September 5th, 2016

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C M Y K

DIMAPUR • Vol. XI • Issue 244 • 12 PAGes • 5

www.morungexpress.com

MonDAY • SepteMber 05 • 2016

T H e

ESTD. 2005

P o W e R

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T R u T H

I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect — Edward Gibbon Hong Kong election exposes underlying strains pAGe 09

pAGe 02

Vote on www.morungexpress.com sMs your answer to 9862574165 Has Nagaland state benefited from an oppositionless state government? How? no

Vishü Rita Krocha

50%

no

16%

others

34%

Details on page 7

Sumi Hoho urges GoI, NSCN (K) to resume ceasefire ZUNhEBoTo, SEPTEMBER 4 (MExN): The Sumi Hoho has once again urged upon the Government of India and NSCN (K) to resume ceasefire as “it is only through dialogue and not violence that can solve the long pending Indo-Naga issue.” This appeal comes following the ambush on convoy of 5 Assam Rifles by NSCN (K) near Aghunato Town between Luvishe village and Ghokishe village in Zunheboto district on September 2, where four AR jawans were reportedly injured. The Sumi Hoho and its frontal organizations, including the Sumi Kukami Hoho, Sumi Totimi Hoho, and Sumi Kiphimi Kuqhakulu, “vehemently” condemned the ambush. “The incident was never expected and uncalled for,” stated a press release from Toniho Yepthomi, President and Vihuto Asumi, General Secretary of Sumi Hoho. “When Nagas are crying for peace and yearning for honourable and acceptable solution, intimidation is against the wish and voice of the people,” it asserted.

UN Chief urges transformative climate action

C M Y K

BEIjINg, SEPTEMBER 4 (IANS): UN SecretaryGeneral Ban ki-Moon on Sunday spoke highly of the ratification of the Paris climate change agreement by China and the US, calling for accelerated efforts from other countries to join the ambitious accord. “With China and the US making this historic step, we now have 26 parties in the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention) and 39 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions accounted for,” Xinhua news agency quoted Ban as saying at a press conference. Although the Paris deal was signed in the French capital in December, it will legally enter into force only after at least 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions join the accord. The UN chief urged other leaders to accelerate their domestic ratification processes, “so we can turn the aspiration of Paris into the transformative climate actions the world so urgently needs”. Noting that the Hangzhou summit is “encouraging the speedy entry into force of this key agreement”, Ban stressed that the international community needs to “keep this momentum”. Describing the progress as a major success, Ban praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama, who handed over legal instruments to Ban in a testament to their resolve to jointly tackle the global challenge.

in India have crossed 90%. Given the current situation, the department has held a series of meetings with the State Government and it is hopeful that new camps would be set up to meet the increasing number of people rushing to get their Aadhaar Cards.

Dimapur | September 4

others

Are you willing to make a pledge for Clean Elections in Nagaland? Why? Yes

PAGE 12

Rush for Aadhaar Card in Nagaland

The Morung Express Poll QuEsTion

Yes

Rosberg wins Italian Grand Prix, trails Hamilton by 2 pts

Refresher training of panel lawyers concludes

The deplorable road conditions of the national Highway 29 between Dimapur and Kohima, particularly the stretch from below naga Hospital to Dzuza River has made vehicular traffic very difficult. (Morung Photo) More photos on Page 2

Narrow escape for Assam Rifles patrol in Manipur

IMPhAl, SEPTEMBER 4 (IANS): It was a narrow escape for a patrol of 12 Assam Rifles in Manipur’s border district of Chandel when insurgents tried to ambush them using a remote-controlled bomb on Sunday, officials said. Bomb experts from Imphal later rushed there and defused the bomb. Intelligence sources told IANS that at 2 p.m., the patrolling personnel discerned that a bomb was buried at the side of the village road leading to Kwatha Khnnuou, a little distance away from the Trans-Asian highway No. 1. Police said that there

might have been some other bombs buried along the road or hung from the tree branches. With the arrival of the additional Assam Rifles personnel, a search operation was launched in the nearby areas. However, no suspects were detected. A police officer told IANS that the insurgents must have slipped away towards the no man’s land. There have been some sensational ambushes against the security forces claiming several lives. Attacking security peronnel along the highway linking Manipur to Myanmar in this district have been a re-

curring feature. To check the free movement of the insurgents along the international border, the construction of a 10 km long border fence was started at Moreh. However it was suspended when it was established that the fence was being constructed deep inside Manipur. While over 10 villages would be affected, one village in the state’s Ukhrul district, namely Choro Khunnou would entirely go to Myanmar. Police have registered a case. There has been no claim from any insurgent group of the bomb planting.

With the government notifying that Aadhaar Card has been made mandatory for disbursement of all scholarships with effect from this financial year (20162017), students (amongst others) have been crowding the Directorate of Census Operations, Kohima to enrol themselves since May this year. The rush began in June, compelling even the staff of the Census Operations to start working sometimes as early as 5:30 am till 8:30 pm. There are reportedly cases of people queuing up as early as 3:00 am at the office counter, and the past couple of months have seen the registration of at least 100 people per day. 145 Permanent Enrolment Centres (PECs) were set up in all the districts last January till March this year, to enable people to enrol themselves. However, the entire year’s progress indicated that only 2 person’s biometrics was captured per laptop, whereas the expected minimum registration was 25 persons per laptop during that period. Speaking to The Morung Express, Assistant Director of Census Operations, Imkong said, “all of a sudden, this scholarship thing came up as well as LPG subsidy, MGNREGA, Ration Card, etc and people started rushing.” He informed that the centres were closed from April but they requested the private companies to set up 3 camps - one in Kohima, one in Chumukedima and the other in Dimapur to

Mandatory or voluntary? People queuing up outside the Census Office in Kohima to enrol for the Aadhaar Card.

help the public from the later part of May. “Otherwise, nowhere else, it is functioning now”, he informed. The Assistant Director further informed that the enrolment exercise for Aadhaar began in 2011. During the initial stages, he said, enough emphasis was given on its uses and benefits while the departmental staff also went to the villages twice. “Only when people started realizing the importance of Aadhaar card, they started rushing,” he pointed out. He also went on to state that “when we went to the villages, nobody came forward. Our operators were given the instruction to be in the villages for 3 days whether there are people or not. There was even a fully equipped Mobile Bus that went from district to district asking people to come.” Since the opening of the centre for enrolment at the Census Office since May, M. Peseyie, Assistant Director said that the staff are working beyond their regular office hours. KH Athisii Chachei, Compiler said there are also cases where appli-

cants have been rejected. He informed that some people, whose biometrics were captured during 2011-12, have lost their acknowledgement slips, requiring the office to check in their systems again and check their status. He also said that there are duplicate cases wherein two biometrics have been taken, adding to the cumbersome process of generating the Aadhaar card. “Once it’s done and generated, we are not supposed to do it again”, he said, while pointing out that most error cases involved “data process errors.” He further stated that the rejection list was beyond their control. At this juncture, even if the students enrol themselves for the Aadhaar Card with extended deadlines for scholarships, the officials informed it is unlikely their cards would be generated on time. According to official records, only about 69% of the Naga population (excluding the age-group of 0-5 years) have enrolled for Aadhaar, whereas many other states

Meanwhile, in pursuance of the Supreme Court Order stating that Aadhaar Card is purely voluntary, the “mandatory” notification has created a lot of confusion among the citizens. The Supreme Court order, dated August 11, 2015 states that “production of an Aadhaar card will not be a condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen.” Subsequently on October 15, while allowing government to include more schemes in which benefits can be paid using Aadhaar, the apex court reiterated that the use of Aadhaar will be purely voluntary; no one will be denied any service for the lack of an Aadhaar card; and Aadhaar can only be used (on a voluntary basis) for dispersal of benefits and subsidies under PDS, LPG, MNREGA, PM Jan Dhan Yojna, National Social Assistance Program, and Employees’ Provident Fund Organization. The centre has linked certain subsidies including LPG to Aadhaar. The University Grants Commission has also made it “mandatory” for students to provide biometric data before they can avail of “government subsidies, scholarships and fellowships.”

Mother Teresa declared Saint Sunday closure diktat windfall for Lahorijan

VATICAN CITY, SEPTEMBER 4 (REUTERS): Mother Teresa of Calcutta, known as the “saint of the gutters” during her life, was declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Francis on Sunday, fast-tracked to canonisation just 19 years after her death. Tens of thousands of pilgrims packed St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for a service to honour the tiny nun, who worked among the world’s neediest in the slums of the Kolkata and become one of the most recognisable faces of the 20th century. A Nobel peace laureate, her legacy complements Pope Francis’s vision of a humble church that strives to serve the poor, and the festivities in her honour are a highlight of his Holy Year of Mercy, which runs until November 8. Standing under a canvas hung from St. Peter’s Basilica showing the late nun in her blue-hemmed white robes, Francis said she was a “dispenser of divine mercy” and held world powers to account “for the crimes of poverty they created”. “For Mother Teresa, mercy was the salt which gave flavour to her work, it was the light which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering.” Around 120,000 people attended the ceremony, according to Vatican estimates, celebrating the life

A man holds a poster of Mother Teresa outside the Missionaries of Charity building in Kolkata as she was canonised during a ceremony held in the Vatican, september 4. (REUTERS)

of a woman who Francis said it might be difficult to call “Saint” as people felt so close to her they spontaneously used “Mother”. “Everything she did gave an example to the entire world,” said 17-yearold student Massimiliano D’Aniello, from Grosseto, Italy, adding he had made a musical about her with his friends. “She showed we can’t all do everything, but little gestures made with so much love are what’s important.” Critics say she did little to alleviate the pain of the terminally ill and nothing to tackle the root causes of poverty. Atheist writer Christopher Hitchens made a documentary about her called “Hell’s Angel”. She was also accused of trying to convert the destitute in predominantlyHindu India to Christian-

ity, a charge her mission repeatedly denied. But Pope John Paul II, who met her often, had no doubt about her eligibility for sainthood, and put her on the route to canonisation two years after her death instead of the usual five. WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION As pilgrims from across the world gathered at the Vatican along with delegations from more than a dozen governments, the canonisation was also celebrated in Skopje, the capital of modern Macedonia where Mother Teresa was born of Albanian parents in 1910 and became a nun aged 16. No major ceremony was scheduled in Kolkata, where the first MoC mission was set up in 1952, but prayers, talks and cultural

events were planned, in an atmosphere of quiet pride. Pramod Sharma, a Kolkata resident who grew up near a convent school and childcare centre where Mother Teresa worked, said he and his country were proud she had chosen India as her home. “(She) belonged to our India and stayed with the Indians and will forever stay in our hearts,” Sharma said. The Church defines as saints those believed to have led such holy lives they are now in Heaven and can intercede with God to perform miracles - two of which are needed to confer sainthood. She is credited with healing an Indian woman from stomach cancer in 1998 and a Brazilian man from a brain infection in 2008. The Brazilian, Marcilio Andrino, and his wife attended the ceremony and were blessed by the pope. Sister Leandra Stupnicka, from Wroclaw in Poland, said she got up at 4:00 a.m. to be at the Vatican early on Sunday and pay her respects to the new saint. “This mother was simple, very poor and devout and for us she is a testament to serving others,” Sister Leandra said. “We pray to be like her.” After the canonisation service, the pope treated 1,500 homeless people from across Italy to Neapolitan pizza served by members of Mother Teresa’s order.

nagaland registered vehicles at the lahorijan market on sunday, september 4. shoppers from Dimapur are crossing the interstate border to Assam for their shopping owing to the closure of shops in Dimapur on sundays.

Morung Express news Dimapur | September 4

It was liquor and pork that prompted Naga shoppers from Dimapur to venture beyond the New Field inter-state check-post into Lahorijan, Khatkhati, Bokajan and even upto Sarihajan. Now, a prompting of a different kind has increased traffic at the New Field check post on Sundays as shoppers turn to Lahorijan daily bazaar to meet basic household needs, which range from food items to toiletries to ‘paan-tamul’ and liquor on the side. The NSCN (IM) decreeing shop closure on Sundays in Dimapur has come as a once-in-a-week windfall to shopkeepers in Lahorijan. The religious basis of the decree notwithstanding, the often easypaced life in the small border township is transformed into a Sunday shopping paradise by people from Dimapur. For a second Sunday in a row since the decree took effect, business in Lahorijan has appreciated. On September 4, one vegetable vendor said that sales have doubled unlike other Sundays in the past. Asked what could be the possible reason for the unusual increase in sales on a Sunday, the vendor said that he was initially puzzled but later came to know from acquaintances about the Sunday shop closure in nearby Dimapur. “One man’s loss is another man’s gain” indeed. While it would be rather impossible to assess the

surge in monetary terms, the rows of Nagaland registered vehicles parked on both sides of NH 29 on Sunday would provide a rough estimation of the impact the decree has had. To refresh public memory, a similar directive bearing religious intent issued by the district administration a few years back, witnessed a similar scenario. That time as well, Lahorijan ended as the gainer while the district administration drew flak for the seemingly impractical diktat. This time, it appears, the denizens of Dimapur have accepted without much ado albeit half-heartedly, while some has taken to social media to air their views. It may not have affected big businesses and the rich with personal conveyance; it is however the small time traders and the poorer sections of the community, who are the one feeling the brunt. As put by one observer, “Economically, while big traders usually keep the shutters down on Sundays, it is the marginal traders who depend on subsistence level that are suffering the most.” On the religious premise, the observer remarked, “The religious justification given to the ban is greeted with utmost criticism as the dichotomy between the theory and practice is too glaring.” Referring to liquor outlets fronting as eateries and lottery stalls remaining open despite the standing diktat, it was added, “If they want a ban, it should be applied in toto.”


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September 5th, 2016 by The Morung Express - Issuu