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thursDAY • December 10 • 2015
DIMAPUR • Vol. X • Issue 336 • 12 PAGes • 4
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ESTD. 2005
P o W e R
The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened Rio awarded Bharat Scouts and Guides Award 2014
India, Pakistan to resume dialogue PAGe 8
By Sandemo Ngullie
“Welcome to the land of festivals.”
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The Morung Express Poll QuEsTion
Vote on www.morungexpress.com SMS your anSwer to 9862574165 Is the annual Hornbill Festival benefiting the ordinary people of Nagaland? Yes
no
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Tovihoto appointed Chairman of NIDC
nenghoilhing Hangsing was crowned Miss nagaland 2015 at a beauty pageant held at RCEMPA Jotsoma on December 9 as part of the Hornbill Festival. Alica Zhimomi and Yangerjungla Pongen were ist and 2nd runners-up respectively. sub title winners include: Miss Talent-shanchobeni Y. Jungio, Miss Perfect 10-YangerKohima, December jungla Pongen, Miss Photogenic-nenghoilhing Hangsing and Queen of Hearts9 (DiPr): The Government Zehovire Avi Kechu. The show was organized by Beauty & Aesthetics society of of Nagaland has appoint- nagaland. (Morung Photo)
ed Tovihoto Ayemi, MLA as Chairman of Nagaland Industrial Development Corporation Ltd., Dimapur with immediate effect and vice Amenba Yaden, Parliamentary Secretary (Industries & Commerce) relieved of NIDC Ltd. Chairmanship. This supersedes all the previous notifications issued in this regard.
Kids with common allergies at high heart disease risk
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New YorK, December 9 (iaNS): Children with allergic disease, particularly asthma and hay fever, have twice the rate of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, setting them on course for heart disease at early age, finds a new study. Children with allergic disease had a much higher risk for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. “This study shows that cardiovascular risk starts far earlier in life than we ever realised,” said lead study author Jonathan Silverberg from Northwestern University in the US. Given how common these allergic diseases are in childhood, it suggests we need to screen these children more aggressively to make sure we are not missing high cholesterol and high blood pressure,” Silverberg added. Asthma, hay fever and eczema -- increasingly common in children -- are associated with chronic inflammation, impaired physical activity, sleep disturbance and significant morbidity. But little has been known about the cardiovascular risk factors in children with these diseases so far. “There may be an opportunity to modify their lifestyles and turn this risk around,” Silverberg said. Silverberg studied the association of asthma, hay fever and eczema and cardiovascular risk factors using data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey of 13,275 children. The study was published in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.
T R u T H
— John F. Kennedy
Real maul minnows Malmo; PSG, City advance
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reflections Nenghoilhing Hangsing is Miss Nagaland 2015
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Human Rights in India stand far from realised hoNg KoNg, December 9 (mexN): Human Rights assured to average Indian citizens by the Constitution stand “far from realised.” This has cropped from deep-rooted corruption giving way to an overall environment of uncertainty. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) stated this on the eve of the International Human Rights Day, observed on December 10 each year. It called for the Indian civil society to “wake up” and “engage” with India’s justice institutions. This year the United Nations has declared the day to mark a year-long campaign for global recommitment to guaranteeing freedoms and protecting human rights for all. To this end, the UN has called upon member states to revisit commitments made to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. India is a party to both these covenants, informed the AHRC. The rights thus enshrined are also guaranteed in the Indian Constitution, a document that predates both covenants by two decades. “Unfortunately, the reality for average Indians is that their rights guaranteed
On International Human Rights Day, AHRC calls for Indian civil society to ‘wake up’ & ‘engage’
in the constitution, which the country is bound to protect nationally and promote internationally, are far from realised,” stated the AHRC today. The reason for these guarantees remaining only on paper, noted the Commission, is due to the “abysmal nature” of India’s justice institutions. Giving an instance of the Indian judiciary, the AHRC stated that “plagued with corruption, lack of professionalism, and decades long delay in the adjudication of cases,” the institution has “rapidly lost its credibility.” “Even Indian jurists today unanimously agree that the country’s judiciary has failed to meet expectations. Facing serious accusations of lacking transparency and embroiled in corruption, the institution has hardly done anything to reform itself,” the body alleged in a press statement today. The AHRC found “equally appalling” the state of Indian policing. Observing that the operative framework of the
police continues to be the “repressive Irish Constabulary model,” which the British introduced to India as well as other colonies, “impunity, corruption, the inability to undertake modern policing, and the use of torture remain hallmarks of the Indian police,” the AHRC stated. Further, it observed that “Demoralisation within the institution runs deep, and today the average Indian considers the Indian policeman as a criminal in uniform. Despite all this, no government has so far openly declared any kind of policy on addressing the country’s policing.” The country’s prosecution establishment too has faced a similar fate, with no government policy to address the institution. “The department is filled with corrupt and inefficient lawyers to the extent that even the government does not trust the prosecutor’s office any more,” was the serious allegation made. “On occasions that the government requires a quality prosecution, it hires private lawyers
to work as prosecutors. This option is not available to a citizen however, since the decision to appoint a special prosecutor is at the pleasure of the government.” The ensuing environment produced by India’s failed justice administration establishment, asserted the Commission is that of “deep-rooted corruption in all aspects of public life, and an overall environment of uncertainty.” Expressing disappointment, the AHRC stated that the “Indian civil society is yet to wakeup to the fact that it too has a role in the making of this India.” “Only a handful of civil society members, including the country’s unbridled media, engage seriously on the country’s justice institutions, particularly on the concept of fair trial.” It is time, stated the Rights Commission, to “wake up from slumber” and “engage” with India’s justice institutions. The Asian Human Rights Commission works towards the radical rethinking and fundamental redesigning of justice institutions in order to protect and promote human rights in Asia. Established in 1984, the Hong Kong based organisation is a Laureate of the Right Livelihood Award, 2014.
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Gross ‘Right to Health’ violations in Nagaland NTTU serves 10-day ultimatum to Nagaland State Government
Kohima, December 9 (mexN): The Nagaland State Government has ignored the citizen’s Right to Health which may have serious health implications all over the State in the future. The Director of Kripa Foundation Nagaland, Abou Mere, noted this in a statement on the 50th International Human Rights Day on December 10. The Foundation called upon human rights defenders, Naga civil societies, journalists and advocates to join health activists to ensure that the State Government respect human rights and fulfil its obligation of ‘Right to Health’ by providing provide good health services, accessible and affordable without any discrimination, and recognize that human rights are fundamental to human and nation development. The Constitution of India guarantees the Protection of life and liberty (Health, Autonomy, Privacy,
Dignity) (Article 21), Equality before law (Article 14), Non- discrimination (Article 14 &15). However, the Kripa Foundation Nagaland noted that “we have a repressive State Government that has inevitably driven rampant human rights abuses against its citizens, which include denied access to appropriate health care services, denied employment, denied staffs salary on time, denied equality (favoritism and VIP culture) producing such gross rights violations.” The “lackadaisical attitude” of the State Government could “directly fuel the twin epidemics of HIV and hepatitis (B and C) to our community, this will have serious and unfortunate consequences,” it maintained. Instead of investing in effective prevention and treatment programmes to achieve the required coverage, the Government continues to “ignore
and violate” the right to health by “not providing essential medicine in government hospitals, CHCs, PHCs and also non-release or delay in releasing of funds meant for health services, especially HIV program,” it informed. The Foundation alleged that the money that could save lives is being “kept in Civil Deposit for months, denying and weakening HIV intervention and other health programs, thereby putting our people life at risks.” Maintaining that this is a clear and gross violation of the right to health, the Kripa Foundation Nagaland called for “systemically driven human rights abuse” to be brought to an end before HIV, Hepatitis, Cancer and other diseases “end our next generation.” The State Government, it reiterated, “should protect individual rights of its citizens and ensure that human rights are upheld properly.”
injustice perpetrated against us as the second sex, and thus create for our children an atmosphere and environment of equality, of justice, of equal opportunities, of safety and security and for acknowledgment and respect for our personhood,” she added. Changkija exhorted the gathering to use the medium of literature to “speak out and speak up” for other vulnerable, alienated and marginalized sections of the society such as the Disabled, the LGBT and other disadvantaged. Talking about the broader aspect of literature in the society, she noted that poetry cannot be considered a new and “modern” development in Nagaland as it always existed in “our songs, lore and legends, our various forms of art, dances, indeed in the very fact of our Oral traditions, which require great poetic imagination to be rendered and become an integral part of our culture and heritage and gifted unto us as our legacy.” What we are seeing today is a modern manifestation of our traditional poetic culture in an easily consumable form, increasingly in a language that has become our binding force, Changkija said, expressing her happiness at its progression. “After all, Literature isn’t meant to be confined to the hallowed portals of Universities and other seats of learning;
Dimapur | December 9
Nagaland Timber Traders’ Union (NTTU) has served a 10-day ultimatum to the Nagaland State Government for re-allocation of railway wagons for transportation of teak and moulding beats for the quarter December 2015-February 2016. In the event of the State Government failing to redress the demand, NTTU said it will approach the court for redressal of their “genuine grievance.” In an interaction with media persons Wednesday afternoon, NTTU officials, led by its President, Kevise Sogotsu, informed that the union decided to serve an ultimatum as the State Government has so far not taken any concrete steps despite assurance from the State Governor to constitute a committee for allocation of wagons. NTTU officials informed that earlier the State Governor, PB Acharya, had assured NTTU to constitute a committee to monitor allocation of wagons and to ensure that genuine timber traders and tree farmers are benefitted from the scheme. However, even though the commitit also isn’t meant to be confined to tee has been reportedly constituted, it was the parlours of the privileged high- yet to be approved at the minister’s level, brows.” Further stating that Literature is an integral part of culture, its power lies in being both the message and the medium, she contended that communication of knowledge and wisdom through Literature should be done in the simplest of ways for everyone to understand and absorb New Delhi, December 9 (PTi): Inlife’s lessons and society’s realities. dia has secured extradition of a Thai gun Expressing her delight at what she runner Willy Naru who was brought here called the emergence of a good num- today from Bangkok and arrested by NIA ber of Naga writers and poets today, for allegedly supplying arms to insurgent who are embarking on the journey to- groups in Northeast. wards “Destination Change,” ChangAfter months of legal battle in Thaikija maintained that Kire through her land, decks were cleared for his extradipoems has become one of its pioneers. tion after the Appellate Court in Bangkok “She is a writer and a poet, who has rejected his petition in November this year clearly climbed down and unshackled in which he had challenged a decision of a herself from Ivory Towers, if she ever lower court ordering his extradition. lived in one, shed Rose-tinted glasses, NIA said in a statement here that the if she ever wore them and has dared custody of Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich to speak from the bottom of her heart alias Willy Naru was handed over to the with the clarity of her mind to do her Chief Investigating Officer of case yestermite to create change,” she exulted. day by Thailand. He was brought to New In Where Wildflowers Grow, Delhi and was arrested. Changkija said, Kire has persuasively His questioning is expected to throw made poetry understandable to the more light on the suspected role of a Chicommon person moulding herself as nese arms manufacturer, believed to have a perfect vehicle to serve the purpose been supplying arms to northeast insurof Literature. gent groups, including Naga groups and “She is a true communicator be- ULFA, official sources said. cause she says the very profound in They said most of the arms like AK severy simple words and in a very easily ries rifles, Universal Machine Guns and comprehensible way.” M20 pistol used by the insurgent groups
Writers need to double up as activists: Monalisa Changkija
Kohima, December 9 (mexN): Literature has always been a powerful tool of protest against everything political, economic, social, religious and cultural that goes against the very“grains of natural human life.” With this, Monalisa Changkija today spurred writers and poets to also be activists to bring about change in society. “If they do not double up as activists, who will change our society and state?” the Nagaland Page Editor wondered, speaking at the release of Avinuo Kire’s book, ‘Where Wildflowers Grow’ at Kohima today. To achieve this, Changkija said, writers and poets need to see and feel the real world we live in. “I would urge that you unshackle yourselves from the safety of Ivory Towers… take off those Rose-tinted glasses, if you’re wearing them…dare and change the world around us, starting with our society and state.” It is the writers and poets who will create the need and urge the people to destroy the status quo and usher in the best in our culture and traditions, she further opined adding that this is especially needed most importantly in Naga society where women have “second-class existence” that goes against the very grain of “our individuality, our personhood, our freedoms, liberties, equality.” “Utilize literature as our tools, our weapons, to protest against the
Morung Express news
NTTU disclosed. NTTU alleged that the allocation for the current quarter from December 2015 to February 2016 has been made by ‘one man’ by giving preference to non-Naga timber traders as well as to Naga persons who are not involved in timber business. NTTU said the present allocation system cannot be accepted under any circumstances as it has deprived many genuine Naga timber traders. NTTU has called upon all right thinking citizens, business organizations and civil societies to voice out against “gross injustice” meted to genuine Naga timber traders. The Union also said it had already apprised the Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) Nagaland on the issue but ACAUT has not responded till date. NTTU questioned why the committee set up by the State Government to allocate railway wagons has not been made functional till date. It reiterated its stand for reallocation of the current quarter through the committee set up by the State government. It may be mentioned here that NTTU had submitted a memorandum to Nagaland State Chief Minister on December 4 through the office of the Divisional Forest Officer, Dimapur.
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thai gun-runner brought to india; niA to question him are Chinese-made and believed to have been manufactured by China North Industries Group Corporation (NORINCO). NORINCO is a large amrs group and NIA suspects that the company’s arms and ammunition come to the northeast through the Thai gun running rackets, the sources said. India had secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Willy after NSCN-IM leader Anthony Shimray, arrested in Nepal in 2007, alleged that he had paid the Thai man for an arms consignment which included AK-series rifles. This NIA case relates to a criminal conspiracy for illegal procurement of a shipload of sophisticated arms and ammunition from a foreign country, in which Shimray was arrested by NIA. Shimray had negotiated several times with Willy to fix a deal to the tune of USD 1.2 million to procure huge quantity of arms and ammunition. For this deal, USD 800,000 was paid by accused Shimray to co-accused Willy. NIA had filed a charge sheet in this case on March 26, 2011 against four accused persons including Shimray, who is currently facing trial.
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