DoNER secretary visits Mizoram
Newmai News
AIZAWL, Nov 5 – The Secretary to Ministry of DoNER, Ms Jayati Chandra recently held a series of meetings with the top officials of Mizoram Government on the developmental projects in the State.
At a meeting which was attended by Chief Secretary of Mizoram Van Hela Pachuau, PL Thanga, Member Secretary, State Planning Board and other senior officers, the DoNER secretary advised the officers to implement the projects sanctioned by the DoNER in Mizoram.
The meeting reviewed implementation of Non Lapsable Pool of Central Resources (NLCPR) in the State. Till date a total of 88 projects costing Rs 691.02 crore has been sanctioned by the DoNER Ministry out of which 57 projects costing Rs 31,079.11 lakh have been completed. There are 31 on-going projects with a total project cost of Rs 38,022.88 lakh. Senior officers highlighted a brief report on the progress of these projects and presented various suggestions to induce quicker and better quality of work.
Earlier, Ms Jayati Chandra visited Land Custom Station building, Zokhawthar, Border Trade Point at Melbuk and Horticulture department’s Rose and Mushroom Green Houses at New Champhai.
The Secretary was apprised of the present situation at Melbuk Border Trade Point where the Trade Point is yet to be formally commissioned due to delay on the part of the Myanmar Government.
Source: The Assam Tribune
More Bru families return to Mizoram
AIZAWL, Nov 4 – Altogether 15 families today returned on the second day today of the repatriation of Bru refugees from six relief camps in North Tripura, a senior home department official said.
With this, 51 families have returned so far from Tripura and would be resettled in Mamit district on the border with Tripura, he said.
Bru Coordination Committee general secretary Elvis Chorkhy told PTI from Tripura that the second phase of the repatriation would be taken up soon despite opposition from anti-repatriation hardliners.
“At least 70 per cent of the refugees are willing to return to Mizoram,” Chorkhy said.
The Tripura Government provided transport for the refugees and security due to opposition from the newly-elected Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) and Bru Displaced Welfare Organisation (BDWO) who tried to forcibly prevent the refugees from returning to Mizoram.
The MBDPF and the BDWO have demanded that talks should be held first between the representatives of the refugees, the Centre and Tripura and Mizoram government before repatriation.
Thousands of Brus fled Mizoram in the later part of 1997 in the wake of the murder of a forest guard inside the Dampa Tiger Reserve by Bru militants which triggered communal tension and another wave of exodus occurred after a 17-year old Mizo boy was gunned down by Bru militrants on November 13, 2009, three days before the commencement of the repatriation. –PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Mizoram witnesses campaigning through SMS
AIZAWL, Nov 1 – Refrained from door-to-door campaigning, candidates for the first Aizawl Municipal Council (AMC) elections are campaigning through interviews on local television networks and by sending text messages on mobile phones.
A diktat from the Mizoram People’s Forum (MPF), a Presbyterian Church sponsored election watchdog, has forced political parties and candidates to refrain from door-to-door campaigning to take alternative routes to woo voters.
Candidates for the 18-ward AMC polls, to be held on November 3, are now declaring their manifesto on TV channels.
A candidate said that he has been using text messages to ask voters within his ward to vote for him as he was not allowed to personally meet them in their homes by the MPF.
The MPF has also fixed the number of banners and posters to be displayed by a candidate within his ward and also the number of copies of the pamphlets and appeals ‘to cut down election expenditure’. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Bru body insists on MoU before repatriation
AGARTALA/AIZAWL, Oct 18 – Repatriation of the 37,000 Bru refugees from neighbouring Mizoram sheltered in six camps in North Tripura district has run into rough weather with an ethnic organisation stating that they would not return home unless a MoU was signed.
“Unless a MoU is signed by the Mizoram Government with representatives of the displaced Brus, they will not return to Mizoram,” a Bru Displaced Welfare Organisation (BDWO) statement said in Agartala.
“Our sincere request to the Government of Mizoram is that it reassure the rights and dignity of the Bru people, restore peace and harmony and start the process of dialogue that would lead to a permanent solution,” BDWO General Secretary John Lalnuntluanga and President, Azawmdarai said in the statement.
The statement alleged that the Mizoram Government was preparing to repatriate the Bru refugees to Mamit, Kolasib, and Lunglei districts, but the BDWO wanted that they be repatriated to Mamit district only.
The organisation said that they would launch an indefinite hunger-strike and sit-in at Aizawl and Delhi. However, they did not fix any date for it.
Meanwhile, the Repatriation Implementation Committee (RIC), a Bru organisation recently formed in the Naisngpara relief camp in North Tripura’s Kanchanpur subdivision, said that the refugees supported the proposal of the Central, Tripura and Mizoram Governments to repatriate all refugees from Tripura.
In a press statement e-mailed to PTI in Aizawl, RIC president Lallawma and secretary C Nunsiama said that they had full faith in the leadership of Elvis Chorkhy, president of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF).
Reacting to the BDWO’s recent press statement, the RIC claimed that some elements in the community were trying to create problems for the refugees by spreading lies.
The RIC statement appealed to all refugees to await the decisions of the government and the Bru leaders coordinating with the Mizoram Government.
“We, the people, must not be influenced by some misguided elements who are out to create trouble and derail the repatriation process,” the statement said.
The Brus are sheltered in the camps in Tripura since 1997 following ethnic clashes with Mizos in their home State. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
4 Mizo girls rescued from Goa beauty parlour
AIZAWL, Oct 14 – Mizoram police has sought production warrant from a local court to bring the owner of a beauty parlour in Goa to Aizawl who allegedly tried to force four Mizo girls into prostitution, police said.
Three persons were arrested in Aizawl and five in Goa in this connection and the police were still searching for one of the main accused who is absconding, Superintendent of Police of Aizawl, Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said.
Four Mizo girls, working in the beauty parlour since early September were asked to comply with the sexual overtures of their customers, he said.
The girls, who were hired by a man called Vanlalruati and some other persons, were told that they would work as beauticians in the beauty parlour in Goa. However, later they were asked to become prostitutes, Khiangte said, adding, they were smuggled out from their workplace by a Mizo boy working in Goa and were later helped by Goa police.
Arrangements were being made for their return to Mizoram through the Women and Child Welfare Commission of Goa, he said, adding that six Naga girls were also rescued by the Goa police from the same beauty parlour. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Mizoram seeks more time for Bru repatriation
AIZAWL, Oct 6 – The Mizoram Government today said it would move the Centre for one month extension of the deadline for repatriation of Bru refugees from camps in North Tripura.
The Home Ministry had set October 18 as the deadline for the repatriation process. “The State Government would seek for more time as the administration of Mamit district, where maximum number of the Bru refugees would be resettled after repatriation, is engaged in rescue and relief operations in the area hit by landslides, triggered by heavy rains,” official sources said.
“The officials are engaged in relief operations and are unable to prepare for the repatriation process during October,” he said.
Meanwhile, the joint verification of villages where the refugees were proposed to be resettled was almost complete in Mamit, he said.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, during his visit to Aizawl on May 25, had urged Bru leaders to ensure that all the refugees return to Mizoram from Tripura by October end. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Patil to visit Mizoram, Manipur
AIZAWL, Sept 22 – Elaborate security arrangements have been made here for the two-day visit of President Pratibha Patil beginning tomorrow, officials said today.
Additional forces have been deployed for Patil’s visit and no parking orders issued for the Aizawl main road to facilitate free passage for the President’s carcade, district SP Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said.
Security has been beefed up in and around the capital especially near Raj Bhavan and Mizoram University, he said.
Patil would attend a public reception at Raj Bhavan tomorrow and meet members of the Council of Ministers.
The President, who is also the Visitor of Mizoram University, would attend its convocation on Friday.
AGARTALA: A thick security blanket has been thrown out in the capital town here in view of President Pratibha Patil’s two-day visit from Friday, police said today.
The entire town has been divided into 11 security sectors and senior officers will supervise and monitor the security of each sectors, DIG (Police Control) Nepal Das said.
Security at the airport is being looked after by paramilitary Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and CISF while police personnel have been deployed in the entire town.
Some Quick Reaction Teams have been kept ready and the Border Security Force has been asked to completely seal the 856 km long Indo-Bangla border so that no unwanted elements can sneak into Indian territory from across the border.
President would arrive at the Agartala airport by a special flight from Mizoram on Friday morning after which she would be given a civic reception by the Agartala Municipal Council in the evening.
The function would be presided over by Governor Dr D Y Patil while the Chief Minister would grace the function as the chief guest.
On Friday, she will deliver a lecture in the 4th convocation of the Tripura University and would return to Delhi later in day. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Spot verification of Brus in border next week
AIZAWL, Sept 8 – The Mizoram Government and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) would conduct a joint spot verification in Mizoram-Tripura border areas next week and visit several villages in view of the proposed repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura, official sources said today.
Elvis Chorkhy, President of the MBDPF and also secretary of the Bru Coordination Committee (BCC), has been in Aizawl for two weeks along with the BCC chairman Surjomoni Reang, former president of the erstwhile underground Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) holding discussions on the proposed repatriation of Bru refugees now lodged in six relief camps in North Tripura distrct.
Chorkhy said they have to determine if the villages identified for resettlement would be large enough to accommodate those who wanted to return and whether the lands belonging to the villages would be sufficient for jhum cultivation and other agriculture purposes.
Reacting to the press statement issued yesterday by some Bru refugees who called themselves Bru Displaced Welfare Organisation (BDWO), which said that the refugees would boycott the repatriation plans as the Mizoram Government refused to accept their demands, Chorkhy said that at least 90 per cent of the refugees wanted to return as soon as possible. “We do not think that some people who formed BDWO would be able to influence our people,” he said.
The State Home Secretary Lalmalsawma and other senior officials were in New Delhi to hold talks with the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs tomorrow on the Bru repatriation issue, he said, adding that the spot verification would be undertaken after the officials return to Aizawl.
Hundreds of Brus left Mizoram in 1997 and 2009 when Bru militants murdered two Mizos, a Forest guard in October 21, 1997 and a 17-year-old boy near Bungthuam village on November 13, 2009.
A recent head count conducted by the MBDPF found that there were 31,703 Brus in the relief camps belonging to 5,448 families who are bonafide residents of Mizoram.
The head count and the joint verification by the State Government and the MBDPF were significant as Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, during his visit to Aizawl on May 25 had urged the Bru leaders to ensure that all the Bru refugees returned to Mizoram from Tripura latest by the end of October. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Mizo CM’s RTI statement flayed
AIZAWL, Aug 23 – Aizawl-based anti-corruption watchdog People’s Right to Information and Development Implementing Society of Mizoram (PRISM) has criticised Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla for stating that there was no need to appoint a State Chief Information Commissioner (SCIC).
Lal Thanhawla recently had said that there was no urgent need to appoint an SCIC as the people of Mizoram did not fully utilise the Right to Information Act and appointing an SCIC would be a waste of public money.
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement, PRISM president Vanlalruata said that the RTI Act had been well utilised in Mizoram and a number of corruption cases unearthed by the people. “PRISM alone organised social audits in nine villages and has filed a number of public interest litigations in the Gauhati High Court, all based on information acquired invoking the RTI Act,” Vanlalruata said.
He alleged that full utilisation of the RTI Act could not be done because the State Government refused to implement the section 4 of the Act and was not keen to create public awareness as demanded by the section of the Act.
The PRISM also flayed the Congress Government in the State for failing to constitute the State Vigilance Commission as promised in the party’s manifesto in the 2008 Assembly polls. – PTI
Source: The Assam Tribune
Mizo dance to be staged at opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games
Aizawl, August 20: Cheraw dancers of Mizoram will find their place in opening ceremony of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Cheraw dance is a traditional and popular bamboo dance of the Mizos.
Preparation for this purpose in a state-level is going on in full swing. Dancers from across the state of Mizoram are camping in Aizawl and the final rehearsal was held today in the presence of state’s art and culture minister PC Zoramsangliana.
Earlier, the Commonwelath Games 2010 Committee had invited the state government to present its traditional dance. Around 80 dancers from Mizoram will perform the dance on October 3 in New Delhi.
The state government will bear all the expense of the troupe and in this connection, the minister thanked the Mizoram chief minister for his ceaseless support in terms of money and time. He also thanked the Commonwealth Games organisers for choosing Mizo youths to perform at the event. The minister advised the Mizo youths not to only showcase the dance but also to expose the good nature, discipline and character of true Mizos.
The selected 40 boys and 40 girls are now rehearsing in full swing. The team is headed by its leader Lalchuailova, Research Officer, art and culture department and Ngurmawii Ralte, Instructor at the Mizoram’s art & culture department, it is learned today.
It can be noted that Mizoram had already found its way into the Guinness World Records with a ‘Cheraw’ performance featuring 10,736 participants on March 12 this year.
