Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com
Vol XXVII No. 266
DIMAPUR, thursday, august 31, 2017 Pages 12 ` 4.00
NE states tremendous scope in organic farming: Rupala
B’desh record first Test win over Aus
N Korea says more missiles to come
northeast, Page 4
sports, Page 12
International, Page 9
Mega mock drill on disaster management
Correspondent/Staff Reporter
KOHIMA/DIMAPUR, AUG 30 (NPN): Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Home Department in collaboration with District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs), the responsible departments and civil society organisations simultaneously conducted Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx), a mock drill on disaster preparedness, across the state on Wednesday. The preparedness exercise, which was carried out taking the earthquake scenario of 8.4 magnitudes Richter scale in Nagaland, was primarily to test the preparedness level and capacity of the state in the event of such disaster. At 11 am, all disaster management forces across Nagaland swung into action to contain damages caused by a 8.4 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre between Kohima and Phek at a stretch of around 80-90 Km from Kohima. In Kohima district, the mock drill was exercised under the DC Kohima as response officer (RO) and ADC Kohima as incident commissioner (IC). Dur-
DDADU objects to revised autofare Staff Reporter
D I M A P U R , AU G 3 0 (NPN): Dimapur District Auto Drivers Union (DDADU) has raised objection to the new revised fare chart issued by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Dimapur, which would be effective from September 1. DDADU president, I. Vitoshe Sema said the union was unhappy with the decision of the RTA since the proposal submitted by the union was not taken up. Asserting that the new rate fixation was “unexceptional”, DDADU appealed to the RTA to look into the matter, saying the new rates would affect the autodrivers. The union also raised issues about the deplorable road conditions, traffic congestion and also the difficulties faced by the drivers. DDADU further warned that if RTA failed to heed to their demands, the union would start implementing the previous rate and carry five passengers as usual. Meanwhile, DDADU also informed about the support extended by Thakheku Village-Rangapahar-Signal Angami auto drivers against the new revised fare. In this regard, the auto drivers of the area have also requested RTA review the decision.
This is it!
“When people make fiery speeches, it often ends there,” K Y M C
Disaster response team members carry out mock drill at Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Dimapur on Wednesday. (NP)
ing the mock drill exercise, different committees like planning section, operation section, logistic section, response branch, air operation section, medical unit were set up and to assist the operation volunteers from Kohima Science college NCC group, polytechnic and the DEF rendered their services. Commissioner & secretary, NSDMA, KhrienuoMetha, said that the twohour long exercise added some awareness to all the line departments and the public to respond to such calamities. During the debriefing
with various stakeholders after the drill at State Emergency Operation Centre here on Wednesday, the additional chief secretary and home commissioner, Temjen Toy, said that such exercise was required in the near future so what was learned today would be taken into account. During the discussion, it was noted that more attention should be given to the schools because disaster could happen anytime and students must know how to shelter themselves from the disaster. The meeting also observed that minimum re-
quired equipments must be made available in all the Primary Health Centres or the district hospitals to meet any eventuality. It was noted that hospitals like Wokha district hospital was not equipped with oxygen. Further, Toy informed that more siren sound needed to be installed in all the strategic locations and also open more mode of voice communication. Shortage of trained manpower was also discussed. In Kiphire district, the drill could be conducted only at four locations out of the six owing to shortage of trained manpower. Toy insisted on increasing man power in all the districts. He also stressed on the need to earmark centrally located staging areas so there was no confusion if real disaster occurred. For machineries, Toy said mechanical department should be contacted for emergency deployment of machineries while also alternate routes have to be worked out if the highways were blocked. On food, he said food and civil supplies department had to keep proper inventory of food item to dispatch for emergency cases.
DG prison, Rupin Sharma, suggested tying up with kitchen communities for emergency. He asked NSDMA to do more research on food and water while citing instances of floods that occurred in Dimapur, Tuli and Tizit where drinking water ran out. The meeting also discussed about setting up of SDRF teams in Kiphire, Longleng and Peren. DIMAPUR: In Dimapur district, the mock exercise, which was held at 13 different locations, began with sounding of siren at 11 a.m. for one minute. Some of the residents were taken by surprise when the emergency services, police, the fire department, district magistrates, civil defence volunteers and NGOs rushed to mock drill staging area that was set up at Indoor Badminton Stadium. Right after the sounding of siren, an emergency operation centre was activated at the DC’s conference hall Dimapur and DC Dimapur, Kesonyu Yhome, hurriedly convened an emergency briefing of the DDMA members and head of departments and appraised them of the disaster.
99% scrapped 500, 1000 rupee notes back in system, says RBI
Mumbai, Aug 30 (PTI): As much as 99 per cent of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have returned to the banking system, RBI said Wednesday, prompting opposition to question the efficacy of the government’s unprecedented note ban decision to curb black money and corruption. The Reser ve Bank, which has so far shied away from disclosing the actual number of junked currency deposited after November 8 last year, said in its Annual Report for 2016-17 that Rs 15.28 lakh crore of the junked currency had come back into the banking system, leaving only Rs 16,050 crore out. As on November 8, 2016 there were 1,716.5 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 685.8 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 in circulation, totalling Rs 15.44 lakh crore. Post-demonetisation RBI spent Rs 7,965 crore in 2016-17 on printing new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 and other denomination notes, more than double the Rs 3,421 crore spent in the previous year. The demonetisation (Cont’d on p-8, more on p-2) was hailed as a step that
would curb black money, corruption and check counterfeit currency but RBI said just 7.1 pieces of Rs 500 note per million in circulation and 19.1 pieces of Rs 1,000 notes per million in circulation were found to be fake in its sample survey. Opposition was quick to seize on the data to attack the government with former Finance minister P Chidambaram saying, “RBI ‘gained’ Rs 16000 crore, but ‘lost’ Rs 21000 crore in printing new notes! The economists deserve Nobel Prize.” “Rs 16,000 cr out of demonetised notes of Rs 15,44,000 cr did not come back to RBI. That is 1 per cent. Shame on RBI which ‘recommended’ demonetisation,” he tweeted. Chidambaram also wondered if demonetisation was “a scheme designed to convert black money into white?” Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agarwal said his party would move a privilege motion against RBI Governor Urjit Patel for misleading a parliamentary panel on the issue. RBI said just 8.9 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 notes or 1.3 per cent of the scrapped
ones have not returned. It, however, did not give a specific number for the old 500 rupee notes. “Subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of specified bank notes (SBNs) received as on June 30, 2017 is Rs 15.28 trillion,” the central bank said. After the note ban, old notes were allowed to be deposited in banks, with unusual deposits coming under income tax scrutiny. RBI said its income for 2016-17 decreased by 23.56 per cent while expenditure jumped 107.84 per cent. The government replaced old Rs 500 notes with new ones, but no replacement for Rs 1,000 notes have been made. Instead, a new Rs 2,000 note was introduced post note ban. RBI said there are as many 588.2 crore of Rs 500 notes, both old and new in circulation as of March 31, 2017. As of March 31, 2016, there were 1,570.7 crore Rs 500 notes in circulation. As many as 328.5 crore pieces of new Rs 2,000 notes were in circulation as on March 31, 2017.
CNTC asks state govt to start NSCN (I-M), GoI talks SC order: All seven parliamentary acting on illegal immigrants in ‘advanced stage’ secretaries in Mizoram resign DIMAPUR, AUG 30 (NPN): Central Nagaland Tribes Council (CNTC) has asked the state government to start acting with all promptness on the directive of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to all states to identify all illegal immigrants and deport them. Expressing concern over the unabated and unchecked influx of illegal immigrants in the state, the CNTC through its media cell said, “Looking at the present rate of influx, the future existence of our younger generations seems greatly endangered by the threat posed by this continuous incursion.” Slamming the state agencies for “lackadaisical attitude”, the CNTC said their monitoring systems have miserably failed in protecting the vulnerable indigenous population of the state. CNTC affirmed that it would very soon take on this issue with all seriousness together with all other tribal hohos, NGOs, civil society organisations, student organisations and churches. In this regard, the CNTC has appealed to them to join hands in curbing the menace of illegal immigrants.
Further, the Central Nagaland Tribes Council has raised concern about the random issuance of driving license Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, etc. by respective authorities and Permanent Residence Certificates (PRC) in many localities by the respective GBS/ chairmen. In this connection, the CNTC has appealed to all responsible to stop such activities immediately before greed and gullibility wipe out the coming generations. It stated that instead of having any concern for educated unemployed youths of the state, there were many so called apex organisations that were letting out their premises randomly without any thought to those immigrants. Affirming that it cannot allow the state to become another Tripura where the indigenous inhabitants have been reduced to a minority, the CNTC, as directed by the centre, has urged the state government to be serious and set up a task force at state and district level and identify all illegal immigrants and deport them at the earliest.
GUWAHATI, AUG 30 (AGENCIES): The talks between the Government of India and NSCN (I-M) are in “advanced stage” and the Centre has rejected the demand of the militant outfit to allow Nagaland to have separate constitution. Meanwhile, the Centre is also hopeful that the Khaplang faction of the NSCN will also rejoin the peace process. Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that the NSCN (I-M) was demanding separate constitution, passport system, etc., but those demands have been rejected by the Centre. The Centre has also not accepted the demand for creation of ‘Greater Nagalim’ by inducting territories of other states as demanded by the militant outfit. Sources revealed that the Centre would not cut into the territory of any state without the approval of the concerned State Government. The leaders of the NSCN (I-M) were told that if they can persuade the other State Governments in this regard, then only the Centre would accept the demand. But as no State Government has agreed to the demand, there is no question of affecting the territorial integrity of any state of the region while signing the final agreement with the NSCN (I-M), sources added. (Cont’d on p-8)
AIZAWL, AUG 30 (AGENCIES): Setting an example for the rest of the legislators in the country to respect the law, all the seven parliamentary secretaries in Mizoram on Wednesday submitted their resignations to chief minister, Lal Thanhawla. The chief minister accepted the resignations. Those who tendered resignation were K.S. Thanga, H. Zothangliana, Lt. Col. Z.S. Zuala, K Lalrinthanga, T.T. Zothansanga, Hmingdailova Khiangte and Joseph Lalhimpuia. The mass resignation came in the wake of the Supreme Court July 26 ruling on the ‘The Assam Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004’. The Bench comprising Justice J Chelameswar, Justice R K Agrawal and Justice A M Sapre held that Assam legislature lacked competence to create the post of parliamentary secretaries. It declared that the appointment of parliamentary secretaries in Assam was unconstitutional. Lal Thanhawla, who is also president of Mizoram
PCC, however, appointed all the former parliamentary secretaries as its general secretaries. A Congress statement said that the former parliamentary secretaries were appointed MPCC general secretaries to strengthen the party in view of the state assembly polls due next year end. It may be recalled that the Sikkim High Court last week, in a landmark judgement, declared that the Sikkim Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 2010 and consequential notifications as unconstitutional and accordingly quashed with immediate effect. Even in Meghalaya, the Meghalaya High Court had issued a notice to the state government for a final hearing on the matter of the posts of parliamentary secretaries. A division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Ved Prakash Vaid heard a Public Interest Litigation challenging the appointment of parliamentary secretaries in the state.
BJP minister creates controversy on Clean Election Zeliang, Rio and others call on President, VP Correspondent
KO H I M A , AU G 3 0 (NPN): BJP legislator and minister for Co-operation, Relief & Rehabilitation and MARCOFED, Imtilemba Sangtam created a huge controversy on Wednesday when he spoke against Clean Election. Addressing a combined meeting of Nagaland state BJP unit and mandal presidents at IG Stadium, he said that “without spending money and purchasing votes, no BJP candidate will be elected.” He said the issue will only be discussed after formation of a BJP government in Nagaland. Sangtam was of the opinion that if every Naga practised Christian principles, there would be no need of talking about clean election or purchase of votes. The minister said he was dismayed that despite Nagaland having 46% wom-
en population, the membership of women in the BJP Mahila was very poor. He urged upon the BJP workers to bring in more women into the party fold, since “women are better in bringing votes.” Sangtam was confident that if BJP was voted to power, the livelihood of poor people would be enhanced. He said this would enable the people to pay more tithes which would help the church. Further, Imtilemba expressed strong resentment on the allocation of portfolios to BJP legislators. He said in spite of being coalition partners, the present NPFled DAN government had no regard for BJP. However, Sangtam said, he and his colleagues stood firml and were proud to be BJP legislators. He called upon the party workers to work hard and ensure that BJP would be voted to power in the coming election. The minister also
appealed to the BJP officials to revoke the suspension/expulsion order issued on some of its members. Sangtam also appealed to the BJP workers to be better Christians than others so that the party will prove that it is not a communal party. Also addressing the meeting, BJP general secretary (organisation) incharge of North East, Ajay Jamwal lamented that Nagaland lacked good roads and infrastructure in all sectors, particularly education, power and health care delivery systems. Jamwal was confident that BJP would form the next government in Nagaland and that the party would be able to implement all the welfare schemes of the Central government to the grassroots, besides putting Nagaland in the path of development and progress. Jamwal also appealed to the State BJP unit leaders and party workers to change
the mindset of the people in order to support the BJP to form the next government and bring all round development. Highlighting the welfare schemes of the BJP-led NDA government, Jamwal wondered whether the schemes were reaching the people of the State. He also challenged the BJP leaders to be thorough with the party’s ideologies and principles and make it known to the people that the BJP does not discriminate but respects all religion, caste and tribe. BJP legislature party leader and parliamentary secretary, Transport and Civil Aviation, P. Paiwang Konyak differed with the views expressed by Imtilemba Sangtam. Paiwang instead appealed to the party workers to be equipped to fight against corruption during election in line with the NBCC ‘Clean Election’ cam(Cont’d on p-8) paign.
D I M A P U R , AU G 3 0 (NPN): Nagaland chief minister, T.R. Zeliang accompanied by Lok Sabha MP, Neiphiu Rio, and other legislators called on President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu and congratulated both on assuming their offices. According to CMO, Zeliang appraised the President about the Naga political issue and the need to resolve it before Christmas in order to bring peace and development in the region. He told the President that permanent solution to the protracted Naga political issue had been long due and needed to be resolved. Zeliang told Kovind that once the issue was resolved, it would open the door towards Southeast Asian countries, adding that the Act East Policy of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi would become a reality.
Zeliang accompanied by Rio and others call on the President of India.
Zeliang also invited both the President and the Vice President to visit Nagaland and experience the rich cultural heritage of the state. Others who also accompanied Zeliang include-minister, Mmhonlumo Kikon, parliamentary secretaries-- S. Pangnyu Phom, N. Thomas Lotha, Pukhayi and Merentoshi Jamir. Earlier during the day, the chief minister also met Union Finance minister, Arun Jaitley and deliberated on the financial situation of the state. Zeliang highlighted about the issue of
non-completion of projects taken up under SPA due to non-availability of funds after the formation of Niti Aayog. He also apprised Jaitley about the large scale damages caused by the recent rains/floods. Jaitley assured that all necessary help and support would be provided through National Disaster Relief Fund, CMO stated. On August 29, Zeliang and his colleagues also met Home minister, Rajnath Singh and submitted a Memorandum for restoration and immediate sanction of relief. K Y M C