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wednesdAY • JAnuArY 20 • 2016
DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 18 • 12 PAGes • 5
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ESTD. 2005
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A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist’s world — Hans Hofmann ‘Illegal miners responsible for negative environmental and public health impacts’ PAGe 05
reflections
By Sandemo Ngullie
PAGe 02
Dimapur | January 19
NSF baffled by GoI proposal to promote Nagamese as official language
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 19 (MExN): The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) today said it is “baffled” by the proposal of the Government of India to promote Nagamese as an official language. The intention of the centre to promote a language which has no originality is very much doubtful, said a press note from the NSF. The NSF asked the Government of India not to take any hasty decision “which could dilute the culture and the social fabrics of the Naga society.” “We need more time to develop and promote a language which can be called as our own ‘Naga Language’ and not a market language which is a mixture of Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, English and many other dialects. Trying to promote a language which has no origin and terming it as a Naga language will do more harm to the Naga people,” it stated. It advised “linguistic experts and activist who are enthusiastic in promoting the pidgin language as the official lingua franca of the Nagas should immediately stop from confusing the Nagas any further.” Any kind of recognition or promotion of language, tradition and customs of the Nagas without the concern of the Nagas will not be accepted and tolerated at all, the NSF cautioned.
PAGe 12
Roads and Railways should be Deprived and excluded first priority for Northeast: TR Waoshu village in Tuensang have been demanding Morung Express News
Memos? No sir. Lots of ‘or else’ letters.
Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang stated on Tuesday that the first priority of infrastructural development in the North East region should be construction of highways and railways within the region, and connecting it with mainland India and the neighboring countries. By doing so, Zeliang said the geographical isolation of the region will become a thing of the past and its location would no longer be considered remote and isolated but central and strategic in terms of international trade and development. The Chief Minister said this while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day workshop on “India-Japan partnership towards meeting the challenge of infrastructure development in India’s Northeast” at Hotel Acacia, Dimapur on Tuesday. The workshop is organized in pursuance of the “Tokyo Declaration for JapanIndia Special Strategic and Global Partnership”, during the meeting of the Prime Ministers of the two countries in Tokyo in 2014 which placed special emphasis on Japan’s cooperation for enhanced connectivity and development in North East, and linking the region to other economic corridors in India and to South East Asia. In terms of connectivity, Zeliang felt that the most practicable and convenient road and rail connections between India and South East Asian countries should run through Nagaland to Moreh border town via Imphal in Manipur. The chief minister also underscored that the North East region was still not open to South Asian countries either by road or railways despite a number of vision documents along with the ‘Look East Policy’ and now the ‘Act East Policy’ being introduced by the Government of India.
Not fencing, construct roads to Myanmar
Also expounding on the development and security strategy for the Nagaland sector of the Indo-Myammar border, which he maintained would be equally relevant for the Manipur and Mizoram sectors as well, the chief minister said the logic behind Government of India fencing India’s land borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh does not apply in the case of India’s land border with Myanmar. Elucidating his point, Zeliang said in the Nagaland sector, the international boundary does not follow a river or other
convenient landmarks and instead follows the water-shed principle. Taking Longwa village where the International boundary runs right through the middle of the Angh’s (Village Chief) house as an instance, Zeliang said Nagas and their ancestral lands have been badly divided by the Indo-Myanmar border. And despite the free-movement regime with the open unguarded border, Zeliang said there have practically been no migrations of the native Nagas across the international border- basically because of the strong attachment the Nagas have for their ancestral land. “In fact, what we need is not barbed wire fencing, but construction of roads across the border to “un-lock the landlocked areas”, and promote trade and development. Meanwhile, welcoming Japan’s commitment for infrastructural development in the North East region, Zeliang hoped that with the successful implementation of the projects in this region, the name of Japan will no more be associated with war, but with peace and development in the minds of the new generation of this region.
Japan committed for NE infrastructure development: Akio Isomata
North East region is the centre of all concepts and notions of connectivity between India and rest of the Asian countries, stated Akio Isomata, Minister (Economic) in the Embassy of Japan, New Delhi here at Dimapur. “There are actually a lot of notions and concepts of connectivity. It’s about layers of concept- connectivity of North East with other parts of India as well as with other Asian countries,” Isomata stressed while giving a special remark at the inaugural of the workshop on “India-Japan partnership towards meeting the challenge of infrastructure development in India’s Northeast” on Tuesday. Maintaining that North East region remains at the centre for all these concepts, the Japanese minister however stressed on the need to go beyond concept and notions of connectivity to really bring the challenges of infrastructure development to implementation. He said one should always keep in mind that connectivity enhancement should serve the improvement of the quality of life in the North East region. The Japanese minister also raised concern on the issue of security once the projects of infrastructure development in the Northeast get underway.
up-gradation of their only primary school for 3 years Limasenla Jamir
Mokokchung | January 19
A young girl carries her younger brother on her back and watches an ongoing football match at the village ground while seven to eight young boys play with a pig’s bladder by the roadside with their face smeared with mucus and their winter cheeks red and cracked. Another girl, Donnen, the youngest among nine siblings, sits near the fire place and watches her father sing folk songs, while her sisters are out fetching water and running errands. Forty-two kilometers away from Tuensang town, Waoshu village, a Chang Naga village, sits on a hill top with about 115 households and a population of more than 500. A family here has an average of six children. With about twenty-three percent of the population belonging to the age group of 0-6 years, the village has one Government Primary school with six classroom and four teachers. A very uncommon phenomenon in Nagaland, the village faces the problem of absentee teachers and lack of teachers in the school. While talking about the problem of education in the village, the Village Council Chairman of Waoshu said that the school faces a lot of problems starting from absentee teachers to lack of teachers in the school. The chairman hinted that the teachers including the headmaster are mostly engaged in government duty, which mostly involves census collection, instead of doing their job of teaching.
A young girl running errands carrying her younger brother on her back at Waoshu Village, a Chang Naga village, Tuensang District. Photo: Toshi Kichu
Children constitute 20 percent to the village population, but the existence of just one primary school makes it difficult for the parents to send their children for further education. Some go and stay at their relatives’ places in Tuensang town; many are sent off to other districts as domestic workers and helpers, as a means of getting further education, while many others who cannot afford to send their children drop out at the primary school level due to the absence of middle and high school in the village. When the village inaugurated a new school building in 2012, a letter was forwarded for the up gradation of the primary school to middle school. But it has been three years without any response from the government. Parents in the village have now changed their perspective on education and understand the value of sending their children
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to school. There was a time when parents would barge into the classroom and leave their toddlers with their older children if they happen to be in class, while some of the students would come to the schools with their work baskets and run to the fields as soon as they could escape from the classroom, narrates Ayin, whose wife is an adhoc teacher in the village school for more than ten years now. Apart from the education, the village, like any other in the eastern part of Nagaland, is plagued by deplorable road conditions, sanitation problems, water scarcity and electricity problems to name a few. The Waoshu Village Council with its small funds for the development of the village maintains the road that connects them to the outside world. At a time when connectivity of people through technology and infrastructure is revolutionizing the
communication paradigm, the people of Washou village remain deprived and excluded. Newspapers are non-existent in the village. Owning a cell phone is a prized possession for them, though they have to climb hills or stand at certain points to get through the network. The villagers feel they are being ignored by the state government. The only time politicians visit their village is during elections, and once they are elected, they seldom see their face. When the DEO of Tuensang district inaugurated their school building, they hoped that the primary school would soon be upgraded to a middle school. But three years of inaction have evaporated that hope. It is pertinent to mention that the village is only 42 kilometers from an administrative town. This serves as an indication of the conditions that are faced by villages which are even more remote.
‘Enhance understanding to build better relations’ PM avoids statehood issue&
Home dept issues YAA Golden Jubilee urged to focus on retrospection and forgiveness Morung Express News notice to Chekiye Shamator | January 19 and Ikishe villages Nagaland Minister for PHE, DIMAPUR, JANUARY 19 (MExN): The Home Department of the Nagaland State Government has served a notice to Chekiye and Ikishe villages to submit their response on the report of a committee formed by the state state government within 30 days. “In pursuance to the common Judgment and Order passed by the Guwahati High Court, Kohima Bench in Civil Rule 68 (K) 90 and Civil Rule 54(K) 93 dated 26-03-2003, the State Government constituted a Committee vide Home Department Notification NG.GAB-8/26/2003 (PT-I) dated 23-06-2003 but in view of the appeal filed by the State against the direction contained in clause (a) Para 26 of the judgment dated 26-03-2003, the exercise to be undertaken by the Committee was kept in abeyance. Subsequent to the disposal of Writ Appeal No.23 (K) 2007 by an Order dated 07-05-2012, the Committee was reconstituted by Home Department vide Notification NO. GAB-13/ COURT-DMP/126/2013 dated 19-02-2014 and the Committee had submitted its report to the Government on 26-11-2014,” a notification from the Directorate of Information and Public Relations informed.
Nadal, Halep out on day of shocks at the Australian Open
Call to control wildlife crimes
Tokheho Yepthomi, today said jubilee is not only a time of celebration but also a time for retrospection, forgiveness and rectifying past shortcomings. “The significance of celebrating golden jubilee should be far reaching to enhance understanding and build better relations within the community and the rest of the Nagas,” the Minister said in his address as chief guest at the inaugural function of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Yimchungrü Akherü Arihako (YAA) here at Shamator town public ground on Tuesday. Tokheho said celebration of golden jubilee would be meaningless without forgiveness and peaceful co-existence with other tribes and communities and added that “if Nagas cannot live together, then we will all perish together.” On the theme of the conference “Honoring our past, charting our future”, he said the theme should be the guiding light of YAA “because our yesterday defines our tomorrow.” “The best way to chart your future is to be a contributor to our society and not a liability to the society. At every given opportunity, do good works to others without expectations of praise and laurels”, the Minister exhorted the students. Reminding that good deeds are never easy to achieve but can be undone in no time, Tokheho
Minister for PHE, Tokheho Yepthomi and other public and government leaders being greeted with a special song on their arrival at the inaugural function of the golden jubilee celebration of Yimchungrü Akherü Arihako at Shamator town public ground, Tuesday.
said the younger generation has to decide whether to carry on the good works of the past and go from strength to strength or choose a course of action that would undo half a century of hard works built on the sweat and toils of past leaders. The Minister also said it is high time for the students to change the mindset of the people on the “backward tag”, especially in ENPO areas. “It is true we are all responsible for the present condition of inadequate development (in ENPO areas) but you are also directly responsible. Remember. No one will come and take us forward; it is ‘we’ who have to move forward with the changes of time and build our own future”, Tokheho said.
He also suggested that privileges of ‘backward’ quota in employment even among the ‘backward’ tribes should be given only to the needy and downtrodden section so as to help create a more equitable society. On the occasion, Tokheho also reminded of the close bond between the Sumis and Yimchungrüs and said such bondship should embrace Nagas as a whole. Tokheho also released the jubilee souvenir of YAA. Parliamentary Secretary for Horticulture and DBs & GBs, Kejong Chang, urged the students not to meddle in politics but to focus on their first priority –education- if the Eastern Nagas aspire to be at par with rest of the Nagas.
Parliamentary Secretary for Municipal Affairs, R Tohanba, who also represents 58 Shamator - Chessore assembly seat, expressed gratitude to the chief guest and other dignitaries for attending the “epoch-making” event. President, Yimchungrü Tribal Council, also greeted YAA on the occasion. Earlier, president, YAA, Akiuba TS delivered the welcome address. Among other dignitaries, Parliamentary Secretary for IPR, Khekaho Assumi; Commandant 15 Assam Rifles, Col. Chalal; Director, NEC Pvt Ltd. S Bhattacharya, and former Minister, K Zungkum, and central NPF leaders also graced the inaugural ceremony.
1000 crore package demand
KoKRAJhAR (AssAM), JANUARY 19 (IANs): Avoiding the statehood issue and the Rs.1,000 crore package demand for the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said no stone would be left unturned to develop Assam’s Bodo-inhabited lands. The prime minister was addressing a public rally organised by the Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) at Kokrajhar town in Assam. Stating that the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts (BTAD) will be developed like any other part of the country, the prime minister said he has three-point programme for the development of the backward BTAD region -- “development, development and development”. He said while the Karbis of the plains will be granted the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status, the Bodo Kachari community of the hill areas like Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao district will also be granted the ST status soon. Tuesday’s rally assumes significance ahead of Assam legislative assembly polls as it has indicated a pre-poll alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the BPF, which is ruling at the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) that runs the administration in four district of the BTAD. The BPF was a partner of the ruling Congress in Assam since its inception in 2003 but it severed its ties with the Congress in 2014 over some differences.
The prime minister, however, on the occasion cautiously avoided the issue of statehood to Bodoland and the BPF’s demand for a Rs.1,000 crore package for development. He announced that the Central Institute of Technology (CIT), Kokrajhar, will be upgraded to a Deemed University within a year and more academic and administrative autonomy would be granted to the institute. “I was told that there is an airport here, which has not been in use for a long time. I assure you that as soon as the state government settles the issue of giving the land for the airport, the Rupsi airport will be opened for the Indian Air Force as well as for the common people,” Modi said while addressing the massive rally. He said the Central government is also working on extending the Kanchanjunga Express to Assam’s Barak Valley to boost connectivity of the region. While the BPF has been demanding a Rs.1,000 crore package for development of the BTAD, several Bodo organisations have also been demanding that the prime minister make the Centre’s stand clear on the issue of statehood to the Bodoland. The All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union has also called a 48-hour Assam bandh from Monday morning to protest the Centre’s failure to grant the Scheduled Tribes status to six communities in Assam, including the Koch Rajbongshis. Related news on page 3