December 22, 2016

Page 1

Nagaland Post www.nagalandpost.com

Vol XXVII No. 20

DIMAPUR, thursday, december 22, 2016 Pages 12 ` 4.00

AIBA honours Mary Kom, Vikas Krishnan

Raids on TN CS’s son, kin; yield Rs 18 lakh

Will never let in Dalai Lama again: Mongolia

sports, Page 12

national, Page 5

international, Page 9

Rahul Gandhi sparks Modi spat

MEHSANA (GUJARAT), DEC 21 (IANS): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of taking kickbacks of Rs 65 crore from corporate houses as the chief minister of Gujarat and asked him to come clean on this. “It is on the records of the Income Tax department that Modi received money from the Sahara Group nine times in six months (in 2013-14),” Gandhi told public rally in this north Gujarat town in the Prime Minister’s home district. “He got the kickbacks in nine instalments over a period of six months. On November 22, 2014, there was a raid on Sahara company. The Income Tax Department raided them and seized their records,” he said. Gandhi said there were entries which showed that on October 30, 2013 Rs 2.50 crore was given to Modi, on November 12 Rs 5 crore was given to Modi, on November 27 Rs 2.5 crore was given to Modi and on November 29 Rs 5 crore was given to him. “These are all in records of the Income Tax department,” Gandhi

3 injured in IED blast in Dmu D imapur , D ec 2 1 (NPN): Three persons suffered minor injuries in a low intensity IED blast that occured Wednesday evening at a shop in Marwari Patti. The explosion took place at M/s. Bimal Kumar Jain and sons’ shop, which deals in food grains, PRO Dimapur police told Nagaland Post. Three persons who were inside the shop suffered minor injuries, PRO said. PRO quoting eyewitnesses said that a local male had reportedly gone to the shop looking for something and as soon as he left the explosion took place. The motive behind the blast has not been ascertained and investigation is underway, PRO said. (Staff Reporter)

Rejoinder to 6 NNPGs statement

DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (NPN): Reacting to the statement, published in the local dailies, by 6 NNPGs working group-- urging Nagas and Meities to diplomatically tackle all issues, NNC president ‘gen.’ (Retd) Thinoselie M Keyho said he does “not approve or recognize the sectional or grouping politics” under his presidentship. In a rejoinder, Keyho said NNC “stands for all Naga inhibited areas and will protect Naga National interest everywhere”.

Spl. Correspondent

Rahul Gandhi

Ravi Shankar Prasad

said. The Congress leader said between December 6, 2013 and February 22, 2014, Rs 25 crore was given to Modi. In six months, the Sahara diary showed nine payments to Modi. “Narendra Modiji, tell us whether this allegation is true or not, order an independent investigation into this and come clean...,” Gandhi said to applause by the huge crowd.

Shankar said the Supreme Court has observed that these are “no allegations”, and hit back by raking up graft cases involving Gandhi family and the UPA government. If Gandhi thinks that by levelling these false allegations he can affect the probe into AgustaWestland scam, then “let me tell him that the government is not going to do any such favour and the CBI will do its investigation with honesty and not come under any pressure,” the Law Minister told a press conference. Asked if BJP is considering about taking legal action against him, he said “we trust people of India more”.

BJP rejects charges

Rejecting corruption charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “baseless, shameful, and mala fide”, BJP today said he is “pure” as Ganga and Rahul Gandhi did so to divert attention from AgustaWestland scam probe in which names of his family members have cropped up. Union minister Ravi

Arvind Kejriwal

Court-monitored probe into charges that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took bribes from corporates as the Gujarat chief minister. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader also asked Modi to resign until he was cleared of the charges -- like veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani did in the 1990s after being linked to a Hawala scandal. Kejriwal addressed the media shortly after Rahul Gandhi told a public rally in Gujarat that Modi took huge bribes from two corporate houses when he was the Chief Minister. He said the Supreme Court should take suo moto cognizance of the matter set up a “fully indepenDemand for probe and dent” Special Investigation Delhi chief minister Team (SIT) with all powers Arvind Kejriwal on Wednes- to probe the charges against day sought a Supreme Modi.

KO H I M A , D E C 2 1 (NPN): Angami Public Organisation (APO) has expressed dismay over Centre’s decision to observe ‘Good Governance Day’ on Christmas day (December 25), terming it as a direct insult to the religious sentiments of Christian community. While appreciating Nagaland chief minister for writing to the Centre to defer the date of Good Governance day, APO general secretary Keviselie Lhousa and vice president APO K.T. Vilie in a press note however opined that such appeal may not be adequate to “protect the right of the people”. In this regard, APO urged the chief minister and speaker to hold a special Assembly session to pass a resolution to defer the date and to “ensure and assure the Christians that our great India re-

spects the religion of its minority citizens”. APO pointed out that however small or minor the community may be in India, it would be a sacrilege for Christians to attend work on the day. APO reminded that even though Nagaland was a Christian dominated state, with lots of Hindus and Muslim from other states settled since time immemorial, the “democratic state respects the religion of its settlers and vice versa” . Fur ther, Angami Public Organisation said “just as Durga Puja was as important to Hindus and Id to Muslims all over the country”, December 25 being the birth-day of Christ was of “great religious significance to Christians and therefore the day is a National holiday for Christians throughout the world”.

DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (NPN): ACAUT Nagaland, through its media cell, Wednesday rejected the clarification issued by Food and Civil Supplies (F&CS) department to the alleged PDS scam as “totally misleading” and instead said that the clarification has made crystal clear to Naga public about its “intention to shelter rice mafia” ACAUT Nagaland further reminded the F&CS department that it had submitted a representation to the director (F&CS) director on October 23, 2016, where it demanded immediate cancellation of Notice Inviting Tender’ (NIT) and taking corrective steps after detecting anomalies in the NIT. H o w e ve r, A C AU T claimed that instead of taking corrective steps, the Director (F&CS) went ahead with the tender. The director (F&CS) “rather than cry hoarse” in accusing ACAUT of taking law into their hands, should answer what step was taken to rectify the anomalies pointed out in the representation that was

DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (NPN): Against the backdrop of strong opposition and ultimatum against the hasty move to hold civic polls under 33% women reservation without resolving the issue, the state government through, the state election commission (SEC), has notified that general election to municipal councils and town councils in the state would be held on February 1, 2017. The state government had in its notifications dated October 4, 2016 and November 18, 2016 directed the State Election Commission to hold general election to constitute the Municipal Councils and town councils in the state along with 33% reservation of seats for women. According to a notification issued by the state election commissioner, Sentiyanger Imchen, the schedule of election programme include period for filing of nomination from January 3-7, 2017, consolidated list of nomination would be posted on January 9, 2017; scrutiny of nomination papers on January 10, 2017, list of validly nominated candidate would be posted on January 11, 2017, ap-

plication for revision of the order of the authority scrutinizing the nomination from January 12-14, 2017 (upto 3pm), revision application filed would be decided on January 16, 2017, last date of withdrawal of candidature on January 17, 2017 (upto 3pm), list of contesting candidates and list of polling station would be posted on January 17, 2017 after 3pm, date of polling on February 1, 2017 (between 7am to 3pm), date of re-poll (if any) on February 3, 2017 and counting and declaration of results on February 4, 2017. The notification stated that electoral rolls for the ensuing election to the municipal councils and town councils have been prepared with reference to January 1, 2016 as the qualifying date and finally published on November 29, 2016 and December 20, 2016. Copies of the electoral roll can be obtained from the respective returning officer of the municipal and town councils. Identification of voters: In order to safeguard against personation under Rule 54 of the Nagaland Municipal Rule 2003, the state election commission has decided that compul-

submitted three months back, asked ACAUT. ACAUT said it was a known fact that siphoning of PDS items to mills and open market by F&CS department, has been going on for the past 15-20 years. The modus operandi for the racket was in not following transparent tendering process and extending the contract year after the year to the mafias controlling the PDS through power of attorney as in the case of R.Z. Lotha by G. Sarkar and A. Jain. B a s e d o n t h e a b ove, ACAUT, maintained there was little doubt that the Food and Civil Supplies department and PDS mafia were hand in glove. ACAUT also reminded the F&CS department that it had asked for immediate cancellation of NIT and to call for a new NIT since the terms and condition furnished in NIT was “a mockery” as it flouted all standard operating procedures. ACAUT revealed it had cautioned the director (F&CS) that it would not hesitate to

take the issue to the public and that he (director) would be held solely responsible if any situation arose because of inaction in the NIT by the issuing authority (director). ACAUT reiterated on its four-point representation, that the entire racket would have stopped and the present issue would not have cropped up had the director and secretary (F&CS) department taken corrective measures three months back as per its representation. In the light of the above, ACAUT Nagaland challenged that if the Secretary and Director of F&CS were indeed honest and upright officers, they should to immediately submit evidences of misappropriation and malpractices in the PDS to the police investigating the case or resign on moral grounds for creating all the mess and colluding with the PDS mafia. ACAUT further reiterated the demand, published on October 24, to blacklist all contractors functioning as power of attorney holders and to immediately call for fresh tenders.

sory identification of the voters would be made in the ensuing general election to the municipal and town councils in the state. SEC said it would issue separate instruction in this regard. Model code of conduct: With the announcement of the election programme through this publication, the model code of conduct for guidance of all the political parties and candidates would come into operation with immediate effect within the entire municipal and town council areas going to poll. SEC said this would be applicable to all candidates, political parties in the state and the state government machinery. It may be recalled that on December 10, Naga Hoho and ENPO had jointly served a 15-day ultimatum on chief minister T.R.Zeliang after concluding that the state government “should not issue the election notification as of now”. Both NH and ENPO said even if the state went ahead to implement conduct of polls, the government would be embarrassed due to people’s non-participation. (Cont’d on p-7)

IMPHAL, DEC 21 (PTI): Manipur BJP on Wednesday urged the Centre to remove all NSCN (I-M) designated camps from the state. Removal of the designated camps of NSCN (I-M), which is in ceasefire with the Centre, will solve the ongoing “restlessness” in Manipur, state BJP spokesperson O Joy Singh said here. Joy Singh said the party will not compromise with the territorial integrity of Manipur and a delegation of the state BJP will meet Home Minister Rajanth Singh in Delhi. Earlier in the day, BJP Legislature Party leader K Joykisan Singh quit the party and joined Congress protesting negligence by BJP’s central leadership on various issues of Manipur. Manipur has been witnessing violence since early this month and is experiencing severe hardship in supply of essential items since November 1 after United Naga Council (UNC) imposed an indefinite economic blockade on the two national highways in the state that serve as its lifelines. The UNC has been agitating against the government’s decision to create Sadar Hills and Jiribam into full fledged districts, claiming it would bifurcate ancestral lands of Nagas in Manipur. The Manipur cabinet had on December 9 decided to form seven new districts, bifurcating the existing nine. Four new districts have been formally inaugurated.

80 autorickshaw-drivers offer free ride NSF temporarily suspends stir

OC Dimapur Traffic Police falgging off the free auto ride. (NP)

Staff Reporter

K Y M C

NEW DELHI, DEC 21 (NPN): The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) has approved construction of 2,422 houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Housing for All (Urban) for the state of Nagaland. Central government approved 52,319 houses for urban poor, including 11,286 houses in pollbound Uttar Pradesh, under PMAY(Urban) involving an investment of Rs.2,946 cr and central assistance of Rs.778 crore. In the latest round of approvals, Madhya Pradesh got 25,097 houses, Chattisgarh-8,941 houses, Maharashtra-3,805, Nagaland-2,422, Puducherry720 and Daman-48. With this, the Ministry of HUPA has so far approved construction of a total of 13,43,805 houses for urban poor under PMAY (Urban) involving an investment of Rs.72,781 cr and central assistance of Rs.19,633 cr. It had proposed construction of these houses under BeneficiaryLed Construction component of the scheme.

Civic polls to be held on Feb 1, 2017

APO opposed to good ACAUT challenges director, secy F&CS deptt M’pur BJP asks Centre to governance day on Dec 25 remove NSCN (I-M) camps

This is it!

“These days mobile phones and internet have eliminated the greeting cards business.”

2,422 houses for Nagaland under PMAY

DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (NPN): Around 80 auto drivers voluntarily offered free ride to the citizens, as part of its festive offer. Initiated by Dimapur District Auto Drivers

Union (DDADU), passengers were offered free ride within the town areas from 8 am to 12 noon. It was flagged off by Traffic OC M. Patton at DDADU head office, Supermarket, Dimapur. Initially 50 auto drivers de-

cided to offer free ride, but later in the day, around more than 30 auto drivers joined in the venture. OC lauded the noble initiative of DDADU and urged them to continue this in the coming days. He viewed that public should appreciated DDADU for offering free ride during festive season and at times when people are facing financial problems due to demonetization. On the occasion, he also urged the auto drivers to follow traffic rules to avoid accidents and to ease traffic congestion. Extending support to free ride, traffic personnel also permitted the auto drives taking part in the venture to ply even at no entry point during the period. DDADU president I Vitoshe Sema also encouraged the auto drivers to be decent, discipline and drive carefully. He encouraged auto drivers to submit in case of items left behind by the passengers to the office so that it would be returned to the rightful owners.

Correspondent

KOHIMA, DEC 21 (NPN): Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has temporarily suspended its sit-in protest, which began at civil secretariat complex Kohima on Wednesday, after the chief secretary reportedly assured to fulfil the demand of the federation at the earliest. Addressing the media persons at the NSF office here Wednesday evening, NSF president, Subenthung Kithan, however, warned that the federation would intensify agitation any moment if the state government failed to meet its demand. Today’s protest was called by NSF against the backdoor appointment made after June 6, 2016 and the state government’s failure to respond to its 10-day ultimatum served on December 7. NSF president said the federation filed RTI in all the state’s departments to check the backdoor appointment made after June 6, 2016. So far, he said 39

departments have responded, adding that backdoor appointments were detected in 10 departments detected. Kithan said eight departments have assured to revoke the appointments. He said the federation was however not satisfied with two departments namely PHED and Law and Justice. Maintaining that the federation wants deserving candidates to fill up the posts through competition, NSF president said no department in the state would be spared in its effort to check backdoor appointments. Earlier, during the sit-in protest at civil secretariat complex, the volunteers of NSF held the banners and placards some of read “stop backdoor appointment”, “let me compete”, “ if you can’t compete, you don’t deserve” “Nagas future cannot be decided by back door” etc. Former president of CANSSEA, Dr. K. Solo, had also gone to the protest site and met NSF (Cont’d on p-7)

NPF, BJP greetings DIMAPUR, DEC 21 (NPN): NPF has extended warm Christmas and New Year greetings to all. “Come December, and as usual, it is the last month of the revolving calendar year, that includes the year 2016, and the Lord God Almighty, our gracious heavenly Father has kept us safe and well within His loving care,” stated NPF media & press bureau. NPF said it was a special season wherein everyone experiences “the rare kind of joy that fills our hearth with nostalgia of the many Christmases we can remember to have celebrated”. It said Christmas makes the world a lovelier place with its special brightness and celebrations. NPF wished that the light and beauty of the season surround every one and bring cheer and mirth, and also hoped for blessings all through the New Year. (Cont’d on p-7) K Y M C


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.