December 21st, 2016

C M Y K

C M Y K

www.morungexpress.com

WednesdAY • december 21 • 2016

DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 350 • 12 PAGes • 5

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection Truck rams into Christmas market, killing 12 people

Dreamz Unlimited blends a ‘wate(a)ry’ solution

o F

— Winston Churchill

Jadeja spins India to crushing win over England

PAGe 11

PAGe 09

T R u T H

PAGe 12

Manipur: Call for peace amidst uneasy calm

United Naga Council demands President’s Rule Desist from adopting a policy of confrontation: NPCC

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20 (IANS): The United Naga Council, which represents the Nagas living in Manipur, met Home Minister Rajnath Singh here on Tuesday and demanded that President's Rule be imposed in the state in the wake of ongoing violence in the Imphal Valley.

The delegation will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday. It termed the creation of seven new districts as illegitimate as the Hill Area Committee was not consulted -- mandatory under the Indian constitution.

"The state government, without consulting the Naga people, created the districts mostly by bifurcating the Naga districts.

This is against the promise under four various memorandums and a written assurance by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2011 that without consulting the stakeholders no administrative setup decisions will be taken," said K.S. Paul, former UNC president.

He said: "We have met the Home Minister and sought his immediate intervention. The Nagas won't tolerate the division of land

and creation of new districts.

We demand President's Rule in the state of Manipur."

Manipur's Imphal valley has been simmering under violence after the Congress-led state government declared the creation of seven new districts -Jiribam, Kangpokpi, Tengoupal, Pharzol, Kakching, Noney and Kamjongin.

A blockade has been called by the Nagas to oppose the state government's decision to create Sadar Hills and Jiribam as fullfledged districts, which the UNC claims will bifurcate the ancestral lands of the

Nagas living in Manipur.

Asked about Rajnath Singh's response, Paul said: "He(Rajnath)saidheisaware of the entire situation."

Referring to the recent violence due to which several Naga students were stranded in Imphal, the leaders said that even Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has not provided any security force to bring the situation under control.

"The CM has been only appealing to maintain peace but has not been doing anything to provide security forces to stop violence," said the leaders.

dent said in a press stateWrong of NSF to resort to economic ment.

According to Therie, blockade, says Therie people are pained and hurt

by the economic blockDIMAPUR, DECEM- ade imposed time-andBER 20 (MExN): In the again, which imply that backdrop of the escalating “let people die out of huntension in Manipur, the Na- ger and thirst” besides the galand Pradesh Congress strangling of economy and Committee (NPCC) presi- strangling of children to dent K Therie on Tuesday death. “The action is inhuopposed the confronta- man and unchristian-like,” tional actions from both he added. the sides and appealed to “Christians are the best all to desist from adopting a citizens of the World. Our policy of confrontation. religion does not preach “I appeal to all to desist violence. Love your enfrom adopting a policy of emy is the doctrine. Chrisconfrontation and this has tians are expected to tolerto start from the Church. ate and find peaceful ways People suffering for sup- to solve the problems. We porting the policy of con- must show our doctrines in frontation are not the practice.” victims but they are conAt the same time, the committed against the Nagas in the nivers,” the NPCC presi- NPCC president also past few days.

“We insist that our Naga brothers 4,000 paramilitary personnel rushed to Mnp and sisters should not suffer more at NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20 (PTI): The Centre has the hands of unruly mobs aided and rushed around 4,000 paramilitary personnel to Manipur in assisted by the Manipur state govern- the wake of violence following economic blockade on Nament. This is to remind all our neigh- tional Highways connecting the state. While around 1,500 bours that our blood flows beyond paramilitary personnel were rushed in to Manipur in last two artificial boundaries created by the days, around 2,500 paramilitary were dispatched to the state occupational forces in the past,” the last week, a senior home ministry official said on Tuesday. statement read.

The security personnel were sent to the Northeastern state Stating that it would be unwise keeping in view the security situation in the state in the wake for the Nagas and Meiteis to resort to of violence following the economic blockade imposed by the violence and destruction to settle dif- UnionNagaCouncil(UNC)ontwoNationalHighwayssince1 ference, the working group had ap- November.TheUNChasimposedtheeconomicblockadeon pealed all sides to make effort to re- NH-2 (Imphal-Dimapur) and NH 37 (Imphal-Jiribam) that store communal harmony. serve as lifelines for the landlocked Manipur.

6 NNPGs urge Nagas & Meities to tackle all issues diplomatically DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 20 (MExN): The Working Group of six Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) on Tuesday urged the leaders of the two communities-Naga and Meitei in Manipur to sit across the table and tackle the ongoing tension diplomatically.

“A path of violence would not be in the interest of either Nagas or Meiteis. Government of the day must ensure that communal peace and harmony is not hijacked by mobs,” a press statement received from the working group of GPRN/ NSCN (M.B Neokpao/N.Kitovi) NSCN(Reformation), NNC/FGN

Public Notice DIMAPUR, DECEMBER 20 (MExN): In view of the prevailing law and order situation in parts of Manipur and the subsequent blockades of the highways, the Deputy Commissioner, Dimapur has issued a notice to public to kindly inform the District Administration of cases of stranded commuters without accommodation so that necessary measures could be made from our end. Following numbers may be contacted :- 8118956926; 9436005765; 9436013091.

(Shingnya/Thinosilie), NNC (Z. Royim/ V Nagi) NNC/GDRN (Kiumukam/Hetoi) NNC/NPGN) (Temjenyanger/Hozheto) stated.

While condemning the “horrific and criminal act” of the mob against Southern Naga brothers and sisters in Imphal valley, the Working Group reminded that, the two communities have co-existed for centuries and for the sake of future generations, Nagas and Meiteis must learn to live together as trustworthy friends and neighbors.

It also demanded the Chief Minister of Manipur to immediately arrest the perpetrators of the many crimes

termed as “inhuman and demonic” to attack peaceful travelers for no fault of theirs while also pointing out that destroying properties can’t be considered as wise action by any sensible person.

“We do not agree with actions of both sides,” he said.

Pointing out that Nagas, Kukis and Meites will be neighbors forever, Therie lamented that confrontation and counter confrontation have destroyed peaceful coexistence. “Our lands are interlocked and will remain interlocked. We are interdependent politically and economically in reality and this will remain a reality. We have to work together and live together,” he maintained.

Also asserting that not all Nagas or Meites are

bad, the NPCC president said the silent majority are good. “Nagas, Kukis and Meites have lived together in peace for centuries and may be more than thousand years for some. The Government cannot allow one to disturb the peace of ninety-nine forever.”

The NPCC president also criticized the action of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) to resort to economic blockade. He said negotiation is the only way out to resolve the problem.

“Those living together have to find out unanimous solution. It is not the problem of others. Intelligent personalities and leaders should be allowed to put their heads together to find out the best course of solution,” he stated.

EGM to censure inflammatory statements IMPHAL, DECEMBER 20 (NNN): Concerned over the escalating tension between different communities prevailing in Manipur, the Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) has decided to censure press statements by various organizations, which may be considered inflammatory and inciting communal violence. "In the interest of communal harmony and peaceful co-existence, the EGM also appeals to all organisations both within the state and from outside the state, to refrain from making or using communally charged language in press statements they release," the editors' body on Tuesday appealed. It also appealed fellow media houses to rise above communal lines and not to let their outlets be used as tool to fan the already critically situation in Manipur.

CBSE body recommends making Board LUCK BY CHANCE—Tambola exams for Class X mandatory from 2018 man reads the numbers right

NEW DELHI, DECEM- government before it is im- percent weightage will guages which are listed in be given to school-based schedule VIII of the ConBER 20 (PTI): Board ex- plemented.

Currently, it is option- evaluation. stitution should be taught ams for Class X are set to In another key deci- under the 'Three language become compulsory for al for CBSE students to all CBSE students from choose either the Board sion, the CBSE has de- formula' while languag2018 as CBSE's Governing exam or a school-based ex- cided to recommend to es which are "purely forthe HRD ministry that eign" should be taught as body today "unanimously amination.

HRD Minister Prakash the three language for- a "fourth language as an approved" a proposal in Javadekar has in the past mula, under which Hindi, elective subject." this regard.

In the past the HRD At the meeting of the favoured making Board English and modern InGoverning body, its mem- exam compulsory for CBSE dian language are taught, ministry run Kendriya bers agreed that from the students as is the practice should be extended to Vidyalayas (KV) used to ofclass IX and X as well from fer German as a third lanacademic session 2017- in all state boards.

The sources said while the current VI to VIII, a guage, but the practice was 18, compulsory Board exlater discontinued. ams should be introduced there is a view that for the source said.

Officials added that the The final call on these all students of Class X, Class X Board exams, 80 AR rebuts allegation for percent weightage will be Board also favoured send- decisions will be taken by sources told PTI here.

DIMAPUR, DECEMBER The decision will now given to the marks scored ing a recommendation to the government, a senior 20 (MExN): The Assam Ri- have to be approved by the in examinations while 20 the Centre that those lan- official said. fles has refuted the allegations made by the GPRN/ NSCN on December 16 in the local dailies over the arrest of its cadres at Naginimora under Mon district.

PRO Assam Rifles, Kohima in a rejoinder informed that the AR troops conducted an operation near Naginimora village along with police representative on October 22, 2016 based on specific intelligence. Search of the area resulted in apprehension of four GPRN/NSCN cadres namely capt Wangyok, lieutenant Tanktao, corporal Khokam and lance corporal Mokem Tangjao along with two 9 mm pistol, four live rounds, extortion notes and mobiles with sim-card which was in violation of Cease Fire Ground Rules, The volunteer autorickshaws drivers along with the DDADU president (standing centre) at the DDADU office, Naga the AR claimed. The appre- Shopping Arcade on December 20. hended cadres along with all Morung Express News nated spots for commuters (Walford) and at the New in each of the 9 designated to avail the service. Accord- Flyover junction where MP locations. In the event of a recoveries were handed over Dimapur | December 20 ing to DDADU president, I. Road meets NL Road. rush, as in more than one to Naginimora Police StaAsked how commuters commuter vying for the tion. It therefore countered In what would be a pleasant Vitoshe Sema, the act is in that the contention that the surprise for commuters, one way a gesture to live up can distinguish the special free ride, the driver said GPRN/NSCN cadres were the Dimapur District Au- to the spirit of Christmas and autorickshaws lined up for that lottery will be drawn. not in possession of arms, torickshaw Drivers’ Union also to the DDADU’s ‘Service the service, one of the vol- The commuter picking the unteer drivers replied that lucky number will get the ammunition and docu- (DDADU) will be giving to the Public’ motto.

Based on ‘first come, the autorickshaws will have opportunity, he added. ments when apprehended free rides on December 21. by the AR is factually incor- The benevolent gesture will first serve’ concept, com- stickers with the message, DDADU president said rect with the aim to mislead remain effective for 4 hours muters can avail the free “Free Town Trip. Service to that the autorickshaw drivthe public. Further, publica- from 8 am till 12 noon with- rides at 9 locations – Clock Public.” It was added that the ers have been mooting to tion of the article after almost in the municipal area.

Tower, District Hospital, service will apply to com- organise such an event two months of the incident As many as 50 autorick- Nikos Hospital, MH Hos- muters intending to travel to for quite some time, while appears motivated to malign shaw drivers have volun- pital, Faith Hospital, East any location within town. adding, “We are planning the image of AR, the press re- teered, who will park their Police Station, DC’s ofAt least 4-6 such au- to turn this into an annual lease also alleged. three-wheelers in 9 desig- fice, Belho Nursing Home torickshaws will be parked affair.”

‘Free Town Trip. Service to Public’ DDADU to give free ride to commuters today

Morung Express Feature Dimapur | December 20

Tongpang Jamir (27) is familiar with being called ‘Tongpang Tambola’, he says, when we try to save his phone number as such at the recently concluded Dimapur Night Carnival. Over the past couple of years, he has become the face of Tambola, aka Indian Bingo or Housie, in Dimapur.

Currently, he has set up a Tambola stall—Friend’s Tambola—at the Christmas Carnival underway at Naga Shopping Arcade from December 19-23. His fun, and mostly super fast, reading of numbers attracts a large audience, including many families, to almost every game he hosts.

Tambola involves ticking off numbers called out by the host on specially designed Tambola sheets—the first to tick off all numbers wins the game. Tongpang buys Tambola tickets in bundles from sports shops, and provides free pens and card paper during the game. In a five hour session, people can play up to 20 games and win up to Rs. 5000-7000 depending on how many players add up. But Tongpang has his set of regulars (people from all walks of life) who do not care to win or lose but come to enjoy the game.

Having picked up Tambola number calls from the internet, Tongpang modifies them every now and then, sending his audience into fits of giggles even as they have to stay alert to find the numbers as he quickly rolls from one to the other.

Some of his calls include—Hitler’s eye single number one, who is she I love you number three, sabse jawan 21, buckle my shoe 32, rise and shine 49,

Tongpang Jamir hosting a Tambola game at the Christmas Carnival at Naga Shopping Arcade from December 19-23 (Morung Photo)

Rising year (Nagaland) 63, husband and wife 65, Bangladesh war 71, click and click 66, no more teen 19, my lovely wife number 5.

Tongpang, who is from Yajang village in Mokokchung, grew up with his aunt at Purana Bazaar in Dimapur. Every Christmas would see family Tambola played around a bonfire from where his attraction to the game began. One such year, he decided to host the game at home. As luck would have it, by chance, someone in the neighbourhood heard him and asked him to host a colony Tambola game. One opportunity gave way to another, and three years have gone by for Tongpang organizing public and private games, for fun or even fundraising.

“Tambola provides clean family entertainment that can be enjoyed by all age groups together.

Since I do not have a permit from the Dimapur district administration, I can work only when someone calls me for their program or during carnival times when I can rent a space for the duration and earn enough to keep me warm through Christmas and New Year,” says Tongpang.

But competition is on

the rise and profit from games has been splitting between the three game centres that have been set up at the Carnival. Tambola is Tongpang’s livelihood in an economy that offers the youth with little clean methods of earning, and without a permit, his work gains speed only in December. Rest of the year, he has to assist his brother with other works. But the Dimapur district administration has refused to provide him with a permit as the game falls under the ambit of ‘gambling.’ He attempted to set up stall at Hornbill Festival too but was denied permission.

“The players are mostly very pleasant and no one misbehaves because you need to stay alert constantly. I could have hosted games every weekend as Dimapur has little other option for family entertainment but this is not possible without a permit. Anyway, it would be great to have a stable job to support me consistently through the year, but I would like to continue organizing Tambola till wherever it takes me,” hopes Tongpang Tambola before people start buying their little ticket of luck and skill for the evening.

2

WednesdAY 21•12•2016

NAGALAND

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Mock drill conducted at Wokha Wokha, December 20 (DIPr): Mock drill was conducted at Wokha on December 20. The mock drill was organised by Wokha District Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with all the nodal agencies in the district headquarter to spread awareness to the citizens as to how preventive measures can be adopted in times of eventualities.

The drill was conducted in three locations, NST colony secondary fire incident, Police point high-rise building collapse caused by earthquake and PWD colony under construction Children waves at visitors in Yongkhao village located in Monyakshu of Mon district. As per the State Census 2011, the building collapse. In all the Yongkhao village population of children with age 0-6 is 453 and it makes up 18.86 % of total population of village. Yongkhao three sites the rescue and village has lower literacy rate compared to Nagaland. In 2011, literacy rate of Yongkhao village was 47.00 % compared to operation works were con79.55 % of Nagaland. In Yongkhao Male literacy stands at 51.44 % while female literacy rate was 42.27 %. ducted and practical demonstrations were shown to the public as to how injured Integrated people, victims draped in

Catchment Area Treatment Plan training conducted

DImaPur, December 20 (mexN): The Department of Soil & Water Conservation, Dimapur organised a one day training programme on Integrated Catchment Area Treatment Plan (ICATP) at its district office on December 19.

DSCO AS Hovuto Zhimomi welcomed all the trainees to the programme and briefed them on the purpose of the training and also urged them to work hand in hand with the department for the successful implementation of the project.

Delivering the keynote address Deputy Director, Khekiho Shohe spoke on the concept of ICATP and the importance of treatment of catchment areas for its stabilization against future soil erosion, retention and conservation of moisture to mitigate floods. He stressed on the importance of success of this project; being a pilot project, it will open the possibility to be implemented in other districts in the near future.

ASCO (R) Er. Limasunup presented on the methods of soil and water conservation through engineering measures like gully plugs gabion structures, loose boulder check dams, brushwood check dams, contour trench etc., while Roukousietuo SDO (Sc) delivered on the technical aspects of the activities and work components under the project.

Er. Imtiwati, AE spoke on the importance of water quality monitoring and sediment monitoring.

It was stated in a press release that all together 11 villages under Dimapur district participated in the training programme.

YAA conference from January 10 to 13

TueNsaNg, December 20 (mexN): The 51st Yimchungrü Akherü Arihako (YAA) general conference will be held from January 10 to 13, 2017 at Y/ Awunrü village, Tuensang District under the theme ‘Supra, Triven, Reformabit.’

R. Tohanba, Parliamentary Secretary, Municipal Affairs, Economics & Statistics and Pukhayi, Parliamentary Secretary, Soil & Water Conservation will grace the occasion as chief guest for the inaugural and valedictory session respectively.

Sapu Battacharyya, Managing Director, NEC Energy Pvt Ltd, John Tochimong, Officiating Secretary cum State Organizing Commissioner (S), Bharat Scouts & Guides, Nagaland, Chubanungla, SDEO Shamator and Berila Tokiu, President, Eastern Nagaland Women Organization (ENWO) will grace as guest of honor and special guest re-

spectively.

Youth Net, Nagaland will be the resource person and also president, Eastern Naga Students Federation (ENSF) and president, Yimchunger Tribal Council (YTC) will extort the gathering.

General Secretary L. Akhang has informed in a press release that the Conference will culminate for four days events featuring the 2nd Edition of Miss Yimchunger Beauty Pageant Contest, Cultural Session, Games and Sports and Literary cum felicitation Session with approx 3000 students/Delegates from the entire Yimchunger villages/Units.

The YAA extends invitation to all the officials of YTC, YWO, YBBA, YGOA, YGBU, WYH, PFPS, CAPF, STPF and HoDs of Shamator, Pungro and Chessore Sub- Division. Further all the federating units, VCM, VDB Secretaries and VEC are asked to attend the session without fail.

Training on online Food Licensing and Registration System conducted

Officials of Chief Medical Officer, Dimapur with resource person and others after the training held in CMO office, Dimapur.

DImaPur, December 20 (mexN): One day orientation training was conducted for designated officers,

Food Safety Officers and computer assistant of Kohima and Dimapur on December 20 with resource person Subash Singh from National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) in CMO office, Dimapur.

The training was based on online Food Licensing and Registration System (FLRS), Under Food Safety and Standard Act 2006 was organised by Department of Health and Family Welfare. Chief Medical Officer cum Designated Officers, Dr. K Vikato Kinimi graced the welcoming speech and encouraged the participants to work sincerely and to catch up with other states in FLRS. This was stated in a press release issued by Dimapur CMO Office, Food Safety Officer, Sendongkaba Jamir.

TueNsaNg, December 20 (mexN): The co-ordination meeting of Naga People’s Front (NPF) 51 A/C Noksen was held at area president’s residence on December 13 at Tuensang Town. The meeting was attended by Tuensang Division office bearers, CEC member and area representatives to Central Office Kohima, Tuensang

party affairs and play an important role. Ngaku Chang, CEC Member highlighted some few points on how the party has been surviving after the crisis being erupted last year within the party.

H. Chang, Secretary, Central Office Kohima also urged that all must jointly work together while exuded confidence that there

are better days ahead.

Pheym Chang Area president, S. Chollen, Secretary Tuensang Division, Besoyemjong Vice President Division and area representative, Khumla Chang, President Area Women Wing, Yimse Chang president Area Youth wing also spoke during the co-ordination meeting.

NPF 51 A/C Noksen

the building and casualties are evacuated during any eventualities. The mock drill ended with debriefing of all the participants involved where feedback and suggestion were raised by the members.

During the meeting the Deputy Commissioner thanked all members

and volunteer from Lotha Youth Hoho for their cooperation and support for making the mock drill a success and also the general public for turning out in large number to witness the mock drill. Stating another feather is being added to our work the DC said that with collective

effort and participation we are ready to face any kind of eventualities and called for cooperation so that prompt action can be initiated to save the lives of victims during disaster. He also mentioned about the shortage of equipments in the district to be utilized during such emergencies.

‘Jubilee is a time of retrospection to evaluate’ Dziilhami Baptist Church platinum jubilee celebrated

Dziilhami Baptist Church platinum jubilee choir presenting songs during the celebration held on December 17 and 18.

DzIIlhamI, December 20 (mexN): Dziilhami Baptist Church (DBC) platinum jubilee celebrations which start on December 17 on the theme ‘we will serve the Lord’ came to a fruitful conclusion on Sunday evening with lighting of candles by Sunday School Children Choir and sang ‘go light the world’ at Dziilhami Baptist Church.

As per a press release received here Dziilha is the last Chakhesang village along the Zunheboto state highway, after which comes Sumi villages. The village has a panoramic

NPF 51 A/C Noksen co-ordination meeting held Division and all the area office bearers.

Speaking on the occasion, Hanso Chang, Vice President Tuensang Division encouraged the party leaders to be committed and continuously for the welfare of the area people.

President Yimsela Chang, Division Women Wing, urge the women folks to actively participate in the

STRF and WDDMA members after the mock drill at Wokha held on December 20. (DIPR Photo)

General Secretary Kelep Chang in a press release said that highlights of the co-ordination meeting included invocation by M. Aten Vice President Tuensang Division, vote of thanks by P. Naset Area Vice President and benediction by mass. Programme was chaired by Kelep Chang, General Secretary, 51 A/C Noksen.

view of various mountain ranges and also boasts a view of 290 plus villages.

Pastor DBC, Punusho Naroh in his messages told that in the year 1941, Late Rev. Duporii Vasa, Late Besiisho Ringa, Late Satso Vasa, Late Molhiiyi Shijo accepted Jesus Christ and continued to be steadfast in their faith and spread the good news, and on May 20, 1989, the whole populace of Dziilhami village made a declaration to embrace Christianity.

On Sunday morning service, executive secretary, Chakhesang Baptist Church Council, Rev. Dr.

Vezopa Tetseo preached the gospel on the topic ‘God’s faithfulness.’ In his messages, he said jubilee is a time of retrospection to evaluate our life and ministry as individuals and church to plan for future course of action for soul saving ministry.

On Sunday evening, president, Chakhesang Baptist Church Council, Rev. Khriitsoyi Liiriio said the early Christian were persecuted, despised, rejected from family, excommunicated from social life and even driven away from village boundaries. In the midst of such trials, early

believers loved and cared each other which convinced the non-believers that they are worshipping the true and living God. “What we are today is only because of the patience and perseverance of the early Christians which we must reflect upon now,” said Rev. Luruo.

Executive secretary, SABAK, Pughoboto, Rev. P. Hotokhu Zhimomi and Chairman, Chozuba Area Baptist Church Council, Vekusa Lohe greets the congregation. The programme concluded with invoking God’s blessings followed by jubilee feast.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Mithun farmers attend camp at Yimchong Financial literacy to be made compulsory at Class IX

Mithun owners along with NRC M and KVK team at Yimchong village under Longleng district of Nagaland on December 16.

loNgleNg, December 20 (mexN): An animal health camp cum awareness programme was jointly organized by ICAR-National Research Centre on Mithun, Medziphema and KVK, Longleng district at Yimchong village under Longleng district of Nagaland on December 16 under Tribal Sub head plan.

A total of 70 mithun farmers participated in the programme. The different activities of ICAR-NRC on mithun were demonstrated by Dr. M. H Khan, Senior Scientist. The different technologies as well

as use of different medicine in the treatment of animals were described by Dr. Lilly Ngullie, Subject Matter Specialist, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Longleng.

She also gave the scientific information related to advanced mithun husbandry to mithun rearers and also use of mineral mixture to improve the health condition of animals. The overview of different diseases as well as importance of vaccination and mass deworming has been highlighted by Jayanta Kumar Chamuah; Scientist.

The health check up of total 24 mithun were done and treated

accordingly.

The mithun farmers were given various inputs such as vaccines for Foot & Mouth Disease, Mineral mixture, anthelmintic, various veterinary medicines for first aid to the mithun and other livestock. Meanwhile, a press release stated that the village council Chairman, President, Mithun farmers union and Yangkhi Phom, General Secretary, Mithun farmers union, Yimchong Village thanked the Director, ICAR-NRC on Mithun, Medziphema for rendering the noble public service to the farmers of Yimchong village.

kohIma, December 20 (DIPr): The Nagaland Board of School Education, in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd introduced the Financial Literacy at Class IX in 2016.

In the first phase, the course was introduced in three districts, i.e. Kohima, Mokokchung and Dimapur in some selected schools.

Acknowledging the importance, from the academic year 2017, all the Higher Secondary Schools registered with the Board shall be made compulsory to introduce the Financial Literacy course in Class IX. Besides the selected schools, any High Schools interested in introducing the said course have been requested to inform the Board on or before February 10, 2017.

The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. will provide training to the teachers who will teach the Financial Literacy course. Any graduate teacher after attending the training can teach the course.

The exact date and time of the teachers training will be intimated on a later date to the schools.

The economic growth of a country is largely affected by the financial literacy of the citizens.

Financial Literacy is an essential life skill which everyone needs to acquire in order to make their life better through better management of the finances available to a person. Knowledge about finance at a young age builds a stronger base and prepares a person for the future.

1st March 1956 - 12th Dec 2016 "Everything fits into a pattern for good, to those who love me and are called according to my design and purpose" Romans 8:28 With profound gratitude, we the bereaved family members of LATE. HAIZIELU IHEILUNG of Peren Town express our sincere appreciation to each and every Individual, Churches, Hospitals, Organisations and Well Wishers who stood by us in Prayers and Supported us Physically, Materially, Morally, Financially during his illness and till the sad demise on 12th Dec. 2016.

How truly blessed we are to have such wonderful people during times like this.

Your expression of love and sympathy will never be forgotten. It is our Prayer that the Almighty Bless you all.

Loving Wife Apeuna lheilung, Children, Grandchildren and Family members.

wednesday 21•12•2016

NORTH-EAST 3

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Curfew relaxed for 9 hrs in Imphal Imphal, December 20 (pTI): With improvement in law and order situation in Manipur, curfew was relaxed in Imphal West and Imphal East districts for nine hours this morning.

The district magistrates of both the districts issued the orders relaxing the curfew from 9.30 AM, an official said.

Curfew in Imphal East district was clamped indefinitely on Sunday last after a mob torched and vandalised 22 passenger vehicles on the Imphal-Ukhrul road, while curfew in Imphal West district was imposed from evening to dawn.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has convened a Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in the state as Unit-

MNP blames Manipur CM for imbroglio Imphal, December 20 (mexN): The Meitei Nationalist Party (MNP) has blamed the Manipur Chief Minister for “throwing more dry leafs into fire” by declaring seven new districts.

The move, MNP argued, is a “short term solution” but will lead to more “damage in the long run.”

The party also rued the endless blame game and hit out at the Union government insisting that the silence of the Centre is “responsible” for the unwanted situation.

Manipur community leaders hold talks on defusing crisis Imphal, December 20 (IaNS): Various community leaders of Manipur, at a public meeting here on Tuesday, underlined the need to call off the blockade and counter-blockade and hold talks to restore "harmony and peace".

The meeting was organised at an Imphal hotel here by Sunita Netram, founder of Manipur Women Gun Survivors and Secretary General of Control Arms Foundation India, to take stock of the continuing stalemate.

Lawyers, academics, community leaders and social activists spoke during ed Naga Council (UNC) resorted to an indefinite economic blockade since November 1 on the two national highways of the land-locked state.

Earlier at a late night Cabinet meeting, the Chief

the meeting.

Many community leaders from hill areas reportedly did not come for the talks. Also there was no participation from the Manipur government in the meeting convened to resolve the crisis.

P. Sonamani, a retired police officer from Nagaland, said that it was not necessary because it was a Manipur issue and it should be settled within the state.

Meanwhile, the curfew here was relaxed for a few hours during the day, even as the number of torched vehicles rose to 40.

Minister approved payment of Rs 20 lakh to the families of the three policemen killed during an ambush by hill-based militants on December 15.

The Cabinet also approved to bear the cost

of treatment of 14 other policemen who were injured in attacks on Manipur police in different places of Lokchao and Bongyang in the newly created Tengnoupal and Noney districts.

SNUNS condemns Imphal violence DImapur, December 20 (mexN): The South Nagas Union of Nagaland state (SNUNS) has condemned the “barbaric treatment” meted out to innocent Nagas at Khurai area in Imphal on December 18 by miscreants.

An emergency meeting in this regard was held on December 19. The union held the security forces responsible for the attacks. “The security exposed their complicity by remaining mute spectators,” the union insisted in a press release.

Alleging “complicity” of the State Government, the union termed it “deplorable” and maintained that it has become a “meaningless custodian of law and order”.

Stating that Nagas have been defending their rights against the Manipur government’s move to create Sardar Hills and Jiribam districts out of their land without consulting them, the Union maintained

that the matter was aggravated by the declaration of the seven new districts.

Making it known that “Nagas are not against any group of people,” the Union argued that Nagas were only protesting against the Manipur government’s policy of dividing their ancestral land.

It condemned individuals/groups taking law into their hands by burning down buses, vandalizing churches and harassing innocent people and maintained that democratic protest “should not turn into ethnic tension.”

It appealed to all sensible citizens to shun violence and promote an atmosphere worthy of the festive season.

Meanwhile, the union has asked Naga students passing through Dimapur towards Manipur to contact any of the SNUNS leaders, if needed, at the following numbers: 9426808044/9856451675/9 436004219.

US, India search for WWII American Airmen New DelhI, December 20 (mexN): The U.S. Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) recently completed a mission in India to locate the remains of servicemen missing since World War II. According to a press release, the DPAA team concentrated their efforts on sites where U.S. aircraft are believed to have crashed in the Himalayas with still unaccounted-for U.S. servicemen.

The DPAA team visited several locations in Arunachal Pradesh to determine if the reported sites can be definitively correlated to known crash sites involving missing U.S. servicemen, the release added. If the team can corroborate evidence at the site with historical records and reports, future missions to the sites may conduct an excavation in an attempt to recover the remains and return them to DPAA’s laboratory for identification.

While discussing the sites with local residents, the team received a presentation of human remains and osseous material, which a witness recovered near the wreckage of a crashed aircraft. After arriving at the site, the team found additional human remains believed to be associated with missing U.S. service members. Once

Security forces in Manipur playing a dangerous game of bias, divide: TKS ukhrul, December 20 (mexN): The Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS) has accused the Manipur state security forces and the Assam Rifles of “playing a dangerous game of bias and creating a communal divide.”

In a statement, TKS cited the incidents following the bandh called by the Khwairamband women in Imphal to protest against the ambush of state security personnel by unknown armed groups at various places in the state starting on the evening of the December 16.

The student body claimed that Police personnel stood mute without taking any action while private vehicles traversing along the Imphal-Ukhrul route were subjected to rocks and iron bars hurled at them while also being shot at with catapults and airguns.

Almost 50 vehicles have been burned down in the process, it added while pointing out that neither the state nor the central government appears to be taking any action.

TKS informed that it had sought security from the district administration, who had been in contact with their counterparts from Imphal East, but the latter had stated that they were “helpless as the mob could not be stopped”.

“Security was also sought from the Assam Rifles who under various pretexts refused to help the stranded passengers,” the Saklong added.

approved by the Indian government, these remains will be sent to the DPAA Laboratory with the goal of identification. All the sites were located within Arunachal Pradesh, which is where the vast majority of losses occurred, the release informed.

The DPAA team trekked to sites ranging from 2,500 feet to 10,000 feet

4 killed in Tamenglong accident

in altitude, over trails that took anywhere from a few hours to several days to reach from the last point a vehicle could travel. Last year, DPAA successful recovered remains from the same region. In April, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter received the remains from the Indian government and DPAA is working to identify them.

Pointing out that the Meitei Naga divide is at its peak today with no sign of reconciliation, the TKS claimed that the divide had “never been this existent” until the incumbent Chief Minister “and has worsened with each passing decision of his” insisting that with every decision that Ibobi makes, “lives are lost, lives are scarred and people’s resentment grows even more”.

Notwithstanding the objections and the outcry that have unfolded since the declaration of the 7 new districts, the state government has gone ahead with the inauguration of several of the newly declared districts.

The Naga community staunchly opposed the creation of the new districts arguing that all stakeholders were not consulted. The Hill Area Committee (HAC) and Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) were also not consulted on the issue as is mandated under Article 371C of the Constitution of India.

TKS in this regard warned that it will oppose the creation of the newly declared districts “tooth and nail”.

The only way out now for the Nagas, is “complete separation in administration and governance”, the TKS asserted. “The Nagas have had enough and also henceforth calls for total separation in governance and administration from the state of Manipur,” it added.

'Only way out now for the Nagas, is complete separation in administration & governance' with bias, the Saklong further alleged insisting that the media houses kept denying the burning of vehicles and the harassment to passengers.

“National media have been fed biased and one sided news reports,” the TKS claimed arguing that the news reports were made “without confirming news from the ground from both ends”. In this regard, the Saklong appealed to the media houses to be present at “ground zero”.

Further stating that the Manipur state government “is an authority only in name”, the TKS blamed the state government for the “complete breakdown of the state machinery” in dealing with the aforementioned incidents and reiterated the United Naga Council’s call for President’s Rule in the state.

'Total separation from valley only recourse' New DelhI, December 20 (mexN): Taking serious note of the escalating tension, the Joint Naga Civil Societies, Delhi (CJNCSD) had strongly condemned the violence, wanton desecration, vandalization and torching of Churches.

In its statement, the CJNCSD termed the whole sequence of events as “statesponsored” and “handiwork” of the State Government. It also blamed the United Committee Manipur (UCM) over the events and dubbed both the State Government and the UCM as “rabidly communal” and “anti-Naga”.

The Committee, in particular, took exception

AFFIDAVIT

Members from Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), remove soil from a test unit as part of a DPAA investigation mission near Bhismaknagar Village in Arunachal Pradesh on December 1. (DoD photo by U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher Cantu)

TKS further informed of a proclamation issued on December 18 by Tangkhul civil societies wherein it had warned the public against harming anyone from any community residing within its jurisdiction.

To make matters worse, media houses were covering the incidents

I, KENEIKHRIENUO KERETSU, Vide Regd.

No. 1644/14 Dated: 27/08/2014 do hereby declare that my name has been inadvertently recorded as KENEIKHRIENUO, and henceforth I shall be known as KENEIKHRIENUO KERETSU for all purposes and intents.

Deponent

AFFIDAVIT I, Smt. VIZOKHONUO ANGAMI, Vide Registration No.2076/2016, Dated: 01/08/2016 do hereby declare that the names VIZOKHONUO ANGAMI, VIZOKHONUO and VIZOKHONUO KERETSU are one and of the same person.

That, henceforth my name shall be called and read as VIZOKHONUO ANGAMI for all purposes and intents.

Deponent

to the “incendiary” and “anti-Naga” slogans such as “There are no Nagas in Manipur”, and “If you are a Naga, go to Nagaland and the Nagas are refugees in Manipur” and termed the same as “a form of ethnic persecution”.

Taking a jibe at the subsequent call of the Manipur Chief Minister and UCM for communal harmony, the CJNCSD ridiculed the move as a “political gimmick”.

CJNCSD asserted that the present turmoil “is the last straw” for the Nagas to

Regd. No: 565/16

reaffirm its stand “that total separation of the Naga areas from the valley is the only recourse to permanent solution" and thus appealed for the immediate intervention of the Government of India to that effect.

CJNCSD further informed that the Committee along with a UNC delegation met the Union Minister of State, Kiren Rijiju on December 19 seeking immediate intervention of the Government of India.

The following demands were also reiterated dur-

DECLARATION

Date: 11.11.2016

I, SHRI. JOHN LERIINA, son of Shri. Choro Leriina, permanent resident of NST Colony, Kohima and presently at Chumukedima, Dist. Dimapur, Nagaland do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as follows: 1. That I am known as SHRI. JOHN LERIINA, son of Shri. Choro Leriina. 2. That I am serving in 9th NAP, BN (IR) in the rank of Constable and that in all my service record, my name has been recorded as JOHN RUTSA, however, I am desirous to delete my surname RUTSA and adopt the surname LERIINA. 3. That JOHN LERIINA and JOHN RUTSA, son of Shri. Choro Leriina, resident of NST Colony, Kohima is the same and single person. 4. That henceforth, for all records I shall be known as SHRI. JOHN LERIINA, son of Shri. Choro Leriina before all concern.

Declarant Sworn before me by the Declarant.

Notary public, Nagaland

AFFIDAVIT

Regd. No 5132/16 Dated 12/12/16 By this deed I, the undersigned MHALEZHüNUO CHIELIE previously called MHALEZHüNUO, and resident of Kohima Village L.Khel, Kohima Nagaland solemnly declare: 1. That for and on behalf of myself, my family and relative, I wholly renounce/relinquish and abandon the use of my former name/ surname of MHALEZHŰNUO and in place thereof, I do hereby assume from this date the name/surname, but assumed name/surname of MHALEZHüNUO CHIELIE. 2. That for the purpose of evidencing such my determination declare that I shall at all times hereafter in all records, deeds and writings and in all proceedings, dealings and transactions, private as well as upon all occasions whatsoever, use and sign the name of MHALEZHŰNUO CHIELIE as my name/surname in place and in substitution of my former name/surname.

3. That I expressly authorize and request all persons in general and relatives and friends in particular, at all times hereafter to designate and address me, my family and relative by such assumed name/surname of MHALEZHŰNUO CHIELIE. In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my former and adopted name/surname of MHALEZHŰNUO CHIELIE affix my signature and seal, if any, this 12th day of December 2016 Solemnly affirmed before me by the deponent on this day 12th of Dec’ 2016 Notary public, Kohima Nagaland

OFFICE OF THE

DIPHUPAR ‘B’ VILLAGE COUNCIL DIMAPUR: NAGALAND

Recogn. NO. GAB 13/17/83 (VOL-IV) 22-1-92

EXPULSION ORDER

Newmai News Network Tamenglong | December 19

Four persons including a 5 month old baby girl were killed and six others critically injured when a Tata Sumo jeep carrying 10 passengers plunged into a 100 metre gorge just above New Phalong in Tamenglong district today at 1 pm. The accident site is located about 12 km north of Tamenglong Police Station.

The parents of the child have been shifted to Tamenglong District Hospital for treatment and at the time of filing this report, remained unaware of the death of their child.

Further details are awaited.

The Diphupar B Village Council hereby expelled Mr. Mhathung Yanthan and his family member from the village jurisdiction for a period of 3(three) years w.e.f 19th Nov. 2016. It has also directed that Mr. Mhathung Yanthan and his family to vacate the village on or before 30th Nov. 2016. It has also directed that no transaction, whether buying or selling the plot of land owned by Mr. Mhathung Yanthan during the expulsion period. Further it has also resolved/directed that if any of his (Mhathung) family members found entering the village jurisdiction during the expulsion period shall be liable for ceasing of his plot of land and shall not be allowed to enter the village jurisdiction for life time. The council shall adhere to the land measurement as per the original Sale Deed dated: 30/05/2003 but not as per the patta in the possession of Mhathung Yanthan.

ing the meeting: Immediate nullification of the creation of the seven new districts; Unconditional release of the UNC leaders; To expedite the finalization of the Framework Agreement; Imposition of President’s Rule in the State of Manipur; Deployment of security forces in the Naga areas to protect the Nagas and their properties from the communal forces of the State; Immediate CBI enquiry into the incident, and Compensation for the victims.

4

wednesdAY 21•12•2016

business

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Mallya’s Kingfisher House auction fails for the third time mumbAi, December 20 (iANs): A State Bank of India (SBI)-led consortium’s attempt to auction the Kingfisher House here, once owned by industrialist Vijay Mallya, failed for the third time on Monday as there were no takers despite a 15 per cent cut in reserve price.

The reserve price for Kingfisher House, once the defunct Kingfisher Airline’s corporate office, was Rs 115 crore, which was 15 per cent lower than the failed second auction held in August, when the minimum sale price was fixed at Rs 135 crore. Both previous auctions failed as bidders found the reserve price too high.

The Kingfisher Villa in north Goa will be auctioned on December 22 at a reserve price of Rs 81 crore, which is 5 per cent lower than the auction held in October, when the lenders had tried to sell the sea facing property at Rs 85.29 crore. The liquor baron left the country in March and is currently said to be living in Britain. Kingfisher Villa, owned by United Breweries Holdings (UBHL), was mortgaged as collateral for loans to Kingfisher Airlines.

Besides these two properties, the banks are also once again auctioning the movable properties worth Rs 15.72 lakh kept at Kingfisher House, on January 5. These assets include 10 cars, which will be auctioned on an individual basis. Kingfisher Airlines owes around Rs 9,000 crore to the consortium of 17 banks.

“Enough currency with RBI to last beyond December 30” New Delhi, December 20 (PTi): The Reserve Bank was fully prepared to deal with currency shortages post demonetisation and has enough currency in its chests to last “far beyond” December 30, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

“There was full preparedness. There was not a single day when RBI had not released adequate currency to banks. There was a certain level of currency that was to be released and there was full preparedness for it,” Jaitley told reporters.

He said RBI has maintained the stock of currency through advance as well as current printing level.

“Today also RBI has more than adequate stock not only to last them for December 30 but to last them far beyond that,” he said.

Asked about the currency in circulation, Jaitley said the figures will be made public only after accurate calculation after December 30, the last date for depositing the scrapped currency in banks.

“The currency which got printed might have gone to Post Offices and from there to banks and again back to currency chest so there could be double counting and scope for inaccuracies. So we do not want to guess the figures (of currency in circu-

Airtel’s new infinity postpaid plans start Rs. 549 with unlimited voice calls, data benefits

New Delhi, December 20 (AgeNcies): The upheaval in the telecom industry caused by the entry of Reliance Jio still hasn’t died down, and now Airtel has updated its myPlan Infinity offers to include two more affordable postpaid plans - Rs. 549 and Rs. 799. Previously, the company’s lowest myPlan Infinity offer was Rs. 1,199 - and was launched back in August.

The Rs. 549 Airtel myPlan Infinity offer provides unlimited local and STD calls, and unlimited incoming roaming calls, monthly subscriptions to Wynk Music and Wynk Movies, 100 local and STD messages a day, and 3GB of 4G data per bill cycle. 3G handset users will get only 1GB of data.

The Rs. 799 Airtel myPlan Infinity offer is identical to the Rs. 549 plan, but has extra data per month. provides unlimited local and STD calls, and unlimited incoming roaming calls, Wynk Music and Wynk Movies subscriptions, 100 local and STD messages a day, and 5GB of 4G data. 3G handset users will get only 3GB of data.

The company has also updated its Rs. 1,199 myPlan Infinity offer. Compared to the new, cheaper plans, the older plan always offered unlimited outgoing roaming calls in addition. It also offers unlimited local and STD calls, unlimited incoming roaming calls, Wynk Music and Wynk Movies subscriptions, 100 local and STD messages a day, and 10GB of 4G data. 3G handset users will only get 6GB of 3G data.

Airtel has three more myPlan Infinity offers, featuring the same benefits as the Rs. 1,199 plan but with increased data caps per month - 15GB, 20GB, and 30GB, correof petrol, diesel and insurance prod- spondingly priced at Rs. 1,599, Rs. 1,999, and Rs. 2,999. ucts from state-run companies.

The government last week also School Education Department notiunveiled two lucky draw schemes to reward poor and middle-class confies on Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme sumers and small businesses for under Ministry of Minority Affairs conducting cashless transactions.

Modi’s shock currency replaceThe Department of School Education has notified that ment program is aimed at flushing the Ministry has observed instances where the scholout cash earned through illegal acarship amount could not be credited through Direct tivities, or earned legally but never Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode in the bank account of disclosed. students due to many bank accounts being indicated However, the decision has as Non-active/ Non operational/ Dormant/ Transacsucked 86 percent of India’s currention limit fixed account etc. Moreover, it has been recy out of circulation, leaving comported that in many cases, bank account validation in panies, farmers and households all PFMS has not been successful as many bank accounts suffering. Nine in 10 Indians live in are in banks where Core Banking facility is not availthe cash economy and many lack able. Therefore, those students who have applied for the smartphones and bank acscholarship under the scholarship scheme of Minorcounts they need to go cashless. ity Affairs, are asked to rectify them immediately to ensure smooth DBT release of scholarships.

Students have to ensure that:1. Name on Account Number should be same as per the candidate name in the scholarship application form. es critical, to people,” wrote Cook.

2.

IFSC Code and Account Number of the candidate Cook said Apple’s greatest difshould be correct. ferentiator was their culture 3.

Bank Account Number should not be stopped and people who were em/ closed before transferring of the scholarship bedded with “change amount. the world” attitude and 4.

Bank Account should be operative. boldness that “good is 5.

Bank Account Number should not have any fixed not good enough”. credit limit (i.e. sanctioned scholarship amount “They are the can be permissible to credit in account). foundation by which 6.

Bank account should not have any Minor/ Major ever ything else issues. comes about. With7.

In case of Joint Bank Account, candidate name out great people and a should be first in Bank Account. great environment that 8. If Sanctioned scholarship amount cannot be transpeople can live in, we would not have ferred due to invalid bank details of the candidate intellectual property. We would not then the fund will be deemed forfeited. have the best products. We would

lation),” he said.

Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the currency situation has considerably improved since November 8 and there is adequate currency with RBI to meet the demand till December 30.

While announcing the demonetising the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked holders of such notes to deposit them in banks.

He said notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 with new design and more security features were being introduced in the market.

The scrapped currency made up for 86 per cent or

over Rs 15.45 lakh crore of notes in circulation as on November 8.

Before the announcement of demonetisation, the government had already arranged for the printing of 200 crore Rs 2,000 notes, or roughly about Rs 4 lakh crore in value. They were the first set of notes to be circulated.

Thereafter, a new Rs 500 note was introduced and now all the four printing presses of RBI at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, Nashik in Maharashtra, Salboni in West Bengal and Mysuru in Karnataka are working overtime to replenish the exhausted currencies. .

IndiGo offer: Budget carrier’s new ‘India to offer tax benefits to scheme prices tickets at Rs 999 promote cashless economy’ mumbAi, December 20 (AgeNcies): IndiGo offer: Offering heavy discounts on air tickets for travel next year, budget carrier IndiGo has come up with a promotional offer where it is offering tickets from as low as Rs 999. The above mentioned offer by IndiGo is open till December 25 and applicable on all travel between January 9, 2017 to April 15, 2017.

However, the company has not disclosed the total number of tickets on offer under the promotional scheme. The 999 offer, for example, is applicable on the Bengaluru-Hyderabad route. For other routes, fares on Jaipur-Pune start from Rs 2,317,

Delhi-Guwahati from Rs 2,417, Delhi-Bengaluru from Rs 2,534 and Delhi-Goa from Rs 3,116.

Company’s arch rivals Jet Airways has also unveiled a similar offer, with tickets from Rs 990. For this Jet Airways offer which is applicable on travel on or after January 4, 2017, tickets must be purchased between December 20, 2016 to December 23, 2016.

Another budget carrier AirAsia India is selling all-inclusive tickets from Rs 917 under its special New Year Sale offer. AirAsia India’s offer is open till January 1, 2017, and is applicable on travel between March 1, 2017, and October 31, 2017.

BIRTHDAY GREETING

Best wishes on your birthday! We wish that your special day will be as sweet as you. May you be blessed by our almighty.

With lots of love and prayer from EZA, Odi and Oba FiRe StatiOnS

New York, December 20 (iANs): Rumours that Apple was no longer keen on the desktop business because of the emergence of portable market has been discarded by CEO Tim Cook, saying new desktops were on the way.

According to a report in TechCrunch on Tuesday that cited a posting by Apple CEO to an employee message board, the tech giant assures that “great desktops” are upcoming.

“Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we are committed to desktops,” Cook wrote.

“If there is any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear -- we have great desktops in our roadwe4 woMen HeLPLIne

std code: 03862

DiMaPUR Civil Hospital emergency-

232224 229529 229474 MH Hospital 227930 231081 Faith Hospital 228846 shamrock Hospital 228254 Zion Hospital 231864 224117 227337 Police Control room 228400 Police Traffic Control 232106 east Police station 227607 west Police station 232181 CIHsr (referral Hospital) 242555 242533 dimapur Hospital 224041 248011 Apollo Hospital Info Centre 230695/ 9402435652 railway 131/228404 Airport 229366 Indian Airlines 242441 225212 Chumukedima Fire Brigade 282777 nikos Hospital and 232032, research Centre 231031 nagaland Multispecialty Health & research Centre

248302, 09856006026

eden Medical Centre

248288

W AsHAMed CAssAVA CHoLerA CLIMB CrAVen FInesse HIdeoUt HUsH KeePsAKe LIKeness LoCAtIon LooPHoLe MACKereL MedIoCre MInIMIZe MIsGUIde ModerAte MonoPoLY MoreoVer MotIVAte MoUntAIn

O

R

neUrotIC oIntMent oPtIMIst orGAnIC oUtBoUnd oUtFIt PArAdIGM PeerLess PetItIon PLUMMet ProPHeCY QUAdrAte QUeLL QUotIent rACe reMote seeP teAL tIMe wInG

D

mumbAi, December 20 (reuTers): India will offer tax incentives to small businesses engaged in cashless transactions, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters on Tuesday, as part of the government’s fight against the cash economy.

Jaitley said the move would enable businesses with annual turnover of 20 million rupees ($294,000) to save up to 30% in tax payments.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock move last month to scrap old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, New Delhi has taken a raft of measures to encourage cashless transactions.

Earlier this month, it announced incentives including discounts of between 0.75 percent to 10 percent on digital payments for purchases

Apple says ‘great Mac desktops’ are coming

Dear Kumty,( Kobo)

KoHIMA soUtH: 0370-2222952/ 101 (O) 9402003086 (OC) KoHIMA nortH: 7085924114 (O) dIMAPUr: 03862-232201/ 101 (O) 9856156876 (OC) CHUMUKedIMA: 7085982102 (O) 8732810051 (OC) woKHA: 03860-242215/101 (O) 8974322879 (OC) MoKoKCHUnG: 0369-2226225/ 101 (O) 8415830232 (OC) PHeK: 8414853765 (O) 8413822476(OC) ZUnHeBoto: 03867-280304/ 101 (O) 9436422730 (OC) tUensAnG: 8414853766 (O) 9856163601 (OC) Mon: 03869-251222/ 101 (O) 9862130954 (OC) Kiphire: 8414853767 (O) 9436261577 (OC) Peren: 7085189932 (O) 9856311205 (OC) LonGLenG: 7085924113 (O) 9862414264 (OC)

Even GoAir is offering discounted tickets starting from Rs 1,057 on select sectors. As per its website, the fares are applicable till December 31. The Rs 1,057 fare, for example, is applicable on the Delhi-Jaipur route and Delhi-Leh fares, under the GoAir offer, start from Rs 2,889.

Betting on the discounting tricks, airlines have successfully managed to pull up the growth in domestic air travel. A report by the aviation regulator DGCA says that the number of passengers carried by domestic airline has scaled up by 23% to Rs 813.70 lakh during January to October in 2016.

S

E

08822911011 WOMen HeLPLIne 181 CHiLD weLFAre CoMMIttee Toll free No. 1098 childline

taHaMZaM (formerly senapati) Police station Fire Brigade

KoHIMA Ps/oCs

R

C

stdcode: 03871 222246 222491

KOHiMa Fire Brigade naga Hospital oking Hospital Bethel nursing Home northeast shuttles

north Ps Officer-in-Charge south Ps Officer-in-Charge Zubza Ps Officer-in-Charge Chiephobozou Ps Officer-in-Charge tseminyu Ps Officer-in-Charge Khuzama Ps Officer-in-Charge Kezocha Ps Officer-in-Charge women Cell Officer-in-Charge Control room

A

map. Nobody should worry about that,” Cook added.

Answering to a question, Cook said the Mac desktop was very strategic for Apple.

“It is unique compared to the notebook because you can pack a lot more performance in a desktop -- the largest screens, the most memory and storage, a greater variety of I/O, and fastest performance. So there are many different reasons why desktops not have the inventions or features I are really important, and in some cas- mentioned earlier,” Cook noted.

std code: 0370 2222952 2222916 2243339 2224202 08974997923

MOKOKCHUnG

9485232688 9485232689 9485232690 9485232693 9485232694 9485232695 2226216

woodland nursing Home

2226263

Hotel Metsüpen (tourist Lodge) 2226373/ 2229343

CURRenCY nOteS

Us dollars sterling Pound Hong Kong dollar Australian dollar singapore dollar Canadian dollar Japanese Yen euro thai Baht Korean won UAe dirham (Aed) Chinese Yuan

BUY (rs) 66.18 82.28 8.25 48.54 45.82 49.46 55.7 69.07 1.79 0.054 17.44 9.22

seLL (rs) 69.34 86.49 9.21 51.10 48.19 52.01 58.99 72.58 2.00 0.0604 19.47 10.29

leisure

Contact numbers

8575045501 8575045510 8575045502 8575045520 8575045508 8575045518 8575045506 8575045516 8575045507 8575045517 8575045505 8575045515 8575045549 8575045538 8575045509 8575045519 8575045500 (Emergency No. – 100)

std code: 0369

Police station 1 Police station 2 Police station Kobulong Police station tuli Police station Changtongya Police station Mangkolemba Civil Hospital

(DIPR)

CROSSWORD # 3810

H

SUDOKU

Simple Rules - Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Game Number # 3805

Answer Number # 3804

ACROSS 1. . Excrete 6. Chums 10. Purges 14. Odd-numbered page 15. Type of sword 16. Beige 17. Cause to glow 19. Jetty 20. Record player 21. Not her 22. Genuine 23. Hair net 25. Transport 26. Chills and fever 30. Womb 32. Advise 35. Mark for misconduct 39. Be a snitch 40. Lay bare 41. Impassive 43. Stableboy 44. Threaten 46. Where two pieces meet 47. Lance 50. Arbor 53. Words 54. Female deer 55. Fronting 60. Against 61. Illogical 63. Tropical tuber 64. Engineering school 65. Ill-gotten gains 66. Distinctive flair 67. District 68. Garden tool DOWN 1. Anagram of “Sire” 2. Lady’s escort 3. Behold, in old Rome 4. Sun 5. Notes 6. Spelling contest 7. Outcome

8. Chose 9. Appear 10. Acts as an agent 11. Less friendly 12. Gloomy, in poetry 13. Bad-tempered 18. Put clothing on 24. Not in 25. Exhaust 26. Does something 27. Satyr 28. “Do ___ others...”

29. Appraisal 31. Start over 33. Canker sore 34. Low-fat 36. Govern 37. Notion 38. School session 42. Worker 43. Cut down 45. Compel 47. Condition 48. Prison-related 49. Spare 51. Eastern newt 52. Train tracks 54. Devil tree 56. Masterstroke 57. Ancient Peruvian 58. An aromatic ointment 59. Delight 62. “Eureka!”

Answer to Crossword 3809

WEdnEsday 21•12•2016

NAGALAND

Peoples Council urges for immediate More oppose observance of Good Phom resumption of two-lane construction works Governance Day on December 25 Kohima, December 20 (mexn): The opposition towards observing Good Governance Day on December 25 is growing with more organizations, including Naga Hoho, appealing to change the date today.

Naga Hoho: Naga Hoho maintained that declaration of December 25 as Good Governance Day by the Government of India is “an act of breach of Constitution undermining the sentiments of Christian institutions, particularly in Nagaland, where we find 90.02% Christians.” Naga people including government employees celebrate Christmas with yearlong preparation, it pointed out.

A press release from the Hoho general secretary, Mutsikhoyo Yhobu and president, P. Chuba Ozukum further appealed to the Governor and Chief Minister of Nagaland to formulate policies and issue directives, particularly to the government employ-

ees, to observe Christmas with peace of mind along with the rest of Christian community in the world.

It opined that secularism in India means equal treatment of all religions by the state. “With the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution of India enacted in 1976, the preamble to the constitution asserted that India is a secular nation.

Thus, India is a country where we have various denominations and religious practices in different regions or states,” it said.

Meanwhile, the Hoho appreciated the Chief Minister of Nagaland for writing to the Prime Minister of India on the matter. It also mentioned that the Hoho delegation expressed unhappiness to the Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on November 29, 2016 for declaring December 25 as Good Governance Day and further requested him to take up the matter with Government of India on behalf of the people in the North East.

NCRC: Supporting the various organisations, especially from the Christian community, for voicing out against observing December 25 as Good Governance Day, Nagaland Christian Revival Church (NCRC) has expressed that if government does not listen to the wishes of the people, “a black spot will always remain on the birthday of our great leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee which falls on the same day since Christians may be exempted from observing the day as Good Governance Day.” NCRC president, Rev. Dr. N Paphino in a press release added that the church is not against observance of the Good Governance Day, but “the choice of December 25 is disrespect of the sacred religious which is very insecure to the minority section of India.”

APO: In a separate statement, Angami Public Organisation (APO) stated that to observe Good Governance Day on December 25

is a “direct insult” to religious sentiments of Christians, however small or minor the community is, in India.

APO general secretary, Keviselie Lhousa and vice president, KT Vilie mentioned that the observation of December 25 as the birthday of Christ is of great religious significance to the Christians and therefore the day is a national holiday for Christians throughout the world.

Meanwhile, APO has expressed appreciation to the Chief Minister of Nagaland for writing to the GOI to change the date of the Good Governance Day, which it said may not be adequate to protect the right of the people.

APO further requested the Chief Minister and Speaker to have a special Assembly Session to make resolution to differ the Good Governance Day in order to ensure and assure the Christians that “our great India respects the religion of its minority citizens.”

years. “As such, the project was a prayer answered to improve the socio-economy condition of the region.”

The Council, however, regretted that the project was abandoned since the early part of 2012 after huge cutting of earth works by the contractors due to which the roads which were motorable before has been cut off affecting not only the economy of the people but also compelling the students to travel long distances for their schoolings on foot, losing lives on the way to hospitals for want of timely medical treatment.

The PPC also disclosed that affected parties had submitted several representations to the authority concerned in the past for the resumption of works but to no avail.

It also said they had been always co-operating with the department and the contractors by way of giving lands at free of cost and even used the services of the locals for cooperating with the inspecting teams appointed by MoRTH, High Court and SC. “Now, the suffering of the people has become unbearable as the aban-

doned construction work started turning into muddy field.” Terming it a “breach of fundamental rights to the bonafide citizens guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” it further warned that there is every likelihood “the affected public might take the matter into their hands, and in the event of such development, the consequences would be unfortunate.”

The Council appealed to the Minister to immediately intervene into the matter and see that the resumption of the works during the coming monsoon is done.

ICAR conducts training on mushroom cultivation Dimapur, December 20 (mexn): ICAR Research Complex NEH Region, Nagaland Centre conducted a training programme on ‘Entrepreneurship development through mushroom cultivation’ in collaboration with ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Research, Solan from December 5 to 7.

The three days training cum demonstration was or-

ganized by Dr. G. Rajesha, Scientist (Plant Pathology) to develop the entrepreneurs in the mushroom cultivation.

The training programme consisted of technical sessions on cultivation of paddy straw, oyster, milky, shiitake and button mushrooms.

The resource persons from ICAR-DMR, Dr. Satish Kumar, Principle Scientist (Agril Entomology) and Dr.

Mahantesh Shirur, Scientist (Agril Extension) along with the scientists from RFRI Jorhat, NU-SASRD Medziphema, KVK Longleng and ICAR Nagaland Centre were involved in executing the hands on training on different mushroom cultivations.

In addition to the cultivation practice, value addition, processing and marketing of mushrooms were

also covered in the training programme.

During the valedictory programme, Dr. DJ Rajkhowa, Joint Director motivated the participants to come up as an entrepreneur in spawn production to mitigate the problem of spawn availability in Nagaland. Altogether, 30 farmers from Dimapur, Longleng, Pasighat attended the training.

DMC cesspool truck seized for disposing waste beside highway

Workshop on digital financial awareness held in Wokha WoKha, December 20 (Dipr): Workshop on digital financial awareness for VLE, Village Level Entrepreneurs was held on December 19 at DC’s conference hall, Wokha.

Common Service Centre, District Manager J. Abenthung Kikon gave a briefing about the various mediums of application available where financial transaction can be made digitally. He apprised the Village Level Entrepreneurs regarding campaign for registration of beneficiaries and the role of volunteers where volunteers are to carry out door to door sensitization of citizens on digital financial services and introduce cashless payment system to citizens.

He also stressed on the features and benefits of the medium available and added that for implementation of the project the team will be carrying out different activities across the nation.

The workshop was conducted in collaboration with Department of Information Technology & Communication.

Kohima, December 20 (neps): Phom Peoples’ Council (PPC) today drew the attention of Minister for National Highways, Nuklutoshi, with regard to the construction of two-lane roads, namely Mon-Tamlu-Merangkong; Longleng-Changtongya; Phek-Pfutsero; and Chakabama-Zunheboto. The project is under SARDF-NE. In a press release, PPC President Chiangan Phom said the roads are the “lifeline” for the people of Longleng district and had been motorable despite poor conditions for the last 100

ATMA Dimapur, Aghunaqa Block conducted Block Farmers Advisory Committee (BFAC) meeting on December 12 at Zutoi village. The programme, chaired by Moakumzuk, ATM, Aghunaqa Block, had discussions on the various farming activities like demonstrations, Kisan Ghostis and capacity building programme for the year 2016-2017 (1st Inst) to be undertaken in different villages.

Dimapur, December 20 (mexn): A cesspool truck belonging to the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC) along with the driver and three labours were apprehended by New Chumukedima Village Youth Society (NCVYS) while disposing cesspool waste beside the highway at New Chumukedima on December 20, informed a press release from NCVYS. The president of NCVYS, Dolhoubeizo Hama noted that despite prohibitory warning issued by New Chumukedima Village Council and the Youth Society on earlier occasion to desist from dumping of waste and carcasses of livestock and garbage beside the highway and in the River Chathe, “unheeding” livestock dealers have been dumping carcass

Dimapur Municipal Council workers with the seized cesspool truck.

of chicken, pigs etc, and the villagers and the entire commuters/travellers/wayfarers are made to bear the stench of the rotting carcasses.

The village leaders have taken strong exception of the hazardous practice and have warned of stern

and prompt action to those caught in the act, according to the release. NCVYS asserted the New Chumukedima youths will remain vigilant and also requested public to report such activity they come across.

The village youth body

also expressed dismay with the municipality “indulging in hazardous practice who are otherwise entrusted with the healthy wellbeing of the society.”

The DMC personnel were handed over to the Medziphema Police Station.

MEx FILE Traffic open on NH-202 along Mokokchung-Longsa-Chare Tuensang, December 20 (mexn): All the commuters plying on NH-155 (202 new) have been informed that the traffic closed for rehabilitation of bridges on NH-202 along Mokokchung-Longsa-Chare route has been opened for traffic with effect from December 21, 2016. Executive Engineer, PWD (NH), Division-III, Tuensang on behalf of the department in a press release has extended deep appreciation to all the commuters for their kind co-operation.

State VDB association keeps agitation in abeyance Company Commander of Chizami, 9 Assam Rifles under HQ IGAR (North) held an interaction with GBs, Chairmen, Head GBs and village council members of Lower Khomi, Middle Khomi, Upper Khomi, Losami, Thetsumi, Chizami, Chizami Town and Swemi villages of Chizami sub-division on December 16. The meeting focused on interaction between the locals and Assam Rifles to increase cooperation between the two and work together to A view of Sechu Zubza located along National Highway between Kohima and Dibring peace and harmony in Chizami region. mapur. (Morung Photo)

Vipassana Meditation Gypsy Camp St. Joseph Catholic Church observes thanksgiving mass Dimapur, December 20 (mexn): A 10-day Vipassana Meditation Gypsy Camp will be organized from January 4, 2017 onwards at the premises of Dimapur Dhamma Vihar, Kevija-U Village here by Assistant Teacher Suparimal Barua as nominated by the Vipassana Research Institute, Igatpuri (Maharashtra).

All interested aspirants from the North East Region belonging to the age group of 18 years and above irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion may participate in the said Vipassana Meditation Course and acquire the simple and scientific ancient technique of meditation which is known as Art of Living, stated a press release from Course Manager N Barua.

According to the release, Vipassana is one of India’s most ancient meditation techniques long lost to humanity. It was rediscovered by Goutama the Buddha more than 2500 years ago. The word Vipassana means seeing things as they really are. “It is the process of selfpurification by self-observation.

One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind.

With a sharpened awareness one

proceeds to observe the changing nature of body and mind and experiences the universal truths of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. The truth-realization by direct experience is the process of purification,” it said.

Stating that the entire path (Dhamma) is a universal remedy for universal problems and has nothing to do with any organized religion or sectarianism, thus, the release added, it can be freely practiced by everyone, at any time, in any place, without conflict due to race, community or religion.

The course is completely residential and free of cost. Participants have been advised to go through the Code of Discipline before enrolling their name for such course. The selected participants will have to stay for 10 days at the Gypsy Camp during the course. Seats are very limited. Selection will be made on first come first serve basis. The interested aspirants may contact N. Barua, Course Manager at 09436002475 or E-mail: nbarua.58@gmail.com for obtaining the application form with Code of Discipline etc. For further details, log on at www.vridhamma. org and www.dhamma.org.

VisWema, December 20 (mexn): St. Joseph Catholic Church, Viswema observed a thanksgiving mass on Sunday to “commemorate the graciousness of the Lord and warm response from well wishers in showing solidarity and blessing the community on the recently concluded joyous occasion, thus exhilarating the spirit of Jubilee to a meaningful celebration.”

A press release from Information & Publicity Committee of the jubilee informed that the community gratefully cherished the manifold blessings and unceasing providence of the almighty. “The various factors that nurtured and sustained the church to this stage are the Jesuits fathers and their scholastics, who never felt exhausted for the spiritual need of the church, with the support of the Diocese, some local evangelists from neighbouring Villages and the Bethany Sisters tending and dwelling among them,” it was stated.

The thanksgiving mass was

Dimapur, December 20 (mexn): The Nagaland State Village Development Board Association (NSVDBA) has kept in abeyance its proposed agitation. The association had threatened to stage agitation if the State Bank of India fails to release the wages of MGNREGA workers held up in the State Bank of India branches across the state by December 20. In a press statement, the association general secretary, Manthungo Kikon said the decision to withhold the agitation was arrived following the effort of the department concerned and the SBI to release the wages at the earliest time possible.

The association has informed the officials of the district VDB associations to be aware that the wages will be released anytime soon.

Pre Christmas celebrated at Athibung peren, December 20 (Dipr): The 36 Assam Rifles unit organized pre-Christmas celebration at Helipad, Athibung Town on December 19. The celebration included games and distribution of gifts to the participating students from Athibung Town and Jalukie Government High School. The students were also encouraged to keep their body fit and maintain discipline. The Assam Rifles also inspired them to join the security forces.

Final e-roll for East Dimapur Town Council Congregation at the thanksgiving mass of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Viswema on December 18.

officiated by Rev. Fr. Immanuel SJ, where he invited the gathering to gratefully recall the graciousness of the Lord for the past 50 years and to strive to be better Christians. The service was presided over by Rukuvito Peter, President, Catholic Union Viswema and the thanksgiving message was delivered by Nosazol Charles, Chairman, Ju-

bilee Organising Committee.

Charles highlighted different programmes organized to prepare for the jubilee in the past years. He also acknowledged the contribution of the various groups, Society of Jesus, Bethany congregation, Diocesan, well wishing benefactors, various sub-committees and the community members.

Dimapur, December 20 (mexn): ADC of Niuland & ERO, East Dimapur Town Council, V. Lovitoly Sema has notified that the list of amendments to the Final Electoral Roll for the constituency/ constituencies of the East Dimapur Town Council has been prepared with reference to 01/01/2016 as the qualifying date and in accordance with the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001 and the Nagaland Municipal Election Rules, 2003 made there under. A copy of the said roll together with the said list of amendments has been published and will be available for inspection in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Dimapur from December 20, 2016.

6

wednesday 21•12•2016

IN FOCUS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

The Power of Truth

The Morung Express

C O M M e n t A R Y

Garga Chatterjee

New currency notes are all Christmas: Revelation of God’s True Love about Hindi, Delhi and Modi R T volume Xi issue 350

Dr. Asangba Tzüdir

“Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas,’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding!” - Ebenezer Scrooge

he season of joy and celebration is here again, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The whole of Christendom is once again reminded of the miracle that took place in that stable in Bethlehem when the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Son of God with the purpose of redeeming the World. It all changed that one starry night, as God gave the World the ultimate gift of love: His Son Jesus, on a mission to save the world.

Decorations have filled the homes and streets in preparation for Christmas. Behold, the sights and sounds of Christmas fills us with a sense of joy. Celebrations have started to make festive the season. However, beyond decorations and festivity, in essence, Christmas is the revelation of God’s Love. Thus, the true meaning and celebration of Christmas can be fulfilled only when God’s Love is truly translated into act. God’s gift of Love unfolded when the son of God took human form and came to Earth with a mission to heal the sick, to restore sight for the sightless, to free the ‘bounded’ and to redeem the sins of the world and to give eternal life. Christmas, therefore is not simply the birth of baby Jesus but a celebration of the highest form of Love.

In Bethlehem, there was no room for Joseph and Mary and had only a stable on offer. The king was born in a stable.

This is a great lesson on humility for the Nagas. As Christmas approaches, and in our preoccupied and busy life, the popular Hymn ‘Have you any room for thee’ seems to remind us whether we have the Love of God in us this Christmas. How do we translate the Love of God into meaningful acts as Jesus has shown to us? The city is now decorated and lighted but if we fail to celebrate the Love of God, then Christmas will be just another lighted festival or a meaningless X-Mas tale, where Christ is replaced by an unknown entity called ‘X.’ The true spirit and flavour of Christmas, thus, cannot come through Christmas decorations, Christmas father, Christmas presents, Christmas cake, Christmas feast, Christmas dress, Christmas concert, Christmas ‘drinks,’ but in translating the Love of God that will fulfil the essence and spirit of Christmas.

This Christmas, if you join the likes of King Herod to kill baby Jesus, then it is as good as Christmas being cancelled in your heart and in your home. How would one think about celebrating Christmas when there is no room for Jesus or when there is no room for Love or when you have already killed baby Jesus through acts that does not glorify the name of Jesus? These are thoughts worth reflecting.

Baby Jesus has a Gift for each and every one of us this Christmas…He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and I will find rest for your souls.” Let this Christmas be an opportunity to ask baby Jesus that we may be able to translate the Love of God and celebrate Christmas meaningfully in its fullness beyond the ‘flesh and the lips.’

(Dr. Asangba Tzüdir is Editor of Heritage Publishing House. He contributes a weekly guest editorial to Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)

left wing |

Lin Taylor Thomson Reuters Foundation

How many migrants are there in the world?

W

ar and poverty in the Middle East and Africa have forced record numbers to flee their homes, fuelling Europe's largest refugee and migrant crisis since World War Two. Some 1.4 million people have headed to Europe in the last two years, triggering disputes between countries over how to handle the influx and boosting support for anti-immigration populists.

In the United States, President-elect Donald Trump, who made immigration a key campaign issue, has promised to build a wall along the Mexican border, deport millions of undocumented immigrants and ban immigration from countries that have been "compromised by terrorism".

Sunday, December 18, was International Migrants Day. Here are some facts on migrants and refugees: • The number of international migrants has increased over the past 50 years to nearly 250 million in 2015, from about 79 million in 1960.

• International migrants - those living in a country that is different from their country or territory of birth - make up 3.3 percent of the world's population.

• Migrants and refugees often travel in the same way.

But economic migrants leave their country to improve the future economic prospects of themselves and their families, whereas refugees are fleeing conflict or persecution.

• At the end of 2015 there were 65.3 million forcibly displaced people. They included 21.3 million refugees, 40.8 million internally displaced and 3.2 million asylum seekers.

• One in every 113 people globally is either an asylumseeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

• More than 4,700 migrants have died attempting treacherous sea journeys to Europe this year, the deadliest on record.

• Italy has become the top destination for those heading to Europe by boat, with more than 179,000 arrivals.

• The U.S. has more international migrants than any other country, ahead of Germany (12 mln), Russia (11.6 mln), Saudi Arabia (10.2 mln) and Britain (8.5 mln).

• The U.S.-Mexico migration corridor is one of the most travelled routes in the world. During fiscal year 2016, which ended in September, the number of people detained along the border surpassed 408,000, a 23 percent jump from last year, although it was less than in 2014.

• In 2015, migrants around the world sent nearly 600 billion dollars back to relatives in their home countries.

• Nine in 10 refugees are hosted in developing regions.

Turkey has the largest number with more than 3 million refugees.

• As weather extremes strengthen and sea levels rise, migration experts have warned that forced migration linked to climate pressures is poised to become a problem that could dwarf refugee flows.

• The average number of people displaced by natural disasters, including floods, storms and droughts, has averaged 22.5 million a year since 2008 and is growing.

Sources: Pew Research Center, UNHCR, UNICEF, IOM

eserve Bank of India has put up the designs of the new 500 and 2000 notes on its website. They confirm what many feared – that this design overhaul will be used to push certain iconographies that suits the incumbent BJP government. The difference between the old design and the new seem to be centered on three things Hindi, Delhi and Modi.

The new currency notes introduce numerals in Devanagri script, the present script of Hindi. This was not the case in earlier version of the currency notes. Is it the case that the government thinks that only Hindi people should be able to read the numerals in a script they are familiar with while the rest of us, the non Hindi majority, would not need to read numerals in our languages? Was there any complaint from any quarter than the stand-alone Arabic (or Hindu-Arabic as it is sometimes called) numerals in English script were not being able to do the job? Why was there no Hindi-Devanagri numeral before this? May be because it is actually unconstitutional and in contravention of a Presidential order.

Article 343 of the Constitution of the Indian Union states in no uncertain terms that, “[t]he form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union shall be the international form of Indian numerals”. The only modification to this comes in the form of the 1960 Presidential order, which allows for “the use of Devanagari numerals, in addition to the international numerals, in the Hindi publications of the Central Ministries depending upon the public intended to be addressed and the subject-matter of the publication. For scientific, technical and statistical publications… the international numerals should be adopted uniformly in all publications”. The present Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India should explain how do allIndia currency bank-notes fall within the category of “Hindi publications of the Central Ministries” and how does the choice of Devanagari satisfy the clause of “depending upon the public intended to be addressed”. Do the Government of India and RBI exist to serve only Hindi speakers? They might believe so. But non-Hindi linguistic groups are bound to Hindi people and to each other, only by the compact of the constitution and not by the Hindi imperialist whims or ideologies of the Union government and its agencies.

Policies that make a majority of the population feel like second-class citizens in their own homeland have typically had very bitter outcomes. The example of Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu vis-à-vis the marginalization of Bangla is close at hand. If the government actually cared about the numerical readability of the numbers, they could have opted for the Euro model. Thus, a proportion of the currency notes could have had numerals in Devanagari, a proportion could have had Bangla, a proportion could have had Tamil and so on, based on population proportion of citizens using those languages.

This is the model of the Euro, where it is a single currency, but there are specific variants to accommodate the diverse stake-holders. But doing that or even the present usage of Devanagari would need a constitutional amendment. The BJP, in its efforts to impose Hindi, is reopening the wounds of 1965 anti-Hindi imposition struggles that have not been forgotten by non-Hindi peoples. In this regard, the British had done a much better job, where numerals all many South Asian languages were given equal footing in font size, vis-à-vis English. Thus English, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, etc all had same font size numerals on bank notes as evidenced in the 10 Rupee currency note of 1910.

The new notes also have the new Indian Currency sign. That sign, derived from the “R” letter in Devanagari, was not chosen with the consent of the people. In my language Bangla and also in Assamese, the word for the currency unit is Taka or Toka. That starts with “T”. How, then, can the “R” sound be a general stand-in for all of us? And how did this get into the new currency note? How would have “R” people felt if a symbol for “T” sound were used instead? How is the sound of the currency name for Hindi people more important than the sound for Bengali or Assamese people?

One might argue that it is called Rupees in English and that has R. That too is without consent of non-Hindi

people and is a term handed down by the British. In Bengal, almost everyone grows up calling their currency as Taka, same as what they call it in Bangladesh. Such words are not categories of nationalism but words of everyday use. By downplaying them, a whole people are classified as second class.

While English is a foreign language for all, Hindi is also a foreign language for all non-Hindi people. The historic judgement of the Gujarat High Court in this regard must be remembered which stated that Hindi was a “foreign language” vis-à-vis the state of Gujarat. While Hindi and English are both foreign to all non-Hindi people, Hindi is foreign only to non-Hindi people but to Hindi people, it is their own. In a diverse, federal Union of States, like the Indian Union, the legendary Tamil Nadu leader and Chief Minister had laid down a principle that every citizen must share advantages and disadvantages equally. The usage of Hindi/ Devanagari violates this fundamental principle of peaceful coexistence and cooperation as it is not equidistant from all stake-holders and give undue advantage to those for whom this is the mother-tongue and standard script.

English provides that equidistance.

The Indian Union itself is the product of coordination and cross-linking of disparate ethno-linguistic nationalities mediated by English knowing elites of their respective groups. Most trans-linguistic discussions on political issues in the Indian Union happen in English.

Thirdly, the actual proportion of area or real-estate on the currency note that is given to Devanagari vis-àvis other language scripts has gone up.

This is a very serious affair. The relative space and size of Devanagari-Hindi things vis-a-vis our non-Hindi mother tongues reflects exactly what New Delhi thinks of the rest of us vis-a-vis Hindi. And there is a temporal pattern to it that has gone from equality to inequality. About 100 years ago, when the British ruled South Asia from their capital in New Delhi, they introduced the One Rupee currency note in 1917.

It is quite unfortunate that British colonizers treated our languages at a more equal footing than those they transferred power to – this is true for the post colonial fragments that came to be known as India and Pakistan. If after 1947, the absence of a British “referee” becomes a reason for Hindi to be imposed by brute force of Union government majority, nothing can be a greater betrayal to the anti-colonial ideals of the freedom struggle of which resistance to forcibly imposed culture was an important component. This marginalization of non-Hindi languages has continued unabashed. The equal proportion to all South Asian languages in the 1917 bank note as well as the 1940 bank note was replaced by a currency series that continued for the longest time after the 1947 transfer of power that privileged Hindi over everything else. 1947 sadly marks the watershed year for the loss of status for non-Hindi languages. In all the subsequent currency notes of the RBI, the proportion of space given to non-Hindi languages has shrunk progressively. This is not by

accident and is my conscious policy of Hindi imposition that is evident in all actions of the Union government and its agencies, since 1947. The pace of that has visibly quickened with a militant edge under the present BJP regime in New Delhi. Thus, in RBI issued currency notes, Hindi-Devanagari words are big and are supposed to carry information. Non-Hindi language scripts are progressively smaller and are basically decoration with no practical use except for non-Hindi citizens to console themselves that “diversity” is alive, though certainly not kicking. The Indian Union might want to take lessons from Singapore where the Chinese ethnicity’s (at 75% of the population) Chinese characters and less than 10% Tamil ethnicity’s (at less than 10% of the population) Tamil characters find equal font size and space on the Singapore Dollar. Hindi speakers in the Indian Union form a minority of the Indian Union population. Hindi mother tongue people form about 25% of the Indian population -that number too is arrived at after counting various linguistically non-Hindi languages as Hindi, because New Delhi orders so according to its political agenda.

Fourthly, the new currency notes do not have all the scripts of all the languages recognized in the Eight Schedule of the constitution. Santhali is an example of an Eight Schedule language with its own Olchiki script that remains unrepresented in the currency note. Sanskrit with less than 20000 self-reported speakers is represented while Santhali with nearly 70 lakh speakers is not. The same goes for Meiteilon (Manipuri), which is an Eight Schedule language with its own script. The new currency note was an opportunity to include Santhali and Meiteilon but clearly Hindi and its expansion is the only driving force in the linguistic changes. People should know that the Indian Union government considers languages to be a security issue! Which is why language groups and their scripts have to have their official stamp of recognition and approval from the Union Home Ministry. This apparently innocuous fact shows how the Union Home Ministry views the linguistic diversity of the Indian – as a security issue where it dictates rules. Deep down, it views diversity as a threat to the “idea of India”, in spite of its public posturing of “unity in diversity”. As we speak, the Union government is forcing small linguistic groups to adopt Devanagari as their official script and withholding recognition if they don’t agree. Thus, we find the absurd situation where speakers of Bodo, whose territorial homelands are not connected to any Hindi region, have been forced to adopt Devanagari. Thus, Hindi majority bureaucrats in the Union government are killing the autonomous choice of a linguistic group in deciding their own future. And the government is shameless enough to celebrate International Mother Language Day. The old currency notes tried to avoid location-based political symbolism except for the Parliament House in the denomination of 50 that arguably is for all. However, the

Red Fort of Delhi in the new 500 denomination touches a raw nerve for many. The Red Fort was the political headquarters of the Mughal Empire for a long time. Indian Union came into existence in 1947. It is not a successor state to the Mughal Empire.

The Red Fort is a sign of pre-British Delhi-based imperialism, signifying the power of imperial invaders who attacked the countries of Bengalis, Marathis, Axomiya, Odiyas and many others. Our ancestors resisted such invasions but Delhi won by brute power. Imperial Delhi ruled by posting mostly Hindi/Urdu speaking military people in our homelands.

Delusions of civilizational continuity premised on imperial occupation do not help cooperation, slogans of ‘cooperative federalism’ notwithstanding. What does the Government of the Indian Union want to remind the people who were conquered and defeated by the forces headquartered in the Red Fort by putting this picture on the bank note?

The use of the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” (Clean India expedition) logo accompanied by its Hindi slogan in Devanagari script crosses all limits of propriety. Never before has a government put one of its own schemes on something as non-partisan and common as a currency note.

This mischief would basically result in an advertisement of the present government for all times to come, till these currency notes are withdrawn.

This is certainly not illegal but not all shameless things are illegal. This starts a very unhealthy precedent.

Now, nothing stops any later day Union government to use currency notes as their pet scheme advertising billboards. The abuse started earlier during the Congress regime with the use of the face of MK Gandhi, who was associated with a particular party that is still in business and were opposed by other parties who are also still in business.

Narendra Modi announced the new currency notes after the 5001000 demonetization announcement. His address was in Hindi, without any subtitles and then in English, with Hindi subtitles. So, the Union government does care whether Hindi speakers comprehend the English speech but doesn’t care whether the majority of the citizens, that is, non-Hindi-English speakers understand anything at all. This imperial attitude, that treats a majority of the citizens as second class, was furthered by all PSU (that is New Delhi controlled) banks that mostly did not care to print any information for the public in their mother tongues. Last heard, the new currency notes do not match the structural specifications of the ATM machines all over. Since the top-down imposition of currency notes by New Delhi is sacred, all the ATM machines have to be structurally changed to match and fit what New Delhi has produced. New Delhi won’t change what it produces to match what already pre-exists all over. And that is a good analogy of how New Delhi frames its policies in all matters regarding non-Hindi people, currency notes included.

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 21•12•2016

Morung Express Learning

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

7

The Oxford Dictionaries Electricity-from-water: Scientist seeks commercialisation Word of the Year 2016 a t erendum in the UK and the presidential election in the US, and becoming associated overwhelmingly with a particular noun, in the phrase posttruth politics.

he Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is post-truth – an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief ’. why was this chosen?

The concept of posttruth has been in existence for the past decade, but Oxford Dictionaries has seen a spike in frequency this year in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States. It has also become associated with a particular noun, in the phrase post-truth politics.

Post-truth in 2016 Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary, now often being used by major publications without the need for clarifica-

tion or definition in their headlines.

The term has moved from being relatively new to being widely understood in the course of a year - demonstrating its impact on the na-

INTERNET IN CLASSROOMS? Researchers give thumbs down

U

sing the internet in classrooms for study purposes, is likely to affect academic performance, even among the most intelligent and motivated of students, researchers warned.

When internet is used in classrooms, students tend to spend most of their time on social media, reading email, shopping for items such as clothes or watching videos, that could lead to poorer scores.

Internet's use was a significant predictor of students' final exam score, even when their intelligence and motivation were taken into account, said lead author Susan Ravizza, Associate Professor Michigan State University in the US. "The detrimental relationship associated with non-academic internet

use raises questions about the policy of encouraging students to bring their laptops to class when they are unnecessary for class use," Ravizza said.

Previous research has shown that taking notes on a laptop is not as beneficial for learning as writing notes by hand.

"Once students crack their laptop open, it is probably tempting to do other sorts of internetbased tasks that are not class-relevant," Ravizza added.

For the study, the team studied internet use on laptop in a one-hour lecture course with 127 students.

The study showed that using the internet for class purposes did not help students' test scores.

The findings are forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.

(IANS)

Quiz #40

tional and international consciousness. The concept of post-truth has been simmering for the past decade, but Oxford shows the word spiking in frequency this year in the context of the Brexit ref-

a brief history of post-truth The compound word post-truth exemplifies an expansion in the meaning of the prefix post- that has become increasingly prominent in recent years.

Rather than simply referring to the time after a specified situation or event – as in post-war or postmatch – the prefix in posttruth has a meaning more like ‘belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant’. This nuance seems to have originated in the mid-20th century, in formations such as post-national (1945) and post-racial (1971).

Post-truth seems to have been first used in this meaning in a 1992 essay by the late Serbian-American playwright Steve Tesich in The Nation maga-

The Department of Commerce, Unity College organized a departmental debate competition on the topic “Demonetization: A Gamble” on December 13. Altogether, 18 students participated in the debate competition with nine participants each in the teams speaking ‘for’ and ‘against’ the motion. The Best Debater awards were bagged by Puja Jain (B. Com II Sem),

Arijit Sharma (B. Com II Sem), Priyanka Priyadarshini (B. Com VI Sem) and Kumari Thakur (B.

Send in your answers to the Morung Express Office (address given below) or email to morunglearning@gmail.com or WhatsApp/SMS @ 7085976283 Answers to Quiz #39: 1-b, 2-b, 3-c, 4-a, 5-d Winner of last week’s contest: Shokhum, Chumukedima Consolation prizes: Suipeule, Half Nagarjan, Dimapur & Niseno Terhuja, NST Colony, Dimapur First Prize- Rs. 300 Two Consolations – Rs. 100 each Winners may collect the prize money from The Morung Express Office, H/No.4 Duncan Basti, Dimapur *Winners should bring along a valid ID to claim the prizes

(IANS)

Com VI Sem). Prizes and certificates were handed out to the winners as well as to all the participants.

IIT JEE Main 2017: 5 things you need to know before filling the application form

J

EE Main 2017: The last date to register for the examination is January 2, 2017 CBSE has released the application form of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) 2017 on the official website. The exam will be conducted on April 2, 2017 (Sunday) by the JEE Apex Board. The last date to register for the examination is January 2, 2017.

Check out these key facts that you need to know before you file your application form for JEE Main 2017: 1) From this year, Aadhaar card issued by the UIDAI has been made mandatory to fill the application form. All those students who do not possess the card should apply for it.

2) In case the applicants who do not receive the Aadhaar card, they need to

enter 28 digit Aadhaar enrollment ID printed on the slip at the time of filling online application form.

3) To qualify for appearing in exam, students need to have at least 75 per cent marks or be in top 20 percentile in Class 12 examination. For SC/ST students, the qualifying marks would be 65 per cent in the class 12 examination.

4) There shall be no weightage for the 12th class marks in calculating the ranks in the JEE (Main) examination 5) This year, JEE Advanced 2017 will be conducted by IIT Madras on May 21.

The cut-off for the aggregate marks in Class 12 for SC and ST candidates is reduced from 70 per cent to 65 per cent for JEE Advanced.

1. web Development at Frantic Infotech Location – Work from Home Stipend – Rs. 4,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/532 Deadline –2nd January 2017 2. Digital Marketing at Leo Edunomics Location – Work from Home Stipend – Rs. 4,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/533 Deadline – 2nd January 2017 3. Business Development at Jeevanksh Location – Guwahati Stipend – Rs. 6,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/534 Deadline – 30th December 2016 4. Graphic Design at Foxeye cctV Location – Work from Home Stipend – Rs. 3,000 – 5,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/535 Deadline – 30th December 2016

Source: The Indian Express

5. Photography at Sports Paddock Location – Work from Home Stipend – Rs. 5,000 – 6,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/536 Deadline – 28th December 2016 6. Market Research at Mentorz Hub Location – Guwahati, Shillong Stipend – Rs. 8,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/537 Deadline – 30th December 2016 7. Business Development at Kapalin Biosciences Location – Jorhat, Siliguri, Imphal Stipend – Rs. 3,000/Month Link – internshala.com/i/538 Deadline – 28th December 2016 Courtesy & Disclaimer: Internshala (www.internshala.com) – World’s largest internship platform. The Morung Learning will be carrying content from internshala every week. All content are those of Internshala. The Morung Express is not responsible or liable for any content in this article.

Christmas in Nagaland

The month of December took off with a combination of activities and incidents in Nagaland this year - the Hornbill festival, night bazaars coupled with the effects of demonitization, the PDS scam and ACAUT, and more. Now with just a few days left for Christmas, here’s a reminder of what December is all about for Christians around the world. This week’s writer takes us back to her sweet reminisce of Christmas day and also reflects more on the spirit of Christmas in Nagaland.

2. Which state became the first gambling jurisdiction in India to award a license to an online poker operator? a) Goa c) Karnataka b)Maharashtra d) Nagaland

5. The Supreme Court recently banned the sale of liquor within _____ on either side of National and State Highways across the country. a) 100 metres c) 500 metres b) 250 metres d) 1 km

make a cell that produces electricity.

Using magnesium ferrite which was two inches in diametre, they were able to produce current of 86-110 milli-ampere and voltage of 0.9 volts, which is enough to charge a small plastic fan or an LED bulb of one watt.

"For the last 70 years, research was going on around the world on how to dissociate water molecules to create energy, but we were the first ones to do it," Kotnala said, adding that all the components and raw materials were from India.

The path-breaking work done by Kotnala straddles three different disciplines of science -- chemistry, physics and material science -- and can be claimed to be the biggest breakthrough in the world of batteries since 1980, when the working principle for the lithium-ion battery was demonstrated by scientist John Bannister Goodenough.

The lithium-ion battery was commercialised by Sony in 1991 and since then has become the indispensable innard of every consumer-electronic device, laptop, smartphone, DSLR, etc.

Kotnala, whose research experience spans 32 years, most of it on solar cells, is proud of the fact that the whole enterprise was an Indian affair from the beginning. He also said that it has a strong chance of revolutionalising the green energy field at a time nations around the globe are trying to find means to curtail their carbon-footprints.

He also admitted the limitations of the prototype cell and added that the most important thing was that it worked in principle, and the concept now can be made refined by degrees.

"Since we can muster just so many resources at the lab, the model is not devoid of limitations. But that can be addressed once we have the right backing," he added.

Weekly InternshIp lIst

1. Who is the new Chief of the Indian Army? a) Gen Dalbir Singh c) Lt Gen Pravin Bakshi b) Lt Gen Bipin Rawat d) Lt Gen PM Hariz

4. Which club did Real Madrid defeat to win the 2016 Club World Cup? a) FC Barcelona c) Bayern Munich b) Atletico Madrid d) Kashima Antlers

Source: https:// en.oxforddictionaries.com/ word-of-the-year/word-of-theyear-2016

College holds debate on demonetization

PaRtIcIPatE & wIn

3. Who is the newly crowned Miss World 2016? a) Stephanie Del Valle (Puerto Rico) b) Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramirez (Dominican Republic) c) Natasha Mannuela (Indonesia) d) Catriona Elisa Gray (Philippines)

zine. Reflecting on the Iran-Contra scandal and the Persian Gulf War, Tesich lamented that ‘we, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some post-truth world’.

There is evidence of the phrase ‘post-truth’ being used before Tesich’s article, but apparently with the transparent meaning ‘after the truth was known’, and not with the new implication that truth itself has become irrelevant.

A book, The Post-truth Era, by Ralph Keyes appeared in 2004, and in 2005 American comedian Stephen Colbert popularized an informal word relating to the same concept: truthiness, defined

by Oxford Dictionaries as ‘the quality of seeming or being felt to be true, even if not necessarily true’.

Post-truth extends that notion from an isolated quality of particular assertions to a general characteristic of our age.

top scientist at National Physics Laboratory (NPL) here has said that industry should come forward to commercialise the concept of the hydroelectric cell as it has the potential to be a very cheap source of electricity.

The inventor of the cell that produces electricity from water, R.K. Kotnala, the Chief Scientist at NPL, urged industry leaders to come forward and help improve the workability of the cell, which, he said, can be a great source of green energy.

"It is a portable source of electricity as it can be used as a dry cell (like the common battery used in torches, remotes).

And once it goes into production, will be cheaper than solar energy," Kotnala told IANS in an interview.

"In case of wind energy, electricity can be produced using local sources only, plus a single windmill won't do, you have to build a series, which is very expensive. None of these factors can be a hindrance with the hydroelectricity cell," he added.

He said that there is no potential harm from the battery upon disposal as no chemicals are used in its making.

A team led by Kotnala proved the workability of producing electricity from water at room temperature without the use of any chemicals after working on it for 13 years.

"We spent the first 11 years in working out the principle of the technology, and two years on building the device," Kotnala said.

The results were published in the International Journal of Energy Research (IJER) in June this year under the title "Green Hydroelectrical Energy Source Based on Water Dissociation by Nano-porous Ferrite".

The team used nano-porous magnesium ferrite to split water into hydronium (H3O) and hydroxide (OH) ions spontaneously, and silver and zinc as electrodes to

I

t has taken me a tremendously long time to come up with this article. One specific reason for that is maybe because I don’t have any good things to write for Christmas. Now I associate Christmas with the onset of the Hornbill Festival, traffic jams, dust, endless night bazaars, noise, the rush of bodies jostling around in the markets, drunkards, rash drunk driving, parties, accidents, a reminder of growing older with another year gone by and to further add to the list this year, the demonetization drama. The magic of Christmas seems to have disappeared. It feels like Christmas is just another festival in our calendar and not the most important day for a Christian.

It was a different scenario when I was a little girl. Christmas was the time of merriment and fun; but in that entire hullabaloo, the importance of Jesus’ birth was never forgotten or overshadowed. Prayer and worship were the most essential part of any gathering. I remember my siblings and I staying up on every 24th and 31st Dec and as soon as the clock struck 12 we will wake up Dad and Mom so that Dad can say the prayer for the family. That moment was the most important part of the whole festive season. After that, we all snuggled up in our beds and slept with hope in our hearts for a wonderful year ahead. The assurance of God’s presence in our life was always renewed with prayer. We attended church services, visited family and friends

Kahor Raleng, HoD, English and invited them for dinner. And in any of our gatherings, some amount of singing hymns and worship was ever present.

The word Christmas means Christ’s Mass, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Old Testament prophets like Isaiah revealed many centuries before that Christ would be born with a unique purpose…a purpose unparalleled in human history.

Christ was born unto us so that we will be saved from the consequence of sin. In the Gospel of Luke 2:11, it says “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The true purpose of Christ’s birth is to save us from sin, to give us eternal life. He brought with Him not only everlasting life but also peace, love and hope. Christ is God’s precious gift to humankind, the ultimate sacrifice. God gave us His only Son as a gift. This fact calls us to be grateful and show our gratefulness in return. This Christmas season presents before us an opportunity to give and share a smile, a little kindness, love, hope, joy, and peace to make a difference, in our lives and in the lives of others.

How many of us realise the true essence of Christmas? Today, Christmas as a whole has been commercialised and romanticised. Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, the carols have all been commercialised. It has become more of a competition where you show off your wealth, showcase your creativity and it appears

like we compete how to best show how materialistic the whole Christmas season is about. Some individuals or organisations seem to be in a rush to cash in on the season and make some profit out of it.

Young people today associate Christmas with parties and outings and are reluctant to spend time in the church for worship.

The true spirit of Christmas is lost and the essence of Christmas is fading gradually. Either people are too rich that they take pleasure in showing off their wealth or they are too poor to afford one square meal and Christmas is just a shadow.

There seems to be desolation everywhere along with the cold winter.

This Christmas also seems to be overshadowed by the demonetization brought upon by the Modi Government, the rampant corruption exposed by the ACAUT, the constant wars in Syria, Iran and the disturbances in Kashmir. Surrounded by all these happenings it is hard to visualise a Merry Christmas with all its merriments and good tidings. The environment was similar in the first century C.E. when Christ was born. But His birth brought transformation in the lives of those who accepted Him and His gospel.

There were also who rejected His love. But even today the same transformation can be experienced by all those who accept Him. It is a matter of our choice, and the choices we make today make us.

Christmas is a time to rejoice and be

glad. It’s a time to share, a time to give back hope to the lost and lonely, a time to bring back God in our lives. What are your plans this Christmas? Are you planning to do something different? What can we do this Christmas to make it meaningful? Let us contemplate on these questions. And if you are surprised to realise that you are in a far better place than so many people around you, be grateful. But remember gratefulness does not only end in being grateful but in the act of being grateful.

Reach out to the downtrodden this Christmas; help the needy and the lost. Go out of your way in helping others by sacrificing your time, money and your pleasures and you will see how satisfying that will be. Let us ask ourselves this question “Is there something I can do to give back hope to this horizon?” like the band Gothard sang in their song Merry Christmas.

Let us recapture the magic of Christmas and in all our Good Samaritan works let us not forget God, which we tend to do quite so often. God should be the focus and the purpose of all that we do. Wishing you all a blessed Christmas!

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 21•12•2016

INDIA

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Demonetisation : Several discrepancies emerge in RBI, Govt figures on new notes New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): Several new and large discrepancies have emerged in the stated positions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government on the printing and distribution of new currencies following the demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8.

These discrepancies include a highly unlikely surge in the supply of highdenomination notes in two days. They also show substantial divergence in figures given by the central banker and those given by the government in Parliament. And finally there's an unexplained hiatus in the supply of notes for 11 days. A security guard stands in front of a van carrying Indian currency outside a bank in Either parliament has been Chandigarh. (Reuters File Photo) misled, or claims about the supply by the RBI are flawed. Arjun Ram Meghwal, cate- shot up by over Rs 1.13 lakh Now things begin gorically stated that, by No- crore in just two days. This, to get even more curiouser.

Let's look at the figures vember 29, a total of 1,608 when the RBI had supplied On the day the monetary in chronological order: million pieces (160.8 crore) Rs 2.16 lakh crore in 17 days policy was announced (DeOn November 28, the of Rs 2,000 denomination till then - at an average of cember 7), the RBI revealed RBI issued a press release and 156 million (15.6 crore) only Rs 12,700 crore a day. a new set of disbursal figures. saying that the public had pieces of Rs 500 had been Moreover, Meghwal's The Deputy Governor of RBI, withdrawn Rs 2.16 lakh crore supplied -- a total of 1,764 number pertained only to R. Gandhi, said a total of Rs in new notes from accounts million pieces (or 1.76 bil- high denomination notes, 4 lakh crore had been disor ATMs till November 27. lion) amounting to a little whereas the RBI number bursed as of the previous day.

As RBI chose not to give any over Rs 3.29 lakh crore. The was a mix of all denominaOf this amount, Rs 1.06 break-up of this amount, it is minister's reply came on tions. In other words, the dis- lakh crore was in smaller defair to assume that some of December 6. crepancy between the two nomination currency notes, this was in lower denominasets of numbers would have according to Gandhi, while There are two significant been even higher if the min- the rest -- Rs 2.94 lakh crore tion notes of Rs 100 or less.

However, according to points to note here: ister's reply in Parliament -- implicitly, was by way of a written reply to a question One, that the govern- had included the smaller de- high-denomination notes. in the Rajya Sabha, the Min- ment's number implies that nomination currency notes This figure of Rs 2.94 ister of State for Finance, the currency disbursal had disbursed till November 29. lakh crore, which was an-

India condemns assassination of Russian ambassador New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): India on Tuesday strongly condemned the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, in Ankara. "India strongly condemns the tragic assassination of the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Turkey," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "We are deeply saddened and shocked by this dastardly act (of Monday)," it stated. "We offer our condolences to the family of the ambassador ... and share their pain and grief. There can never be any justification for violence and terrorism." On Monday, a gunman in a black suit and tie shot dead tKarlov as he was speaking at the opening of a photographic art exhibition in Ankara.

'Army capable of any challenge' luckNow, December 20 (iANS): Army Chief General Dalbir Singh on Tuesday said the Indian Army has the capability to meet any challenge. On a visit to the Army's Central Command headquarters here ahead of laying down office this month-end, Gen. Dalbir Singh said the Indian Army has the "capability, will and resolve" to meet any challenge. He added that the Indian military has earned recognition in the global arena and respect domestically. General Dalbir Singh is set to retire on December 31 and will be succeeded by Lt. Gen. Bipin Rawat.

JS Khehar appointed next CJI New Delhi, December 20 (PTi): Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, who led the five-judge constitution bench in the Supreme Court which had struck down the controversial NJAC Act for appointment of judges, was today appointed as the next Chief Justice of India. Sources in the government said President Pranab Mukherjee has cleared his name and the notification is being issued shortly. A copy of the notification will be formally handed over to Justice Khehar by a senior Justice Department official tomorrow morning, the sources said. He will be the 44th Chief Justice of India. CJI T S Thakur had earlier this month recommended the name of Justice Khehar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, to be his successor. He will take oath of office on January 4. Justice Khehar, 64, will be the first Chief Justice from the Sikh community.

CJI Thakur demits office on January 3. Justice Khehar will hold the tenure for over seven months till August 27 next.

'34% bio-medical equipment across country dysfunctional' New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): A massive exercise to map the inventory of all bio-medical equipment, including their functionality status, has revealed that 13-34 per cent of equipment across the country was dysfunctional across states, an official said on Monday.

The cost of the dysfunctional equipment is Rs 1,015.74 crore, the Health Ministry said. "The mapping was successfully completed in 29 States resulting in 7,56,750 number of equipment in 29,115 health facilities, costing approximately Rs 4,564 crore being identified," the Health Ministry said in a statement here. The mapping was part of a massive exercise to map the inventory of all bio-medical equipment taken following the instructions of Health Minister J.P Nadda. Nadda's order comes after recent observations made by the Prime Minister on equipment in various hospitals that are either unused or there is no maintenance resulting in wastage of resources, The Ministry has also prepared comprehensive guidelines along with Request For Proposal (RFP) on Biomedical Equipment Management and Maintenance Program (BMMP), linked with uptime of equipment.

"Under BMMP, support is being provided to the state governments to outsource medical equipment maintenance comprehensively for all the equipment across all the facilities. Subsequent to inventory mapping, RFPs/tenders were rolled out to award maintenance contract for the respective states," said the Ministry.

Confusion over RBI deposit curbs draws flak

New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): The government on Tuesday drew flak from the opposition amid confusion over RBI's new curbs on depositing more than Rs 5,000 in scrapped notes even after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said any amount of old currency can be deposited in banks in one go and without questions being asked.

But despite Jaitley's clarification on Monday night, the central bank didn't amend its notification that said amounts exceeding Rs 5,000 in 500 and 1,000 rupee notes can be deposited till December 30 after explaining to bank officials the reasons for not having done it earlier.

The Finance Minister at an event on Tuesday didn't give a direct reply when reporters asked him about the government's flip-flop on allowing the deposit of old notes after the November 8 decision to recall the high-value currency bills.

The issue reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh urging it to put on hold the latest RBI order.

Amarinder Singh urged the apex court to treat his petition as a public interest litinounced seven days after the date of disbursal given in Parliament reply, is substantially less than the amount of Rs 3.29 lakh crore mentioned in the minister's written statement about supply till November 29.

Yet again, on December 12, Gandhi, while speaking to reporters, said that a total of 1.7 billion notes of higher denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 had been issued to the

gation as the government was causing havoc with changing rules daily.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram lashed out at a "desperate government resorting to desperate measures" and said the new cap on deposits left the "poor and middle class high and dry". "RBI makes new rules on deposit, FM (Finance Minister) contradicts. Who should citizen believe?

Neither has credibility,"he tweeted.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the "Reserve Bank of India was changing rules like the PM changes his clothes".

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) dubbed the curbs "whimsical and anti-people" and demanded its immediate retraction and also other restrictions on using and depositing the old tender until alternative arrangements were made.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the nation had got "a weak" Prime Minister who changes his decision every other day. AAP leader Ashutosh said since the demonetisation was announced, the government had issued a total of 59 notifications, changing the rules to exchange or deposit old notes.

public till December 10.

That means, a full 11 days after Meghwal's reply that 1.76 billion high-value notes had been disbursed by November 29, the RBI was stating that the notes given out had been less or at best the same -- if one assumes that he was giving a rounded-off figure of 1.7 billion.

Was the disbursal or printing of new notes stopped from November

29 to December 10?

How does the RBI square with these discrepancies?

Further, the government has been talking about the printing presses working overtime. Economic Affairs Secretary, Shaktikant Das, told Doordarshan in an interview on December 17 that 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the currency being printed a few days after the demonetisation date was of Rs 500 notes.

According to Meghwal's information, the amount of Rs 500 notes supplied till November 29, a full 20 days after demonetisation, was only Rs 7,800 crore (15.6 crore notes).

In comparison to the value of notes that were demonetised - Rs 8.58 lakh crore - the new Rs 500 notes amount to less than one per cent (0.91 per cent). If we take Gandhi's words at face value, then, even on November 10 - more than a month after demonetisation came into effect - there was not much change.

Of course, the Rs 2,000 notes, which the Economic Affairs Secretary has said were being printed for "months" are considerably more in circulation.

The value of such notes supplied on November 29 was Rs 3.21 lakh crore (160.8 crore x Rs 2,000)- almost 47 per cent compared to value of Rs 6.86 lakh crore (of Rs 1,000) demonetised. But Rs 2,000 notes are not easy to spend and have created a bottleneck in the cash economy.

Again, according to Gandhi's information, till December 10, there seems to have been no change even in the Rs 2,000 notes circulated.

The shortage of notes, it seems, would continue much beyond the 50 days that the prime minister has mentioned.

Bimal Gurung, 17 others surrender No populism: FM hints at railways fare hike in next budget kolkATA, December 20 (PTi): Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung, his wife Asha and several senior leaders of the hill outfit surrendered before a city court today which granted them bail in connection with the murder of All India Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang.

Gurung and 17 others surrendered before the chief judge, city sessions court, Subhra Ghosh as per direction of the Calcutta High Court which had granted them anticipatory bail.

Gurung, who is also the chief of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in Darjeeling, his wife Asha, Deputy Chief Executive of GTA Col Ramesh Allay and 15 others were given bail on a bond of Rs 10,000 each by the chief judge.

A division bench comprising justices Ashim Kumar Roy and M M Banerjee had on December 14 granted anticipatory bail plea to 22 persons accused in the murder of Tamang and directed the petitioners to surrender before the chief judge of city sessions court here by December 21.

The high court had directed

that charge should be framed in the murder case by February 1, 2017 before the designated CMM court here. The bench also directed that all accused should be present in Kolkata, a day before the framing of charge against them and none of them would be able to leave the jurisdiction of city court without the court's leave till disposal of the trial.

Tamang was hacked to death in Darjeeling town on May 21, 2010 when he was overseeing preparations for a public meeting.

The CBI had on May 29, 2015 filed a charge sheet against the GJM leaders under IPC sections for murder and criminal conspiracy in the Tamang case.

The investigating agency had filed the final supplementary charge sheet before the court against Gurung, his wife Asha, former GJM leader Harkabahadur Chettri, GJM Assistant General Secretary Binoy Tamang, Pradeep Pradhan, Deputy Chief Executive of GTA Col Ramesh Allay and 17 others for criminal conspiracy, murder and other charges.

New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday indicated that no populist measures will come through for the railways when its budget will be merged with the general budget from the next fiscal. "Around the world that organisation is successful which follows a financial model wherein consumers pay for the services they use," Jaitley said here at the national conference on Accounting Reforms in

Indian Railways organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He said populism required that consumers do not need to pay for the services they use but these were not the principles "on which the largest operator of transport can work".

"We aim for a creation of Railways as a service organisation which is commercially able to sustain itself and also provide world class quality and

infrastructure."

The Finance Minister said dangers of losing out at competition with other modes of transport had started reflecting in the Indian Railways account books.

"Because of this pressure, Railways was keen that Finance Ministry takes over its budget."

The government earlier this year announced the merger of the rail budget with the general budget, putting an end to the over 92-year old practice.

Police books mother punching her toddler in video New Delhi, December 20 (iANS): Delhi Police on Tuesday filed a criminal case against a mother seen in a video punching and slapping her 18-month-old son.

The case was registered against the woman after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) forwarded its complaint to police along with the video captured by a CCTV camera installed by the mother-in-law of the accused.

DCW Chief Swati Maliwal assured justice in "an absolutely

shocking" incident.

"The mother-in-law of the woman seen beating her son (in the video) approached us and showed us the evidence. The manner in which the woman is beating her son is obnoxious," Maliwal told reporters. The mother, a resident of Geeta Colony, is absconding.

"We have filed an FIR. The accused has fled and an investigation has been initiated," Deputy Commissioner of Police, East,

Omvir Singh said.

The victim's grandmother told the police: "My son has been married to this woman for three years and they have three children. She has been beating all her children and husband. We did not have any evidence. We recorded her actions on the camera and approached the DCW."The boy was also brought before the Child Welfare Committee and his custody handed over to his aunt and the grandmother.

In India, as income rises, fewer girls are born Sanjukta Nair

I

IANS/IndiaSpend

ndia's sex ratio at birth - the number of girls born alive for every 1,000 boys - declined over the last 65 years from 946 to 887 even as per capita income increased nearly 10 times, according to recently released government data.

India's child sex ratio, or the number of girls below six per 1,000 boys, too has declined over the years. In 2011, it stood at 914 -- the lowest since Independence.

In societies that show a marked son preference -- especially in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa -- growing affluence does lead to a fall in the fertility rate, but it also results in a skewed sex ratio.

This is because rising income, which results in increased literacy, makes it easier for families to access sex-selective procedures such as amniocentesis.

As India's per capita income rose to Rs 72,889, its total fertility rate (average number of children born per woman) fell from 5.9 in 1960 to 2.5 in 2012 and to 2.4 in 2014. But its sex ratio at birth fell too.

Consider similar trends in other Asian countries where it is believed that only sons can perpetuate the family line and receive inheritance, apart from earning dowry for the family.

In 2015, China's per capita income stood at $7,924.7, way

Schoolgirls make their way to their school through a vegetable field early morning in New Delhi. (Reuters File Photo)

above India's $1,581.6, but its sex ratio at birth this year was estimated at 869 -- much lower than the world average of 971 -according to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook.

South Korea showed an annual per capita income of $20,971 in 2006, but it was among the first countries to report a skewed sex ratio at birth traceable to the widespread use of sex-selective technology.

The link between rising income, falling fertility rate and sex ratio at birth becomes clear as we study the figures reported from various Indian states.

The five richest states in India had per capita incomes higher than the national average, and total fertility rates lower than the national average. But, with the exception of Sikkim, all of them

recorded sex ratios below 950.

Delhi, with the secondhighest per capita income of Rs 221,219 in 2013-14, has not crossed the 900 mark yet in sex ratio at birth (896).

Telangana, India's newest state, had the fourth-highest sex ratio at birth (961) and a per capita income of Rs 95,961, which made it amongst the top 10 richest states in the country. However, its districts have been showing declining child sex ratios.

Among the states that reported high sex ratios at birth, only Kerala figured among the top 10 richest states. Arunachal Pradesh, which had the country's highest sex ratio at birth (993) in 2014, ranked 13th on the per capita income list.

Kerala's position as an outlier, with a sex ratio at birth of 948

-- the fifth highest in the country -- can be attributed to its literacy rate of 93.91 per cent in 2011, the highest at the time.

The only places in India that had sex ratios at birth more favourable to infant girls are the Union territories of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep, with ratios of 1,031 and 1,043, respectively.

Haryana and Tamil Nadu, the country's third- and fifthrichest states in terms of per capita income, are the fourthand third-lowest states in terms of sex ratio at birth.

The prevalence of female infanticide in Tamil Nadu has resulted in its sex ratio at birth declining from 935 in 2005 to 834 in 2014. Its per capita income had risen nearly four times in the same period.

Some states -- such as Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura -- do not even have recorded data of sex ratio at birth for certain years.

Tripura registered the sharpest one-year decline in sex ratio at birth -- from 1,055 in 2013 to 882 the following year. Nagaland saw a decline in its sex ratio at birth from 873 in 2013 to 860 in 2014, while in Manipur it dropped to 684 in 2014 from 700 in 2013.

Tribal populations in India have traditionally been genderbalanced. But states with high tribal populations are now reporting declining child sex ratios. One possibility, as per one report, is that these

societies are imitating the ways of the so-called upper castes.

When families opt for fewer children, the pressure on women to produce sons becomes more intense.

"Modernisation and rising incomes make it easier and more desirable to select the sex of your children. And on top of that, smaller families combine with greater wealth to reinforce the imperative to produce a son," said a March 2010 article in the Economist news magazine.

A 2006 article published by the National Academy of Sciences in the US traced the link between wealth, fertility rate and a skewed child sex ratio: "When large family size is the norm and access to contraception is limited, son preference has little influence on sex ratio because couples continue bearing children, largely irrespective of the gender of the children.

"Female infanticide, abandonment of newborn girls, and neglect of daughters have been used in such societies to increase the male-to-female ratio in families, especially in situations where poverty has limited the number of desired children."

The report also pointed out that the sex ratio at birth becomes skewed in favour of boys when fertility rates are low "by choice or coercion". Then, "female births must be prevented to allow for the desired number of sons within the family size norm".

wednesdAY 21•12•2016

WORLD

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

9

Truck rams into Christmas market, killing 12 people Police say arrested man may not be Christmas market attacker beRLIN, DecembeR 20 (ReuteRS): A Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested on suspicion of killing 12 people by mowing through a Berlin Christmas market in a truck may not be the attacker, and the real perpetrator could still be on the run, German police said on Tuesday.

The truck smashed into wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of west Berlin’s most famous landmarks, at about 8 p.m. on Monday.

Forty-eight people were injured, 18 severely.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: “There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack.”

She added: “I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum.”

In a dramatic twist, police later said the suspect had denied the offence and might not be the right man.

“According to my information it’s uncertain whether he was really the driver,” Police President Klaus Kandt told a news conference.

Berlin police tweeted that they were “particularly alert” because of the denial. “Please be alert,” they added.

Die Welt newspaper quoted an unnamed police chief as saying: “We have the wrong man. And therefore a new situation. The true perpetrator is still armed, at large and can cause fresh damage.”

The truck belonged to a Polish freight company and its rightful driver was found dead in the vehicle.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said a pistol believed to have been used to kill him had not yet been found.

German media said the arrested man had jumped out of the driver’s cab and run down the street towards the Tiergarten, a vast park in central Berlin.

Several witnesses called police, including one who chased the suspect while on the phone, constantly updating officials on his whereabouts.

“STATE OF WAR” The attack fuelled immediate demands for a change to Merkel’s immigration policies, under which more than a million people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere have arrived in Germany this year and last.

“We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who

read: “Keep on living, Berliners!” One woman was crying as she stopped by the flowers.

Bild newspaper cited security sources as saying the arrested man was Naved B. and had arrived in Germany a year ago. In legal cases German officials routinely withhold the full name of suspects, using only an initial.

A security source told Reuters the suspect had been staying at a refugee centre in the now defunct Tempelhof airport.

Die Welt said police special forces stormed a hangar at Tempelhof at around 4 a.m. (0300 GMT).

A refugee there who gave his name only as Ahmed told Reuters security guards had told him there was a raid at around 4 a.m.

Prosecutors declined to immediately comment on A tow truck operates at the scene where a truck ploughed through a crowd at a Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz the report. square near the fashionable Kurfuerstendamm avenue in the west of Berlin, Germany, December 20. (REUTERS Photo)

always only want to see good, do not want to see this,” said Klaus Bouillon, interior minister of the state of Saarland and a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU).

Horst Seehofer, leader of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, said: “We owe it to the victims, to those affected and to the whole population to rethink our immigration and security policy and to change it.”

The record influx has hit Merkel’s ratings as she prepares to run for a fourth term next year, and boosted

support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). Senior AfD member Marcus Pretzell blamed Merkel for the attack on Twitter.

AfD leader Frauke Petry said Germany was no longer safe and “radical Islamic terrorism has struck in the heart of Germany”.

The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on

Bastille Day, killing 86 peo- perceptions of migration. ple. That was claimed by Is- “I think that the cup of palamic State. tience is beginning to spill over and Europe’s public EUROPE DIVIDED will rightfully expect rathThe mass influx of mi- er stronger measures,” he grants and refugees to said. the European Union has Nigel Farage of Britain’s deeply divided its 28 mem- UK Independence Party bers and fuelled the rise of tweeted: “Terrible news populist anti-immigration from Berlin but no surprise. movements that hope to Events like these will be the capitalise on public con- Merkel legacy.” cerns next year in elections On Tuesday morning, in France, Germany and investigators removed the the Netherlands. black truck from the site for Slovakia’s Prime Min- forensic examination. Peoister Robert Fico said the ple left flowers at the scene latest attack would change and notes, one of which

“FEAR OF EVIL” Merkel and de Maiziere both stressed the need for Germans to remain uncowed by the attack.

“We do not want to live paralysed by the fear of evil,” said the chancellor, who discussed the attack by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama and convened a meeting of her security cabinet.

“Even if it is difficult in these hours, we will find the strength for the life we want to live in Germany - free, together and open.”

Other European coun-

tries said they were reviewing security.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said he had told the heads of regional police forces to intensify surveillance measures. He called for biometric and fingerprint checks to be introduced along the Balkan route travelled by many migrants arriving in Europe, in order to better control foreign jihadist fighters’ movements.

London police said they were reviewing their plans for protecting public events over the festive period.

Flags will be hung at half-mast around Germany on Tuesday and Berlin Christmas markets were closed for the day out of respect. The German soccer league announced a minute’s silence at all matches on Tuesday and Wednesday, at which players will wear black ribbons.

Dresden tourist information service said authorities had erected concrete blocks around the Striezelmarkt, one of Germany’s oldest Christmas markets, to increase security.

Festive markets selling ornate, often hand-crafted decorations, seasonal foods and hot spiced wine are a beloved tradition in Germany.

Manfred Weber, head of the centre-right European People’s Party, said: “It’s not an attack on a country; it’s an attack on our way of life, on the free society in which we are allowed to live.”

UN informs 15,000 flee into China as Shortness of breath may be a sign of heart failure Myanmar's army battles ethnic rebels YANGoN, DecembeR 20 (ReuteRS): Up to 15,000 people may have fled across Myanmar's border into China in the past month, a United Nations agency has said, as fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic armed groups intensifies.

Aid access to people affected by conflict in the northern states of Kachin and Shan "is getting worse, not better", Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar, said by email.

The OCHA said in an update on Monday that, as well as the estimated 15,000 new refugees, another 2,400 people had been displaced internally in the northern part of Shan state since Nov. 20, when a coalition of four rebel armies attacked military and police outposts.

The attacks disrupted trade across the border and China has expressed concern over stray shells and bullets landing in its territory.

Weeks of clashes and the new displacements have damaged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's hopes of securing peace in the long-running conflicts in the mountainous border areas, a goal she has made her administration's top priority.

Observers fear Suu Kyi's fledgling civilian administration is unable to rein in the army, which retains political power and is free from civilian oversight.

"Humanitarian access to conflict areas in Kachin and Shan states is currently worse than at any point in the past few years," Peron said.

"This has seriously affected the ability of humanitarian organisations to provide life-saving aid to tens of thousands of (internally displaced) and other conflictaffected people."

Work by international aid agencies has also been restricted in Myanmar's northwest for more than two months. Government forces launched "clearance operations" there after armed men, believed to be from the oppressed Rohingya Muslim group, attacked border police.

The army said it would step up operations in Shan state following the November attacks.

A Myanmar police official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters, told Reuters that government forces had clashed with armed groups in northern Shan at least 170 times in the past month.

In a separate offensive to the north, government forces took control of a strategic hill close to the Kachin Independence Army's headquarters at Laiza on the Chinese border on Saturday, according to state media.

Shells reportedly landed near a camp for the internally displaced just outside Laiza on Sunday, the OCHA said, citing unconfirmed reports that it could not verify independently.

No casualties were reported but shelters were damaged and about 400 people had to be evacuated, it said.

A Myanmar government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Arctic lakes melting earlier each year LoNDoN, DecembeR 20 (IANS): Thanks to the warming temperatures, Arctic lakes, covered with ice during the winter months, are melting earlier each spring, new research has warned.

The team, who monitored 13,300 lakes using satellite imagery, have shown that on average ice is breaking up one day earlier per year, based on a 14-year period between 2000 and 2013.

"Previous studies have looked into small numbers of lakes to show the impact of changes in temperature on the cyclic nature of lake-ice cover," said Jadu Dash, Professor at University of Southampton in Britain.

"However, ours is the first to use timeseries of satellite data to monitor thousands of lakes in this way across the Arctic. It contributes to the growing range of observations showing the influence that warmer temperatures are having on the Arctic," Dash noted.

The researchers used information on how light is reflected off the lakes, as recorded by NASA's Moderate Resolution

Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor, which collects a range of spectral and thermal data on a daily basis as it circles the globe on two satellites.

This study used the changes in reflectance to identify the freezing and thawing processes.

The researchers discovered that all five study areas in the Arctic (Alaska, Northeast Siberia, Central Siberia, Northeast Canada and Northern Europe) showed significant trends of early ice break-up in the spring, but to varying degrees.

Central Siberia demonstrated the strongest trend, with ice starting to breakup an average of 1.4 days earlier each year.

Northern Europe showed the lowest change of ice break-up at 0.84 days earlier per year. They found a strong relationship between decreasing ice cover and an increasingly early spring temperature rise.

Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

LoNDoN, DecembeR 20 (IANS): Suffering from chronic shortness of breath? Beware, you may be at risk of a potential heart failure or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), a study has found.

Shortness of breath, which is medically known as dyspnea, is often defined as an intense tightening in the chest, air hunger or a feeling of suffocation.

"Shortness of breath is often a sign of heart or lung disease because these two organs are most closely involved in the respiratory system," said Nasser Ahmadi, research student at University of Gothenburg in Sweden, in a statement.

Chronic shortness of breath can also be considered as an equally important warning signal as high blood pressure, the researchers said.

However, shortness of breath is an often overlooked symptom as people tend to associate it with ageing.

"The fact that people do not seek medical advice for their breathlessness is often due to people associating their symptoms with the natural process of ageing. But if you notice that you experience increased shortness of breath during exertion, you should seek medical attention," Ahmadi added.

The study showed that the faster the detection, the better prognosis. With early intervention, patients can avoid suffering and the need for hospitalisation decreases.

In the study, people with shortness of breath for six weeks or more who sought medical advice for their breathlessness were found to have underlying diseases like a potential heart failure or a hidden obstructive lung disease that was developing.

Invoking Syria, policeman kills Russian ambassador to Turkey ANKARA, DecembeR 20 (AP): A Turkish policeman fatally shot Russia's ambassador to Turkey on Monday in front of a shocked gathering at a photo exhibit and then, pacing near the body of his victim, appeared to condemn Russia's military role in Syria, shouting: "Don't forget Aleppo! Don't forget Syria!"

The leaders of Turkey and Russia said the attack in Ankara, the Turkish capital, was an attempt to disrupt efforts to repair ties between their countries, which have backed opposing sides in the Syrian civil war.

An Associated Press photographer and others at the art gallery watched in horror as the gunman, who was wearing a dark suit and tie, fired at least eight shots, at one point walking around Ambassador Andrei Karlov as he lay motionless and shooting him again at close range.

The assailant, who was identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-yearold member of Ankara's riot police squad, was later killed in a shootout with police. Three other people were wounded in the attack, authorities said.

The assassination came after days of protests by Turks angry over Russia's support for President Bashar Assad in the Syrian conflict and Russia's role in the bombardment and destruction of Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

The gunman shouted about Aleppo in Turkish, and also yelled "Allahu ak-

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov lies on the ground after he was shot by Mevlut Mert Altintas at an art gallery in Ankara, Turkey, December 19, 2016. (REUTERS Photo)

bar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great," continuing in Arabic: "We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad."

The attack, condemned by the White House and the United Nations, was another sign of how Turkey, a NATO member and a partner in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group, is struggling to contain multiple security threats. The war in Syria has been a major problem for years, sending several million refugees into Turkey and, more recently, drawing in Turkish troops.

The spectacle of 62-year-old Karlov's assassination by a member of the Turkish security forces at a photography exhibit meant to highlight Russian culture reinforced the sense of unease over the region's conflict and complex web of alliances and relationships.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the killing of Karlov as an attempt to damage RussiaTurkey ties "and to thwart a peace process in Syria which Russia, Turkey and Iran have been actively trying to promote."

Putin said he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a phone call that Russian investigators would fly to Ankara to conduct a joint probe with their Turkish counterparts.

"We must know who was directing the killer," Putin said in televised remarks.

He ordered top officials to strengthen protection of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow and asked Turkey to increase security at the Russian mission in Ankara.

In a video message shown on several Turkish TV channels, Erdogan said: "This is a provocation to damage the normalization process of Turkish-Russian relations. But both the Rus-

sian and Turkish administrations have the determination not to fall for this provocation."

Karlov was several minutes into a speech at the embassy-sponsored exhibition in Ankara when he was gunned down. Altintas, the gunman, also fired shots in the air, sending panicked audience members running for cover, and smashed several of the framed photos hung for the exhibition. The floor was splattered with blood, and the ambassador's eye glasses lay a few feet from his body.

After shooting the ambassador, the gunman got into a 15-minute shootout with police before he was killed, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

The shooter's family home in the western province of Aydin was later searched and his mother, father and sister were detained, the news agency said, without citing sources. The man's house in An-

kara was raided and his roommate, also a police officer, was also taken into custody, it said.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Altintas, who was born in 1994, had been an officer with Ankara's riot police squad for more than two years. He did not give a motive for the attack.

"It's a tragic day in the history of our country and Russian diplomacy," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Ambassador Karlov has made a lot of personal contributions to the development of ties with Turkey. He has done a lot to overcome a crisis in bilateral relations," she said. "He was a man who put his heart and his soul into his job. It's a terrible loss for us and also the world."

Karlov joined the diplomatic service in 1976. He served as Russia's ambassador to Pyongyang from 2001-2006, and later worked as the chief of the Foreign Ministry's consular department. He had served as the ambassador to Turkey since 2013. The White House condemned the assassination, saying "this heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable," President Barack Obama was briefed by his national security team while on vacation in Hawaii U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned what he called a "senseless act of terror," for which "there can be no justification."

10

wednesdAY 21•12•2016

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Heroes and zeroes of sports in 2016 PAris, December 20 (AFP): AFP Sport looks back at a selection of 'heroes' and 'zeros' from 2016:

HEROES Leicester City Claudio Ranieri's Leicester City pulled off one of the greatest shocks in English football history by defying title odds of 5,000-1 to lift the Premier League trophy. Having miracuously avoided relegation the previous season, the Foxes rode that wave of momentum all the way to a fairytale triumph. Their rags-to-riches revival was epitomised by the rise to prominence of former non-league striker Jamie Vardy whose 24 goals was second only to England team-mate Harry Kane. Riyad Mahrez scooped the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, while N'Golo Kante and Wes Morgan Leicester City pulled off one of the greatest shocks in English football history by defying title odds of 5,000-1 to lift the Premier League trophy joined them in the team of the year. his hometown of Mbekweni. He was vault and floor exercise. A slip on the Tasman rivals again vanquished in denied gold by the slimmest of mar- beam cost her a shot at a fifth title, even- the final -- later that year. All Black Eder The Guinea-Bissau born striker gins in Brazil, finishing one centime- tually settling for bronze, but by then greats Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and emerged as Portugal's unlikely hero tre behind American Jeff Henderson, her status as the world's best female Ma'a Nonu bowed out of the internaby firing the national team to a first but still provided one of the most in- gymnast was in no doubt. Biles became tional game but Steve Hansen's side the fifth woman to win four gold med- didn't miss a beat in 2016. A 3-0 series major title with a 1-0 extra-time win spirational stories of the Games. als at the same Games after Hungar- win over Wales preceded a convincover France in the Euro 2016 final. ian Agnes Keleti (1956), Soviet Larissa ing Rugby Championship triumph With just three goals in 28 appear- Chicago Cubs Joe Maddon's team ended a 108- Latynina (1956), Czech Vera Caslavska that culminated with a 57-15 throtances -- all of them in friendlies -tling of South Africa in Durban. New and only 13 minutes played en route year wait by beating the Cleveland Zealand then beat Australia at Eden to the final there was little to hint at Indians in thrilling fashion to clinch Park to make it a record 18 wins in a Eder's heroics at the Stade de France. the World Series. The Cubs romped row before a first defeat to Ireland in But an early injury to Cristiano Ronal- through the regular season, winning Chicago halted their historic streak. do forced a re-think and the 28-year- over 100 games for the first time since old was brought on towards the end 1935, but again appeared destined ZEROES of normal time. His 30-yard thunder- to succumb to the the 'Curse of the Maria Sharapova bolt left Hugo Lloris grasping at thin Billy Goat' after falling behind three One of the golden girls of tennis, air and Portugal hoisting aloft the games to one. However, Chicago ralSharapova's reputation suffered a Henri Delaunay trophy. "The ugly lied to level the best-of-seven contest damaging blow with news of a failed duckling went and scored. Now he's and, ignited by Dexter Fowler's leaddoping test at January's Australian a beautiful swan," quipped Portugal off home run, raced into a 5-1 lead Open. The Russian tested positive for in the decider. The Indians hit back coach Fernando Santos. with Rajai Davis launching a two-run (1968) and Romanian Ecaterina Szabo the banned heart drug meldonium home run off flamethrower Aroldis (1984). "I'm not the next Usain Bolt or and was subsequently handed a twoLuvo Manyonga The South African battled both ri- Chapman to tie the scores before a Michael Phelps," the Texan said. "I'm year ban, later reduced to 15 months on appeal. Fellow professionals revals and addiction along his road to brief rain delay added to the drama. the first Simone Biles." acted with a mixture of criticism redemption which culminated with But the Cubs weren't to be denied, and support for the five-time Grand a silver medal in the long jump at the winning 8-7 to snap the longest title All Blacks New Zealand reinforced their bill- Slam champion, while sponsors Rio Olympics. Manyonga burst onto drought in the game. ing as rugby union's preeminent force were also divided by her transgresthe international stage with a fifthwith an 18-match winning streak -- a sion. Both racket manufacturer Head place finish at the 2011 worlds in Dae- Simone Biles The American marked her first record for a tier-one nation. It started and sportswear giant Nike stood by gu but descended into a drug-riddled "living hell" after growing hooked on Olympic Games with a performance with a thumping win over the Walla- Sharapova but others swiftly pulled crystal meth. He served an 18-month for the ages. Aged just 19, Biles won a bies in August 2015 and blossomed the plug on their relationship. She is ban for a failed test in 2012 but even- record-equalling four gold medals in into an historic run that included a eligible to return in April 2017, but it tually got clean after leaving behind the team event, individual all-around, third World Cup title -- their trans- won't be an easy road back with her

every move set to be scrutinised in- the first player since John McEnroe in tensely.

1990 to be banned for poor on-court behaviour and also withdrew from Sam Allardyce Rio, along with compatriot Bernard Landing the England manager's Tomic, following a row with the Ausjob should have represented the pin- tralian Olympic Committee. nacle of Allardyce's career, but just 67 days after his appointment he was Tyson Fury unceremoniously axed following The self-styled 'Gypsy King' was his controversial remarks in a news- on top of the world after ending Wladpaper sting. The 62-year-old was se- imir Klitschko's long reign as heavycretly filmed giving advice on how to weight champion in late 2015, but a circumvent transfer rules while also year on his reputation lies in tatters. mocking predecessor Roy Hodgson. Fury tested positive test for cocaine His reign was the shortest of any Eng- while battling severe depression and land manager by far and piled on fur- twice cancelled planned rematches ther embarrassment after the Three with Klitschko. He backtracked hours Lions' shock defeat to Iceland at Euro after claiming he was retired in a foul2016. "Entrapment has won on this mouthed Twitter rant and a turbulent occasion and I have to accept that," a 12 months was topped off with the resigned Allardyce told reporters out- suspension of his boxing licence. Beside his home in Bolton. yond his brash persona, Fury's fragilities were laid bare with his return to Ryan Lochte the sport looking remote.

The American added 4x200m freestyle gold to his list of honours in Bra- Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini zil but an infamous 'robbery' scandal It is almost exactly one year since soon turned that achievement into football's two biggest powerbrokers a mere footnote. Lochte claimed he were booted out of the game. A conand three team-mates were mugged troversial two million Swiss franc by robbers pretending to be police as ($2 million, 1.8 million euro) paythey returned home from a night out in ment precipitated their demise with Rio. But police quickly denounced the a series of appeals ultimately falling bogus story with CCTV footage show- short. Initial eight-year bans were ing the group had vandalised a petrol station. Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen and Jack Conger were banned for four months, while swimwear manufacturer Speedo headlined a host of sponsors to sever ties with Lochte, who was handed a 10-month ban. The 32-yearold was also charged with filing a false robbery report -- a crime punishable by up to six months in prison.

Nick Kyrgios The talented but volatile Australian endured another turbulent year on tour which ended with an eightweek ban and fine for 'tanking' against Mischa Zverev at October's Shanghai Masters. Kyrgios agreed to consult a psychologist and his suspension was trimmed to three weeks, clearing him to return for the start of the 2017 season. The 21-year-old vowed to "use this time off to improve on and off the court" but only time will tell whether it's truly a case of lesson learned. He is

reduced to four years for Platini and six for Blatter and while the Frenchman vowed to clear his name in a Swiss civil court, Blatter conceded he had reached the end of the road after turning his back on his last legal recourse. The Swiss, head of FIFA since 1998, was replaced by Gianni Infantino, while Slovenia's Aleksander Ceferin took over at UEFA from Platini.

Balotelli stirs Nice hopes of fairytale finish

To promote sporting talent and promote sportsmanship amongst the youth, 35 Assam Rifles under the aegis of HQ 7 Sector AR of IGAR (North) on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of Naginimora village presented sports items to the youth of the village on December 17. The AR also addressed the villagers on the occasion and assured all assistance for development and youth empowerment.

public discourse

Has Nagaland become a Russian oligarchy?

Thepfulhouvi Solo

T

he Nagaland Teachers and the ACAUT were protecting their Rights in peaceful Assembly when the Government of Nagaland used disproportionate Force and Violence against them, this is intemperate and unjustified.

The Government of Nagaland acted like a Russian Oligarchy.

Some 4 years ago three women sang a song at the Cathedral of Christ Saviour in Moscow. They sang: “Mother Mary, Please Drive Putin Away”!

The Women were promptly arrested, put in the lock-up and then after 5 months, they were all sentenced to 31/2 years in Jail.

There was world wide Protests and Condemnations of the Russian Actions as Undemocratic, Intemperate and Severe.

In Nagaland, just the other day on 15 December, the Government used Water Cannon, Tear Gas and Police Baton Charges on peaceful Assembly of the ACAUT at Khermahal Traffic Junction Dimapur. This Point is well outside the Government’s declared Curfew Zone of 100 meters around the Dimapur City Tower.

Before that the Government used the same Water Cannon on Non-Violent Teachers at Kohima. The Teachers were Protecting their Rights for Payment of the Teaching Services they rendered to the Government for

many Months. And they were shot with Water Cannon!

These show Nagaland Government’s increasing nervousness at every Non-Violent Peaceful Public Assembly. What do the Government fear from unarmed peaceful Teachers and the ACAUT? ACAUT’s only aim is to clean the Naga Society of the hopeless Corruption at high Places and the Unauthorised Taxation of NSCN and the NNC (Non-Accordist Groups). ACAUT is only out doing what the Government has become hopelessly ineffective!

Earlier, I phoned an ACAUT Member who was present at the unnecessary Repackaging of the Government Rice from Gunny Bags to Plastic Bags at the Godown.

I asked; “Was the Godown opened by breaking open the Lock? Or how and who opened the Godown?”

I was replied: “There were several complaints ACAUT received earlier saying that illegal Re-packaging of rice is going on in the Godown. So some of us ACAUT Members went to see it.

Indeed, when we reached the Godown, We saw it open and Labourers were re-packaging Rice into the ellagedly illegal Plastic Bags.

Then, We went and Reported the matter to the Deputy Commissioner who sent the SDO and Police to the Godown to investigate. Village Functionaries around the Godown

and ACAUT Members also went with them. There were News Papers Reporters too with us in the Group.

Then, the Police closed the Godown”.

If these things are true and there is every reasons that they would be, because of the presence of the SDO, the Police in the Godown closing Party together with the News Reporters.

If the Godown was CLOSED

BY THE POLICE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SDO and IN FRONT OF THE NEWS REPORTERS TOGETHER WITH THE FUNCTIONARIES OF 13 VILLAGES AROUND THE GODOWN, then there is no strenght in the Government ellegation that the “ACAUT did illegal criminal Tresspass and created Law and Order problem”.

If the ACAUT had broken-open the Godown by force secretively or clendestinely, then that could be a Tresspass, but it was the Owner of the Godowns who openned the Godown for their own purpose and were doing their own work of re-packaging the Rice into the Plastic Bags!

Then where is the Criminal Trespass and creation of Law and Order Problem by ACAUT as alleged by the Government?

Is the Government of Nagaland run by dishonest Liar Oligarchs jailing those who speak the Truth? Nagaland appears increasingly jitery, intemperate and nervous Oligarchy! Oh God save Nagaland from this Oligarchy!

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.

Nice's Italian forward Mario Balotelli runs with the ball during the French L1 football match Nice (OGCN) vs Dijon (DFCO) on December 18, 2016 at the "Allianz Riviera" stadium in Nice, southeastern France (AFP Photo)

Nice, December 20 (AFP): Nice fans are dreaming of seeing their Mario Balotelli-fuelled underdogs do a Leicester and steal the French title from the likes of crisis-stricken Paris Saint-Germain.

Balotelli's double in a 2-1 victory over Dijon on Sunday ensured Nice will go into the winter break on top of Ligue 1, and victory over Bordeaux on Wednesday would only add to the embarrassment of their well-heeled rivals.

Balotelli, so often the misfit in England and his native Italy, has now scored eight goals in eight games in an injury shortened half-season.

The Cote d'Azur side have also benefited from the sensational form of Alasane Plea, 23, who has hit 10 goals.

Dante, the former Bayern Munich stalwart, has been a rock in defence.

Nice have lost only once in 18 games and are four points ahead of Monaco and seven in front of PSG. So is the championship possible?

"Without injuries, without European competition, without the League Cup, why not?" said former Olympique Marseille and Bordeaux coach Rolland Courbis.

Despite their hot Ligue 1 form, Nice have crashed out of the Europa League and France's League Cup. Monaco and PSG are both still going for the Champions League as well as all domestic trophies.

"Nice remind me of what we saw

with Leicester last year," said Toulouse coach Pascal Dupraz.

"They are dynamic, fresh, they have good technique and well-marshalled players. You can see that Nice have gone up a gear," he added after his side were beaten by the surprise leaders earlier this month.

Leicester City were helped by weaknesses exposed in the Premier League's big-spending giants, and Nice have also taken advantage of PSG's disastrous start to the season.

Their four defeats so far, the latest at Guingamp on Sunday, have left PSG coach Unai Emery worrying about his job.

- Safety assured Nice coach Lucien Favre is following the example of Leicester counterpart Claudio Ranieri and refusing to discuss winning the title.

"We have 43 points, we are safe (from relegation)," he joked after the Dijon win.

Favre can see the practical and tactical minefield ahead -- Balotelli played as a solo centre forward against Dijon, forcing Plea out onto the wing, a position he does not like.

"The truth is it's difficult," said Favre. "Mario scored braces against Marseille, Monaco and now Dijon as a lone centre forward. Alassane scored nine of his 10 goals when Mario was absent. That's it!" he add-

ed with a smile.

Courbis sees other problems looming for Nice.

Key midfielders Younes Belhanda and Jean-Michel Seri will be playing at the Africa Cup of Nations in January for Morocco and Ivory Coast respectively.

Courbis said that Balotelli has to put in more regular performances "which he has not been doing so far."

The injury list, which includes Valentin Eysseric and Brazilian left-back Dalbert, is also growing. Even the 33-year-old Dante is scheduled to have tests on his knee. Favre did throw aside his normal caution on Sunday to condemn the fixture pile-up which will have seen Nice play 10 matches in 31 days up to the start of the break on Thursday.

"I don't know who organised it, but its too much. It's unmanageable," Favre said. The players are still enjoying the heights however.

"The aim is to go as high as possible, not set ourselves any limit," said goalkeeper Yoan Cardinale.

"There is still a lot to do. Autumn champions does not go on the list of trophies won."

Courbis said it would be "exceptional" for Nice to finish the season in the top three, having ended fourth last year.

Other cautious observers recall how Nice were top of the table in December in the 1972-73 and 1975-76 seasons.

Each time they finished second.

Wednesday 21•12•2016

EntErtainmEnt

Dreamz Unlimited blends a ‘wate(a)ry’ solution

D

reamz Unlimited, with its unique blend of sarcastic commentary, has once again hit bull’s eye with an incisive new video on the present ‘state of affairs’ in Nagaland.

A theatre & film production house based in Dimapur, Dreamz Unlimited (DU) is known for producing plays and videos which deal with contemporary social issues.

The video titled, ‘Watery Solution’, uploaded on DU’s Facebook page on December 20, cut a chord with its expanding fan base generating nearly 5000 views within 2 hours of posting. It is also going viral on other social medium like Whatsapp.

The video vividly captures the chain of events inflicting the present Naga society with the recent use of ‘water cannon and tear gas’ on protestors as the point of departure.

In the video, a group of young people is shown jos-

Dev Patel picke d up Australian acce nt from M ‘ asterChef...’

I

‘Watery solution’, a short video produced by Dreamz unlimited, draws sarcastic commentary on Nagaland’s current state of affairs. The video has gone viral within hours of going online.

tling for water near a tap.

Just then an old man arrives at the scene and tells them, “Why are you squabbling over water like this? Go to the main town.

The government is giving plenty of water for free - not from any other sources but by fire brigade.”

Wow! Is it freely given if we simply ask for it? one enquires.

No! Never like that, the old man says, giving other reasons like - “Why teachers are not getting salary for 5-6 months? Give us our salary!” or, “Why rice meant for distribution for public are sold in the open market?” or, “Why petrol is mixed with kerosene? And so on.”

If they don’t have answer for any of these, at least, I assure you 100 %,

they (government) will certainly give the water, he adds.

Thanking the old man profusely, they leave only to return haggard and drenched after a short while.

Arre! Why are you retuning so early? the old man asks.

Uncle, why didn’t you told us ‘tear gases’ were also being distributed along

with water, comes a choking reply from one of them.

Most recently, after the announcement of demonetisation process by the Prime Minister of India, Dreamz Unlimited had released a video entitled, The Curren(t)cy Factor on November 9, an amusing take on the impact of the process on family relations and difficulty in getting change

of low denomination notes.

Another popular video in collaboration with Dimapur Traffic Police released on November 4 has raised the issue of traffic etiquette among the Nagas.

Besides performances in several platforms, currently, Dreamz Unlimited is actively involved in the Clean Election Campaign.

ndian origin British actor Dev Patel says he used the Australian competitive cooking game show “MasterChef Australia” for picking up an Australian accent for his new film “Lion”.

He plays the role of an Indian boy who is adopted by an Australian family at a young age in the film. Patel managed to nail the accent throughout the movie, earning praise from Australian presenter Carrie Bickmore as he promoted the film on the TV show “The Project”, reports dailymail.co.uk.

How did he pick it up?

Patel denied using YouTube videos like other actors, and revealed his strange learning material.

“Australian MasterChef (MasterChef Australia),” he said. “I mean, yeah - I love that show,” he added.

source: IANs

Morung express News

Kareena & Saif blessed with son, name him Taimur

B

ollywood’s star couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan was on Tuesday blessed with their first child, a son, whom they have named Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi.

Celebrities like Karan Johar and Sonam Kapoor sent out congratulatory messages for the new parents.

Kareena, daughter of veteran actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita, delivered the baby on Tuesday morning at the Breach Candy Hospital here. A statement released on behalf of the actors read: “We are very pleased to share with you all the wonderful news about the birth of our son: Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi, on December 20, 2016.

“We would like to thank the media for the understanding and support they have given us over the last nine months, and of course especially our fans and well wishers for their continued affection. Merry Christmas

and a happy new year to you all...With love, Saif and Kareena.”Kareena and Saif, who have worked together in films like “Tashan”, “Kurbaan”, “Agent Vinod”, LOC Kargil” and “Omkara”, got married in October 2012.

Saif, the son of veteran actress Sharmila Tagore and the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, was earlier married to actress Amrita Singh and shares two children with her - daughter Sara and son Ibrahim. He is doing “extremely well” after becoming a father again, says his sister Soha Ali Khan.

“Delighted to welcome Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi into the world. Both mother and son are healthy and doing well. Father is doing extremely well,” Soha tweeted. Kareena’s father Randhir told IANS: “The entire family is overwhelmed and is welcoming the new member in our family....

Thanks for all the blessings.”

Her best friend Amrita Arora, who has been part of Kareena’s closest circle throughout her pregnancy, posted on Instagram: “My darling, welcome to the best club everrrrr...

‘Mommy club’. Love you.”

Taimur -- which in Persian language means iron -- has already been dubbed as “mini Nawab” by film fraternity members.

Filmmaker Karan Johar tweeted: “My Bebo had a baby boy! I am so so happy! Taimur Ali Khan.”

Actress Sonam Kapoor posted: “Congratulations my darling Bebo and Saif! Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi is going to be the apple of everyone’s eye... Mini Nawab.” Filmmaker Satish Kaushik said: “Congrats to my favou- residents of Anitet Colony, Lengrijan play games at stall during night carnival organized rite heroine and person Kareena Ka- by its youth at the locality on Tuesday. (Morung Photo) poor Khan and Saif Ali Khan for the arrival of baby boy Taimur Ali Khan.”

Affleck disinterested in ‘mediocre version’ of Batman film Tzurang Valley Youth Fest: Tune Up Channel wins ‘Clash of Bands’

C M Y K

source: IANs

phuri, Lichen, and Tongdang. The winning band was awarded a cash prize of Rs 35,000 plus certificates, while the runner-up was awarded a cash prize of Rs 25,000. Tune Up Channel also got the rare opportunity to perform with the Bollywood celebrities much to the liking of the audience.

Winner of ‘Clash of Bands’ – Tune up Channel – performing at the beat contest organized as part of the 2nd Youth Fest 2016 at Chungtiayimsen (Tzurang valley) on December 20.

(Photo: Media team, REM group)

T

he two-day extravagant Youth Fest 2016 of Tzurang valley (Mokokchung) culminated on December 20 evening in a grand manner with the Bollywood singers and dancers sizzling the night and a local band winning the ‘Clash of Bands’.

The last night of the two-day extravaganza was graced by renowned Bol-

lywood actor, Rajpal Yadav, who entertained the audience with his stage presentation.

Earlier in the day, the fest was marked by competition in different traditional games and events like cock-fight, tug-of-war, earthen pot making, yodelling, traditional, pork fat eating, folk fiddling, speed walking etc.

The main attraction of the night was the beat contest ‘Clash of Bands’, where six bands made it to the finals after presenting two songs each; the ultimate winner went to Tune Up Channel for their exquisite and professional performance. Blue Fairy bagged the runner up title.

The contest was judged by veteran musicians Mong-

Winners of the traditional games competition: Traditional fire making: Maongkaba Cock fight: Burchiba Yodelling: Imtitula Earthen pot making: Satsukba village Folk fiddle: B Alemla Aier Essay Competition: Pangerremla (Changdang village) Tug-of-war: Satsukba village Pork fat eating competition: Temsuremla (Female) and Watinungsang (Male)

A

c t o r- f i l m m a k e r Ben Affleck says he won’t make “The Batman” if the script isn’t good enough.

The 44-year-old actor is currently penning the script for the movie, which he plans to both star in and direct when it goes to production next year.

Affleck also says that he is determined to find a winning formula for his storyline as he would hate to make a “mediocre version” of a Batman movie, reports ew.com.

“I’m still working on the script. I’m not going to write and direct anything that I

don’t think is good enough to be made. I’m definitely going to make sure I have something that is special... there’s not enough money in the world to make a me-

diocre version of Batman worth it,” Affleck said.

Actor Joe Manganiello will be essaying the role of supervillain Deathstroke. source: IANs

Now ShowiNg revIseD TICKeT rATes (silver) : `.120 (Gold) : `. 200 (recliner) : `. 400

ROgue One a STaR WaRS (engliSh)

(10:00 AM) (03:00 PM) (05:30 PM)

Wajah Tum hO (hindi)

(12:25 PM) (08:00 PM) 03862-237226 Ticket Counter (09:00 AM - 09:00 PM)

WWW.BooKMYsHoW.CoM (ID: PLAYBox DIMAPur)

Ward 5 (6) Burma Camp, Landmark - Near J.K Hospital Dimapur.

Power House.

Hillstar NOW SHOWING ROgue One a STaR WaRS [3d] (engliSh)

11:00 am | 05:00 PM

DON’T COMPETE

Wajah Tum hO (hindi)

SHARE THE ROAD DIMAPUR TRAFFIC POLICE in collaboration with The Morung Express

02:00 PM | 08:00 PM

12

wednesdAY 21•12•2016

SPORTS

THE MORUNG EXPRESS

Jadeja spins India to crushing win

C M Y K

cHennaI, December 20 (reuters): Ravindra Jadeja ripped the heart out of England's batting order to bowl India to a thumping innings and 75-run victory in the fifth and final test on Tuesday.

The left-arm spinner claimed seven of the 10 English wickets that tumbled in the final two sessions as India completed an emphatic 4-0 series win.

The touring side needed to bat out the final day to secure a consolation draw and Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings defended resolutely through the morning to boost their chances.

Cook did look ill at ease against spin and got a life on four when he lunged forward to edge Ravichandran Ashwin but the ball popped out of wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel's gloves.

Jennings played more confidently although was nearly caught by Lokesh Rahul at short leg off Amit Mishra when on 31.

Jadeja returned after lunch to turn the match on its head.

The all-rounder has haunted Cook since the tourists landed in India and he dismissed the England

Cricket - India v England - Fifth Test cricket match - M A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India - 20/12/16. India's Ravindra Jadeja (2nd R) celebrates with team mates the dismissal of England's Ben Stokes. (Reuters Photo)

captain for the sixth time in the series by getting him caught at leg slip.

It was a poor shot from Cook who edged a leg-side delivery to Rahul to depart for 49.

Jennings followed up his debut century in the previous test in Mumbai with a fifty but offered a tame return catch to Jadeja after making 54.

"We understood that once we got a couple of

wickets, it's going to be a downslide pretty quick (for England)," India captain Virat Kohli, who was adjudged man-of-the-series for his 655 runs, said at the presentation ceremony.

"Jadeja coming and doing the job in both the innings....hitting the right areas and making it uncomfortable for the batsmen, it was great to watch," Kohli said.

Leicester appeal Vardy red card LonDon, December 20 (aFp): English champions Leicester City appealed on Monday against striker Jamie Vardy's red card in Saturday's ill-tempered 2-2 Premier League draw with Stoke City.

Match referee Craig Pawson infuriated the Leicester players and manager Claudio Ranieri in also booking five players in the final seven minutes of the first half -- Vardy had been dismissed in the 28th minute.

As a result Vardy is due to miss three games for the struggling Foxes whilst key defenders Robert Huth and Christian Fuchs will also be suspended for the next match against Everton after picking up their fifth bookings of the campaign.

"Leicester City have today (Monday) lodged an appeal with the Football Association against the dismissal of Jamie Vardy during Saturday's Premier League fixture at Stoke City," read a statement from the club.

"Jamie was shown a straight red card by referee Craig Pawson in the 28th minute of Saturday's 2-2 draw for a challenge that was deemed to have constituted serious foul play.

"The club has subsequently made its case for an instance of wrongful dismissal and expects to hear the outcome of the appeal in the coming days."

If the appeal fails Vardy will miss next Monday's visit of Everton and then matches with two fellow strugglers, West Ham United on New Year's Eve and a trip to Middlesbrough on January 2.

Ironically Pawson had been criticised for not sending off Manchester United defender Marcos Rojo for a similar two-footed challenge in their Premier League clash with Crystal Palace only a few days prior to the Vardy incident.

Leicester currently sit a lowly 15th in the table, just three points clear of the relegation places.

Mane the man as lastgasp Liverpool triumph

Liverpool's Sadio Mane in action with Everton's Joel Robles before scoring. (Reuters Photo)

LIVerpooL, December 20 (reuters): Sadio Mane struck four minutes into stoppage time to give Liverpool a lastgasp 1-0 win over derby rivals Everton that lifted them into second place in the Premier League on Monday.

Substitute Daniel Sturridge hit the post with a low, left-footed drive from 20 metres and Senegal forward Mane was quickest to the rebound, sliding in to convert from close range.

The victory pushed Juergen Klopp's Liverpool side within six points of leaders Chelsea who won 1-0 at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

"We didn't give one chance away and that's very important against an opponent that only wants to disturb your game," said Klopp.

"The plan of Everton was wild football. They were chasing us everywhere, it is really difficult to play against this ... it's a wonderful feeling to win."

In a match with few chances, Everton lost goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg because of a leg injury after an hour and understudy Joel Robles had to make a fine, diving save from Roberto Firmino with 10

minutes to go.

Stekelenburg had denied Firmino in the 50th minute as Liverpool dominated, palming the ball away while Nathaniel Clyne's effort from the rebound was blocked.

Firmino also attempted a scissors kick from a Clyne cross but his effort sailed over.

Tempers flared when Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson was caught on the ankle by a late tackle from Ross Barkley in the second half.

There was scuffling among players from both sides before Barkley and team mate Seamus Coleman were booked by referee Mike Dean.

Earlier, the first half turned into a stalemate with both keepers seriously under employed.

Divock Origi missed a chance in front of Everton's goal following a Clyne cross and Ramiro Funes Mori headed narrowly wide at the other end.

Liverpool then pushed back Everton, who have now gone 12 Merseyside derbies without a win and 20 with only one victory, in the second half and were ultimately worthy winners.

ROOT FAILURE England's batting mainstay Joe Root could only manage six runs before he was hit on the pad by a fuller delivery from Jadeja.

India's lbw appeal was turned down and Kohli took his time before deciding to review the decision, which was overturned after replays suggested the ball would have hit the leg stump.

Jadeja then sprinted backwards to take a brilliant running catch to dismiss Jonny Bairstow off the bowling of paceman Ishant Sharma.

Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes looked determined to bat through but Jadeja removed both batsmen after tea to spark an English collapse.

Moeen was guilty of throwing his wicket away with a loose shot after making 44 and Stokes chipped a catch to mid-wicket to depart for 23.

Jadeja claimed the last two wickets to finish with a career-best 7-48 as England, 97 for no loss at lunch, lost their last six wickets for 15 runs and folded barely half an hour before the scheduled close.

"No excuses, India were the better team here and deserved to win," Cook said.

"It was a very good fifth day wicket...we got ourselves into a good position at lunch to save the game but we were not good enough to bat the rest of the time out."

India batsman Karun Nair was adjudged manof-the-match for his marathon 303 not out.

Kvitova attacked by knife-wielding burglar

prague, December 20 (aFp): Twotime Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was injured in an attack by a knife-wielding burglar at her home in the eastern Czech town of Prostejov, her spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Petra Kvitova was attacked in her flat this morning, it was a random crime, nobody was going to attack or rob her as Petra Kvitova," spokesman Karel Tejkal told AFP. "She was injured with a knife during the attempted burglary. Her life is not in danger, she is being treated by doctors,"

Tejkal added.

The Dnes daily said she had cuts on her left hand.

Tejkal said the burglar was still at large.

The 26-year-old Czech tennis star, the Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, is also recovering from a fatigue fracture on her foot which has ruled her out of the Hopman Cup starting on January 1.

The world number 11 was hoping to start next year at Sydney on January 8 to warm up for the Australian Open from January 16.

Real transfer ban reduced to one window Lausanne, December 20 (reuters): Real Madrid's ban on signing players has been reduced to one transfer window after the club's appeal against a FIFA punishment for illegally buying under-age foreigners was partially upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday.

A CAS statement said world governing body FIFA's decision handed down in

April had been set aside and replaced by its own verdict.

"Real Madrid CF is banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for one entire transfer period (previously two)," CAS said.

Real's initial 360,000 Swiss francs ($350,000) fine has been reduced to 240,000. ($1 = 1.0293 Swiss francs)

Young's clutch shot pushes Pacers past Wizards

InDIanapoLIs, December 20 (aFp): Thaddeus Young's short jump shot with one second left on the clock lifted the Indiana Pacers to a 107-105 win over the Washington Wizards.

"I just made a play, that was the biggest thing," Young said of his jumper from 10 feet. "My teammates put me in a position to make that play by having a lot of guys on the court that could space the court out."

Washington's Bradley Beal missed a potential game-winning threepointer at the buzzer in front of a crowd of 18,100 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse arena.

Paul George led the Pacers with 27 points and teammate Jeff Teague added 23. Myles Turner fouled out with 20 points and eight rebounds.

"They switched out and denied Paul," Pacers coach Nate McMillan said.

"Thaddeus did what he was supposed to do and come to the ball. With four seconds to go you want to attack the basket. It was the right thing instead of just settling for the hero long jump shot.

"He put his head down and attacked the basket. It was an aggressive move by Thaddeus."

Beal, who hit both two free throws to narrow the Pacers' lead to 105-103 with 50 seconds left, had tied the

Griffin to have knee surgery

Los angeLes, December 20 (aFp): Los Angeles Clippers player Blake Griffin will undergo surgery on his right knee this week and is expected to be sidelined until at least January.

The Clippers announced Monday that the arthroscopic procedure would remove loose material from his knee and added the 27-year-old Griffin is expected to miss three to six weeks.

Griffin has struggled recently with left calf and knee soreness. He played 38 minutes in the Clippers' 117-110 loss to the Washington Wizards on Sunday, posting 26 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. But he scored no points in the fourth quarter.

Griffin sat out a game on December 10 against the New Orleans Pelicans due to right knee soreness. He has scored 20 or more points in the four NBA games since.

Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) hits the game winning shot over Washington Wizards forward Markieff Morris (5). (USA TODAY Photo:)

score by hitting a jumper with 15 seconds left.

Marcin Gortat tallied 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Wizards (12-15). Teammate John Wall delivered 19 points.

Washington erased a deficit by scoring the first

nine points of the fourth quarter to tie it 88-88.

George's basket made it 90-88 and halted the Wizards' run.

Elsewhere, Dennis Schroder and Paul Millsap combined to score 61 points in leading the At-

lanta Hawks to a 110-108 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Schroder scored 31 points on 10 of 16 shooting to go along with eight assists. Millsap poured in 30 points, 11 rebounds and hit three of five from beyond the arc.

Thabo Sefolosha added 15 points as the Hawks raised their record to 14-14.

Oklahoma City was led by Russell Westbrook, who had a game high 46 points. He also racked up 11 rebounds and seven assists.

In Minneapolis, the Minnesota Timberwolves held onto a late advantage to escape with a 115-108 win over the Phoenix Suns at the Target Center.

The win for the Timberwolves came two days after they let a 12-point lead slip away with just over two minutes to play against Houston. The Rockets eventually won that game in overtime.

On Monday, Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns scored 28 points and grabbed 15 boards for his 18th double-double of the season -- and his eighth straight.

Canada's Andrew Wiggins had 26 points in the win, and Zach LaVine chipped in 23.

In Chicago, Rajon Rondo narrowly missed a triple-double with 10 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds, and the Chicago Bulls rolled to a 113-82 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Swee� Tiding� Basket of Goodies

AVAILABLE AT: LITTLE VILLAGE, ARCADIA BUILDING (BELOW AXIS BANK), CITY TOWER, DIMAPUR CONTACT: +91 9436063099

Published, Printed and Edited by Dr. Aküm Longchari from House No. 4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur at Themba Printers and Morung Publications , Padum Pukhuri Village, Dimapur, Nagaland.

RNI No : NAGENG /2005/15430. House No.4, Duncan Bosti, Dimapur 797112, Nagaland. Phone: Dimapur -(03862) 248854, Fax: (03862) 235194, Kohima - (0370) 2291952

For news email: morung@gmail.com and for advertisements and circulation contact: (03862) 248854, Fax-235194 or email : morungad@yahoo.com

PO Reg No. NE/RN-722