Imphal, August 30: The manipur Film Development Corporation Ltd, Imphal would be organising the 7th Manipur State Film Festival from September 11 to 19, 2010 at the MFDC Threatre Complex, Palace Compound here.

Festival Director, Dr K Sobita Devi, MD, MFDC, in a press release informed that 14 feature films and 16 non-feature films would be competing in the festival. There will be open forum daily from 10 am till 12.30 pm to discuss Manipuri cinema. MFDC will open registration for delegates from September 1 to 8. Desirous persons may contact the MFDC office for details, informed the press release.

New Delhi, August 31: The manager of a renowned Chinese restaurant and bar in Delhi allegedly molested a girl from the northeast inside the eatery on Sunday for watching television during duty hours.

The victim works as a waitress with the restro-bar situated in the L Block of the circular shopping arcade.  Annoyed with her for watching television on the first floor of the eatery, the manager allegedly hurled abuses at her and then pushed her from the chair she was sitting on.
“He in fact tried to rape me. When I raised an alarm other staff members came for help and released me from his clutches,” she claimed.
The girl, a native of Manipur, lives with her brother and cousin in the Kotla Mubarakpur area of south Delhi. She claimed she was alone on the first floor of the restaurant when the incident occurred.

“It was not just a sexual assault. When I tried to resist him, Rohit attacked me with a fork,” she said.
The accused rejected the charge of sexual assault and molestation as baseless. He told MiD DAY that the girl was trying to defame him and was implicating him in a false case. But he did concede that he scolded her. “She did not work properly. She was watching TV, which is only for customers who visit this restaurant. When I tried to reason with her she started shouting at me. I never attacked her, leave alone with a fork. I don’t know how she suffered those injuries,” he said.

“She wanted to hit me with a fork. Maybe it was then that she suffered those injuries,” he added.
A police officer investigating the incident said they immediately lodged an FIR as soon the victim approached them. He said the manager has not been arrested so far as they were taking statements from witnesses to establish the claims of the complainant.

“The girl was taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for a medical examination. We will go through the MLC report to check how the girl suffered injuries. As soon as we get something concrete against the accused, we will arrest him,” said a senior police officer.
The girl, who has been working with the restaurant for the past three months, vowed that she wanted to teach the restaurant manager a lesson. “Now I don’t want to go back on duty. They did not remove me from my post. I left the job myself,” she said.

Imphal, August 30: The 42nd Assam Rifles of 26 Sector under the aegis of Inspector General Assam Rifles (South) organised medical camps at Pallel and Komlathabi villages of Thoubal and Chandel District respectively on 29 August 2010 as the humanitarian help for natives of the villages of Pallel and Komlathabi and adjoining areas. In view of changing climatic conditions and absence of adequate medical facility, large number of patients of Respiratory and Gastro-intestinal ailments were treated. The succober in terms of expert medical check up and the medicines were provided to ameliorate the deplorable health students which proved saviour to many.

The medical team consisted of Medical Officers, associate medical staff comprising of Pathologists, Pharmacists and Dental technicians. Approx 1200-1400 persons were treated and given medical and dental advices apart from HIV/AIDs and pathological diagnosis.
During the camp people were also provided CSD facilities and other basic amenities. The school children were also treated on the occasion.  Assam Rifles authority on the occasion assured the locals of their continued help and frequent medical camps in future to ensure good health of the region. The qualified doctors also briefed the villagers about cause of various diseases and highlighted the precautionary measure to be under taken.

Imphal, August 30: State Education Minister L Jayentakumar today launched the Tele-education project, a major initiative to provide satellite based tele-education facilities to students, particularly to Medical and Engineering aspirants, which would be implemented in five higher secondary level government run schools.

The five schools where the facilities of learning through Tele-education Network would be provided are TG Higher Secondary School of Imphal west district, CC Higher Secondary of Imphal east district, Chaoyaima Higher Secondary School of Thoubal district, Bishnupur Higher Secondary School of Bishnupur district and Ukhrul Higher Secondary School of Ukhrul district.

The five schools of the state were included among the 68 selected schools from the entire country. The project which is to be implemented by the Education Department (School) in collaboration with National Information Centre (NIC) under the sponsorship of the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology was officially launched today by the Education Minister at a function at TG Higher Secondary School.

Speaking at the function held at TG Higher Secondary, Education Minister, L Jayentakumar said that the project launched today would help aspiring students in preparing for the entrance exams for medical and engineering studies.

They would get the facilities of learning from well experience teachers across the country through online television network. The success of the project lies in the hand of the people. People’s cooperation is a must to make the project a success, he added.

The tele-education network with all its regular innovations is creating a new environment for training, learning and interactive discussions that will enable students in the state to compete with students of other states as they would be getting facilities to consult with teachers of other institutions, the Minister observed.

It is a new path for transforming the way we live, act, think, learn and communicate. This will help the students undergoing coaching for entrance tests for medical and engineering studies, the minister said.

Each centre in five higher secondary schools will have an intake capacity of 25 to 30 students. Those students selected for the coaching will have to deposit Rs 1000 as a nominal fee and books will be provided free of cost.

The launching function was attended among others by MLAs Dr Ibohalbi, Ng Bijoy and M Prithivraj and Rajendro, an official of the NIC, Imphal said.

It may be mentioned that the Tele Education Project for Schools in the North East Region was launched in the academic year 2009 – 2010 by the National Informatics Centre in collaboration with the Savant Education Group, New Delhi. The Savant Education Group, New Delhi was responsible for providing the content and running the programme on a daily basis and this visionary initiative has contributed immensely in delivering live quality teaching from a renowned faculty of experts to students.

This direct interface uses the extensive Network of NIC to reach out to every school by using VPN/Broadband. The NIC has also provided IT hardware support inclusive of computers, online UPS, webcam, headphones etc. In this project, connectivity was provided to 5 schools in the State and altogether 62 schools across the North Eastern States in which nearly 2500 students have benefited.

The Tele Education Project aims at filling up a major void of scarce availability of quality faculty in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology. This project has been made possible with optimum utilization of Technologies for delivery of ICT enabled curriculum, live tutorial content, in real time, right up to the classroom.

The programme is highly interactive which provides the facility of 2 way audio, video, text chat and video conferencing allowing students to directly interact with the faculty during and even after class. A specially designed study material covering all science subjects is provided to each student along with comprehensive worksheet, assignments and Tests.

Having seen the dynamics and the potential of the programme it has been decided to continue the project for the academic year 2010-2011 with a vision of extending it to at least 100 schools. Live classes, on a regular basis will commence from 30 Aug 2010 where all connected Schools would be able to log in to attend live sessions being beamed from Savant Studios at New Delhi.

Imphal, August 30: Six activists belonging to UPPK and PULF including two women activists were apprehended by the security forces during separate counter insurgency operations in different parts of the state during the last 24-hour.

Police commandos of Imphal West District Police apprehended four underground activists including two women from different places in the last 48 hours.

Three of underground activists belonged to UPPK and one to PULF, a statement of the police said today.
The three apprehended activists of UPPK are R.K Memcha Devi (60), Memcha Devi’s son R.K Bobo (23) and Waikhom Shanti Devi (29) while the lone PULF cadre has been identified as one Md. Abdul Matalip. One 9mm pistol with a magazine and five live rounds were recovered from the PULF cadre, according to the police statement.

Troops of Assam Rifles also apprehended an activist of PULF from Kairau during an operation in general area there today, at about 4.15 am.  He was identified as No. 115, SS Cpl Md Juma Khan alias Tiger alias Jeevan (22) s/o Md Muphijudhin, of Nongpok Sekmai Shikhong Muslim Thongthabi, a statement of the IGAR (S) said.

Sixty pieces of Spasmo Proxyvon (SP) capsules was recovered from the apprehendee who was handed over to Thoubal Police Station along with the seized item later today.

Troops of 17 Assam Rifles located at Somsai also nabbed a men from Phungreithang area allegedly dealing in Arms business for KCP(MC) today at about 1.30 am. The individual was identified as Prem Singh (39) s/o Biren of Kongba of Imphal East District.

An original Chinese 9mm Pistol with Magazine loaded with three live rounds of 9 mm were recovered from him. The apprehendee along with recovered items was handed over to Porompat Police Station, the statement added.

Imphal, August 30: Suspected underground activists inflicted injuries to two drivers of Tata Magic and Van in separate shoot out incidents today apparently in connection with extortion demands.

Two suspected underground cadres shot and injured the driver of the Tata Magic in both his legs at Poabitek vehicle parking under Wangoi Police Station of Imphal west district today morning even as miscreants fired guns at the house of the cashier of the Accountant General in another militancy related incident.

The injured driver who has been admitted at RIMS hospital, Imphal with bullet injuries has been identified as Pukhrambam Subash (28) son of P Netra of Hiyangthang Makha Pukhrambam Mamang Leikai. The unidentified gunmen shot and injured him at 8.30 am today.

The bullets pumped in both his legs exited directly on the opposite sides. Hospital source stated his condition as serious but stable. He was the driver cum owner of the Tata Magic bearing registration number MN-01W/6715 operating passenger service along the Imphal-Poabitek route.

The two miscreants who came on a Honda Activa were waiting for him at the parking at Paobitek. They shot him as he was parking his vehicle. Before the shooting, they also inquired if he was Subash of the Tata Magic Association.

One of the unidentified men took out a handgun when informed that the money they demanded after the association got permission for the parking place from the concerned authority, injured Subash told at the hospital.

The two unidentified men then left the place on the scooter they came with immediately after committing the crime.
Injured Subash was immediately rushed to the Wangoi Community Health Centre where he was given first aid and was later shifted to RIMS Hospital, Imphal.

The driver of the van (MN04A-3998) servicing Imphal-Moreh passenger taxi service, identified as Md Abdul Gafar (24) son of Abdul Gadur of Sora Mamang Leikai of Thoubal district, was shot at to injure in his left calf tonight, at about 7.30 pm at Waithou Sangomsang under Lilong Police Station, a police report said.

The report said that one of the two miscreants who asked to stop the Van heading towards Imphal with passengers shot him to injure in the leg.

The two miscreants who also came with a van asked to stop the vehicle driven by Abdul Gafar which was heading towards Imphal. He stopped his vehicle thinking that they were seeking help in repairing their vehicle. But as soon as had he stopped his vehicle, one of the miscreants took out a small gun and fired a bullet to hit Gafar in the leg, witness accounts said.

Meanwhile, miscreants suspected to be activists of an underground group attacked the house of a cashier of the AG office, Imphal, Konthoujam Ibochouba (53) of Lilong Arapti Mayai Leikai firing at least three rounds last night, around 8.30 pm. There were no reports of injuries to anyone in the firing.

Dimapur, August 30: After a brief calm in Nagaland, the heat is rising with both the rival NSCN factions engaging in a media war which is fast heightening.

The factional killing at Wokha where an NSCN-K cadre died and the killing of NSCN-IM ‘major’ few days ago have given serious set back to the effort of the Dr Wati Aier led Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) which had brought the Naga underground groups to stop the factional clashes two year ago.

The Khaplang group of the NSCN today called upon the Nagas to understand the ‘ground reality’ that the peace talks between the Government of India and the Isak-Muivah group of the NSCN is already dead. The NSCN-K also pointed out “the groundwork being prepared by a section of people at Hebron Camp (NSCN-IM) aiding and abetting demand for alternative political arrangement for Nagas in Manipur state”.

Given this situation, the Khaplang group of the NSCN has urged the Nagas to prepare the future course of action towards the Nagas’ inalienable political rights.

“In the name of Naga political struggle blatant accusations, killings and justifications have been the three most important tools employed by a group of people at Hebron Camp (NSCN-IM) against the Nagas. Many prominent Naga intellectuals have been killed simply because they chose reason over emotion. Thousands of civilians and Naga national workers have been murdered over the decades accusing them as traitors. A struggling people deserve the right to know and identify the obstacles along the path to unity and political destiny,” the NSCN-K stated.

Meanwhile, the NSCN-K said that the killing of ‘major’ Ngachonmi of NSCN-IM by Assam Rifles at Namsa in ‘Konyak Region’ and the press release of  NSCN-IM in its aftermath is in a nutshell, a shallow display of bravado at a very wrong moment.