16 Oct 22

Nagaland

Four-member team inspects NIMSR

NMC TO VISIT NIMSR IN NOV FOR CERTIFICATION

Correspondent

KOHIMA, OCT 15 (NPN):

A four-member team con stituted by the Gauhati High Court (GHC) Ko hima Bench, inspected the ongoing construction of the Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Re search (NIMSR) Meriema, Kohima Saturday.

The team led by ad vocate TB Jamir include advocates—Tongpok Pon gener, Joshua Sheqi and Apila Sangtam convener T.B Jamir, Tongpok Pon gener, Joshua Sheqi and Apila Sangtam inspected the medical college site, accompanied by the Neiteo Koza counsel for the peti tioner, Z.N Ngullie CGC and Nchum Mozhui, coun sel for the department of health and family welfare.

Principal Director Health & Family Welfare Dr. V. Kinimi, the MS and MD of Naga Hospital Author ity, (NHAK) Kohima and officials from the Health de partment were also present.

During the inspection, the team interacted with Health department officials, engineer, consultant and the contractors. Executive en

72% MGNREGS fund released to states

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): The Centre has re leased more than 72% of the total amount allocated for MGNREGS in the 2022-23 budget to states so far, the Rural Development Minis try said on Saturday.

In the Union Budget for 2022-23, Rs 73,000 crore was allocated for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Em ployment Guarantee Scheme , out of which Rs 52,833 crore has been allocated to states so far, the ministry said. Citing data, the minis try said the “actual releases to states have been much higher than that provided for at the budgetary estimate level”.

gineer, Er. Moanaro Long kumer briefed the team on the status of the college and also explained the reasons for the delay. The seven contractors, involved in the construction works, also gave detailed reports of the status of the works.

In view of the proposed visit by National Medi cal Commission (NMC) to NIMSR for certifica tion, during the first week of November, the Health department has asked the contractors to complete the work before the scheduled visit. It was pointed out that the NMC team will inspect the medical college and ac cordingly issue certification, which was crucial for the medical college to be func tional by 2023. However, the contractors sought more time to achieve the targeted period of completion.

On the other hand, advocate T.B Jamir said that the NMC certification was a must for the medical college to begin academic session. He said the state cannot lose any opportunity, and there fore urged the contractors to step-up the work and ensure that all criteria as laid down by NMC were met.

Further, the group of lawyers also urged the con tractors to engage more manpower and suggested two-shift works in order to hasten the pace to complete the work before the visit of the NMC team.

It may be mentioned that the High Court has asked the inspection team to submit a report before the court, while listing the matter on October 19.

The NIMSR was esti mated to cost Rs. 189 crore through joint funding be tween Centre (Health Minis try- MoHFW) and Nagaland in the ratio of 90:10 (Central share Rs. 170.1 cr and State share Rs. 18.9 crore). Mo HFW has already released its entire share of Rs.170.1 crore while Nagaland was yet to release its share.

According to the monthly progress report for the month of Septem ber 2022 till October, the following projects were constructed-- Medical Col lege building, girls and boys hostel (250 nos), residential apartment-200 Sqm (1 block -10 units), residential apart ment -100 Sqm (4 blocks-24 units), Dean Residence, MS residence, sports block

and external developmental works. Additional funding from other sources includedlibrary and lecture theatre building (Rs. 30 crore fund ing through World Bank), new 400 bedded teaching Hospital (funding through JICA), existing 150 bedded (funding through the State government).

The expansion of the project way beyond the stipulated criteria of 200 beds over and above land ac quisition, has caused much of the delay. The NHAK, located around 6 kms from the academic building, was originally to be the teaching hospital.

The state government had appointed Prof. Dr. Soumya Chakraborty as the first Dean-cum-Director for NIMSR in August this year but her parent institute (ESI-PGIMSR) has refused to release her.

As reported, chief sec retary J. Alam had informed Nagaland Post on October 11 that the state government had written to the Cen tre with proposal to make NIMSR to the level of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) but so far no response was received.

Insurgency brought down in NE: Rajnath

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Satur day said the law and order situation in the North East improved significantly after the insurgency in the region was brought under control by the Modi government.

Singh said this after inaugurating ‘The Conclave 2022’, a two-day interactive session jointly organised by the ‘Asomiya Pratidin’, a popular Assamese daily, and ‘Pratidin Time’, an Assamese channel based in Guwahati.

“During our reign, the insurgency has been brought under control and the law and order situation in the region has improved signifi cantly,” he said.

The defence minister, however, admitted that even though the situation has not improved 100 per cent but it was “significant progress in that direction”.

“I can assure you that our government is working to do everything possible to bring progress to the North east,” he said.

Delay in delivery of justice a major hindrance, says Modi

KEVADIA (GUJ), OCT 15 (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said delay in getting justice is one of the major challenges faced by the people of the country, and added that a sensitive judicial system is essential for a capable nation and a harmonious society.

Since obscurity of law creates complexity, new laws should be written in lu cid manner and in regional languages to bring in “ease of justice” so that even the poor can easily understand them, he said, noting that legal language should not become a hurdle for citizens.

In his video message aired at the inaugural ses sion of the two-day ‘All In dia Conference of Law Min isters and Law Secretaries’ at Ekta Nagar in Kevadia near the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat, Modi also said that in the last eight years, his government has scrapped more than 1,500 old, ob solete and irrelevant laws, many of which continued from the time of British rule.

Systems like alternative dispute resolution and Lok Adalats have helped reduce the burden on courts and the poor get justice easily, the prime minister added.

Stressing the use of regional languages in the legal system, he said that they have to play a big role for the “ease of justice”.

In some countries, when a law is framed, it is decided in two ways. One is by giving a detailed ex planation of its legal terms using technical terminology, and another is by writing it in the regional language so that the common man can understand it, he added.

“Therefore, while framing

a law, our focus should be such that even the poor could understand the new law,” he said.

Some countries have the provision of deciding during the framing of a law as to how long it will remain effective, Modi pointed out.

“So in a way, the age and the expiry date of a law is determined when it is being framed. When that (stipulated) date comes, the same law is reviewed in new circumstances. In India, too, we will have to go ahead with the same spirit,” he said. He said he has been raising the issue of the use of local languages in the legal system before the judiciary.

“The country is mak ing many big efforts in this direction. We will need the support of logistics and infrastructure for the legal language not to become a hurdle for citizens, and for every state to work in this di rection,” he said. Similarly, there is a need to create a legal academic system in mother tongue for the youth, he said.

Centre plans to take over state highways for widening: Gadkari

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): The Centre is plan ning to take over state high ways with high-traffic den sity to develop 4 or 6 lane highways and then recover investments through toll collection within 12-13 years, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday.

Addressing an event organised by Association of National Exchanges Mem bers of India (ANMI), Gad kari said the government is planning to construct a green express highway between Mumbai and Ban galore to reduce journey time to five hours.

Tribalism, clanism destroying fabric of society: Patton

DIMAPUR, OCT 15 (NPN): State deputy chief minister, Y. Patton, Satur day asserted that the student community should come together and condemn trib alism and clanism, which he said were destroying the fabric of the Naga society.

“Tribalism and clanism have no place in the 21st century,” Patton said while speaking at the golden ju bilee celebration of Dima pur Lotha Students Union (DLSU) here on Saturday.

Patton maintained that clan system was used for the

convenience of inter-mar riage by the forefathers. He, therefore, said that it should not be used for creating division. He cited examples on the existence of clanism starting from student body election to higher levels. He

appealed to every section of the society especially Lo tha community to not give space to anyone propagat ing clanism as it hampered growth and unity.

The deputy CM also called for cultural preserva tion by giving importance on the usage of mother tongue.

Lamenting that cul tural traditions were fast losing significance in urban areas, Patton appealed to the students to ensure that they used mother tongue for conversation at home.

“Parents should also ensure that their children

use mother tongue at home,” Patton said. He recalled that the DLSU was founded by a handful of students with late Renbo Lotha son of late Nyamo Lotha as its first president.

He reminded all to know the history and en sure that the vision and objectives of the founding leaders were upheld.

On the occasion, Pat ton released the jubilee souvenir and unveiled the jubilee monolith after it was dedicated by pastor Lotha Baptist Church Dimapur, Rev. Zanao Mozhüi.

verted into 4 or 6 lane high ways and then the Centre will collect toll from those highways,” an official state ment said quoting Gadkari.

The road transport and highways minister said that as many as 27 green express highways are coming up in the country.

“After a period of 1213 years, the investments will be fully recovered from those state highways along with interest and land ac quisition costs,” he added.

As per the statement, Gad kari urged that investments in the infrastructure sector of the country will be risk-

free and yield good returns and called for cooperation in the investment for infra structure.

“The financial markets need to come up with in novative models to fund In dia’s Infrastructure growth. We are inviting investments in the PPP model,” Gadkari said.

The minister empha sised that the Centre has given the highest priority to the development of in frastructure in the country.

Gadkari also said that just like the National Water Grid, he wants to develop a National Highway Grid.

L&J dept refutes report on HC building

DIMAPUR, OCT 15

(NPN): State Law & Justice department has described as “totally unfounded and wrong” a report published in a national daily, which claimed that Rs.70 crore had been withdrawn for Naga land High Court building that did not exist.

In a press release, com missioner & secretary L&J, Taliremba, clarified that the state government had so far released Rs.69.71 crore for comprehensive development of the New High Court com plex including High Court building, six judges’ bunga low and ancillary works.

The commissioner & secretary also stated that the High Court Complex was fully funded by the state government and construc tion of the Complex was progressing well.

Taliremba pointed out that physical progress of High Court building as on September 30, 2022 was 88% while six judges’ bun galow was 48%.

Refuting the report that Rs.44.24 crore had been withdrawn against electri fication and water supply for the project site, the com missioner & secretary said that the total expenditure on

electrification (transformer sub-station) was Rs.48.62 lakh and total expenditure on water supply (water tank and reservoir) was Rs.35.34 lakh. He said that funds have been released for the project in totality inclusive of judges’ bungalow.

Further, the commis sioner & secretary clarified that no fund of Rs.22.42 crore was released exclu sively for the construction of judges’ bungalow. He said that consultancy fee of 5% was inbuilt in the DPR and accordingly payments have been made on account of consultancy fee.

India ranks 107 on Global Hunger Index 2022; Govt says report ‘erroneous’

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): India ranked 107 out of 121 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2022, much behind its South Asia neighbours, with the child wasting rate at 19.3 per cent, the highest in the world.

The Centre rejected the findings, alleging it is an effort to taint the country’s image and the index suffers from serious methodological issues and is an “erroneous measure” of hunger, while opposition leaders said the government must take re sponsibility for its “failure”.

With a score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India has been labelled “serious”.

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka fare better than India

With a score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India labelled ‘serious’

In Asia, Afghanistan with a rank of 109 is the only country behind India.

Neighbouring coun tries - Pakistan (99), Ban gladesh (84), Nepal (81) and Sri Lanka (64) have all fared better than India. In 2021, India ranked 101 out of 116 countries while in 2020 the

country was placed in 94th position.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measur ing and tracking hunger at global, regional, and na tional levels. It ‘’is a peerreviewed annual report” jointly released by Concern

Worldwide and Welthun gerhilfe, non-government organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively.

“India’s child wasting rate, at 19.3 per cent, is the highest of any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population,” it said.

Undernourishment prevalence rose in India from 14.6 per cent in 20182020 to 16.3 per cent in 2019-2021. This translates into 224.3 million people in India being undernourished out of the total 828 million people globally.

Child wasting which is

a strong predictor of mortal ity among children under five years of age also wors ened from 15.1 per cent in 2012-16 to 19.3 per cent in 2017-21.

India, however, noted improvement in two param eters of child stunting from 38.7 per cent in 2012-16 to 35.5 per cent in 2017-21 and child mortality from 4.6 per cent in 2014 to 3.3 per cent in 2020.

The Women and Child Development ministry, in a statement, said three out of the four indicators used for the calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be

representative of the entire population.

“The fourth and most important indicator estimate of Proportion of Under nourished (PoU) population is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3000, it said.

The report is not only disconnected from ground reality but also chooses to deliberately ignore efforts made by the government to ensure food security for the population, especially dur ing the Covid pandemic, the government said.

The ministry said, “A consistent effort is yet again visible to taint India’s im

age….The index is an er roneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues.”

Opposition leaders tar geted the Modi government over the report, with former finance minister P Chidam baram saying the Centre should address the “real issues” and spreading hate is not the antidote to hunger.

“When will the hon ourable PM address real issues like malnutrition, hunger, and stunting and wasting among children? 22.4 crore people in India are considered undernour ished,” the Congress leader said.

“The Ministry of Road Transports and Highways is planning to take over the State Highways with high traffic density from the State Governments for a period of 25 years. “Thereafter, those state highways will be con

(L) An aerial view of Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Research and (R) Four-member inspection team constituted by GHC Kohima bench with officials of the Health department during the inspection, Saturday. (H&FW)

Y. Patton (NP)

Nitin Gadkari

Narendra Modi

Oxygen generating plant inaugurated

DIMAPUR, OCT 15

(NPN): Deputy chief minister, Y. Patton on Saturday inaugurated the state first cardiac CT Scan and PSA medical oxygen generating plant at Faith Hospital and Institute of Medical Sciences.

Speaking at a brief programme, Patton con gratulated Dr. Sukhato A Sema, MD Faith Hospi tal for providing quality health care services to the people since its commis sion in 2003.

He stated that with the addition of latest

NU Tenyidie deptt celebrates silver jubilee

KOHIMA, OCT 15 (NPN): Nagaland Univer sity, Tenyidie department celebrated its silver jubilee at Ura Academy Hall, here, on Saturday.

Speaking at the pro gramme after releasing the jubilee souvenir, Ura Academy president, Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsü re called the initial days after the introduction of Tenyi die as a subject, which he said was first introduced at Kohima College and later at NU.

Describing the in troduction of Tenyidie language as a subject, a remarkable timeline in history, Dr. Shürhozelie exhorted the students by saying that that the older generation had high hopes from the youth.

In this regard, he ad vised them to not only complete their studies also do more research and doc ument the good traditional practices and Naga cul tures.

DC Wokha informs on Ayushman card

DIMAPUR: Deputy com missioner Wokha, Ajit Ku mar Ranjan has informed that all Aadhaar Centre op erational under Wokha dis trict administration would be functional as Ayushman card generation centre.

According to a DIPR report, DC has informed beneficiaries of PMJAY in addition to impaneled PMJAY hospitals such as District Hospital Wokha, CHC-Bhandari/Sanis and CMO office to obtain PM JAY Ayushman cards from Aadhaar centres of DC of fice and ADC Office Bhan dari.

Aadhaar centre would enable Aadhaar corrections to match the entries in the beneficiaries’ identification system and be convenient for beneficiaries.

DC further stated that these centers will also act as permanent kiosks for regis tration and e-card genera tion for CMHIS for all the eligible populations covered under the scheme.

At the programme, greetings was delivered by administrative in-charge of Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, dean, School of Education and Humanities, Prof. Buno Zetsuvi.

Prof. Buno informed that the Tenyidie depart ment has produced more than 300 post-graduates, 329 dissertations and seven PhDs.

Prof. Zetsuvi said that the department was laying more emphasis on lan guage analysis and creative writings and highlighted the courses provided while department of Linguistics, (Retd. HoD) Prof. D Kuo lie presented history and significance of Tenyidie department.

The programme was led by department of Teny idie, assistant professor Dr. Metuo Liezietsu, depart ment of Tenyidie, HoD, Dr Petekhrienuo Sorhie delivered welcome address, NU Anthem by MA Te nyidie students and special songs by Kekhriezonuo Mere and friends, Dr. Me dongulie Tsiekhanuo and duet by Kükhrüveyi and Nüvekholü.

Later, department of Tenyidie associate profes sor Dr Mimi Kevichusa Ezung proposed the vote of thanks.

A talent show was also organised after the formal session.

equipment, the medical infrastructure of the hospi tal has been strengthened.

Patton expressed hope that the hospital would continue provid ing quality services to the people.

Earlier, the pro gramme began with a prayer by DSBC associate pastor Simon Assumi.

It may be men tioned that the hospital is equipped with state-ofthe-art medical equipment such as a high-end MRI, full spectrum of diagnostic equipments and wholebody scan with high image quality and safety.

Training for PDs, BDOs held in Kohima

DIMAPUR: Orientation training for project directors (PDs) and block develop ment officers (BDOs) on People’s Plan Campaign (GPDP) 2022-23 was held on October 14, in the confer ence hall of directorate of Rural Development.

Delivering the keynote address, commissioner & secretary, RD, Neposo The luo stressed on setting up village planning and facilita tion team/Gram Panchayat Planning Facilitation Team for proper functioning of GPDF. He also requested PDs and BDOs to tie up with line departments.

In her introductory speech, RD director Liboni Humtsoe highlighted the timeline of the campaign, presentation on People’s Plan Campaign (GPDP) was delivered by RDO Im lisanen Aier, PowerPoint on Village Poverty Reduction Plan by NSRLM and vote of thanks from RD, joint director K. Neibou Sekhose.

NEWS IN BRIEF

DC Noklak informs SDRF beneficiaries: Deputy commissioner & DDMA chairman Noklak, Hiazu Meru has informed list of beneficiaries of the State Disaster Response Fund, NSDMA, Home department (2018-2020) that the same is available at DDMA cell of the DC’s office. Beneficiaries have been asked to collect the amount from DDMA Cell, Noklak, October 17 onwards. Beneficiaries have also been informed to produce any of the documents—Aadhaar card/EPIC/ service ID/PAN card for identification purposes.

SCA informs: Sargam Cultural Association (SCA) Di mapur has informed that the 147th Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayanti and National Unity Day will be celebrated on October 30, 10:30 am, at Durga Mandir auditorium (old daily market). The programme will also include song, dance and portrait painting competitions.

Awareness prog on immunisation: CHC Bhandari Community Health Centre Bhandari under Health & Family Welfare department organised an aware ness programme on “routine immunization & NHP COVID-19 vaccination at Town Hall, Bhandari on October 14.

Kisan Mela in Longleng: Horticulture department, Longleng district, organised Kisan Mela-cum-Exhibi tion and Sales Day under MIDH 2020-2021 at District HQ on October 13, at public ground Longleng where seven vegetable-growing villages from different blocks were invited to participate. Fresh and organic local farm produces were sold in the exhibition stalls during the day-long programme.

Hands-on training on FTK held in Wokha

DIMAPUR: Under the ongoing “Swachh Jal Se Suraksha” (SJSS) cam paign (October 2-January 26, 2023), District Water and Sanitisation Mission (DWSM) PHED Wokha di vision conducted a two-day hands-on training on Field Testing Kit (FTK) for grass roots level workers at three strategic locations under Sanis block, Wokha district on October 11 and 12.

According to a DIPR report, district chemist, Er. Aremo highlighted water quality issues and demon strated on use of FTK.

FTK provided to the users covered the detection

of 8 parameters (physical & chemical). H2S vials for detection of bacteriological contamination were also distributed to trainees.

The trainees were re minded of their responsibil ity to carry out surveillance duty as per the JJM guide lines.

District coordinator Chuba Longchar highlight ed water-borne diseases, health effects and storage of drinking water.

The participants in cluded village council mem bers, WATSAN committee, Swachhagrahis, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers and others.

I v ERSARY

Acknowledgement

25th

Staff

Y. Patton and Dr. Sukhato A Sema at the oxygen generating plant on Saturday. (NP)

Shürhozelie Liezietsü speaking at the silver jubilee celebration on Saturday. (NP)

WEATHER FORECAST

16

Kronu urges farmers to take up scientific Mithun farming

forming a committee consti tuted of APCs from different Mithun-rearing states in or der to take up Mithun farm ing as commercial activity.

In his address as guest of honour, ICAR-CIRC Meerut, UP, director Dr. Abhijit Mitra stated that Mithun did not compete with other livestock feed resources as it can thrive easily on forest foliage.

ICAR-NRCM celebrates 35th foundation day

DIM APUR: Minister of Planning & Coordination, Land Revenue & Parliamen tary Affairs, Neiba Kronu on Saturday urged upon Mithun farmers to take up scientific Mithun farming.

Speaking as special guest at the ICAR-National Research Centre on Mithun (ICAR-NRCM), Medziphe ma 35th Foundation Day programme and stakehold ers’ meet, Kronu acknowl edged ICAR-NRCM on their research and extension activities.

“I am highly impressed how the Mithuns are man

aged in the Medziphema farm and we are lucky that NRC on Mithun is at our place”, he remarked.

He pointed out that this was the right time for people to increase the Mithun population by adopting scientific rearing practices and highlighted the importance of identi fication and propagation of evergreen plant species and development of pas ture lands for sustainable Mithun rearing.

Kronu also pointed out that Mithun dairy and meat tourism helped engage local Mithun farmers with tour ism development.

Earlier, the minister inaugurated Semen Process ing Laboratory building and planted a sapling at ICAR

Pukhayi inaugurates DDGBA office

Mithun farm, Medziphema.

Delivering a speech as guest of honour, Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC), Y Kikheto Sema dis closed that there was rapid decline in the forest cover and that the population of Mithun was decreasing.

In this regard, he stressed on the need for bankable Mithun projects with zero interest.

APC lauded the hard work of the entire ICARNRCM for the development of technologies benefitting farmers.

“Mithun occupies an esteemed position among North East people that re mains inseparable in socioeconomic and cultural life”, he stated.

Kikheto also suggested

KU unit allows optical fibre cable work

DIMAPUR: Konyak Union Mon Unit, T/Ch ingnyu Village Council, T/Chingnyu Student’s Union and Trident Infra Project Pvt Ltd, director, Hinanya Boruah held a joint meeting at Konyak Union Mon unit office on October 14, with regard to the optical fibre cable work which was inspected on October 7.

He emphasised on the scope of Mithun as organic, functional and alternative food and asked suggested ICAR-NRCM to come up with Mithun festival, Mit hun day or Mithun cuisine day for wider popularisa tion.

He also urged upon the farmers to stop the in discriminate slaughter of well-built large-size Mithun that should instead be kept for breeding.

At the programme, ICAR-NRCM director, Dr. M. H. Khan delivered the welcome address and high lighted salient achievements of the institute over the last 35 years.

Inputs were also dis tributed to farmers and a stakeholders’ meet was held where resource persons from NABARD and SBI inter acted with Mithun farmers.

Mmhonlümo

golden jubilee culmination

gether we need to com prise, take a step forward or forward when required, Mmhonlümo stated.

He said in order to project how special people were, they must project their best behaviour, know their identity and represent their community in the best possible manner.

At the programme, greetings was delivered by Dimapur Naga Students Union (DNSU) president Moayanger Jamir and DDLGBU chairman K Ntonsi Ngullie.

Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, OCT 15 (NPN): Advisor of In formation Technology, Science and Technology, NRE, Mmhonlümo Kikon graced the culmination programme of the Dima pur Lotha Students Union (DLSU) golden jubilee at Dimapur Government College auditorium, here, on Saturday.

Delivering a speech as the special guest, the advisor stated that in order to contribute towards the welfare of the society, one must know one’s history which, he said, was of utmost importance.

Mmhonlümo called upon the younger genera tion to focus on handling or dealing with certain on going issues with positive ideas and contributions.

“Knowing our history supplements the wisdom and knowledge that we gain”, he stated.

He urged upon the gathering, to be informed individuals and to work towards the upliftment of the community in particu lar and society in general.

Describing unity as the strength of a commu nity, he encouraged all to be pave the way for unity, peace and harmony.

In order to live to

The programme was chaired by Lopilo Humtsoe and Yansathung Ovung, invocation was offered by Lotha Baptist Church Dimapur, pastor Yanbemo Lotha, welcome address by additional sec retary, cabinet cell and tribal affairs department, former DLSU executive member, song was pre sented by jubilee choir and special song by Lo tha Baptist Church, Chü moukedima choir.

Later, vote of thanks was proposed by DLSU assistant general secretary Mercy Ovung and benedic tion was offered by Lotha AG church, midland se nior pastor, Rev. Thebemo Yanthan.

Sangtamtila village gate inaugurated

Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, OCT 15 (NPN): Chief engineer PHED Sanitation & WSSO chief engineer, Er. N Thsathrichem Sangtam inaugurated Sangtamtilla village gate, here, on Sat urday.

DIMAPUR, OCT 15

(NPN): Advisor of Food and Civil Supplies (F&CS), Pukhayi Assumi inaugu rated the Dimapur District GBs Association (DDGBA) office at Super market, here on Saturday.

Speaking at the pro gramme, Pukhayi stated that DDGBA office should be used for the welfare of Naga people and advised the GBs to be guardians of peace in the Naga community.

The advisor lamented

at the “current situation” and stated that if the “situ ation” continues, Naga society was heading no where but moving towards chaos and confusion. He urged upon the GBs to give constructive ideas as guardians of the society and suggested that they keep disputes and clashes between communities from happening.

The advisor also la mented that people did not know how to explore the potentials of Nagaland al though the state was blessed

with fertile soil and had the potential to become “textile city.”

For the betterment of the society, he stressed that GBs must give construc tive ideas with honesty and dwelt on the issue of divi sion among Nagas in the name of sovereignty.

Earlier, during the in augural programme at Hotel Saramati, a short speech was also delivered by Dimapur Sardar GB vice president and Nagaland Gaon Bura Federation (NGBF) vice president, Tohoshe Awomi.

In a press release, KU Mon unit president Kai yan Toalem and general secretary Nokhreih Ünok SN stated that during the meeting, Hinanya Boruah assured that he would work according to the detailed project report (DPR) until completion of the work.

The union warned that it would take “strict action” against the con cerned person if the work was not carried out as per the DPR and agreed to resume the Optical Fibre Cable duct filling work.

In this regard, Konyak Union Mon unit has re quested the public of T/ Chingnyu village juris diction and civil society organisations (CSOs) to cooperate.

Tongpang inspects PWD rental housing complex

It may be mentioned that the minister on No vember 7, 2021, wrote to NPF party president, Dr. Shourhozielie Liezeitsu requesting to donate a por tion of the plot for parking space for tenants of PWD Rental Housing.

The second issue settled was boundary be tween the same PWD Rental Housing Complex and GPS Landmark col ony.

In this regard, Tong pang Ozukum initiated a joint inspection with lead ers of Landmark Colony and school management board (SMB) in the pres ence of the deputy com missioner (DC), Dimapur.

After discussion, it was agreed to settle the matter amicably provid ing sufficient space for entrance of PWD Rental Housing complex.

The minister also in spected the ongoing con struction of demonstration housing project (DHP) at Sematilla, Dimapur.

Speaking at the pro gramme as special guest, Er. Thsathrichem stated that village and colony gates were integral part of Naga culture and that they were also symbols of their identities. He congratulated the council and members of the village and lauded the village for co-existing in peace and harmony.

Earlier, the programme was chaired by Sangtamtilla Village Council joint secre tary, Sangtamtilla Baptist Lithro associate women pastor Selongla Temsu Sangtam dedicated the vil lage gate, invocation was offered by SCBL pastor S Akhang, welcome address by council chairman Ase

Conference of Ao villages established from Koritang

Correspondent

MOKOKCHUNG, OCT 15 (NPN): The third edi tion of “Kortang Nungi Yim Kumtetta Aoertem Telongjem Mungdang” (3rd conference of a conglomer ate of Ao villages estab lished from Koritang) was held at Chuchuyimpang village, under Mokokchung district, here, on Saturday.

The conference was inaugurated by National ist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) spokesper son, Merentoshi R. Jamir, who attended the confer ence on behalf of minister of Rural Development, Metsübo Jamir.

Speaking at the pro gramme, Merentoshi pointed out that the soci ety was filled with unions and associations which he said, could otherwise dis integrate the very fabric of unity, which was once the pride before. He, however, felt that this association of eight villages could become a catalyst in bringing unity and rebuilding the society.

Merentoshi lamented at the fragmented society, especially among the Aos and called upon all the members of the community to stand united, which he said, was the need of the hour.

NDPP spokesperson, Merentoshi R. Jamir addressing the gathering on Saturday. (NP)

Further, he called on the association to be lead ers in making the society stronger and united.

Merentoshi also stated that it was also an oppor tune time, especially for the youth, to learn culture and traditions as he had also learnt in the conference especially with regard to the history and origins.

At the programme, short speeches were deliv ered by Talichuba, chairman VC Longsa, Talichiba, Tatar Khensa and M. Lepden Jamir, chairman VC Long kong.

The conference also witnessed presentation of genesis songs (yimkum ken) of respective villages from

Neiba Kronu, Kikheto Sema and others after inaugural of the Semen Processing Laboratory.

Chuchuyimpang, Khensa, Longsa, Longmisa, Long kong and Moalenden vil lages. Theme speaker Me rensosang, chairman VC Longmisa spoke on the topic “putipuin liromedema rizungtetba”.

The conference also elected a new team of office bearers led by Repatemsu Jamir Chuchuyimpang and general secretary Nangshi koba Longkum er (Long kong).

Staff Reporter

Pukhayi Assumi along with members of DDGBA and others at the programme on Saturday. (NP)

DIMAPUR: Minister of PWD (Housing and Mechanical), Tongpang Ozukum with department officers, chief engineer (Housing) and NPF party leaders (central & Dima

pur division) conducted a joint inspection for exten sion of PWD Rental Hous ing Phase-III Complex boundary in Dimapur, on Saturday.

press release,

PS to the minister stated that NPF party leaders agreed to part with 10x162 feet towards NPF plot by knocking down existing boundary wall between the two plots.

Tongpang Ozukum with NPF central leaders on Saturday.

Er. N Thsathrichem Sangtam along with leaders of Sangtamtilla village and others on Saturday. (NP) mba Sangtam and special presentation by BYE and students.

Later, vote of thanks was proposed by council

secretary Yolise Thongrü and benediction was offered by SABA pastor Nungshi meren. It may be mentioned

that the gate was construct ed with contribution from the village development fund and Er. N Thsath richem Sangtam.

Mmhonlümo Kikon addressing the gathering at the culmination programme. (NP)

‘Modi govt made possible what had seemed impossible’

SHIMLA, OCT 15 (PTI):

Referring to the abrogation of Article 370 and the con struction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sat urday said the Narendra Modi government made possible what had previ ously seemed impossible.

Shah was address ing an election rally of the ruling BJP in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district ahead of the November 12 assembly polls.

He said the Modi gov ernment abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special sta tus to Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019.

“Did you ever think that Article 370 would be abrogated,” he asked the gathering. “If you talk to Congress leaders and work ers about Article 370, they remain mum as its provision was made by Jawaharlal Nehru,” he said.

On the construction of Ram temple, Shah said, “Congress used to taunt us and say ‘Mandir vahi banay enge, tithi nahi batayenge’.”

Prime Minister Modi started the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayod hya, he said.

“Be it construction of Ram Mandir or abrogation of Article 370, the Modi government made possible what had earlier seemed

impossible,” Shah said.

He said the prime min ister has ended ‘parivarvad’ in politics.

The days of king and queen are gone and Prime Minister Modi changed the name of Rajpath in Delhi to Kartavya Path and installed a grand statue of Subhas Chandra Bose there, Shah said. He also reminded the gathering about the surgi cal strike carried out by the armed forces in response to terrorist attack.

He said the Modi gov ernment has brought the Indian economy to the fifth position in the world from number 11 in just eight years. Prime Minister Modi ended 55 years’ struggle of the people of Girpar area by providing tribal status to the Hatti community, which will benefit 1.60 lakh people, he said. The Hatti community will now get the benefit of reservation after

getting the tribal status for which Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had pressed the Cen tre strongly, he said.

But the Congress started instigating the Dalit community that their rights of reservation would be depleted after providing tribal status to the Hatti community.

Shah said he wanted to make it clear that Dalits of the area would keep on getting as much reservation as they were getting earlier.

“It’s time for the people of Himachal Pradesh to change the trend of voting parties to power alternately in every elections as the peo ple of Uttarakhand had re cently done,” he said. Shah listed the achievements of the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state and urged the voters to reelect the BJP in the November 12 assembly polls.

Kashmiri Pandit shot dead by militants in J-K’s Shopian

Seema Mustafa re-elected as EGI president

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): ‘The Citizen’ editor Seema Mustafa was on Sat urday re-elected unopposed as president of the Editors’ Guild of India. ‘The Cara van’ editor Anant Nath and Sakal Media Group chief editor Shriram Pawar were also elected unopposed as general secretary and trea surer of the guild at its An nual General Meeting here. The announcement was

made by a three-member election committee compris ing Rajdeep Sardesai, Vijay Naik, and QW Naqvi.

The Executive Com mittee, at its meeting on September 23, had appreci ated the work by the office bearers. ‘Hard News’ editor Sanjay Kapoor and Nath were general secretary and treasurer for 2020-21.

GOVERNMENT OF NAGALAND MOTOR VEHICLES DEPARTMENT OFFICE OF THE TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER

KOHIMA- 797004, NAGALAND

commrtrans-ngl@nic.in

SRINAGAR, OCT 15 (PTI): A Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead allegedly by militants in the Shopian dis trict of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, officials said.

Deputy Inspector Gen eral of Police Sujit Kumar said the Kashmir Freedom Fighter (KFF) group, the proxy name of a militant outfit, has claimed responsi bility for the attack.

Puran Krishan Bhat was attacked near his resi dence in the Chowdhary Gund area of the south Kashmir district. He was rushed to Shopian hospital where doctors declared him dead, they said. Officials said the area has been cor doned off and a hunt has been launched to nab the assailants. “Terrorists fired upon a civilian (minority) Puran Krishan Bhat while he was on his way to an orchard in Chowdari Gund, Shopian. He was immedi ately shifted to a hospital

for treatment where he suc cumbed. Area cordoned off. Search in progress,” the Kashmir Zone Police wrote on Twitter. DIG Sujit Ku mar said the initial investi gation has revealed that one militant fired upon Bhat.

“There was security, our guard, for this cluster. We are looking at the reason (for the lapse). He had gone out on a scooter and just returned to his home,” he added. Kumar said in case of any lapse, action will be taken against the security guards and the in-charge of ficials in the area. Investi gations are underway and more details will be made public once things become clear, the police officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Shopian, Sachin Kumar Vaishya, said Bhat’s body will be taken to Jammu where the last rites will be performed. “All arrangements are being made. We are extending help to the family.”

Family members of Puran Bhat, who was shot dead by militants in the Shopian district, mourn. (PTI)

Seema Mustafa

Amit Shah

Electoral factors

In2023, nine states including Nagaland are scheduled to go for assembly elections and the year will be a litmus test for the vain efforts to bring all opposition parties to forge a unified front against the BJP. The state assembly elections in 2023 will be the last before the next Lok Sabha election in 2024. The Nagaland Legislative As sembly election in 2018 was held on February 27, 2018 in 59 out of 60 constituencies of the Legisla tive Assembly of Nagaland. The current 13th NLA was constituted on March 6,2018 and after the re sults of the assembly election are announced. The next 14th NLA has to be constituted within March 5,2023. In the 2018 assembly election, the then rul ing DAN-III the NPF and BJP split their long political alliance and the nascent Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) grabbed the opportunity to form an alliance with the BJP. In the 2018 elec tion, the NPF won 26 out of 58 seats it contested, NDPP won 18 out of 40, BJP 12 out of 20 and JDU one out of 13,independents one out of 11 contested. Subsequently in the bypolls the NPF tally dropped to 25 when it did not put up a candidate for the bye polls to the 60 Pungro-Kiphire constituency held after the demise of its sitting member T.Torechu. Independent candidate T.Yangseo Sangtam won the Bye Election to 60 Pungro Kiphire A/C in No vember 2020. In the other three other bye polls, the ruling NDPP retained all three seats it held. However, after the two NPP, one JDU and 21 NPF legislators “merged” with NDPP the party tally shot up to 42 while the BJP remained static at 12 and two independents more or less as associate members of NDPP. The NPF which had 26 seats has been reduced to four after 21 of its MLAs “merged” with NDPP. There is hardly any issue in Nagaland state politics barring the ‘Naga political issue’ which has been well milked by politicians and all involved. Since 2003 when the then NPF promised solution within three months of coming to power, the prom ise evolved into the self-description as ‘facilitator.’ There is still an air of uncertainty about whether election will be held or not since there has been a huge push by various CSOs and public demanding solution first and election later. There are a lot of probabilities in the run up to the election. First of all, the Election Commission of India(ECI) has yet to issue notification calling for election in the state. The moot point is whether ECI is awaiting clearance from the centre? Secondly, if solution is arrived within November-December, then whether it will mean installing an interim government till clauses of the agreement are approved by Parliament before election is held? As parties gear up for polls, seat sharing between NDPP and BJP continues to be interpreted differently despite earlier announcement of continuing with a 40 (NDPP) and 20 (BJP)for mula. This formula will be a challenge since NNDP has 44 MLAs and BJP workers wanting more seats. What will unravel in the coming weeks ahead of ticket distribution by NDPP high command, will be eagerly watched as it could indicate factors that will eventually decide on how the game will be played.

DailyDevotion

The Key to the Missionary’s Message

He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. —1 John 2:2

The key to the missionary’s message is the propitia tion of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctify ing, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The mis sionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.

The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “…repentance and remission of sins should be preached…to all nations…” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins….” The missionary’s mes sage is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or prefer ences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Making way towards a ‘Sampoorna Swachh Bharat’

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) became more than just a government program, it became a people movement following our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s clarion call for an Open Defecation Free (ODF) India from ramparts of Red Fort, on 2nd October 2014. The results are there for the world to see. 110 million toilets were built and 550 million of our rural population provided access to household sanitation facilities making India achieve ODF status and other significant social impacts, on 2nd Oct 2019. The Hon’ble Prime Minister was presented the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation’s Global Goal Keepers Award 2019, for the significantly improved health outcomes and subsequent economic gains.

A healthy nation is an empowered one. Under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi, SBM has made a significant contribution in placing India as the fifth leading economy in the world. An independent study by UNICEF reported that on an average household living in ODF villages,

accrued cumulative benefits of Rs.50,000 per year, and households with a new toilet saw a onetime increase in property value by Rs.19,000. On average, the total benefits of new household toilets were found to exceed costs by 4.7 times.

As we gear up to celebrate Swachh Bharat Diwas 2022 on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi – 2nd October, SBM is well over two years in its phase II and moving forward from achievement of ODF to now striving for ODF plus. Let us understand that better – ‘ODF plus’, the key objective of phase II of the SBM-G, comprises elements beyond construction and use of toilets and towards holistic universal sanitation delineating the sustained usage of toilets, ecofriendly and economically viable management of solid and liquid waste, including bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable waste generated from our homes and communities and subsequent visually clean surroundings. This is in line with the Gandhian principles of ‘Sampoorna swachhata’ and also supports our aim to generate livelihoods

as part of phase II of the cleanliness mission, through the dedicated and specific technological interventions for Solid & Liquid Waste Management (SLWM).

In thousands of villages across India, solid waste is now being managed through waste segregation into wet and dry waste at the household level and through its door-to-door collection. Panchayats and women Self Help Groups (SHGs) have been and are being trained to manage the wet waste through composting and where possible producing biogas, subsequently becoming modes of income generation. Plastic waste from households and institutions is being managed through collection and segregation centres set up across villages with arrangements for forward linkages. Plastic waste is shredded and converted into suitable forms allowing for further usage in activities like road construction and use in cement factories, generating livelihoods in the process. For example, the sale of manure and dry waste collected in the Gram Panchayat of Vandse in Karnataka fetches around 88,000

per month. Similarly, aided by its 100 KLD water treatment system, the treated wastewater used for Pisciculture in the Gram Panchayat of Kurak Jagir in Haryana has raised about Rs 1 Lakh annually from Fish farming. These are just two examples among several similar stories reported daily from across rural India. Also creating more such avenues is the GOBARDHAN scheme. Our villages face a challenge in managing animal and other biowaste including kitchen leftovers, crop residue and market waste. Hon. Prime Minister Modi ji gave the idea of making ’kachhre se kanchan’ (waste to wealth), hence GOBARDhan, wherein, as many as 333 Gobardhan plants across 125 districts are not only providing clean fuel for cooking and/or lighting up numerous households, but also jobs and income source to many. This is truly a ‘waste to wealth’ system which supports biodegradable waste recovery and conversion of waste into resources, reducing GHG emissions, and reducing our dependence on the import of crude oil, boosting entrepreneurship, and promoting organic

India & educated unemployed problem

India has followed a unique growth pattern and evolution in terms of modernization and ad vancement. India has grown at many levels and strata, particularly in education. Systematic schooling and education were available to a limited class of people and most children were sub jected to homeschooling or the absence of any formal education.

Slowly the penetration of education was increased and was more readily avail able to all classes with higher literacy rates. The number of people getting formal education kept on increas ing with time and efforts of government and other non-government organiza tions. Education brought a scientific approach as well as access to available re sources to the masses. As a result, people slowly started to realize the importance of education as it uplifted their lifestyle significantly.

There was a time in India when a graduate can didate had plenty of oppor tunities to get a government job, as there were not as many graduates. Govern ment jobs like being a teacher were easy to get if a person acquired a graduation or post-graduation degree in any discipline. This was a period when both educa tion and employment were progressing together and complementing each other.

Soon education became a compulsory part of most of India’s population and every parent wished their child to have the best education and career. This high demand for the best led to the founda tion of private players in the field of primary education. Slowly there was a parallel industry that stood up with the already existing govern ment education providers.

But the same was not the situation with higher professional courses like medical, engineering, law and others as still most of the colleges were under a govern ment set up with very few private colleges. This higher professional education gen erally needed competitive exams to be qualified after the higher secondary exami nation. These competitive examinations needed extra preparation and attention. A parallel industry of coaching centers developed that varied

from a single room setup to corporate coaching centers in major cities.

Young students had started to travel from their hometown to these cen ters for their preparation and those who were not able to do so were doing it by self-preparation or local tuitions. Due to the very limited number of seats in these government-run col leges, it was tough to get in.

By this time there was high demand for these profession als and the supply was low owing to the less number of higher professional colleges and seats in each college.

Due to this high demand and less supply, this was the best time for these professional students to settle and earn as soon as they came out of college.

But there was a need for this to be changed as there was a need to gear up the opening of new colleges, which ultimately led to the entry of private players in higher professional courses.

With the growth of the pri vate sector in higher educa tion, various regulatory au thorities were set up to keep standards of education high.

During this period, the Information Technology sec tor experienced tremendous growth and India started its journey to become a global leader in the IT and soft ware sector. More and more youngsters were attracted to the lucrative packages by companies and they saw a promising career and better lifestyle. Other sectors were also growing but at a little slower pace.

Until then, the Indian education system was par allel to employment oppor tunity, but it soon started deranging after a few years. Suddenly, the number of professional graduates and even postgraduates jumped to new heights, but the de mand grew at its own speed. Demand and supply reversed and there were more doctors, engineers, lawyers and other professionals than the jobs available for them in both the government and private sec tor. This led to a new concept which was new to India and a new class of people emerged due to this — “Highly Edu cated Unemployed”.

The Highly Educated Unemployed class had their own miseries, which were completely different from

the normal unemployed class. For this new class, who invested a long time and plenty of money, education turned out to be meaningless as the ultimate practical goal for them was getting a job, which could not be fulfilled because of the prevailing demand-supply issue. This class is generally not heard because they are not a collec tive united group of people but a collection of many individuals. The problem is so deep that it has caused many young people to com mit suicide out of frustration.

Most of these people suffer from mental or behavioural disorders as they are gener ally in the age above 25 years and social pressure from all around keeps on increasing for them to get settled or look like settled.

In my opinion, things started getting out of control primarily when the number of educated people outnum bered the number of jobs. Job creation is primarily the role of the government and the private sector, so we may say these sectors failed to create infrastructure with the required pace to provide employment. Another justi fication by many scholars is that it was not the problem of job creation, but it was the mushrooming of private colleges. Regulatory authori ties have often been corrupt and few higher authorities of these regulatory bodies face high corruption charges.

Increasing quantity and decreasing quality of these courses are two consequences of all the irregularities due to which young graduates and postgraduates who are part of this crisis are the main suf ferers. Therefore, measures are necessary to create a bal ance and education should be made career-oriented.

This is a very complex issue that can only be solved with structural changes right from its basics from primary education, where children should be able to choose the subject of their interest and progress in that for a career. Parents should also be made aware of the different fields and safe careers other than the old Doctor-Engineer duo. Hope time will balance the imbalance with proper atten tion from policymakers who are equally responsible for creating the problem.

farming.

For managing domestic wastewater (barring water from toilets), technically termed ‘grey water’, the Sujlam 1.0 and Sujlam 2.0 campaigns were rolled out to ensure that this waste water does not contaminate valuable rural natural water resources such as ponds, lakes, and rivers. For managing the fecal sludge, we are encouraging states to convert all single pit toilets into twin pit toilets, where the treatment is in-situ. For other types of toilets like septic tanks, the focus is on setting up Faecal Sludge management systems comprising collection, transport, and treatment of septage and faecal waste in Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants.

Besides all the above, there are extensive behavioral change campaigns to nudge people towards adopting safe sanitation systems and practices. There is Swachhata Hi Seva (SHS) campaign– SBMs annual cleanliness fortnight, focussing on cleaning of legacy waste and garbage vulnerable sites, ensuring segregation of waste at source, construction of waste collection and segregation sheds, purchase

of waste collection vehicles, door to door collection of non-biodegradable waste, keeping water bodies clean, tree plantation, implementing Single Use Plastic (SUP) ban etc..

This year over 2 crore people participated through shramdan in SHS 2022, and over 460,000 legacy waste dumps were identified and cleared.

What have all our efforts achieved in two and a half years? I am proud to share that more than 1.14 lakh villages have declared themselves as ODF Plus and around 3 lakh villages have initiated solid and liquid waste management works, embarking on their journey to become ODF Plus.

The target is to have six lakh ODF plus villages and while doing so provide jobs and raise income levels of rural India. As responsible and proud citizens of the country, under the visionary leadership of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi, let us unite in our effort of ‘Swachhta se Swablamban’ and be a shining example of total sanitation and hygiene to the global community!

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Minister for Jal Shakti Government of India

What is biodiversity finance & where does India stand globally?

India is among the 17 mega-diversity countries of the world because of its rich species, ranking 8th on the chart. In just 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area, the country features 8 per cent of all recorded species, including over one lakh species of animals and nearly 50,000 species of plants. In today’s era, when sustainable devel opment is the global focus due to the increase in population and pollution due to several factors, biodiversity conservation becomes important as it’s essential for economic growth, social development, and survival. Biodiversity Management & Conservation In India In India, biodiversity management is an inter-sectoral subject, and its guiding principles are provided by the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP). Any sector requires proper finance manage ment for its exponential growth, and biodiversity conservation is no excep tion. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal ministry responsible for funding and ar ranging resources. Furthermore, there are also 24 other ministries in India whose programs, schemes and activi ties impact biodiversity conservation. Different states and union territories also contribute to arranging resources for the same.

What Is Biodiversity Finance?

Biodiversity finance is a term used to describe the practice of raising and managing capital and funds for biodiversity conservation. It comes under the umbrella terms of conser vation finance, which aims to fund for conservation of water, land, and other natural resources in a sustain able manner. Until now, only nodal

ministries and other government agen cies were responsible for funding and managing the country’s biodiversity cons ervation. But with the passing years, the focus is gradually shifting toward sourcing financing from private and public sectors. Raising funds and capital from private and public sectors includes finance mechanisms such as tourism taxes, conservation trust bonds, green bonds, environmental services payments, and nature swaps debt. The effort is to develop a medium to quantify the finance gap in biodiversity conservation and bridge the same.

Where Does India Stand? According to a report published by the Wildlife Institute of India, the finances for conservation in the country between 2016-17 came from 116 schemes and 24 ministries to nearly $2.64 billion. Meanwhile, a biodiversity conserva tion finance assessment report for implementing NBAP suggests that India needed $12 billion annually dur ing the same period. The data signifies that India lacked nearly $9 billion to meet the financial requirement for implementing NBAP.

In another report published by India Spends, the data showed that India needed $16.5 billion for biodiver sity conservation during 2017-22; the country only had $10 billion for manag ing finances and investment. However, the good sign for the country is that private finances are exponentially growing. In 2014, India also became the first country to legally mandate CSR activities under Section 135 of the Companies Act.

Ronit Kumar Singh (As published in The Logical Indian)

Reader’s Post

Pendency, vacancies do not augur well

Sir, The Right to Information (RTI) Act is called the sunshine legislation for good reason for it is a structured mechanism providing information to the citizenry about all public actions, while empowering people with the right to ask relevant questions. As the transparency law completes 17 years, the report card is troubling. Nearly 3.15 lakh appeals and complaints are pending across the country, up from 2.18 lakh in 2019.

Over 40 of the 165 posts of Chief Information Commissioner and In formation Commissioner are vacant. Only 11 of the total of 29 information commissions provide e-filing facility; of these, just five are functional. The questionable choice of commissioners, untrained staff and casual approach of officials raise serious concerns. Deliberate delays and half-hearted answers are not new complaints, but the instances are growing.

An RTI application is the cheapest and most effective weapon to redress governmental apathy. It has led to the uncovering of several corruption scandals in the public sector, and inspired persistent efforts to dig information by RTI activists and common citizens, several of whom have been at receiving end. There is a pressing need, especially by the judiciary, to address the issues that are weakening the treasured legislation.

Rongsen Jamir, Shillong

Karnataka

BALLARI (KTK), OCT 15 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the BJP-led regime in Karnataka as against the Scheduled castes and tribes and alleged that it is a “40 per cent commission” gov ernment.

The BJP government in Karnataka is “anti-SC and ST,” and there is a 50 per cent rise in atrocities against these oppressed people, Rahul Gandhi al leged addressing a public meeting here, which is part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by him.

A large number of party workers and people gathered at the municipal ground here as the Con gress party celebrated the foot march led by Rahul completing the 1,000 km milestone.

The BJP-led regime in the state is called a “40 per cent commission” govern ment as any work could be done by paying it, he alleged.

The ruling BJP and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai have dismissed such bribery allegations as

regime

ment scam in which many people have been arrested.

It includes an addition al director general of police Amrit Paul, some deputy superintendents, inspectors, sub-inspectors, constables, BJP leader Divya Hagargi and the gunman of a Con gress MLA besides some candidates.

Rahul

cent to 17 per cent and for scheduled tribes from three per cent to seven per cent.

The BJP never wished to give special status to the erstwhile Hyderabad-Kar nataka region, now known as Kalyana Karnataka.

BENGALURU, OCT 15 (PTI):

‘unfounded’ and ‘baseless.’ Rahul Gandhi’s brib ery barb comes against the backdrop of his party’s sustained campaign in Kar nataka against the Saffron party government over cor ruption allegations.

The Congress has made corruption a pollplank in the state after a contractor, Santosh Patil died by suicide accusing the then Rural Develop ment and Panchayat Raj Minister K Eshwarappa of demanding a 40 per cent kickback. Following the contractor’s death, Es hwarappa resigned from his post. Congress ran a

‘PayCM’ campaign as well.

The former Congress president alleged that funds allocated for the develop ment of the SC and ST communities have been diverted. “Rs 8,000 crore of your money has been diverted,” Gandhi claimed.

“If you have to be come a police sub-inspector then you can get it by pay ing Rs 80 lakh. If you have money you can buy a gov ernment job here but if you don’t have money, you can never get a job in your life.”

The Congress leader was referring to the recent police sub-inspector recruit

Hyderabad bags ‘World Green City Award 2022’

team and Special Chief Sec retary, MA&UD Arvind Kumar for the achievement.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ex pressed happiness over the city receiving the prestigious “International Association of Horticulture Producers” (AIPH) awards.

The exam has been an nulled after the scam broke out. Candidates who were arrested reportedly told po lice they paid Rs 70 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to get a job.

“This is the reason that Karnataka government is called as the 40 per cent commission government. If you have to get any work done, you can do it by pay ing a commission of 40 per cent.”

Gandhi alleged a scam in the cooperative banks and in appointment of as sistant professors as well.

The Wayanad MP demanded to know why the BJP regime was not implementing the Justice Nagamohan Das commis sion recommendation to increase the reservation for scheduled caste from 15 per

His party-led govern ment gave special status to the region under the 371-J of the Constitution, which helped youth get jobs and admission in engineering, medical and other profes sional colleges.

“On the one hand, there is unemployment while on the other there is price rise. People are squeezed in between the two,” Gandhi said.

He slammed the BJP and RSS for the ideology of “hatred” that is weakening the country.

Congress leader Rajas than Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in his address said the nation is facing chal lenges from “fascist” forces.

Condemning what he called the “communal forces,” Gehlot claimed that people are suffering due to unemployment and price rise.

Ahead of the Con gress ‘s mega rally in Ballari, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sat urday dubbed the ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ as an other attempt to relaunch a ‘failed missile’ called Rahul Gandhi.

As a galaxy of Con gress leaders from across the country descended on Bal lari to celebrate Rahul Gan dhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ reaching a milestone, cov ering 1,000 kms, Bommai said it is meaningless as the country is united and has full faith in federalism.

“There is no meaning to this Bharat Jodo Yatra when the country is strong enough. As I have said in the past, the missile called Rahul Gandhi had failed earlier. Now, he is being relaunched. Apart from this, there is no meaning to the Yatra,” Bommai told report ers. He sought to know the purpose behind the yatra, when the nation is unitedly progressing with faith in federalism.

“There is no occasion now for ‘uniting India’ when the country is marching ahead globally in a robust way. At a time when all the countries including the G-7 nations are facing economic slowdown, India is going ahead with seven per cent growth.”

Recalling that Con gress president Sonia Gan dhi had contested from Bal lari Lok Sabha constituency in 1999 and promised to continue contesting from the segment, he alleged that she left Ballari and went back to Rae Bareily in UP, without even conveying her gratitude to the voters.

The Congress had an nounced a package of Rs

3,500 crore, but it did not al lot even a penny, he claimed.

“I wonder how you (Congress) are able to face the people by organising this event. You have cheated the people there,” the Chief Minister said.

To a question on for mer chief minister Sidda ramaiah’s challenge to him to walk for 4 kms, Bommai said the Congress leader has made some personal comment on him. “He has said something personal about me, but I will not stoop to that level. Let him remain healthy.. take care of his health and live for 100 years,” the CM said.

Siddaramaiah had ap parently made a reference to Bommai facing problem with his knees causing dif ficulty in walking.

Speaking about the BJP’s ‘Jana Sankalpa Yatra’ led by him in three districts in the last four days covering at least two constituencies in each district, Bommai said he saw unprecedented support, which was beyond their expectation.

Maoist-links case: SC suspends Bombay HC order acquitting Saibaba

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended the Bombay High Court order acquitting former Delhi University (DU) professor G N Saibaba and others in a Maoist-links case, saying the merits of the case was not considered while granting them the relief.

HYDERABAD, OCT. 15

(PTI): Hyderabad has won the overall ‘World Green City Award 2022’ and an other in the category ‘Living Green for Economic Recov ery and Inclusive Growth’ at the International Asso ciation of Horticulture Pro ducers (AIPH) 2022 World Green City Awards 2022 held in Jeju, South Korea on October 14.

According to an official release issued on Friday, Hy

derabad is the only Indian City that was selected and it is a matter of pride for Telangana and India that has won not only the cat egory award but the overall ‘World Green City 2022’ award, the best across all 6 categories.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao congratulated entire Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority

SIT to probe gang-rape charge against officials in Andaman

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): A Special Investiga tion Team has been consti tuted to probe allegation of a 21-year-old woman in An daman and Nicobar Islands that she was gang-raped by officials there including a former chief secretary.

The police registered a case earlier this month on the complaint filed by the woman alleging that she was sexually abused by Narain, a 1990 batch IAS officer, and Labour commissioner R L Rishi at the latter’s official residence on two occasions.

The Aberdeen police station registered the case and a Special Investigation Team headed by a Senior Su perintendent of Police was formed to probe the serious allegation against Narain, who is at present posted as the chairman and managing director of the Delhi Finan cial Corporation.

When contacted, Nara in told PTI that he cannot comment on the issue as the matter is sub judice.

The woman lodged the complaint with the police on August 21 in which she gave a detailed account of the alleged sexual attack on her twice - in April and May - and requested for pre serving the CCTV footage of the then chief secretary’s residence for evidence.

She has also requested a Test Identification Parade of the employees present at the residence of the official.

The complainant has also recorded her statement under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the chief met ropolitan magistrate detail

ing the allegation. Anyone giving a statement under this clause of the CrPC will face perjury charges in case it turns out to be false.

The woman claimed that she was in search of a job and was introduced to Rishi through a hotel owner who allegedly took her to the residence of Narain.

NORTH

He said these interna tional awards have further strengthened the reputa tion of Telangana and the country.

“These international awards are a proof that the state government is strongly implementing the Haritaha ram and urban development programmes... giving green fruits to the country,” he said in a statement on Friday night.

It is a matter of pride that Hyderabad is the only city from India to be se lected for these international awards, he added.

No. 0088/22

The top court rejected Saibaba’s request to order his release from jail due to his disability and health conditions and put him under house arrest after the Maharashtra government opposed the prayer, saying nowadays, there is a new tendency of “urban Nax als” to seek house arrest. It, however, allowed Saibaba to move a fresh bail application in the case. The high court acquitted Saibaba and oth ers in the case on Friday.

An apex court bench of justices M R Shah and Bela M Trivedi, which sat on a non-working day to hear the matter said, “We are of the

AFFIDAVIT

Shri. YARSHILU, S/o NOKYUTSUTONG

and

of Electrical Colony, Kohima, Nagaland do

I am a citizen of India.

my actual and correct name and

opinion that this is a fit case to exercise powers under Section 390 CrPC and to suspend the impugned judg ment and order passed by the high court.”

It said, “We are of the firm opinion that the im pugned judgment and order passed by the high court is required to be suspended. For the reasons stated, the impugned judgment and or der passed by the high court is ordered to be suspended

G N Saibaba

till further orders.” It issued notice to Saibaba and oth ers and sought their replies by December 8 on a plea

POST VACANCY

moved by the Maharashtra government against the high court order and stayed the release of all the accused in the case from jail.

It said that the offences for which the accused were convicted by the trial court are very serious and against the sovereignty and integrity of the country and a detailed scrutiny of the judgment is

required as the high court did not consider the merits of the case.

“The high court has not at all dealt with and considered anything on the merits of the judgment and order passed by the trial court, though even accord ing to the counsel appearing on behalf of A-6 (Saibaba),” it said.

Declaration

Regd. No. 259/22 Date 15/10/2022

This is to declare that Smt. Moasongla , D/o. Lt. Impilemba, resident of Khensa Village Mokokchung : Nagaland have avail loan from many persons/entities without the knowledge of family members.

Therefore, the family members hereby declare that we are not bound to recover her loans due, as the same is transacted between Smt. Moasongla, and the other parties without our knowledge. This is for information to all concerned.

D E c LARATION

Regd. No. 180(A)2022 Date 02/04/2022

I, Shri/Smti. SHYERHUNLE SEMP, resident of Ward-8, Medziphema Town, P.O/P.S Medziphema, Nagaland do hereby solemnly affirm and declare on oath as follows :-

1. That I am a bonafide law abiding citizen of India by birth and indigenous inhabitant of the State of Nagaland.

Before the

about 49 yrs

father's name are YARSHILU and NOKYUTSUTONG.

3. That due to inadvertent mistake my name and my father's name has been wrongly entered as YARSHILU AO in my absorption Order dated 27.08.1997 and S. NOKYU in my Service Book and School Certificate instead of YARSHILU and NOKYUTSUTONG respectively.

4. That YARSHILU and YARSHILU AO, NOKYUTSUTONG and S. NOKYU are same and one person respectively.

5. That this affidavit shall be used as evidence for all official purpose to make necessary correction.

6. That the statements made in paragraphs 1 to 5 are true to the best of my knowledge and I have not suppressed anything. And I signed this affidavit on this the 26th day of Sept.' 2022 at Kohima.

DEPONENT Notary Publick-2423/22

2. That by profession, I am a Hindi Teacher presently posted at Govt. Hr. Secondary School Medziphema, under Department of School Education, Govt. of Nagaland.

3. That my correct and official name is SHYERHUNLE SEMP however, the same has been inadvertently recorded as SHWERHENLE SEMP in my Appointment Order Dtd.

DEPONENT

PUBLic DiMaPUr

Basavaraj Bommai

NIA raids houses of PLA cadres in Mnp

Correspondent

IMPHAL, OCT 15: Na tional Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conduct ed raids at houses of eight alleged cadres of armed rebel outfit, RPF/PLA, in four districts of Manipur si multaneously in connection with a non-Manipuri killing case. Official sources said that officials of the Imphal office of the NIA raided the houses of the PLA cad res after taking over a case registered with Yairipok police station of Thoubal district over the killing of

a small-time non-Manipur businessman in July this year. The NIA took over the cases with the approval of the Special Court of NIA Manipur. A combined team of Thoubal district police commandos and 16 Assam Rifles, on August 13 last, arrested eight cadres of the PLA, including a juvenile, allegedly behind a series of attacks and killings of nonlocals in various places of the state.

The police alleged the eight cadres were involved in the killings of non-locals in Kakching district and

India ranks 107 on Global...

(From p-1)

“Our score has worsened since 2014 in the 8 years of the Modi government 16.3 per cent of all Indians are undernourished, mean ing they do not get enough food,” he said in another tweet.

Nationalist Congress Party alleged that the central government neglected the devel opment of children over the last eight years.

“Dangerous, sharp slide of India on global hunger index since 2014. Modi govt is disastrous for India. Low food stocks barely over minimum buffer plus rising prices,” Sitaram Yechury, Secretary-General of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said on Twitter,

In a swipe at the Centre, K T Rama Rao, Telangana minister and working president of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (previously TRS), said instead of “accepting failure”, the BJP will dismiss the report as anti-Indian now.

Senior AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the BJP leaders give speeches about making India a 5-trillion economy. “But 106 countries, even Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are better than us in providing two square meals a day,” he tweeted.

Imphal East district in July this year.

Accordingly, the NIA Imphal branch re-registered the case on September 27 as per the direction of the Union ministry of home affairs under different Sec tions of IPC, Arms Act and Explosive Substance Act arising out of the FIR registered at Yairipok police station.

Teams of NIA assisted by state police personnel conducted the raids at the houses of the eight cadres simultaneously today.

The seven cadres

72% MGNREGS fund released to states

(From p-1)

It further said the central govern ment is committed to release funds for wage and material payments for proper implementation of the scheme.

The ministry shared these details while issuing clarification on a report which stated that around 39 per cent of the scheme card holders didn’t get single day of work in 2020-21.

“It will not be correct to assume that all registered households had demanded work. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act pro vides guarantee of at least 100 days of wage employment against the demand made by a household in a rural area,” the ministry said responding to the report.

It also shared the ratio of offer for work against the demand for work which was above 99 per cent during the threeyear period starting from 2019-2020.

In 2020-21, the ministry said, 99.89 per cent of the total demand of work under the Act was met and 389.09 crore person-days of work was generated.

whose houses were raided are Chingkham Basanta (38) at Andro Nungyungbi in Imphal East, Moirangthem Jitesh (22) at Ningthou Lei kai and Phanjoubam Rabi @ Nanao (26) at Andro Labao chum Ching Leikai, both in Imphal East, Konjengbam Romeo @ Nongthon (28) at Moirang Konjengbam in Bishnupur district, Naorem Manoj (23) at Luker Mayai Leikai in Imphal West and Salam Mangijao (55) at Wairi Salam Leikai and Samurailatpam Akash @ Muston (19) at Wairi Saban Bamon Leikai in Kakching district.

The raids started early in the morning and lasted till afternoon. Incrim inating documents, articles and SIM cards related to the RPF/PLA were recovered from the houses. However, no arrest was made, the source said.

The raids at the houses of the PLA cadres came after the special NIA court agreed to take custody of the seven of the eight cadres who were currently in judi cial custody. The juvenile is currently lodged at an ob servation home in Imphal.

Include stakeholders in tea policy: Sarma

GUWAHATI, OCT 15 (PTI): Chief Minister Hi manta Biswa Sarma on Sat urday said on Saturday that the Assam government was working on a tea policy as per the requirements of the industry. Sarma affirmed the government’s commitment to the growth of the sector, which is the largest industry in the state.

“Held a meeting to review a draft tea policy & proposed making it more reflective of the needs of stakeholders,” Sarma tweet ed. “Also suggested making Assam Tea Policy broad based, aligning with require ments of the industry,” he added. As per a presentation made at the meeting, Assam accounts for over 50 per cent of the country’s tea produc tion and close to 12 per cent of the global production.

Tribalism, clanism destroying fabric of society: Patton

(From p-1)

Former principal of Eastern Theological Col lege, Jorhat, Rev. Dr. Eza mo Murry, who spoke on the theme, “envision radi ant posterity”, reminded the students on the proper usage and meaning of ver nacular language.

Lotha Hoho Dimapur chairman, Y. L.Jami and Lotha Students’ Union Wokha, president, Ashan thung Humtsoe delivered jubilee greetings.

A dedicatory prayer for the students was offered by Rev. R. P. Murry and a minute silent was observed as mark of respect to past leaders.

The programme be gan with an invocation by principal Holy Cross Higher Secondary School, Dimapur, Rev. Fr. Philip Yanpvuthung and welcome address by convenor jubilee organizing committee, K. Mhachio Odyuo while presidential address was delivered by DLSU presi dent, Benthungo Jungio.

Pradyot Debbarma claims tribal outfits coerced to ally with national parties

AGARTALA, OCT 15 (PTI): The Tipra Motha, a new regional outfit in Tri pura, alleged that pressure from national parties “from New Delhi and Kolkata” had forced several local out fits in the northeastern state to ally with those parties while contesting elections earlier.

Tipra Motha chief Pradyot Manikya Debbar ma, the scion of Tripura’s royal family, however, as serted that his party will “not take a single penny” from big political outfits, and would contest the 2023 assembly elections of its own.

“I will not take a single penny from political parties like the BJP, Congress or the CPI(M) this time. If I need money, I will sell the royal palace and ornaments of Rajmata to fight the election on our own,” he said, while addressing a programme of Tipra Motha’s women’s wing on Friday.

In an apparent refer ence to the BJP and the Congress, he said “pressure

from Delhi and Kolkata had forced the regional parties like Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) and Indig enous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) to go for alliance”.

The IPFT now has an alliance with the BJP, while the TUJS had earlier tied up with the Congress.

Debbarma said the party will fight for the cause of ‘Tiprasa’ which com prises 19 indigenous tribes of the state.

“This time Tiprasa will show its strength even if force comes from Delhi. It is determined to give a reply to the atrocities meted

out to the tribes in the 2023 assembly elections.

“In the last 70 years, we have got MLAs, min isters and MPs but did not get our rights. Now, I must lead the Tiprasa movement for Greater Tipraland. No matter whether I win or lose,” Debbarma said.

The Tipra Motha, floated by Debbarma in February 2021, seeks the formation of Greater Tip raland for the Tiprasa com munity.

The outfit, which is yet to be registered by the Election Commission, had swept the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls in April last year.

The TTAADC area comprises two-thirds of the state’s territory and is the home to the tribal community, which makes up one-third of Tripura’s population.

Notably, IPFT law maker Dhananjoy Tripura resigned from the Tripura Assembly on Friday and joined the Tipra Motha.

Search on for 2 ‘missing’ Arunachal persons

Dishanso Chikro, the younger brother of Bateilum, however, claimed both of them may have been detained by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

“We suspect that they could have inadvertently crossed the LAC and have been detained by the PLA. We are extremely worried,” Chikro said.

I TANAGAR, OCT 15 (PTI): The Arunachal Pradesh Police has said search is underway for two persons who reportedly went missing from Chagla gam area along the IndiaChina border in August.

Bateilum Tikro and his friend Bayingso Manyu, residents of Duiliang vil lage in Anjaw district, had left home on August 19 in

The family members have lodged an FIR at Khu pa police station, the police

officer said. Chikro also said the family has drawn the atten tion of Hayuliang assembly constituency MLA Dasan glu Pul, through a letter. “We will submit a report to the state government after completing formalities in volving the witnesses, family members and the villagers living near the border. It is, however, common for locals to explore forests in search of medicinal herbs,” Anjaw District SP Rike Kamsi said.

This

PUBLIC NOTICE

Kevi

Kevilhulie

of dimapur, in dimapur district of Nagaland; PIN - 797112, that the Petrol Pump (Retail outlet) M/s Nagaland Service Centre situated at Golaghat Road, dimapur, dimapur district of Nagaland, more particularly described in the schedule hereunder which is held by Sri Kevilhulie Zakiesato and the said notice is published to ascertain their exclusive physical possession, right, title, interest over the aforesaid property. The retail outlet is proposed to be reconstituted in favour of Sri Kevilhulie Zakiesato as proprietor.

,

Therefore any person(s) having any claim in respect of the above referred Retail Outlet/property or part thereof by way of sale, exchange, mortgage, charge, gift, maintenance, inheritance, possession, lease, tenancy, sub-tenancy, lien, license, hypothecation, transfer of title or beneficial interest under any trust, right of prescription or pre-emption under any Agreement or other disposition or under any decree, order or award or otherwise claiming, objection, howsoever, are hereby requested to make the same known in writing together with supporting documents to the office of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Tinsukia divisional Office, Sripuria, Tinsukia-786125, Assam, within a period of 30 days (both days inclusive) of the publication hereof failing which the claim/ objection of such person (s) will deemed to have been waived and/or abandoned.

SCHEDULE

All that piece and parcel of land measuring 3 Katha 10 Lessas of dag No. 25 covered by Periodic Patta No. 131 of Golaghat Road, dimapur, district-dimapur, Nagaland along with a retail outlet standing thereon in the name and style of Ms Nagaland Service Centre and bounded as follows:

: Land of Late Kevi Zakiesato

NIA raided houses of eight PLA cadres involved in killing of a non-Manipuri.

search of medicinal herbs and to hunt at high-altitude mountains along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a police officer said, quoting family members.

Pradyot Manikya Debbarma

UK’s FM Jeremy Hunt admits mistakes; warns of tax rises

LONDON, OCT 15 (PTI): Jeremy Hunt, the new UK Chancellor appointed by Prime Minister Liz Truss after she sacked her friend Kwasi Kwarteng in an at tempt to calm the ongoing economic and political cri sis, admitted on Saturday that mistakes were made by his predecessor and sig nalled a reversal of his taxcutting approach.

Hunt, a former Con servative Party leadership contender who is dubbed as the most powerful man in the UK government as Truss battles to win back her cred ibility, also indicated that spending cuts would have to be brought in across all state departments to deal with the tough economic climate.

He acknowledged that the mini-budget tabled by Kwarteng at the end of last month had “two mistakes” – cutting the 45-pence rate of tax for highest earners,

Jeremy Hunt

an announcement since re versed, and announcing the tax-cutting package without independent costings by the Office for Budget Responsi bility (OBR).

“The way we went about it clearly wasn’t right and that’s why I’m sitting here now,” he told the BBC.

“Taxes are not going to come down by as much as people hoped, and some taxes will have to go up. I’m going to be asking all government departments to find additional efficiency

savings,” he said.

It indicates a reversal of Truss’ central theme of lowering taxes on which she had campaigned to win the Conservative Party leader ship race against former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

This means the turbu lence at the very top of the UK government is far from over, with disgruntled Tory rebels and Sunak loyalists defiantly against the new leader amid her various Uturns. The fact that she fired Kwarteng just 38 days into the job for announcing poli cies in the mini-budget that she campaigned for is being seen as an attempt to shift the blame entirely on him for the financial markets chaos that ensued.

Conservative MP An drew Bridgen, who backed Sunak in the leadership race, said he believes there would “be a challenge to Truss in the next few weeks”.

Pak may be one of the most dangerous nations: Biden

WASHINGTON, OCT 15 (IANS): US President Joe Biden said Pakistan may be “one of the most dangerous nations in the world” as the country has “nuclear weapons without any cohesion”.

He made the remarks while addressing a Demo cratic congressional cam paign committee reception, Dawn news reported.

A transcript of the address, published on the White House’s website on Friday, quoted Biden as saying: “And what I think is maybe one of the most dangerous nations in the world: Pakistan. Nuclear weapons without any co hesion.”

He said the world was changing rapidly and coun tries were rethinking their alliances. There was a lot at stake, Biden said, empha sising that the US had the capacity to lead the world to a place it had never been before, Dawn reported.

Russia’s missile strike damages Ukraine energy facility

KYIV, OCT 15 (AP): A missile strike seriously dam aged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region, the country’s grid operator said on Saturday as the Russian military strove to cut power in far-flung populated areas while also defending against Ukrainian counterattacks in occupied regions.

Kyiv region Gov Olek siy Kuleba said the strike on the unidentified facility did not kill or wound anyone.

Electricity transmis sion company Ukrener go said repair crews were working to restore elec tricity service but warned residents about further pos sible outages. After a truck bomb explosion a week ago damaged the bridge that links Russia to the an nexed Crimean Peninsula, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated missile attacks

in Ukraine since the initial invasion of the country in late February.

This week’s wideranging retaliatory attacks, which included the use of self-destructing explosive drones from Iran, killed doz ens of people. The strikes hit residential buildings as well as civil infrastructure such as power stations in Kyiv, Lviv in western Ukraine,

and other cities that had seen comparatively few strikes in recent months.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s of fice, on Saturday urged Kyiv area residents and people in three neighbouring regions to reduce their energy con sumption during evening hours of peak demand.

Russian President

Vladimir Putin said on Fri day that Moscow did not see a need for additional mas sive strikes but his military would continue selective ones. He said that, of 29 targets the Russian military planned to knock out in this week’s attacks, seven weren’t damaged and would be taken out gradually.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, inter preted Putin’s remarks as in tended to counter criticism from pro-war Russian blog gers who “largely praised the resumption of strikes against Ukrainian cities but warned that a short cam paign would be ineffective.”

“Putin knew he would not be able to sustain highintensity missiles strikes for a long time due to a dwin dling arsenal of high-pre cision missiles,” the think tank said.

BEIJING, OCT 15 (PTI): China’s ruling Communist Party will hold its key Con gress from Sunday during which a new set of senior of ficials will be appointed ex cept for President Xi Jinping who is set to get endorsed for a record third term, breaking over the three-decade norm for top leaders to step down after a 10-year tenure.

The weeklong 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of Chi na (CPC), in which 2,296 “elected” delegates under the norms and guidelines set by Xi will attend a closeddoor meeting, is being held amid a rare protest against Xi and his rigid zero-CO

endorse

VID policy of widespread restrictions and lockdowns, resulting in the slowdown of the world’s second-larg est economy. Except for 69-year-old Xi, all top of ficials including the number two leader Premier Li Keq iang will be replaced in the massive reshuffle in the days to come, which included a

new foreign minister replac ing the incumbent Wang Yi.

The Congress will be held from October 16 to 22, spokesperson for the congress Sun Yeli told a press conference here on Saturday answering selected questions from the local and foreign media.

The Congress will in corporate the major theo retical views and strategic thinking to be established and the amendment will ful ly embody the latest achieve ments in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and to the needs of the times, Sun said without comment ing on Xi’s continuation.

Ahead of the once-in-

a-five-year conclave, photos circulating on social media showed banners hung on overpasses of a major thor oughfare in the northwest of the Chinese capital, protest ing against Xi’s unpopular zero-COVID policy and authoritarian rule. Banners displayed on a bridge in the district of Haidian, home to universities and tech firms in Beijing, read: food, not COVID test; reform, not a cultural revolution; free dom, not lockdowns; votes, not a leader; dignity, not lies; citizens, not slaves. Batteryoperated loudspeakers were hung in some places blaring anti-Xi and anti-zero CO VID slogans.

Oil depot fire near Belgorod - photo from Governor Gladkov (Telegram)

Xi Jinping

DLSU golden jubilee celebration concludes with open-air concert

‘One Piano Eight Hands’ live piano concert held in Kohima

In a first of its kind, Brilliante live piano concert, “One Piano Eight Hands” was held at Music Academy Kohima (MAK) on October 15.

M

arking the cul mination of Dimapur Lotha Students Union’s (DLSU) two-day golden jubilee celebration, an open-air concert was organised here at Dimapur Gov ernment College ground, Saturday.

Various artists en thralled the gathering with their performances which was attended by people from different walks of life.

Meribeni Patton with her mesmerising voice

and Gideon Kithan with a soulful piece, opened the show. The headlining band of the open-air con cert ‘About Us’ performed their originals; “Heart less”, “Right Now”, “Loaded Love”, “Gimme Gimme”, “Another Day”, “One By One”, and also performed some covers of classic artists.

As the band contin ued to enthral the audi ence with their originals, the audience grew from hundreds to over a thou sand. Among Us gave a

performance worth re membering as they belted out songs included in ev ery rock fan’s playlist.

Fans were seen sing ing and dancing through out the concert.

Their original “Gimme Gimme” particu larly caught the attention of the audience as they sang at the top of their voices and jumped to the rhythm of the music.

The song selection seemed more than just pleasant to the crowd as they screamed and waved

the moment intros to the songs landed in their ears.

‘Paradigm Shift’ also performed their originals as well as covers; “Out from the black”, “Testify”, “Stars”, “Figure it out”, “These days”, “For you” and “Fix you (Coldplay)” to name a few.

The evening was graced by Dimapur II A/C, Moatoshi Long kumer and retired secre tary to the government of Nagaland, Y.M. Humtsoe as special invitees. (Staff Reporter)

Speaking to Nagaland Post, director, MAK and founder of Brillante, Na galand Piano Festival and also president, Nagaland Piano Teachers Associa tion, Khyochano Ngully shared that Brillante stood to promote piano music, to impact music lovers, and at the same time, to encourage the study and performance of piano mu sic in Nagaland.

Adding that music required community ef fort, Ngully shared that they wanted to be agents of social development, integrating different seg ments of the community and shared that through music, one could also lean towards it as a profession and also that it needs to be enjoyed outside the classrooms as well.

Ngully shared that

Princess Diana cuts a lonely figure in ‘The Crown’ Season 5

The first look of ‘The Crown’ Season 5 fea turing a brand new cast has been revealed by streaming giant Netflix.

The stills show a lone ly-looking Princess Diana played by Elizabeth Debicki, taking over from Emma Cor rin in the previous season, clad in a sparkly gown as she heads into a glamorous evening engagement, her shoulders hunched and head bowed, reports Variety.

In another image, Prince Charles played by Dominic West, who replaces Josh O’Connor from seasons

TN Handloom Society introduces new designs aimed at Diwali

The Tamil Nadu Han dloom Cooperative Society (Co-Optex) has launched 500 new de signs in collaboration with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and the National Institute of Design (NID).

Tamil Nadu Hand looms and Textiles Minister, R. Gandhi in a statement on Saturday said that Co-Optex have 150 showrooms across the country and have set a sales target of Rs 175 crore for Deepavali.The design includes products designed

by the Toda tribe in Ooty. A set of five new design silk saris called heritage, de signer, signature collection, award-winning collection, and Chola selection were also launched by the CoOptex, the statement said. During the 2021 Deep avali season, Co-optex earned a profit of Rs 9.5 crore, and between April and September in 2022, it witnessed Rs 23 crore more revenue than for the corre sponding period the previ ous year, the statement said. (IANS)

With immense honour and thanks giving to our Almighty God, we the family congratulates Dr. Shikatoli Wotsa (D/o Lt. Kisheto Wotsa & Mrs Nitoli Wotsa) and wife of Mr Ninoto Yepthomi, on being conferred with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community

Nutrition) from College of Community Science, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan

University,

Almighty

3 and 4 and his mistress Ca milla Parker Bowles played by Olivia Williams, who steps into Emerald Fennell’s

shoes are beaming while huddling together outdoors as they appear to watch a fireworks display.

In another, happier, photograph, however, Diana and Charles are pictured together on a speedboat vacationing with their young sons Prince William and Prince Harry. “That’s the amazing thing about playing these people at this time, because in the journey of ‘The Crown’ so far out of all

the seasons, this is the most visual content we have of the Royal Family,” Debicki told Netflix’s fansite Tu dum, who first revealed the images.

“In the ‘90s, everything had started to be filmed and also it was the birth of the 24-hour news cycle so there’s just this incredible amount of content that we have ac cess to. Diana was the most photographed person in the world at that time. (IANS)

the event which started in Nagaland in 2017 and went national in 2019-2021 displayed maximum par ticipation upto the interna tional level and witnessed

a lot of positive response and participation beyond their expectations.

The four artists en thralled the crowd with their performances, includ

ing the “one piano eight hands” segment and was later followed by an in teractive session with the audience.

Harry Potter’s ‘Hagrid’ Robbie Coltrane passes away at 72

cottish actor, come dian and writer Rob bie Coltrane, who played the lovable halfgiant Rubeus Hagrid in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, has died, his agency WME confirmed to ‘Variety’ on Friday night. He was 72. Coltrane featured in every ‘Harry Potter’ movie, from ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ in 2001 to ‘Deathly Hallows Part 2’ in 2011, and was

S

much beloved for bringing the character from J.K. Rowling’s book series to life. He was among one of the first characters to appear on screen, and he

recited the famous line, “Yer a wizard, Harry,” to a young Daniel Radcliffe as he embarked on his journey into the wizarding world.

A towering figure, but softie at heart, notes ‘Va riety’, Hagrid had a sweet spot for ferocious beasts. He cared for some of the ‘Harry Potter’ world’s most ferocious, and iconic, crea tures. (IANS)

Glimpses from the open-air concert at the two-day golden jubilee celebration of DLSU. (NP)

The four pianists along with their mentor Khyochano Ngully. (NP)

Open Badminton tourney concludes

bles Champion - Toka V and Ikato Runner up - Kingston and Khanganpa.

Open mixed doubles Champion - Ekumya la and Pelamisi Runner up - Uma and Riku 40+ men’s doubles Champion - Joseph and Raju Runner up - Along and Supong.

T20 World Cup: Five players to watch out for

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (IANS): Thunder Down

Under -- ICC T20 World Cup 2022 -- is all set to kick start from October 16 and the best players from across the globe have gathered in Australia to vie for top honours.

Though there are many, IANS takes a look at the five players to watch out for in the mega sporting spectacle.

Correspondent

KOHIMA, OCT 15

(NPN): Riku and Leihong emerged as the winners of the open category men’s doubles of the two day Fierce Open Badminton tournament at Grand Vista Arena, Meriema, here on Saturday.

The winners walked away with a cash prize of Rs 50,000 along with certif icates while the runners-up of the category Abhishek and Pegu received a cash prize of Rs 25,000.

Other winners of the different categories includ ed:

Beginner men’s dou

Sabita, Arjun win silver in Asian Youth Athletics Championship

bronze with 67.67m. Sabita’s silver comes following the gold that she won in 100m hurdles at the National Youth (U-18) Athletics meet in Bhopal.

Sabita, who hails from Sundergarh, joined the Od isha Reliance Foundation HPC (High-Performance Centre) in 2019.

bles Champion- Avilhou and Dziesekhriezo

Runner up - Kuovizo & Neithobou.

Amateur men’s sin gles Champion - Joy Chandra Runner up - Yaiphaba.

Amateur men’s dou

Paulraj breaks own pole vault National Record

BENGALURU, OCT 15 (AGENCIES): Rosy Mee na Paulraj of Tamil Nadu broke her own pole vault National Record of 4.20m set to set a new record of 4.21m at the National Open Athletics Champi onships in Bengaluru on Saturday.

During the prize dis tribution ceremony, Kohi ma Town Christian Revival Church Youth Fellowship (KTCRCYF), president, Thepfuzolie R Metha, handed out the prizes and certificates to the winners.

Organising committee convenor, Zhaviu Pienyü thanked the participants, and sponsors on behalf of KTCRCYF while benedic tion was pronounced by CRC Bayavü Hill, asst pas tor, Sedekhriezo Whuorie.

Mohammad Riz wan: The World number 1 ranked batter in T20I cricket, Mohammad Riz wan has been a consistent performer for Pakistan. For the records, he is the highest run-scorer in T20I cricket in this year and also finished as the highest run-scorer during Asia Cup 2022.

Opposite sides will look to unsettle him early or else he will be a danger man in the tournament.

Suryakumar Yadav: Stylish Indian batter SKY is currently in the form of his life. He ranked at number

2 in the ICC T20I batsmen rankings. He is also the second-highest run-scorer in the shortest format in 2022. The stylish batter will definitely be one of the players to watch out for. His shots in every corner of the ground in the recent series against Proteas got praise from several former cricket ers. He was even compared with ABD - AB de Villiers -- the 360 degree player.

Wanindu Hasaranga: Sri Lankan spinner Wanin du Hasaranga will also be a

player to watch out for. He was the leading wicket-taker in the 2021 World Cup and sits in the top 10 of ICC’s T20 ranking for all-round ers. His deliveries are tough to pick and that makes him so successful in the shortest format of cricket.

Jos Buttler: He may not be among the top 10 ranked but no team will ever feel comfortable till he is in the crease. Buttler, who was recently named the England white-ball cap tain, is arguably the hardest

batsman to bowl to when he is in the zone, which can be quite often. It will be inter esting to see how he comes out this time.

Josh Hazlewood: The seamer will look to domi nate the home conditions at the T20 World Cup.

Not only is he the number 1 ranked T20I bowler in the world currently, but his performances in the lead up to the tournament have also been promising, so there is a lot to look forward to for fans of the Australian team.

EPL: Leicester stay in drop zone after Palace stalemate

LONDON, OCT 15 (AGENCIES): Leicester climbed off the bottom of the Premier League table on Saturday but failed to make their superior ity count in a frustrating goalless draw with Crystal Palace.

Sabita Toppo

NEW DELHI, OCT 15 (PTI): Teenager Sabita Toppo of Odisha won the silver medal in the girls 100m hurdles clocking 14.17 seconds in the Asian Youth Athletics Champi onship at Kuwait City.

In the boys javelin, Arjun won silver with a throw of 70.98m while Himanshu Mishra took

Taking to Twitter, Chief Minister Naveen Pat naik wrote, “Congratulate #Odisha athlete, Sabita Toppo on clinching #Silver medal in 100 mtr hurdles with a timing of 14.17s at the 4th Asian Youth Athlet ics Championships in #Ku wait. May she continue to bring glory for the State & the nation. Wish her all the best for future endeavours.”

Earlier at the National Games 2022, Paulraj had bettered the previous mark of 4.15m set by V Surekha in 2014.

Paulraj first made a mark when she won a gold at the 2022 Federation Cup. She had a personal best of 4.00 prior to her per formance at the National Games.

According to Sport star, the stalemate at the King Power Stadium leaves Brendan Rodgers’ team level on five points with Nottingham Forest, who have an inferior goal dif ference.

Leicester, with 24 goals conceded this season, have the leakiest defence in the Premier League and although they were solid at the back, they were unable to find their cutting edge in

Leicester City’s James Maddison goes to the ground and is booked for a dive against Crystal Palace. (AP)

the autumn sunshine.

The home side had the bulk of the possession and the better chances in the first half but clear-cut

down the left and Patson Daka tested the goalkeeper midway through the open ing period.

The visitors occasion ally threatened, with Eb erechi Eze firing just over in the dying minutes of the opening period but they were unable to put the Leicester defence under consistent pressure.

Leicester started the second half brightly, with in-form James Maddison unable to keep his left-foot ed shot down after being found by the lively Barnes.

fielder Nampalys Mendy replacing Boubakary Sou mare. Vardy, 35, is still hunting for his first goal of the season.

Maddison had an other chance in the 71st minute but again shot too close to Guaita.

Palace manager Pat rick Vieira made changes of his own but his team were unable to fashion clear-cut chances.

opportunities were few and far between.

Harvey Barnes forced a save from Vicente Guaita after breaking into the box

Timothy Castagne fired straight at Guaita just before the hour mark.

Rodgers threw on Ja mie Vardy for Daka in the 65th minute, with mid

Nigeria forward Kele chi Iheanacho came on for Barnes with five minutes remaining but Leicester failed to find an opening despite some late pressure.

The draw means Leicester have still only won one league game this season.

Largest Futsa L Pitch in naga Land “the BaLL Park” inaugurated

The First Futsal Pitch in Peren District “The Ball Park” was inaugurated on 14th October 2022, in Jalukie by Shri. T. L. Kiusumong Tikhir, ADC, Jalukie. This futsal pitch was constructed by co-partners Mr. Ayem Changkija and Mr. Thejaselie Chielie, with the aim of promoting healthy lifestyle, encouraging people of all age groups towards physical fitness, to provide a training facility for sports enthusiasts, and to enrich community life. This is the biggest futsal pitch in Nagaland with an area of over 12,800 sq ft. It is a FIFA Certified Turf of the highest quality, constructed by SDA Sports, Kolkata. This project began on May 11th 2022, and took 5 months to complete.

In his speech, the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Shri. T. L. Kiusumong Tikhir, commended the philanthropic initiative shown by two private individuals, to contribute this state of the art sporting facility in rural Nagaland. Shri Tikhir was confident that this arena would promote overall fitness especially among youth and provide healthy recreation for not only the people of Jalukie, but the rest of Nagaland. He encouraged the community to take ownership of the arena and actively involve in its maintenance and upkeep.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Mr. Thejaselie Chielie. Pastor Mongzeung Mpam, Jalukie Town Baptist Church, invoked God’s blessings on the arena and “The Ball Park” was declared open by Shri Tikhir. Two exhibition matches were played between Veteran Team A versus Chairman Union Jalukie Town, and Veteran Team B versus Team One.

(Photo 1.) First futsal pitch in Peren district, (Photo 2.) Largest futsal pitch in Nagaland >12800sq ft, (Photo 3.) Inauguration with the co-partners Mr Ayem Changkija and Mr Thejaselie Chielie, and the special guests Shri T.L. Kiusumong Tikhir, ADC Jalukie, Pastor Mongzeung Mpam, and the exhibition match team members.

Winners along with the organisers after the prize distribution ceremony.

Cup

champions accorded warm welcome

NFA president, Neibu Sekhose while congratulat ing the team said that they have made the state proud particularly the NFA.

He lauded the dedica tion of the coach and man ager and the players and thanked the administrator of PHSS for molding the players and department of YR&S.

DDFA vice president, Lanutoshi Yaden in his speech said that the team faced hardships and sacri fices but God was always on their side. He pointed out that it was a proud and emotional moment for ev eryone as the team created history by bringing home the trophy after 42 years.

coach and manager. The team expressed gratitude to advisor, Er. Zale for granting the play ers’ request to travel by flight once they reach fi nal though travelling from flight was not mandated in Nagaland Sport Associa tion.

Mughato also ex pressed gratitude to ev eryone especially sports ministry/association for showing their constant support towards the team throughout the tourna ment.

Martyr’s Trophy: Red Scars thrash

Staff Reporter

DIMAPUR, OCT 15

(NPN): Winners of 61st Subroto Cup International Football Tournament Boys Under-17, Pilgrim Higher Secondary School, Dima pur were accorded a hero welcome on their arrival at Dimapur Airport on Saturday.

The felicitation pro gramme was organized by Dimapur District Football Association (DDFA) in consultation with Naga land Football Association (NFA) and department of Youth Resources and Sports.

In the final match, Pilgrim Higher Second

ary School (PHSS) Dima pur defeated Government Model Higher Secondary School (GMHSS) Chan digarh 1-0 to win the title.

Welcoming the cham pions, advisor of Youth Resource and Sports, Er. Zale Nyekha said young sportsperson playing such hectic games will become renowned star in the future.

He expressed joy to see young budding players showing enthusiasm in football.

The advisor appreci ated Nagaland team coach Mughato Aye and manager Akihito Zhimo for their dedication in leading the team to glory.

He thanked the par

ents and said that through their prayers and blessings the team brought victory.

“Without your consent, the boys would not have achieved this milestone”, he said.

Er. Zale said the boys from PHSS under the care and guidance of YR&S displayed their skills, team work and agility to the nation. He reminded all upcoming sportspersons in the state that they too can shine with dedication, hard work, determination and discipline.

He wished the cham pions to work harder and improvise their skills and talents to reach greater heights.

DC Dimapur, Sachin Jaiswal lauded the U-17 team for bringing laurels to the state after a gap of 42 years. Dedicating the vic tory to the team, coaches, management committees and parents for their sacri fices, the DC said that the youths from remote corner of the state defeated the giants with better facilities have shown the resilience and great sportsmanship of the youth.

“With such dedication we are bound to shine not only in state and national level but at international level with support not only from government but from community, society and parents”, he said.

He hoped that the state government will take note of the achievement and create platform for the youth to make their dreams come true. “When we talk about dreams, it is not a dream that is not possible but a dream that can be fulfilled by you and me”, he added.

Sharing his experi ence, team coach Mughato Aye said that it was a hard time for them when they reached Delhi on Octo ber 1 as the tournament kick started on October 3. He said the facilities were good though there were some barriers in the food habits. However, the deter mination to win the trophy was strongly felt not only among the players but the

India women beat Sri Lanka to win Asia Cup title

SYLHET (BANGLA

DESH), OCT 15 (IANS):

Spinners and Renuka Thakur came up with a stellar show in restrict ing Sri Lanka to a lowly 65/9, before Smriti Man dhana smashed an un beaten 25-ball fifty to help India clinch their seventh Women’s Asia Cup title, outplaying Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the title clash at the Sylhet Interna tional Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

On a pitch tailor-made for spinners to excel as the ball kept low and turned square, pacer Renuka Thakur shined with 3/5 in three overs while Rajesh wari Gayakwad (2/16) and Sneh Rana (2/13) had eco nomical spells apart from Deepti Sharma conceding just seven runs in her four overs to keep Sri Lanka to 65/9.

In reply, Smriti played a stunning knock and fin ished it off in style with a six over long-on for an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls, laced with six fours and three sixes, to complete the chase with 11.3 overs to

spare, in an innings where rest of Indian batters made 20 off 26 balls.

Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka had a horrendous start as captain Chamari Athapaththu ran herself out for a non-existent single in the third over. In the next over, Renuka broke the back of Sri Lanka’s innings by taking out Harshitha Madavi and Hasini Perera apart from another terrible run-out of Anushka San jeevani. Renuka got her third wicket in the final

over of power-play when Kavisha Dilhari missed a swipe across the line and was clean bowled to leave Sri Lanka at 16/5 in pow er-play. Post power-play, Rajeshwari and Sneh com pounded Sri Lanka’s mis ery by sharing four wickets between themselves to keep them to 65/9.

Only Inoka Ranaweera (18 not out) and Oshadi Ranasinghe (13) could reach double figures for Sri Lanka in a disappointing batting show.

NTA conducts month long coaching

In reply, Smriti began with a punchy drive through extra cover off Sugandika Kumari.

She then danced down the pitch to loft Oshadi inside-out over extra-cover and then followed it up with a pull through square leg. After Smriti lofted Inoka for a clean six over long-on, Shafali Verma tried to do the same, but came down the pitch too early and was beaten by turn as well as extra bounce to be stumped easily.

In the next over, Jemi mah Rodrigues danced down the pitch early, but the ball kept low and went past her to hit the base of off-stump. The fall of back-to-back wickets had no effect on Smriti, who punched past a leaping cov er and crunched through the gap off Kavisha for successive boundaries.

On a pitch where bat ters struggled to do well, she was hitting boundar ies with immaculate ease. Smriti danced down the pitch again to lift Inoka over mid-off and thumped Oshadi over long-on to take a brace of fours. She finished off the chase and got her fifty by smacking a massive six over long-on off Oshadi for India to be Asia Cup 2022 champions.

Brief Scores: Sri Lan ka 65/9 in 20 overs (Inoka Ranaweera 18 not out, Oshadi Ranasinghe 13; Renuka Thakur 3/5, Sneh Rana 2/13) lost to India 71/2 in 8.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 51 not out, Har manpreet Kaur 11 not out; Inoka Ranaweera 1/17, Kavisha Dilhari 1/17) by eight wickets.

The team also recalled two miraculous match es - quarterfinal against Meghalaya, which was one of the most combating team in the tournament as Meghalaya has not lost a single match this year.

The second miracu lous was the final match against Chandigarh, but with the grace of God and hard work of the players, the team emerged victori ous.

Short speeches were also delivered by Western Sumi Hoho, general secre tary Kisheto Chishi, Sumi Games & Sports Associa tion secretary, Iloka Shohe, Western Sumi Sports As sociation, president Vikuto Zhimomi and team man ager U-17, Akihito Zhimo.

The programme was chaired by DDFA joint secretary Keyi Putlang and invocation by DDFA mem ber Aning lingluing.

Correspondent

KOHIMA, OCT 15 (NPN): Red Scars FC thrashed veteran team Thepfuko Krotho FC 14-0 in the NSF Martyrs’ Tro phy at IG Stadium, here on Saturday.

Thepfuko Krotho, roughly translated as Men’s fellowship, was comprised of veteran members and was the oldest team in the tournament.

The team consisted of members from two church denominations teamed up to promote football, however, the team suffered heavy loss as their younger, agile and faster opponent proved to be too much for them. Red Scars goal scorers were Elminhao Ki

long (4 goals) and Lalsiem Chonloi (3 goals). Neik ethozo Yhome and Me doneituo scored two goals each while Khrielatuolie, Talisunep and Vikehielie added a goal each.

Red Scar’s Vekhrüto Resu was awarded the man of the match.

In the second match, Phesama Youth Organiza tion (PYO) demolished 12 Tribes United FC 9-0.

PYO’s Vikehiezo Me jura scored a hat-trick in the 25th, 55th and 57th minutes.

Theja Chuse and Keleze Chuse added two goals each while the rest two was contributed by Nekehiezo and Neisaletuo. PYO’s Viravoto Seleyi was named man of the match.

PDFL: Native Feathers end Puiteing FC unbeaten run

DIMAPUR, OCT 15

(NPN): Puiteing FC’s un beaten run at the Peren District Football League (PDFL) ended after a dis appointing 1-2 defeat in the hands of Native Feathers on Saturday.

Despite the loss, Puit eing FC continued to re main on top of the points table. Four minutes into the match, captain of Na tive Feathers Khiuwangbo Kaurintah found the back of the net through a free kick.

After the breather, re juvenated Puiteing fought back and netted the equal iser through the boots of Wibonjibo in the 55th min ute. Both the team dis played spirited effort with cautious approach.

Puiteing were left dis appointed as when the match seemed to be headed for stalemate, Mezibui struck in the 85th minute to earn crucial win for Native Feathers.

Barak FA, North ern Zeme Sports Asso

Nsong Area Sports Association (black) and Benreu FC (blue) in action. (PDFA)

ciation (NZSA) and Nsong Area Sports Association (NASA) also won their respective matches.

Barak FA hammered NZSA 4-1. Captain of Barak FA Kenumdi scored four goals in the 22nd, 45+2, 64th, 88th minutes.

The lone goal from NZSA was netted by captain Ilun grai in the 39th minute.

In the second match,

NASA beat Benreu FC 5-4. Prime FC blanked Le kie Mtei FC 5-0 in the third match. The first goal was scored by Ngaugiadi in the 26th minute and Haidingbe of Prime FC scored in the 26th and 36th minutes.

Kambeu struck again in the 51th minute and the last goal was scored by Kailinbo in the 81th minute.

Bipin’s strike, Sarangi own goal hand Mumbai 2-0 win over Odisha

MUMBAI, OCT 15 (AGENCIES):

The Mum bai City FC fans were just settling in after halftime when Lallianzuala Chhangte’s close range shot was saved by Odisha FC goalkeeper Amrinder Singh. But the rebound hit Odisha’s Shubham Sarangi and rolled into the net to give Mumbai the much needed lead in the 50th minute.

Lee Jeong Hee with NTA officials and members after the coaching. (NP)

KOHIMA, OCT 15 (NPN): Nagaland Tae kwondo Association (NTA) in collaboration with Naga land Olympic Association (NOA) conducted a month long intensive Taekwondo coaching at IG Stadium Kohima for the upcoming

2nd North East Olympic Games scheduled to be held from November 10-16, 2022.

Following the comple tion of the training on Sat urday, black belt dan exami nation was held wherein a total of 62 players appeared successfully. The coach ing and Belt Examination

was conducted under the guidance of Korean Gov ernment Dispatch to India for Taekwondo and former team coach of Indian Na tional Taekwondo, Kuk kiwon Grand Master Lee JeongHee. The selected players will continue coach ing at the same venue till the departure for Shillong.

And returning to its home turf at the Mumbai Football Arena after three years, Mumbai City FC managed to hold on to the lead to defeat Odisha FC 2-0 in an Indian Super League fixture on Satur day.

While Sarangi’s own goal helped the Islanders, the team extended its lead at the fag end of the game with Bipin Singh making the most of a Greg Stewart assist.

Bipin rifled it into the right bottom corner of the goal, without allowing Od

isha custodian Amrinder to react.

Coming into the game after salvaging a point against defending cham pion Hyderabad FC in the tournament opener, Mumbai City FC started off on a positive note, but as the match progressed,

Odisha took dominance. In the 33rd minute, however, Mumbai City FC’s Ahmed Jahouh passed the ball far away outside the box to Bipin, who whipped in the ball inside the box, but de fender Mehtab Singh was ruled offside.

Things, however,

changed in the second half. After Sarangi’s own goal gave Mumbai City FC the lead, the Islanders looked more confident and their ball possession im proved considerably. Odi sha, which started its cam paign with a win against Jamshedpur FC, also tried

returning into the game, but the efforts did not quite pay off.

In the 58th minute, Odisha’s Brazilian recruit Diego Maurício’s left foot ed shot from the left side of the box was saved.

The visiting team, however, did not give up, and ensured that it kept Mumbai City FC defenders under pressure.

In the 74th minute, Moirangthem Thoiba’s left footed shot from the left side of the box went close, but failed to find the net.

Tempers flew off the pitch as Odisha FC’s as sistant coach was shown a yellow card after he went into a confrontation with the match officials. Before the kickoff, the kids from Special Olympics Bharat walked onto the field with the players as mascots for the game and making the evening more special for the fans, Mumbai City FC ensured that it returned to winning ways.

Under-17, the winners of Subroto Cup and others on their arrival at Dimapur Airport on Saturday.

Players of Red Scar (red) and ThepfukoKrotho in action on Saturday. (NP)

Indian women players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Asia Cup 2022 cricket for the 7th time. (PTI)

Mumbai City FC’s Bipin Singh in action. (Focus Sports/ ISL)