international cricket (to the country) but we have brought the number one rankings," said Abdul Qayyum.

"This has proved that we deserve cricket on our home grounds."

The ICC will present a special trophy to Pakistan in honour of the achievement next month.

If Pakistan remain number one until the April 1, 2017 cut-off date, they will also receive a much-needed $1 million prize money.

public discourse

TiMeFrAMe sYNdroMe

S

Oken Jeet Sandham

o many politicians used to make promises at the time of elections that they would solve the Naga political issue if they were voted to power. We have seen how the Central leaders in the past even set timeframe to settle the Naga political issue during their tenures. Even Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in his second term as Prime Minister kept assuring that the Naga issue would be resolved during his tenure (his 2nd tenure as prime Minister) but he failed to fulfill what he had assured.

Even then Union Home Secretary GK Pillai, while talking to the press after reviewing the “Special Attestation Parade” held at Assam Rifles Training Center and School, Shukhovi, near Dimapur in 2010 said the Naga issue would be resolved in 12 to 24 months. But the solution did not come. He, however, cautioned that it was a “difficult problem requiring imaginative and innovative solution,” while saying that no final settlement could come about by having talks with one Naga underground group.

Narendra Modi, as soon as he became Prime Minister in 2014, also gave a timeframe of 18 months to find a solution to the Naga political issue. His timeframe of resolving the Naga issue was also quoted by none other than Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang. RN Ravi, Interlocutor of the Center-NSCN (IM) talks, however, denied that such timeframe was set by the Prime Minister. Interestingly, Modi completes 26 months in office.

No surprising, all the political parties, regional or national, at the time of elections, would include the settlement of the Naga political issue as a top priority in their election manifestoes. On top of it, almost all the candidates, during their election

campaigns, would promise at the top of their voice that they would resolve the issue if they were elected or their parties were voted to power. The political parties, which were rivals one another, would also indulge in mud-slinging and blame games for not seeing any tangible solution to the Naga political issue. So generally, the Naga political issue dominates every election in the State.

The main Opposition Congress in Nagaland had been alleging that former Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had promised to resolve the Naga political issue within three months if the NPF was voted to power in the 2003 Assembly elections.

But Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at an election rally at Kohima in March 2014 criticized Rio of making an incapable promise of solving the Naga political issue within three months if the NPF was voted to power in the 2003 Assembly elections.

"Whatever energy I have, I will put in for resolving the Naga problem," he said. "But I cannot promise that it will be solved within three months. My heart is in trying to get peace and harmony back in the State."

Rio, who is now the lone Lok Sabha MP from Nagaland, ruled Nagaland for eleven years but solution to the Naga issue still remains elusive.

Today setting timeframe for resolving the Naga political issue or even mentioning the settlement of the issue as a top priority in future election manifestoes of any political parties will hardly create any attraction and enthusiasm for the masses. The political relevance of such exercises seems to be fast disappearing because of whatever promises made in every election became hollow slogans only to woo the electorates and not for actually finding a solution to the Naga political issue.

In fact, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio was the

luckiest and is also present Chief Minister TR Zeliang as they both became the Chief Ministers one after another from the same party under the same banner of Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) when the political talks between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) had been going on in full swing. They did not have much work on the Naga issue for the fact that almost all the Naga Political Groups (NPGs) had already been in truce with the Government of India.

Unfortunately, the NSCN (K) walked away from the ceasefire with the Government of India in 2015. But one must know that the group had walked away from the ceasefire after maintaining it (truce) for 14 long years with the Government of India. During this long 14 years of truce, Delhi had not tried to give them even minimum opportunity to start even informal talks. Such situation actually forced them to walk away from the ceasefire agreement and now the whole world seems to be turning against them for actually no false of theirs.

It is yet to see Delhi’s next moves as to how their formula of “inclusiveness for a comprehensive solution” will be worked out.

And since the elections are fast approaching to Manipur and Nagaland one after another, we will witness several leaders from national political parties including Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, coming in with so many timeframes for settling the Naga political issue and other developmental promises.

Well, we will not be surprised to see many of our own State politicians who will also come with a lot of promises and timeframes again in the coming elections and one wonders whether the people will still enjoy listening to those clichéd gimmicks.

Communitisation bill for elementary education needs amendment.

I

n the beginning the communitisation programme covers all elementary schools in the rural areas of the State. Emboldened by the success of the programme in the rural areas, it has been extended to the urban areas where Ward Education Committees (WEC) has been constituted. With the coverage of the urban schools the entire elementary education sector in the State comes under the ambit of communitisation. The Communitisation programme has also been gainfully dovetailed with the Sarva Shiksha Programme (SSA) and has become an ideal vehicle for its effective implementation since SSA is for universalization of elementary education.

However, literally speaking High schools does not come under the ambit of communitisation of elementary education in Nagaland unless the government enacts some new law or amend the existing communitisation Act 2002. Therefore, without some changes in this Act, the VECs are literally powerless as long as High school is concerned because through the act of communitisation of elementary education,

VEC gets its power and functions which are given below: • Enforcement of “No work, no pay” • Improve Community participation • Strengthening of Parent Teachers Association • Stress on quality education • Dropout students are re-enrolled • Bogus teachers identified and weeded out However, with the implementation of RMSA scheme, many elementary schools have now been upgraded into High schools and with up gradation come appointment of RMSA teachers. And now another passage of confusion is born out of this over the extension of VECs power to GHS teachers because without legal sanction, VECs would be misusing their powers by taking action against a GHS staff appointed under RMSA for not being in duty. So the question is when will the Nagaland Legislative Assembly amend the communitisation bill and empowers VECs to utilize its powers and functions upon irregular High School teachers also in an effective way?

Khrukroku Vero AG Colony, Kohima

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.

Wednesday 24•08•2016

EntErtainmEnt

Demi Lovato

sued for copyright infringement

S

i ng e r D e m i Lovato has been sued by indie band Sleigh Bells for copyright infringement. According to the group, the former Disney star's 2015 hit 'Stars' sounds very similar to their track from 2010 titled 'Infinity Guitars,' reported E! online.

The band claims that the two songs are "virtually identical content" that "transcend the realm of coincidence." Apart from Lovato, 24, UMG Recordings and Carl Falk and Rami Yacoub were also noted in the lawsuit.

"A comparison of the two songs reveals that, at the very least, the combination of the hand claps and bass drum, structured as 3 quarter beats and a rest, with the bass drum providing a counter-rhythm to the hand claps, is at least substantially similar in both works. This infringing material repeats throughout the Defendants' song," read the court documents.

I

Ian McKellen turned down £1 million offer to officiate wedding

an McKellen turned down an astonishing $1.5 million offer to officiate a billionaire's wedding dressed as Gandalf, whom the actor famously played in Lord of the Rings. McKellen was allegedly offered the money by Sean Parker, cofounder of the record-streaming service Napster and the first president of Facebook.

The wedding, which took place in California, reportedly cost $7.5 million and was attended by Sting and Emma Watson.

Sadly for the couple, McKellen was not present.

"I was offered $1.5 million to marry a very famous couple in California, which I would perhaps have considered doing but I had to go dressed as Gandalf," the 77-year-old, who conducted the 2013 civil wedding of Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell, told the Mail on Sunday. "So I said, 'I am sorry, Gandalf doesn’t do weddings'."

Speaking last night outside the Theatre Royal in Newcastle, where he is performing in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land, McKellen said: "He was a very rich man, that's all I know... I don’t go dressing up – except in plays and things at places like this."

Source: Telegraph

Arnold replaces Trump in ‘Celebrity Apprentice’

H

e first made a name for himself on the silver screen as an unstoppable killing machine. And as Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to take over Celebrity Apprentice from Donald Trump NBC has made it clear they are counting on the former bodybuilder to be in full Terminator mode.

The network released a brand new teaser featuring some spiffy special effects showing the Austrian Oak being built piece by piece like a Skynet Terminator. A voice over is heard over the imagery as it is announced: 'We are building a new boss.' Once complete, Arnold, 69, lights up a cigar as he declares: 'Let's get down to business.'

For those desperate for the prime time exposure it is a brave undertaking indeed, as the Terminator star seems hell bent on making an impression as he replaces larger than life mogul turned presidential candidate Donald Trump.

When it emerged last September the former Governor of California would be stepping into Trump's shoes he could not hide his delight. Arnold, who is worth $300 million, said: 'I have always been a huge fan of The Celebrity Apprentice and the way it showcases the challenges and triumphs of business and teamwork. 'I am thrilled to bring my experience to the boardroom and to continue to raise millions for charity. Let's get started!'

Hillstar NOW SHOWING rustam

11:00 am | 05:00 PM 08:00 PM

mohenjo daro

Source: Mail Online

Source: PTI

Eddie Murphy: Thank God I never did drugs

I

C M Y K

nvestigators have discovered some mislabelled, powerful pills at the late pop icon Prince's mansion. The pills recovered from the 'Purple Rain' hitmaker's Minnesota residence were counterfeit drugs which contained the opioid fentanyl, the drug which killed him, according to officials. Many of the pills are said to have been found inside vitamin and aspirin bottles and tucked inside a suitcase and duffel bags in his dressing room.

Prince passed away in April and post-mortem tests later revealed he had died from fentanyl, a powerful painkiller. The star is not

A

thought to have had prescriptions for any controlled substances in the state of Minnesota in the 12 months before he died at the age of 57.Authorities are still investigating how Prince obtained the drugs.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) revealed that officials "haven't assigned a time limit" on their investigation and said it would be "ongoing and thorough." Prince was found dead in a lift at his home in Minnesota on April 21. His death occurred just one week after his private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois after he fell ill.

ctor Eddie Murphy says there were number of times he was offered drugs by his friends but he thanks God that he has never taken them. The 55-year-old comedian revealed that his late "Saturday Night Live" castmates John Belushi, who died from a cocaine and heroin overdose in 1982, and actor Robin Williams, who committed suicide two years ago, offered him drugs but he refused, reported Female First. "I don't drink. I don't have like this moral thing about it, I just don't do it and I didn't get high. "(One night out) Belushi and Robin Williams offered me some cocaine and I didn't take it. Then, years later, I was like, Wow, that's

Source: PTI

02:00 pm

Now ShowiNg

a trip. (If I'd accepted it) The Eddie Murphy story would have been totally different," he said. Murphy recalled old times when he could have involved in wrong things but felt relief that he did not do anything like that.

"There are a bunch of

things like that that I look back on and be like, 'Wow.' And that just reaffirms my faith. I know that God is real. There's been a bunch of times when I could have wound up crashing and burning," he added.

SonaM Kapoor supports Nicole Scherzinger opens

Source: PTI

Women Entrepreneurs' Exhibition up about Grigor Dimitrov

B

ollywood actress Sonam Kapoor, along with Australian swimmer and Olympic medalist Stephanie Rice lent support to a Women Entrepreneur's Exhibition, hosted by the Ladies' Wing of the Indian Merchant Chamber (IMC) on Tuesday. The IMC's Ladies' Wing celebrates its golden jubilee this year, and is hosting its exhibition on August 23-24 here. It offers a melange of products that range from lifestyle and fashion to food and more.

In keeping with the IMC's mission to provide relevant platforms for creativity and enterprise in women, the exhibition will see 195 skilled women from across the country. These women who do not have a retail presence, are showing exclusively designed apparel and bespoke jewellery, lifestyle, personal care, gourmet, home decor products and much more. The event has always drawn support from celebrities from all walks of life, and Stephanie is happy to back it.

A proponent of women-related causes, Stephanie said in a statement: "I have always supported women empowerment and every effort that helps to showcase their unique talents, whether it's an athlete, an entrepreneur or an artist. "I am honoured to be here at the IMC Ladies' Wing Women Entrepreneur exhibition and support and encourage this noble effort."

This year, the IMC is focusing on creating specific B2B networking opportunities for the participants -- for instance having time slots for multi-designer store owners to preview participant's collections before the exhibition opens to the public to set up future business opportunities.

Another focus of the exhibition is "Gen-Next" which aims to promote talent in the group of women who are under 30. A mobile app has been specially curated for the exhibition to help guests locate stalls beforehand.

S

inger Nicole Scherzinger says she is quite happy with tennis star boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov. The 38-year-old "Your Love" hitmaker, who has been dating Dimitrov since July last year following his split with Maria Sharapova, said she likes the fact that they Source: IANS both are career-driven and

still manage to take out time for each other, reported Female First.

"We've been together for quite some time now, so I'm just living in the moment and I'm happy. It's good for girls to be with nice guys. Respect the nice ones - they can win! He's so damn cute. "He's obviously busy as he's got his

own career, but hopefully he'll come and visit me.

We both travel a lot, but it's nice when we are able to make time (for each other).

You appreciate it. It's good when you're both careerdriven to have your own space to focus on your career and yourself," Scherzinger said.

Source: PTI

03862-237226 Ticket Counter (09:00 AM - 09:00 PM) www.BookMyShow.com Ward 5 (6), Burma Camp, Dimapur.

Landmark: J. K Hospital/ Power House.

12

wednesdAY 24•08•2016

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Russia loses appeal against Paralympics ban

A participant at the Billabong Pro in Tahiti on Tuesday August 23, 2016. PHOTO: © World Surf League

Probe ordered into Jaisha's claims of official apathy at Rio

C M Y K

NeW DelHI, AUgUst 23 (PtI): The sports ministry on Tuesday constituted a two-member committee to probe the allegations of official apathy levelled by marathon runner O P Jaisha, who claims to have been denied water refreshment during her event at the Rio Olympic Games.

Jaisha, who finished 89th in the marathon event, has alleged that no water or energy drinks were made available by the Indian officials during her event, leaving her completely exhausted at the end of the race. She had fainted after crossing the finishing line.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI), however, has asserted

that the athlete herself refused any such arrangement when approached a day before the event.

"The Minister of State, Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel has constituted a two-member Committee consisting of Shri Onkar Kedia, Joint Secretary (Sports) and Shri Vivek Narayan, Director (Sports) to enquire into the allegations of Ms OP Jaisha," a press release from ministry said.

Jaisha, after returning from Brazil, claimed that officials from all other countries provided refreshments to their runners at designated points set up every 2.5 km.

The committee will submit its report in seven days.

ZURICH, AUgUst 23 (ReUteRs): Russia has lost its appeal against a ban from next month's Rio Paralympics because of a state-sponsored doping programme, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Tuesday.

The decision to exclude Russia's team, initially made on Aug. 7 by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), means at least 260 competitors from the country are now set to miss the Sept. 7-18 event.

The IPC went further than the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stopped short of a blanket ban on Russia at this month's Rio Games and left the decision instead in the hands of international sports federations.

CAS, sport's highest tribunal, said its panel found the IPC "did not violate any procedural rule in dealing with the disciplinary process" which led to Russia's suspension.

It added the ruling was "proportionate in the circumstances" and that the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) "did not file any evidence contradicting the facts on which the IPC decision was based".

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko called the CAS decision unlawful and politically motivated.

"There were no reasons to dismiss (the appeal) but it happened," Mutko was quoted as saying by the

CAS decision a blow to all disabled people: Medvedev

MOsCOW, AUgUst 23 (ReUteRs): Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to uphold a ban on Russia's participation in next month's Rio Paralympics was "cynical" and a blow to all disabled people. Earlier on Tuesday Russia lost an appeal against its ban from the Paralympics because of a state-sponsored doping programme. "The story with Russian doping is a thick and very disgusting cocktail with 80 percent politics and 20 percent doping proper", Medvedev said on his Facebook page. "In some countries they find doping very quickly, in others never. ... This is complete double standards," he added.

TASS news agency before adding "those bodies that should defend Paralympians do not do it and punish them instead".

Russia can now appeal to the Swiss Federal Court although it can only overturn the CAS ruling on the basis of a procedural mistake and not on the merits of the case.

Alexei Karpenko, a lawyer representing the RPC, said an appeal would be considered once CAS had issued its full, reasoned decision.

The whole dispute centres on a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that found the Russian government and the FSB security service had, over years, covered up hundreds of doping cases across the majority of Olympic sports and Paralympic events.

STRONG TEAM Russia previously said the IPC's decision was politically motivated and would punish dozens of innocent athletes.

Although not widely followed or celebrated in Russia, where rights campaigners say many disabled people are marginalised by regressive social attitudes and inadequate state support, Russian para-athletes are some of the best in the world.

Their team topped the medal table at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in the Russian city of Sochi after taking second place behind China at London 2012.

The country's exclusion from Rio will hit hard in a country that has long drawn pride and prestige from its history of sporting success.

Following Tuesday's verdict, the IPC said Russia had been banned for its inability to fulfil its membership "responsibilities and obligations", particularly the anti-doping code.

"Although we are pleased with the decision, it is not a day for celebration and we have enormous sympathy for the Russian athletes who will now miss out on the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games," said IPC president Philip Craven in a statement.

"It is a sad day for the Paralympic Movement but we hope also a new beginning," he said, adding that he wanted the ruling to be a "catalyst for change" in Russia.

The IPC said the 267 places secured by Russian athletes would now be redistributed.

Pink ball makes first-class debut in India BCCI for transparency in awarding IPL media rights

NeW DelHI, AUgUst 23 (AFP): India's Duleep Trophy domestic championship began staging its first match under floodlights Tuesday, experimenting with a pink ball in a likely precursor to the advent of day-night Tests in cricket's biggest market.

Organisers of the Duleep Trophy, a four-day triangular tournament which traditionally heralds the start of the Indian cricket season, are hoping to attract bigger crowds by playing until around 9pm.

But the first match on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi is also being closely watched by India's cricket board, which is widely expected to push ahead with plans for a day-night Test if the experiment succeeds.

The first-ever day-night Test match, which saw Australia beat New Zealand by three wickets in Adelaide last November, got mixed reviews from players and commentators.

But players taking part in Tuesday's match, between teams that have been rebranded India Red and India Green, were excited at the prospect of the longest format of the game also being played after dark in India.

"I think it is pretty exciting and something to look forward to," said veteran allrounder Yuvraj Singh, who has enjoyed great success for the national team under lights in ODI and T20 cricket.

"The New Zealand-Australia Test match I saw was pretty exciting. The ball was swinging a bit much. It will be challenging if it swings a lot, playing under lights," added Singh, who is captaining India Red. Suresh Raina, the captain of India Green who is trying to force his way back into the Indian team, was similarly enthu-

siastic.

"The Duleep Trophy has not been played with the pink ball before and it's a good challenge. All the boys are keen (to perform) and this is a good platform ahead of the season," said Raina.

- Eager fans Singh's team won the toss and chose to bat first in the afternoon in front of a sizeable crowd who had filed in to watch a piece of cricketing history.

"It's a novel idea. Local people are eager to watch the pink ball game under lights. We are just hoping that all goes well," Rajeev Tyagi, one of the ground's administrators, told AFP. India had been expected to stage their first day-night Test during a tour by New Zealand starting next month. But the plans were shelved to give more time for trials of the pink Kookaburra ball.

Designers say the pink ball is far more visible under lights than the red ball that has traditionally been used in Tests. The white ball used in limited-overs cricket is not viable for Tests as it clashes with the players' white clothing and sight screens as well as being less durable.

The Australia-New Zealand match is the only Test so far to have been played under lights. But Pakistan are also set to stage day/night contests against Australia and the West Indies in the Gulf later this year.

India, who have just been toppled by Pakistan at the top of the rankings, are about to embark on an extensive round of Test match cricket by hosting series against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.

While India's ODI and T20 matches are usually played in front of packed houses, Tests are only rarely sold out.

NeW DelHI, AUgUst 23 (PtI): In a bid to maintain transparency and fairness in awarding the lucrative IPL media rights, the BCCI has told Sony Max to join the bidding process with other interested bidders.

Sony Max had the TV rights since IPL's inception year in 2008. According to reliable information, BCCI's negotiation period with Sony Max came to an end on July 28. There is a

market projection that the new IPL TV rights will be fetching close to USD 4 billion and the Board wants the process of "next rights period" to be conducted in a transparent manner.

According to highly placed sources, the BCCI has already made a final written offer that states "media rights for 'next rights period' through Open Tender that enables price discovery in a fair and

transparent manner".

While BCCI has had differences with regards to structural reforms as per Lodha Panel Recommendations, it is in complete agreement with panel's observation that a transparent procedure should be followed.

The letter sent by BCCI also states that despite "numerous discussions with Sony Max on subject of terms and conditions for

"Next Rights Period" under agreement dated June 25, 2010, we have been unable to reach an agreement".

A senior BCCI source said: "We at BCCI would like to maintain high standard of transparency and Open Tender is the best way forward to maintain that standard".

When PTI contacted BCCI president Anurag Thakur, he said: "I can't comment at this point of

AP cosies up to Sindhu; offers Rs 3 crore, housing site

VIjAWADA, AUgUst 23 (PtI): Olympic medalist P V Sindhu was accorded a civic reception here today by the Andhra Pradesh government even as she grew nostalgic about the first steps she took as a badminton player in the city.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu felicitated Sindhu and her coach Pullela Gopichand.

He announced a 15-acre site for Gopichand in the proposed Sports City in the state's capital Amaravati for setting up a badminton academy.

As the Telangana government sought to "own" the Olympics silver medalist as "daughter of our soil", Chandrababu and his government took pains to proclaim that the champion indeed belonged to Andhra Pradesh.

The Andhra University also announced to award a honorary doctorate on the young Olympian's coach.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister also announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh to shuttler Kidambi Srikanth of Guntur, who made an early exit from the Rio Olympics.

Srikanth has also been offered a Group-2 job in the state government.

Another Olympian from the state Rajini will also get Rs 25 lakh and a Group-2 job in the government. The Chief Minister also felicitated chess grandmaster Koneru Humpy and Gopichand's wife and former badminton player Srilakshmi on the occasion.

Earlier, Sindhu and Gopichand were flown down to Vijayawada in a chartered aircraft from Hyderabad.

Andhra Pradesh has announced a slew of rewards, including a cash award of Rs 3 crore and 1,000 sq yds of house site in the state's new capital Amaravati for the shuttler.

The Telangana government had earlier announced Rs 5 crore cash reward, a 1,000 square yard housing site near the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Gachibowli and suitable government job to the 21-year-old,, if she is willing, and a cash prize of Rs one crore for Gopichand.

time but BCCI is happy with Sony Max's performance and we would have complete fairness and transparency in tender process for broadcast rights".

One of the representatives of prospective bidders told PTI that Open Tender is the way forward. "At this stage they are wiser and don't want to do anything which dents the overall good work of the BCCI," the industry insider said.

Bravo lands in Manchester to tie up move to Man City MANCHesteR, AUgUst 23 (AP): Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has arrived in England to conclude a move to Manchester City. Pictures on social media on Tuesday showed the Chile international at Manchester airport. Barcelona said Saturday that the club had a ''deal in principle'' with City for the 33-year-old player.

Speaking earlier Tuesday at a news conference ahead of City's match against Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League playoffs, City manager Pep Guardiola said ''I cannot deny what everybody knows. Barcelona were the first ones who announced contact with Manchester City but, sorry, the deal is not complete.'' Bravo's imminent arrival puts the future of long-time City goalkeeper Joe Hart in more jeopardy. Hart has been dropped by Guardiola for City's first three games of the season, preferring Willy Caballero.

SAI, NADA junior officials involved in Narsingh sabotage: WFI

NeW DelHI, AUgUst 23 (PtI): Refusing to budge from its stand, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) floated a new theory, alleging that some junior officials of SAI and NADA are responsible for Narsingh Yadav being handed a four-year ban for doping.

Narsingh was debarred from representing India at the Rio Games in 74kg freestyle wrestling event after he was slapped with a four-year ban by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for flunking a dope test following WADA's challenge to the clean chit given to him by National Anti-Doping Agency.

WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said, "We got to know some things there (at Rio de Janeiro) during the CAS hearing.

When world body (WADA) had asked NADA why dope tests were conducted on Narsingh in such short span of time, NADA had revealed that on July 4, a written complaint was sent to them by a junior SAI Sonepat official (Ramesh) that some drug abuse was going on in the centre.

"On the basis of that complaint, the dope tests were conducted again. The people who had spiked his food/drinks were not sure whether it was done properly (on June 23 &

24) before the first test on June 25, so they did it again before sending the complaint letter to NADA team on July 4 for conducting another test," Singh told reporters here.

Narsingh's urine sample taken out-ofcompetition on June 25 was found to contain metabolites of methandienone and longterm metabolite of methandienone. Another sample taken out-of competition on July 5 was also found to contain long-term metabolites of methandienone.

Singh alleged that some junior level officials of NADA were also involved. "The WFI was not told about that complaint letter earlier. Although the letter was supposed to be sent to WFI, it was withheld. If we had that letter with us in Rio, our case would have been stronger," said Singh.

"Even NADA never told us about the letter. I am sure, junior level officials of NADA are also involved," he added.

Singh reiterated that he would approach the Prime Minister and the home ministry and demand for a CBI probe.

"Those who are guilty must be punished.

In fact, if Narsingh is found guilty then he should be severely punished. I am again say-

ing that it was a conspiracy," he insisted.

During the hearing in Rio, CAS had said that Narsingh failed to produce any "real evidence" regarding the sabotage theory he had advanced and the "balance of probabilities" was that he orally took the banned substance

intentionally in tablet form on more than one occasion.

But Singh said it was not the main reason for Narsingh being handed a ban. Instead he stressed that Narsingh paid for the absence of criminal proceedings in India.

"I was present in the full hearing of CAS. The chemist (expert), who had come there, was of the opinion that Narsingh had taken the substance in tablet form. But that is just her assumption and it was not evidence enough.

"The main reason why Narsingh was slapped with a ban was because of the lack of criminal proceedings done by the (Sonepat) Police," revealed Singh.

"We tried to explain that our criminal proceedings take a long time, even the court cases follow a long procedure. But CAS wanted to know what action has been taken against those who are guilty. Had police done their job properly and had arrested the guy (Jithesh), who had spiked food/drinks, then Narsingh would not have to face the suspension.

"Police has not done anything so far. Police is responsible for the situation today," an agitated Singh said.

Regarding the criminal case filed against Jithesh at a Sonepat police station, the WADA said that if any decision was rendered at a later stage by a criminal court in India which confirmed the alleged sabotage, then any award made by the CAS panel could be reviewed by the Supreme Court in Switzerland where the CAS is based.

"CAS has kept a door opened for us as they understood that there is something wrong but because of lack of evidence, we could not prove Narsingh's innocence," said Singh.

Meanwhile, Narsingh also once again demanded a CBI inquiry, saying that India lost out on a sure-shot medal in 74kg freestyle as he was not allowed to participate.

"India has definitely lost out on a medal in 74kg because one of the two guys who has bagged a bronze in Rio - Soner Demirtas of Turkey - I had defeated him during the World Championship at Las Vegas last year enroute to ensuring my Olympic quota place with a bronze-medal."

He also said that his career would be over if the ban imposed on him is not reviewed by CAS and that would happen only if there is a proper investigation done.

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