December 14th, 2015

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www.morungexpress.com

MonDAY • DeceMber 14 • 2015

DIMAPUR • Vol. X • Issue 340 • 12 PAGes • 4

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T R u T H

The world is governed by opinion — William Ellery Channing Neglected and sidelined, citizens of Saptiqa area cry for attention

Syria in 2016 will be like the Balkans in 1914 PAGe 09

Conor McGregor knocks out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds

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climate deal: the world’s carbon diet starts now

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Three enterprising siblings help their mother (not seen) sell Guavas at a foot path at PR Hill junction Kohima. (Morung Photo)

PIL against HPC filed for alleged misappropriation of NPPC funds Morung Express news Dimapur | December 13

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Alleging misappropriation of money sanctioned for the revival of Nagaland Pulp & Paper Company Limited (NPPC) at Tuli under Mokokchung district, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed against Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPC) by a social activist at the Guahati High Court. HPC falls under the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, Department of Heavy Industries, Government of India (GoI). In the PIL, the petitioner, one I Chubatangit Jamir, has appealed for investigation /enquiry by the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) or by a sitting/ retired Judge of the High Court over alleged ‘embezzlement and misappropriation’ of Rs 154.60 crore sanctioned by the Ministry on two different dates to HPC. According to the contents of the PIL, the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises has been releasing / sanctioning adequate amount for NPPC. Drawing the attention of the Court, the petitioner stated that in September 17, 2007, an amount of Rs 54.60 crore was released to HPC as per the letter of lease addressed to the Pay & Accounts Officer, Pay & Accounts Office, Department of Heavy In-

By Sandemo Ngullie

What a night carnival..i wanna go to the other night carnival over there?

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websites gets massive support

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 13 (IANS): An online campaign to ban on 5,000-odd websites that carry Santa-Banta jokes at the cost of the Sikh community has received massive support, the initiators of the campaign have said. A global online petition started by Delhi Sikh community on change.org website demanding ban on Sikh jokes ridiculing the community has gone viral and gained momentum worldwide. This petition

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Despite these pre-conditions, the petitioner said the HPC is not complying with the Ministry’s directives and alleged that it had misused and diverted the funds released. It may be mentioned that only recently; Tuli Area Joint Council Forum (TAJCF), an NGO had made similar allegation that HPC had diverted Rs 60 crore sanctioned by the Centre without the knowledge of NPPC and Nagaland State government. It also mentioned that there were serious lapses on the utilization of the funds by HPC for revival of the said paper mill. Further, on September, 2015, Workers Union of NPPC had written to the Commissioner & Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department, Nagaland expressing disappointment over the slow process of the rehabilitation of NPPC. It stated that the NPPC/HPC has not even completed the job of tendering. The workers union further alleged that out of the Rs 100 crore released by the GoI in September 2013, the Finance & Accounts Department, NPCC had in its record only the expenditure of Rs 40 crore. It had therefore sought answer as to where the remaining Rs 60 crore might have disappeared.

reflections campaign to ban santa-Banta jokes

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dustries, New Delhi. The purpose of the amount released, according to the Ministry, was for expenditure of township; expenditure for plant & machinery, payment to pressing creditors and for cash loss during financial year of 20072008. The petitioner also informed that in 2013, an amount of Rs 1311.88 crores was awarded and accorded approval for revival of NPPC at Tuli, Nagaland as equity; term loan, grant-in-aid in view of CAPEX subsidy and for regularization of inter-diversion of fund. From the sum total amount approved for the revival, an advance of Rs 100 crore was released on September 19, 2013 (as per the Pay & Accounts Officer & Accounts Office, Department of Heavy Industries, New Delhi) for initiating the implementation of revival package of NPPC as decided in a meeting of Board of Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR) held on July 18, 2013. The advance was released with specific conditions- that the company will furnish a prereceipt bill to the Ministry; no fund will be diverted under any circumstances, that the Chairman & Managing Director of HPC would be personally responsible for utilization of the fund and for compliance of provisions of the Company Act.

Key points of Paris Climate Change Conference 2015 The measures in the agreement included: • To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century • To keep global temperature increase "well below" 2C (3.6F) and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C • To review progress every five years • $100bn a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future. Most likely the best the world can hope for is overshooting that temperature by a few tenths of a degree and then somehow slowly — over decades if not centuries — come back to the target temperature. That may involve something called negative emissions. That's when the world — technology and nature combined — takes out more carbon dioxide from the air than humanity puts in. Nearly 90 percent of scenarios of how to establish a safer temperature in the world involves going backward on emissions, but it is also so far not very realistic, said Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Britain. Negative emissions involve more forests, maybe seeding the oceans, and possibly technology that sucks carbon out of the air and stores it underground somehow. More biomass or forests require enormous land areas and direct capture of carbon from air is expensive, but with a serious sustained research effort costs can probably be brought below $100 per metric ton, said engineering and policy professor Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mel-

lon University. Leading up to the Paris Agreement, nearly every nation formed an individual action plan to cut or at least slow the growth of carbon pollution over the next decade or so. Richer nations that have already developed, like the United States, Europe and Japan, pledged to cut now. Developing nations that say they need fossil fuels to pull themselves out poverty pledged to slow the rate of growth for now, and to cut later. "The EU and US are all on Slim-Fast," said Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton administration climate official. "China's still hitting fast food, but will have to stop soon." China, the world's top carbon polluter, will eventually have to make the biggest cuts. Overall, for the world to hit its new target, global carbon dioxide emissions will have to peak by 2030, maybe earlier, and then fall to near-zero, experts said. Those levels have been generally rising since the industrial revolution. Without any efforts to limit global warming, the world would have warmed by 3.5 degrees Celsius (6.3 degrees Fahrenheit) from now by 2100, according to Climate Interactive. But China's submitted plan alone would cut that projected warming by 1.3 degrees, according to Climate Interactive. The US plan trims about six tenths of a degree of the projected warming without a global deal. That all sounds good, but the goals the nations have set aren't enough. Taken together, they would still allow temperatures to rise 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century from now, so to reach the goals agreed on this weekend countries will need to do more, Climate Interactive found. Countries agreed Saturday to take another look at their goals every five years.

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Geography and history meet at Old Jaboka lipichem Mon (Old Jaboka) | December 13

Old Jaboka is an ancient historical Konyak village, 18km away from Tizit town. A strategic village in olden days, Old Jaboka shares a geographical boundary with both Assam and Aruncahal Pradesh. Overlooking a valley, there are many gifts here for nature lovers and rural tourism if its resources can be tapped by providing basic development. A hundreds-of-households village once upon a time gave birth to four villages in the course of its growth. Reduced to around 55 households today, Old Jaboka has many historic spots, living legends and folk stories associated with it. Situated on a hill top with habitation stretching for almost a kilometre, people of Old Jaboka live a quiet life. Without electricity, water connections and a seasonal road, people here live under houses constructed by ‘Toku Patta’ leaves (leaves of a palm tree used for

A view of old Jaboka village in Tizit, Mon district. (Photo by Lipichem)

roofing instead of GCI sheet). The village was recognised in the year 2014 by the Government of Nagaland. To travel to this ancient village, one has to risk a narrow uphill, bumpy road good only for off road vehicles. Here, the church roof is made out of ‘Toku Patta’ and the village welcomes you with the chirping of birds in a serene environment. Lauding the Department of Land Resources, residents of Old Jaboka said, this is the

first department amongst Agri and allied sector that has been implementing works even before the government had recognised the village. Residents also said that sensing the need of the people, the Land Resources Department adopted the village under SPEED (Special Program on Environment and Economic Development) letting the village feel the taste of development. Abio, VDB secretary, mentioned the initiative of the De-

partment’s staffs in trekking to the village many a times as there is no all-season road that goes to the village. The staffs trained Self Help Groups in making dish washing gel and other economic and livelihood activities apart from implementing the watershed works which has helped the village residents in many ways. One will not only enjoy the freshness of Old Jaboka, its vegetation and cool breeze overlooking the Assam valley but also its pre independence era history. The village has historic sites like a British-time well, monolith of a British outpost, remains of a stone named as ‘Longaoanu’ (making sound) which supposedly consumed human in the days of yore, and the graveyard of an Angh who had played an active role in establishing Mon town but was assassinated in the year 1985. An ideal place for rural as well as for eco tourism, Old Joboka has ample right to enjoy basic facility of civilization.

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Address grievances of local contractors: Naga civil society

DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 13 (MExN): Naga civil society organizations on Sunday urged the Ministry of Road Transport, HighVote on www.morungexpress.com ways (MORTH), Government of SMS your anSwer to 9862574165 India to address the grievances of the Nagaland Contractors’ & SupIs Nagaland government providing the space for pliers’ Union (NCSU) in relaxing protection of freedom of the norms and procedures of local the press and freedom of contractors for the construction speech and expression? of the Dimapur-Kohima four lane road project. Yes no others The appeal comes in the backdrop of the NCSU calling Is the annual Hornbill Festival benefiting for a 12-hour total bandh (6amthe ordinary people of 6pm) of NH-29 Dimapur-KohiNagaland? Why? ma road on December 15. The NCSU had earlier apYes 14% pealed the concerned Minis71% no try to break up the road project 15% others into job wise packages with pre Details on page 7 qualification model in order to

The Morung Express Poll QuEsTion

has more than 27,000 signatures online and around 45,000 signatures offline. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was among those who supported the cause as he signed the petition during his visit to Gurdwara Rakabganj during Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 28. The petition seeks ban on such joke sites which portray Sikhs as "unintelligent", "foolish" and "naive", making them an easy target for ridicule and racial abuse, said Manjit Singh.

PARIS, DECEMBER 13 (AP): The world is about to go on a carbon diet. It won't be easy — or cheap. Nearly 200 nations across the world on Saturday approved a first-of-its-kind universal agreement to wean Earth off fossil fuels and slow global warming, patting themselves on the back for showing such resolve. On Sunday morning, like for many first day dieters, the reality sets in. The numbers — like calorie limits and hours needed in the gym — are daunting. How daunting? Try more than 7.04 billion. That's how much carbon dioxide needs to stay in the ground instead of being spewed into the atmosphere for those reductions to happen, even if you take the easier of two goals mentioned in Saturday's deal. To get to the harder goal, it's even larger numbers. In the pact, the countries pledged to limit global warming to about another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) from now — and if they can, only half that. Another, more vague, goal is that by sometime in the second half of the century, man-made greenhouse gas emissions — which includes methane and other heat-trapping gases as well as carbon dioxide — won't exceed the amount that nature absorbs. Earth's carbon cycle, which is complex and ever-changing, would have to get back to balance. In practice, that means the world has to emit close to zero greenhouse gases by 2070 to reach the easier goal, or by 2050 to reach the harder one, said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. The harder goal — limit warming by another half a degree Celsius (0.9 Fahrenheit)— is probably already impossible, said Joeri Rogelj at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.

accommodate local contractors- which is the same practice existing under SARDP-NE of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. In a memorandum addressed to Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways, Nitin Gadkari, Naga Hoho reminded of the Union Minister’s assurance that norms would be relaxed so as to enable the local contractors to participate without compromising quality. “We understand that development would be inclusive if the locals participate as this would generate employment and other avenues,” it said. Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) felt that with Nagaland being in its 52nd year of statehood, no matter how capable or incapable the local contractors

NCSU on December 15 bandh

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agaland Contractors’ and Suppliers’ Union (NCSU) has appealed to the general public to bear the inconvenience created by the December 15 bandh which is imposed in the midst of festive season. Police, paramilitary, magistrate on duty, ambulance and media would be exempted from the purview of the bandh, a press statement from the contractors union informed. For wedding parties, NCSU volunteers will escort the Dimapur entourage from Patkai College junction and for Kohima, escort would be from below Naga Hospital Kohima junction respectively, it added. Kohima music lovers going down to Dimapur for the MLTR concert have been asked to use the 10 mile road (Zhadima village) to Niuland. may be, they deserve exposure and rational treatment from the concern authorities. In light of this, earmarking certain amount of work for the local contractors without com-

promising the standard quality control norms and guidelines to participate and get acclimatized with such standard of work is fair and advisable in the given situation,” it maintained.

The NTC also termed it as disheartening to observe that the construction of two lane Longlem-Changtongya road, Tamlu-Merangkong road, PhekPfutsero road and ZunhebotoChakhabama road under SARDP Phase-I which was awarded to Maytas-Gayatri (JV) in the year 2010 directly under the supervision of MORTH has come to a complete halt due to technical flaws and lack of knowledge to handle local situation for smooth execution of the project. It has therefore urged the Ministry concern to review the situation and appreciate the concern raised by the NCSU to get good will and cooperation from all. Meanwhile, Angami Students’ Union (ASU) said it was

unable to understand the intention of the National Highway & Infrastructure Development Cooperation Limited (NHIDCL) under the Ministry of MORTH, GoI for backtracking from the gentlemen agreement after giving assurance that local Naga contractors would be accommodated by breaking up the project into smaller packages. It pointed out that the proposed December 15 bandh on NH 29 is bound to victimize Nagaland and Manipur States and even worst the Angami community, since the busiest stretch along the Highway is the ancestral land of the Angami tribe. It also reiterated support to the Naga local contractors on the proposed bandh.

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December 14th, 2015 by The Morung Express - Issuu